Half Baked Beans From Book Publishing to Book Marketing
Half Baked Beans is a 3-year-old publishing house based In New Delhi that started off as a platform for aspiring authors to get their work published. Gradually it expanded into a reading and writing community embracing writers from all parts of the country and now, after 3 years, it has further branched out by taking a major creative plunge.
In publishing trade, there is a constant need to innovate in order to survive the competition and that gives way to new ideas and creative avenues. That is where Half Baked Beans carves its niche. For a comparatively new publishing house that does not belong to the established league of publications or the Family owned ones, it gets difficult to build an audience and branch out in such less time.
| Read Also : Not So Monotonous Story Of Chetan Soni, Founder of “Half Baked Beans”
But it DID!
Half Baked Beans – 3 Year Journey
Talking about its 3-year journey, Chetan Soni, Founder-Director at Half Baked Beans says, “ We started out in January 2014 as a launch pad for first-time writers to open the publishing pathways for those newbie’s who do not get a chance to showcase their talent. Since then we have experimented with our ideas and come up with something new. Book Marketing was one thing that we strategically wanted to foray into. It remains to be the most neglected aspect of the publishing industry and a lot of authors today are waking up to the idea of marketing their books.”
Why would a publishing house introduce an additional wing to their already flourishing publishing business? The answer to this lies in the vision of its founder.
He gets candid about their latest venture and opens up. “Books, like any other product, should be viewed as a marketing tool. It is as simple as that. It remains to be a significant form of Art and Literature but in the age of consumerism, there is no denying that it is a product in itself. From Chetan Bhagat to Amish Tripathi, all have realized that a book needs to be handled strategically.”
He further says, “According to the report, India has the maximum percentage of readers when it comes to the book market. This clearly is an indicator of the diversified book market in India that can be leveraged by Indian Authors to pierce through.
Book marketing has evolved to be a very important activity in the last 5 years with the onset of commercial writing and authors taking book marketing seriously. There is a growing realization among the authors that book marketing is not a generic term but an integrated approach towards book marketing that will help them reach out to a larger number of readers.”
About Book Marketing
The question arises why book marketing has evolved as a trade activity in last few years. It was never at the same pace as it is today and is expanding every single day.
It is very important for any debut author to reach out to the masses. An author cannot pierce through the readers market as it is heterogeneous in nature. A planned book marketing guide helps him to address his target audience in a more meaningful manner. For any debut author, it is important to create the visibility for his book. That is the stepping stone for the greater milestones. Book marketing takes the book to the readers and genuine audience.
In their 3 years into publishing trade, they have done a great deal of research on the Indian reading market. They put it up very aptly, “Brand building is essential not just for any product, but for the author too. To brand and market his book, he should be able to tap onto the vast potential present in the readers’ community. When a book reaches out through social media promotion and buzz, it takes baby steps towards building a brand.”
Half Baked Beans understands that book marketing is not a one day task; it takes a lot of efforts, engagement and innovative concept around the theme of the book to promote it. In this technology driven age, using the right technology mix and teaming it up with perfect communication channel can guarantee the visibility and credibility to the work.
Talking about the future, he says ” In India, readers are not impulsive buyers. So predicting sales would be a little too much, but what we can leverage is the vast readers’ segment and present our work before them. With the mushrooming of literary fests, literary awards and recognitions, workshops, it has become a great platform to market the authors work. At HBB we are exactly tapping on to this unused potential. Lack of a proper marketing agency and increasing woes of Authors being the main concern, we plan to streamline our book marketing wing in the coming times and expand as a publishing house that caters to the needs of readers, writers and authors.”
In case you are a published author and wish to have a look at their Book marketing guide, go through their Website Here | Half baked beans : Facebook
Or, alternatively, you can drop a mail on: Publish.halfbakedbeans@gmail.com