Introduction

When a child is capable of learning, what is the first thing we teach him or her? To read and write, isn’t it! Even all the holy texts in the world begin by emphasizing the importance of reading and acquiring knowledge. And how do readable materials reach us? Through the amazing industry called Publishing! From educational materials to trade journals, magazines and books we can see a whole variety of publications today. Starting from early 15th century, probably publishing has the longest history among all other forms of media. Well, you won’t continue to exist after six centuries if you aren’t amazing enough! But, as the case is for many other industries, surviving, rather thriving, is no piece of cake in the high demanding modern era. With the right marketing approach, you can save a lot of distress and take your publishing business to a grand new splendour.

Be just a swipe away – Apps

There is so much information available in the present era that you may go unnoticed if you cannot find an effortless solution to update all your fans, followers and prospects. Imagine a customer getting notified about your giant new book release through your official app. No matter where he is or what he is doing, the information arrives to him instead of him seeking for it. Now, what would you prefer? This, or the customer visiting your website two days after the launch of the book only to find that he has missed the event. Yeah, we know the answer! To stay afloat in the modern day competition, apps are a must have.

Pearson is one of the leading educational publishing company in the world. To go with their learning initiatives, they introduce apps that can be used as an additional tool for a better comprehension of their lessons. Take a look at their ‘My Grammar Lab’ app that goes with their course book of the same name. Using the app, you could select the type of grammar you want to learn and create your own tests. If you are a user of their book, the app also helps you find relevant information in the book to answer a question.

‘Hachette Book Group’ has numerous apps for their books, authors, and various other publications. Check out the diversity of features these apps provide. Some allow you to take on tests and quizzes to see how much you love your characters or book while some others give you a totally fresh version of a story world that you are familiar with. The app about author David Baldacci even lets you see real-life locations featured in the book!

Have a look at the ‘HarperCollins Unbound’ app by the famous publishing house HarperCollins. The app features multimedia and interactive content to explore more into specific topics. As you go through personal interviews, recorded readings and online interactions, you establish a closer connection with the author which is much more than the scope of print books!

Instant reading – Ebooks

Walking into a bookstore or waiting for the delivery after an online purchase is a tiring and time-consuming process. With ebooks, you can deliver your books instantaneously to the readers and they can start reading them without even leaving their chair. One major problem for all you bookaholics out there might be the lack of space to store all the wonderful collection you have. This is another scenario where ebooks become helpful. They don’t consume physical space and you can store as many books as you want, without disturbing an inch of your room!

Thriller writer Brad Thor’s ‘Use of Force’ is the 16th novel in the Scot Harvath series. Similar to his previous works, ‘Use of Force’ is also an action packed spy adventure that promises to be a page turner.

Mystery thriller ‘High Stakes’ by Fern Michaels centers around ‘The Sisterhood’ – a group of women united by friendship in their never ending quest for justice. Together with their men allies and an investigative reporter, they embark a journey to stop a criminal network that has befooled justice for too long.

Amy Silverstein’s ‘My Glory Was I Had Such Friends’ is a heartening memoir about the power of friendship and the strength of human spirit. The book tells the story of Amy’s nine incredible friends, who took a break from their career and family to be with Amy when she needed them the most – during her heart transplant surgery. Being there for the ones that we love can make all the difference in the world!

Stay newish – AR and VR

Though publishing is a very old industry, it doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t make use of the latest offerings to move ahead in the business. In fact, it lasted this long because of their ability to be flexible. One might think AR and VR are fancy technologies that is not relevant to the publishing industry. But wait until you see these examples!

‘Capstone’, the publisher of children’s media launched ‘Capstone 4D’, an app that brings Augmented Reality to its print books. “Origami Crafting 4D” is the first in its series that teaches students how to create origami cards, ornaments, decorations etc. The platform enables the reader to have a deeper and better understanding of the content they wish to access.

Martin King’s ‘Jack Hunter’ was the world’s first Augmented Reality book. The novel features a twelve-year-old boy who gets caught up in the middle of the robbery. What follows is a thrilling adventure amidst gangs, mobs, and spies. So, if you are not happy with just reading Jack’s adventures, you could experience it on your own! The book is available in hardback, paperback, and digital format and it also includes interactive games that encourage users to examine clues and solve puzzles.

Authors Robert Scoble and Shel Israel launched their new book “The Fourth Transformation: How Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything” in a social VR environment. More than 5000 people participated in the launch and Scoble and Shel discussed about technologies that make our today and influence our tomorrow.

The Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), launched world’s first virtual reality book as a part of the campaign to promote the eighth edition of Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival. Titled ‘Baba Zayed’, the book allows children to know more about the life of Emirati Federation Founder – Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. What better way to learn about their leader than being immersed in it!

Showcase your strength – Videos

You will be amazed what moving images can do to the marketing of your printed words! Words have phenomenal power. Printing them means bringing something to life that will be transferred across generations and decades. But, consider if you have to showcase the world why and how you are different. What will you go for? A long written article or a simple and engaging video? Yes, that’s why videos are a very important marketing tool!

Penguin Random House’s corporate video gives us a complete overview of their business. Quite often, the readers are unaware about the amount of work that goes into the making of a book. Anyone who has seen this video would appreciate the countless resources who worked behind the scenes, rather behind the cover! From editorial to design, production, marketing, sales and distribution, the video pans across the complete effort involved in creation of a book and we end up respecting the brand even more. That is what a good video can do!

