Author: BMS
Collaboration top of the agenda at joint BMS & PPC London Book Fair event
The BMS and Publishers Publicity Circle will once again combine forces at an aptly-themed joint-event for the London Book Fair on Wednesday 15 April 2015. Under the banner “We Are All in it Together: Collaborate or Compete?“, the session will examine the benefits and challenges of collaboration in the pursuit of book promotion.
Whether it be seeking out partnerships across niche and large-scale organisations, retailers, bookshops, bloggers or even other publishers, being imaginative and open-minded about the potential for collaboration is fast becoming an essential requirement for any successful campaign.
Over the course of an hour, five top speakers drawn from a cross-section of the book industry, media and business, will each draw on their extensive experience and present up to three practical ways in which marketers and publicists can collaborate with others in their next campaigns. The discussion will be chaired by Damian Horner (Brand Development Director, Hachette), with presentations by Nic Bottomley (Co-owner, Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights), Sean Carrigan (Times+), Margaret Heffernan (author of A Bigger Prize: Why Competition Isn’t Everything and How We Do Better), Sam Missingham (Head of Audience Development, HarperCollins) and Sandra Taylor (Head of Events, Waterstones).
What are examples of unusual collaborations executed successfully, and what kind of approach works best when seeking out new opportunities? How can you strike the right balance between openness and support among peers in a competitive industry, at a time when books need to work harder than ever to get the attention of consumers?
A fascinating not-to-be-missed session – entry is first-come, first-served and will be popular so do be sure to arrive early.
- Venue/Room: Olympia Room Grand Hall, London Book Fair
- Date and Time: Wednesday 15 April, 14.30 – 15.30
More details about LBF’s seminar programme can be found:
www.londonbookfair.co.uk
Christmas winners for the BMS Awards
The winners were announced at the Book Marketing Society’s meeting held at Simon & Schuster’s offices on 24 February for the all-important Christmas season (campaigns run between Sept-Dec 2014)
Children’s Campaign
The children’s field was particularly crowded, with another masterly campaign for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul by Jeff Kinney by the team at Penguin Random House Children’s Books up against HarperCollins’ all-out campaign for David Walliam’s Awful Auntie, and Bloomsbury’s stylish campaign for the Harry Potter reissues. But the crown was taken by Hannah Maloco and Gemma Rostill of Puffin Books’ campaign for some new kids on the block, David O’Doherty and Chris Judge’s Danger is Everywhere. The judges praised the wit and humour of the campaign, aiming particularly at reluctant readers with Basic Safety Tip videos on YouTube (Is your teacher a vampire?) and with bookshops treated to ‘Danger is Everywhere’ crime scene tape and a poster on ‘Avoiding Danger in Bookshops’.
Adult Campaign
In the Adult section, Sceptre’s Twitter short story campaign for David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks caught the judges’ attention, as did the innovative digital memory-sharing project ‘Where were you then?’ that Pan Macmillan did for Ken Follett’s Edge of Eternity. The winner, however, was a stand-out campaign by Fergus Edmondson, also at Pan Macmillan, for Chris Hadfield’s second book You Are Here, offering geeks everywhere the chance to get their burning science questions answered by their own personal rocket scientist.
Shoestring Campaign
In the hotly contested Shoestring category (campaigns under £5k) the judges eyes’ were caught by a quirky online campaign to reach a niche audience for Distilled from Octopus; another publisher-agnostic festival for the SciFi community by Sam Missingham at HarperCollins; and a well-crafted campaign by Sphere for Kate Bush superfans for a £120 book of early photographs taken by her brother – but the award went to an on-trend campaign for How to be Parisian: Wherever you are, with Merle Bennett at Penguin Random House making masterful use of the online blogging community and great brand partnerships to fantastic effect, with little cost.
