Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter cannot be relied on to build book sales, as an overwhelming majority of readers do not use the sites for recommendations.
The results of a survey, conducted in collaboration with book website Lovereading [a UK website] and market research firm BML, discovered that while 56% of respondents used the internet to find out about books, only 17% of respondents found Twitter “useful” for recommendations.
This was the lowest score of any source. Only 34% found other social networking sites “useful”. The figures contrast with author and retailer websites, which 83% found “useful”.
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Jeremy Ettinghausen, digital publisher at Penguin, said that social networking websites are in their “really early days”. He added: “The media spend a disproportionate amount of time talking about Twitter, it’s like Second Life was a couple of years ago.”
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Other publishers spoken to by The Bookseller said that pricing was constantly up for review. Ettinghausen added: “We sell through retailers who are at liberty to sell at what discount they wish . . . It’s something that is being constantly looked at and reviewed. We don’t want to start underselling our authors.”
Lovereading interviewed more than 1,300 people, the majority heavy book buyers, about their reading habits.
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