According to a survey by Empathica as reported by Warc, a majority of North American consumers prefer buying products in-store to doing so online.
Regarding purchase habits, 21% of respondents agree in-store experiences are typically better than the online equivalent, 15% take the opposite stance, and 36% state these channels are evenly matched. Despite this, 69% favor making most acquisitions in bricks-and-mortar outlets, while 22% afford the Web a parallel status.
One digital activity that has proved especially popular is using comparison sites, as 72% of contributors have utilized the Net to conduct research, monitor prices, and complete transactions.
Meet Nelson, Coupland, and Alice — the faces of tomorrow’s book. Watch global design and innovation consultancy IDEO’s (@ideo) vision for the future of the book. It explores the new experiences that might be created by linking diverse discussions; the additional value that could be created by connecting readers to one another; and the innovative ways that might be used to tell favorite stories and build community around books. Watch the video.
Mike Shatzkin (@MikeShatzkin) writes in his latest blog post that there’s now pressure on publishers from two directions (first-time independent anonymous authors and media conglomerates formally not known for publishing their content in books) as they compete for content and then compete to get real money for it:
These two things — non-publisher brands and entities competing with publishers to deliver content and free content competing with content for sale — connect in a painful way at the publisher’s balance sheet. And there isn’t a lot publishers can do about them.
At the Digital Book World (@DigiBookWorld) conference (#dbw11) in NYC, James McQuivey (@jmcquivey) of Forrester research (@forrester) led a seminar on what publishers can expect in the coming year. Here’s coverage by TeleRead (@paulkbiba):
In 2010 ereader prices fell close to $100 and 10.5 million people in the US own a dedicated ereader. New reading form factors were introduced. Tablets in about 10 million US hands right now – primarily the iPad. A third of the people who own an iPad own a Kindle. Nearly $1 billion was spent on ebooks in the US alone.
In 2011 20+ million people will read ebooks on a reader or tablet. $1.3 billion will be spent on ebooks at the bare minimum. They can’t even forecast the impact on non-traditional eformats.
Are publishers ready? Surveyed publishing execs to find out. 89% optimistic about digital transition; 74% say readers will be better off; 66% say people will read more; 83% say their companies can manage digital transition; 63% say have a digital plan in place; 80% believe their company needs significant retraining.
An editorial in The New York Times (@NYTimes) says there’s reason for book publishers to have hope.
[W]e are happy to say that it’s far too early to kiss book publishing goodbye. E-book sales more than doubled in the first 11 months of last year — to about 8 percent of total sales. E-readers are flying off the shelves, and overall book sales are holding up as the paper-based industry transitions to the digital age, increasing 3.5 percent in the first 11 months of 2010.
The resilience of the book business may be because of demographics. Like jazz, which is less prone to illicit downloads than hip-hop, books cater to older, less Internet-savvy customers. Publishers also avoided the recording industry’s mistake of wasting precious time suing customers and have rightly focused on promoting cheap and easy ways for them to download books legally.
Are books better as standalone, pristine works or as social objects to be modified and commented on by those who read them? We are about to find out. Today, Rethink Books (@RethinkBooks) is launching its SocialBooks software which allows publishers to turn their books into iPad apps. The app makes it possible for readers to share their highlighted text from a book on Twitter or Facebook, along with their comments, related photos, and videos. Private groups can also be created for more of a book-club feel. The first book to become socialized in this manner will be the Bible (published by HarperCollins).
Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly) reports that veteran Christian publisher Byron Williamson, former president at Word publishing, exec vp of Nelson Publishing Group, and founder of Integrity Publishing, is launching a new publishing house: Worthy Publishing, which releases its first books this fall.
Worthy’s fall list of 12 books includes titles by evangelical stalwarts Chuck Colson (The Sky Is Not Falling, Sept.), Gloria Gaither (A Homecoming Christmas, Oct.), and Stephen Arterburn (Walking into Walls, Sept.). The remainder of the list will be announced in March. Worthy will publish a variety of genres, among them fiction, devotionals, inspiration, Bible study, personal growth, and children’s books.
A variety of pundits predict 2011 will be the year of the cable TV cord cutter, the year of the computer tablet, even the year of the vegetable. What were the early sparks through the centuries that ignited the fire for today’s stunning advancements?
We, Somersault Group (http://somersau.lt) - the international publishing strategy and services agency founded by five former Zondervan marketing and editorial executives - see 2011 as a year to recognize and celebrate the significant and life-changing milestones achieved over time in the areas of publishing, technology, and innovation.
To that end, we’ve created the interactive pdf Infographic (that’s even printable) that honors 22 landmark anniversaries this year, such as the King James Version of the Bible (400th), the transcontinental telegraph system in the USA (150th), MTV (30th), the first website (20th), and the iPod (10th).
The Infographic (designed by Scott Schermer, student at Kendall College of Art & Design) is located online at scribd.com/doc/46895274/Somersault-Infographic-2011. If you like it, please blog about it, tweet it, email your friends, tell others about it, and post your comments below. To receive an interactive PDF version (with links to each anniversary’s Web information) by return email attachment, send a request to hello@somersaultgroup.com.
Somersault believes the unprecedented changes occurring in the publishing world aren’t a crisis; they’re a playground of possibilities. We help publishers, agents, ministry partners, and authors adapt to these changes with dexterity.
Our services include brand counseling, editorial direction, research capabilities, marketing strategy, Internet and social media presence, and a comprehensive portfolio of publishing assistance.
Our mission is to change lives by connecting inspirational content creators with readers using exceptional creativity, right-now technology, and old-fashioned personal care.
Here's some good news: Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly) reports "bookstore sales posted their first monthly increase since January in November, with the US Census Bureau reporting that preliminary November sales rose 5.3%, to $1.09 billion. Results include all sales reported by bookstores and November numbers could reflect the increase in digital reading devices sold by bookstores, especially at Barnes & Noble. The numbers also reinforce reports that the Thanksgiving weekend was a good one for many bookstores, including independents. For the first 11 months of 2010, bookstore sales were still down 1.9%, to $14.41 billion. For the retail segment in general, November sales were up 9.0% and year-to-date sales ahead 6.5%."
Another PW report says "ebook sales in November rose 129.7%, to $46.6 million, from the 14 publishers who report results to the Association of American Publishers’ monthly sales report. The gain was below the year-to-date average which has e-book sales ahead 165.6% through November, but was better than the 112.4% increase reported in October when ebook sales were $40.7 million. The $165.6% increase in the first 11 months of 2010 put e-book sales from the 14 companies at $391.9 million. With one month yet to report in 2010, it looks like ebooks and downloadable audio will be the only trade segments to posts gains in the year with sales down in all the print segments at the publishers that report to the AAP; the mass market segment has the largest decline at 14.0%."
On Digital Book World (@DigiBookWorld), Mary Kole, literary agent for Andrea Brown Literary Agency, offers reasons why agents are just as important today in the digital publishing world as they’ve always been. She says, “The agent’s role will still be necessary to act as intermediary between [authors and publishers], whether working to create an app, a film, a licensed t-shirt, or a printed book.”
In fact, I’ll argue that, as publishers embrace different content delivery systems and processes, agents will take on more packaging responsibilities: editorial work, marketing consultation, design, etc. Whether we’re presenting a book to editors or an app proposal to a digital publisher, we will have had a more active hand in its reaching “market ready” status.
A variety of pundits predict 2011 will be the year of the cable TV cord cutter, the year of the computer tablet, even the year of the vegetable. What were the early sparks through the centuries that ignited the fire for today’s stunning advancements?