The winners and runner-ups in full:
- Adult Winner:
You are Here by Chris Hadfield – Fergus Edmondson at Pan Macmillan - Children’s Winner:
Danger is Everywhere by David O’Doherty and Chris Judge – Hannah Maloco and Gemma Rostill, Puffin Books - Shoestring Winner:
How to Be Parisian: Wherever you are – Merle Bennett, Penguin Random House
- Adult Runner-Ups:
– Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett – Jodie Mullish, James Luscombe and Dan Brown, Pan Macmillan
– The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell – Jessica Killingley and Bea Long, Sceptre/Hodder & Stoughton - Children’s Runner-Up:
– Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul by Jeff Kinney – Julia Teece, Andrea Bowie, Vanessa Godden, Penguin Random House Children’s - Shoestring Runner-Ups:
– Cathy by John Carder Bush – Alexandra Cooper, Sphere/Little, Brown
– Distilled by Joel Harrison & Neil Ridley – Karla Pett, Mitchell Beazley/Octopus
Dystopian fiction, customised Fangirl jewellery and romance win amongst bumper crop of May-August 2014 campaigns
The marketing campaign for M.R. Carey’s debut dystopian novel was awarded the BMS Best Adult Marketing Campaign Award, at a packed meeting held in the London offices of Nielsen Book on Wednesday 29th october. The Girl with All the Gifts campaign, orchestrated by Felice Howden & Emily Rowland at Orbit, was picked from a record number of more than 40 campaigns submitted for the period May-August 2014, whilst the winner in the Children’s section was the UK tour partnership with Tatty Devine for Fangirl (Kat McKenna at Macmillan Children’s Books). The joint shoestring winners were the campaigns for The Lemon Grove by Vicky Palmer at Tinder Press/Headline and the Virtual Romance Festival from Sam Missingham, Kimberley Young and Charlotte Ledger at HarperCollins.
ADULT WINNER
The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey
Marketers: Felice Howden and Emily Rowland, Orbit / Little, Brown
- Cover test helped identify most appropriate way to reach target audience (readers of commercial, emotional fiction)
- Identified supermarkets (Tescos) as key – but also provided assets for other retailers; book became Waterstones Book of Month
- Targeted premium entertainment websites, in line with the best media suggested by audience profiling
- Majored on lead character as way to engage audience most effectively – and used other authors to help spread the word
- Pay with a Tweet campaign gave people incentives to engage
- Extraordinary ROI for debut (and genre) novel
CHILDREN’S WINNER
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Marketer: Kat McKenna, Macmillan Children’s Books
- Partnered with Tatty Devine to produce a ‘fangirl’ necklace on sale June to September to tie in with July author tour
- Exclusive edition necklace produced as competition prize
- #fangirlselfie competition so fans would share news about the necklace and be further excited by the collaboration
- Raised awareness for the book beyond bookstores and hardcore fans to whole new audience
- On very small budget achieved 50% more sales than previous books
- Also raised interaction with and views of MyKindaBook platform
JOINT SHOESTRING WINNERSThe Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh
Marketer: Vicky Palmer, Tinder Press/Headline
- Great feedback from the trade and glowing lead review in Good Housekeeping but…
- … it failed the Good Housekeeping ‘Reader Recommendation’ test
- A definite marmite book polarizing audiences
- So, refocused target audience and got the discussion going via social media
- Promoted as the perfect summer read: ‘Temperatures are rising. But it’s not the weather causing it‘
- Plus incentivised promotion via Toni & Guy salons resulted in a huge increase in her previous sales
Campaign Title: Virtual Romance Festival
Marketer: Sam Missingham, Kimberley Young, Charlotte Ledger, HarperCollins
- Genuine first – publisher-agnostic Festival organised by a publisher!
