Technology

If you’re a self-published author, in addition to writing and producing your books, you must take on the responsibility of marketing them. The most successful author-marketers foster strong relationships with their audiences. Blogging, whether through written weblogs or verbal audio blogs (podcasts) is one of the best ways to build and maintain a fan base…

The concept behind this article was to share the experiences that I and others have had managing and implementing business intelligence (BI) and reporting solutions. To help out, I asked some former colleagues to contribute their thoughts. The contributors are Ralph Cetrulo, Vince Benenati and Joe Rodriguez. Their bios are below: • Ralph Cetrulo is…

We, the members of the “Save the IDPF. Save EPUB.” campaign committee, are reaching out to the publishing community to update you on our work and ask for your help. We believe that the International Digital Publishing Forum’s (IDPF) reckless transfer of assets to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a threat to the…

You’ve probably been hearing a lot of “New Year, New You” talk recently, from people looking to jumpstart a new, healthy lifestyle to those looking to rethink their finances. This January, I’d like to recommend that all current and aspiring authors apply the “New Year, New You” concept to their digital brand. The new year…

As I’ve said before, the publishing industry needs to get beyond the current “print or digital” mindset and instead explore ways for one to complement the other. Plenty of industry stats show that most readers are comfortable with either format and that many prefer the convenience of switching between the two (e.g., reading the news…

The goal of good social media content is interaction that leads to loyalty and trust. And the keys to good content are not a mystery. Marketing studies have been conducted on how people buy, what kinds of social media content they respond to, and why. To sell books on social media, you need to make…

We previously talked about what makes good metadata: writing effective copy to sell your book and doing what you can to help customers actually find that book. While these are good practices to start with going forward, there is also a need to revisit the backlist often with these same ideas in mind. Marketing copy can…

Public libraries have had another bad year. They are like churches and local railways. People like having them around, and are angry if they close. But as for using them, well, there is so little time these days. The latest Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy figures on library closures are dire. In the…

If you’re an author who is struggling by trying to be all things to all people on every social media channel, then I’ve got some good news: you really only need to be engaging on one social media site to set up an effective marketing presence. There are four steps to the process of selling…

Last December I wrote a blog post setting out my predictions for the publishing industry in 2016, and I promised to revisit them after 12 months. I always stress the importance of accepting accountability in business, and therefore I must also live—or fall—by the same rules. I have placed a score by each prediction. Please…