Publishers Slowly But Surely Starting To Use Web 2.0
It may have been a little slow on the uptake, but the book industry is finally embracing Web 2.0. Mills and Boon lauched their own social networking site last week, bringing together the authors of romantic fiction and their fans. While Mills and Boon books are generally associated with older readers (something your gran might read, although you wish she wouldn’t), the romantic romps full of raven hair and throbbing members are seeing a surge in popularity among 25-30 year olds, and the publisher is probably seeking to attract more of that market.
The company is by no means struggling – one Mills and Boon novel is sold every three seconds in the UK – but the group have recognised the potential of a community site for growth, as they are already attracting considerable numbers to their website – more than 180,000 visitors last month.
Members of the community can create their own profiles, blogs and book reviews, discuss hot topics in the forums, and get hints and tips on writing their own steamy novel. A readers’ community is not an original idea in itself – sites such as Completely Novel work in a similar vein to bring readers and writers together, while LibraryThing is a vast online book club – but this is the first from a publisher, for such a specific audience.
Still, Mills and Boon are not alone in their efforts to embrace the social networking audiences. The last couple of weeks have seen a huge number of book publishers join Twitter in an effort to increase their digital presence. As far back as 2001, the Digital Media Association was warning publishers that the only way to stay competitive was to satisfy consumers by offering convenience – now Twitter has provided the ailing book industry with the tool to do just that. From Penguin Books to The Good Pub Guide, publishers have begun posting regular updates and gathering followers, creating a dialogue with their readers, which, in time, will allow them to better judge what those readers want.
Elizabeth Dare, from Edbury Publishers, believes that “the growth potential is huge. We can communicate immediately when things happen, and can respond fast when people get in touch. It’s good for a publishing company to have direct contact with readers.” Edbury is one publisher that has benefitted by using Twitter creatively: publishing a poem written exclusively for Twitter by Ben Okri, posted as a line a day for ten days. The move immediately attracted 450 followers.
It may be that poems and novels will increasingly be distributed in this bite-sized manner, with readers keeping up with the story as they would a television drama – as each new instalment is broadcast. The Japanese are crazy for the mobile-phone novel, while The Telegraph have just finished publishing one such digital instalment story: Corduroy Mansions, the first online novel by Alexander McCall Smith. Running from December last year and completed this February, the Telegraph published one short chapter each weekday, and invited readers to contribute ideas as the story unfolded, which the author then tried to incorporate into the story where he could.
The key, it seems, is to make readers feel like they are part of something immediate; publishers and authors are increasingly using social networking to keep their readers close. But while they seem to be understanding Web 2.0 on the marketing side of things, lets hope they manage to licence their content to the next generation of smartphones and e-readers – only then can they be truly said to have joined the 21st century.
Posted by Ruth Stokes in Creative Economy | April 20, 2009 12:52PM |