Have you ever wondered how Hemingway advertised his work? Or maybe, Austen? What about Garcia Marquez?
We all know the typical stories: How a publisher read Harry Potter and politely declined (they will never live that down), the classic feud between C. S Lewis and Tolkien on starting a book with a street lamp, and more recent Roxane Gay pulling her book from Simon & Schuster because of their deal with an author she strongly disagrees with.
However, once the book deal is done, once the book is sent to the printer, or ready to be digitally put out on the market… What then?
People don’t just walk into a bookstore anymore, look at the “New Releases” section and go “huh okay, I’ll give it a shot.” At least, not all of us.
Consumers (aka us, the self-depicted “book worms”) have started to rely more and more on outside opinions of books and authors. Some books don’t even have the synopsis on the back anymore, but a bunch of quotes from important book critics saying how much they enjoyed the work. I personally follow more than ten Twitter accounts which constantly bombard me with book recommendations – but at the end of the day, I only stare at the cute cover as my way of deciding if it will go into my book-shopping list. Some printed versions of books have the name of the author bigger than the actual title, because loyal customers are more likely to purchase a book from an author they know and love. THAT is how much more we actually care about other than the actual content while we browse for new books to read.
Obviously I am not saying that the content does not matter. That is ridiculous, the actual story makes all the difference, but who has time to sit at The Strand and read the first three chapters of every book that catches your eye before buying it?
So, here we are again; how do we advertise the author’s work in a quick, and efficient manner?
As a Marketing student I have a lot of business jargon that I could throw your way, but, as a Marketing Student, I know that will not hold your attention for long. What I will say instead is: Bookstagrammers.
These people are the celebrities of the book-lovers’ world. Just like there are YouTubers who review games, movies, make-up, puppies; just like there are Tumblr blogs dedicated to showing pictures of clothes, jewelry, and more puppies… There are book-bloggers.
I must admit I follow A LOT of them. I don’t share the same political ideologies as some of them, or the same religious beliefs, but I do share my love for reading and pretty pictures of tea and books. These people promote books for free. Yep, free advertising. Publishers, self-published authors, candle shops, mug-makers and anything or everything related with literature in any way, send them “care-packages” with samples of their merchandise (could be a cute mug with a inspirational quote, could be a little collection of tea bags, and books on books on books…) and these social media stars unravel the package in front of the camera to show their eager followers (me) all the goodies that they got. Yes, for free.
Based on the Instagram stories shared by these users, and their many unraveling of book-packages, lot of people buy the merchandise. It is actually extremely useful for the consumers, I have found that some of the people don’t review the things truthfully but in reality a lot of this Bookstagrammers are teenagers who express their honest opinion of the gifts they receive.
It is more fun than reading a critic’s version of it (sorry to my made up mental image of an old, bald, white man smoking a pipe in a dark room with a billion and one copies of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea) and I still get the information I need. Easy, efficient, fast, and, best of all for my short attention span: catchy.
It’s a Marketing dream.
– F.L.L, Intern.