Book and its mirror : advertising for books

Doing adversiting campaigns for their books is now a vital necessity for publishers. Some of them are held in bookstalls in order to incite people to a purchase. Other publishers prefer to deliver cards that the prospects have to send back to get more information. Intellectual criticisms on radio and TV can also be considered as advertising. Most of ail, placards in newspapers are very efficient. Now, one can meet posters promoting books on the walls in cities, and hear some spots on radio, especially on Monte-Carlo radio. However, because of statutory matter, no ads for books can be seen on French TV. But, a lot of them come out in newspapers mostly because papers need such investments. Newspapers publish many placards for books, designed either by the publishing house itself, when it shelters marketing department, or by a specialized advertising agency. In this area, «Le Monde and especially «Le Monde des Livres » is the most important papers. But one must tell that this kind of campaign is to be expensive : in 1978, one millimeter for ads cost between 8,50 and 15,00 French francs. The ad itself functions as a machinery designed for catching the eye of the reader and the technical and psychological devices chosen for this purpose could be usefully looked into : picture and text, type setting, page setting, references to everybody's mythology, excessive prize of the item, appeal to people's strong desire of possessing. When dealing with a specific title, the ad gets a textual and visual rhetoric, thanks to the emotional and intellectual connotations surrounding the book. Some publishing houses, whose production is too miscellaneous, support first of all their reputation and their trade mark
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