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74-year-old independent Christian bookstore Baker Book House (@bakerbookstore) (blog), Grand Rapids, MI, held its ribbon cutting grand re-opening ceremony this morning, celebrating the completion of its nearly year-long 28,000-square foot reconstruction project.

Along with new Bibles, books, music, video, digital, and giftware, Baker Book House, the retail division of Baker Publishing Group (BPG) (@ReadBakerBooks) (@BakerAcademic) (@bethany_house) (@BrazosPress) (@Chosen_Books) (@RevellBooks), has an extensive inventory of used books and serious academic and theological sections.

In his remarks, Dwight Baker, president of BPG, emphasized the communal aspect of the store and how the remodeling’s objective is to make the space an inviting place for people to gather, hold meetings, and attend events (see above video).

John Topliff, general manager of Somersault, says, "The new Baker Book House truly is a dynamic store with natural light, excellent inventory, wide-enough aisles for browsing, WiFi and a cafe to make the store a third-place, a used book department, and an area for events and meetings that makes the store a valuable community-building hub. The staff is welcoming, service-oriented, and knowledgeable. This store is already a destination store and the remodeling provides more reasons for people to stop in and shop. The joy on the faces of the Baker staff was wonderful to see."

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme in-store experiences.

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The annual Digital Book World Conference (@DigiBookWorld) (#DBW13) has concluded. DBW editorial director Jeremy Greenfield (@JDGsaid) offers a quick summary:

Publishers are grappling with the possibility that bookstores might not exist in the future; that some authors have a very low opinion of them; that agents are pushing them for more advantageous contract terms for their clients; that the landscape of book discovery is changing; and much more.

See DBW’s links to coverage of the event. (Digital Book World’s YouTube channel | Slideshare site)

Photos and tweets on Eventifier

Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly): Kobo, Book Discovery and More at Digital Book World 2013

GoodEReader (@Goodereader): My Thoughts on Digital Book World 2013 by Paul Biba (@paulkbiba) and complete coverage

Publishing Perspectives (@pubperspectives): 3 Key Ideas from Digital Book World 2013

Education, Publishing, & Technology (@toddols) summaries: Day One | Day Two

Learn about SomersaultSocial, our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

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As retailers reinvent their in-store shopping experience in the face of the continued rise of e-commerce, research released by Cisco finds that digital content from the Internet is the most powerful influence in buying decisions for the majority of shoppers in all channels.

The 3rd annual Cisco^® (@CiscoRetail) study of consumers says online ratings and reviews are the most influential sources for making purchasing decisions (followed by advice from friends and family), and that shoppers increasingly want access to digital content in stores through a variety of devices. The study recommends different ways retailers can present digital information to better influence shoppers' buying behavior — and win higher revenue in the store.

According to the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group^™ (@CiscoIBSG) study, titled Catch and Keep Digital Shoppers, a majority of shoppers, categorized as "Digital Mass Market," have advanced beyond the capabilities of many retailers. 

These shoppers expect stores to operate with the same information, transparency, and speed as their favorite website, and two-thirds are interested in personalized shopping experiences when visiting a store. Shoppers overwhelmingly prefer in-store self-service access to digital content (85%), with 1 in 3 using mobile searches to guide their purchasing decisions — up 20% from last year.

·         53% of shoppers expect greater price visibility

·         37% want easier ways to find products

·         39% desire faster/easier way to purchase products.

Read the news release.

Read the full report (pdf).

Enlarge the above Infographic.

See further coverage of the study by Online Media Daily.

Also see our previous blogpost, “’Showrooming’ Gains Ground in US” and other posts tagged “Retail.” And download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial, our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

In one of his recent blogs, marketing expert, author, and speaker Seth Godin (@ThisIsSethsBlog) reminded marketers that marketing is a long-term process, not a single effort.

In the last year, millions of people have bought a copy of 50 Shades of Grey. Here's the thing: they didn't all do it at the same time.

Some people bought it when it was a self-published ebook. Others jumped in when word of mouth started to spread, enough that it became a bestseller. Most people, though, waited until it was on the bestseller list, in piles at the bookstore, and the subject of positive and negative discussion and even parodies. And a few people are going to buy it two years from now, after everyone else who was willing to read it already has....

This is what almost always happens. Individuals choose a slot based on what sort of leadership or risk or followership behavior makes them happy right now. Early adopters and nerds like to go first. But some people are early when it comes to shoes, or to mystery novels, or records, while others adopt early when it comes to political ideas or restaurants.

Most of the time, most of us choose to be in the slot of mass. The masses wait to see the positive reviews, or they monitor the bestseller lists. The masses know they have plenty of time; that they'll get around to it when they get a chance, and mostly, they are driven by what their peers (the early adopters, the ones who keep track of this stuff) tell them....

The glitch in the system is that many marketers obsess only about the launch. They put their time and money and effort into the first week on sale, and then run to work on the next thing, when in fact, the mass market, those that choose to wait for more than "it's new!," haven't decided to take the leap yet.

Perversely, marketers look at what typically happens after the launch and say, "it's not worth sticking with this, because stuff that doesn't take off right away rarely does." And the reason? Because it was abandoned by the marketers who introduced it and then ran off to play with the next shiny object. It's self-fulfilling.

The fact is that almost all the profits of the record and book businesses come from the backlist, from Pink Floyd and Dr. Seuss....

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial, our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. 

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

From an initial crop of 455 titles submitted by 68 publishers, Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) magazine selected for its 2013 Book Awards 10 winners and 9 notables that offer insights into the people, events, and ideas that shape evangelical life, thought, and mission.

