Audience Development

When Open Road Integrated Media was founded by former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman in 2009, the industry as a whole was still fumbling over ebooks and the uncertain financial impact of digital publishing. Indeed, it was the rare publishing house that demanded digital rights in its contracts, and that was precisely why Open Road’s business…

The average consumer isn’t likely to buy something that appears confusing or unfamiliar to them. Yet, if you visit the website of most book publishers, they seem to think people have no fear of the unknown. For instance, the typical website homepage throughout the publishing industry represents an online display of books pleading to be…

Open the iBooks trending searches today and you’ll see that the majority of searches start with the word “Free.” This is a word well beloved by consumers and deeply feared by publishers, who understandably want to protect their authors and investments. Yet for consumers conditioned to expect free online content, any paywall can be viewed…

Ten Wattpad writers had their publishing dreams come true today with the release of Once Upon Now, an anthology of remixed fairy tales. The book is an exclusive collection of ten new modern tales, each with a fantastical twist. Once Upon Now is on sale now in Target stores and online. The stories are written…

On October 11th, Book Business' sister publication Publishing Executive will host a webinar on increasing email revenue. The session will explore how publishers can drive additional revenue through native ads, programmatic, dynamic ads, and more. Publishing leaders will also share how they've increased email engagement and grown newsletter subscription. Sign up for this free webinar…

NEW YORK, NY—October 4, 2016—Penguin Random House and its Crown Publishing Group division announce Season of Stories, an eleven-week serialized reading experience to begin Tuesday, October 11, and continue through the end of December 2016, that delivers short stories directly to a reader’s inbox. The special event allows readers to sign up at (www.theseasonofstories.com) to…

This article is the third installment of a feature written by book marketing consultant and BISG director Brian O’Leary. Part 1 and 2 of this article appeared in the Fall 2016 issue of Book Business. View the complete feature on D2C marketing here. Part 3: Keys to Building Your D2C & Content Marketing Skillset Book…

Part 1: Using Feedback Loops & Conversion Architectures Direct-to-consumer marketing requires a paradigm shift for many book publishers. We haven’t traditionally thought about using content to attract readers as a step toward establishing ongoing, direct relationships. Nor do we think as much about understanding the experience our readers have with our books, beyond the moment…

The rules of online publishing seem to shift daily. One minute publishers are being told long-form articles have no home on the web, yet recent data suggests long-form does well on mobile and social. This webinar will explore major trends in online publishing and what a closer look at data analytics say about these trends. Leading publishers will share how their unique audiences are behaving within the context of broader industry trends and how they’re using analytics to drive their content & audience development strategies.

The people who actually buy and read books are still mostly nameless and faceless individuals from a publisher’s point of view. This, despite the fact that there are plenty of opportunities for publishers to establish a direct relationship with consumers. I’m not necessarily talking about selling direct; I’m referring to the opportunity to build a…