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In the above video, David Sheets, vice present of sales, explains Snowfall’s program.

Social media connection is rapidly becoming a necessary tool for authors. Authors have a chance to engage their fans like never before. The Snowfall Facebook bookstore application allows authors and publishers to open an e-commerce bookstore right on the Facebook fan-page. Authors can bypass the cost and hassles of other online commerce methods and connect directly with readers and fans. Not only will they be able to browse titles, but also add them to a shopping cart and check out through the PayPal network.

The biggest feature, however, is that authors and publishers won't have to ship them. Leave the printing and shipping to Snowfall Press. Order confirmations will automatically transmit to the Snowfall Press server, and print/ship order directly to the end reader/fan.

Read more information about this new service.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you maximize the communication of your brand’s content through news releases and electronic press kits.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

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Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Publishers tab, which includes links to self-publishing publishers.

Digital Book World (@DigiBookWorld) reports on new research from Bowker (@Bowker & @DiscoverBowker) that says about 235,000 titles were self-published in the US in 2011; 87,000 of them were ebooks.

While most self-published titles are still print books (some 63%), the ebook category is growing faster. Ebook self-publishing production is up 129% since 2006, versus a gain of 33% for print over the same period.

A handful of larger players dominate the ebook self-publishing market, according to the report. Author Solutions (47,094 titles, now owned by Penguin) and Smashwords (40,608 titles) led the way but Lulu wasn’t far behind (38,005). Outside of these three and Amazon’s CreateSpace, which dominates the print side of self-publishing, no other company has more than 10% market-share.

Read this in full.

Read the news release.

Also, paidContent’s (@paidContent) coverage, “Bowker: Number of self-published books up 287% since 2006,” says “43% of all print books published in the US in 2011 were self-published.”

See our previous blogposts

·         “The Golden Age of Self-Publishing is Driving Title Growth”

·         “Ebooks Projected to Comprise 50% of US Trade Book Market By 2016”

·         “Extensive New Study: The Rise of E-reading”

On a related note, IndieReader’s (@IndieReader) article, “Are Self-Pubbed Authors Killing the Publishing Industry?” by Melissa Foster (@Melissa_Foster) says, “Self-published authors have created a devaluing of the written word, and, some of them are scrambling to see how low they can go to get noticed.”

Read this in full.

And now Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly) reports that Random House and Penquin are in merger talks.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you take advantage of today's technology to publish and market your content.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Publishers tab, which includes links to self-publishing publishers.

The above (humorous) Infographic by WritersMarket is in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of Writer’s Digest (@WritersDigest).

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your digital and print content.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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

Reporter Laura Hazard Owen (@laurahazardowen) writes on paidContent (@paidContent) about the new ebook selling and marketing Web service launched today, Ganxy (@Ganxy). She says, “In just a few minutes, anyone can create a “showcase” for a book that includes its cover, description, video and other marketing materials, and purchase options.”

Authors and publishers can sell books directly through the showcase or simply provide links to retailers. The entire showcase can then be tweeted, embedded in a blog, website, or Facebook page, or can just stand alone as a website....

It’s free to create a showcase, but Ganxy makes money in two ways. The company takes 10% of each sale when an ebook is sold through a showcase (authors and publishers can choose whether they want to sell ebooks directly). Ganxy also makes money through the affiliate links to retail sites that are embedded in the showcase. An author can also request to use his or her own affiliate links in the showcase; in that case, Ganxy displays its affiliate link 25% of the time and the author’s 75% of the time.

Ganxy also wants to appeal to readers. When someone buys an ebook directly through a Ganxy showcase, it’s added to his or her library and can be downloaded in any format (EPUB, iOS, Kindle and so on). All the ebooks Ganxy sells directly are DRM-free. (Publishers who don’t like that can just display retail links and not sell ebooks directly.)

Read this in full.

Read the news release.

And read our previous blogposts:

·         “How Ebook Buyers Discover Books”

·         “Sites That Facilitate Book Discovery”

·         "Family Christian Stores Now Selling Its Own Tablet"

·         "Parable, Mardel Latest to Launch Ebook Sales; Ebooks Now at 500+ Christian Stores"

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically plan your book’s disoverability.

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.

Barcodes are a standard application on books today. BBC News reports that October 7 is the 60th anniversary of the barcode patent, filed in the US in 1952.

However the distinctive black-and-white stripes did not make their first appearance in an American shop until 1974 - because the laser technology used to read them did not exist.

[Standardization entity] GS1 UK (@GS1UK) says the QR code was not a threat to the traditional linear barcode.

A QR (Quick Response) code is an image made up of dots, which can contain more data than a barcode.

"They have different purposes - the barcode on the side of a tin of beans is for point-of-sale scanning. It ensures the consumer is charged the right amount and updates stock records," said Gary Lynch, chief executive of GS1 UK.

