How Social Sharing, E-samples, And Mobile Can Revitalize Book Publishing
Another challenge of social book promotion is the "last mile" of actual purchase. Although online book buying (particularly ebooks) has never been easier, the steps between social sharing/promotion and the buying decision are not always straightforward.
Certainly social media is a great way to spread the word -- and find a narrow audience of like-minded readers. In practice, however, social media marketing may not be sustainable for busy writers and publishers. All this could change, however, if the shared social content is less about book promotion and more about sharing the actual book.
John Parsons (john@intuideas.com), former Editorial Director of The Seybold Report, is an independent writer, ghostwriter, and editor. He is the co-author of the interactive printed textbook, Introduction to Graphic Communication, on the art, science and business of print, which has been adopted by Ryerson, Arizona State, the University of Houston, and many other schools and vocational training centers. Custom editions of the book are under consideration by major printing companies and franchises for internal training purposes.