- Clear set of objectives including direct engagement with audience and attracting authors: both fans & writers targeted
- Survey to find 100 top romance books of all times; Spotify list of the authors’ favourite romantic songs
- Competitions to win a year with an editor, a year’s worth of books, and join authors in a Hangout
- Strong branding and Festival poster mimicking eg Latitude
- Delivered on three online platforms – Twitter, Facebook and Google hangouts
A number of campaigns were also awarded as ‘Highly Commended’
ADULT
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Marketers: Flora Willis, Victoria Beddows, Diana Broccardo, Serpent’s Tail
- A small company really getting behind a book – and making it very big indeed
- Twitter campaign #page77 for people to share their experiences of reading the book and the twist
- Moved into paperback quickly to take full advantage of the Booker news
- Targeted outside London with flyposting in Brighton, Edinburgh, Manchester
- Collaborations with LoveReading and Mumsnet fired up support and generated more reviews
The Goldfinch Donna Tartt
Marketer: Stephen Dumughn, Little, Brown
- Strong messaging to target audience: ‘Read it this summer. Remember it forever’
- Taken out of the literary fiction ‘box’ with mass market campaign through Tescos and Blinkbox
- Tesco twitter account asked: ‘Where will you be reading The Goldfinch this summer?’
- Competition for private viewing of the Goldfinch in Amsterdam with ASOS
- Gelupo provided free ice-cream for publication day stunt
- Sales up over 30% on previous book
CHILDREN’S
A Puffin Book
Marketers: Andrea Bowie, Nicola Chapman, Natasha Collie, Puffin Books
- 20 classic Puffins given beautiful new covers and Extra! Extra! Read All About it! pages at the end, including rare archive material, quizzes and unexpected tidbits
- Virtual timeline for nostalgic audience but also a useful resource for schools
- Teachers sent a ribbon wrapped gift
- National Trust ‘Name a Puffin’ vote
- Librarians, bloggers, bookstores sent postcards: ‘What’s your favourite? Tell us, take a photo and…tweet tweet @puffinbooks’
- International sales of all titles up +250%
SHOESTRING
The Gollancz Festival
Marketers: Jennifer McMenemy (Marketing), Sophie Calder (Publicity), Gollancz
- Persuaded participating authors to read their one-star reviews on camera – genius!
- Timed when sci-fi fans and authors in London – but delivered internationally too
- Very well organised, throughout the day virtual and real activities, starting with a tweet-up on what people had for breakfast…
- Sold out in three weeks with no paid-for media at all
- Partnered new authors with established names
Judges for this campaign round included: Jo Henry and Alastair Giles of the Book Marketing Society, Orna O’Brien of the London Book Fair, Sheila O’Reilly of the Dulwich Bookshop, Sara Mulryan of Nielsen BookScan and Liz Thomson of BookBrunch
Book gifting on the decline, Self-Pub continues to rise
The decline came from consumer purchasing of books in print, with the number of ebooks purchased increasing from one in five to one in four of all books bought. But the lower prices of ebooks resulted in their contribution to only 14% of book sales by value.
Ebooks accounted for more than 40% of adult fiction purchases, one in eight of non-fiction purchases, and one in 10 of children’s book purchases.
Within adult fiction, ebooks enjoyed their highest market shares in the romance, crime, and fantasy categories. In non-fiction, the bestselling ebook genres were true crime, self-help and mind/body/spirit. In children’s, the ebook share varied from one in five of adventure, fantasy and relationship stories to less than 5% of non-fiction and younger children’s formats.
Books & Consumers also reported a rise in sales of self-published titles.
Jo Henry, International Consumer Research Director at Nielsen Book, said: “One concerning trend noted in the survey is the drop in books being bought as gifts. In the UK, the share of the book market taken by gift purchases reduced 2% points, from 24% to 22%; this equates to a decrease of some 9m books bought as gifts in 2013 compared to the previous year, a phenomenon that has also been noted in the US Books & Consumers survey.
“In view of the importance of the gift market to the book industry, Nielsen Book Research is proposing a further study to understand what is behind the apparent decrease in the value that consumers are placing on books as gifts and what might be done to counteract this.”
The story has received wide pick-up across the media, including the BBC, The Telegraph, Independent and The Bookseller.