"The QR code's main purpose is to take the person that scans it to an extended multi media environment. Technically you can combine the two but nobody's asking for that right now."

The first item to be scanned by a barcode was a packet of chewing gum in an Ohio supermarket in 1974.

Read this in full.

In his coverage of the recent Digital Book World (@DigiBookWorld) Discoverability and Marketing conference, Jeremy Greenfield (@JDGsaid) reports, “Reader behavior is in flux and the ways in which people engage with and discover new content has grown exponentially.”

–     In 2011, nearly half of consumers changed their book-buying behavior (chart below)

–     39% of books are sold online, 26% in stores, and the rest in nearly a dozen other ways (chart below)

–     People discover new books in up to 44 different ways

...Amid all the change in how readers read and discover books, one thing has remained constant: in-person, personal recommendations are the No. 1 way people discover books, no matter who they are or how they read.

Read this in full.

Also see "Discoverability & Marketing Conference: A Diversity of Challenges."

And read our previous blogposts “How Ebook Buyers Discover Books” and “Sites That Facilitate Book Discovery.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically plan your book’s disoverability.

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.

During the Victorian Era in England, the trend of publishing the stories of novels in installments helped propel Charles Dickens to fame.

Publishing reporter Julie Bosman (@juliebosman) asks in The New York Times Media Decoder (@mediadecodernyt) blog, “Could serialized fiction finally force the ebook to evolve?”

Various ventures are trying to satisfy a common complaint about ebooks: that they are simply black-and-white digital reproductions of long-form print books, flat and unoriginal in their design and concept. One variation, what publishers call enhanced ebooks, with audio and video elements woven throughout the text, has largely fallen flat with readers.

But serialized fiction, where episodes are delivered to readers in scheduled installments much like episodes in a television series, has been the subject of an unusual amount of experimentation in publishing in recent months. In September, Amazon announced Kindle Serials, stories sold for $1.99 and published in short episodes that download onto the Kindle as the episodes are released....

In August, Byliner, a digital publisher, announced that it would begin a new digital imprint devoted to serialized fiction....

One of the most talked-about new experiments is taking serialized fiction a step further. It’s a novel called The Silent History that’s available on the Apple iPhone and iPad. It includes interactive, user-generated elements.

Read this in full.

Also see USA TODAY’s article, “Will 'The Silent History' change the way we read?”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you think through your mobile content effectiveness.

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

The purchase of the music CD Lift Up: Artists and Authors Unite to Feed America’s Hungry Children contributes to food relief services.

For more than 60 years, independent and chain Christian retail stores have represented the crossroads of faith and community for all denominations and walks of life. Also a safe haven for Christian consumers, these wholesome, family-friendly environments provide the best selection of the highest quality products in the Christian market.

It’s in honor of these retailers’ steadfast commitment to create a store culture of dependability and outstanding customer service that we celebrate Christian Store Week.

Visit the official Christian Store Week website.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you reach the Christian store market with your brand message.

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

Christian fiction readers now have the first “all-in-one” site to discover the latest information about Christian fiction including updates, recommendations, new releases, commentary, and exclusive articles from their favorite writers.

NovelCrossing.com (@novelcrossing), “the Intersection of Faith and Fiction,” is a website aimed at building a community of Christian fiction readers by being the most inclusive site on the subject of inspirational novels.

Developed by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group (@WaterBrookPress), NovelCrossing.com features content from all publishers of Christian fiction, allowing readers to discover new titles from across the publishing universe. Currently the site provides data on 10,000 titles from 50 different publishing houses.

“While there are a number of informative sites featuring Christian fiction book reviews and interviews, no one site combines a searchable database of books and authors, across all publishers in this category, with reviews, interviews, features, and a community component,” says Shannon Marchese, WaterBrook Multnomah senior fiction editor. “We built Novel Crossing to fill that gap. We wanted fans of Christian fiction to have a “one-stop” destination for finding authors and new reads, for leaving comments and making friends who love the books they love.” She explains more in the following video.

Read the news release.

See our previous blogposts on book discoverability.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your brand content in the new world of digital publishing.

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.

We held an open house this week and invited friends to come see our office in downtown Grand Rapids (@ExperienceGR), MI (@PureMichigan). Also going on downtown (until Oct. 7) is Art Prize (@ArtPrize) (#ArtPrize), where 1,517 pieces of art are scattered throughout the city for people to vote on; the top award is $200,000.

We were thrilled so many came to help us celebrate the beginning of fall in the Midwest. Our general manager, John Topliff, and his wife Debby even joined us via Skype from St. Andrews, Scotland, our international office. (Thanks to Bill Oechsler (@billoechsler) for his photos!)

We asked some of our guests if they’d like to answer the question, “What are major challenges facing Christian publishing today?”. Here are their answers:

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you navigate the turbulent waters of today’s publishing world.

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