St. Martin's Press is testing a "try before you buy" model for promoting the sale of their about to be released books. "Read It First" is an experiment in marketing the company is launching via e-mail to a growing number on its customer list. The idea is to build a list of subscribers who wish to "test read" books before they are published. And the way it works is that every day an e-mail containing an excerpt that would take about five minutes to read is sent to the subscriber. By the end of the week, the reader will have gone through the first chapter or two. The subscription is free, but to continue reading the book beyond the excerpts, the subscriber must purchase the book.St. Martin's publishes about 700 books per year.

This experiment is another example of the Long Tail marketing concept I discussed previously in a post on this blog. St. Martin's is using this innovative approach to reach an increasing number of customers with products that meet their specific needs. Rather than trying to sell several million copies of a few titles through conventional methods such as bookstores, libraries, and book clubs, the publisher is trying to sell many copies of 700 titles to many individuals.

Authors who wish to publish their own works may be able to launch a similar service on Twitter where subscribers interested in the subject of their books may sign up to receive the daily excerpts. At the end of the free dissemination, there is a potential customer who may just want to purchase the book. And nothing is lost in trying.