This article in GigaOM (@gigaom) by Trey Ratcliff (@TreyRatcliff), founder of FlatBooks and the travel photography blog Stuck In Customs (@StuckInCustoms), says, “The ebook business will grow faster than people think. Innovations from Amazon and Apple have increased the velocity at which we consume ebooks, but there are two emergent behaviors that will increase the rate of overall consumption.”
Emergent behavior 1: Ebooks are not 1-for-1 with the traditional book business.
Most ebook projections are wrong. They anticipate for every $1 billion lost in the traditional book business that $1 billion will be gained in the ebook business. This ratio is actually closer to 1-to-2 because people are collecting ebooks like nuts for the winter. They are easy to buy and download, much like music. And, frankly, it’s fun to fill up your iPad with a colorful, robust set of thumbnails in your library. I don’t know why this is a good feeling, but it is.
Emergent behavior 2: Social media is a marketing multiplier.
The best way to successfully market something is to have true believers with big followings talk about it on the Internet. Since we have many authors who are socially popular, a multiplier effect begins to take place....The spread of good books has always been a word-of-mouth phenomenon. Now, with social media, ebooks are word-of-mouth-on-steroids.
As ebooks grow, a concurrent problem will need to be addressed. Read paidContent's (@paidContent) "Why Amazon's Plagiarism Problem Is More Than A Public Relations Issue," by Jeff Roberts (@jeffjohnroberts) and Laura Hazard Owen (@laurahazardowen).
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you identify blue ocean strategy for your ebook publishing agenda.
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