Case study

An industry transforming: the book industry.

The global book industry is undergoing major transformation, driven by innovations in the ways
that books are written, published, marketed and read. In 2003 over $1 billion of books were
purchased from Bookseller in Australia, with additional sales estimated at hundreds of millions
of dollars bought overseas suppliers. Over 10,000 new book titles are published in Australia
each year, and more than 100,000 English language titles are published overseas that are also
available for sale. Australian industry is closely linked to the Britain and USA: The largest
English language centres of publishing in the world.
The first wave of change came in the early 2000s when the internet made it possible for
readers to order books online conveniently and cheaply. Previously, along with traditional bricks
and mortar shops, mail-order book clubs such as ‘The Book of the Month’ club in the USA were
a prominent feature of book sales. Then, readers subscribed to a service where a panel of
experts chose books, which were mailed to subscribers’ homes for consideration. From the mid-
late 2000s, however, readers could go online, find information about a vast array of books, read
reviews by other readers as well as professional reviewers, and order titles using their credit
cards.
The rapid uptake of e-book readers from the late 2000s changed the business of books again. It
took years of refinement before e-book readers such as the kindle, Sony’s Reader, and Barnes
and Noble’s Book were comfortable and convenient enough to gain reader acceptance, but
when they did large numbers of readers downloaded and read e-books, especially in popular
genres such as romance and crime. Advantages included that they were less expensive and
were easily disposed of when finished. Multiplatform readers such as iPads provided another
means of reading books. Figures are not easily available, but it is estimated that in the USA 23-
60 per cent of consumer book sales are for e-book platforms.
The evidence is not yet decisive, but the change to e-books doesn’t necessarily mean that book
readers are reading less. On the contrary, research in Australia and the USA suggests that
readers of e-books also read p-books (printed books) and spend more time reading overall. It’s
possible that the market for books will grow as a result of the greater convenience offered by
electronic reading formats, although there is strong competition from other leisure activities such
as browsing the internet and using Facebook and other social media sites.
Another development is that authors can now bypass a publisher and upload their books
electronically and offer it directly for sale to consumers in virtually any part of the world. For
centuries, aspiring writers have self-published memoirs, books of verse and novels, and sold or
given them to family and friends, but now – in theory, at least – they can offer their work to a
potential international marketplace. However, in practice, it’s very difficult to do this successfully.
The marketing challenge for self-publishing authors is to get a new title noticed by readers who
might like it – if only they knew about it.
Most self-published authors make very little money (one US study found that more than half
made less than US $500 per book) but some established, experienced authors are
experimenting in interesting ways. Steven Herrick, an Australian who is well known as an
award-winning writer of popular young adult verse novels, self-published an e-book called
Baguettes and Bicycle, a travel book about his love of France and his bicycle trips through it. He
did it to test its potential as a model and to attempt to attract new readers. It proved to be
successful, gaining him an audience well beyond his normal Australian base, particularly British
readers, for whom France is a popular holiday destination.
Other authors have become ‘authorpreneurs’, exploring entrepreneurial ways of marketing their
books. Hazel Edwards has written over 200 published books, from the bestselling There’s a
Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake series (which was recently translated into Chinese) to a
diverse range of genres including picture books, young adult fiction, adventure writing, how-to
books, adult nonfiction and classroom resources. When the rights for some of her books
become reverted (that is, the right came back into her ownership, due to publishing company
takeovers or mergers) she developed her own e-publishing platform. Part of this was due to a
desire to keep her books available, but an ancillary benefit is that personal publishing platform
also delivers more control and greater financial return per sale.
Some authors are expanding the imaginary world of their creations beyond the printed page to
virtual online settings. In the late 2000s, Isabelle Merlin, an Australian writer of young adult
romantic thrillers, created internet elements that are integral to the story’s plot such as a
character’s blog, a website on dreams, a brand page and video clips. The author created them,
but they ‘belong’ to the characters.
Another change is the line blurring between readers and authors. Initially, this was noticeable in
the popularity of online fan fiction. Readers create their own stories based on the characters and
settings of their favourite book and share them with others. For example, fans can invent
romances between two characters who weren’t a couple in a book or write lurid sex scenes that
were left to the imagination by the book’s author. E.L. James wrote fan fiction based on the
Twilight series that became the basis for her bestselling erotic book 50 shades of Grey. Harry
Potter fans have written hundreds of thousands of fan fiction stories that are posted online. Fans
can invent new stories and rewrite the ending to the series for each other. It’s sometime
disconcerting for authors to see characters and stories they created take out of their control into
wild, new fictional direction.
Social media is now an essential part of the mix of communication channels in most promotional
strategies. The marketing budget in publishing companies is increasingly used to participate in
fan sites and contribute to Twitter and Facebook conversations, as well as providing YouTube
videos of interviews with authors online quizzes and competitions. A YouTube clip called ‘Jeff
Kinney’s Cartoon Class’ by the author of Diary of a Wimpy kid was produced by Penguin kids
TV and received more than 270,000 views in 2012. Large publishers have released book apps
to enable the free preview of a chapter or to purchase references, cooking and entertainment
apps linked to particular titles.
On the financial side, some small, innovative publishers are experimenting with new models of
financing and profit-sharing with authors. Alison Green and her father, John Green, spent two
years researching the publishing industry before setting up Pantera Press in Sydney. Each
brings a strong business background to their venture (John Green is a former investment
banker with Macquarie Bank). They are pioneering new models by taking a long-term approach
that allows them to take risks on new, previously unpublished authors. Alison Green, the CEO,
said, “What the author puts in, under our model, is their great story. We cover the actual costs
and then split all profit 50/50.”
It is early days, but crowdfunding sites are helping authors to get modest funding to write their
books. Kick starter is well known, but there are many that offer platforms to seek funding for
webcomics, comic books, graphics novel and other works. Another form of crowdsourcing was
carried out by Fyokla Tolstaya, the great-great granddaughter of the celebrated Russian writer
of War and Peace and other classics, Leo Tolstoy. She made an appeal for volunteers to
proofread 48,800 pages of digital transcript of archival papers for the Leo Tolstoy State
Museum. Over 3000 Russians completed the painstaking task, and the archives were made
available online at no cost in 2013.
One complication in financing new books is that e-books have become established in the
market at much lower price points than printed books. It is possible that consumer willingness to
pay the recommended retail price for new books has decreased. Amazon has been a
controversial entrant to the industry in this regard: initially it sold e-books at prices lower than it
paid to publishers for the titles in order to encourage the uptake of Kindle e-book readers. This
was beneficial for consumers, who were able to buy and read books more cheaply, but it has
challenged retail price points in the industry.
With so much innovation taking place, no one can predict with confidence what the book
industry will be like in several years’ time. Storytelling has always been an integral part of
human culture, and the digital, networked environment opens new possibilities for the ways that
books are authored, financed, published, marketed, read and shared. Are you reading this case
study in a print book or an e-book? You are part of the next generation of book reader and the
industry want to know more about you.

