The Ad Man Answers #63

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Thanks again to Marshall Karp for his Q&A last month.  The winner of a signed copy of Karp’s latest Lomax & Biggs’ mystery – “Flipping Out” – is Debbie (no last name posted).  If you haven’t been contacted yet, Debbie, please e-mail me your contact information at [email protected].

 

Next month, we’re featuring a two-part chat with Louise Ure, author of "Liars Anonymous" and “The Fault Tree.” 

 

But in the meantime, we’re lucky to be able to check in with Buzz, Ball & Hype’s patrona, MJ Rose, who weighs in during our Ex-Ad Guy/Gal interview series.

 

 

So – no pressure – when are we going to see the third book in the Reincarnationist series, MJ?

 

Yeah… no pressure.  It’s written though.  I’m still editing it, and think it will be out in March or April 2010.  My publisher is rescheduling it and the re-release of “The Reincarnationist” and “The Memorist” as we speak.  Something to do with something happening with some TV show and trying to coordinate it all.

 

For every ex-Ad Guy/Gal we interview for this column, we hear about two more authors that have agency/PR backgrounds.  As a former Ad Gal yourself, why do you think there's such cross-over?

 

My guess is that if you’re in advertising writing 30-second little stories (even if they involve products), you either wanted to write longer stories but had to make a living, or you start thinking about longer stories without those products after you’ve written… oh, about 300 little ones.

 

At least that’s what happened to me.

 

You've been doing book marketing for a long time... for your latest release, “The Memorist,” what layers of advertising did you employ?  How did your media mix break out by percentages?

 

Including the money the publisher put up, we did 40% in TV and 60% on internet advertising.  Of the internet stuff, 80% was consumer and 20% was trade.

 

Least you think it was a huge budget… it wasn’t.  The TV money was basically the same exact dollar amount they were going to put into one small USAToday ad that was going to run once, one day, to about 2 million people. Which meant about 150,000 people would actually notice it.  Which meant about 10,000 people might be interested in a book at all, or even be in a book store in the next two weeks.  And only about 25% of them might be interested in any one genre.  Which meant about 5 people might buy the book based on that ad.  Really.

 

Instead… we reached 2 million people, twice each, who were watching the History Channel.  And more specifically, watching shows about archaeology/ancient history.  Which meant about 250,000 people noticed the ad – all of whom would have had some interest in the subject of the book.

 

On the net, we were able to reach about 6 million people over a period of 3 weeks – each of whom were exposed to the ad over 3 times.

 

We had over 6,000 people click over to the book at an online bookstore or my site.

 

It’s too soon to tell – we don’t have all the numbers yet – but it looks like it did better than a lot of other books that came out Oct/Nov 2008.  Which happened to be the exact at the time of crash – when hardcover sales fell about 40%.

 

What's your experience been with in-store Co-Op?

 

My experience is that if a book has Co-op, it sells better than if it doesn’t, but Co-op alone doesn’t do it.

 

Co-op is complicated, too.  It isn’t something an author can buy or demand – or even something a publisher can buy or demand if the store isn’t interested.  And I think this is one of those misunderstood facts about the publishing biz.

 

Publishers request Co-op.  The stores have to agree to the request.  And they don’t agree to every request.  There are way more deserving books than there is Co-op space.

 

So how does the store decide?

 

The stores won’t give Co-op to books that they don’t think will sell.  It’s only natural the stores would give prime real estate to books with the best shot of succeeding.  That means the books by bestselling authors, and books the houses are going all out for – both categories usually come with the biggest ad budgets.

 

It’s one of those chicken-egg things.

 

Does Co-op make the book big?  Or do the big books get the Co-op?  The answer is – yes to both.

 

Occasionally (and we have an example of this at Authorbuzz.com now) via marketing, you can get so much interest going in a book, it will start selling so well the stores will give it free Co-op.  You can sometimes create a real demand for a book.  In this particular case, by the end of July, the book we’ve been marketing will have gotten endcaps, wall space, and table placement in the big stores – all for free.

