Even in good economic times, book sales only inch up, or stay stagnant. Revenue increases seem to be tied to jumps in the retail prices of books vs. new buyers, or readers purchasing more (or even more of the same).

In England, publisher Hachette has thrown down the gauntlet in the hopes of piercing the foot of the Internet giant, Amazon.com. It seems that more than half of book revenues go directly to the bookseller, and the publisher—whose stable includes authors Kate Mosse, Alexander McCall Smith, James Patterson, Stephen King and Dan Cruickshank—isn't going to take it anymore.

According to this article in the London Telegraph, Tim Hely Hutchinson, Hachette's CEO, points out that publishers across the pond have given away 1 percent of sales a year to the retail behemoth, and that within three years, Amazon soon will be the biggest retailer in Britain.

In retaliation, Amazon has dropped the "buy new" button on both Hachette's front and backlist authors' book pages.

As in the United States, independent bookstores in England are dropping like flies. When you think about it the chains—or one big one, Borders—isn’t doing so well, either. Years ago Borders did a deal with Amazon to handle its online sales. As of this week, that agreement ended—perhaps too late for Borders. In hindsight, an investment in its own online bookstore would have been better than splitting revenue with Amazon, which grew at Borders’ expense.

For years now, the publishing industry (and not just in England) has allowed retailing giants to push it around, at the expense of its natural allies: independent bookstores, and authors. Like Chamberlain with Hitler, small concessions were made time and again. The result: smaller retail competitors succumbed, publishers margins were shaved, and less break-out authors were seen, and retail prices went up—despite the cost of printing going down.

Then again, big buys of lead authors’ books—and promises to throw midlisters on the shelves—made the pact with the giants a bean counter’s no-brainer.

If brick-and-mortar is to survive—and publishers along with it—then the time has come for one very important albeit underutilized marketing factor: Promotion.

Book promotion has always been somewhat lacking in publishers’ marketing mix. Books are products, with unique audiences. Whereas your sales team should be working on instore distribution, your marketing team should be building awareness to each and every book: certainly easier said than done, I know.

And yes, it can be expensive.

It can also be innovative—without being expensive. And perhaps create sales as well.

But putting books in front of readers where you’ll find them (which is NOT just in bookstores) will increase sales—and perhaps motivate non-readers to pick up a book or two.

For example, why not put genre kiosks in specialty stores? In Victoria’s Secret, chick lit would do well. In Anthropologie, elegant coffee table books about home & garden and shelter would be a winner. Would Banana Republic give up some floor space for some lad lit, or quirky-alone breakout titles? At 40% margin on cover price, I’m guessing yes.

It also opens up the option of doing author signings in unique venues, creating a traffic draw for both the retailer and the author. And retailers promote! Department store ads are propping up newspapers, and they use radio.

Another suggestion: Publishers should get serious about creating their own online communities—by genre—then populate it with author interviews, author diaries, chats, excerpts, forums, factoids, giveaways, and on and on. The authors will be onboard, for sure. Personally, I don’t know an author who isn’t into promoting his or her book, either in person or on the web. USE US. ABUSE US. We want to keep writing.

In other words, promote it, and they will read.

But until marketing is taken seriously by the publishing industry, the usual crapshoot—you know, where authors are given small advances and the expectation is small sales (a couple of thousand books)—ensures that the return-on-investment will always be crappy for everyone involved.

You keep doing what you’re doing, and unfortunately, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.

A smaller piece of the pie.