How Social Sharing, E-samples, And Mobile Can Revitalize Book Publishing
The BISG study also paid attention to the commerce aspects of ebooks. Whether a potential reader learned about the book through social media, or by reading a sample chapter, or both, ease of purchase was of paramount importance. The fact that the ebook could be bought easily -- on the very device on which it would be read -- was the real force behind the ebook shift. Vendors who had a more complex sales process, like Sony, did not do as well as those who created a relatively frictionless, on-device process.
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.