Michael Cader follows up his previous thoughts on the Expanding The Market: survey:
But take a look at today’s NYT arts section, where publishers have invested a considerable amount of money in six different display ads. None of those ads describes the book at all — not even a single line or clause. All but one employs exactly the same technique — a wall of quotes, mostly from reviews (which we don’t believe sell books), saying the book is good. Only one provides even the slightest identification of who the author is, other than a “bestseller.”
If you’ll recall, potential readers turned away from books because they couldn’t get a good sense of what the book is about. Review quotes were essentially meaningless to these readers. It begs the question of who publishers are marketing to. If it’s just a case of a vanity ad for an author, then, well, a good job was not done. If the goal is to enlighten readers, well, a good job was not done.
We know we’ve said this before, but it’s 2005. We really need new marketing ideas here, people. How about, maybe, actually trying to reach readers for starters?
- Lunch for Tuesday, April 5 (Note: Subscription required.)
