Thinking small

In today's technological society, no company can go without a website. Publishers have no choice as to whether or not they post a site, but how they build and target their online identity is a reasonable debate.

It only makes sense that a company in the business of book publishing would want to use its website to make sales. The site is there for consumers to find and explore, and I can't think of a single reason not to include a shopping cart for purchasing.

A publisher's website is also a great place to highlight and push certain titles. Most of the sites I explored had added content about the authors—video interviews, tour dates. Why rely solely on bookstores and Amazon to present your product?

This said, I think a targeted approach is wise. Why try to reach every potential customer with a single, watered down, chaotic website when all large publishers use their imprints to target a smaller subset of their audience?

I think the best approach is for huge publishers to keep the corporate identity low-key and try to steer customers to the right imprint where they are more likely to find the books they'll want to read.

Imprints should reflect a united and cohesive collection. It is a basic tenet of marketing to know your customer and give them what they want. So why not create an online presence to reflect the target of your imprint? Make a club. Let your readers feel part of something—no different than being part of an online social network.

McSweeney's and Tin House both do a great job of this. They embrace their brand. Larger publishers should do the same and put more effort into branding their imprints and creating networks around them.

I have no idea if consumers will seek out publisher's websites to purchase books. If given the incentive—lower pricing, peer reviews and recommendations, convenience, and availability—they should. Publishers make a product and should be able to control the avenues of sales to some extent. But at the moment, it looks like Amazon will continue to keep a tight grip on the business of selling books.

Finding your audience

Having to venture into the world of publisher's websites, I felt assaulted by all the flash. I started with publishers that immediately came to mind—Macmillan, Putnam (Penguin), HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster, and Random House. The homepages for these sites had book covers blazing across the page, videos, pop-up menus, and all sorts of bling and virtual bombast. There is something for everyone, which makes perfect sense for publishers with countless imprints and titles in every conceivable category. Of the large publishing sites I visited, I found Macmillan the least offensive if only because nothing was moving and it was well organized. I especially liked the banner at the top where you could scroll book by book through the featured titles.

Next, I searched for smaller publishers. I tend to buy books about cooking, gardening, design, and computer software, so I compared a few sites with a similar focus. I started with Peachpit Press and O'Reilly. Since I use a Mac and work with graphics software, I expected to prefer Peachpit and my expectations were met. I think O'Reilly's site does a good job targeting their audience of sophisticated computer users, but Peachpit incorporates a sleeker design and has a stronger aesthetic appeal—important for Mac users, though the yellow is, uh, wrong.

Many of the cookbooks in my collection are published by imprints of one of the large publishing houses; however, I found plenty to love at Chronicle Books, W. W. Norton, and Ten Speed Press. The three sites are very different. Chronicle offers books on art/design, food, pop culture, and lifestyle, and their site's colorful and eye-catching design reflects their editorial focus. Ten Speed is also colorful and energetic, but it feels jumbled, chaotic, and unprofessional. I found Ten Speed titles through the Culinate Magazine website, and it was a much more appealing display of their cookbook titles. The Norton site is about as anti-flash as you can get. The browse recent books page is all text, with a laundry list of author/title divided into categories. It's either a fly-in-the-face rejection of current web marketing, or they don't have a penny to spend on a web designer.

I couldn't end my website survey without a look at McSweeney's. The site hits the perfect pitch by combining a personal, laid-back approach with a dose of humor.  They know how to speak to their audience and make you want to join their club. And with their sale prices and combo subscription offers, I found it difficult to resist their persuasive powers. Of the websites I visited, I found McSweeney's did the best job at understanding and speaking to their audience.