Low website traffic and a lack of existing customer engagement are some of the most common reasons book publishers aren’t pursuing a direct-to-consumer (D2C) model today. They’ll point out that almost nobody comes to their site, so they question the value of investing in a D2C solution. That’s a great point and one that shouldn’t…
Fingerprint is taking a different approach to engaging the next generation of readers on mobile, says CEO and co-founder Nancy MacIntyre. While many publishers and technologists have made strides in improving access to ebooks and creating interactive, game-like titles to keep children reading, MacIntyre believes tools for children to create their own ebooks are equally…
On December 9, 2015, the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance (MWPA) hosted an Oxford Debate in Portland, Maine, which considered the future of print and ebooks in the publishing industry. The MWPA’s motion for debate was, “Ebooks will eventually supplant printed books entirely.” Caleb Mason, founder of Publerati, argued for the motion while renowned antiquarian…
Many critics declare that consumers are experiencing a “Golden Age of Television," pointing towards the slew of high-quality programming available on premium channels like HBO, streaming services such as Netflix, and even basic cable. Book publishers may be able to learn a thing or two from how these addictive programs are being made. That’s what…
Going mobile is more than just big pages fitting on tiny screens. Mobile requires content to be organized so that it can be quickly served up in bite-sized chunks into any of the myriad forms that users might want, because today’s consumers want their content their way, on their devices, and in their timeframes. Publishers…
Are you familiar with the “smiling curve” phenomenon? The details are provided here, but the short explanation is that a smiling curve depicts the value-add potential for each stage of an industry. For example, in the publishing space, you have three stages of content: creation, delivery, and discovery. Those three stages are illustrated with a…
The beauty of the web is that feedback for what I write here is spread across a variety of platforms. These days it seems most of those community discussions are happening on LinkedIn and that’s where some recent comments helped me see the common thread across a few different topics I’ve been writing about. A…
I recently visited a mid-size publisher to discuss direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategies with their sales and marketing leaders. Towards the end of the session I was asked the most important question of the day and it’s something publishers pursuing a D2C solution need to carefully assess: Can we really change buyer behavior? The point is that…
Serialized fiction isn’t a new idea -- it dates back to the Victorian Era -- but it’s gaining wider appeal today as more consumers use their mobile devices to read. Smaller screens mean smaller chunks of reading. The Pigeonhole, a U.K.-based digital publisher, has capitalized on this growing trend by creating a platform to share…
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015 is in the rearview mirror but there were a few noteworthy tidbits gleaned from the event. Nielsen’s Jonathan Stolper shared some of the more important facts and figures in his state-of-the-U.S.-market presentation. Although you can argue Nielsen’s data isn’t complete and it’s therefore far from perfect, it’s one of the few…
