Return to flip book view

Book Discoverability & Sales Trends Autumn 2024PART 4

Supadu insights and trends collected from our customer data and the wider ebook publishing industryThe landscape of book publishing is constantly evolving; driven by technology, reader preferences and social media. It is essential that publishers take both the current and the emerging industry trends on board, to ensure broader access to their books. By staying up to date with the latest developments, embracing new opportunities, as well as using readily available digital tools to engage readers directly, publishers can simply make small changes to make fruitful gains and workflow improvements. We’ve broken our report into five easy to read parts.2Genre Specific MarketingCart Abandonment Social Media MattersFrontlist vs Backlist TitlesMultiple Formats, Keywords & Metadata0102030405

PART 4Frontlist vs Backlist titles

How to balance Frontlist and Backlist focus?Backlist titles can also be used successfully to engage your online D2C community by adding value as a promotional tool - for example, a backlist title added to a bundle or being heavily discounted to encourage multiple purchases. Backlist leverage can enhance a publisher's visibility and brand, building and maintaining strong relationships with authors, influencing and reflecting current industry trends and attracting customers to retailers. Traditionally, backlist titles are not the primary focus of marketing efforts however they still hold importance to publishers. This is because they provide a steady stream of income over time, contribute to a stable and diverse inventory, include classics and award winners, and benefit from the success of author’s new releases to enhance the overall strength of a publisher’s catalogue. An effective D2C eCommerce platform along with a strong digital marketing informed through your sales and marketing data can keep your backlist thriving. New frontlist titles generate buzz and immediate revenue, while backlist titles provide a steady income stream and long-term value. Together, they ensure a balanced and sustainable business model in the competitive publishing industry.SOURCE: We need to talk about the blacklist4

Enhancing backlist titlesWith backlist titles being evidently useful for numerous reasons, it’s important to know how you can monetise your backlist.We have used Flywheel as a case study to show how you can use different platforms to gather information on how exactly you can utilize your backlist titles. Primary genre of 2023The idea behind Flywheel is to schedule product information enhancements at the most opportune moments, utilizing metadata changes that are designed to impact the exposure and conversion rate of each title.This ultimately alters its overall sales trajectory, specifically on Amazon.5

Flywheel Client AFlywheel Client BClient A’s sales history over the previous 3 years revealed that the projected trajectory of their selected backlist titles would result in a sales drop of 13% compared to 2021 sales without any intervention. With Flywheel’s extensive enhancements in 2022, a new improved sales drop of only 6.6% was observed, meaning Flywheel initiated a change in trajectory and helped heal the aging process of their backlist!For Client B, Flywheel worked on 251 hardcover and paperback titles from their backlist, all of which had ZERO keywords. The results were incredibly successful! Nearly 50% of the titles we enhanced either met or BEAT the initial sales predictions.CASE STUDY CASE STUDY6

Print on demand for backlist titlesTackling stock for backlist titlesCASE STUDYSustainable, with no wastage, print on demand and short run printing enables low inventory levels, 48 hour printing and doorstep delivery providing the perfect solution for many titles where demand levels are hard to predict. This is especially useful for backlist titles, where publishers don’t want to keep stock that possibly won’t sell. The future of print on demand is promising, according to the imarc Print on Demand market report, 2024-2032 will see a CAGR of 22.7% and value at $48.4 billionIs print on demand worth it?SOURCE: The profitability of print on demandSOURCE: Print on demand with Books International7

Backlist Book BundlingBook bundles are a very successful strategy for marketing your backlist or titles from less well-known authors. Offering book bundles on specific subjects such as history or self help you can include titles that do not usually get a lot of limelight on your website. Bundling books under specific subjects ensures that you are not combining books that are not obviously related in genre, writing style or category. Bundling print and digital titles is becoming an increasingly popular strategy amongst publishers. Allowing readers access to reading material on buys weekdays and slower weekends. SOURCE: Why does book bundling matter?An opportunity to appeal to different demographics !8

Websites, eCommerce and creative digital marketing solutions for trade & academic publishers, and university pressesContact sarah.arbuthnot@supadu.com for more info