BOOK publishers are facing upheaval as new technology threatens to derail the publishing industry but the sector is fighting back by using social media as a key marketing tool.
Random House Australia is the latest publisher to achieve strong book sales results on the back of a social-media campaign. The publisher has used Facebook and YouTube to connect with readers, which has propelled the third book in US author Lauren Kate's Fallen series to No. 1 on the Nielsen BookScan bestseller list each week since its June 14 launch.
Random House Australia has used social-media channels for the past couple of years, fine-tuning its approach along the way. The results are impressive given that the rise of technology, including e-books, is proving a big challenge for publishers.