First is the results of an extensive telemarketing campaign that our team put together. I think you might be as surprised as we were....
Over the past six months, The Cadence Group called 1034 bookstores and asked following question:
“Do you host author events?”
We called a wide range of stores. We called independent bookstores. We called chain bookstore. We called gift shops. We called institutional bookstores. The answers we received were varied and surprising.
“I don’t do events anymore.” “I can’t afford the extra staff, time and effort that book signings entail.” “Will the author bring their own books?” “We don’t do well with author signings.” “We only book events from large publishers.” “We’re too small for events.” “We only book local authors for signings.” “Our customers don’t come out for events.”
This small sampling drove home how deeply the struggling economy is affecting retailers everywhere. It also highlighted the many ways that the face of event marketing in the publishing industry is changing.
When our marketing team started our calls, we expected an enthusiastic and positive response from retailers. We thought we knew that bookstores were ready, able, and excited to host local and regional authors. We thought we knew that retailers were looking for ways to draw people to their stores and that author events would be near the top of the list of how to do so.
We thought wrong. We'll let the numbers tell the tale...
Out of the 1034 stores we contacted:
- 825 were Chain or Institutional Stores
- 209 were Independents and Gift Stores
- 254 stores told us that they did not do events because they were too small or did not have the staff
- 117 stores told us that they did not do signings because no one came
- 21 stores told us that they were not booking events because they were not sure if they were going out of business or had recently closed their store fronts.
- 18 hung up on us
- 4 yelled and then hung up on us
- 620 stores did events and booked authors for readings, signings, story times or workshops
While that may seem like a high percentage, you then need to factor in location, region and genre. How many were children's bookstores? How many were category-specific? How many were located in smaller regions around the country?
When you start asking these questions and reviewing the results, you realize that 60% is not that high of a percentage at all.
So now the question is.....if fewer and fewer bookstores are hosting author events, what's the next "big thing" for marketing a new book?
And, if authors and events don't draw people to bookstores, than what, if anything, does?
Posts
There's a huge range out there. The bookstore I work at part-time (Malaprop's in Asheville) does loads of events (3-5 per week) all year long. I thought that was great until I walked into Politics & Prose in DC and had a long chat with Mike, their events coordinator. Politics & Prose do an event every night they're open. They want their customers to think of the store as a venue, just like any club, where they can find a book reading anynight of the week. Naturally, it takes a long time to build up the familiarity and reputation to operate like that, but imagine if more stores set themselves the goal of becoming known as a venue for literary events (readings, quizzes, book club meetings, signings) in their area, not just occasionally, but every night -- wouldn't that build a bigger audience for all their events and strengthen the bond between the store and their community?
ReplyDeleteRich Rennicks
Hey... We are small publishers and our experience is bootstrap start ups and authors/publishers that do not have their own audience. We have done many many many many many signings and in store events... From Calif to Virginia.
ReplyDeleteEvents dont pull people in unless you have an audience and promote the event. So for small publishers... that doesnt apply + there is absolutly no budget for promotion outside the store windows, or check out counters... but those, sadly pull maybe 1% to an event... dismal by any measure.
You can sell the people in the store, so a store with a lot of traffic is a better shot of selling
For a book store another author is ahhh another author... but other venues... it's an AUTHOR...
In our experience, first you define your audience (always) then you define your objective for the event, do you want to make money, or build audience. If you can do both.. great, but often building audience is not a money makeing proposition... Once you hit critical mass, boom everything changes...
Yea... I have a lot more to say on this after hammering at it for several years... but this is my quick .02
Cheers
Jeff
Oh... LOVE YA AMY!
ReplyDeleteAs an author who self-publishes, these figures get even more dismal as you try to get a bookstore to show some interest in what you're doing without the distribution of Baker and Taylor or another disributor. The internet has become the most viable venue for my books and of course, blogging is a major part of the promotion. Oh, and having someone like Amy Collins McGregor on your side helps!
ReplyDeleteJacqueline Wales author of The Fearless Factor http://www.thefearlessfactor.com
Nothing like a bit of shameless promotion!