A kidnapped author, a führious dictator and an undercover model win Jan-April 2014 awards
With sensational sunlit views across London’s skyline from the heights of Hachette’s Euston Road tower, the BMS seasonal awards were announced on the evening of Tuesday, 10th June, for campaigns run between January to April 2014.
SHOESTRING WINNER
Look Who’s Back by Timur Vernes
Marketers: Bethan Ferguson, Claire Morrison, Ella Pocock, Joel Richardson & Caroline Butler, MacLehose Press/Quercus
The campaign’s leading strapline, “He’s back and he’s führious”, quite neatly demonstrated the masterly handling by the Quercus marketing team of a very sensitive subject. With only a limited budget, the team drip-fed various simple but witty messages (themed business cards, postcards, etc), which were highly effective in recruiting early supporters from the book trade, who were then used to supply reviews and begin the word of mouth campaign in earnest. There was also great use made of the iconic cover design, and a strong partnership with Caboodle which recruited thousands of entries. A great example of humour and creativity making up for a small marketing budget.
CHILDREN’S WINNER
Model Under Cover: A Crime of Fashion, by Carina Axelsson
Marketers: Sarah Aspinall and Anna Howorth, Usborne
This campaign about an undercover model detective in the fashion industry was well-targeted at girls aged 10-13, not just book readers but fans of fashion and beauty blogs too. Usborne made the most of their author’s fashion credentials, and deployed an online treasure hunt around key social media sites which resulted in more than 5,000 entries. It was another small budget campaign, with great ROI results.
ADULT WINNER
Campaign Title: James Patterson is Missing
Marketers: Gina Luck, Rebecca Ikin, Alex Young, Chloe Healy, Cornerstone/Random House
Devising a marketing campaign for one of the most prolific and bestselling ‘writer/collaborators’ in the publishing business might seem an easy task. But the challenge of drawing together the various series being released by Patterson into a cohesive message is no small task, and it’s the inventive approach taken by the Cornerstone team that earned them a win for this season’s campaign awards.
The concept was simple – an “Avengers Assemble for James Patterson”. A new villain known as Jane Doe hacks into James Patterson’s Facebook page and announces Patterson has been kidnapped. She sets a challenge to fans: they must solve her three daily clues or Patterson will be forced to write solely about her, thereby killing off his various detectives forever. Alarmed by this new reality, said detectives spring to life, to aid the community in the hunt. The campaign became a real-time, multi-platform ‘social media thriller’ which got the fans to do the work, and was an excellent display of brand building, rationalising Patterson’s output and enabling cross-promotion between the four different series. Over the same period and with same number of books, sales grew by 27% along with strong increased engagement across the brand.
A number of campaigns were also awarded a ‘Highly Commended’
ADULT
The Rosie Project, by Graham Simsion
Marketer: Kimberley Atkins, Penguin/Michael Joseph
- Very strong art direction
- Effective partnerships with The Reading Agency & Waterstones
- Richard & Judy selection and very strong sales for debut novel
- Valentine Day tie-up with ‘Bob’s Lobsters’
- Seasonal straplines: “Santa Claws is coming to town”/ “Don’t give roses, give The Rosie Project”
SHOESTRING
The Best Thing That Never Happened to Me, by Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice
Marketer: September Withers, Transworld
- Ebook first, digital only campaign
- ‘Official blog tour’, working with network of key bloggers to target key audience
- Led to full support of iBookstore and homepage rotating banners
Wimpy Kid wins Best Marketing Campaign for 2012
The BMS is delighted to announce the winners for the second Annual Marketing Campaign of the Year Awards, for campaigns conducted in 2012. The bestselling children’s title Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel was declared the overall winner, with the Best Marketing Campaign of 2012 and also Best Brand Management. The announcement was made today (July 9th) at The Bookseller’s Marketing and Publicity Conference at the Southbank Centre, with five other category winners also revealed.
This year’s Annual Award shortlists were drawn from the winners of the 2012 Seasonal Awards, along with additional submissions by members, plus two categories which recognised excellence in copywriting and design. Each campaign was required to display outstanding innovation and creativity, the ability to reach and engage with the target audience and a good return on investment.
