Lightning Source Global Newsletter

by Lesley Spoor, Marketing Analyst, Lightning Source

In an era of 24-hour news and social media spreading information across the world in a matter of minutes, it is nearly impossible to predict demand for every title. Whether it is one country’s leader presenting a politically-charged book to the leader of another country or a backlist title being featured prominently on a popular television show, spikes in demand can happen at any time for any book–driving immediate sales, if the book is available. Are you prepared?

When Hugo Chavez presented Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent to President Barack Obama in late April, demand for the title spiked. Similarly, a Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky experienced a surge in demand a few years ago when Chavez mentioned it in a speech to the United Nations. Unfortunately, Chavez, unlike Oprah Winfrey, is not known to prepare publishers of his book “promotions” so there likely will not be inventory on hand for mid- or backlist titles to meet demand spikes.

Last year, Frank O’Hara’s book of poetry, Meditations in an Emergency was featured in an episode of the television series, Mad Men. The poet’s sister was contacted by the producers to secure rights to have a poem read on the show, but the popularity of the collection of poems was a surprise despite a recent resurgence of interest in O’Hara’s work. The show is a “cult hit” and the poem was discussed on blogs and other social media outlets following the airing, driving a spike in demand for a book that was already sold out on Amazon.com.

Not only is it important to have a strategy to handle spikes in interest for mid- and backlist titles, but your marketing and publicity staff works hard to break new titles since it’s impossible to know which books will resonate with reviewers and readers and which ones will not, particularly titles by new authors. Most book reviews are online, many with a “share” feature to post on Facebook, Twitter, digg, technorati, del.icio.us and/or a dozen other social media sites, making it incredibly easy for information to spread quickly across the internet.

So, how do you deal with the unpredictable and fickle demand arising from these various types of media? Print on demand, of course. It is not just for long tail; print on demand is the answer for filling frontlist gaps, midlist and backlist spikes and the occasional—but profitable—attention to an out-of-print title. Because if your titles are all available through Lightning Source, they’re never out of print and they’re never on backorder. You’ll never miss a sale.