In a world where mobile Internet is growing rapidly, many websites still aren’t prepared with an acceptable mobile site

There are a few online components that can protect the future of legacy publishers.

Beyond the audience development opportunities of social media, search engine optimization, and link building, there is the ability to utilize new, popular platforms.

This of course includes mobile devices, like digital e-readers, tablets, and smartphones.

However, simply having the opportunity to utilize this technology doesn’t mean publishers are. With so many directions digital publishing can take, optimizing for mobile isn’t necessarily the first option. Although new data suggests that it should be one of the top issues addressed within digital magazine publishing.

The importance of mobile

Before diving down into the topic, let’s take look at a few statistics associated with mobile. According to Gartner, mobile revenue in North America is expected to reach $5.7 billion by 2015.

Gartner also estimated 468 million mobile phones being sold throughout 2011. That number is an increase of 57.7% from 2010.

It’s clear that the volume of mobile devices, especially smart phones, is worth a look from digital publishers. But how should digital publishers approach selling products and providing content on mobile devices?

Information from Adobe answers this question to a degree, as 66% of respondents in the “Mobile Shopper Insights for 2011” survey prefer using a mobile browser for shopping from a mobile device to a mobile app.

Adobe’s data also shows that first-time shoppers prefer typing an address into the browser to find what they are looking for (46%) to browsing in an app store (28%). And when it comes to research and comparison shopping, mobile browsers are preferred over mobile apps significantly as 81% prefer using a browser for researching prices and 71% prefer a browser to compare prices from different retailers.

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A clear disconnect

Data shows that mobile users prefer browsers for major online activities like shopping, researching products and comparing retailers. However, the majority of websites aren’t optimized for mobile, making their websites undesirable to the mobile user.

Recently, Search Engine Land published an article stating that, “less than 10% of the web in 2012 is mobile ready.” And, according to the article, 25% of searches are coming from mobile devices, which has the potential to leave a lot of mobile users unhappy as their website destinations may not be optimized for mobile.

If you have a site not optimized for mobile, your competition may benefit from the mistake, especially if they are ready for mobile in 2012.

Preparing for mobile

While preparing for the mobile web, consider these pieces of advice.

First, provide an optimized website. Incorporate the most important parts of your website and remove any filler. Mobile devices are used on the go, so your content needs to be skimmable and have concise headlines.

Secondly, if you are considering an app, make sure it provides actual value. It must make an audience member’s life easier or more enjoyable. Do not assume users will use an app for browsing content, because it appears mobile sites are preferred.

Lastly, don’t let the competition beat you to the mobile Internet.

As a writer in the 21st century, I am rather curious as to the different opportunities transmedia storytelling has to offer in the process of creating a work. Which multimedia languages are the most appropriate in which to tell a story? What role do the various platforms play in creating a story? What is the production process like? What role does a publisher play in the entire process? How is a transmedia story marketed? How can the production costs be made profitable?

I have been reading all sorts of articles, blogs, studies and books in relation to this concept for several months. Although there are today more questions than answers on how transmedia will impact the book publishing sector, the objective of this article is to get a clearer picture of the challenges and business opportunities offered by the new world of transmedia to authors and book publishers.

Transmedia in the Book World

Wikipedia defines transmedia storytelling, also known as multi-platform storytelling or cross-platform storytelling, as the technique of telling stories across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies. In other words, each platform allows the author to tell the story in a different way. It is not a matter of adding extras (videos, podcasts, etc.), as occurs in enhanced books. Each format is part of the story and provides a different experience.

Not All Authors Should Work in Transmedia

One thing I strongly believe is that not every author in the 21st century needs to become a transmedia storyteller. There will undoubtedly be many writers who will strive to experiment in this new world of creation and opportunities, whereas others will prefer to tell stories using traditional language and format. No option is better or worse, it is simply a personal decision.

Growing Demand for Transmedia Stories

The huge growth of all types of intelligent devices, such as tablets, smartphones, net books, etc., is changing many people’s means of access to culture, information and entertainment.

These new intelligent devices appear to be made for increased consumption of transmedia stories. The more people who use these devices to consume digital content, the greater the demand for transmedia stories will become. In other words, a higher number of “gadgets” will likely equate to a higher demand for transmedia content.

