Let me do my job quickly and direct you to this interview that Avon Editor May Chen and VP/Executive Editor Lucia Macro recently did at All About Romance. It is quite insightful. I especially loved this part:
May Chen: In my opinion, the online world still doesn’t have much impact on sales as, anecdotally, I’ve seen books get horrible online reviews but have done well. As far as I know, we still don’t include online reviews on our books, but that can certainly change if we see them start making a difference. Right now, the best endorsements for us still seem to be from NYT bestselling authors and from major traditional print reviewers.
Lucia Macro: Do the consumers recognize the source of the quote? I’m not sure that the vast majority of readers recognize all the online sites. When checking their rankings I’m often surprised at how little traffic they really get. We are all very plugged in, but many casual readers are just picking up a book at their local Walmart and barely have time to watch tv, much less wrestle the computer away from their kids. So an author quote might carry more weight with them.
I actually own an iPhone and prefer ebooks to paper but YMMV.
But as SarahT concluded:
I’m delighted Avon feel comfortable in perpetuating their outdated marketing strategies. Given HarperCollins widely reported losses and layoffs this year, it’s obviously working out for them.
Yes, why fix what isn’t broken?
Update: must attribute this link discovery to @jane_l from DearAuthor. I left my comment at the AAR site.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m repeating what I said at Dear Author, but here goes:
The Avon interview is a PR disaster. Had they been more tactful in their replies, they could have said essentially the same thing but caused less offense.
Yes, I read PR @Avon response. It seems that there is a huge disconnect between Avon’s PR people and their editors.
Did you see that the head of PR at Avon, Pamela Jaffee, commented on Lynn’s blog piece? Sounds as though there’s a certain lack of communication between Avon editors and the PR department. Also, what’s with all the Anon Avon Author comments? Say who you are, please.
I think that Ms Chen needs to get her head out of the sand. It seems to be clogging up her thinking.
If I didn’t have internet access, I wouldn’t have a TBR pile the size of a small mountain. If I didn’t buy all of those books, those publishers would lose my revenue. I think this holds true for many many other book purchasers.
In looking through some of my books, I couldn’t find any with the Avon imprint. Maybe they should start catering to the online book community. But wait.….they said they were doing just fine, didn’t they!!