When I chose Avon as the publisher I would track, I had no initial expectations because, before this assignment, I had never given much thought to what publishers actually do on a weekly basis, other than acquiring manuscripts and publishing books. And that was the most exciting part about this endeavor, I would actually get a more clear idea of how a publishing company operates on a daily basis, how they interact and connect with their customers, and what strides they are making in the publishing industry. However, after much thought, I came up the the following list of things I would track on Avon throughout the semester.
Things to be tracked
· Social Media usage
· News
· Sales/Marketing trends
· Avon IMPULSE – the Avon’s digital imprint
Significant Events
MarketingSocial media is the main marketing tool of Avon, particularly Facebook and Twitter. Avon's Facebook wall and Twitter feeds are constantly aflutter with the release dates of titles, the endorsements of blogs that endorse Avon, such as Smart B*tches, Trashy Books, prizes, sweepstakes, sales, and giveaways. Perhaps the most significant marketing campaign came in the form of free book chapters for fan likes on Facebook. As discussed in Their eyes met across the crowed market place..., for every goal that is met, as far as the amount of fans that like the Avon Facebook page, a new chapter of a book is released for free to the fans of the page. This struck me as very ingenious because, not only are they attracting potential customers, they are also broadening their audience. With such a broad audience, Avon takes advantage of its large fan base implementing a new program: DNA = Discover New Authors. As explained in It's written in our DNA , Avon's new program aims to help readers Discover New Authors and to help new authors get discovered by readers.
Giveaways
All semester long, giveaways have proven to be a tried and true way to keep fans coming back for more and attracting new fans. Here are two of the most buzzed about and extremely successful giveaways that Avon has had, taken from With you, everyday is Christmas!:
Beginning November 3, 2011:
Writing Contest
Avon very rarely does writing contests but when they did two months ago, they really gave the winner something worth winning:
"CONGRATULATIONS TO DARLENE PANZERA! Her novella, 'The Bet' won Avon, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers' writing contest, and will be published in July 2012, as part of Debbie Macomber's FAMILY AFFAIR!
Awards
With so many exceptional writers on their roster, it's no surprise that Avon had an eventful awards season. Here a few of the awards that Avon's authors have received thus far:
Library Journal, Best Books 2011: Romance: Silk is For Seduction by Loretta Chase, When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James, and Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
Perhaps the most significant trend the I have observed over the course of this project is that Avon does 95% of its marketing is done through social media. Everything you need to know about the latest titles, deals, and new authors can all be found on Avon's website and Facebook page. Because of this one-stop-shop mentality, you are never more than one click away from find out what's new with authors, titles, contests, giveaways, and deals. Take Avon's Facebook page for example, even if you're not a fan or Facebook user, you can still check out their EBook Deals! section, which has deals ranging from $.99 t $4.99. The other 5% of marketing comes in the form of Avon's newsletter From the Heart, which is a standard news letter that features new titles and information about the authors.
Comparison
While tracking Avon, I got curious as to what other romance publishers were doing to keep up with the digital times, and for the most part, other romance publishers such as Harlequin, Brava, and Berkley Sensation all have books available in e-book formatting and makes links for purchasing available at their respective websites but that's where the similarities to what Avon is doing ends. Upon further investigation of these other romance publishing websites, it was quite obvious that they are not putting forth as much effort as Avon is as far as social media networking, marketing, and advertising is concerned. With the exception of Harlequin, these other romance imprints do not even have a Facebook page. Similarly, even though Harlequin has a Facebook page, the page isn't nearly as aflutter with interaction between the publisher and the readers as far as contests, prizes, giveaways, and deals are concerned. Over the course of this project, it has become apparent that these other romance imprints need to make more of an effort to connect with their readers through social medias because, not only does it provide a valuable source of customer-publisher networking, Facebook is a vast source of free marketing and advertising.
Prospects
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