Providing the public with samples and excerpts of your books is an easy way to step up your marketing game while providing a) book buyers with what they need to make informed decisions and b) retailers, wholesalers, and agents with the necessary tools to market books more effectively on their own platforms.
But you don’t have to just take our word for it. Below, we’ll share:
testimonials from BiblioShare users who are happy to let others know why these two assets are so valuable to their operations;
key takeaways from previous surveys and studies conducted by the BookNet Research team that highlight the importance of having samples and excerpts available, as well as the role they play in book sales and discoverability; and
resources to get you started with the distribution of samples and excerpts among your clients and partners.
What readers are saying
As a data-driven organization with the mission of helping the Canadian book industry move forward, we’re always trying to understand and learn about trends and consumer behaviour. What makes one book more appealing than another? What subjects are readers loving more these days? Which medium do readers prefer to make their purchases? Do samples and excerpts play a role when deciding what books to read or listen to?
As for that last question, we know the answer: They do. Below, we’ve included data collected from previous surveys fielded among adult, English-speaking Canadians that will show you that if you’re not making samples and excerpts available to your partners and readers yet, you should start doing so now.
Canadian Leisure & Reading Study 2020
This free report looks at how Canadians are spending their leisure time and the behaviours of Canadian readers.
Among many other things, we asked respondents to choose the three main reasons why they generally decide to read or listen to specific books. From their responses, we learned that 8% of the respondents said one of the three main reasons they chose a book was from seeing or reading samples, excerpts, or previews.
Other responses: 44% chose to read or listen to a book because of the subject/topic, 37% chose a book based on the author, 33% chose based on the book description, 28% said that they based their decision on a recommendation, 8% said cover or interior images (learn how you can send cover and interior images via BiblioShare), 2% said the decision of reading a specific book was influenced by readers' guides or discussion questions.
2020 Canadian Book Consumer quarterly survey
In this quarterly survey (fielded primarily in April and July 2020 to approximately 3,000 English-speaking Canadians) we ask readers and book buyers questions about how they become aware of the books they read or listen to.
Readers
From the responses collected during the first three quarters in 2020, we learned that 24% of readers became aware of books they read or listen to thanks to another book (sample/preview, author blurb, bibliography/references).
Other popular discovery methods were bookstore or retailer (38%), author (30%), library (25%), bestseller list (25%), social media (25%), online communities (15%).
Book buyers
When we asked book buyers how they became aware of books they read or listen to, the picture was much the same: 22% of buyers selected “Another book (sample/preview, author blurb, bibliography/references).” Other popular options were: bookstore or retailer (39%), author (32%), social media (28%), bestseller list (27%), followed by library (21%), online communities (18%), and digital media (14%).
When asked what actions they generally take, online or in person, when deciding whether to read, borrow, or buy a book, 23% of buyers said that they read or listen to a sample or excerpt.
Other options were: read book description (62%), look to see subject/genre (41%), look to see author (40%), look to see cover (40%), read reviews (40%), read about author (27%), compare price in multiple places (24%), check to see if the library has it (23%), ask what a friend thinks (13%), read blurbs by other authors (11%), check to see which number the book is (version/edition/series) (11%).
What BiblioShare users are saying
BiblioShare users are also seeing the value and impact of having samples and excerpts — and images: cover, back, and interior — available to their partners and clients. Here’s what Edmund Salt, President at Whitehots and Robin Hoogwerf, General Manager at United Library Services had to say about this.
As most publishers retreat from printing hard copy catalogues, the need for our customers to view online catalogues becomes really important. The more content that can be viewed the better, excerpts and chapter samples are great, especially for juvenile material. The facility to view inside pages for illustrations, layouts, and language content is an added bonus.
Edmund Salt — President, Whitehots Inc.
When the world changed in the Spring of 2020, I think we all thought that it would be for a short while. We now know that we won’t be seeing our customers in person for a quite a while yet, so ULS needed to find other ways to show our customers all the great books that are available. One of our first steps was to contact BNC to see if they could provide interior and content images. Tim said “yes,” (we always love when Tim says yes) and we are rapidly developing a way to display these additional images on our website. We see that interiors and additional content information is critical to selling books to our customers in the near and far future.
Robin Hoogwerf — General Manager, United Library Services Inc.
What BookNet says
You don’t have to do this alone! BiblioShare, BookNet’s quality-controlled data aggregation and distribution system, offers, among other services, processing and distribution of samples and excerpts. Once they’re in our system, we make them available to retailers, wholesale agents, reviewers, library staff, and pretty much anyone with access to CataList or BiblioShare.
We want to help you promote your books more effectively. Contrary to the old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”, we say, “judge a book by the samples and excerpts the publisher has made available to you via BiblioShare.” Okay, perhaps, coming up with sayings is not our strong suit, but data processing is. So feel free to learn more about BiblioShare Data Distribution and let us know if you have any questions, we’ll be happy to help you get started!
The format preferences of Canadian buyers, borrowers, and readers.