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Feature

Will E-Books and E-Reading Catch Fire?

by Jim Barnes

The digital revolution has been underway for years, changing the way we read, learn and communicate. Look around you on any urban street today, for proof that a “smart-phone” revolution is now in progress, and it seems inevitable for electronic books to continue to grow in importance and availability. Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com certainly think so, and as their Kindle gets fine-tuned and more e-readers and smart-phone apps join the fray, the long predicted “death of the paper book” may soon seem less like science fiction and more like reality.

Here’s the thing: e-books and e-readers make sense from an economic and ecological sense, but maybe even more importantly, it’s logical for books to be read with the same tools they’re purchased with and talked about. “Word-of-mouth” has always been the strongest form of book promotion, and most of today’s “words” are transported via cellphone and email device.



At BookExpo America in New York last month, there was little evidence of an e-book revolution. I suppose e-books are in enemy territory at BEA, where traditional publishing and bookselling rules -- so the “New Media Zone” had very low visibility. It was a guerilla operation, with no signage, hushed voices, no spokesmodels… The fact that so many BookExpo news stories were about e-books is sad evidence that this may be the only aspect of publishing with positive traction.

Then I heard about a seminar at BookExpo called, “A Strategic Approach for Harnessing the Power of Social Media: A Publisher Roadmap.” The presenter was Tim O’Shaughnessy, the co-founder and CEO of LivingSocial, a social media company behind Visual Bookshelf, the largest interactive book network on the Web, and Pick Your Five, a top Facebook application that is popular with book lovers.

I tracked down O’Shaughnessy to ask him about how social media are changing the way people communicate about books. When he opens our conversation with, “The publishing industry is going through a really interesting time right now,” he’s not trying to be funny.

While there’s not much good news in publishing these days, there certainly is lots of buzz around the electronic side of books and the way they’re marketed and sold. “The Internet has already changed the way we buy books, and now it’s changing the way we read them,” says O’Shaughnessy. At BookExpo, he elaborated on how social media affects book consumers:

• Readers are more accessible than they ever have been and can be harnessed in large numbers
• They interact with Web products and services in ways that allow for segmentation-focused efforts (i.e. they tell you what books they like)
• There are low-cost, efficient and measurable ways to markets books (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, targeted social media campaigns)
• Facebook pages are becoming a broader kind of Yellow Pages

“I was surprised but encouraged at the audience reaction,” he says. “It was abundantly clear that those in the industry are genuinely trying to figure out how to leverage new marketing and sales channels and are really beginning to accept that the methods that worked for so long now need to be augmented.”

During the conference, LivingSocial also launched a new social marketing portal for authors, providing a fast, viral, and cost-effective way to build an online fan base around new book releases. As the company behind popular Facebook applications Visual Bookshelf and “Pick Your Five,” LivingSocial has been running similar campaigns for large publishers like HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House, and Simon & Schuster.

Sounds great – but does it work for small publishers and independent authors?

Yes, says O’Shaughnessy, citing examples of book campaigns of various sizes, including one for a music-themed book with a contest to win an iPod – for answering questions to which answers can be found in the book’s first chapter.

"We think it's a big problem that marketing budgets of all sizes don't fit into the current book marketing world. Shelf space at Barnes & Noble or an ad in The New York Times are expensive. One of the great things about our new author portal is it allows authors with budgets as small as a few hundred dollars to be able to craft a small campaign that targets their exact niche and really be able to measure the results."

Word-of-mouth has always been the best book publicity, and that remains true today, is spite of new ways of passing those words of praise along.

“People don’t have to go into bookstores to buy books anymore, so how can we get readers to ‘gather’ online and talk about books?” he asks. LivingSocial created Visual Bookshelf, the largest interactive book network on the Web, and Pick Your Five, the number one Facebook application for readers, to do just that.

“Visual Bookshelf is like word-of-mouth on steroids. It allows readers to catalog, rate, review, discover, and share books anywhere, anytime. Our goal is to provide an environment that attracts readers and holds their interest. Anywhere you have a large, active community of book-lovers’ attention, you’re on the way to success.”

“After working with some of the largest publishers in the country, we wanted to create a similar way for independent authors with marketing budgets of all sizes to reach the same passionate, influential readers in our community.”

“I think the book market is going to grow – e-book reader technology is finally getting good enough for widespread use. A very good sign is that early adopters of e-books aren’t just techie teens and twenty-somethings – there’s a wide range of perceived value to a wide demographic that includes many older users.”

In Fast Company magazine’s July-August cover story about Amazon and the Kindle, author Adam L. Penenberg explores the book’s digital future and thinks everything will be okay, as long as publishers go high-tech: “Taking on the characteristics of our present online habits, and riding a wave of rapid innovation in screens and microprocessors, books may soon become multimedia events. In this transformative model, the book industry could actually be well-positioned. Publishers could team with authors and multimedia producers to forge a new channel for dynamic e-books that go far beyond linear prose; they may provide a blend of text, video, audio interviews, 3-D maps -- an entire ecosystem of content built on top of the book.”

Yes, these are interesting times, and savvy publishers who evolve along with social media communities and e-book and wireless technologies will find success in interesting new ways.

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Ed. note: Have e-books, smart phones or social networking sites changed the way you publish and/or market your books? Let me know at jimb@bookpublishing.com

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