·         Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism by Alvin Plantinga (Oxford University Press)

·         A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New by G. K. Beale (Baker Academic)

·         Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) (Free Press)

·         Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good by Amy L. Sherman (InterVarsity Press)

·         Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City by Timothy Keller (Zondervan)

·         Evangellyfish: A Novel by Douglas Wilson (Canon Press)

·         Summoned from the Margin: Homecoming of an African by Lamin Sanneh (Eerdmans)

·         Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Political Reconciliation by Daniel Philpott (Oxford University Press)

·         Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren F. Winner (HarperOne)

·         The Theology of Jonathan Edwards by Michael J. McClymond and Gerald R. McDermott (Oxford University Press)

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogpost, "Christian Publishing's 2012 Best Book Covers."

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial, our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. 

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

According to a survey by GroupM Next (@groupmnext), 43% of US shoppers have used their mobile phone to engage in "showrooming" (#showrooming) the practice of using a mobile device to research products while in a store, including comparing prices online.

"Consumers have shifted their path to purchase to include the store as a step, but not necessarily the final step; and this will likely continue to increase over time," Chris Copeland, CEO of GroupM Next, says.

The study suggests that if bricks-&-mortar stores could stay within 5% of the price available via the Web (e.g., 5% of $17 is 85-cents), almost half of "potential showroomers" say they would finalize their purchase in stores.

Interacting with a member of staff in stores can also make a difference. Consumers who spoke to an associate are 12.5% more likely to purchase from a bricks-&-mortar outlet.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial, our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. 

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

The Globe and Mail’s (@globeandmail) John Barber (@JohnBarber14) thinks “the true dinosaurs of the new age are authors.”

Once happily enclosed in the “stables” of publishers willing to nurture and develop their talent, even if they never wrote a major bestseller, droves of so-called “mid-list” authors now find themselves roaming among the ever-present throng of wannabes flogging unpublished work in an indifferent market. And that throng is most likely to produce tomorrow’s bestsellers, even if they begin life as obscure, self-published digital texts that, only after they find a following, are taken up and heavily marketed to mainstream prominence by major publishing houses.

Many mid-list authors have fallen victim to increasingly sophisticated, widely available sales data, according to agents and publishers. Publishers can now assess every author’s lifelong sales thanks to such services as Nielsen Bookscan in the United States and BookNet Canada.

And once reduced to pure numbers, those track records determine the fate of proven writers looking for cash advances to begin their next books. “Everybody knows the numbers now,” Toronto literary agent Denise Bukowski said in an interview. “You can’t lie about the numbers.” Retailers don’t order books from authors whose previous work sold indifferently, she added, so publishers respond by cutting them loose.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial, our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. 

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

This article in The New York Times (@NYTNational) says, “As librarians across the nation struggle with the task of redefining their roles and responsibilities in a digital age, many public libraries are seeing an opportunity to fill the void created by the loss of traditional bookstores. They are increasingly adapting their collections and services based on the demands of library patrons, whom they now call customers.”

“A library has limited shelf space, so you almost have to think of it as a store, and stock it with the things that people want,” said Jason Kuhl, the executive director of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library. Renovations will turn part of the library’s first floor into an area resembling a bookshop that officials are calling the Marketplace, with cozy seating, vending machines and, above all, an abundance of best sellers....

Today’s libraries are reinventing themselves as vibrant town squares, showcasing the latest best sellers, lending Kindles loaded with ebooks, and offering grass-roots technology training centers. Faced with the need to compete for shrinking municipal finances, libraries are determined to prove they can respond as quickly to the needs of the taxpayers as the police and fire department can.

While print books, both fiction and nonfiction, still make up the bulk of most library collections — ebooks amount to less than 2% of many collections in part because some publishers limit their availability at libraries — building renovation plans rarely include expanding shelf space for print products. Instead, many libraries are culling their collections and adapting floor plans to accommodate technology training programs, as well as mini-conference rooms that offer private, quiet spaces frequently requested by self-employed consultants meeting with clients, as well as teenagers needing space to huddle over group projects....

Read this in full.

A report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project (@pewinternet) says that 13% of 16-year-olds and older have visited library websites or otherwise accessed library services by mobile device; double from an earlier survey in 2009. Those who are most likely to have connected to a library site include parents of minor children, women, and those with at least some college education.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial, our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. 

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

The New York Times (@nytimesbooks) book section asked people in and around the world of graphic design to name one of their favorite book covers from 2012 and briefly describe its appeal. Do you agree with their selection?

See all 19 covers.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Christian Publishing's 2012 Best Book Covers.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically design your book covers.

Learn about SomersaultSocial, our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard, especially the Innovation tab.

According to preliminary estimates by the US Census Bureau (@uscensusbureau), after falling 8% in September, bookstore sales bounced back in October with sales inching up 4.5% to $914 million,. Although, for the first 10 months of 2012, bookstore sales were down 1.3%, to $12.55 billion. All stores where books account for at least 50% of sales are included in the Census survey.

The New York Times (@nytimesbooks) says bookstores report they’re doing well:

There are many reasons bookstores point to for their successful holiday season. President Obama, they note, set the stage when he took his daughters, Sasha and Malia, to One More Page Books in Arlington, Va., on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, where he snapped up 15 children’s books.

Small bookstores report that they are also benefiting from the popularity of Kobo e-readers, which were designed for independent bookstores and allow customers to buy ebooks through the independents’ websites, as opposed to say, Amazon....

One thing independent bookstores seem to have going for them is the close bond they retain with their customers.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically communicate your brand message through content marketing.

Learn about SomersaultSocial, our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. 

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.