The categories in contention were:
- Best Blurb
- Best Package
- Best Debut Campaign
- Best Brand Management
- Best Shoestring Campaign
- Best Marketing Campaign 2012
Jo Henry commented: “Our winners were real stand out campaigns in their categories so congratulations to them all. The overall winner in Wimpy Kid displayed real skill, professionalism, focus and audience connection with fantastic growth for the brand.”
The judges were a mix of leading marketing and advertising professionals from across industries, who brought a variety of skills and experience and a collective passion for books to the selection process:
- Dominic Gettins, Head of Writing at Havaas Worldwide, the fifth-largest global agency network
- John Bond, co-founder of whitefox, a new publishing services network acting for publishers, agents, writers and brands and former m.d. of Press Books at HarperCollins
- Miriam Robinson, Head of Marketing at Foyles, UK National Bookseller of the Year 2013 & 2012
- Nicholas Clee, joint Editor of BookBrunch, the publishing trade’s daily online news magazine
- Sam Missingham, Head of Events & Marketing, The Bookseller, FutureBook & We Love This Book
- Jo Henry, Executive Director and joint-founder of the BMS, and Global Director of Bowker Market Research, the leading provider of business intelligence for the book industry
- Alastair Giles, joint-founder of the BMS and MD of Agile Marketing, an independent agency working to attach sponsors and media partners to specially created book promotions
- Jon Slack, Development Manager for the BMS, also involved in a number of literary and industry events across the trade
Without any further ado…
Winners
The winner for Best Brand Management:
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel, Jeff Kinney (Puffin)
The winner for Best Debut Campaign:
- Fifty Shades of Grey, E L James (Arrow/Random House)
The winner for Best Shoestring:
- POLPO, Russell Norman (Bloomsbury)
The winner for Best Package:
- POLPO, Russell Norman (Bloomsbury)
The winner for Best Blurb (decided by public vote):
- Is It Just Me?, Miranda Hart (Hodder)
The winner for Best Marketing Campaign 2012:
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel, Jeff Kinney (Puffin)
The shortlists
Best Brand Management
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel, Jeff Kinney (Puffin)
- Me Before You, Jojo Moyes (Penguin)
- The Hobbit, J R R Tolkien (HarperCollins)
- Ratburger, David Walliams (HarperCollins)
Best Debut Campaign
- Fifty Shades of Grey, E L James (Arrow/Random House)
- Charlotte Street, Danny Wallace (Ebury/Random House)
Best Shoestring Campaign
- Unknown Pleasures, Peter Hook (Simon & Schuster)
- POLPO, Russell Norman (Bloomsbury)
- BFI Film Classics, Various (Palgrave Macmillan)
Best Design Package
- The Teleportation Accident, Ned Beauman (Hodder & Stoughton)
- Tired of London, Tired of Life, Tom Jones (Ebury/Random House)
- POLPO, Russell Norman (Bloomsbury)
- Jerusalem, Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury/Random House)
Best Blurb (decided by public vote)
- The Teleportation Accident, Ned Beauman (Hodder & Stoughton)
- Bleak Expectations, Mark Evans (Constable & Robinson)
- Is It Just Me?, Miranda Hart (Hodder)
Shortlists announced for the BMS Annual Awards
The BMS runs three Seasonal Best Marketing Campaign Awards each year to reward the best campaigns within the industry. This year’s Annual Award shortlists are drawn from both the winners of the Seasonal Awards, along with additional submissions by members and two categories which recognise excellence in copywriting and design. Each campaign must display outstanding innovation and creativity, the ability to reach and engage with the target audience and a good return on investment.
