Anticipating the opening of this new large group of services, today we are starting to publish excerpts from the report “Book Publishing in Russia. Status, trends and development prospects”. This report was prepared by the Department of Periodicals, Book Publishing and Printing of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications Russian Federation and published in 2009 as an industry analyst report.

The report is quite large and detailed, it discusses many issues related to the current state and development trends of the Russian book market. In this case, we will turn to the chapter entitled "Promotion of book products by publishers and factors determining the choice of books by buyers."

The first publication will consider the methods, ways and forms of book promotion, which are traditionally used in their work by publishing houses and bookselling organizations.

What does this give us? – For authors who are actively engaged in the promotion of their books, this gives an understanding of the general picture of how the promotion of book products is generally carried out by specialists in this field. Based on this information, you can adjust advertising and marketing activities in order to achieve the greatest effect.

Ranked list of promotion methods, "promotion" of books and their authors

The above report cites data from a study conducted by the Book Industry magazine in 2008.

In the course of this study, it was studied what methods and methods of promotion are considered the most effective by publishing houses, as well as bookselling organizations that sell books directly.

If we summarize the results in a general table, we get the following ranked list of advertising and marketing activities to promote book products.

Comments on the list of book promotion methods

Display and POS materials

As you can see, in the first place is such a promotion method as priority display and POS materials in the store. Moreover, both publishers and booksellers unanimously put this type of promotion in the first place.

POS-materials are understood as promotional products at the points of sale (from the English point of sales - the place of sale), which should attract the attention of the buyer. These can be beautifully designed price tags, signs, signs, information stands, advertising stickers, etc.

If we talk about online stores, then there may also be POS materials and ways to attract attention. For example, displaying the title of a book at the top of the general list of books, highlighting a book in the general list with a color, larger font, special indexes, etc.

"Illumination" of the author in the central media

The second group of promotion methods is formed by the “exposure” of the author in the means mass media. No wonder they say that in order to sell books, you first need to make a name for the author, and then this name will already sell his books. This group includes the participation of the author in various kinds of programs on central television and radio, interviews in federal newspapers and magazines, as well as participation in such public events as book fairs.

Internet promotion

The third group in terms of importance already then, in 2008, included methods of promotion on the Internet. Moreover, here in the report they are presented, firstly, quite modestly, and secondly, not quite correctly.

Only banners can be classified as advertising. "Author's pages" are now becoming full-fledged author's sites. Blogs and LiveJournal are one and the same (LJ - LiveJournal, one of the most popular resources in Runet with many blogs). Finally, interviews and conferences in online stores are essentially the same speeches and interviews as in the mainstream press, only carried out in the Internet space.

In this case, contextual advertising on the Internet, search engine optimization, promotion in very, very rapidly progressing social networks, etc., remained out of sight in this case.

Local Promotions

The last, fourth group of promotion methods can be called local promotions, since all of them are somehow tied to a certain local territory. Perhaps that is why in the general list they look less effective than the previous ones. However, these marketing and promotional activities are used in one way or another by both publishers and booksellers.

This group includes a visit by the author to a store (a meeting with readers, an autograph session), placement of advertising modules in the subway (respondents had the greatest differences on this item), a PR campaign with a book presentation and a buffet table, Direct-mail (electronic and postal distribution of newsletters, leaflets, booklets, catalogs, etc.), as well as the author's appearance on local television or the publication of an interview in a local newspaper.

Temporal dynamics of data

Thus, we have considered a list of the most commonly used methods for promoting books. The only thing that needs to be done here are two discounts.

The first is temporary, since the study was conducted in 2008, and a lot has already changed over the past 3 years. In particular, we are talking about the rapid development of the Internet, which today is becoming the main information space.

In the same cases, when it comes to publishing e-books, the list of promotion services may vary significantly. In particular, in the list of services for the promotion of books and their authors, which we are now preparing for publication, a different promotion scheme will be presented, which differs significantly from the traditional one.