 

But back to the advertising or Co-op question.  You want both.

 

Why?  Most books on the table have an advertising budget behind them, and are written by bestsellers, so they’re known quantities.  The ones that aren’t written by recognizable authors –  and don’t have ad budgets – won’t be as visible to the person walking into the store.

 

Think of walking by a movie theater… you see three movies listed on the marquee.

 

Two had ad budgets blasting for 6 weeks – you’ve heard of the titles, you already know something about the plot (Fast – think of Pixar’s “UP” – if you haven’t seen it yet, think about how familiar you are with that movie.)

 

The third movie is unknown to you.  Never heard a thing about it.  Which one of the three are you most likely to plunk down your hard earned cash on?

Sure 5% of the people passing by will gamble.

But 95% will go to the movie they’ve heard of.

 

Here’s a nightmare scenario about Co-op.  It actually happened to me this fall with “The Memorist.”

 

It had two weeks on the Barnes & Noble front table when it came out.  On the table with it – it was a very busy season – were new titles by: Jeff Deaver, David Baldacci, Vince Flynn, Katherine Neville, Nelson DeMille, J.D. Robb, Anita Shreve, James Patterson, Denis Lehane, John Grisham, Wally Lamb, Dean Koontz, P.D. James, Rita Mae Brown, Marie Higgens Clark, Laura Lippman, David Morrell, and I’m sure I’m forgetting at least three other authors.

 

I kid you not.

 

If my book had no marketing at all –it would’ve had no chance of selling any copies up against all those household names.

 

Most people buy one hardcover at a time.  And over 90% of people are brand loyal.  And the chances were, with all that bounty, 100% of the people who walked into the store had read at least one of the authors on the table.

 

Plus, there hadn’t been a DeMille for two years.  A Lehane for more years.  Ditto with Wally Lamb.

Our marketing budget for “The Memorist” was less than 10% of any of the other books on that table.  Patterson and Koontz alone had over a million dollars each in marketing. 

 

Without our marketing dollars put into very cost effective efforts, no one looking at that table would’ve even noticed “The Memorist.”
 

 

If your next book was "anointed" by your publisher and granted a substantial budget – say $350,000 – how would you recommend it be spent?

 

I’d spend 20% on trade advertising – starting 12 weeks before the book comes out, and continuing through publication.  I’d spend the other 80% on consumer advertising.  Included in that would be some kind of free sampling – as much as I could afford – on ebook devices, cell phone apps, and actual printed samples.

 

I’d spread the consumer effort over 10 weeks – starting 2 weeks before the book comes out through its first 8 weeks on sale.

 

Buzz takes time to build.  You need early adopters to read the book, talk about it, and still have ads running when they are talking.

Every book Authorbuzz has marketed for 6 weeks or more has outperformed and surprised its publisher.  Sales have been double or triple of what they expected.

 

So back to spending.

 

Of the consumer dollars, I’d spend it concentrated on sampling, and then on extremely targeted TV and internet ads.  If it made sense based on the book, I’d consider radio – but only if it was the right book. (Radio can be iffy if you don’t have the right subject matter).

 

I’d avoid print unless it was special interest stuff – for instance – Archeology Magazine might make sense for a thriller set in ancient Rome.

 

If the author was willing and the right personality type, I’d put $20,000 into a tour and $20,000 into a top top publicist to make the tour pay off.  Tours are not about the size of the crowd, but rather about getting the author and the bookseller together, garnering local media, and putting signed copies on tables.

 

I’d forgo the glitzy $76,000 color NYT ads and the even more expensive USAToday ads that so many authors/agents covet. Those buy 1.2 million impressions one day, one time.  Chances are, you’re only going to be noticed by about 200,000 people, of whom probably only 20,000 are even interested in your genre, of whom probably only 2,000 will be in a bookstore in the next two weeks. 

