Hachette Tests Book Sales Using Twitter

Posted on December 8, 2014

Hachette Book Group is launching a new sales platform: Twitter. Hachette has teamed up with Gumroad to sell select titles from within a Twitter feed. Authors will tweet about their new books and offer a link to purchase the title. The books selected for the new purchasing platform will each have an exclusive bonus item.

The initiative launches on December 11, 2014. The first book being offered is The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer. Purchasers of Amanda Palmer's book will receive an original manuscript page with notes from Amanda, her husband Neil Gaiman and the book's editor.

On December 15th, readers can purchase ex-astronaut Chris Hadfield's book, You Are Here. The book comes with a signed original photo and an aerial image of the island of Corfu. On the 18th, The Onion will promote its book, The Onion Magazine: The Iconic Covers That Transformed an Undeserving World. The book will be available directly from The Onion's Twitter page. Purchasers will also receive a set of 12 notecards featuring the editors' favorite magazine covers.

Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch explained why Hachette was testing a new way to sell books on social media: "With so much of our book marketing done socially now, in-stream Twitter purchasing is a natural next step." Pietsch also pointed to Gumroad's success doing similar promotions with musical artists and labels who have an established social media base."

If the promotions go well, Hachette will expand the platform to more titles.