The Publishing industry has changed exponentially over the last few years thanks to the World Wide Web. Authors are self publishing and self promoting, e-books are taking the world by storm and Amazon has pretty much single-handedly put many book and entertainment retailers out of business.

These challenges have been addressed as Publishers have embraced the digital world introducing online reading groups, authors pages, tweets, blogs, forums and branded sites. They are also very active in more traditional media with PR’s constantly generating reviews and events such as author readings. There is a big community out there.

So what are the challenges? Firstly the consumer relationship is with the author rather than the publishing house. A book buyer will make their selection based on author, genre, cover and synopsis, the publishing brand is low on their list of priorities or recommendation. The second challenge is finding a way to reach readers who are target audience but are not involved in the usual publishing channels.

There are parallels with other companies in the home entertainment space such as Film Companies, Computer Game Developers and Music Groups. What they all have in common is how well they tell their stories to their existing audiences. The shared challenge is acquiring new customers.

The Film industry does this really well. With a strong focus on partnerships they have promotional teams who look to develop activity with other brands who fit well with their target audience.  With a set formula where in exchange for exposure the film company will offer prizes ranging from red carpet tickets to signed merchandise it’s an easy win, low maintenance exchange which adds value to both brands.

Both Film and Computer industries are also very focused on their press promotions with simple prizes of home entertainment equipment generating both column inches and reader interaction.

The publishing industry is lucky to have the support of initiatives such as the Richard & Judy Bookclub, World Book Day as well as support from brands such as Galaxy. To make this work harder they should look at key purchase triggers such as Holiday’s and Gift occasions. Using strategic partnerships to leverage this they could maximise their amplification outside of the usual communication areas and reach consumers when they are at the point of consideration. It’s good to see some examples of this coming through (such as monster.co.uk/James Caan) but we predict this is a trend to watch.