This way or that

In October, 99 Readers held a poll on Sina Weibo to decide on the cover design for a reprinted Chinese edition of Different Seasons to celebrate a decade of the book, which is a collection of Stephen King's novellas.

"We have always adapted the one with a bird on it. This time, we got the authorization for the film poster. So we wanted to know what readers think about the cover," Dong says.

An interesting phenomenon is that those who have read the novel chose the original cover but those who hadn't, found the movie poster more appealing.

"Readers (the majority) found the bird cover fits the novel better. So the new edition will continue with the same cover," she says.

Similar online activities were held by Horizon Media when it was publishing a Chinese edition of the Lord of the Rings series in 2013. The publishing house asked Sina Weibo users to submit their designs for the cover and vote for their favorite one once the final nominations were put out.

Polling online is a good way to publicize a book, says Deng Jing, operations editor of New World Press. When they were working on the autobiography of Italian soccer star Andrea Pirlo, fans were invited to vote for a potential cover design. New World Press then sent their most popular choice to Pirlo before releasing the results online.

"It attracted a lot of attention to the book. Voters tend to buy such books because they were involved in the production," Deng says.

But a good way for traditional publishers to reach accurate reader groups is to combine online and offline promotional activities, Deng adds.

"Usually we host offline activities themed on certain subjects. And we use online platforms to broadcast them."

For example, the book Nature Principle is not for all readers, Deng says. It has a specific target.

"We collaborate with organizations dealing in natural science to host some activities. The readers who are interested in the theme will come to the activities or read our online broadcasts. That's how we get the most accurate groups," Deng says. "But for mass reading, we don't do pre-sale publicity."

"Pure online activities are comparatively ineffective and superficial. The combination of online and offline activities help us to communicate with readers more effectively," she adds.

But no matter how technology developes, "the most important thing is still book quality", Yilin's Li says.