Advertising
expenditures have gone up every year from the prior year seemingly forever, at
least in each year of the 21st century except for 2009, when the
Great Recession fully took hold. Digital
has led the way in terms of growth for the advertising industry. But projections show that print is in
trouble. Maybe books should start
allowing for advertising.
At
present here’s how ad money is spent in the U.S. out of $552 billion projected
to be spent in 2017, the breakdown by medium shows that:
40.4%
of ad money is in television
33.3%
digital
9%
newspapers
6.9%
magazines
5.8%
outdoor (like billboards)
4.3%
radio
It’s
time that books embrace advertising. You
could do it in so many tasteful ways:
1.
Limit
it to three advertisements per book.
2.
Have
a single sponsor for the book.
3.
Allow
consumers book price discounts if they agree to receive emailed ads from a
select advertiser.
4.
Insert
an advertising card/flier into a book\
5.
Put
ads only in between chapters, the back of the book or the very front.
There’s
something refreshing about books being ad-free, but if authors and publishers
increase their profitability and thus visibility via advertising, so be
it. As long as the ads don’t harm the
content or conflict in any way, what’s the big deal?
If
book publishing took in 1% of all ad revenue, that would be over five and a
half billion dollars! If it took a tenth of that or one one-thousandth of the
ad pie – the windfall would be 550 million bucks each year. That could bankroll plenty of writers.
Advertising
and sponsors exist at publishing events, conferences, and seminars so why not
in the books themselves. Book media,
such as PW, NYT, and Huffington Post receive ad revenue for
writing about books, so why not have the book industry earn some money too?
Or
are there dangers and deficits associated with advertising? For instance, what if an advertiser got
involved in scandals? Does the book feel
dirtied by say having a Wells Fargo ad in it?
What
about politically sensitive issues or people – can ads by the NRA, Donald
Trump, or Marlboro run in a book in good conscience? Can authors separate themselves from any
conflict of interest issues when it comes to having advertisers and financial
backers?
Will
readers start to judge a book by its advertisers? Would some not buy a novel by one who has ads
against Planned Parenthood in it? Would
that same reader purposely buy a book for having other types of ads?
Some
book publishers are owned by multi-media conglomerates, so it surprises me that
a publisher like Harper Collins, with connections to Fox-TV and The Wall Street Journal
and the New York Post, doesn’t run
ads in select book titles. But maybe the
cost associated with getting and running ads – or the problems I just mentioned
–outweigh the rewards of opening this additional revenue stream.
It’s
hard to believe in a society where ads are all over the place, where few
marketing opportunities are missed, that a big industry such as book
publishing has missed the boat.
Maybe I should be thankful, but it is something that some entrepreneurial writers and publishers should strongly consider experimenting with.
Maybe I should be thankful, but it is something that some entrepreneurial writers and publishers should strongly consider experimenting with.
On
Writing
“The
written word preserves what otherwise might be lost among the impressions that
inundate our lives. Thoughts, insights, and perceptions constantly threaten to
leave us before we have the opportunity to grasp their meaning. Writing can
keep technology-driven, fast-paced, quick-fix, ambiguity-intolerant modern life
from overpowering us— and give us something palpable upon which to reflect.
Reflection slows matters down. It analyzes what was previously unexamined, and
opens doors to different interpretations of what was there all along. Writing,
by encouraging reflection, intensifies life.” -- Helena Hjalmarsson
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