The Business of Marketing Books

In late February 2011, Gonzalo Ferreyra joined the team at San Francisco-based book publisher Weldon Owen as director of marketing. We talked with Ferreyra about what it takes to market books, what's new and what's in the future for Weldon Owen, which specializes in branded books.

What distinguishes marketing for books from marketing for other types of media?

The primary distinction would have to be in terms of the initial scope and revenue projection of any one product release, and thus the budgets allocated to marketing. Our business simply cannot compare with DVD, theatrical release film, music, or television, all of which - with few exceptions - function on an economic scale many times greater than ours. This forces us to be a bit more "grass roots," in our efforts, leveraging social media, publicity, author networks, and cross-promotional opportunities rather than, say, paying outside agencies to place costly major national ad campaigns.

What about for branded books - how is this marketing different from marketing for other books?

The great difference, and one which makes my new role at Weldon Owen all the more exciting, is the opportunity that branded books offer to leverage existing fan bases. The greatest challenge of book marketing - of any marketing, really - is in identifying and finding the audience for a particular release. Working with a brand hugely facilitates, or even eliminates, that step, and gives us the opportunity of building plans targeting a very clearly established core customer.

What are the biggest challenges you face in the book publishing industry and how do they affect your marketing?

Two major challenges (and also opportunities) stand out for me. First, there's the massive, and ongoing rapid growth in the number of entertainment media options available to every consumer - with no increase in the number of hours available to consume all that media. Second, there's the advent of digital books, which has managed, it seems, to both frighten and thrill everyone in this industry.

In terms of marketing, we need to exploit all available strategies for making clear how vital and thrilling the written word, in the form of extended narratives rather than texts and tweets, continues to be. And more than ever we need to speak explicitly and forcefully to the value proposition of every book-via the title, sub-title, packaging, pricing, format, and post-publication messaging. Our marketing needs to be a bit louder, more forceful, "edgier," if you will, to be heard among all the noise out there.

We're currently working on book trailers for several titles, with accompanying music that will, I hope, speak to fans' desire to want to be part of something bigger. Simply showing them another pretty book won't do it.

What is most innovative in marketing books just now?

Social media, social media, and, let me think...social media. Again, it's all about finding an audience and getting out in front of them as much as possible, and to be able, in what are essentially a few steps, to build a loyal fan base or find an existing one that has already publicly proclaimed its affinity for your product, is invaluable. And the opportunities abound, far beyond the obvious choices of Facebook and Twitter. We're currently exploring such book-focused social media channels as GoodReads and Scribd, which again offer unprecedented opportunities to connect with customers.

Can you give us a preview of any exciting things in the works with marketing for Weldon Owen in the future?

I'm very excited about the Happiest Mom photo contest that Parenting magazine is running this month and supporting extensively, via their web site and social media, and hope we can create many more such promotions in the future. Equally exciting is the grass-roots effort behind The Happiest Mom book we're doing with Parenting: the author and blogger Meagan Francis is in the midst of a 25-stop "virtual book tour", making a guest appearance on a different Mom blog each day for the next few weeks. That's a strategy we'll repeat. I'm very excited to see what we can do with the videos I've mentioned. We're also, of course, working actively to beef up our social media presence, for specific brands and for Weldon Owen as a whole. My goal is to build a sizable audience of loyal friends of our publishing program who we can begin to actively reach out to with loyalty-building giveaways, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and special offers.