In the last issue, I covered a US Book Show panel about how publishers now think differently about midlist book marketing. Today, I have insights from a closely related panel on direct-to-reader book marketing, “Direct to Reader Revolution.”
The panelists were:
- Carly Gorga, CMO and deputy publisher, Authors Equity
- Matt Kaye, CEO & cofounder, Bindery (I wrote a case study on Bindery just last month)
- Wade Lucas, accounts and business development lead, BookBub
- Leigh Marchant, CMO, Hachette
- Moderator: Kristin Fassler, SVP, director of marketing strategy and engagement, Penguin Random House (PRH)
First, the panel discussed how a fragmented marketing landscape changes how they work. Fassler introduced the topic by referring to a 2024 Axios article on the “shards-of-glass phenomenon” that has affected how Hachette runs its marketing department. The gist of the piece is that there are 12 different types of media consumers today, they all digest media in completely different ways, and you cannot communicate with them all at the same time. “We have responded to this by restructuring our entire marketing department,” Fassler said. “We have deliberately put more resources into books after they’ve been in the marketplace for 12 weeks.” Notably, this was also the big takeaway from the midlist marketing panel. “If we have to reach multiple audiences in different ways, we have to keep layering marketing activity,” she said.
Fassler pointed to the example of Never Whistle at Night, an indigenous dark fiction anthology released by PRH in September 2023. Initially, the book didn’t perform that well despite paid influencer promotion. But now the novel is trending and the hashtag is picking up. “Just goes to show you can do an activity and think it didn’t work, but you have to stick with it for the long haul. You’re trying to drive sales of the books, not immediate sales,” she said.
Marchant said marketing jobs have become more nuanced, with “so many places you need to be and so many people you need to be talking to. Discovery has been unlocked for us, but it’s been complicated.” She wasn’t referring just to myriad social media platforms but also to the whole universe of digital media, including Substack and podcasts. To be effective, she said, “You have to not only be in all the places but you have to adjust your message” for each group of consumers.
Gorga said at Authors Equity they identify the audience that the book speaks to the most. “The audience can’t be everyone,” she said, so they put as much focus into specific audience segments as possible, with the idea that if you “start a fire” within those audience segments, it will cross over into others, especially if you start putting energy behind it when you notice it starting to catch.
Kaye agreed that specificity is important and believes there’s far more than 12 shards. He says it’s hard to figure out how to reach people through the glut of content, and Bindery’s method is to “find those people who have trust with readers you’re trying to reach. People trust influencers and tentpole people more than brands now. … We hitch our wagon to them to some degree.” However, he said Bindery carefully researches influencers before partnering with them on an imprint. “Some people with followings don’t have an engaged following,” he said, and that engagement is critical for the Bindery model to work.
One of the most fascinating areas of discussion was the TikTok Shop. TikTok Shop sells directly to readers, and publishers can set up their own branded TikTok Shop. Marchant discussed how Hachette opened up their TikTok Shop last fall, motivated by a desire to understand the platform better. “It’s an entirely different kind of consumer that’s been unlocked for us. The books and products selling on the TikTok Shop are different than what is talked about on TikTok.” She said Hachette has seen strong sales for their deep backlist that wouldn’t ordinarily be found—a lot of practical nonfiction and non-book product that doesn’t typically sell to Hachette’s traditional reader. One specific example she cited: How to Build Small Barns & Outbuildings by Monte Burch, released in 1992. It sold through five years of inventory in an instant.
Marchant said that over the last year and a half, she’s noticed that people are demanding ease and instant gratification—that they want to buy books on the platforms they’re on. Listening to her discuss the rewards of a TikTok Shop, I immediately wondered why every publisher isn’t selling through it—although it did sound like it requires significant effort to set up initially. She also warned publishers to be on top of their supply chain if they open a TikTok storefront, since backlist titles can take off unexpectedly.
AI is being used throughout publishers’ marketing and publicity departments. Fassler said that while it’s a lot more work to use AI to come up with a marketing plan, it’s a wonderful brainstorming tool, producing actionable and realistic ideas. Moreover, she said it leads to better ideas at human meetings. Marchant agreed and said her team uses AI as a brainstorm before the brainstorm. “I don’t know one marketer who closes their laptop at the end of the day and says, ‘AI can replace me.’” She finds it powerful in helping come up with a positioning document, but a lot of “maneuvering” has to be done after using it. Gorga added, “The AI is only as good as the human.” She said the key is figuring out how to coexist with the technology to make you better. Kaye said, “It pushes us to be more human, creative. … How do you get close enough to readers to figure out what’s going to stand out to them?”
Bottom line: Every panelist has been in the publishing trenches for a long time, and not once did I feel like they were complacent or treating book marketing like business as usual. Not only is AI now part of everyone’s workflow, but even the biggest publishers, like Hachette, are undertaking new, direct-to-consumer initiatives and selling to people where they are. Fassler said that publishers have struggled with direct-to-consumer marketing in the past because they haven’t typically owned the relationship with readers, but fortunately I find that is changing.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
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.
Terrific point – thank you, Michael.
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.