Talk Shows: A Great Way To Keep Up With All Things Publishing

The Naked Book. Host: Philip Jones

In my recent post titled, Let’s Have A Shindig, I wrote about a new platform called Shindig which was an online video chat platform for authors to interact with their readers/fans. Since then, I have come across publishing industry-related talk shows which share information about books, authors and publishing.
 

 One of such is the new initiative by Alan Goldsher called BOOK IT Using the same Shindig platform, the hour-long show brings us in contact with a range of guests that include authors, publishing professionals and more.

What's In A Name? Crafting Book Titles That Sell

The title of a book can become a selling tool to help sell a book. It does this by effectively conveying what the book is about or at least give an inkling of what lies between the pages (I have seen vague titles that intrigue me enough to search inside or download a few chapters. Mind you, I don’t do this all the time!). Get it wrong and authors and publishers alike leave prospective buyers scratching their heads as to what the book is about.

More often than not, people may not bother to read the back cover blurb or the contents page. Plus, matters are further complicated in a bookshop where the spine (and not always the cover) is facing outward. This means that even a beautiful cover design may not help. These days, one only gets a few seconds to convince a book reader to part with their hard earned cash.

Crowd Sourcing: Boost Sales Or Just A Nice To Have?

Published by
Hodder & Strouton

Crowd sourced books, a novel approach that involves the author (or publisher) collaborating with the readers, seems to be on the increase. The latest one I came across in Publishers Weekly was fantasy author Silvia Hartmann where she invited her readers to watch her write her new novel The Dragon Lords. The project called, the Naked Writer (and no, it is not what you think), invites readers to comment and provide feedback on chapters Silvia posts on a publicly visible Google document.

The Makings Of An Effective Book Cover

Books & Resources from GF Books

The fact is people DO judge a book by its cover. In my time, I have seen some great ones, creative ones, some out-of-the-box thinking ones, some I don’t get and some (quite frankly) shady or even in the abysmal category. The latter making me think, ‘what were you thinking?’ I have found all these categories both in the traditionally published books as well as self-published books.

Focusing on self-published books, after speaking to many aspiring/new authors and self-publishers, the reason for some of the sub-standard or ill-thought out covers has been due to their presumptions of the costs of book cover design.

Cheap eBooks: Is Cheap Really Cheerful, Long Term?

Are we cheapening eBooks? Setting The Publishing Industry For Failure?

 

First, we heard of cheap eBooks, then there was the flurry of £0.99p books followed by free books. Ok, whilst some are cheap(er) for a limited time, some remain so as a ploy to sell more books. But I wonder is this the best way forward.

According to John Locke, author of 'How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months', he believes this is the best way to position his self-published eBook titles against traditional and/or big publishing houses although his paperback versions are within the regular price bracket.

Can Independent Booksellers Survive Without Tapping Into The eBook Boom?

In years past, book sellers have relied on people walking into their shops to buy books. But sadly, the numbers of such have been diminishing through the years as we see the rise of online retailers, aided by modern technology, who not only offer physical books but digital books too. This means customers don’t have to leave the comforts of their offices, homes or even beds to purchase a book. The biggest, as we know, is Amazon which offers physical, eBooks and audio books. So, can booksellers afford not to join in?

Well, we have all seen the figures flying about over the past few years, as how eBooks have overtaken the sale of physical books. My last few years visiting the London Book Fair have seen an explosion of companies offering to either create eBooks or sell them for you.

Marketing Dilemma: Should Authors Do More To Sell Their Books?

Picture this: In one corner, we have authors with placards saying things like, ‘I'm a writer not a seller’ or ‘Selling is NOT my job’ and on the other corner, we have  Marketing and publicity experts with their placards saying, ‘thou must help us sell your book’ or ‘check your contract!’. And so the battle goes with each camp believing they are right.

 

Marketers will argue that authors need to get involved with the business of selling books. Whilst some (not all) authors just want to be left alone to do the creative thing they do. They don’t want to be dragged away from their passion, kicking and screaming, into our social media driven world.

Buy One, Get The Rest Free: The New ebook Serial Model?

Today, Publisher weekly published an article announcing Amazons intent regarding Kindle Serials. Though the concept of serials is not new, Amazons proposes what I refer to as a pay-now-buy-later model (actually, they call it a pay-once model). In simple terms, it means you pay once and get the rest of the serial free when the new titles in the series are published.

 

I think the concept of serials is a good marketing ploy that can be used for both new titles and old titles. In the case of the latter, these titles could be could be ‘revived’ back to life especially those not even in electronic form, much less Kindle.

Let’s Have A Shindig

No, I am serious….I do mean a shindig. Shindig, the brain child of Steve Gottlieb, is one of the newest online platforms to bring authors closer to their fans/readers. Shindig is a video chat platform where you not only get to interact with the author/speaker but the audience too. The author can do live readings from their latest books as well as live Q&A. Its application can be extended to talks, interviews and book tours. Plus, it can accommodate a group of 50 to 500.