10. Involve the customer in publishing decisions.
Soliciting the advice of loyal fans strengthens both catalogs and consumer ties, Sousa notes. “[One] of the cooler things we do in our book clubs is survey book titles,” she says. “For example, people in our Northlight [fine art] book club … are very passionate about the art-instruction books. We survey them with potential Northlight title ideas, and we get a huge response. What’s really nice about that is that we can go back, and when we publish a book that they’ve weighed in on, we can say, ‘This truly was something you asked for and helped us to develop.’ It’s an intriguing way of getting the customer involved in your product.”
22 Tips for Building Communities
10. Involve the customer in publishing decisions.
Soliciting the advice of loyal fans strengthens both catalogs and consumer ties, Sousa notes. “[One] of the cooler things we do in our book clubs is survey book titles,” she says. “For example, people in our Northlight [fine art] book club … are very passionate about the art-instruction books. We survey them with potential Northlight title ideas, and we get a huge response. What’s really nice about that is that we can go back, and when we publish a book that they’ve weighed in on, we can say, ‘This truly was something you asked for and helped us to develop.’ It’s an intriguing way of getting the customer involved in your product.”