Marketing Monday: Full Circle Trends

Talking to a friend this week, she mentioned that lace was coming back in the quilting world. She was off to get certified in a special type of product lace this week and it came up how trends come around. Thinking about this, I wondered if there were any old trends coming back in book marketing. Then I found this...

Simply amazing! LOL! But I also looked up other things too...

Here's my findings:

• There use to be a thing as "penny-dreadfuls" in the Victorian era. They were short, suspenseful horror stories no more the size of a novella today. I'm seeing more and more novellas probably due to people's perceived time shortages.
• In the beginning of publishing, there were no agents or huge company publishers -- everyone was self-published. Self-publishers are now outselling "traditional" authors. But if you really think about it -- self-publishing was the "traditional" way of getting your book in print.
• Free is starting to come back, but really when was free ever rejected? Free is not the reject -- but poor execution is. No longer can you slap a cover on and skip the editing to attract readers. You need a good product. Free is also suspicious because it could be just another way to unload junk. But if you turn around a hard back copy of Jim Butcher and  in mint condition for free -- are you going to say "no thanks!", I wouldn't.
• Independent bookstores are finding ways to regain a resurgence. Or as above with the ikea bookbook, print is still a beloved way of reading.
  

ACTION ITEM: Time to look at the past to see what works and what doesn't.