To recap, the categories in contention are:
- Best Blurb
- Best Package
- Best Debut Campaign
- Best Brand Management
- Best Shoestring Campaign
- Best Marketing Campaign 2012
The judges are a mix of leading marketing and advertising professionals from across industries, who bring a variety of skills and experience and a collective passion for books to the selection process:
- Dominic Gettins, Head of Writing at Havaas Worldwide, the fifth-largest global agency network
- John Bond, co-founder of whitefox, a new publishing services network acting for publishers, agents, writers and brands and former m.d. of Press Books at HarperCollins
- Miriam Robinson, Head of Marketing at Foyles, UK National Bookseller of the Year 2013 & 2012
- Nicholas Clee, joint Editor of BookBrunch, the publishing trade’s daily online news magazine
- Sam Missingham, Head of Events & Marketing, The Bookseller, FutureBook & We Love This Book
- Jo Henry, Executive Director and joint-founder of the BMS, and Global Director of Bowker Market Research, the leading provider of business intelligence for the book industry
- Alastair Giles, joint-founder of the BMS and MD of Agile Marketing, an independent agency working to attach sponsors and media partners to specially created book promotions
- Jon Slack, Development Manager for the BMS, also involved in a number of literary and industry events across the trade
Jo Henry commented: “As always, the judges were delighted and inspired by the fantastic creativity publishers display as they seek ever more inventive ways to connect with their audience. Some of these shortlists were hard fought over, others were more obvious – but all of these campaigns are entirely deserving of their place. We look forward to announcing the winners on the 9th July.”
Winners will be revealed at the Bookseller’s Marketing and Publicity Conference, to be held at the Southbank Centre on July 9th.
The shortlists are….
Best Brand Management
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel, Jeff Kinney (Puffin)
- Me Before You, Jojo Moyes (Penguin)
- The Hobbit, J R R Tolkien (HarperCollins)
- Ratburger, David Walliams (HarperCollins)
Best Debut Campaign
- Fifty Shades of Grey, E L James (Arrow/Random House)
- Charlotte Street, Danny Wallace (Ebury/Random House)
Best Shoestring Campaign
- Unknown Pleasures, Peter Hook (Simon & Schuster)
- POLPO, Russell Norman (Bloomsbury)
- BFI Film Classics, Various (Palgrave Macmillan)
Best Design Package
- The Teleportation Accident, Ned Beauman (Hodder & Stoughton)
- Tired of London, Tired of Life, Tom Jones (Ebury/Random House)
- POLPO, Russell Norman (Bloomsbury)
- Jerusalem, Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury/Random House)
Best Blurb (decided by public vote)
- The Teleportation Accident, Ned Beauman (Hodder & Stoughton)
- Bleak Expectations, Mark Evans (Constable & Robinson)
- Is It Just Me?, Miranda Hart (Hodder)
The Best Marketing Campaign of the Year Award will be drawn from previous 2012 winners and the winners of the following three categories above:
- Best Shoestring Campaign
- Best Debut Campaign
- Best Brand Management
Publisher-owned online reader communities set to double by 2015
The number of publisher-owned online communities is set to more than double over the next two years, according to new research released today by Publishing Technology at The London Book Fair.
The study, conducted by Bowker Market Research and widely covered in the trade (see here), found that two thirds of responding publishers currently host reader communities, and that this is set to rise to over 90% over the next two years. A quarter expect to have seven or more networks up and running by 2015, with many respondents predicting a huge growth in the number of online communities for their company, from a current average of 2.1, to more than five over the next two years.
The survey, which included UK and US publishers across trade and academic sectors, revealed that trade publishers are currently most engaged in this area with 86% of respondents owning an online community in some shape or form.
The study also investigated the rationale and perceived benefits for publishers moving into this arena, revealing that:
- 84% of publishers felt their spending on online communities would increase in the next two years with only 14% envisaging expenditure remaining stagnant
- 64% of publishers with online communities were convinced that their investment in this market is already paying off and a further 24% believed it would do so in the short term
- 73% of all the publishers interviewed felt that online communities helped or would help them to engage better with their audiences
- 72% of trade publishers said they helped or would help to increase direct relationships with customers and 45% claimed they provided or would provide good marketing support to sales channels
- 40% of academic and professional publishers said that increasing knowledge and understanding of customers was a key benefit, whilst 40% felt increasing content usage was a priority
Although currently only 16% of all respondents viewed online communities as viable direct sales channels, the formats that have benefited most from online community activity are e-books for trade publishers (40%) and online resources for academic publishers (67%).
