Despite the pandemic, UK consumer sales for books increased by 7% from 2019! Bookshop closures could not stop our love for reading then, and now soaring book sales are expected to continue well into 2022. Books have always been a valuable escape in the darkest of times, and publishers should take advantage of these skyrocketing sales!
With book sales soaring in both digital and print forms, take the opportunity to re-evaluate the way you market to your readership, and the books you’re actually delivering to a wider audience. For publishers feeling adrift in this changing, evolving, ever-adapting climate, here’s how you can take advantage of soaring book sales, today.
Target independent bookstores
If anything the past two years of turmoil have shown us, it is that readers value a deeper relationship with the books they consume. Readers want to resonate with content, and feel a personal connection to the author or fandom in which a book resides. This is likely why a surge in independent, corner bookstores has also been seen in recent years. Consumers don’t want generic products anymore! As a publisher, take advantage of soaring book sales to connect with your local community: build relationships with local authors, and target independent bookstores for sale, building brand and author loyalty.
Multiple streams of revenue
Although audiobooks and eBooks are expected to hit a natural plateau in the coming years, publishers still need to prepare for a fragmented market. With a rise in digital forms of book consumption, publishers must be ready to handle the financial and operational toll marketing, managing and selling titles across an array of formats will take. Fortunately, there is a benefit to a fragmented market that publishers can take advantage of! The benefit lies in multiple streams of revenue. Sales will broaden, opening up access to a new customer demographic. With digitalisation comes an international focus to marketing, and so the entire world opens up to the new titles on your roster.
Film and TV adaptations
If there’s one way book titles gain traction and popularity, it’s when they are noticed by big-time producers such as Netflix or Amazon Prime. Soaring book sales mean double, even triple, the potential for novelists to see their work appear on the big screen. In fact, book adaptations attract up to 53% more in global box office revenue! Once people see the movie or show acted out, they are more likely to invest in the actual book themselves. Not only is this valuable profit for publishers, but much-needed exposure. If the opportunity for reputable adaptation arises, take the chance.
Stay ahead of the curve
Keep up with soaring book sales through the use of an automated binding machine. Binding solutions, such as those provided by Duplo International, can achieve a premium and long-lasting finish to books: mass-production doesn’t have to mean reduced quality. Customers are far more likely to maintain soaring book sales when the books they buy are of an upscale finish.
And there you have it – everything you need to know about how publishers can take advantage of soaring book sales.
