Archive for the ‘Digital Shift’ Category
Blogging to build your platform
May 21st, 2010 by J A HeinleinThe BelieversPress blog features Q & A sessions with the experts we work with, answering questions that you’ve asked. Have a question? Click the link in the sidebar to submit it!
You asked:
“I’ve recently started a blog in hopes of building my personal brand. I’m already starting to worry about getting off-track. Can you suggest some questions I should ask myself before I click the publish button?”
Jay Heinlein, publishing marketing expert, replied:
Great question! Technology now allows anyone the ability to be an “instant publisher” via blogging and other online social media vehicles. That can certainly be both a “blessing and a curse.” It is a terrific idea and very productive exercise to have a “checklist” to help keep your blog posts focused before “publishing your thoughts to the world”. Your idea reminds me of the image of a pilot going through the pre-flight checklist before heading for the runaway. It is certainly a critical exercise for the pilot.
As the author of a book, you are blogging as part of your overall “platform building” process. This is the most important part of the your role in the marketing process.
Blogging is a wonderful way for you…
to help to build awareness,
extend your brand,
allow your readers to experience you,
and to “build your tribe” …
“If you are an author, your tribe members are your readers—or, at least, that’s potentially true. The only question is whether or not you will become the tribe’s leader and equip them to communicate with you and with one another.” – 7 Ways to Build Your Author Brand Online, Michael Hyatt.
So here are some suggested questions to start the ball rolling:
Does this post…
- speak to my identified audience- the audience that I want to reach?
- properly and accurately represent me as “a brand” – does it leave the impression that I wish to communicate with my audience?
- share compelling, helpful and useful information, relevant information, and topics/subjects?
- help me to develop real, meaningful relationships with my audience? Am I genuinely interested in them? Is this a “give-give” post?
- encourage networking -provide an opportunity for my readers-intended audience to interact and connect with me, each other, and with other like-minded individuals?
- give the readers a valuable “take away” as they have experienced my writing.
- What is it that they will take away?
Now, after contemplating those questions…
I would suggest “making them yours” -that is tailor the heart of the questions to your own voice, and add 2-3 more questions of your own…
…some helpful posts for further research and consideration:
13 Things I’ve Learned about Successful Blogging (Problogger)
8 Blog Tips from Tim Ferriss (via MichaelHyatt.com)
Thanks again for your excellent question. Please drop back by and tell us how it’s going!
The Future of Publishing (according to Penguin)
March 18th, 2010 by Nick CiskeRead the story behind this video at The Future of Publishing post on Penguin’s site.
Publishing 2.0
October 12th, 2009 by J A HeinleinAbout Me
Since, this is a bit of a reintroduction, following is a little about me.
I am a proud father of three very talented and accomplished now-grown girls.
I am “passionate about books” and publishing!
My personal experience as a Publishing & Marketing Professional now spans over 20 years– I have the grey thin hair to prove it! I have had the privilege of working with several top Christian publishing companies including Word, Nelson, The United Methodist Publishing House, NavPress, and concurrently, my independent ongoing enterprise.
My particular chosen focus and background has been on marketing & sales, and the various and evolving communications media.
I like many today, am a social media enthusiast.
As part of the Believers Press Team, it is my goal to help with objective of facilitating the new “Publishing 2.0!”
It is a very good day to be in publishing! I am loving life and meeting the new challenges!
Why I am interested in being a part of the BelieversPress community
Helping to bring the inspired and encouraging words of talented Christian communicators is an honor and privilege.
Simply, BelieversPress is an idea “which time has come!” I believe that it is truly a “Spirit-initiated” idea.
“…new way for Christians to publish books — a gathering of Christian authors and publishing professionals collaborating to reinvent the way books are published and sold.”
Objective of Publishing
In my opinion, producing quality and valuable content will always be the prime objective of publishing, and the future of the business will be determined by how that content is delivered and experienced by the various mediums/platforms, and by how each of those mediums/platforms is monetized and paid for…
The newly leveled playing field resulting from current technologies and broad access to both those technologies and broad direct access to the ultimate end-user market, is allowing publishing to return to its roots.
