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 Fragmented Book Market - Impulse Buying

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dtpollard
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dtpollard


Number of posts : 636
Registration date : 2008-06-08

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PostSubject: Fragmented Book Market - Impulse Buying   Fragmented Book Market - Impulse Buying EmptySat Dec 27, 2008 9:00 am

You know the more I think about it, the more I realize how fragmented the book market is today. Books have truly become everywhere impulse buy products.

There was a time when all that you would find in grocery stores were the mass market paperback books. Now you find new releases. What I have noticed was a move by one of Safeway's store brands was a remodel and reduction in the shelf space they previously dedicated to books and magazines. I feel they probably nodded that the big box stores had won that war. The local Sam's Club, Super WalMart and Super Target have virtual book stores in their book sections. Even Best Buy is in the act.

If your book is online only, it really changes the game on how you attract customers and build name recognition. If your book is in some stores but you are a new author you have a similar challenge.

Online buyers are a subset and the internet is as fragmented as anything out there with endless subset groupings of users that belong to different groups, social networks or no groups at all. Some just use the internet for bill paying and occassional email. What I have noticed is that internet book buying, kindle books, ebooks etc. are just acquisition and format preferences of the same mainstream bestsellers.

Online sales have been the lowest of all forms of my unit placements. Channel sales through Ingram/Baker & Taylor have been first, in-person event sales are second, store consignment - third and online sales are way behind. It is HARD to get someone to buy my book based on online marketing alone and I have used pay-per-click, cover ads on different sites, book club email blasts etc.

How have others found their success and mix of book sales? What do you think accounts for what works and what does not.
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Gina
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Gina


Number of posts : 136
Registration date : 2008-10-03
Age : 54

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PostSubject: Re: Fragmented Book Market - Impulse Buying   Fragmented Book Market - Impulse Buying EmptySat Dec 27, 2008 9:53 am

My book, 'Utamaro Revealed,' hasn't been out long, but it appears that I am selling more when I go somewhere in person and promote it. I think it's the nature of the book... it's never going to be in highstreet stores (aside from the local branches of Waterstones because they know me) or in the supermarkets in the UK because no books of this type are. About twenty years ago you had to travel to London to see a good selection of books on Japanese art in a bookshop, and I hoped things would change over time. They have changed... now even less shops in London stock them, and the few that used to have a handful of books outside London have stopped selling them altogether. I have to buy books from Amazon because the alternative is driving for two and a half hours and finding that I still can't get hold of what I want, so I imagine others wanting the same sort of books are migrating there too. The only conclusion I can draw, when it comes to the refusal of bookstores to stock this sort of book, is that less people are interested in the subject. In France, where the interest is much higher as Japanese prints have had a huge following since they first arrived in Europe, such books are in large bookstores all over the place, and even in a number of small ones, and they seem to do very well. That's one of the reasons I want my next art book to be released in English and French.

As far as fiction goes, I'm a fiction virgin and haven't got a clue what will happen with my current book. I was stunned when, one day after it appeared on Amazon.uk, where there isn't even a description, a copy sold (if the ranking thing is anything to go by). I hadn't even told my mother it was out as I wasn't expecting it to be until the New Year. Sometimes I wonder if buyers just buy the first thing they come across in a fit of mad enthusiasm. Shocked
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Dick Stodghill
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Dick Stodghill


Number of posts : 3795
Registration date : 2008-05-04
Age : 98
Location : Akron, Ohio

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PostSubject: Re: Fragmented Book Market - Impulse Buying   Fragmented Book Market - Impulse Buying EmptySat Dec 27, 2008 3:17 pm

Gina, I would bet it's a case of someone knowing you. In general book buyers are very selective in what they purchase.
Guess I have nothing to contribute here because I make no attempt to sell or market books.
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Gina
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Gina


Number of posts : 136
Registration date : 2008-10-03
Age : 54

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PostSubject: Re: Fragmented Book Market - Impulse Buying   Fragmented Book Market - Impulse Buying EmptySun Dec 28, 2008 4:57 am

Dick Stodghill wrote:
Gina, I would bet it's a case of someone knowing you.

This is going to make me sound so sad, but I have about four good friends in the entire country, and two of them don't even know I have a second book out. The other two are terrible liars, and they insist they didn't buy the book. And the one's so cheap I'd struck her off the list anyway. Laughing None of them bought the first book - they got a free copy each and that was that.

I was right... that does make me sound sad. Laughing

So my bet is on the postman.
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Shelagh
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Shelagh


Number of posts : 12662
Registration date : 2008-01-11
Location : UK

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PostSubject: Re: Fragmented Book Market - Impulse Buying   Fragmented Book Market - Impulse Buying EmptySun Dec 28, 2008 5:45 am

Gina,

The chances that someone stumbled on your book are not impossible but improbable. If someone bought the book because they learned about you on the Internet, isn't that the reason you are promoting on the 'net?

I bet Dick is right and it's someone you know. If you are certain that your friends and family are not going to buy a novel written by you, it will be most interesting to see how many sales you make without selling to friends and relatives.
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