The Bookseller.com

29th August 2008

Philip Jones is the managing editor of theBookseller.com. He will blog with links and comment about the book business.

Waterstone's plays its card

22.07.08

I was impressed with Waterstone's What's Your Story competition when it launched, and I remain impressed after the winners were announced.

For a start the website was slick: all too often marketing initiatives become bad websites, but thankfully this site really worked. According to Waterstone's, now it has built it, it can use the bones of it for other similar initiatives. That makes sense too.

I also liked the idea. There are legions of budding writers out there, most of whom will never get published, but remain -- anyway -- book buyers. The postcard writing format played to that audience, satisfying their creative urges, but limiting them to a length that wouldn't get in the way of their book reading, and -- more importantly -- book buying.

It also spoke to Waterstone's own booksellers: book enthuasiasts and budding writers. As the firm's m.d. Gerry Johnson put it: "These stories demonstrate the huge creative talent there is in Waterstone's and also the sheer love of storytelling that What's Your Story? has tapped into."

Most marketing strategies fall below my radar: but here was a dedicated bookseller reinforcing its position as a retailer within a creative sector.

Anyway that was just a preamble for showcasing the winning cards submitted by the chain's own staff: click on the images to view a larger version of each creative.

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