About D2C
Readers can usually tell you about the books they’re reading, the authors of those books and the bookshops or libraries from which they obtained the books. But if you ask them: ”Who is the publisher?” you’ll probably get a blank stare. There has, traditionally, been no direct link, no relationship, between publishers and readers.
All this is changing, for several reasons. Foremost among them is the need to create new revenue streams (with the decline in print book sales and the trend towards selling eBooks at heavy discounts) and the opportunities that the Internet has opened up for publishers to experiment with new revenue streams.
It has taken the search for new revenue streams, the arrival of the eBook and the desire to be less reliant on major online booksellers to encourage publishers to consider D2C. Added encouragement comes from the US, where a survey (Aptara, December 2010) showed that US publishers’ D2C websites accounted, on average, for 38% of those publishers’ sales revenue.
What does D2C involve?
1. Building a website with full eCommerce facilities: Involves working with website developers specialising in book publishing to build a secure, flexible site where a publisher can upload, categorise and price titles, offer discounts, organise promotions and marketing, sell titles online (print and electronic) with automated fulfilment and distribution links, and monitor sales. Site features should include content-rich, front-end pages, a simple purchasing system, and easily managed back-end administration facilities.
2. Building a strong relationship with readers: Needs imagination and a real desire to engage with readers. It involves, inter alia, creating community areas where readers can interact with each other, authors and the publisher; using data from these areas to shape promotions, marketing and ideas for future titles; helping authors to create a following; and incorporating social media tools to attract new readers.
3. Building brand awareness: Depends largely on how well tasks 1 and 2 are done. It can be deemed successful when the question: “Who was the publisher?” no longer elicits a blank stare!