“Beyond the testing phase”
Jane Tappuni, Business Development Director at Publishing Technology, commented: “Online communities are far more than a channel for selling books, these results send a clear message that both trade and academic publishers want to use these platforms to establish closer relationships with their core readers, be it to communicate with them directly or to better understand their needs.”
She continued: “Online communities provide publishers with a way of striking up a direct rapport with their audiences and, at a time when publishing business models are evolving to become more consumer-focused, it comes as no surprise that publishers are ramping up investment in this area. This is the first major research that has been carried out in this field and the results are significant; they prove that publishers have moved far beyond the testing, experimental phase and now consider online communities to be a powerful tool that is an integral part of their marketing mix.”
Jo Henry, Director, Bowker Market Research, said: “There is a substantial amount of activity going on in this area as publishers seek new ways in which to engage directly with their consumers. It is interesting to note that in this survey US publishers were not significantly more advanced than UK ones – and that trade publishers appear to be leading the way in developing online communities.”
Key findings were made available at the joint Book Marketing Society (BMS)/Publishers Publicity Circle (PPC) London Book Fair panel on Tuesday 16th: “THE CAMPAIGN REVOLUTION: Reshaping the way publishers are reaching readers.”
Trade and academic publishers in the UK and US were invited to contribute to the survey.
Coverage elsewhere
The full results are available on publishingtechnology.com/blog
Fans placed at centre of Hodder’s UK cover reveal for new Stephen King
The UK cover reveal for Stephen King’s new novel Doctor Sleep (Hodder, published 24 September) has been devised with digital marketing agency Think Jam to place Stephen King’s loyal fanbase at the heart of social media activity. An animated version of the cover, featuring interactive hotspots which link to exclusive content, social channels and pre-order is hosted on facebook.com/StephenKingBooks and on the DOCTOR SLEEP website: www.doctorsleepbook.co.uk.
The animated, interactive cover uses ‘ThingLink’ technology and can also be embedded across sites, blogs and social channels. It means that anyone with a website, blog, Twitter profile or Facebook page can embed the interactive image wherever they want. Managed centrally by Think Jam, the platform will automatically update across all sites as new content from Hodder becomes available.
Upon launch, fans will be able to experience the cover animation, watch a video of the author reading an extract from DOCTOR SLEEP and enter a competition to be the first UK fan to read the novel. The platform launched March 20th with media partner The Telegraph, and launches a six month social media and online campaign in the lead up to publication, focusing on key spikes of activity including a summer reading drive around THE SHINING and partnerships with third parties.
Books & Consumers 2013 conference: Media Coverage round-up
Bowker’s 2013 Books & Consumers Conference was held on Wednesday, 20th March. The annual event, run by BMS parent company Bowker Market Research, reported on a year in which the book trade had seen unprecedented change. Ebook adoption has been particularly noticeable in fiction genres, but with tablets gaining market share, were non-fiction and children’s books far behind?
The conference and B&C data was broadly covered in the book trade press, and picked up more than 400 tweets on the #Bowker13 hashtag. Here are a selection of the main reports:
- BookBrunch: ‘Internet catches up the high street‘, and ‘The value of high street bookshops‘
- Digital Book World: ‘E-Retailers Now Accounting for Nearly Half of Book Purchases by Volume, Overtake Physical Retail‘
- FutureBook: ‘A mixed economy‘
- Publishing Perspectives: ‘UK Book Buyers Spend Less, But Still Loyal to Print‘
- The Bookseller: ‘Bowker charts growth of internet retail‘
More details about Bowker’s research can be found on the newly launched www.bookconsumer.co.uk.
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