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Book Bloggers, Publishing and Social Media

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I was fortunate to be able to interview Nicole Langan, the owner of Tribute Books recently regarding social media, bloggers and the future of publishing. As I know a lot of my readers are also writers and bloggers, I thought the answers would be interesting to many of you.

1. Can you tell me a bit about Tribute Books?
Nicole: Tribute Books began in 2004 and we’ve published over 30 titles since that time. Some of our books have gone on to win awards such as the Christian Small Publisher Book of the Year and the Mom’s Choice Award while others were endorsed by PBS and The Thoreau Society. We’ve covered a wide range of genres from children to history to sports.

2. Describe your new project for my readers?
Nicole: In 2012, we will transition into being an ebook publisher for young adult titles. Our main reason is the explosion in popularity of e-readers such as the Kindle, Nook and iPad. Over the course of 2011, we’ve watched our ebook sales outpace our print sales by 2 to 1. The under $5 price point of most of our titles and the ease of purchase and delivery are surely contributing factors.

3. What are you looking for in an author? Who finds illustrator if needed?
Nicole: We’re looking to work with authors who are savvy with social media – those who blog, tweet and update their Facebook status on a daily basis. I’m most excited about working with authors who enjoy promoting their book on a daily basis. Ones who know the ins and outs of the time and effort it takes to make a book a success because I’m ready and willing to work with them every step of the way.
(At this time, illustrations will not be needed since we’re looking to e-publish solely text manuscripts.)

4. Why epubs and not traditional hard copy books?
Nicole: Our main reason is the explosion in popularity of e-readers such as the Kindle, Nook and iPad. Over the course of 2011, we’ve watched our ebook sales outpace our print sales by 2 to 1. The under $5 price point of most of our titles and the ease of purchase and delivery are surely contributing factors.

5. What is your social media experience and philosophy?
Nicole: I am a big believer in the power of social media. I even conduct monthly blog tours for outside publishers and authors in order to help them increase the online presence of a book. Book bloggers are a powerful force in the book industry. With more and more book stores closing and book review columns being cut from major newspapers, readers are depending on bloggers to help them find the books they want to read. They are turning to the internet as a reference point to fill that gap.

Thanks very much to Nicole and Tribute Books

Nicole Langan, owner of Tribute Books

The Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in The World: Review

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The truth about books on the subject of digital media. By the time they are published they are in fact out of date. Such is the case with The Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in The World. While it doesn’t quite live upto the title, this book is an important offering for several reasons. First, in the world of social media case studies are slowly emerging to prove the importance of this marketing tool. In the traditional marketing field return on investment is the means of measuring impact. Nobody has been able to figure out ways to capture to ROI of social media until extremely recently. Enter case studies. The Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in The World takes several digital ad campaigns and expands on how they worked why they worked and what the audience and budget was. The astonishing part of some of these case studies is that the budget was nothing and they are still viewed by the authors as some of the most successful digital campaigns in the world. In this field there are a growing body of resources on line, but not so many traditional offerings. For that reason too this book should appeal to traditional marketing personnel. While I was looking forward to reading this book, because it is a compilation of successful digital media campaigns ranging from big name brands like Pizza Hut to Pepsi, Turbotax and the presidential campaign for Obama, it leaves a little to be desired. Books about social media and digital media need to engage on an entirely different level than regular traditional books. They need to think outside the box. So this type of book needs to not only market itself on twitter and facebook and run a social media campaign with blog tour or some social media author interaction with readers, but it needs to update itself in some ways making it more relevant than the regular book. I have seen this done simply with authors of fiction lately and have done more than a few blog tours which generate buzz. I have also seen it done smartly with Shama Hyder Kabani’s book The Zen of Social Media Marketing. Readers, marketers, publicity people and authors should go buy that book if they want to learn creative ways to continue and extend the life cycle of a traditional book. Social network advertising spending is expected to increase to a staggering $4.3 billion in a bid to attract today’s media-savvy consumer, $1.64 billion in the US alone. It is the fastest growing media ever. This book attempts to capture some recent successes and does a decent job of that. But it is by no means the best digital media campaigns. There are some creative ideas here. For instance the Dockers Iphone pants dance campaign through Medialets was fun and interactive. A Doritos campaign that was shot outside an insane asylum was very appealing to a teenage demographic and savvy. But I can think of a few recent social media campaigns that were even more successful or well publicized than these. The first and most well known – absent from this book – is the obvious Old Spice guy Facebook and more campaign. Author Damian Ryan has been at the forefront of the Irish media and advertising business for many years.Calvin Jones is a freelance writer, journalist, blogger and online marketer.

The Best Digital Marketing Campaigns In The World: Mastering The Art of Customer Engagement,
By Damian Ryan and Calvin Jones
Kogan Page Limited,
07/28/2011
ISBN: 978-0749-4-6062-4
ISBN: 0749460628
Paperback 224 pages
$16.99 and US $29.95

This one gets a $$$ out of $$$$$

Five Trends To Watch in Publishing

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Five Trends To Watch in Publishing:
An Industry in Flux
by Paula Schuck

Anyone following trends in print media and book publishing will know that this is nothing if not an industry in flux. I am fortunate enough to have front row seats to the evolution of books and media and it is at once a challenging and exciting time. The publishing world was quick to recognize the threat, but they were also, in print media incredibly slow to act upon it and challenge their traditional genre. But over the past few months I have noticed a number of increasingly savvy and interesting approaches to forcing interactivity upon readers. So if ebooks are the new norm and social media is the fastest growing media ever, how then are books, three dimensional handheld books, making themselves relevant or reasserting themselves in an industry in flux?
In the past few months I have seen a number of really creative ideas.
1. The new standard for book tours – is the book blog tour. I have run several here at thriftymommasbrainfood. The virtual book tour makes a lot of sense. Authors don’t need to knock themselves out quite as much criss-crossing Canada to flog their newest release. Instead they do so by pitching bloggers, simply sending books out to a select group with on line influence. There are often accompanying contests, giveaways and reviews.
2. CDs/trailers other media. Sing You Home by blockbuster best-selling author Jodi Picoult has a CD tucked inside the front of the her latest novel, you are to play the CD as a supplement to the chapters. The songs by Ellen Wilber are essentially a soundtrack to the book. This book was published by Simon and Schuster Canada.
3. Complementary use of social media. I just finished a book being promoted by Graf-Martin Media called The Heart Revolution. The author is Sergio De La Mora. The book itself is an empowering faith-based book teaching people to reconnect with their heart and trust the power of that to drive your actions throughout life. Punctuating the book, published by Baker Group, are several links to web sites. The links take you to sermons on line. Creative.
4. Kids books are employing on line games and tricks that kick it up a notch. Best example I have seen of this lately is The Search For Wondla, by Tony Diterlizzi, also published by Simon and Schuster. Main character Eva Nine’s life comes to a computer near you if you hold parts of the book upto a camera on your computer. Bizarre and yet how very logical for sci fi children’s fiction, especially for this generation of children.
5. But truly the smartest thing I have seen so far is The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani. A book about marketing with this fast-growing media form, the savvy author takes her material to an entirely different dimension. She clearly indicates at the start of the book, that buying it also gives you access to to the continuously updated digital version. Access the site for http://www.zenofsocialmedia.com/ and put the password in provided in her book and receive her latest data and expert opinion.