When it comes to the Web, most book publishers are still finding their way. They’ve tap-danced around the issue of selling books directly to readers, preferring to let Amazon lead the way, and many are still trying to figure out what Google text searches will mean for their future. While some have built fancy sites to promote specific titles, few have invested in creating new kinds of content aimed specifically at the Internet.
That’s beginning to change, at least for publishers in select areas such as travel, where the Web is proving a major venue for information and booking reservations. Those publishers are realizing that by offering free Web content based on their books, they can attract enough traffic to generate advertising and other revenue — as well as promote their titles.
John Wiley & Sons, the publisher based in Hoboken, N.J., is offering an array of free travel tidbits and articles on the site of its Frommer’s travel-book series. Not only can visitors to the site read blogs or listen to podcasts, they can plan and book trips - generating commission revenue for frommers.com.
Wiley has taken similar steps with the Web sites for its Dummies do-it-yourself series and CliffsNotes educational books. Frommers.com drew 728,000 unique visitors in May, according to comScore Inc., while the other two sites had smaller audiences. Wiley says its own figures show traffic is much higher.
The three sites are cumulatively generating between $10 million and $15 million in advertising annually.
In January, Bertelsmann’s Random House changed the name of its Fodor’s Travel Publications imprint to Fodor’s Travel to reflect its increased reliance on revenue from nonbook sources, including advertising on fodors.com, says Tim Jarrell, publisher.
Advertisers like these sites because they are reaching motivated consumers researching a specific area of interest. Once a site can demonstrate that it’s regularly drawing high-income earners who like to travel, even nontravel marketers are willing to buy ads. Weber-Stephen Products, the maker of Weber barbecue grills, began advertising on frommers.com last month. “We try to match our advertising with lifestyles we know from our research fit the demographic or psychographic profiles of our Weber customers,” says Mike Kempster, executive vice president. Buyers of deluxe grills, he says, also like to travel.
Wiley is still juggling how much original content to post on line, worried that giving away too much could hurt sales. So far, though, the publisher is convinced that none of its Web sites have cannibalized individual title sales. “If you want the book, you’ll buy the book,” says Gwenyth Jones, whose responsibilities include Wiley’s consumer-brand sites and digital product development for the professional/trade publishing group.
These initiatives raise a question: Could this go further, where advertisers are targeting readers of a particular author? So far, the country’s biggest-selling writers have steered clear of ads. James Patterson, the former ad executive turned novelist, offers all sorts of free content on his Web site, including brief excerpts of some of his novels. But the site hasn’t solicited advertising, concerned that ads for other businesses could turn off Patterson fans and hurt book sales. “We’re considering side businesses but we have to put them through the filter of whether it advances the value of the Web to our readers,” says Steve Bowen, president of James Patterson Entertainment. “It’s a hollow victory if you end up undermining your core business.”