“Discoverability” is the first challenge of marketing e-books. Tracey Turriff, senior vice-president of marketing at Random House, says, “There are fewer ‘in-store merchandising’ opportunities. … Readers often find [print] books when browsing in a physical bookstore.”
And while those bookstores dedicate that important floor space to housewares and food, McArthur says this is also true of the bookstores’ catalogues, the content of which is now chosen by marketing teams. “Holiday brochures are just as likely to feature blankets, teapots, owl bottle openers,” she says. “Last year’s holiday catalogue only had one book in it, Taschen’s Paul McCartney photographs by Linda.”
