Marketing

It's easy to forget that Oyster, dubbed "The Netflix for Books" by every writer who's covered them, has only really been around for a year. In that time, they've signed on two of the Big Five publishers, built a library of 500,000 books and basically made us forget that Scribd has been trying to contend for exactly the same space. And at the heart of Oyster's business is their recommendation engine - a recipe for bringing readers in and hooking them on book after book. 

Developed initially as a way of producing picture books, Blurb has bulked up in novel and magazine publishing, and sees itself as the future of the industry - and a massive threat to traditional publishers. "The volume we're seeing globally is unbelievable," says Gittins. "We're entering the golden age of publishing. Back in Dickens's day, everybody self-published, and it only became stigmatised when mass publishing came along and you weren't picked. Even five years ago, there was a stigma attached to self-publishing."

HarperCollins has launched HarperCollins Presents, a global podcast network that incorporates the publisher’s existing podcast programs such as BookD and HarperAudio Presents.

Why are publishers so scared of free and sample content? Sure, most publishers offer at least one way to test drive their content but they could be doing so much more. I think free/sample content is the single most under-utilized customer acquisition tool out there. Here's why… Have you noticed that most newspapers and magazines don't offer a free e-trial? Or if they do, they bury it on their site. Most of these publishers have always offered free trials of their print product, but free e-trials are almost unheard of. If they're concerned about chronic freeloaders, why not just give the first few pages of the replica editions?

YouTube continues to be the go-to place to search for up and coming talent, as entertainment companies buy up major YouTube networks and look for ways to use the YouTube stars in cross-platform strategies in hopes of increasing viewers on all of them. Seeing the potential in that strategy, book publishers are now perusing YouTube, making book deals with some of the more popular stars in hopes of finding a new catalyst to boost the industry, which has been in decline for years. 

There are two kinds of innovation. One is in value creation and the other is in value capture. Many businesses stop the creative process when a good idea is developed, believing that it will generate money as soon as it is implemented. But unless value capture -- maximizing the return on your idea -- is also considered, you can leave money on the table.

Languages created for TV shows can have a powerful fascination for fans: just look at Star Trek's Klingon language for proof of that. Game of Thrones' Dothraki language also fits into the trend. Now publisher Random House wants to help fans of the HBO drama to learn the language spoken by its fierce horse-mounted warriors, with a mobile app called Dothraki Companion. Released for iPhone and iPad, the app is the work of David J. Peterson, who was responsible for creating the language for Game of Thrones.

In the world of books, today is not Thursday but Super Thursday, the day of the year when the publishing industry will release its largest number of titles. 315 books are to be published today, from a total of 1,185 this week. And so begins the race for a place on the Christmas bestseller charts.

Among the books published today are Gillian Anderson's debut novel, A Vision of Fire (co-written with Jeff Rovin),

Of all the horrors Louis Zamperini endured during World War II - a plane crash into the Pacific, 47 days stranded at sea, two years in a prisoner-of-war camp - the one experience that truly haunted him was when a Japanese guard tortured and killed an injured duck. The episode, recounted in Laura Hillenbrand's best seller "Unbroken," also traumatized many readers, Ms. Hillenbrand said. So when she was writing a new edition aimed at young adults, she left that scene out. "I know that if I were 12 and reading it, that would upset me," Ms. Hillenbrand said.

Simon & Schuster is teaming with Milq, a new social media platform, to launch a Books category on the content curation venture.