Announcement of the next publication

In the next publication of this short series of articles on "promotion" and promotion, they will be considered.

Republican

Republics of this article are welcome if there is an active hyperlink to the source -

The article is devoted to the PR activities of book publishers in web 2.0. The methods used by book publishing houses for promotion in social networks and blogs are considered, as well as the results of a study showing how actively publishing houses are engaged in PR activities on the Internet.

Keywords: book publishers, web 2.0, PR activities, social networks

Introduction

With the advent of the Internet, the work of public relations specialists in book publishing has changed a lot. The reason for this was the active convergence of the media and Internet resources. No less important for the work of PR-specialists was the emergence of social networks and blogs. A large number of people go online solely to access a social network. And this is the only opportunity to communicate with this audience [Khalilov, 2013, p. 12]. Feedback between a book publisher and a reader can take place within seconds. Experts believe that a few minutes after the publication of a short message on Twitter is enough to understand whether it will be popular or not [Khalilov, 2013, p. 96].

In our study, specific ways of communication of Moscow book publishers in web 2.0 were considered. The content of messages in web 2.0, types of communities and ways to promote book products were studied.

A number of specialists are engaged in the research of the term PR and its development in the modern media space. Publishing houses are much less involved in studying PR activities. In 2011, a study was conducted by V.E. Krylova, which examined the PR activities of the largest publishing houses in Russia in social networks. Based on the results of the study, it was concluded that the interest of the largest Russian publishing houses in social networks is very small - only 18% of them varying degrees activities are used by the programs VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Facebook [Krylova, 2011, p. 111-113]. In 2013, several articles were published on the promotion of book publishing houses on the Internet: E.A. Shibaeva "Book marketing in social media" [Shibaeva, 2013, p. 7-13], E.V. Krylova " Social media book subjects as a special communication environment for subjects of the book market” [Krylova, 2013, p. 130-140].

These works presented not only the existing groups of book publishers in social networks, but also collected statistics on the number of Moscow book publishers represented on the Internet - both on their own websites and in social networks.

The relevance of this study lies in the fact that the PR activities of Moscow publishing houses on the Internet have not been considered in detail before. The book market is changing significantly due to the advent of the Internet and electronic media, representatives of many publishing houses are quite conservative - these features explain their way of developing the promotion of book publishing houses on the Internet. The purpose of this study is to identify what methods of promotion are used by Moscow publishing houses. These methods are also compared when publishing houses are divided into three groups: small, medium and large. An empirical study was carried out by measuring the ratio of which methods publishers use more or less to promote them.

Methodology

The work of promoting 232 Moscow publishing houses, the main direction of which is the publication of paper books, was analyzed. The list of publishers studied was compiled from catalogs book fairs and information from online stores Ozon.ru and Labirint.ru. Initially, it consisted of more than 350 publishing houses, but was reduced according to the following criteria: the publishing house closed, stopped publishing books, or is working in other areas. Information on how to promote book publishers was collected on the Internet from March to May 2014. The work of publishers in the following areas was considered: the presence of a website, the presence of an online store, maintaining groups or pages in popular social networks (Facebook and Vkontakte are considered in more detail). ) and in less popular social networks among publishers (the total number of users using at least one of these sites: Instagram, Foursquare, Twitter, etc.). As a result, a table was compiled with 232 Moscow publishing houses, in which their activities in all these areas were noted. These studies are presented as a percentage of the total number of publishers considered. The study allows us to analyze how actively Moscow book publishers are promoting their products on the Internet.

According to the results of the study, publishing houses were classified into several types in accordance with the volume of published paper literature: large, medium and small. This classification is offered by the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications. The Russian Book Market Industry Report indicates that % of publishers in Russia publish less than 12 books per year (and these publishers can be considered inactive and therefore small). More than 500 books a year are published by less than 1% of publishers. Based on these data, taking into account the specifics of the topic, the following typology criteria were determined: small publishers - less than 12 books per year, medium publishers - from 12 to 120 books per year and large publishers - over 120 books per year. Taking into account this typology, the results of the study revealed the following breakdown: large publishing houses - 31%, medium - 36% and small - 33%.

