Make sure mid-tier titles aren't lost in packed autumn, Fry warns

Marketing and publicity teams need to make sure their middle-tier titles don't get lost in the crowded autumn, Canongate commercial director Jenny Fry has warned.

During a session of The Bookseller's virtual Marketing & Publicity Conference on Thursday (9th July), Fry said “over-communicating” with editors, authors and agents would also be vital to manage their expectations and work out what to prioritise.

With Covid-19 disrupting publication schedules, some publishers have warned of a "bun fight" in the coming months time as titles jostle for space in review sections and bookshop windows.

Fry said: “Simply and crudely put, all we're trying to do is connect books with readers and, while never exactly a quiet period, we're getting ready to do so as part of what promises to be a densely packed supply side market, all fighting for the same slivers of attention across the same pool of media platforms, outlets and channels that themselves are facing their own set of existential crises. And each ultimately competing for a slice of what is unknowable consumer demand.”

She added: “One of the most important things you can do this year is influence what you spend time and money on. You probably already know which titles you're feeling the real pull factor for. I don't mean the slam-dunk super leads but which of your middle-tier titles are people pricking their ears up to? Do those titles have enough resource to help them go way beyond beating their budgets?”

Fry also shared examples of innovative things people had done during lockdown, including on her own team's forthcoming publication of magazine editor Terri White's forthcoming memoir Coming Undone. Extracts of the book appeared in the Guardian last month and became the most deeply read piece on the site that weekend, she said. This showed people have “bigger appetites for and more time to invest in quality content”.

She also praised the team at HarperCollins on their TV ad for Caroline Hirons' Skincare, which hit the top of the charts last week. She said: “They saw a value for money opportunity in the drop in advertising pricing, recognised the untapped value of the increased reach that TV still offers and, on top of that, managed to turnaround under lockdown conditions the concept and production of a really smart advert.”

Fry concluded: “It would be easy for us to talk this coming autumn into a monster but the likelihood is that, for all the challenges it wil almost certainly throw up, there will also be opportunity after opportunity. The more work you do now in anticipation the better prepared you'll be to seize upon and maximise whatever chances come your way and handle the inevitable curveballs.”

The same session saw Dan Baker, m.d. of PLC Media, give tips on crisis management and author Raven Smith address how pushing boundaries can create hit content. Finally, Helen Job, head of insight at forecasting firm TCO London explained how she always told clients the most dangerous phrase in the English language is: “We've always done it this way."

She said: “Unless you're looking at new ways of doing things, you're not going to be an organisation that exists in the next five to 10 years because we have to all be unlearning, relearning, undoing and re-doing.”

Job took a tour of current trends from the younger generation's non-binary world, through to the thirst for positive news and a growing interest in hallucinogenic drugs. Predicting what is coming is key to business success, she argued.

She said: “I think it's about recognising that human behaviour is shifting into a new paradigm and if we want to have a lasting change on how we consume, how we behave and how we interact then we really need to be ahead of these changes and spotting them before they happen. I think it's all our responsibility to think about the world that we want to be part of and then move towards that goal.”