Marty Asks:
Why would anyone ever buy books directly from the publisher?… Do you think that book publishers can expect to see significant, ongoing growth in direct sales through their web sites? Does it matter?
To answer the first part: Right now, there is no compelling reason. As discussed, the stellar growth of Amazon clearly indicates that readers are just as comfortable clicking books into virtual shopping carts as they are pulling books off of actual shelves. Nobody’s bummed on buying books online, but what are the odds of publishers becoming viable competitors with Amazon?
In class, Marty mentioned that a publisher doing 5% of their business through direct sales (as in, purchased through the company’s website),would call its direct sales healthy; robust even. And as we’ve gone over, again and again, readers (even publishing students) don’t care about publishers. We look for new reads based on content, reviews, bestseller lists, recommendations, and only very rarely imprints.
Take Ooligan, for example. Let’s say that a reader for Deer Drink the Moon stumbles upon our website. She likes what she sees on the homepage, so she clicks through to the booklist. She finds a psychological thrillers, some historical fiction, some Croation translations, and the autobiography of a politician. In other words, barring a fantastic coincidence, she’ll find nothing she wants.
Now let’s say she goes to Amazon. After she types in the title and reads the customer reviews (well, in this case, review — we’ve gotta get on that), she’ll be prompted to check out a book of poetry by Mary Oliver; Swordbird, a similarly-genre’d read for 4-6 graders; and a John Steinback novel, Cannery Row. What the Steinback has to do with anything, I’m not sure, but these results are still a lot more likely to interest our reader.
And, of course, the book is at Ooligan’s site for $19.95 and Amazon’s for $14.99 (or $8.88, used). But let’s not dwell on that.
My point is that unless publishers publish in very specific niches, and a reader can expect a specific kind of product from them every time (like Harlequin, for example), there’s no reason for a reader to even visit their website, much less purchase from them. The McSweeney’s of the world should keep on focusing on readers, and, if bookstores disappear entirely, expect rising direct sales. Ooligan, unless we reform our list, probably should do neither.
