somersault

On BookRiot (@BookRiot), Jeff O'Neal (@readingape) reflects on the basic elements all readers want in a book, whether it’s in digital format or print.

The medium that best serves most of the desires of most of the readers will win. It seems then that some discussion of what readers want, abstracted from any particular medium, might be useful.

As I see it there are seven broad things readers want, regardless of their specific taste. Each reader will rank and weight these categories differently, but I think there might be a particular profile of “the common reader” that will shape the future of publishing. I’m not sure what that profile is exactly, and I even think it still is being formed as digital publishing matures.

1. Diversity

2. Quality

3. Economy

4. Discovery

5. Convenience

6. Experience

7. Flexibility

Read this in full.

In creating the following Infographic about Amazon.com (@amazon), FrugalDad (@FrugalDad) says, “The story of its growth in the last 17 years can only be compared to the thunderous rise of Walmart. And in some ways, the curve is steeper: the million-title-bookseller turned world’s-largest-retailer hit the $50 billion sales mark in half the time it took Walmart. As far as online sales go, Amazon has laid waste to a list of successively higher-caliber competitors. Playing full-court with Barnes & Noble to Walmart all the way to Apple, Amazon just keeps outgrowing its labels: bookseller, etailer, and now tech company?”

Source: Frugaldad.com

iPad storyteller Joe Sabia (@joesabia) introduces his TED (@tedtalks) audience to Lothar Meggendorfer (Lothar Meggendorfer at University of North Texas Libraries), who created a bold technology for storytelling: the pop-up book. Sabia shows how new technology has always helped tell stories.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Infographic: The Periodic Table of Storytelling.”

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you tell your story and promote your brand.

During every minute of the day, people around the globe are actively using the YouVersion Bible App to engage with Scripture. YouVersion held a live webcast Nov. 30 to announce key statistics.

The Common English Bible (@CommonEngBible) has been downloaded through YouVersion more than 60,000 times in the last four months and live-streamed to thousands more mobile devices.

The following Infographic shares a quick look at what happens in just one minute in the YouVersion (@YouVersion) (#YouVersion) community.

According to Eloqua (@Eloqua), “you don’t have to sell high-fructose foods or video games to amass a meaningful Facebook fandom. Even a marketing automation provider can inspire a vibrant Facebook community.”

Our newest presentation, “10 Ways to ‘Solve’ Facebook for B2B” (#B2Bfacebook), highlights 10 actionable tips – real things you can start (or stop) doing to make a measurable difference in your Facebook marketing efforts. The tips are derived from our collaboration with BrandGlue (@glue), which grew our Fan page by 2,500%, increased Facebook-referred traffic by 150%, and increased Fan engagement to about 3x industry norms. The creative was executed by JESS3 (@JESS3) and PageLever (@PageLever) supplied the data.

When posting on Facebook, these actions hurt your efforts:

·         Infrequent posts

·         Inconsistent posts

·         Declarative posts

·         Repetitive topics

·         No call to action

Read this in full.

Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Social Media/Word-of-Mouth tab.

Here’s an example of leveraging the power of social media marketing. In Adweek (@Adweek), Tim Nudd (@nudd) reports a “clever little tourism stunt:”

The tiny village of Obermutten in the Graubünden area of Switzerland has gotten itself a sizable online following — putting itself on the map for would-be visitors — through its pledge to print every Facebook fan’s profile picture and post it on the town’s bulletin board.

The campaign, by ad agency Jung von Matt, has been a big success — with the town of 79 people now boasting more than 12,000 Facebook fans. The bulletin board quickly overflowed, so the townspeople have been finding various barn sides to use for the excess.

The case-study video [above] claims that more than 60 million people worldwide have now heard of Obermutten. Traffic to the Graubünden tourism website is up 250%. And the campaign cost of 10,000 Swiss francs reportedly brought in earned media of some 2.4 million francs.

Read this in full.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you strategize your social media marketing.

