Promotion of a book in the publishing Internet discourse

Abstract

The relevance of this research is substantiated by sustained interest in the study of discourse applicable to various social institutions. Publishing discourse appeared in the limelight of the linguists not that long ago. The activity of publishers as a discursive practice intersects with the activity of commercial organizations and libraries. The communication of publishers with other actors in the process of book distribution is also carried via Internet. The goal of this research lies in examination of the means of book promotion in the online publishing discourse. The study leans on the material of the three websites of the English-language publishers. Analysis is conducted on the verbal text and audio-visual communication channels between the publishers and the audience. The analysis of practical material demonstrates that the publisher’s abstract implements the informational and evaluation functions. The additional sources of information on the publisher imply the citations from peer reviews, information about the author, various polycode texts (images and videos), as well as hypertext links to other commercial resources. The leading role in implementation of the informational-advertising functional is assigned to lexicon. Namely the nouns and adjectives affect the appellative-emotional functions. Perlocutive effect of the publisher’s abstract is enhanced by inclusion of citation text, both from the promoted work and reputable sources (newspapers and journals). Citations from peer reviews are usually presented fragmentary, and contain only complimentary statements, which form the attractive image of the book. The conducted research contributes to the development of marketing linguistics, the study of publisher’s paratext, publishing activity as discursive practice, and has prospects for further research in the area of marketing strategies aimed at promotion of books of various formats and genres on the offline and online platforms.