Why target consumers?

I think there are a couple of reasons that publishers’ websites are targeted toward consumers. The first is that, even if most consumers do not buy a book directly from the publishers’ site, most do expect a Web presence, and expect to be able to find information about titles and other information that is relevant to them as readers. I buy a good share of my books online, never from publishers’ sites, but I frequently check those sites to see what information there is. If I were to do a Google search for a book, and the publishers’ site didn’t come up, I would be thrown off. I want to see that the publisher is putting out information about the title, not just selling it through Amazon and forgetting about it.

Secondly, I think there is probably a status quo among publishers. A company is unlikely to reconfigure its website to target booksellers if none of the other publishers are doing so. Also, do booksellers even go to publishers’ websites for information about titles? It seems as though there is already a pretty well established system for publishers, bookbuyers/sellers, and distributors to exchange information. I wouldn’t think that the publishers’ website would be the first place a bookseller would go for information about a particular title. That information is likely going to be presented to the bookseller, without having to specifically seek it out.

Bottom line, while consumers may not buy titles directly from the publishers’ website, there still needs to be marketing targeting consumers. We learned that an incredibly small percentage of publishers’ income is from direct sales. But consumers are the end users. Though booksellers are the ones who make up the primary market for publishers, the consumer still has to buy the book at some point, or it is pointless for the bookseller to buy it in the first place.