Entries tagged with “web publicity” from Tools of Change for Publishing
Web Publicity Grows Up, Learns the Value of Conversation
Mac Slocum
October 20, 2008
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Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, co-authors of the upcoming book Trust Agents, share a few ideas for drumming up pre-publication interest in a title. Some of their suggestions are straight from the Web publicity playbook (ebook previews, blogging during the writing process), but they're also exploring engagement through online events and workshops -- two things that usually happen after publication.
I hadn't considered this until reading Brogan's blog post, but many social media publicity techniques aren't particularly social. Podcasts, blog posts and Facebook groups are technologically progressive, but there's a significant difference between a publicity update and an open invitation.
Twitter serves as an example here: The best Twitter users engage their audience through curated links, retweets, commentary and discussion. This stands in contrast to the auto-generated Twitter blasts employed by many media organizations (they're easy to spot -- look for the abrupt truncations).
Brogan's post -- and efforts from people like Seth Godin -- show that Web-based publicity is following the same developmental trajectory as blogging (and Twitter, although it hasn't reached puberty just yet). The top-down messaging that marks the early days of a Web effort eventually matures into a two-way conversation -- and that's when things get interesting.
Twitter Tips for Publishers
Mac Slocum
September 4, 2008
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Mark Bertils makes the case for Twitter use and offers eight tips for tweeting publishers. From Index // mb:
For a minimal investment of time, you can ping a heap of people. Why wouldn't a book publisher want to do that? Truth is, most already do. Email newsletters blast-out to book readers from all over. Publishers' feeds and podcasts do the same. Twitter is yet another great way to keep people engaged.
News Roundup: iPhone Apps Developer Shocked by Windfall, Author Reaps Rewards of Web Openness, Comcast Buys Web Publisher for $125 Million
Mac Slocum
August 8, 2008
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iPhone Apps Developer "Shell Shocked" by Outsized Payday
Seth Weintraub over at 9to5Mac reports on the outsized success of at least one iPhone Apps developer, Eliza Block, who's now earning an unexpected $2,000 a day from her crossword puzzle app, 2Across. Noteworthy certainly, but also instructive about the platform Apple has created for what can certainly be called "self publishing":
But, she deserves it...her app is the best of the breed, filling a need that many people want. The amazing thing is that Apple has taken care of everything from the development environment to the transaction services to the distribution to the marketing. You can be a great software developer on your own without having a huge company to back you up. This is truly a game changing play for Apple and the development community. (Continue reading)
Author Paulo Coelho Illustrates the Upside of Openness
Budding authors may not be able to duplicate the success of Paulo Coelho, but Coelho's willingness to experiment across mediums is certainly worth studying. From Jeff Jarvis' Guardian column:
Coelho is the thoroughly modern author. But he still believes in print. For him, this isn't a matter of print v digital. It's a question of what comes when you add digital to print. What does it bring him? "It gives me a lot of joy," he said, "because writing is something you do alone." He recalled the night in 2006 when he read that he had become the second best-selling author in the world. He was bursting. "My God, my wife is sleeping. How can I share this news with anybody?" Now he can shout it from the mountaintop of his blog. (Continue reading)
Comcast Pays $125 Million for Lifestyle Web Publisher DailyCandy
Comcast is buying shopping/lifestyle Web publisher DailyCandy for $125 million. From the New York Times:
... the company, driven by a small army of contributors providing breezy tips, has grown to encompass 13 daily and 8 weekly newsletters, reaching 2.5 million subscribers in 11 American cities and London. (Continue reading)
Build Sites Around Authors and Subjects, Not Publisher Brands
Peter Brantley
July 30, 2008
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Michael Cairns at PersonaNonData expresses a desire to see publishers include a more comprehensive picture of authors and works:
Publishers are best placed to build author-centric and subject/theme-oriented websites -- not sites oriented around a "brand" that isn't relevant, but those that focus attention on segments of the business that remain relevant to consumers. Envision the Spiritual segment at a site supported by Harpercollins which has a unique, appropriate and relevant focus far apart from the current 'corporate' approach. All segments are valid candidates for more of a silo approach to marketing publishers' products. And I would go further in recommending that publishers consider marketing within these silos all titles available, rather than just those produced by the publisher. What better way to condense a market segment and become a destination site for Self-Help, Spirituality, Mysteries, Computer and any number of other book-publishing segments. Consumers aren't dumb. Amazon's main attraction is that all the titles in any one segment are available in one place. As long as publishers continue to ignore this fact, they will under-serve the market and under-perform given the investment in their sites.
What Authors Can Learn from Silicon Valley
Mac Slocum
July 21, 2008
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Sramana Mitra of Forbes.com sees parallels between author Elle Newmark's grassroots audience development and Silicon Valley's software process:
In Silicon Valley, we do alpha and beta products -- small prototypes of our vision -- and recruit a small number of customers to gain early validation of the products' viability. These alpha and beta products, along with early customer validation, help us sell our ventures to investors and raise millions of dollars in venture money.
In Newmark's case, she spent less than $10,000 of her own money to "bootstrap" her self-publishing effort, she found customers online, and then she recruited William Morris agent Dorian Karchmar as her "investment banker," who then got her Simon & Schuster as a "venture investor." Newmark's deal with Simon & Schuster is widely rumored to include a seven-figure advance.
News Roundup: New Kindles Rumored, Free Ebooks with Embedded Google Ads, Web Publicity and Giveaways Boost Author's Profile
Mac Slocum
July 18, 2008
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Rumor: Two New Kindles Coming This Fall
Citing an inside source, CrunchGear says Amazon will release two new Kindles in time for the holiday season:
The first is an updated version with the same sized screen, a smaller form factor, and an improved interface ... The second new model, which is shaped like an 8 1/2 x 11-inch piece of paper, is considerably bigger than the current model. (Continue reading)
Free Ebooks with Embedded Ads Via Scribd-Lulu Partnership
Scribd and Lulu have joined forces to combine Scribd's iPaper format, a Flash-derived viewing technology optimized for bandwidth and speed, with Lulu content. From ReadWriteWeb:
Beginning this month on the self-publishing site Lulu.com, you will soon find a broad selection of some of the site's most popular free content made available via the iPaper format ... And thanks to iPaper's ability to embed [Google] AdSense ads within the documents, content creators will now have a way to offer free e-books that also have the potential to earn them an income.
Web Publicity + Free = A Fighting Chance
Sci-fi author Scott Sigler uses podcasts, giveaways and grassroots Web marketing to build interest in his work. We've covered Sigler in the past, but his recent interview with The Independent illustrates the value lesser-known writers can derive from Web-based brand building and free distribution:
Sigler's thinking -- and this is the revolutionary bit -- is that it's worth making commercial sacrifices to secure a fan base, because fans will always want physical copies of the books, even if they've already heard an audio version for free. (Continue reading)
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