Getting into publishing is very competitive so it is best to
start building your awareness of not only books, but bookstores, marketing, and
sales techniques as early as possible. This does not have to be a strenuous
task nor do you need to spend hours reading articles online, it can simply be a
tour of your local book retailers. This is also relatively inexpensive (if you
can hold yourself back from buying any more books)!
Even if you’re extremely busy, just remember to note window
displays next time you’re passing, or take a brief walk down the book aisle in
the supermarket during your weekly shop. Also, look for books being sold in
non-traditional book sellers and consider their chosen titles – are they
gift/impulse buys or high literature?
Different bookstores take different approaches to marketing
and selling books (and merchandise) in attempts to create their own powerful
USP (Unique Selling Point). For instance, on UK high streets you can often find
a W H Smiths and Waterstones in close proximity, but do they attract the same
people? Often they sell some of the same books, but looking at their store
layouts, other products and promotions it appears they target rather different
audiences (though there may be some crossover).
Waterstones is first and foremost a bricks-and-motor
bookstore which may also offer book related products e.g. bookmarks, branded
merchandise and gift items, whilst W H Smiths is known for variety –
specialising in magazines, gift cards, stationery, books and other media (CDs,
DVDs).
Waterstones will display new titles prominently at the front
of the store, and new and popular choices on table displays throughout
(depending on the size of the store), some with discounts (buy one get one half
price), some with recommendations/reviews from booksellers and some organised
on tables by specific categories i.e. ‘unputdownable’, ‘cult classics’ etc. All
this encourages browsing.
W H Smiths will sometimes offer deeper discounts, but does
not generally carry the same range of titles, usually focusing on the most popular
or recognisable titles and authors e.g. Jamie Oliver, Harry Potter, Mills and
Boon, David Walliams etc. Rather than encourage extensive browsing W H Smiths
aims for impulse or multi buys; you may go in for a birthday card or stationery
but end up spending a short time walking through the book aisle.
This is where target audiences crossover, you may use W H
Smiths for stationery and, as I mentioned above, pick up a book on impulse, but
when you go to purposefully shop for books you may choose Waterstones for its
easy, browser-friendly comfort and more knowledgeable staff.
Here you represent two different target audiences, a serious
book-buyer and a casual shopper. Consider your usual store choices and think
about how you shop differently in each. How do the stores facilitate this? What
are the promoting at the tills (POS – Point of Sale)? Are you encouraged to
walk slower and look around or does it take a massive, bright discount poster
or interesting display to slow you down as you march to the section of the store
you were aiming for?
If you start to think about these questions during your
normal shopping trips you will start to develop an insight into the tactics
deployed by marketing professionals, how these are translated into displays by
book sellers, and possibly why certain titles become better known than others.
Whatever area of publishing you wish to enter, be it
editorial, marketing, rights or production, it is helpful to have an
understanding of the other departments and how the decisions made in each
influence consumers (and consequently the best seller charts).
Photos in the image, above, where taken at various points around Oxford. Bookstores included Waterstones, Blackwells, OUP, Oxfam and St. Andrews.