Working as a Team (Author, Producer, Publisher, etc.)

Transmedia storytelling most certainly requires teamwork. An author no longer works alone on a project that is handed over to the agent or publisher for final revision. Transmedia creation requires a creative process shared by the author, production team, multimedia platforms, lawyers, etc. This reality will force publishers to redefine various management and planning processes during the creation, production, distribution, marketing and promotion of a transmedia book.

Publishers will need to acquire new skills to support authors in the creation of their transmedia works by providing them with advice on multimedia production, information on different opportunities, project coordination, counselling on legal matters, etc.

Innovation Through Experimentation

There is a high degree of uncertainty as to the return-of-investment on transmedia projects. However, this uncertainty should not prevent publishers from remembering that part of their responsibility is to assess the risks and opportunities offered by the market and to innovate. If publishers do not assume an attitude of innovation through experimentation, authors will seek support from players outside of the sector.

We must not forget that it is possible to carry out transmedia projects in the book world without incurring high production costs.

New business models

Publishers must also assume an entrepreneurial mentality in the new digital era. There are all kinds of possible transmedia business models, some more solid than others, but all of them have a common denominator: a direct relationship with the user.

We are entering a new scenario where the relationship between companies and their users (B2C) will be more important that the current intermediation process from “company to company” (B2B). Confronted with this new competitive scenario, the publishing sector will have to redefine its creation, production, distribution and content selling strategy in the web.

The Role of User-Generated Content in Transmedia

As a result of the aforementions, publishers who manage to integrate users’ contributions with the content produced by their authors will obtain vast competitive advantages. The active participation of users via the contribution of content will become one of the most sought-after slices of the transmedia “cake.”

Impact on the Author’s Copyright

Creating transmedia stories will require the team work referred to above as well as an understanding of the fact that each project will become a creation shared between authors and their readers. In this context, publishers will have to be extremely creative in designing new ways of compensating copyright as well as rewarding users’ contributions.

New Digital Skills

One of the most important challenges to be met by publishing industry is to change their teams’ way of thinking. Publishers must learn new ideas and skills, from producing multimedia content to providing a broader offer of services to their authors, even to appropriately manage the community of readers around their digital content.

Publishing Competes with Entertainment

In the era of limited attention span in which we are living, many authors and publishers need to understand that reading a book competes with a huge range of free content (which is easily accessible to the public and copyright-free), as well as millions of entertainment options on the internet. If we want books to play an important part in the digital society, we must offer a better discovery, purchase and reading experience online, as well as a more competitive pricing model that in in line with other entertainment offers, such as movies, music, news, etc.

Javier Celaya is the vice president of the Spanish Digital Magazines Association (ARDE), member of the Board of Directors of  the Spanish Digital Economy Association (ADIGITAL) and CEO and founder of Dosdoce, an online portal analyzes the use of the new technologies in the cultural sector and publishes annual studies related to trends in the Spanish publishing sector.

At this point, though, only one truth has emerged: the future importance of digital publishing is obvious. The remaining question is exactly how important will it be. Will it be the dominant mode of publishing? Or will it have to play nice with print? I think the reasonable position is “it’s too early to tell,” though many are trying to guess where the ship is headed. And this is perfectly reasonable; the livelihood of a great many people is at stake here, and some sense of direction can allow those people time to maneuver.

It strikes me though that while we have heard from writers, editors, agents, publishers, booksellers, critics, and every other position on the supply side, we haven’t heard much from the demand side. The book consumer, or as Virginia Woolf called them “the common reader,” to this point has only had a statistical presence.

Most of the commentary from the publishing-complex will naturally be tinged with some self-interest: it’s quite rare to see an independent bookstore owner foretell disaster for print just as it is rare to see a tech pundit argue the converse. None of these perspectives though has made much effort to understand what readers want and how the various modes of publication, both as they are and what they might be, respond to those desires.

Lost in all of this debate is the relatively simple truth: the medium that best serves most of the desires of most of the readers will win. It seems then that some discussion of what readers want, abstracted from any particular medium, might be useful.

