By Matthew Flamm
Published: August 10, 2008 - 5:59 am

After it was published in May, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder received no mainstream coverage. Maybe the media avoided the nonfiction title because of its controversial stance, or they figured people had tired of hearing about an unpopular president.

The book made best-seller lists anyway.

Now the latest title by former Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has become publishing's favorite example of how the Web can move books. A campaign that blanketed blogs with excerpts, podcasts, author videos and advertising has led to sales of more than 60,000 copies of The Prosecution, according to publisher Vanguard Press, part of the Perseus Books Group. A total of 140,000 copies are in print.

"There's no question [the Web] drove sales," says Vanguard Publisher Roger Cooper. "It drove word-of-mouth across-the-board."

The Internet is gaining ground as a marketing vehicle for books just as traditional outlets are pulling back. Newspapers—most recently the Los Angeles Times—are cutting their book review sections. Today and Good Morning America dropped their regular book segments long ago.

Bookstore chains are further hiking the fees they charge publishers for displaying titles in prime locations.

Even Oprah's Book Club has reduced the number of its selections—which means fewer blockbusters for the industry.

Increasingly, publishers are looking to the Web to connect readers with books. They're advertising on targeted sites and pitching bloggers to review and discuss titles that jibe with their concerns and sensibilities.

"The blog world is a million little Oprahs," says M.J. Rose, founder of AuthorBuzz, an online marketing firm that handled media buying for The Prosecution.

Because they reach a targeted audience at relatively low cost, blogs are an efficient marketing tool. While a half-page black-and-white ad in USA Today costs $53,000, a two-week online campaign on a network of small Web sites can go for as little as $3,000 to $5,000 and reach 2 million to 3 million people, Ms. Rose says.

Publicity also comes cheaper online, says Fauzia Burke, president of FSB Associates, which connected Vanguard with the right bloggers. Her services for a two-month campaign are priced at $5,000, about half of what a publicist could charge for getting a book noticed through traditional outlets.

Earthquake-proof

Web campaigns don't succeed with every book, of course. The Prosecution was more Web-friendly than many: Mr. Bugliosi is a well-known writer, and his subject was catnip for left-wing bloggers.

Critics of the book industry say that publishers were slow to understand the Internet's potential and remain far from where they need to be.

"Publishers haven't made the seismic shift," says a consultant. "You still have publicists banging their heads against the wall trying to get an author on Today."

The industry undoubtedly feels the pressure to change. Unit sales of trade books were flat in 2007 and are projected to decline 2% this year, according to the Book Industry Study Group. Revenues are forecast to rise just 1%, to $15.2 billion.

Even if they haven't made the "seismic shift," publishers are working at it. Web-savvy publicists and marketers are the most sought-after new hires, and digital initiatives are being announced nearly every day.

"Everybody's experimenting," says Michael Morrison, president of the trade books division at HarperCollins, which has been testing online giveaways. Sales of Neil Gaiman's American Gods rose 250% after the house made it free to read on the Web for a limited time.

Changing formats

Other successes include Holt Paperbacks' new best-seller, Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, which started out as a podcast. The publisher built a Web site around the property before releasing the book—a model it is using to launch other titles in the Quick and Dirty Tips series.

Scribner has adapted animated Webisodes from the Stephen King short story "N.," which will be published in a new collection in November. Right after their release last month, the videos shot to No. 1 in the iTunes animation category.

The possibilities for digital marketing appear endless—which is one of its drawbacks.

"It costs more in time than in money," says Betsy Hulsebosch, director of creative marketing for Bantam Dell, which recently ran a successful YouTube campaign for Odd Hours, by Dean Koontz. "You have to be careful."

The expensive efforts tend to involve brand-name authors, but executives say that eventually those techniques will also be used for lesser-known writers. Their hope lies with the blogs for now, however.

"We can say, 'OK, we lost the L.A. Times [book review], but wow, there are literary bloggers and other sites supporting books,'" Ms. Burke says. "They're coming through for us, and they sell our books."