With some estimates pegging the total number of English-language books currently in print at 28 million, it can be a challenge to find the perfect title for mom this Mother’s Day.
Publisher Penguin Random House Canada hopes to make the task a little easier, introducing an online “hotline” aimed at helping people find the perfect book.
PenguinHotline.com asks users to fill in a form asking the age of the person they’re buying for, as well as provide insights into their favourite books, writers and magazines, and their hobbies and other interests.
While we live in an age where algorithms increasingly predict our next favourite book or TV show, the PenguinHotline.com is people powered. Two people will coordinate the requests and divide them among in-house volunteers who will match their interests with a specific title. There’s even a caution on the page that states: “This human touch means it may take us a few days to get back to you.”
Penguin has also enlisted what it calls “super-suggesters” — in-house staffers who work on particular types of books like kids, non-fiction and cookbooks, to make recommendations based on their specific area of expertise.
The hotline was originally launched in the U.S. to coincide with the busy holiday shopping period. In December, the site garnered more than 32,000 page views, 26,300 visitors and 3,600 requests, recommending more than 10,000 books.
The hotline was the brainchild of Penguin Publishing Group president Madeline McIntosh, who based the idea on the famed Butterball Turkey Hotline, where home cooks could call a toll-free number for advice on how to cook their turkey.
The Penguin Hotline’s recommendations are also publisher agnostic.
“Our goal is to be 100% authentic and for our volunteers to recommend books they have personally read and love, whether they are [Penguin Random House] books or not,” said Beth Lockley, vice-president of publicity and marketing at Penguin Canada.
“Our rationale on making this publisher agnostic is to ensure we are recommending the very best books that match the [stated] interests.”
Lockley said Mother’s Day is one of the key sales periods for Penguin, ranking just behind March Break.
The program is being supported by an organic social media campaign, and print ads appearing in the Toronto Star and Hello! Canada. An additional ad will appear in the National Post on May 5, coinciding with the paper’s Afterword Reading. A paid social campaign is running through May 3.
