Who says the book publishing industry isn't savvy about technology and the Internet? In a survey of 546 publishing professionals conducted by Book Zone, a Web site hosting and marketing firm specializing in book publishing, nearly 79% of the respondents' firms currently had Web sites and 36% of those firms have had sites for three years or more. According to Mary Westheimer, president of Book Zone, only 56% of all U.S. companies sell or promote their products online. It looks as though for once, "publishers seem to be ahead of everyone else," said Westheimer.
The survey was distributed to 8,596 publishing professionals and 546 responded; a 6.4% response rate. The respondents appear to be mostly smaller firms. More than 300 respondents (77%) reported revenues of under $2 million and about 27 (6.9%) reported sales of more than $10 million.
The responding publishers use their sites for promotion (76%) and for direct sales (73%). The sites use linking campaigns (41%), online advertising (23%) and strategic alliances (22%) to promote their sites. However, more than half (60%) the sites are unhappy with the amount of traffic they receive and nearly half (43%) serve fewer than 500 Web visitors a month. Westheimer also noted a "quirky" finding. While only 16% of the respondents used newsgroups and mailing lists for promotion, those respondents were the most pleased with the level of traffic on their sites.
Respondents indicated that Web sites were best used for promoting books (52%); direct selling (45%); and for gaining international exposure (31%). Highlights from the survey are available on BookZone (www. bookzone.com). The entire survey can be purchased for $250 and can be ordered online.
