Building buzz for a book used to be a pretty straightforward endeavor. Finagle a book review at a leading mass media outlet like The New York Times and the title was sure to be a bestseller. As media has moved to digital, though, discoverability of books has become much more fragmented. While a review in NYT is nothing to sniff at today, there are other players that book marketers should be targeting.
Peter McCarthy
Ellen Harvey is a freelance writer and editor who covers the latest technologies and strategies reshaping the publishing landscape. She previously served as the Senior Editor at Publishing Executive and Book Business.
Peter McCarthy and Mike Shatzkin have joined forces on a new venture, The Logical Marketing Agency, a digital marketing services-provider for publishers and authors. The company is offering a range of title- and author-optimization and research options at prices scaled to fit publishing budgets. The founders expect to provide solutions both for individual authors - mainly through a web portal - and for the largest companies.
In this month’s edition of our print magazine (featuring our snappy new redesign), I take a look at the announced-last-year merger of publishing powerhouses Penguin and Random House.
While info out of the two houses is expected to be on lock-down until all the paperwork goes through and regulators are pleased, we asked some experts with a set of unique perspectives on how the merger will affect the publishers involved and the industry at large to weigh in.
While perspectives differ, one of the most common areas of interest is technology and data: Will the merger help or hinder the two houses impressive track records for innovation? Will the real innovation that comes out of this deal, and further consolidation, come not out of the big houses but out of displacement on the fringes.
Publishers of ebooks have a dilemma: You want readers to find (and purchase) your products. But you don't want pirates making your products available for free. But is digital rights management (DRM) technology, one method publishers use (with questionable success) to combat piracy, a hindrance or even antithetical to content discovery?
Join us Thu., Sept. 13, at the upcoming free Publishing Business Virtual Conference and Expo as a panel of industry experts explores important questions around the paradox that is Discoverability Vs. DRM. Christopher Kenneally, Brian O'Leary, Peter McCarthy and Patricia Payton will attempt to get to the bottom of the issues around getting your content discovered without giving it all away:
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