Imprint, Imprint on the Wall… Who’s the Fairest of Them All?
“You’re all pretty, little ones,” replied the mirror. “Off to bed now to dream of sugar plum fairies and cotton candy stars in the playland of your minds. Hurry, before the wicked queen comes around with her basket of shiny red apples filled with critical thought. Nobody likes critical thought. It’s so hard to rid yourself of that bitter taste…”
An imprint is a loosely defined category that lumps together books of a certain subject matter, attitude or approach, complete with a spiffy logo of indeterminate merit on the spine. Each imprint supposedly has a unique function and personality, coupled with a hands-on Editor/manager who oversees this labor of love from start to finish. The research I’ve done would have us believe that this process is a miraculous birthing of sorts, as depicted here, which is very nice in theory, but it’s hard to accept that the implied magic of an imprint is going to result in anything more than business as usual because as much as I hate to say it, a great many publishers have imprints but don’t know how to use them (see case in point, here.) Big publishing is fighting a losing battle because, among other things, it doesn’t know how to brand itself.
Branding’s job is to convince consumers that what is being offered is valuable and how that company’s products and services are different from the competition. This rarely happens in big book publishing, with the exception of a few like Harlequin. Harlequin does a good job of branding because all they do is publish romance novels, but they have several imprints available to cater to a diverse audience: Spice (erotica), Luna (fantasy/sci-fi), etc. Even the names of the imprints give readers an idea of what to expect without having to whip out the imprint to layman code key. Simplicity works and should never be underestimated.
What many book publishers are counting on instead is making the author the brand, which is a mistake for several reasons. First, you’re assuming your author’s loyalty. It’s understandable that you’d want to court your pets with promises of a six-figure advertising budget and a fully funded book tour and that’s great, for now. But what happens if another publisher offers up an even bigger budget for the next book (contracts do end eventually) or the author’s editor leaves the company and the author follows suit? Or perhaps your author has decided he has lost his muse and is plummeting into an alcoholic spiral while leaving you hanging. That’s going to hurt. Then of course we have the not uncommon phenomenon of parceling out astronomical advances to an author groomed to be the next big thing, only to have it crash and burn in the eyes of the public. There aren’t enough blockbuster authors to go around, so instead of trying to sell multiple copies of books from one author that will likely sell themselves, why not widen the net and focus on your genre and niche markets simultaneously (why bother to publish imprints if selling them isn’t a priority)? Big name authors already have an established fan base because they’ve proven themselves to be reliable brands. A publisher’s imprints, however, haven’t managed this on the same scale so they need to expand their horizons, for example marketing themselves as self-supporting “if you liked this book, try these too” groups which can cross promote with increased exposure to lesser known works. The Hail Mary marketing plan that so many publishing houses seem to enjoy is short-sighted and limiting and will end up biting you in the butt.
A company’s brand is not a passive mission statement to be casually referred to in the privacy of the board room; it is the pulsating lifeblood of expectation and intention that consumers are clamoring to receive. The Disney Company ensures that all its hotel guests are not only met with clean rooms, family entertainment and all that is Disney, housekeeping goes the extra mile by assembling the guests’ toys in a group welcome when they return to their rooms after a grueling day on the teacups- a small, but memorable gesture to enhance the experience. Target’s tag line is Expect More, Pay Less and the budget retailer backs it up by attracting high profile designers to deliver style and quality. They respect their customers by not only offering discount prices, but also providing a colorful shopping environment and catchy ads to make shopping there cool. And then there’s Apple, the holy grail of branding. In the eighties Apple was floundering like a dog on roller skates until it discovered the beauty of advertising. Apple’s products aren’t necessarily better than any other tech company’s, but they defined themselves a dynasty by connecting with their customers. People like Apple’s corporate culture, the constant upgrades in gadgetry and its corresponding vocabulary and even the sense of cultish community acquired once, they too, have joined the ranks of ownership. Apple has meaning for people and not because of one or two of its better selling products. People care about Apple as a holistic entity and want it to succeed. Does anyone honestly believe the Woz would have remained on Dancing With the Stars as long as he did if this wasn’t true? Apple’s got it going on.
We see these companies making their brands relevant in hospitality, retail and technology every day, but publishing is surprisingly silent when it should be screaming. Let’s make a tag line comparison: Random House- Bringing You the Best in Fiction, Nonfiction & Children’s Books; Hachette- To Publish Great Books Well; Apple- Think Different. First of all, the only reason I know those publishing tag lines is because I looked them up. Apple’s is common knowledge because they advertise. One of the keys to making branding work is a streamlined message. How’re we doing on that one, publishers?
Now let’s see where some of our imprint friends stand in all of this. From Random House we have Rider, championing the paranormal, spirituality and books about current & international affairs and Pimlico, reigning in history, biography, politics, adventure & philosophy. Wow, that’s quite a range for an individual imprint. Where does one begin? Not to be outdone, Hachette offers us Back Bay Books to round up all their trade paperbacks of fiction and nonfiction, including classics and literature. Am I the only one overwhelmed here? These imprints are too broad to have any meaning for consumers; they’re trying to do too much. Deciding that someone who believes in ghosts is someone who’s also interested in the rage that is Twitter is quite the leap, as is believing that a fan of women’s history also cares about Descartes’ views on the thinking self. Are imprints serious business created to focus attention on a niche market around which a brand can be built or are they little more than vanity presses designed to reward the Editor of the Month? Make up your minds, people. Tick tock.
What are your promises, publishers: we deliver our products on time, we make shipping/returns easier, we encourage our authors’ participation in a variety of publishing decisions? This is just good, generic business practice; it isn’t special. Are expectations so low in the publishing industry that this manner of thought is considered fresh and original? If so, it explains a great deal and begs for a system-wide overhaul. A vibrant, relevant publishing company can, and should, do better. I’m not trying to offend; I’m trying to open eyes to complacency: how is this serving you?
Who are your customers, to whom are you marketing: distributors and wholesalers, groups that can easily return books that don’t sell? It’s no frosting off their cupcake to make a return, so what; you think that if you just get enough of your books into the stores that your good name will carry the sales? Your name means nothing because you haven’t made any connections to the people! Wouldn’t it make more sense to market directly to the readers, those who are actually buying your products as opposed to leasing them? How about educating them about who you really are and how what you have to offer is more conducive to their needs than the publisher next door? In other words, ADVERTISE YOURSELVES. Give consumers reasons to not only notice you, but care about you as well because if you don’t then what is the point of branding yourself in the first place?
The most successful publishers will be those that can use their own corporate brand to attract and create the author brands. You are not a monarchy, publishers. It’s time to talk to the masses and learn how to make friends because history will always make room for another revolution.
