Impact of Citations on Book Purchase
Citations play a huge factor in academic book purchasing, a fact that creates a self-reinforcing cycle between scholarly credibility and commercial viability. When a scholar references your work, they’re affirming that it’s a fundamental contribution to a specific area of study; those references carry the added weight of personal judgement, which can also sway individual purchases and institutional collection-development (Leitão et al., 2018; Nguyen et al., 2019). Citation data is an important factor for academic libraries in the selection of resources. Highly cited books make high citation threshold, which in turn are likely to be purchased by university libraries, who constitute a major market for academic books and will offer potential readers and citers additional entry points to access those books.
Citation Impact on Academic Credibility
High citation counts are quality indicators that shape the perceptions of your book’s value and relevance to potential readers (Shi et al., 2017). Academic readers are accustomed to judging books by citations, which provide an invaluable indicator of use to interested buyers, library requesters, or even recommenders to students and co-workers. This credibility is not limited to individual readers, but is also enjoyed by various bodies that make institutional decisions. Citation impact is often a factor in departmental chair decisions, tenure review, and grant review, and, although harder to gauge directly, may influence book sales through professional recommendations and course adoptions.
Building Citation Momentum
To enhance the effects of references on the sales of a book, concentrate on the methods prompting early adoption of references.
Strategic Review Targeting
If you know of scholars in your field who are well-regarded, ask them to review the book for major academic journals. Many times positive reviews lead to citations which lead to sales.
Course Adoption Efforts
Use your publisher to push your book for course adoption, as assigned reading produces multiple citations in student research papers and in faculty course materials.
Open Access Components
Offer the text for open access to some extent as greater visibility is often linked with higher citations and therefore sales of the entire product.
Long-Term Citation Strategy
Take a long-term strategy to citations by staying involved with your research community. Answer scholars who use your book, engage in scholarly conversations in which your study appears, and keep publishing related research that extends the contributions of the book. Citations are an enduring source of value for your academic books, and you will continue to see sales long after publication as new researchers encounter your work through literature reviews and as your argument becomes absorbed into the ongoing scholarly conversations. This long-tail effect is what makes citation optimization such an important part of long-term academic book marketing.
Also read Increase Book Citations (SB5-1 L3)
Learn more in Citation and Referencing (SB3-3 L1)
See the Most Cited Publishers (SB6-2 L3) for more resources
Further Reading: Book Visibility Tips (SB5-1 L4)
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References
Leitão, L., Amaro, S., Henriques, C., & Fonseca, P. (2018). Do consumers judge a book by its cover? A study of the factors that influence the purchasing of books. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 42, 88-97.
Nguyen, H. V., Huy, L. V., Nguyen, T. N., Dinh, V. S., & Tran, V. T. (2019). The role of social media in the purchase of books: empirical evidence from Vietnam’s publishing industry. Publishing Research Quarterly, 35(4), 704-709.
Shi, F., Shi, Y., Dokshin, F. A., Evans, J. A., & Macy, M. W. (2017). Millions of online book co-purchases reveal partisan differences in the consumption of science. Nature Human Behaviour, 1(4), 0079.
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