This division of publishers allows you to see not only general data on their promotion on the Internet, but also to trace the promotion methods and activity of publishers, depending on their size and available resources.

Research results

Studying publishing houses for the presence of websites, we found that 82% have websites and, accordingly, 18% do not. Moreover, if we talk about the types of publishing houses, it turns out that 92% of large publishing houses have a website, 89% of medium-sized ones and only 33% of small ones. If we talk about online stores, it can be noted that only 41% of all Moscow publishing houses have their own online store. If we consider the types of publishers, then the statistics are also natural - 58% of large publishers, 40% of medium-sized publishers and 27% of small publishers have their own online store. The fact that not all small publishing houses have their own websites and online stores may be due to both the lack of financial resources for the maintenance of the site, and the fact that this may not be necessary. Many small publishing houses do not promote and sell their publications, entrusting this work to bookselling companies.

There are three types of sites that book publishers have:

Business card site, where there is only general information about the publishing house and contacts;

An online store where the user can order books.

Online stores usually have large publishers that can handle the logistics and additional costs, as well as small and medium-sized publishers that take their colleagues' books to market. Online stores of publishers do not always have a user-friendly interface, but the prices there are lower than in bookstores so orders are still coming in. The catalog of publications on the site is usually created in order to present the assortment on the Internet - both to readers and to the bookselling companies that cooperate with the publisher. A business card site is created for general idea publishing houses on the Internet, and often news and information about publications are already posted on social networks, almost without updating the site. Moreover, there are examples of thematic book online stores, which have a platform only in the social network and take all orders there.

Not all Moscow publishing houses use social networks to promote their products - only 38%. Moreover, if we consider in more detail which social networks are most often used by publishers, then the following statistics are revealed: 31% of publishers use VKontakte, 30% - Facebook and 12% - social networks less standard for publishers (Instagram, Foursquare, Twitter and others). It is important to note that both non-standard social networks, and Facebook, and VKontakte are simultaneously used by 12% of publishers, which allows us to conclude that those who are actively engaged in promotion in social networks try to use all platforms at the same time.

If we talk in more detail about the use of social networks by publishers, depending on their type, then the statistics are somewhat logical: 50% of large publishers use at least one social network to promote their products, 36% - medium and 29% - small. All other data is quite predictable (see the figure), however, it is worth noting that medium-sized publishers use Facebook more for promotion than VKontakte (31% vs. 28%). This may be due both to the fact that the audience of large publishers uses Facebook more, and the fact that the employees of the publishers themselves prefer this social network more.

The content of publishing communities in social networks often duplicates the information that they post on their website. Thus, the EKSMO publishing house, which has 14,500 members in the VKontakte group, daily talks about presentations and meetings with authors, new books and projects of the publishing house, publishes reviews in the media on new publications, and also places interesting quotes. At least half of the messages on the wall of the ROSMEN publishing house group on VKontakte are questions from readers who are interested in how to find some book, are waiting for the continuation of the series, or specify when this or that publication will be released. Subscribers do not just read the news, but also take an active part in the life of the publishing house - for example, they choose the one they like best from several potential covers for a book and vote. As a result, the publisher chooses the cover that the majority liked. Such voting is practiced by representatives of the Meshcheryakov Publishing House.

