Movies have trailers and posters. Songs have music videos and radio play. TV shoes have commercials and posters. Radio stations have prize giveaways and billboards. Cars have billboards and commercials. Houses have real estate listings and sign posts. Everything has advertizing
…
Except books. By and large the only advertizing books get is, at best, a few cover shots on a stand at the front of a book store. With the rare exception of a Harry Potter with got news coverage, there’s no advertizing to bring people into the bookstores in the first place. People looking for books go and get what they’re interested in. Everyone else lives their lives never knowing what or if anything has been published at all.
I’m not a publisher and I can’t change the industry, but it’s hardly any surprise that the average book only makes, at best, a few thousand dollars when it has to go up against millions of dollars worth of better known and better advertized competition. This website is more small attempt at breaking into the publishing world, encouraging readers, and getting the word out, but there are plenty of books passing me by as well.
Should publishers buy radio and TV spots? Should book signings and readers be a bigger feature? What about the internet? It’ll be big for sure. Maybe talk spots in podcasts? All possibilities, but I haven’t seen any of them. With all this choice, what does everyone think the best solution is?
