Viral Marketing? Deliciously Dirty...

From the desk of Ms. Sally Spitfire

My dearest Suzy-kins,

I think that for once all of the warm wishes you and Auntie Mabel Sue Jean keep sending me have finally made it! Although the week began bitterly cold (below zero wind-chill after the sun went down!), by Friday the temperature took a turn for the better and began climbing all the way into the fifties. You should've seen how quickly and gladly we New Yorkers shed out Northface winter jackets and puffy eskimo gear. The first daffodils and t-shirts even began peeking up for a breath of fresh air. I know that it won't last, of course, but my, my is it delicious while it's here!

But enough about the weather. On to this week's publishing world tidbit...

One of the more immediate effects of economic crisis on my job (aside from no longer being provided with free bottled water in my office) has been the gradual disappearance of money in the budget for advertising. In the past, any truly healthy marketing plan had some sort of advertising--whether it was in the New York Times or in the School Library Journal e-newsletter. In fact, in my company we have a whole team that used to be known as the "ad-services" department whose main job it was to design and place ads in newspapers, magazines, journals, and online.

These days, however, the attitude towards advertising has changed considerably. First and foremost, in a world where publishers need to cut extraneous costs wherever possible, advertising is inevitably going to suffer. Ad placement in the more prestigous papers and magazines is incredibly expensive--tens of thousands of dollars for 1/4 or even 1/8 page ad.
Much of the time, authors are confused and unhappy with this change. However, the truth is that while advertising is out--online marketing is IN! and this change actually makes a good deal of sense.

Look at it this way: while publishers no longer seem to have the money to place as many ads in papers and magazines, a large number of Americans are gearing away from buying those same publications. It has escaped no one's notice that more and more people are spending their free time, doing their shopping, and even book browsing online. And so, where print and online advertising used to appear in marketing plans, now we are using phrases like "BLOG CAMPAIGN!", "PODCAST TOUR", "VIRAL MARKETING!!!"

Of course, internet marketing is by no means new. Any publishing company worth its salt has had a digital marketing team in place for a few years now. At different houses, there have been big pushes to major networks of websites for each house, imprint and book; to not get left behind in converting books to e-formats; to set up direct-to-consumer sales portals.

I apologize, Suzy dear, if some of these phrases I'm bantering around have confused you. Believe me--you are not the only one. A good deal of the publishing world is still confused by much of what is happening online and working hard to keep up to speed.

It seems to me that the publishing world is divided into three groups when it comes to understanding the new surge of internet trends: First there are the digital marketing teams and the young, tech-savvy employees who talk DRM (digital rights management) and HTML (a computer language) with the best of them. There are people like me who aren't experts, but have a pretty solid understanding of the important stuff, for example, the differences between blogs and podcasts and webinars and Skype and e-newsletters and list-servs and so on and so forth. And then--still wading through the mud--are those who are--intentionally or not--letting the digital wave pass them by--the ones who understand very little of what's going on in online and digital publishing, but have learned to nod very enthusiastically whenever the phrases "viral marketing" or "blog campaign" waft in their direction.

So, while the loss of advertising has certainly made some authors (and agents) unhappy, the smarter ones recognize that much of the action is now happening online and online is where the marketers need to be. Unfortunately, it's an ever-expanding universe and every month it seems that there is some whole new "incredibly, amazing thing" that needs to be understood, examined, and exploited in the name of selling books. Three years ago, it was blogs. Two years ago, it was podcasts. Last spring, it was facebook. And this week it is Twitter.

Oh Suzy! Have you yet learned about Twitter? I bemoan it's existance, but at the same time, I am starting to build it into my marketing plans... More on this next time, perhaps? I feel that I could manage a whole letter just about the new Twitter trend, the way that publishers are reacting, and who is "tweeting" these days...

I love and miss you and hope that all is well down in the sunny south. Ah!

Your lovin' cousin,

(Ms) Sally Spitfire

P.S. In honor of the warm weather, Antonio has brought some potted flowers into the office, saying that we need more flowers and beauty after all the drabness of winter. I couldn't agree more, but you never I've never had anything like a green thumb. Antonio, apparently, is fantastic with green things. You should see him singing Italian operettas while he waters those plants...