1) publishing house;

The main content of communities dedicated to publishing houses are news, book novelties, information about authors and books. Groups dedicated to a series or a single book are much rarer. Often they support each other as they move forward. Initially, the Rosmen publishing house created the Chasodei group, dedicated to a cycle of teenage fantasy books. When they published a book from the same cycle, written by an unknown author, they created a community about it. They arranged an exchange of subscribers - those who love the Chasodei cycle joined the new book group, and those who liked the new author added the Chasodei group to their bookmarks. Serial publications are especially popular among teenagers and young people and are actively promoted in social networks. Fans of a popular author want to find him online - to ask questions, find out when the author has new books coming out, and just to get closer to their idol. The activity of the author himself on the Internet usually has a very positive effect on the promotion of the book, and sometimes the result from the PR activities of one author is no less than from the work of the entire PR department.

The most active and often interesting form of PR campaigns is contests. With the help of social networks and blogs, new opportunities for their implementation have appeared:

1) a more efficient way to disseminate information about the competition;

2) quick feedback from the contestants;

4) the opportunity to see the effect of the competition.

Promotions and competitions organized by book publishers can also be divided into several types:

1) a competition directly related to the book (it can be a drawing, a poem, a photograph according to the content of the work);

2) competition on a given topic;

3) "repost" and random selection of the winner;

4) the task "bring friends to the group."

Book competitions are no different from standard promotions that were previously held in the media - the difference is only in speed feedback. These competitions are especially popular among children and teenagers - according to the book they like, they are ready to do a huge number of tasks - draw characters, take pictures in the image of their favorite hero, write a continuation of the work. In "ID Meshcheryakova" in Livejournal.com, an action was held for parents: "Tell about the contest in your blog and take part in the drawing of a basket of children's books." There were several hundred people who wanted to try their luck, but in the end only one person won the basket of books. Most of the bloggers participating in the contest were moms and dads. Their friends at Livejournal.com have similar interests, and they also hosted information about the competition and talked about publishing and books. There are promotions that are directly related to the readers brought to the community - according to the terms of the competition, in order to win a prize, you need to bring 20 friends to the community. Most publishers give away books as prizes. Thus, the cost of promoting a publication on a social network is not at all high, but the result can be very noticeable.

Another method of promotion that publishers have begun to use is games, including role-playing ones. This is especially true for children's literature or books related to fantasy. Moreover, the "hero" of the role-playing game is already registered in the virtual world - in the social network. The only thing left for him is to take part in the game. Now it all depends on the imagination of the creators of the game - they can come up with their own world, their tasks and, of course, rewards. ROSMEN publishing house in the spring of 2013 launched such role play on the teenage cycle "Zertsalia". It is too early to talk about the success and popularity of the game and the book itself (it is becoming popular, but rather slowly), but it is clear how actively the publisher uses the possibilities of the social network in search of its reader.

In addition to the social networks listed above, publishing houses are also starting to use sites that are less popular in Russia. The AST publishing house uploads photos of various events and its authors, covers of new publications on Instagram. Moreover, for the announcement of new books, the representatives of the publishing house have developed their own style - this is not just a photograph, but a small banner designed specifically for this site. Foursquare is not yet very popular among publishers, but some publishers are already using it: EKSMO, Drofa, Klever, ROSMEN, AST, ZhUK and Exam.

Professional blogs and social networks occupy a special place in the life of publishing houses. Among them are pro-books.ru, blogbook.ru, livbook.ru, etc.

These sites can be divided into two types:

For specialists and employees of the book market;

For lovers of reading.

conclusions

If many companies, including the media, have already found mechanisms for interacting with the reader in social networks and know what exactly will affect the popularity of the site in the future, the sales of a particular product, then with books the situation is somewhat more complicated. Most even Moscow publishing houses do not yet use social networks to promote their products. However, if according to E.V. Krylova in 2013, only 18% of large publishing houses in Russia used social networks, but according to the results of a study conducted by the author of this article in 2014, 50% of large Moscow publishing houses use social networks. It is worth paying attention to the difference in the geography of the study - Moscow book publishers may be much more active than regional ones.

