Branding: Does the publisher matter to you?

[Rob Lister]

You have your favorite titles, favorite authors, but do you have your favorite publishers. Do you find one publisher far excels at producing quality works over other publishers?

I happened upon a series of pieces about publisher branding, each opining on whether publishers should devote more resources (advertising, front matter, etc) to their publishing house.

Here's an opening snip from one:

On March 18th, in response to the Publishing Perspectives story “Digital Case Study: Publishers’ Online Marketing in Spain,” Editor-in-Chief Ed Nawotka posed a discussion question asking if readers cared about publisher branding. This sparked a flurry of debate among readers on the Publishing Perspectives site and off-line between Publishing Perspectives Business Development Director Erin L. Cox and publishing veteran, Sarah Russo, who happened to be writing a piece on the very subject for the insightful blog, The New Sleekness. In the interest of debate and for the readers of both Publishing Perspectives and The New Sleekness, both Cox and Russo have expanded on their thoughts for and against publisher branding. Below, is Erin Cox’s reasoning for publisher branding. You can read Sarah Russo’s reasoning against trade publisher branding on “The New Sleekness here.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...ommentpostform

Until I came across that, I hadn't thought much of it. Logic tells me some houses would produce more crap, others more jewels. But I don't know which is which because I never took notice of which publisher I was reading. For me, more overt publisher branding would certainly have had some impact. Whether the end result of that branding be cost effective for the house, I do not know.

Would it help you in your buying decision?

[Apache]

I voted No, the publisher does not factor in to whether I read a book or not.
That said there are some publishers I like better than others. Baen is one of the few good ones.
Apache

[gweeks]

There are publishers that affect how closely I look at a book. Ace from before 1975 or so, Baen, Daw from the yellow spine years all get a closer look. Tor is neutral. EOS and a few others I don't remember unless I'm looking at them get a negative.

Greg Weeks

[HarryT]

For paper books, yes, because it's nice to have all the books from a given author and publisher have a similar appearance on the shelf. For an eBook, no, it doesn't matter.

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by HarryT

For paper books, yes, because it's nice to have all the books from a given author and publisher have a similar appearance on the shelf.

Do you find that some pBook publishers do a better job than others with things like binding, layout, paper quality, margins, and gutters? Do those factors matter to you?

Originally Posted by HarryT

For an eBook, no, it doesn't matter.

Do you find, where applicable, that some eBook publishers do a better job with things like transcription and formatting?

[DiapDealer]

Most of the time, I couldn't even tell you which house publishes my favorite authors. Just how would they go about making their brand more prominent with ebooks? As it is now, I can browse for, purchase, download and read without ever seeing the publisher's name/logo. I'm not sure they could bring more attention to the publisher without becoming intrusive about it... people just naturally tune out the stuff in a book they're not interested in.

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Most of the time, I couldn't even tell you which house publishes my favorite authors. Just how would they go about making their brand more prominent with ebooks? As it is now, I can browse for, purchase, download and read without ever seeing the publisher's name/logo. I'm not sure they could bring more attention to the publisher without becoming intrusive about it... people just naturally tune out the stuff in a book they're not interested in.

Ad agencies might politely suggest that you can, at best, try to tune it out, but they'll influence you in the end. Every notice that the volume goes way up during TV commercials? That's so you can still hear when you're in the john taking a leak. They can be so insistent with such subtleties that congressional action is demanded! to put an end to it. IOW, I think they're perfectly okay with being intrusive.

[Ninjalawyer]

If a book looks interesting I check the reviews and buy it if the price is right, and I have not once thought about who specifically published it. Given how easy it is to find book reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, I don't know why anyone would ever think, "Oh, I'll grab the book that X just published because they're known for high quality."

The reputation of the publisher or manufacturer is one piece of information in a purchasing decision, but it's becoming less and less relevant as the internet makes far more useful information (book reviews, buzz from social networks, etc.) easily available. Maybe it would have helped pre-internet, but now it honestly wouldn't affect my buying habits.