As I see it there are seven broad things readers want, regardless of their specific taste. Each reader will rank and weight these categories differently, but I think there might be a particular profile of “the common reader” that will shape the future of publishing. I am not sure what that profile is exactly, and I even think it still is being formed as digital publishing matures.

__________________________

The Seven Things All Readers Want From Publishing

In no particular order:

1. Diversity

Readers want there to be choice: romance, technical manuals, memoir, children’s, fantasy, thriller, literary fiction and on and on.

2. Quality

Not only do readers want choice, but they also want those choices to be good.

3. Economy

Readers want reading to be affordable.

4. Discovery

Readers want to be able to find things they are interested in. This means both genres they are already familiar with and exploration.

5. Convenience

Readers want to be able to get something to read as easily as possible.

6. Experience

Readers want to enjoy the experience both of reading books and of purchasing them.

7. Flexibility

Readers want reading to fit easily into their lives easily.

Jeff , posted on October 20, 2011 in Opinion with http://bookriot.com/?p=2585">6 Comments and 19 Reactions

Posted on November 2, 2011 by davidgaughran

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has released its figures for the month of August.

Print continues to fall in all categories, while e-books keep up their breakneck growth.

However, it’s increasingly clear that digital revenue is not growing fast enough to replace the complete collapse of print.

As always, the AAP figures come with a health warning. Only a very limited number of houses report, and you should hesitate before drawing hard-and-fast conclusions, especially with regard to the raw revenue totals.

As I suspected last month, July’s hardcover bounce was a one-off and all print categories are down in August. Trade paperback is down 5.7% on August 2010. Hardcover is down 11.2%. Both Children’s/YA categories are down over 20%. And once again, mass market paperback has plunged dramatically, down a huge 36.4%.

Remember, this is in terms of revenue, not units sold. Here’s the chart (figures in millions of dollars, remember the above caveats):

The above numbers are from the AAP, via eBookNewser.

August was a wipeout for print, but let’s look at the totals for the year to date and see if that huge increase in e-book revenue is replacing the massive losses in paper.

These totals are for the first eight months of 2011 (revenue figures are in millions of dollars).

The above numbers are from the AAP, via MediaBistro.

It’s clear that there is only one growth area here. By my calculations, this puts e-books at 21.5% of the market for 2011 so far, behind adult trade paperback at 25.6%, and just ahead of hardcover at 21.3%.

But this simple arithmetic hides bigger problems for large publishers. First of all, these numbers take no account of returns. Second, they only measure a limited amount of publishers (usually the larger ones), and leave out all the small and micro presses, many of whose digital sales would be way far more than 21.5%. Third, it takes no account of self-publishers whose sales are almost exclusively digital.

In short, the market is far ahead of that 21.5% number. And this is bad news for large publishers, just ahead of what is sure to be a bumper holiday season for e-reader sales.

Why is this bad news? After all, aren’t a lot of those bestselling e-books written by the big writers from the large publishing houses, and selling at very high prices? Don’t they take the lion’s share of that cover price (usually 52.5%)?

That’s all true, but, looking at these numbers, it’s clear the extra revenue being generated by the massive growth in e-books is not enough to offset the huge losses from the drop in print (I peg it at a 5% drop in overall revenue based on the above figures, likely much worse when returns are factored in).

What’s happening here? Are digital readers reading less (or paying less)? Are we losing some readers between the transition from bookstore to online to digital?

In this week’s column for IndieReader, I show that a cursory glance the Kindle genre bestseller lists will show that the large publishers are losing readers in their droves to self-published work (which is not measured by the AAP).

Genre bestseller lists that used to be dominated by the large publishers are being taken over by self-publishers. These are the top-selling books in their category, and all that revenue is no longer going to the publishing conglomerates.

The danger for large publishers, as I argue in detail in that article (which you really should read), is that their customers are switching from print (where they controlled distribution and essentially restricted competition) to digital (which is an open playing field where they face severe competition).

In short, large publishers are losing a big portion of each group of readers that switches to digital. And more are switching every day.

And the worst bit for large publishers? I don’t think they even realize this. They’re blaming falling revenue on phantom causes like piracy. Their solution? Sue their readers.

Good luck with that.

It is a digital world now and self-publishers are not tied to bookstores with limited shelf space and a revolving inventory. In fact it will be on sale for a very long time. With the longevity of your eBook’s life, you have the ability to try several different marketing avenues until you find one that works.