One thing that has changed dramatically, in particular, and for the positive, is that the two main viable options for publishing experiences no longer need be exclusive from the other. That is in the past, an independently published new author might have been quickly passed over [and, likely with some disdain] by a brand name publisher. The brand name publisher held all of the cards.
Now, as the big guys focus on trimming down and better efficiencies, it has actually become a strong positive to be able to bring to the table an established success in the marketplace.
The independently successful author is in a much stronger bargaining position, and can make an informed and deliberate choice, based on their own publishing vision and personal financial objectives.
Interview with Publishing Titans Jane Friedman and Larry Kirshbaum
August 13th, 2009 by Nick CiskeA candid and varied look at publishing’s past and future from the former CEOs of two of the largest publishers (HarperCollins and TimeWarner respectively). Well worth a watch!
Some highlights:
Larry Kirshbaum:
More and more authors are finding that even if they are published by a brand name big publisher they still have to an awful lot of the work themselves.
You have to come with your own publicity ideas, and often your own publicist, you have to do your own marketing, you have to go out and meet bookstores.
We used to look down on [vanity publishing] … now the dividing line … is getting blurrier and blurrier…
Jane Friedman:
… I’m very bullish on self-publishing today …
Is the end (of book trade shows) near?
May 8th, 2009 by Nick CiskePublishers are cutting their trade show budgets way back, as evidenced by these announcements at Making Information Pay, a BISG conference.
Trade Shows Targeted in Cost Cutting, Along with Catalogs and More
Speaking at yesterday’s Making Information Pay conference, Sterling ceo Marcus Leaver declared, “I’m not going to Frankfurt. I’m going to send a very reduced team to Frankfurt. The trade show is over.” Though he enjoyed visiting relatives while in London for the recent book fair, “I’m not sure what I achieved.” Overall he reported that the company has “taken about $1 million out of our trade show, exhibition and sales conference budget” and in turn has “increased our title-by-title marketing spend 33% in a year.”
In the preceding speech Sourcebooks ceo Dominique Raccah indicated that she, too, has reduced her trade-show budget by $250,000 and eliminated in-person sales conferences entirely as part of a larger revamping to “create the next iteration of business as usual.”
In an earnings interview yesterday, Simon & Schuster ceo Carolyn Reidy expressed similar sentiments, saying that “we have definitely looked at our participation in trade shows” and are “cutting back dramatically our booth and participation at Frankfurt.” She says their presence at this year’s London Book Fair was already curtailed and, though “our booth at BEA was already paid for” this year, participation there is being scrutinized as well.
Source: Publishers Lunch Email
What is the takeaway for independent publishers?
- Big trade shows and aren’t working for mainstream publishers anymore, so they are even less likely to work for independent publishers (if they ever really did).
- Paying for placement at a trade show is a an even bigger gamble than it was previously.
- Paper catalogs and Advance Review Copies (ARCs) will start disappearing and will be replaced with digital catalogs and PDF ARCs at a faster rate.
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Are Books Obsolete?
May 5th, 2009 by Nick CiskeSome highlights with commentary in italics.
A rough economy, changing reading habits, and a planet in peril are forcing book publishers to retool the way they do business.
And self-publishers as well — how has the economy changed your publishing strategy?
…
Although you may have watched your house value decline and your rainy-day fund dry up, there is still the sweet experience of crawling into the pages of a really good book. Reading is one of the best—and cheapest—sources of comfort, entertainment, and escape around.
But the industry that produced that book carries a story of its own. As with every business in these recession-challenged times, economic, environmental, and technological forces are requiring publishers to come up with new ways of packaging ideas and launching them into the world.
Generally, the book publishing industry is affected after the music and movie industries… and changes more slowly than other industries. During times of rapid change, those that change too early or too late are often left out.
…
“Up until very recently, we would ask, ‘What does a publishing company look like in 10 years?’” says Mark Tauber, senior vice president and publisher of HarperOne, which publishes titles on religion, self-help, and spirituality. “That’s still a good question, but it’s more like, ‘What does it look like next year?’”
Or next month? The rate of change seems to be increasing rapidly!
