Category: Uncategorized

How Writing Non-Fiction Improves Your Fiction

This month we’ve been reading about story in non-fiction and how we can make money from it, and we’ve even got some tricks and tips to write non-fiction. So today, let’s do a something different. Let’s apply a little of what we’ve learned so far. First, read a piece of non-fiction. This can be a newspaper…

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How Publishers Must Use Images

How Publishers Must Use ImagesLet me drop some statistics on you: the Google domain was registered in September 1997, and today, the most popular search engine in the world indexes close to 50 billion webpages. Out of those webpages, Google has indexed over 1 trillion page images for its Google Image Search (as of 2013).

In case you didn’t know, images drive a lot of site traffic. Just look at the stats:

• Sixty percent of users are willing to consider search results that include an image.
• Content that contains images leads to 94 percent more views.
• More than 30 percent of users share images over the Internet.

Using search-optimized images on your webpages can give you a major advantage over your competitors. Book jackets and author images, pictures of book readings and other live events, or even a simple graph can significantly attract users and convert their visits to purchases.

Much more.

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Will You Sell More Books on a Holiday? (BookBub)
Timing plays a crucial role in any ebook marketing strategy, and knowing when to discount your book can mean the difference between a successful promotion and one that doesn’t meet expectations. With the winter holidays fast approaching, we were curious to find out how holidays might play into this question of timing.

Guide to Ebook Licensing for Public Libraries and Publishers (Pub Perspectives)
The 21st century will see public libraries becoming one of the main destinations on the Internet for readers to discover new reading material (ebooks, audiobooks, apps, etc.), in conjunction with other readers of similar tastes. The prospect will provide publishers with a wide range of possibilities to employ new business models, whereby libraries will be able to offer e-lending services in keeping with the new trends in content consumption (book club streaming services, pay-as-you-read, etc.)

Holiday Shopping 2015: Three Predictions for Retailers (Google)
Micro-moments are changing how we shop. As people increasingly turn to mobile devices, search and YouTube to inform purchases, Matt Lawson, Google’s director of performance ads marketing, makes three predictions for retailers to take note of this coming holiday season

The Subscription Wars Are Here (Observer)
The second wave of the web is here. Soon you will be asking friends if they are part of the Google plan or perhaps the Amazon plan. In fact, in the very near future, we might all be part of the Google, Amazon, or possibly Netflix and Facebook plan. In fact, it is very possible that our choice of plan will be part of how the coming generation defines itself. What is the second wave? The second wave is the idea that the Internet goliaths of the world are now playing for the $150 or so we spend with the cable companies each month. In an effort to justify and grow the monthly price of their particular content bundle, these Goliaths will acquire, roll up and merge anything and everything into the offering.

Is Subscription the Future for Digital Comics? (PW)
From Spotify and Apple Music to Netflix and Amazon Prime, huge chunks of the media distribution world are moving from paid downloads to monthly subscriptions. But since the early days of digital comics and graphic novels, most have been sold on a per-unit basis. Services such as Marvel Unlimited, Scribd and ComicBlitz now offer fans access to content rather than downloads. But it’s still too early to know whether these services can change consumer habits. Here’s a look at the principal players offering comics on the subscription model.

The Independent Alliance 10 Years on (Bookseller)
Two things in the book world never ever change: the first is predictions of the death of the novel, and the second is the certainty that independent publishing is coming to the end. Everything else is pretty much up for grabs. So it is pleasing to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Independent Alliance when great and varied novels are being published from around the world with aplomb and independent publishing is carrying on as ever.

Seven New Publishers Join Independent Alliance (Bookseller)
Seven new publishers are joining the Independent Alliance following the closure of Faber Factory Plus. Daunt Books Publishing, Lonely Planet, Murdoch Books, New York Review of Books, Pavilion Books, Pushkin Press and Scribe Publications are the seven new members of the Alliance, which was founded in 2005.

Mark your calendar for Indies First Day on Sat Nov 28

Mark your calendar for Indies First Day – a national campaign of activities and events in support of independent bookstores, first envisioned by author Sherman Alexie in 2013. It kicks off each November, on Small Business Saturday (November 28, 2015), when independent bookstores host authors as honorary booksellers throughout the day to help sell books, share recommendations, sign stock, give readings, and more.