Marketing Books in 2024

It's time to throw out the rule book and start over.

Welcome to another edition of Publishing Confidential. I conducted a poll last week concerning what I should write about next, and most of you voted for what marketing looks like in 2024. Before I get to that, some housekeeping.

Publishing Confidential University kicks off next week. The inaugural course is DEFINING YOUR AUDIENCE and is divided into three lessons:

Tuesday, 3/5, Noon EST: Defining Your Audience

Wednesday, 3/13, 1 PM EST: Connecting with Your Audience

Wednesday, 3/29, Noon EST: Retaining Your Audience

Video replays will be available for those who register. The total cost is $60, and you can register here.

Let’s discuss book marketing in 2024:

The Past:

Publishers used to signify a book’s prevalence to consumers by activating significant advertising campaigns and publicity blitzes. When BookExpo occurred, it was every publisher’s chance to showcase their big fall books. If you attended the convention, you were familiar with coveting certain ARCs (advance reader copies) and my favorite item, the C-SPAN coffee mug. We knew BookExpo wasn’t essential, but many publishing folks miss it now that it is gone.

Before BookTok and Bookstagram, there were (and still are) book blogs. I remember we’d hype book blog coverage in marketing meetings, which went over the sales department’s head. They wanted to hear about confirmed publicity and advertising. That was also when Barnes & Noble happily took $25K from publishers for a book’s prominent placement in their stores. Borders (RIP) did the same. I am old enough to remember when Borders was the bookselling arm of Amazon. What a time! To say things have changed is an understatement.

Now, publishers must reach consumers directly. We are discussing how to do so today.

The Present:

If we assess the current media landscape and the number of layoffs occurring, there is one denominator causing upheaval: brands are no longer allocating advertising dollars to media. Instead, they use their ad budgets to enlist influencers because that is how we, the consumers, hear about new products. It is not a coincidence that brands like Drunk Elephant (skincare) and Stanley Cups (insulated cups) sell out when TikTok influencers speak directly to Gen Z. Further, after being cooped up during Covid lockdowns, people are looking for experiences, not ads. Where does this leave book publishing?

When considering how to market a book today, I like to do a “back end to the front” assessment. It means that I want to know everything about the author and the book’s characters (or, if nonfiction, a deep-dive into the subject) so I can draw a dotted line from what the book’s audience does/buys when not immersed in a book to the individual reader. Sure, readers are interested in the plot, but they mainly relate to some aspect of the characters in a book. If we are talking about memoirs, readers tend to gravitate towards relatable stories. In narrative nonfiction, it depends on the subject and how strong consumer interest is in it. All of these factors make marketing to the masses complicated. I am here to say it doesn’t have to be that way.

If we look at celebrity book clubs, for example, we can’t be blind to each celebrity's brand equity. Take Reading with Jenna, for example. Her book club directly relates to the Today Show on linear television (linear=not streaming). Linear television is steeply declining, and there aren’t significant audience gains in morning show viewers. While Jenna and her team may think a book has broad appeal, it doesn’t necessarily mean sales or audience expansion for the author will be off the charts. That’s not to say it isn’t good exposure for authors; the question is, is it meaningful for authors? Will readers remember their names for the next book? Perhaps. Good Morning America’s current book club pick is “Come & Get It" by Kiley Reid, who wrote the bestselling blockbuster “Such a Fun Age.” I clearly remember the publication of “Such a Fun Age” because the book was everywhere. “Come & Get It” has been reviewed by several media outlets but hasn’t appeared on the NYT Bestseller list. It might be selling well, but not at the level of “Such a Fun Age,” which questions how influential GMA’s book club is. If I had to guess, the book’s cover also has something to do with it. It’s too busy, the color scheme drowns out the image, and “Such a Fun Age” should be more prominent:

Visuals are essential in digital marketing because almost everything is mobile. Book covers matter as much online as when walking into a physical bookstore. Granted, the browsing experience in e-commerce is basically nonexistent, but readers are still attracted to particular covers over others. It is an author’s first marketing impression on their audience, so it’s essential to get it right. Covers are also crucial to influencers on Instagram and BookTok because packaging is everything to them.

A recent example is Hailey Bieber’s (a model/Stephen Baldwin’s daughter/Justin Bieber’s wife) new phone case for her beauty brand Rhode. Look at the package! There is a waitlist for this, and it hasn’t even gone on sale yet:

Now look at Drunk Elephant’s packaging. Gen Z goes crazy for this brand:

Did you notice how clean each design is? It’s a prominent trend with brands I’ve seen over the past few months, and book publishers should take note if they want Gen Z to pay attention to books.

Another trend that won’t die is brand collaborations. I have a collection of reading glasses (I need them, but they are also fashion accessories) from several different brands. I have yet to see publishers collaborate with any of them. This is a no-brainer and one example of how the book industry can mirror what fashion and beauty brands do to expand their customer base and increase revenue.

Painting broad strokes of marketing campaigns is required. Publishers must take more care to identify a book’s specific audience in the grand scheme of consumerism. We don’t live in a time when the industry can afford to be precious about itself. It is good and fine to put forth a marketing plan that includes Goodreads, Instagram, and TikTok, but it doesn’t tell the author exactly how you are targeting the readers for their book. Atria's mistake in paying a TikTok influencer to go on a cruise and promote a book was that nothing in his prior videos aligned with the audience for the book they were promoting. I give them credit for trying something different. Still, today’s social media atmosphere requires deep diving into someone’s platform to see what they’ve previously posted before employing them to promote your book. To say that you chose an influencer who is a non-reader because you want to reach a new audience is interesting, but that influencer must know how to talk about a book in a way that sells it. The best influencers authentically and seamlessly promote brands. Such was not the case with Atria’s campaign. Nor was it the case with Penguin Random House’s campaign for the book “Argylle,” which completely backfired because they failed to convince Swifties that Taylor Swift might have written the book (spoiler: she did not).

What marketing comes down to in 2024 is not publishers making a big splash with consumers but people, aka influencers, creating demand for books. While BookTok’s greatest hits happen organically, plenty of areas of the platform remain untouched by the publishing industry. The same can be said for Instagram, especially within the Reels feature.

The onus of marketing books cannot continue to fall on authors. Publishers must promote the books they acquire and strategically experiment outside the industry's norm. Goodreads can take a back seat; advertising doesn’t sell books, and reviews are dwindling. It is time for change. Will the industry step up to the plate? That remains to be seen.

END NOTES:

What I’m Reading: Burn Book by Kara Swisher. I am a huge fan of Kara’s and cannot wait to dig into Burn Book.

What I’m Listening to: Guess what? I created a Publishing Confidential playlist on Spotify. Listen here.

What I’m Watching: I saw Past Lives over the weekend. It’s a gorgeous film. I highly recommend it.

MISC: I’ve started creating Publishing Confidential merch! The first one will be coffee mugs, and I will give out giveaways in March, which is the first anniversary of this newsletter!