So where do you start with this marketing thing?

Your marketing goal should be to fill the sales pipe with quality content and give your readers as many entry points to your buy pages as you can.

Synergy
One of the phenomenons in the ebook marketing world is the momentum that is created when an author catches on. Every week it seems we are hearing about an author reaching the ebook million unit sales plateau. Their secret is they know how to market and brand themselves. Yes they are in all the right places. The speed of the Internet and the reach it offers to the ebook marketer is breathtaking.

So how do they do it? Besides great content and hard work, how do they reach that prize status?

Entry Points
One of the marketing strategies they use is the creation of as many entry points as they can to get to their sales page. They never miss an opportunity to put that ebook product in front of their prospective readers. Here are some of the entry points.

1. Ebook-links. Don’t miss the opportunity to add links in your ebook to the other titles that you have for sale. You should also link to your author’s website and blog and other reference points so readers can find their way back to you. Use the power of links.

Traditional publishers are missing this one on a regular basis. They are so anxious to make a copy of the paper version and get it online; they don’t render the buy links to the other titles in your ebook.

2. Websites. Have multiple websites. I recommend one for each ebook plus an author site that encourages reader communication. Make sure you reference your other titles on the individual sites. There are many free opportunities to setup multiple sites and blogs. Have giveaways and conduct contests. Anything that keeps your readers coming back to your website. Having your readers help with the title of your next book or the design of your next cover is a powerful tool to use.

3. Blog. Toss in a blog with interesting reader information and an interaction component. Don’t forget to include a blog list on your site. You know. Related blogs you like to read. They in turn will link back to your blog, creating more entry points. Encourage the cross-linking. It is win-win for both parties.

4. Tags and Metadata. One of the most important components that must be addressed every time you do something online is the path readers will take through search engines to get to your information. Search Engines Optimization (SEO) is the key to readers finding your ebook online. Spend some time analyzing what types of tags and categories you want to include in your messages. You may want to start with Google Keywords. Then look at your competition and see what they are doing.

5. Email Signature Line. Use your email signature line to sell your ebook. Show a thumbnail of your cover with a link to your buy page. Then start emailing a lot. Sometimes emails work better than commenting on forums and other blogs to create activity.

6. Guest Blogs and Interviews. Try to get involved in your genre community. A guest blog or an interview is a great opportunity to get your name and your ebook in front of another audience of readers and buyers.

7. Helpers. Connect with your helpers with links to their sites. Your helpers include your copy editor, your cover designer and your book designer. Linking to them can create a turnaround with a link back to your site.

Reader Interaction
You must develop an interaction with your reader. Here are some ideas.

1. Direct contact to your audience through social networking is very time consuming but it can be very rewarding. Facebook and Twitter along with Linkedin and Mobileread are good venues for starters.

2. As you go through your marketing activity, you must give your reader ‘that expert feeling’ about you and your book. Nothing turns them off more than marketing copy with typos. Talk the talk and walk the walk.

3. Your thumbnail cover could be the difference in the buy decision. You must keep in mind an ebook cover is looked at differently than the traditional cover. The prospective reader can’t see the brilliant colors or feel the raised print. If you can’t read the thumbnail, neither can the prospective buyer. You may have two covers. One for the paper version and one for the ebook version.

4. Amazon Public notes could be another opportunity to interact with your reader base and create synergy. If you can get them involved, your next ebook will be an easier sell.

End Game
So where are we going with this? Activity is a good thing. The more interaction you have with readers, the bigger opportunity you have for continued ebook sales. Here are several takeaways.

1. Motivate the buyer at each entry point. Make it easy to buy your ebook.
2. Get readers to read your first two chapters.
3. Develop synergy between each entry point with reader interaction.

If the Amazon or Barnes and Noble sites are the only place readers can find out about your ebook, I advise you to go fishing and dream about what could have been.

How will they find you and your ebook? Should you seek a mentor to help you market your ebook? You will find out that there is not enough time in the day to do everything yourself.

This blog first was posted at the ‘Marketing Tips for Authors‘ site by Tony Eldridge.

Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

By DAVID STREITFELD