Question

1. Using the consumer decision making process you have learned, analyse how a book
buyer would go about making his/her decision to buy a book in 2021
2. The global book industry is undergoing major transformation, driven by innovations in
the ways that books are written, published, marketed and read. One of the complications
in financing new books is that e-books have become established in the market at much
lower price points than printed books. It is possible that consumer willingness to pay the
listed retail price for new books has decreased.
Recently, Coles broke deals on printed books with a major publishing house at
significantly low price. Coles decided to open a book-shop section to sell books in their
supermarket chain stores at bargain prices. You have been hired as a “in-store strategy
specialist” to take care of their book-shop section business. Discuss the strategies you
will undertake to make it a success.
3. Whilst Coles was in the hiring process, amidst supermarket war, Woolworths has
already launched their book-shop section business and has hired you as a marketing
consultant. Yet, amongst Covid19 crisis, customers stubbornly touched the books on the
display shelves. Due to potential virus spread threat, this issue was brought to the
attention of media and the government. Woolworths has requested you to come up with
strategies to change customer attitudes to book buying behaviour and persuade them
not to touch books when browsing titles. What would you do?
4. “Australian industry is closely linked to the Britain and USA: The largest English
language centres of publishing in the world”.
You are a Chief Marketing Officer of a major publishing company in Australia. A
particular book you published became a number one seller in the country. One of your
managers comes to you and tells you “why don’t we sell this book in India where English
is spoken by 150 million people alone”? If the CMO considered selling this book in India,
what are the “invisible hands of culture” he/she needs to consider? Discuss your answer
with examples.
5. The more common generational cohorts are baby boomers, generation X, generation Y
and millennials. Assuming yourself as the marketing manager of a large publishing
house which publishes non-fiction self-help books, develop promotional strategies for
any two generational cohorts of your choice.