…
MANY PUBLISHERS—and readers—hope that it looks much greener. The environmental impact of each step of the mass book-making process packs a wallop—from the harvesting of trees to the production of pulp and paper, printing, and then schlepping those books to stores and mailboxes across the country. Consider also that a huge number of books eventually end up in landfills, where they decompose and help produce a troublesome greenhouse gas called methane. Overall, the entire industry emits 12.4 million metric tons of carbon each year, according to the Green Press Initiative (GPI), a nonprofit that helps publishers develop more environmentally responsible practices. That’s 8.85 pounds per book.
Bethany Press, the printer behind BelieversPress, was one of the first to sign the Green Press Initiative.
…
But a green-focused cadre of book industry leaders hopes to change many of those practices—and save about 5 million trees every year in the process. Roughly 220 of them have developed and signed the “Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper,” a GPI initiative, whose goals include protecting endangered forests, preventing illegal logging, increasing the industry’s use of recycled paper, and supporting human rights—including fair wages and working conditions for laborers involved in producing books overseas. They also want to see an increase in the use of paper that is certified by groups such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which works to create forestry practices that are responsible and sustainable. And this seal of approval isn’t just for industry insiders—President Barack Obama’s 1 million inaugural invitations were printed on FSC-certified paper.
But the most environmentally friendly step publishers can take is to use more recycled paper in their books. Dwight Baker, president of Baker Publishing Group, a Christian publishing house in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and an early member of the GPI, had been looking for recycled paper to use in Baker’s books for years. He credits John DePree, president and CEO of Bethany Press International—Baker’s printer—with ultimately finding a paper that worked.
Now virtually all the company’s nonfiction books are printed on post-consumer waste paper. Making the switch costs more, but only because more publishers and paper buyers—and readers—haven’t increased the demand for it.
Did you know that BelieversPress is one of the few self-publishing options that allows you to use recycled paper in your book? We also recycle the waste left over after producing your book.
Limiting your print runs (and reprinting more often to meet demand) is another way to cut down on waste.
…
But what if publishers produced more books that didn’t require paper at all? Wouldn’t it solve a bundle of environmental problems if we did away with printed books altogether? With increasing Internet access and a number of electronic readers on the market, such as Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader, plus the ability to read books online and—coming soon—via cell phones, Blackberrys, or iPhones, it’s a logical question. As the prices come down and the perks of digital reading grow—download extra material in seconds, get confusing words defined in a heartbeat, and read anywhere, anytime—publishers are having to retool the ways they conceptualize, produce, market, sell, and distribute their material to meet a small but growing demand.
We’ll be announcing e-book conversion services soon. Have a book to convert today? Contact us to discuss your options
…
Still, it’s easy to overestimate the difference technology will make in the publishing industry, and easy to underestimate the time it will take for these transitions to occur on a big scale. “We’re adding our content to Kindle as aggressively as any publisher,” says Baker. “But last month Kindle sales amounted to less than 1 percent of our total revenue. Is it going to grow? Yes. Is it going to displace some print somewhere? Yes, by all means. Is this going to solve the problem on resource management? No. It would be hopelessly naïve to wait for that to occur. E-books will grow but they’re not going to displace massive quantities of print. It’s usually a both/and, not an either/or.”
Kindle is one of the larger eBook markets. Though the cost to convert is small, the profits can be smaller yet if your market has not yet embraced eBooks. Amazon’s recent announcement of a Kindle App for iPhone has greatly increased the market.
And although paperless books are much less harmful to the environment, the components of electronic readers, cell phones, iPhones, and other reading gadgets still carry social, economic, and environmental impacts of their own. Kindle’s $359 price tag may come down, but that’s still a steep price for most people, and it’s not hard to imagine broken or outdated e-readers lying alongside cell phones in landfills all over the world.
eWaste tends to end up in poorer third world countries (Africa and China) where workers are exposed to unsafe working conditions. eReaders require disassembly to recycle certain parts, versus books which are more easily more completely recycled.
For now, the printed book is far from obsolete, though its story will continue to evolve—hopefully in physical forms and processes that are far greener. The digital revolution brings a host of new ways to enjoy a book, and at the end of the day, that’s what it’s about: good, fresh ideas and new ways of looking at the world. Whether it’s on paper or onscreen, good books will always comfort, delight, and sustain us—especially during the bad times.
Source: Are Books Obsolete? from Sojourners Magazine
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