Saturday, March 23, 2013

Build A Pool, Sell A Book


I was sunning myself by the pool last week in Florida, taking a reprieve from a New York winter. As I looked up from a copy of The Sun-Sentinel, I noticed that several pool-slummers were reading books from their lounge chairs or by sitting at the pool’s edge with their bodies half submerged into the warm water. Nothing surprising there, but it occurs to me that perhaps if we build more pools there will be an increase in book sales.

People like to be lazy by the pool. After a few laps you either retire to your chair to snooze or read a book or check your phone. Most of one’s time spent by a pool does not involve actually being in the pool.

Does one choose the pool as a place to read or do they read because they are at a pool? We often read for pleasure and it seems we feel justified in the activity while being by water, whether a pool, a beach, a lake, or a harbor.

Could the strategy of publishers to sell books involve getting into building hotels and condos with pools? Will Simon Schuster suddenly buy up a bunch of timeshares? Could Harper Collins or Random House start building resorts to lure in more book enthusiasts?

Perhaps the idea sounds silly, but next time you are at the pool, look up from your book and count up the number of fellow readers. It may be enough to fill up a swimming pool.
Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2013 ©

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