Quote:
Originally Posted by latepaul
. But so much talk about "discovery" focuses on it as if it's a reader or retailer problem when it's not and there's really not much incentive for either of those two groups to care about it.
|
All the talk of "discovery problems" is baloney.
Readers don't have a discovery problem: publishers have a marketing problem.
Long ago they stopped actually marketing anything but the most prominent of expected bestsellers and outsourced the job of promoting books to the retailers.
It was all about "stock it and it will sell". And if not... Well that's what returns were for.
Other than front table payola, the publishers and B&M retailers simply don't know how to market anything but bestsellers.
Of course, the retailer that must not be named has no problem coming up with deal of the day, deals of the month, countdown timers (probably patented by now), lending libraries, bundles, and assorted marketing tricks, so their customers don't worry about discovering appealing reads: only about finding the money to buy them and living long enough to read them all.
