Jamie Broadhurst on Marketing, PUB 350 and more

The Publishing Program treasures the publishing community who are an integral part of our academic programs for undergraduate and graduate students. With many industry instructors, panelists, guests to our faculty run classes, our students come to understand and practice the most current job-ready skills and approaches to problem solving and creativity in the publishing world.

We interviewed Jamie Broadhurst, long-time sessional lecturer when he dropped by our office as we prepared for our annual Emerging Leaders in Publishing Summit for graduate students, faculty and industry professionals.

Jamie, you have been VP Marketing at Raincoast Books and also teaching the Marketing for Book Publishing course in our program for many years. How has marketing in publishing changed over time?  What are some of the key skills and methods emerging today, and what do you find most exciting about the new marketing landscape?

JB: I think the biggest change is that publishers used to think they could “make a book” through advertising and publicity, and bookstore co-op spending… and now we believe that we can’t make a book, but we can make a successful book far more successful.

In class I discuss this shift from a “strong theory of marketing” to a “weak theory of marketing.” It isn’t that marketing isn’t effective, but we are just more modest, and perhaps realistic, as to how we can support authors, retailers and libraries, and together find those elusive readers.

And this is the most exciting aspect of book marketing; we are witnessing the creation of fan driven publishing where readers, especially readers in their twenties, are transforming whole categories of publishing.  The biggest renewable resource in publishing is reader enthusiasm and for certain types of books and authors, that enthusiasm has never been higher.

Tell us about the course you teach within the Publishing program at SFU...

JB: I have been teaching PUB 350 for fifteen years , so I share with the class the trends and controversies as they happen: the final Harry Potter launches, the Young Adult Revolution, the development of  e-books and their implications for publishers, retailers and libraries and the rise and fall of massive trends—do you remember Adult Colouring Book fad?  And now perhaps the biggest trend of all: The explosion in Romance and Romantasy publishing.  

I try and establish that each of these phenomena can be understood by looking at underlying marketing principles. But hopefully the class also sees the real-world humility of how people working in publishing must always wrestle with the vexing truth that we work in a semichaotic industry where Nobody Knows Anything. Or at the very least, we function with very accurate information of what has already happened, but very little information or reliable signals on what will happen.

What are some of the key areas you and your students are looking to learn and develop the course you teach? 

JB: The feedback I get from my students is they like the practical aspect of the class—we look at real life business cases and the students think through and write about the practicalities of putting together marking plans for real books that they choose.

So many students come away from your course saying they love your class!  Any thoughts on why?

JB: It is not me; it is the topic and the fact that many students find other students who are readers, or share the same taste in books.

The best classes are the classes when students learn as much from each other as from anything I am sharing.

This week, MPub hosts its annual Emerging Leaders in Publishing Summit. Are there any insights you will be sharing in your presentation and conversations at this special event for our students, faculty and industry professionals?

JB: I will set the context for our Editorial and Design Landscape panel with observations related to the fact that in publishing, so many different people wear a marketing hat, even when they don’t work in a marketing department. Some of the greatest book marketers have been editors, publishers, salespeople, and agents.

And I will be on a panel looking at retailer marketing/buyer/account strategies. It will be fantastic to hear from Ruth Linka, Publisher at Orca Books and Megan Radford, Sales Manager at Greystone Books — they are so plugged into the Canadian indie scene and know the challenges of opening export markets.

I want to bring up some ideas around new audiences.  For example, last year digital audiobooks outsold ebooks for the first time.  Thank you, Spotify. How do we leverage people listening to books while at the gym, or gardening, or shopping to become permanent habitual readers?

And on the downside: the US has some major book retailers who do not exist in Canada or who are going away in Canada. The English Canadian retail book market is roughly7.5%  the size of the US market. What if Canada “shrinks”?

Is book marketing different from marketing other publishing media? In what ways are they alike?

JB: We are different in that whenever a consumer buys a books they are doing so without the aid of a consumer brand backing up their choice. People watch Netflix but do they actively search out a book from Raincoast or a book from for example, Simon & Schuster?

This is why Scholastic and Penguin are such rarities – they are recognizable consumer facing brands. But they are the exceptions that prove the rule.

So, for almost each book that is published, say 250,000 new books in North America a year, each book is unique product launch.

How are we the same? Books, film and music try and guess where popular taste is going. But Nobody Knows Anything. We still are making only educated guesses. Even Netflix.

What would a student who is interested in publishing but not necessarily book publishing learn in your class?

JB: They will learn about the contours of the market for trade books.  And though the technologies and tactics will constantly change, the underlying fundamentals of the book market remain constant. So it is helpful to have the map of the trade market in your mind if you want to be an author, retailer, agent, or editor.

Tell us about why you enjoy teaching in the SFU Publishing program

JB: I love teaching my course. I have been able to think more clearly about the changes in the industry because I know that every Friday, I need to try an explain what is happening in my world to a   room of highly intelligent non-experts.

And I have learned so much from my students, some of whom have gone on to become colleagues.

I remember a student once saying after taking this class they were going to try and read a book every month for fun. I have never received a better compliment in my life.

And it is because of the environment the students create in the classroom. People come to love all sorts of books and on their own terms.

Thank you Jamie for sharing your insights with our students and with us today!

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