Book Marketing and Publicity Strategies as Determinants of Book Sales
Abstract
Books have been the conventional means of spreading, preserving and sharing information and knowledge. The book publishing process is divided into conception, production, and marketing which involves publicity, promotion and distribution of published books. Hence the study investigates the effect of book marketing and publicity strategies on book sales. The study adopted a descriptive survey design for a target population which comprises of Eight (8) publishing houses in Ibadan with a total of140 staff. The purposive sampling technique was used to select 80 staff (from marketing, editorial and finance section) with accurate and relevant responses to the study. To achieve the objectives of the study, four (4) research questions were developed to pilot the study. The results indicated that Advance Information Sheet was the most used way of creating awareness on published books and publishing firms find out the impression of readers about their books mainly through marketers. Moreover, it was also revealed that adequate book marketing and publicity strategies will increase book sales and subsequently profit. The study recommends increase level of training for marketers and that the use of internet should be exploited as a tool for book marketing