The Taking of Christ
This is Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent; the season of penance, reflection, and fasting, preparing us for Christ’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
BBC Radio 4’s business program The Bottom Line with Evan Davis (@EvanHD) recently (Feb. 9) focused on the sea changes occurring in the world of book publishing.
Like the music industry before it, the print book industry has been turned upside down up by the digital revolution. As sales of ebooks continue to grow, bookshop sales are down from a peak in 2007. So what does the future hold for the bricks-and-mortar bookstore? Will physical books become a thing of the past? And what role will traditional players like publishers, agents, and retailers play in this brave new world?
The program consists of Davis interviewing Jonny Geller, literary agent and joint CEO of Curtis Brown; Victoria Barnsley, CEO and publisher of HarperCollins UK and International; and Michael Tamblyn, Chief Content Officer at Toronto-based ebook retailer Kobo.
According to The Bookseller (@thebookseller), in the program, Barnsley says the idea of the bookshop as a book club, charging customers for “the privilege of browsing, is not that insane,” given the level of threat faced by the general bookshop. Certain shoeshops in the US are already charging customers to try on shoes, she noted.
Barnsley predicted that the level of digital ebook sales would “level off and end up being more like 50/50 [physical books and ebooks] for quite some time, if the physical bookshops survive.” But she said the survival of the physical bookshop was “the big question.” “Readers still do quite like physical books; the question is, will they be able to buy them, actually,” she told Davis.
Listen to this program in full.
Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.
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Ann Patchett, award-winning author of such novels as Bel Canto and State of Wonder, is also the co-owner of Parnassus (@ParnassusBooks1), an independent bookstore in Nashville. In the above video from the Oprah Winfrey Network, Patchett says independent bookstores are vital for the health of local communities. She says a bookstore is “a community center.”
Also see our blogposts, “Why an Author has Started a Bookstore in Nashville,” “Baker Book House Celebrates Grand (Re)Opening,” and “Somersault Group Reports on Christian Retail Trends.”
Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.
Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), 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. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN).
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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.
In The Guardian (@GuardianBooks), Robert McCrum offers a list that he considers to be “the hinge points in the evolution of Anglo-American literature -- a composite of significant events, notable poems, plays, and novels, plus influential deaths, starting with the violent death of Shakespeare's one serious rival.” Do you agree with him? Let the discussion begin.
1. The death of Christopher Marlowe (1593)
2. William Shakespeare: The Sonnets (1609)
3. The King James Bible (1611)
4. William Shakespeare: The First Folio (1623)
5. John Milton: Areopagitica (1644)
6. Samuel Pepys: The Diaries (1660-69)
7. John Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progress (1678)
8. John Locke: Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)
9. William Congreve: The Way of the World (1700)
10. Daniel Defoe: A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.
Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), 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. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN).
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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.
Book publishing veteran Mike Shatzkin (@MikeShatzkin) says, “One of the most underappreciated realities of the book business is how hard it is for a retailer to manage an inventory of trade books.”
A bookstore’s inventory is its biggest investment. The performance of inventory — how many times it “turns” in a year and how successfully the store manages to buy what it needs without wasting investment (tying up cash) and incurring margin-destroying revenueless-costs (return freight, probably added to inbound freight, plus wasted labor shelving, removing, packing, and shipping) — is, by far, the single biggest determinant of whether a store succeeds commercially or fails.
As the shelf space for books being managed by retailers that accept the high cost of managing book inventory and commit to doing it effectively continues to decline, publishers need to understand that it will be really hard for non-book retailers to replace them.
Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.
Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), 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. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN).
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.
Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly) reports, “Stepping up its support of self-published and independently published books, the Apple iBookstore has launched a new category called Breakout Books.”
While the iBookstore has always accepted self-published works, the new iBookstore category gives publishers and authors a new platform for marketing and promoting their books and highlights both the growing sales of self-published titles and the increasing significance of the category.
From The New York Times (@mediadecodernyt):
“Apple is helping to shape a brighter, more democratized future for book publishing,” said Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, a leading distributor of digital books.
The bulk of the titles featured in the Breakout Books promotion are distributed by Smashwords. Read all about it on Mark Coker’s (@markcoker) blogpost, “Smashwords Authors Gain Seat at the Merchandising Table with the Apple iBookstore’s Breakout Books Promotion.”
Also see our previous blogposts, “Can Ebooks Succeed Without Amazon?,” “A New Publishing Ecosystem Emerges,” and “Guy Kawasaki's New Self-Publishing Instruction Book.”
Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.
Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), 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. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN).
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Publishers tab, which includes links to Self-Publisher services.
In today’s world of social media and immediate comment, marketers are becoming more proficient in “real-time marketing;” taking promotional advantage of news events as they happen. This is another way book marketers can get the word out on appropriate frontlist and backlist titles.
Advertising Age (@adage) reports that “when Sunday night's Super Bowl was interrupted by a prolonged power outage, brands took to Twitter to riff on the extended delay.”
Bud Light and Speed Stick quickly bid on promoted tweets linked to the words "power outage"; Oreo and Tide posted graphics linked to the blackout; and Audi tweeted an offer to send some LEDs to the Superdome, which it noted was sponsored by fellow luxury auto brand Mercedes-Benz.
BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) explains how Oreo was able to react so quickly:
At 8:48 pm Sunday night, Oreo tweeted this ad http://twitter.com/Oreo/status/298246571718483968 with the caption "Power out? No problem." Since then, it's been retweeted more than 14,000 times (and the same image on Facebook has gotten more than 20,000 likes) — meaning that the most powerful bit of marketing during the advertising industry's most expensive day may have been free.
"We had a mission control set up at our office with the brand and 360i, and when the blackout happened, the team looked at it as an opportunity," 360i (@360i) agency president Sarah Hofstetter told BuzzFeed. "Because the brand team was there, it was easy to get approvals and get it up in minutes."
The key? Having Oreo executives in the room, ready to pull the trigger.
PBS also maximized #SuperBowlBlackOut with a tweet inviting Super Bowl viewers to change the channel immediately to watch Downton Abbey, as reported by paidContent (@paidContent):
According to marketing and communications director, Kevin Dando, the timing was fortuitous because PBS was already in the midst of a weekly discussion in which Downton lovers gather on social media to discuss the show. When Dando tweeted the invitation for SuperBowl viewers to come on over, he says his phone almost blew up.
“Within seconds, we saw hundreds, then thousands of retweets,” said Dando,
The goal of real-time marketing is to capitalize on people helping to spread the word (word-of-mouth marketing). The Wall Street Journal’s article, “Costly Super Bowl Ads Pay Publicity Dividend” explains how “Super Bowl advertisers continue to cite earned media — unpaid publicity from news, entertainment, and social outlets — as justifying their growing investments in the big game. Mercedes-Benz values all the talk about its commercial at $20 million, for example, up from Pepsi's estimate of the $10 million benefit it got from the 2002 game."
Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.
Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), 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. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN).
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.
Last year this blog highlighted a roundup of the Super Bowl (#superbowl) television ads from a marketing perspective; discerning which hit the mark and which didn’t.
This year, we want to feature only one spot, and that from a speech-making point of view.
Dodge Ram’s 2-minute “So God Made a Farmer” commercial (#keepplowing), which aired in the fourth quarter, featured nothing more than a slideshow of stunning still images accompanied by a 1978 Future Farmers of America (@nationalffa) convention speech by the late newscaster and supreme rhetorician Paul Harvey, in which the radio personality paid tribute to America’s farmers.
Among Harvey’s considerable voice talents was his focused attention on the dramatic use of silence. He knew how to time and maximize pauses in his speaking to keep the audience on the edge of its seat and follow his every word. He also was an expert in pacing: knowing when to slow his delivery and when to speed it up. Even Harvey’s simple signature sign-on, “Good Morning, America,” was mesmerizing.
The above video draws its strength and effectiveness from Harvey’s striking delivery. Listen to it while paying attention to his cadence and rhythm, and the emphasis he gives words and phrases. That’s how to give a speech!
See the article “'So God made a farmer' Super Bowl ad inspires” by Erin Roach, assistant editor of Baptist Press (@baptistpress).
See Paul Harvey Archives.
See Paul Harvey Jr.’s website.
See Ram’s Year of the Farmer website.
Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.
Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), 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. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN).
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.
The book The 10-Second Rule (@The10secondrule) (#T10SR) by Clare De Graaf (@ClareDeGraaf), has just been released by Simon & Schuster (Howard Books). Somersault helped Clare self-publish the book prior to Simon & Schuster taking it on.
Clare explains the book’s origin this way:
Years ago I noticed that during the course of my day I’d have these impressions to do something I was reasonably certain Jesus wanted me to do. It could be an impression to either do something good for someone or a warning about a sin I was about to commit. It might be to stop for a car broken down on the highway, speak to a co-worker about Jesus, or simply turn off my computer before I ended up at a site where no Christian should go.
Almost simultaneously I would sense another voice whispering to me. “You don’t have time to do that – helping that person could get messy – you can’t afford to help them right now – it’s okay, one more time won’t kill you – send it, you’ve been wronged!”
If I listened to this other voice and thought about it long enough, the moment for obedience would pass, often to my relief. It finally dawned on me that by procrastinating, I was unintentionally teaching myself the habit of disobedience. Why is that?
Congratulations, Clare!
Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.
Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), 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. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN).
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.
On the Brave New World blog, Martyn Daniels (@danielsm1) explains the new service Ebook Glue (@EbookGlue), which easily and quickly transforms any blog into a downloadable ebook (EPUB or MOBI file), able to be read on an ereader or reading application without having to browse online.
As an example, click to see this Somersault blog as an ebook (shortened URL http://goo.gl/3nTtN)
Shantanu Bala a student of Arizona State University created Ebook Glue, which has only been live for a few weeks.
See TeleRead’s (@teleread) article, “Turning Blogs Into E-Books: Meet the Founder of Ebook Glue”
Also become acquainted with Readability (@readability), “a free reading platform that aims to deliver a great reading experience wherever you are, and to provide a system to connect readers to the writers they enjoy.”
Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.
Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), 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. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN).
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.