See you at the London Book Fair!
So are you all set for your three-day mini-break to Earls Court? If you’re at the London Book Fair this week,
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Author: Jon Reed
Kassia Krozser at TOC 2011
Many of you will know Kassia Krozser’s excellent Booksquare blog. Here she is talking to Mac Slocum at at O’Reilly
Read MoreHow Twitter propelled a republished book up the Kindle charts
Amazing things can happen on Twitter if you catch the eye of an ‘influencer’ or two.
Sarah Salway’s Something Beginning With was first published in 2004. Although it had a blog, this was in the days before Twitter, Facebook, and the huge word of mouth possible to achieve with them.
In November 2010 it was republished by the Friday Project. Within a week, it went from nowhere to the top 250 in the Kindle charts. How did this happen?
How to Customize your Facebook page
A Facebook page is a great way to promote your book: you can use it to connect with your readers, encourage discussions around the topic of your book, automatically pull in your latest blog postings, and send updates to your fans.
By default, a Facebook page has tabs for Wall, Info, Photos, Discussions and Boxes, with the Wall tab being the first thing you see. But you can also personalize your page with a customized tab that offers more information about your book, draws people in and gives them a clear call to action. You can even make it the first thing people see when they visit your page for the first time. Follow these 5 easy steps, and you too can have a customized Facebook page.
Seth Godin quits traditional publishing
By Seth Godin on Seth Godin’s Blog: Authors need publishers because they need a customer. Readers have been separated from
Read More2010: A Publishing Odyssey
Über-agent Andrew “the Jackal” Wylie has hatched an audacious plot. Or maybe he has just seen the future. Either way, he has disintermediated the publishers he works with – for ebooks at least. With last week’s launch of Odyssey Editions, his Kindle-only ebook imprint, a range of his authors are now available digitally for the first time. To me, this seems inevitable. Many authors and their agents get the new digital realities – and, more importantly, the opportunities – while too many publishing discussions still focus on a protectionist response to the ‘threat’ of digital. If publishers won’t grasp digital, authors and agents will.
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Are you too big for social media?
There are natural advantages to being a small, independent publisher when it comes to social media marketing. But, big or small, there’s a social media marketing strategy for you. Just keep it appropriate to your type of organization, make sure you engage your audience, and go for a personal voice – whether that is you and/or your authors.
Read MoreLondon Book Trade Tweetups? There's a Facebook group for that.
What could be nicer than a summer’s evening with a couple of dozen book trade tweeters, a vast picnic spread and lashings of Pimms and champagne? #booktwicnic, the latest London book trade tweetup, took place on Thursday evening in Regent’s Park, attended by the usual mix book trade folk.
Read MoreLondon Book Fair Digital Conference
Publishers get real about digital as they are told: “This industry doesn’t owe you a living”.
I was lecturing at Birkbek yesterday, on digital publishing, social media marketing – and men in their pants in Basingstoke. For this was the key takeaway message for me at this year’s London Book Fair Digital Conference, which I attended and live-tweeted last weekend: if publishers don’t produce digital content, such as apps, there are plenty of men in their basements in Basingstoke in their pants who will.
Publishing Twitterati Flock Together at the London Book Fair
The publishing Twitterati were out in force at the London Book Fair last night, for London Book Tweet – the official tweetup organised by the London Book Fair and Publishing Talk. Despite a little ash-depletion, 50-odd publishers, authors, agents, journalists, trade association representatives and other book trade folk squeezed a bit of tweeting-up in between ligging drinks at various stands and going on to the Canongate party. Many thanks to all who came, and to those who made it all possible with their creative contributions.
Read MoreLondon Book Tweet – bring on the Twitterwall!
Are you at the London Book Fair on Tuesday 20th April? If so, there are still places at the London Book Tweet After Party! London Book Tweet is the official tweetup of the London Book Fair, organized jointly by the London Book Fair and Publishing Talk. The publishing Twitterati will be out in force, tweeting, drinking and networking with fellow publishers, authors, agents, journalists and other book industry folk – and we’d love you to join us!
Read MoreThe Future of Magazines
Many have seen online magazines and newspapers as a threat to revenues – notably Rupert Murdoch. But what if you could create content and a user experience so compelling that people would willingly pay for it? We’re already seeing signs of this with iPhone apps. The iPad could take things a stage further. I talked about the Minority Report moment on this blog back in 2007. I also said magazines would get there before books. With the iPad, I’d say that moment is pretty much here. And the magazine will be WIRED – coming to an iPad near you this summer.
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