Around 200 new books are being published everyday, not only a few times you find yourself in the situation of discovering a new book and saying “Oh, this kind of book was here” at the section other than new-released books.
Nowadays, it has become a convenient world where you can easily collect information on the Internet, but where do you get the information on books?
So, this time, I took the survey of where people getting that information by giving as many options of that route as possible.
Oh, even there are some people who say “nothing”.
You find the book you (on the spot)?
If you look at the result of survey, you can see there are a lot of answers of “POPs (advertisement fliers) and flat loading products at bookstores” which indicates “many books you want to buy can be found at bookstores!”. After all it looks like people feel easy and comfortable to buy books with their own eyes on the spot.
I am also one of the “groups finding the books in bookstores”, and if I see a book placed flat on a shelf of my favorite genre in a bookstore or a corner created by a clerk, I will see at a glance. As there are a huge amount of books, it’s also quite difficult to find the book I want to read (it’s fun to look for, though), so I think it’s easy to look for if there is a particular corner in place.
Power of TV, newspaper
We can not underestimate the power by television and newspaper for getting the information. In terms of “TV programs,” there are cases where the information spreads like wildfire because of “popular entertainers introducing”, etc., or like when a comedian, Mr. Matayoshi, received the Akutagawa Prize (one of the most valuable prize for authors) for his book “sparks”, it was taken up actively on the news.
Of course, there may be more opportunities of information to be found in commercials and so on, and there may be people who read through the book review section of the newspaper. Depending on the bookstore, there may be a corner of “Books whose reviews have been published in ○ ○ Newspapers.”
I also have an experience of working at bookstore, and there were many cases that customers who had newspaper clippings of particular books often asked for those inventory confirmation, and it seems that there are not a few cases where a book review etc. finds a book to be read.
Effective use of SNS is also effective
Among the results, there are 7.0% of popular social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and it seems that many people use it effectively. Facebook may be used mostly for socializing with friends, but on Twitter with strong anonymity you can relatively easily follow an account that you are interested in. You can follow the account of a bookstore clerk or editor of a magazine you are interested in, and get information of such as recommended books.
Also, it seems that more and more people are using reading records in the image type SNS / Instagram. If you add images and a comment on the book you read and add a hash tag such as “#Reading”, you will receive comments from other users, or recommendation like “If you like that book, read this”. You can meet books in this way as well.
Interleaved adverts will also be helpful
Ads sandwiched in a book. I look through those quite often. I do not check carefully, but I just briefly go through. As it is about a book by the author of the book that I bought before, or a new issue from the same publisher, it will be an opportunity to search for a new book.
Recently, there are cases where advertisements are in the form of reductions of the first 10 to 20 pages of that comic. Being able to read part of the actual work is helpful when choosing.
By the way, I have heard that Obi (strip on the dust cover which often shows some phrases of quick review of the book) is created by the editor in charge of the book. There are many books that make the contents of the book easy to understand and concise, but there are also some Obi of books that have an interesting catch copy which amazes us like “It’s a great idea!” You may often look at it without any attention, but if you look at it consciously, you may be able to meet a book that has not been encountered before.
What is the flat loading corner of an online bookstore?
By the way, I have mainly written in the image of a real bookstore so far, but what happens if this is applied to an online bookstore? Since we do not have books in our hands online, we can not look at obi and clip ads, but there is an equivalent of the flat loading corner or the POP ads. That is a corner of “Product recommended for you” and a corner of “○○ special feature” on the site.
You can see both in the BOOKOFF online ↓↓
◆ Recommended products
◆ Special feature list
There are various genres and perspectives, so please search for your favorite one! We will continue to add more in the future.
In search of information on interesting books
How was that? There is no doubt that it’s easy to choose the one you like if you are at the storefront, because you can get the book itself directly, but there are many other opportunities for us to find the information about the book.
The masterpiece for me could be a work that I have never seen before. It is fun to discover new sources and to check various sources from time to time.
※ We refuse the diversion only of questionnaire result of article publication.
This content is originally created by BOOKOFF ONLINE in Japan.