One of the ways my library markets our fiction collection is
that new fiction books are showcased on our website. Every time the homepage is
reloaded, four more new fiction books appear on our homepage. I love that the
books that are showcased are different each time the page is accessed. If the
patron sees a book they are interested in, they simply click the book cover and
it takes the patron to our catalog to see more details about the book or to see
if the book is in or checked out. There is also a link for New Materials and if
you go to that page, each genre in new fiction is listed and the patron can see
a list of the newest titles that have arrived at the library for their favorite
genre. They can also get to the more details page from this list as well.
I think an interesting way to market fiction is to market
ebooks. If the library is focusing their marketing on Overdrive, for example,
it is really easy to slip in all the fiction books that are available in ebook
form through Overdrive. Ebook readers and fiction go hand in hand. You really
can’t show how the applications work without highlighting the books that are
offered. It’s a really good way to sneak in some fiction marketing.
And I think a great old standby is the display.
I love doing displays when there is something going on in the world that our
fiction collection can reflect. For example, there are plenty of political
thrillers out there for the current presidential campaigns going on. A great
display of these will not only entice patrons with the titles in the display
but will also pull them into the fiction section to search out some more titles
either having to do with politics or they may find something else they like. Of
course when movies come out that were popular books, this is another chance to
display that book and surround it in the display with other books with the same
theme. There are so many things you can do with displays. A lot of libraries
are displaying the Dr. Who full size characters to get patrons interested in
the DVDs, books and graphic novels.
As an OverDrive user, you are absolutely correct stating that "Ebook readers and fiction go hand in hand." Personally, I find myself reading a lot more fiction because of my eReader and because my home library uses OverDrive. I used to read exclusively nonfiction in my pre-KIndle days but this has certainly changed and I feel this has broadened my horizons as a reader and an aspiring librarian (however, I wish more nonfiction titles were offered through OverDrive).
ReplyDeleteI really need to suggest that we showcase our new books online to my Library. The YA department head does it, but I think the Adult Department does it too. One cool thing the AV Department does is they send out an e-news letter to patron's emails showcasing their new stuff.
ReplyDeleteWe're working on better marketing our ebooks. We have Freading. We've just started to ask patrons to fill out a survey about our services, and we're finding out that although we have things posted about the service in the library and online that people don't know that we have it. I'm not sure how we can remedy the situation.
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