A Week is a long time

Did you have a good week? I hope you did, in fact I hope yours was as good as mine, because for me it was extraordinary! I have written a novel and learned this week that it is to be published. Now don't get me wrong, I don't see myself as a latter day Jeffrey Archer or a rival to Bernard Cornwell but I bet they would know the feeling of being told that their first book was to be published. They must have felt the same rush of excitement as I did at the news that an editor liked the work enough to publish it. The feeling was quickly followed by thoughts of how many people would read it, if any, and how the publisher would set about marketing the title. It's an area in which I have never before been involved. I have no knowledge of the book market nor, to be frank, have I ever given the matter any thought. I have now!

My interest was heightened still further by questions from the publisher such as: Are any of the characters drawn from life? What sort of reader did you have in mind when you wrote the story? Did any of situations in the book actually happen? Is the whole work one of pure fiction? Well the questions were easy enough to answer. The book was all pure fiction, none of it actually happened, everything was a figment of my imagination and I wrote it because I wanted to, not to satisfy a perceived market or reader. I had some questions of my own: Did J K Rowling think of such things when she wrote about Harry Potter? or did she open up a whole new area of readership? Like the Beatles did with music. Where will the product of my imagination fit into the scene I wonder? What sort of comments could I make that might help in the marketing mix?

I read a lot, of course, books of all sorts of genres but it's never really occurred to me to seriously consider whether or not a book I enjoyed reading was written because someone knew that people like me were interested in a particular subject, or simply because an author felt the urge to write something and I and others like me found the content interesting, stimulating or informative. And did the title, or the cover design and it's colours have any influence over my choice of a particular title when the author's name was unknown to me? It's said that you can't judge a book by it's cover but I am not so sure about that. First impressions count and you only get one of them! As I say, I have never before even thought about such things but now since it concerns me so closely I am very much interested in the subject.

I think I have mentioned before that I retired from the marketing scene many years ago. That hasn't in any way diminished my interest in the subject. I still read the trade press and see many of the names I was involved with all those years ago still doing what they always did. Accounts moving from one agency to another, buying shops vying with one another for attention and comments by industry spokesmen still fill the pages, so my mind is still marketing orientated. I directed my thoughts towards the future and asked myself the question; how does a publisher set about marketing not just a new title but a new author too?

I've been involved in many different markets over the years, I've seen and been part of the research, creation and implementation of a myriad of marketing programmes and strategies, in a variety of product categories. All presented different and often complex problems; all required different market assessments, approaches, and of course budgets, some of which needed to be very big, some not so. All required an X factor to make them successful and there was always a degree of relativity between them. Generally speaking they were 'consumer use' orientated and designed to meet or sometimes even create a definite physical purpose or need rather than address an artistic inclination. I suppose the nearest I ever came to such a scenario was when a major film was being launched. Then at times it became difficult to distinguish the difference between PR and Advertisements.

With books it's rather different. The book itself is easily transportable, whatever the shape or size it has a unique beauty, a tactile feel that somehow creates a link between reader and writer. It has the ability to transport minds to other worlds, open up new dimensions of thought. It can educate, create feelings, emotions and a lasting empathy with the characters that no other medium can match. It can make you laugh or feel sad, it will always inform and entertain. You can re-read and re-experience the content time and again. I have books that I have had for many years and have read several times. Just to curl up on a comfy sofa or in a warm bed on a cold night, or stretch out in the sunshine beside a pool or on the beach on holiday and read a good book is, and always has been, very special and a very personal choice.

The range of content and the styles of production of books available in the shops and elsewhere is breathtaking and is evidence of a continued and profound appreciation of their value. Cost versus perceived value is of course a factor in these difficult times but even now the content is by far the most important factor and certainly seems to resonate to the old salesmen's maxim that "If you create sufficient desire, price will become unimportant." But how do you create such levels of desire? I am about to find out and I can't wait to become involved in the action. This Marketing Dinosaur is about to discover a whole new set of skills.