 

For that $76,000 alone, I could reach 25 million people about ten times each, over 6-8 weeks.

 

I’d totally avoid all the online ad packages that ad agencies tout to publishers. They come up with one-size-fits-all campaigns and spread impressions evenly over generic sites.

 

I’m all for hand picking sites and running different ads to different markets.

Demographics matter.  But it takes time and effort to find the right ones.  Too often publishers don’t have the time to make that effort.  And it can make all the difference in a book’s success.

 

You’ll notice none of the dollars are allocated to Co-op.  Co-op dollars come out of credits the publishers have with stores, so it’s not a dollar-for-dollar proposition.

 

What's the latest news on shooting for "Past Life," which was picked up by FOX for the fall schedule?  As consulting producer, does that mean you get to be new BFF's with Kelli Giddish?

 

And with Richard Schiff – one of my all-time favorite stars from my all-time favorite TV show ever – West Wing.  It seems “Past Life” will have a real sweet time slot, starting in March, Tuesdays @ 9pm, right after a show you might have heard of called “American Idol.”

 

Shooting will be in Atlanta, from August-November.

 

Looking ahead to the ThrillerFest conference schedule, it seems you're going to be on a panel with Lee Child and Jeffery Deaver.  Does this mean no mimosas this year?  Won't Barry Eisler and John Lescroart be insanely jealous?

 

I’m doing everything I can to make them jealous.  A girl’s gotta have some fun! MJ

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past dozen years, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, Suzuki Automotive, and the San Diego Padres. His first mystery, KATZ CRADLE is on submission while he's working on the sequel. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

Comments

[David J. Montgomery]

A lot of very interesting stuff in here. Thanks for sharing some real numbers and analysis.

[Debbie Haupt]

I have to admire all my favorite authors incuding you MJ more, I didn't realize there was so much you had to do to promote your works, silly me just thought you wrote books and let someone else do the selling of it.
I am one of those brand readers who purchase hardcovers, Nelson DeMille was one of those I purchased but yours was purchased also, but I must admit I bought yours from Harlequin and his from Sams, I also have a big mouth and am an intricate part of my library district and if they don't have your books pre-ordered I make sure they remedy that.
As always I enjoy reading your thoughts and always look on AuthorBuzz which my library also supports in there newsletters to there patrons.

[Chinese Rocket]

That's some great info, it's kinda cool to see such big numbers thrown around.

[Emily Winslow]

Can you elaborate on "trade advertising"? What publications/sites did you target specifically?

[M.J. Rose]

For Trade we did: either my pubisher or I did: Shelf-Awareness.com, the ABA newsletter, the Baker/Taylor and Ingram publications and maybe they did PW - I'm not sure. On my next book I'll add Unshleved.com.

We do alot of this via Authorbuzz.com too.

[Emily Winslow]

Thanks for the info. These specifics are all so helpful!

You also mentioned people who use Authorbuzz for "six weeks or more." Is this a typical use of the service? Don't the same eyeballs read each issue and get bored of seeing the same books mentioned week after week?

Thanks for helping me understand...

[M.J. Rose]

Emily - I meant different efforts that Authorbuzz offers spread out over 6 to 8 weeks - such as DearReader, Dear Librarian, blog ads - all different efforts - but in general you do need to repeat every message 2-5 times to everyone once a month or so. Think about how often you see Pepsi, Coke, McDonalds, or a movie ad. The point is over and over so you get to the point that you feel - I must see that movie. No one pays that much attention to advertising that they realize they heard about the movie in ads - they just get to a point where the movie is in their head.

[Emily Winslow]

Aha! Thanks for clarifying.

I'm thinking very hard about everything I've read here....

[Ms. Melvin]

Two questions:

1) I'm trying to find out the cpm for the following:
50,000 books distributed
Cost $13,640 for production

2)Difference between unique visitors and impressions