Publishing Trends has posted the results of their survey on marketing books online, and it looks like old-school marketing isn’t going down without a fight:
“Despite their embrace of all things digital, a surprising 50 percent of publicists think traditional media has the same impact now as two years ago, versus 35 percent of media people surveyed. And while 40 percent of publicists and 43 percent of media respondents said traditional media outlets have less impact, both groups chose NYTimes.com and PublishersWeekly.com as the most important general news site and book-related site for promoting books.”
Among the other conclusions: Everybody wants a book trailer, even though nobody knows if they really do any good; smaller publishers might be able to abandon marketing to traditional media altogether once they zero in on their target audiences; and YA authors might just be setting tomorrow’s marketing standard: “In a few years, these teens are going to be the target audience for all book marketing,” says one blogger. “I see most, but certainly not all, book advertising online. Look at teen authors—they’ve got it down; they market on MySpace, on their own blogs, and even on other blogs, plus they blog on Amazon.”