HC Shares Results of Online Giveaways

In two panels, the first at the IDPF Digital Book conference in New York City and the second at BEA in Los Angeles, HarperCollins opened up its stats vault and shared some information about four forays into partial- and full-access content giveaways. Leslie Hulse, v-p of business development, and Barbara Lilie, marketing director, discussed the data—Hulse at IDPF and Lilie at BEA—which indicate that readers seem to be turned on to print books after viewing free content on the Web. That, and Neil Gaiman has a devoted fan base. Here are Harper's results, all of which, Lilie noted at BEA, must be considered on a case-by-case basis.

• Promotion for: Neil Gaiman's American Gods
  Content given away: Full access to the book, through the company's Browse Inside feature
  Number of page views generated: 3,827,306
  Average page views per visit: 46
  Number of clicks on a buy link: 1,177
  Result: Promotion bumped weekly sales of the title at bricks-and-mortar locations by 250%.
• Promotion for: Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things
  Content given away: DRM-free audio download of Gaiman's short story “A Study in Emerald” to promote the collection Fragile Things
  Result: Promotion didn't drive registration and, according to Harper, “readers bypassed our up-sell efforts” because content was “too easy to take and run.”
• Promotion for: Erin Hunter's Warriors, Volume 3
  Content given away: Browse Inside preview of 20% of the book
  Result: Preorders of the book increased 30%.
• Promotion for: Robin Hobb's Shaman's Crossing
  Content given away: Full e-book (downloadable with DRM and registration)
  Result: Same-title and backlist sales of Hobb's e-books increased.