Take a look at this video by Macmillan Education that was launched to announce their partnership with NILE – a leading provider of professional development courses. The video explains why Macmillan is unique as they showcase the lives they have changed. When people listen to others who have first hand experience with your brand, it goes a long way in establishing their trust and confidence. That is exactly what this video achieves.

This video from Harper Collins takes you through their vast history spanning more than two centuries. Isn’t it a great sight when some of the most renowned books and authors are flashed before you. If you see yourself tapping your feet or moving your head to catch up with the rhythm of the upbeat music, we wouldn’t complain! By the way, it just took one and a half minutes to take you through a period of 200 years. Do not judge a book by his cover and a video by its running time. Small can be big!

Also check out Mindy Kaling’s promotional video for her “Is everyone hanging out without me” and HarperCollins video as part of their Silver Jubilee in India.

Announce your arrival – Teasers and Trailers

Once meant only for movies and games, teasers and trailers have now spread their influence in the publishing arena too. Trailers can fuel your promotional activities and can also help in giving your readers the exact feel or genre of the book. Quite often, readers get a very tiny picture about tone or mood of a book before it launches. With the power of music and enhanced visuals, you could let the world know more about your upcoming book and thereby improve their interest.

Here is a trailer of ‘Fat Angie’ from the author E.E Charlton-Trujillo. See how clearly do you get to know the central characters and the world that they are in. Besides, after watching the trailer, you get a clear mental picture of how various characters look like and can leave it to your imagination how he or she would face a certain scenario. The author has given you a picture of the characters but the way each reader visualize them in different scenarios will be different. Isn’t trailers a boost to a reader’s imagination!

Also, check out similar trailers for the books ‘The Testing’ and ‘The Selection’.

Let them take the story forward – Interactive books

In a conventional scenario, a reader is an outsider to the story world. But we are no more conventional, are we? When you give your readers the chance to move a story forward based on their actions, it is altogether a different magic! This is where interactive books strike a chord. They can range from simple pop up and colouring books to advanced game and hidden objects and pictures book. It is no surprise that most of the interactive books are aimed towards children as they can be a wonderful guide towards the decision making the power of children. With the use of animated sound, music and effects these books make reading a much richer experience.

‘Press here’ by Herve Tullet, ‘Flora and Flamingo’ by Molly Idle and ‘Cat Secrets’ by Jef Czekaj are some of the finest examples for interactive books. ‘Press here’ urges readers to press the dots, shake or tilt the book to explore the surprises in store. As the book progresses the dots multiply, change movement and grow in size. Flora and Flamingo is a wordless picture book that explores the fun of an unusual friendship through interactive flaps while ‘Cat Secrets’ encourages you to pretend like Cats!

You can also check out iBooks for a wide collection of interactive books. (https://www.apple.com/in/ibooks/)

Let images and Design tell a story – Infographics

Reading is also about visualizing. So why not give your data the power of images and design! In the data-driven modern world, it is indeed quite a challenge to organize them. As you arrange them in a proper way that makes sense, there might be a story waiting to be told. But stating complicated data as plain texts will be quite an annoyance to the reader. This is why you need the help of infographics. Infographic search volumes are ever increasing and it is a great period now to cash in on its benefits. They give you a global coverage and shows you are an expert on the subject which helps in improving the brand awareness. You love to be viral and with a neat infographic, you are one step closer to that!

“The infographic history of the World” was published by ‘HarperCollins’ and it pulled off an amazing feat by narrating the 14 billion year history of Earth! Spanning more than 200 pages, the book covers topics ranging from global superpowers to the modern day art techniques.

The infographics from ‘Penguin’ Random House shows you the variety of choices they have despite the mood you are in. And this short infographic from ‘Pearson’ Education tells you the impact games have in educating children.

Show as you read – Video books

The modern era is so full of possibilities. So, it means there is always more you could do with what you have. For long, the process of reading followed only one route. The one where reader takes home the final printed version. But we know things are different now. There has never been a time like this where reading had the potential to deliver so many diverse experiences. Video books, where you can illustrate the story through voiceover and visuals is another remarkable journey towards an affluent and fulfilling reading experience.

Take a look at ‘Storytime Station and More’ youtube channel for some of the best video book examples.

Also, check out video depiction of Thomas Paine classic ‘Common Sense’ by ‘Mystic Books’ and Dr. Seuss’s ‘The Cat in the Hat’ by the youtube channel ‘Reading Pioneers’.

Show as you read – Video books

There are short clips and then there are gifs! They occupy very little storage space and more often than not, people end up watching it again and again. Since they are so short and precise, it has to carry an exciting element of your work so that people will watch it repeatedly. Gifts can be watched both online and offline and can be shared instantly.

Take a look at this amazing animated gif covers of ‘Teacher’s Pest’ by Charles Gilman, ‘Doctor Sleep’ by Stephen King and ‘The Three’ by Sarah Lotz.

This was an overview of the various marketing techniques to fuel the long run of your publishing business. If you would like to have a detailed discussion, kindly write to us at hello@pixelsutra.com. We will be delighted to help you.