How Publishers Have Evolved Their Direct-to-Reader Marketing Effort

From the US Book Show: publishers have struggled with direct-to-consumer marketing in the past, but fortunately that seems to be changing.


This premium article is available to paid subscribers of Jane's newsletter. Here's what subscribers get:

  • Publishing industry news that includes Jane’s reporting and analysis (weekly)
  • Access to more than 3,000 premium articles on this site, all searchable
  • Access to Jane’s private resource guides, continually updated

Subscribe today.

Or login below if you're already a subscriber.

Wondering why some content isn't free? Did something change? Here's an explanation.

3 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Michael J. Sullivan

Just want to note that direct-to-reader can be done by the author as well. We sell six-figures worth of books a year from our website. Some of these are self-published works, but a lot of them are books that I buy at the 50% author discount from Hachette Book Group and Penguin Random House.

One thing to note, if you want to do this, then make sure your contract not only gives you the right to purchase author copies, but also the ability to sell those copies – it was a change I had to make to my contracts because I knew this would be a big part of my busines model.

Allen Befort

Thanks for this Jane. We’re seeing the intersection of DTC ecommerce (like TikTok Shop and Shopify) and Publishing continue to grow…expanding further from just the marketing of Direct-to-Reader, to actually where the sale is taking place.