Kelly Fagan: Key findings on UK publishers’ marketing and publicity developments from my Unwin Trust Fellowship

As a recipient of the 2013 Unwin Trust Fellowship, HarperCollins publicity manager Kelly Fagan travelled to the UK last year to research new developments in marketing and publicity among UK publishers. Here are her key findings:

Differences/similarities Between Australian and UK Retail Spaces

Although our bricks and mortar market is still considerably healthier and more sizeable than the UK’s, Australian publishers have nonetheless seen and responded to the changing international landscape and have been reaching out to consumers directly, both online and through our vibrant festival culture.

Despite the shrinkage in High Street retail and the dominance of Amazon, UK publishers remain committed to servicing all sectors of the retail market—physical bookstores have not been forgotten.

Media Spaces

In both Australia and the UK, traditional media is still key to selling books. Though both territories are experiencing a reduction in book-dedicated real estate in the mainstream press, Australia definitely fares the worst of the two with regards to the visibility and treatment of books in the media.

Australians by nature are much more attuned to international media content and regularly consume international newspapers such as the Daily Mail, Guardian or New York Times. As such, the knock-on effect of overseas reviews can be an excellent launch pad for international titles distributed in Australia. Comparatively, UK readers are highly engaged with their own press and the UK press in turn, is very connected to its readers.

Ranked as people’s third favourite pastime in the UK (after TV and the internet), books and reading remain a highly visible part of British culture, whereas the same is not as strongly the case in Australia.

Company Structures

Continuing the theme of the earlier two findings, Australian publishing is more outward-facing than the UK. Australian publishers’ focus, particularly in the bigger houses, is divided between being a content creator (local lists) and account management (UK lists and US lists) and the distribution of all those books. Perhaps because of this, we have been quicker to streamline our processes and merge publicity and marketing departments than our UK colleagues.

Based on what I witnessed in the UK, there is still a place for discrete marketing and publicity roles within a ‘Marcomms department’. Merging of departments in both Australia and the UK seems to be more about restructuring resources at a managerial level as opposed to any huge changes in the way both disciplines go about their day-to-day roles. That said, because of online and social media components, traditional marketing roles are definitely expanding in scope and evolving a little faster than roles in publicity.

Marketing and Publicity Strategy and Activity

I went to the UK expecting to find examples of highly experimental or revolutionary marketing campaigns, and was surprised to find that most campaigns were very much centred around what we would call ‘traditional activities’—Tube sampler campaigns, outdoor advertising, national book tours, events and festival appearances all dominated the promotional landscape in the UK.

The biggest change to marketing and publicity from what I can see is the expectation of what promotional activities need to achieve for a publishing house. Return on investment is not just about sales—it’s about gathering data, creating brands and author networking, and building communities and online presence. The introduction of digital to the marketing mix is not simply a matter of employing one person to tweet and update facebook occasionally; it’s about using digital to enhance or amplify the tried and tested methods of promotion.

I visited many publishers and asked all of them if they could think of a completely digital campaign, with no traditional activity whatsoever, that resulted in strong sales of a book. No-one could give me an example. Of course there are a handful of successful authors who have pioneered self-publishing across the web to bestseller-dom, but even then, the sales of authors such as E.L. James were considerably amplified once the mainstream promotional and publicity machine kicked in.

The other significant difference that should be highlighted is the timing of a campaign. The two format style of print publishing employed by most publishers in the UK, whereby the hardback and ebook are released at the same time followed by a paperback release six to twelve months later, can be quite advantageous in the new digital landscape. Many publishers treat the first release almost like a sampler campaign—with promotional activity centred around the acquisition of reviews, reviews, and more reviews. Independent reviews from the mainstream press of course, but also, consumer reviews from places like Amazon and GoodReads.

In many ways it’s like road testing a book before committing to a full promotional spend for the paperback. A recent example of this in action is The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. Acquired in a storm of publicity at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the book was first published in hardback in April 2013. The book was praised in the press, and hailed by several media outlets as the next Gone Girl. The hardback received almost 200 reviews on Amazon, a quarter of which were 5-star reviews. In August 2013, HarperCollins published the paperback complete with a widespread advertising campaign. Posters, outdoor and press ads all featured the book and the tag-lines ‘This summer’s Gone Girl’ (a quote from India Knight) and ‘Got a Gone Girl shaped hole in your life? Try this’ (a quote from the Evening Standard). Lauren did a British publicity tour, and the book went to number one on the bestseller lists.

Of course, with a shrinking second format market, we in Australia rarely have the luxury of a two print format release, but it is definitely worth noting that as online retail becomes an ever increasing part of our market—it may not always be necessary or wise to spend a title’s entire promotional budget up front.

Industry Bodies

Finally, in this new and evolving world of merged departments and changing roles, professional bodies such as the Book Marketing Society and Publishers’ Publicity Council are like an oasis for like-minded professionals. Learnings are shared, experiences discussed and particularly for junior members of staff, interactions with industry experts are hugely valuable.

This is an edited extract from Kelly Fagan’s Unwin Trust Fellowship report. To download the full report go to the Australian Publishers Association website.

Category: Features