Christian books once available only at independent-niche Christian bookshops...are now sold online and in mainstream stores everywhere. As recognition of the popularity of Christian books has grown, with some titles holding a steady spot on the nation's best-seller lists, Christian publishing companies and their audience have grown, too, expanding globally and into the electronic marketplace. Now the formerly fringe products have a home in mainstream popularity....

A 2005 Baylor University study shows 11% of Americans spend $50 or more a month on religious products, including non-book items....

Nielsen BookScan, which provides information for The Wall Street Journal’s best-seller list, tracks 75% of book sales in America from traditional retailers, independent bookstores, and Amazon.com — but the company only tracks 50% of sales from Christian bookstores, specifically. That should change with the addition of key Christian retailers and Walmart in 2012, says Jonathan Stolper, vice president and general manager of Nielsen BookScan (@NielsenWire).

“It’s certainly conceivable that those Wall Street Journal charts will change dramatically,” Stolper says. “I think The Wall Street Journal will see some Christian books pop up on there when we complete the panel.”

Read this in full.

Remember to daily use the SomersaultNOW online dashboard to read the latest news in Christian and general book publishing.

Students were shown a picture of a QR code and then asked questions like: Can you identify what this is? Do you know how to use it? How likely are you to engage with these in the future?

Here are just a few of our findings:

·         81% of students owned a smartphone

·         80% of students had previously seen a QR code

·         21% of students successfully scanned our QR code example.

·         75% of students said they are “Not Likely” to scan a QR code in the future.

Read this in full.

MarketingVOX (@marketingvox) reports that a study by Ypulse (@ypulse) finds that fewer than 1 in 5 students have ever used QR codes, nearly 2/3 of students have no idea what that are, and 6% have seen them but can't figure out how to use them.

According to comScore (@comScore), "the people more likely to scan a QR code are male (61% of code scanning audience), skew toward ages 18-34 (53%), and have a household income of $100,000 or above (36%). They also are more likely to scan codes found in newspapers/magazines and on product packaging - and do so while at home or in a store."

This article for independent ebook authors on The Savvy Book Marketer (@bookmarketer) by Mark Coker (@markcoker), founder of ebook distributor Smashwords, says “it’s important to consider price as only one of several factors that influence a reader’s purchase decision. We have many free ebooks that earn few downloads, and many priced books that get more paid downloads than some of the freebies. In the end, if a book doesn’t honor the reader with a great read, you can’t pay a reader to read it.” Coker says the pricing decision should be made within the context of these other important factors:

1.  Length
2.  Reader passion
3.  Author platform
4.  Reader trust
5.  Series or not
6.  Author marketing
7.  Perceived value
8.  Platform building or harvesting?

Read this in full.

A separate article on The Shatzkin Files is for established publishers. “The ebook value chain is still sorting itself out, and so are the splits” by Mike Shatzkin (@MikeShatzkin) examines how publishing pricing strategy and author royalties are dramatically changing in light of the digital revolution.

Right now for ebooks we have two “standards” for the publisher-retailer division of revenue. For agency publishers across all retailers and for all publishers selling to (or perhaps we should, with respect for the agency logic, say “through”) Apple, the retailer share is 30% of the purchasing customer’s payment for the ebook, or the publisher’s “digital retail price.” For non-agency publishers selling to everybody else but Apple, the normal offer is 50% off the publishers “suggested retail price”....

What if one retailer (B&N? Kobo? Google?) were to offer publishers a deal where a discounted version of an ebook were offered through them on a temporary exclusive — say, the first 60 days the ebook was out — during which they would help subsidize the discount by taking a smaller percentage themselves during the promotion. Would publishers find it tempting to accept such an arrangement to poke a hole in the 30% standard?....

Read this in full.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you establish your ebook publishing and pricing strategy. And use the SomersaultNOW online dashboard to stay current with publishing news.

Do you have Writer’s Block? Consult this Infographic to break through. ☺

Click for a larger version.

By the way, today is the National Day of Listening (@StoryCorps).