By Paul Zakrzewski Publishers could do a better job of getting their products into the hands of consumers. Sponsored by online and print magazine Inside and Publishers Weekly, Monday's summit also gave 275 industry insiders a chance to understand how new multimedia ventures, such as audio books, e-books and the Internet, both help and hinder business. Faced with the fact that the average American watches 30 hours of television, but reads less than one hour each week, the competition for the reader's attention becomes even fiercer. In other words, by spending time on-line with fan clubs and chat rooms, editors can learn how to anticipate the audience for specific projects. Wolf also encouraged publishers to create multimedia projects based on books.
Products have to really exist in many formats to be successful.
The trick to improving book marketing is to turn customers into friends through permission marketing, said Godin. Marketers must find innovative ways like e-mail reminders to keep track of consumers who've already shown an interest in a product. Then there's Godin's own personal example. By contacting previous customers and letting them get the word out to each other. The power of the Internet to spread virally is exponential.