02/07/06
Snowbooks on brand
On the same thread as the Charkin discussions, Emma Snow of Snowbooks [a new publishing house which lots of people are very excited about, and which jointly won a Nibbie for I think small publisher of the year] made the following comments to my original comment, which you can read here.
I disagree. I don’t believe readers really care whether a crime thriller, for example, is published by Pan, Snowbooks or whoever - I think they care about the story, the genre and the author. Publisher branding, to my mind, should be focused on the retailer for whom values like service, production quality and attitude are important. Crucially, if readers browse a single publisher’s catalogue they are missing out on choice; choice which can only be provided by a well-thought-through range created by a retailer from the best of many publishers’ lists, large and small. Also, competition for market share keeps retailers incentivised to offer their best prices. Disintermediation is a nice idea if you’re a margin-hungry publisher but not if you’re a reader interested in discovering a varied and rewarding choice of books, and I’d go for the reader-friendly route every time.
I replied,
Hi Emma - some really interesting comments but I think you have a polarised view of ‘brand’ and also underplay readers’ abilities to differentiate between publishers and choose how to make a purchase.
I’m not saying that publishers necessarily need to aim to create ‘brands’ for themselves with consumers. Sometimes, when you have a unique proposition which is recognised and valued by readers, say Serpent’s Tail, Canongate, Profile, Picador even - this can happen, but by accident (i.e. via editorial acquisitions which articulate a unique outlook) rather than grand design. Which is what an imprint is all about.
In terms of with the trade, then yes, ‘brand’ values also make sense, but I think you do need to acknowledge that these values (production, attitude, service) are recognised and valued by the consumer as well as the trade, albeit for potentially different reasons.
However, I think that you are missing a trick to not recognise the ‘niche’ and the fact that readers may find fit and value in that niche. By this I mean that you have an opportunity to build relationships with Snowbooks readers via your web site as well as via the books you publish, and to encourage them to trust in you as a brand. This could extend to encourage them to try out titles you publish which may not even get stocked in the shops - by virtue of them being published along side your other titles which have taken their attention.
I disagree that consumers can’t/don’t pick and choose when it comes to titles and need a bookseller to always do that curation for them. I would also argue that some lists, reprint lists (say Persephone) do this curation in a valuable, agnostic way that actually contradicts your argument? What we’re seeing across a number of industries is smart consumers finding out what they want to buy (recommendations, reviews, etc) and then shopping around to get it from the retailer that most appeals to them. Why should publishing be different?
Clearly, publishers need to have web sites to fulfil basic (mainly trade although this should be changing) functions. My point is that readers who take the effort to go to a publisher’s site should be welcomed and treated as valued and rare visitors rather than idiots. So, discount your titles (if discounting is what everyone else is doing) make them feel special, and rewarded for having taken the time - and the initiative - to realise that ‘Snow Books’ may be worth a visit and give them a chance to root around in the backlist to see what you’re about.
In terms of disintermediation. I’m not saying replace the retailers, I’m saying that publishers already have a channel selling books to readers through their websites, but that doing that at full price and with high barriers (compared to amazon at 50% and one-click) is not reader friendly. It even comes across as the oposite and greedy. However, rewarding those visitors who do come with a better offer (on price or whatever) *is* reader friendly. And that’s precisely what they’re not doing - there is no ‘competition for market share’ for a publisher selling a book at full price plus P&P when it’s available for half that on every high street. Maybe publishers are too scared of the retailers but I don’t think this is why they don’t discount on their own sites (many do).
Anyway, delighted to engage with you on this and also thrilled to see someone with your credentials come into publishing and hopefully create some new models to shake up the industry. Cheers!
Peter Collingridge
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# Comment by Emma Barnes @ 8:57 pm, July 2, 2006:
Hiya
Thanks for posting this and for your excellent ripostes. I do think that the issue of branding is more complex that we can each cover in blog entries, but here are my initial thoughts.
Firstly, I agree that publisher brands can matter to readers; I just don’t think they should be manipulated or engineered. The brand identity we try to create for retailers can be quite rationally and openly worked on because it’s a b2b relationship for which we have a set of principles and targets that, if achieved, will leave us confident that our retail customers consider us a strong supplier. There are vested interests on both sides to make the relationship mutually productive and cover various target areas, on a spectrum of tangibility (if that’s a word) from supply chain standards (like availability and delivery timing measures) to the more ephemeral (cover design, editorial quality, style and attitude).
However, if we had any sort of manifesto to lay before readers, it would underestimate the ability of readers, as you quite rightly mention, to decide for themselves what’s important, what’s good, what’s worth reading and which companies are worth supporting. I would far rather forget about trying to create a Snowbooks reader brand and just focus on our core values of being proud of what we do and making ourselves happy. I’d hope that good things, over time, flow from just being nice people and wanting to do a good job.
I loathe the phenomenon I’ve seen time and again in large companies: the marketing team trying to trick their customers into believing a controlled, simplified message. How dumb do they think we are? Instead, we’ll concentrate on making ourselves proud: the beautiful, easy to navigate website, the author relationships, the great covers, the outstanding books will come because this is how we want to live. If people notice, it’s worth far more than if we’ve somehow tricked them into liking us.
Secondly, to address a small point you made, we don’t have any books we don’t aim to sell into retailers. The role of the publisher is to locate excellent writing and to package it in a way which enables it to reach readers. We use every means at our disposal (cover design, pr, marketing, sales, and promotions) to get the writing in front of readers – then it’s up to them to buy it if they like it. We would be failing in our sole purpose if we didn’t give our authors’ writing this chance.
It’s too hot to have this laptop on my legs any more but I would love to continue this chat! Thanks again for the great discussion – really enjoyable.