Based on the results of an empirical study, it is worth noting that large publishing houses are much more active in using social networks to promote their products, where the most popular are Facebook and VKontakte. Those publishing houses that use both of these social networks are most often run by others (Twitter, Fourquare, etc.). That is, some publishers (12%) are actively engaged in promotion in social networks and use several platforms for this. It is also worth noting that almost all Moscow publishing houses have their own website (82%), but less than half have their own online store (41%), which is primarily due to additional costs for its maintenance.

Bibliography

Russian book market. Status, trend and development prospects. Industry report. Moscow: Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications, 2013.

Krylova E.V. Social networks of book subjects as a special communication environment for subjects of the book market // Proceedings of St. Petersburg state university culture and arts. 2013. V. 201. Book business: yesterday, today, tomorrow.

Shibaeva E.A. Book marketing in social media // Mediatheque and the world. 2013. No. 1.

Received 28.09.2014

Russian book market. Status, trend and development prospects. Industry report. M.: Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications, 2013. P. 19.

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The promotion service is paid. The cost is negotiated individually.

What about the price of the book?

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The book business is a tough business. This niche has been very highly competitive for at least several years. Along with plastic windows and household appliances selling books and CDs is not a business for the faint of heart. But, even in this niche, you can earn. How? We will try to think with you together, right?

You are not selling books, but something else. Many entrepreneurs find it difficult to shake off the feeling that they are selling a product. But in the case of books, consumer electronics and branded clothing you are definitely not selling a product. But what? Feeling, benefit from cooperation with you, emotions, prompt delivery from any order amount and so on. Books are the most standardized commodity. You now have to go out of your way to prove to the consumer that you are better than your competitor! How can you prove it? A whole arsenal of ways!

Let's think about it.

1. What does your website say? Ease of ordering (literally in two clicks) is the most powerful marketing tool, but it is not enough. The client has more expectations. The first thing that comes to the mind of a client when he chooses which bookstore to order from is the price. Discounts, bonuses, gifts... That's what should be offered to the client to keep attention to the product.

2. Shipping is the whole e-commerce business. And hardly anyone would argue otherwise. When selling standardized goods, delivery times are almost the only way get a client. Do you have only one point of delivery of goods and you cannot promptly deliver to other cities and regions? Take advantage of it! You can use your local location to set up a great same day delivery system in any one city. And do not use the mail service. Courier instant delivery of goods on the same day when the order was placed is almost the only way to get a client in the super competitive niche of the book business. This is not easy to do, but you knew what competitors you would have to deal with in this market, right?

3. Create your own book club. The Reading Club is a great idea for a small project. Considering that your competitors are still busy analyzing errors when using contextual advertising, updating client databases and compiling new commercial offers customers, they do not have time for any offline activities. Well, you should have it. Organizing a local book club could be a good solution for a small online bookstore.

4. Organization of events, sponsorship and events. It is not necessary to organize events that are somehow directly related to the topic of reading or books. You can organize just cultural or charity events, and there are books on the topic. Sponsoring even small events can be a great way to make yourself known.

5. Cooperation with restaurants, hotels, cafes. A cup of tea or coffee with a book has long been a favorite pastime for tired and comfort-hungry townspeople. You can use this normal human desire for relaxation in collusion with some institutions and conduct a joint experiment. Today it is also possible to cooperate with some creative spaces, organize events, libraries, readings and so on with them.

6. Electronic bookcrossing. The well-known book exchange can also be organized using the Internet, and PR from the action will benefit you.

Summing up everything that has been said, we can conclude that standard methods of promotion in highly competitive niches with the same products work very poorly. If you are not a giant of the market and you have very little chance of becoming one, then your only path in marketing is guerrilla warfare and creativity. It depends only on your ingenuity and ability to come up with projects how much you can increase the turnover of the company. In markets where there are leaders, it is both difficult and easy to make money at the same time. It is easy because small companies remain flexible, they are local, they are more daring and creative. And they need to take risks to survive.