That said, I guess I have avoided buying certain pricey books when, at the checkout, I realized that the books were published by one of the big 6 and I therefore wouldn't be able to use a discount coupon. So I guess I have thought about it, but only in a negative way, and I view any of the big 6 as interchangeable.

[rhadin]

I answered "Some." Knowing that a book is publihsed by Random House doesn't make me want to buy it but it gives me a sense that I can expect a certain level of editorial quality, something that is a big gamble with indie books. I do not want to imply that traditional publishers produce error-free books; they don't. Rather, I am less likely to find "you're" when "your" is meant. I am less likely to find that chapter 3 repeats in large part chapter 2. I am less likely to find that in chapter 3 Gwen was a redhead but in chapter 12 the name is now spelled Gwyn and she is a brunette.

It really isn't so much the publishing house brand that I look for as it is that the I am familiar with the publishing house and my experience is that it cares (at least somewhat) about editorial quality. I don't care that the book is published by Random House, HarperCollins, or Baen; I care that it is published by recognizable publishing house.

Having said that, most of the ebooks I purchase are indie ebooks. Price is more of a determiner for me. I am willing to gamble heavily on free and 99-cent ebooks and am reluctant to spend $7.99 for an ebook even from Random House. My feeling is that I would rather spend $20 for the hardcover than $8 for the ebook, and that is what I usually do.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

Do you find that some pBook publishers do a better job than others with things like binding, layout, paper quality, margins, and gutters? Do those factors matter to you?

Those things certainly matter to me, but I honestly can't recall ever having bought a book and thinking "this is very poorly produced".

Do you find, where applicable, that some eBook publishers do a better job with things like transcription and formatting?

I certainly find that some eBooks are of a higher standard than others, but I don't find that it goes by publisher; at least, I haven't noticed it doing so.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

Ad agencies might politely suggest that you can, at best, try to tune it out, but they'll influence you in the end. Every notice that the volume goes way up during TV commercials? That's so you can still hear when you're in the john taking a leak. They can be so insistent with such subtleties that congressional action is demanded! to put an end to it. IOW, I think they're perfectly okay with being intrusive.

I have no doubt they're OK with being intrusive about it. That's frankly the only way it stands a chance of even being seen in this medium. I just think they're foolish if they believe there'll be no negative backlash from a; "THAT EXCITING CHAPTER WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY RANDOM HOUSE!! TURN THE PAGE TO START THE NEXT EXCITING CHAPTER BROUGHT TO YOU BY RANDOM HOUSE" approach. It'll just result in even more people turning to less official sources to download the deloused versions.

And I can't remember the last TV commercial I saw/heard. I don't watch channels that have them.

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

"THAT EXCITING CHAPTER WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY RANDOM HOUSE!! TURN THE PAGE TO START THE NEXT EXCITING CHAPTER BROUGHT TO YOU BY RANDOM HOUSE"

I laughed hard at that...realizing it is not too far out of the realm of possibility.

Originally Posted by rhadin

I answered "Some." Knowing that a book is publihsed by Random House doesn't make me want to buy it but it gives me a sense that I can expect a certain level of editorial quality, something that is a big gamble with indie books.

So, without being overtly told, you know. On a mass-market scale, do you think being overtly told have an impact on the bottom line? Not, 'would it influence you' but rather 'would it influence most?'.

[Freeshadow]

I said some, following rhadin as the reasons go

[Keloff]

The publisher didn't used to matter as much as the author - until I started getting involved in digital publishing. Now that I understand the publisher's role better, I take care to notice the publisher - especially when I see mistakes in hastily converted backlist title. So that's a #2 for me, too.

[Belfaborac]

I answered no. I couldn't for the life of me tell you the publisher any of the books I own, except for those which have their name on the titles (Oxford Dictionary, Cambridge History of.., etc). Nor can I remember ever having been conscious of the publisher when buying a book, with the same exceptions as previous.