Facing Out Titles: Is It About the Reader?
Tags: book marketing, books, readers
A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about how Borders was going to increase the number of titles they shelve face-out, as to further entice buyers to a wider variety of titles. This article resulted in several very strong letters in protest.
For example, Scott Ehrig-Burgess wrote:
We treat books like books, rather than breakfast cereal, by hiring and retaining great booksellers who take reading seriously and who are passionate about building relationships with our wonderful customers who are great readers themselves. Until Borders realizes that great books begin in the hands of great booksellers and great readers, not in boardrooms and concept stores, we will continue to thrive at the cutting edge of our industry, with this simple, insurmountable, competitive advantage.
Mr. Ehrig-Burges’s letter has lots of valuable things to say that I agree with. I, too, am disdainful of the fact it’s boardrooms and concepts that may drive the sales of certain books titles and not others, and of how certain co-op programs and bookstores favor large publishers and unfairly punishes smaller ones. I value an independent bookstore over a big-box giant and a knowledgeable, helpful bookseller is a priceless commodity.
But when it comes to the average reader, buying an average book, the liklihood they are going to Borders and not that quirky bookshop downtown is pretty high. I doubt the book-buying population that drives the publishing industry are those who consider themselves “great” readers who read “great” books. While I am taking the term “great” in the most pessimistic light possible, there exists an undeniable pretension in some aspects of publishing that can’t be ignored.
Therefore, claiming that the publishing industry is built on “great booksellers” and “great readers” is the same pretentious attitude that scares a lot of people off of reading. Shouldn’t booksellers care more about getting more people to read more books than caring about what attracts people to certain titles?
Putting the issues of corporate culture and the struggling publishing industry aside (and Borders’ own problems!), if a reader buys a book because the cover is pretty, we shouldn’t scorn them for it. We should just be glad that person is reading.
Image by Austin Tolin. Licensed via Creative Commons.
Interesting article Erin! I think the cover is vital to marketing a book — design of the book cover is usually underrated — but I should also note that it alone doesn’t sell the book. Especially when someone can always make a return.
More important than bestsellers and “great” books is the push towards getting the RIGHT book into the hands of the RIGHT reader. And when I talk about RIGHT reader, I am referring to both book lovers and those who don’t read. Amazon’s customer-oriented approach makes them very effective in that aspect. Not perfect of course.
So forget the so-called great books and bestsellers, I figure if we focus on making better books and getting them to the right readers, we can make a genuinely better book industry
totally agree ehren! I want to make better books.
and then find people to actually read them…lol!
haha … I think it’ll be interesting to hear what people define as a “better book”.
so true!!
maybe a future blog post topic…:)
[…] about getting the right book to the right reader. Fellow blogger Erin Balser points out that she values the helpful bookseller and the independent bookstore over the big-box giants. Amazon is also a prime example of how helpful bookselling ultimately […]