 |
 |
I'll write properly on all this during the week. Just to say that outside of author sales (people purchasing their own books), I'd guess that sales to poets accounts for less than 5% of our turnover, perhaps even less than 1%. I don't think poets tend to buy new books. Many though are voracious second hand book buyers. I think there's a lot of mythology around peer to peer sales. Some subscription models can work well in this way, where 200 people subscribe and each subscriber gets a turn to be published at some point. Most readers are non-poets. My initial target of 200 is a weakness rather than an aim, Cape, Picador and Faber are often selling 2,000 copies (going to customers not bookstore stock). HarperCollins identifies seven types of reader, which it classifies (bizarrely) as sheep. I can't remember them now. Most people meet readers when touring, blogging, using MySpace, BeBo and Facebook, at festivals, open mic sessions and so on. The biggest generator of author profile remains the book publicist, and the priceless work they do in creating and farming stories, getting column inches, air time and word of mouth. The latter being the most potent driver in book sales. In the main, reviews don't sell books. Advertising isn't clearly measurable, and largely doesn't impact on individual titles. Fame/celebrity matter, of course. Prizes can help a little, but they're variable, big prizes matter, little ones don't. Reading groups and writers circles form an important constituency, as do some libraries and their reader development programmes, but largely for fiction. YouTube works well. Launches, on the whole, don't matter, except to celebrate. Events don't sell books. Workshops, talks, presentations, help. Journalism helps develop readers. Readings on the whole aren't cost effective in finding readers -- average sales are seven copies per event, though it varies from none to eighty copies, weighted to the bottom end. Local readerships can be key. Online reviews don't work, no matter how good. Small press reviews don't work. Very broadly there are two distinct communities, 18-24 year olds still interested after reading poetry for GCSEs and A levels and perhaps at Uni, and those over 50 and in semi-retirement. In between most people don't read poetry, they're having children and building careers, buying property and accumulating wealth, security and so on.