When I received the invitation to speak at the Publishing-Next conference, the timings couldn’t have been better. I was wrapping up content for two books (CrowdsourcingTweet , CopyRight and Left ) that I was working on and had already started thinking about promotional ideas.
Around the same time a few of my author friends who were cribbing that the book publishers were not promoting their books hard enough. I began to realize that no matter who publishes the book, it is in the authors’ own interest to make use of whatever technology is on hand to promote themselves and their book.
However, the emergence of social media, and the proliferation of channels that allow it, has created much confusion over how these various avenues can be used efficiently so that readers can be reached, their reading tastes deciphered and the appropriate book marketed to them.
While many publishing houses have devoted resources to social media marketing, there seems to be still no consensus on how to tackle this phenomenon. There is also little clarity on how these new avenues should be balanced with the old, or on how reader loyalty can be maintained. The panel session that I’m part of will try to find the answers to the lingering questions:
- Have the rules of book marketing changed with the advent of social media marketing?
- Has the book marketer’s job profile changed?
- Has social media marketing been hyped up a lot? Are there limitations to social media marketing?
- Have other, previously used marketing methods, lost their relevance?
- How do publishers manage multi-channel book selling?
- How has the proliferation of bookstores, in various formats, changed the equation?
I have an awesome set of fellow panelists moderated by Preeti Vyas, Publisher, FunOKplease.
The other panelists are:
Kinjal Shah, Currently the COO of Crossword Bookstores
Lipika Bhushan, Head of Marketing department, HarperCollins India.
Maegan Chadwick-Dobson, Social Media Strategist, Tara Books
Nikhil Pahwa, Editor and Publisher, MediaNama
I look forward to connecting with them much before our meeting in Goa. And yes, can’t wait to get to the ‘Pondicherry of the West’ 😉
Also, keenly look forward to meeting and getting to know other stalwarts in the publishing business. The speaker list looks seriously impressive.
This conference is organized by CinnamonTeal Publishing, who pioneered the business of providing publishing services to authors and trade publishers here in India. Located in Goa, they have, thus far, catered to customers in 18 countries and have published books of nearly all genres and in 9 languages. Last September, they were awarded the British Council-sponsored Young Creative Entrepreneur Publishing Award.
