Joe Wikert's Digital Content Strategies

Screwpulp: An exciting new startup (that I'm part of!)

One of the benefits of my previous job is that it brought me much closer to the content startup community. I've met a lot of outstanding organizations but one that really grabbed my attention is a self-publishing startup called Screwpulp. I mentioned them briefly in an earlier article after I introduced them at an investor event in Memphis.

What's so special about Screwpulp? First of all, it's the people. I've spent time with each of the founding members of the company and I'd stack them up against any other startup team I've met. Every single one of them is extremely passionate about what they're doing and how Screwpulp is positioned to help reinvent publishing. Their passion is highly contagious. Also, none of them come from the publishing industry, so they're not caught up in "the way things work" and they feel no obligation to stick with the status quo. In short, they're the classic startup set out to break all the existing rules.

That leads me to the second point about what makes Screwpulp so special: the concept. Yes, there are plenty of startups out there catering to the self-publishing market, but Screwpulp recognizes that most authors don't have a platform. So rather than make the mistake of pricing the author's book too high and then wondering why it doesn't sell, Screwpulp initially sets the price at zero, uses scarcity to create a sense of urgency and takes the price up as demand increases. Very cool.

I love what Screwpulp is doing and I look forward to helping them become wildly successful. That's why I've agreed to join the team as an advisor. To learn more about the Screwpulp platform be sure to watch the investor pitch CEO Richard Billings made last week in Memphis.

Pre-publication samples

This one has been nagging at me for years and I'm amazed none of the major ebook retailers offer a solution. I'm talking about the ability to pre-order an ebook sample prior to publication. Today I received a bulk email from Eric Metaxas, author of Seven Men, telling me the book is "now available." His team either pressed "send" prematurely or they just want us to pre-order today. The print book doesn't release till tomorrow and the ebook doesn't come out till a week later. (Btw, why is a publisher delaying the ebook's release by a week? That's such out-dated thinking.)

I don't want to buy the ebook today but I'd love to request the sample when it's available. The ebook isn't released for eight more days so the sample obviously won't be available till then either. The chances of me remembering to check back next week and request the sample are close to zero.

So why not add a button that lets me pre-order the sample now? You don't have to send it to me now, but have it sent to me on April 30 when the ebook releases. How hard is that? More importantly, how many sales have been lost because this sample pre-order button doesn't exist?

Lessons for all PR professionals:

1. Never send the email blast saying the book is available the day/week before it actually is available.
2. Tell your publisher to make sure the ebook is available the same day as the print book, not a week later.
3. Tell your publisher and/or retail partner to implement a sample pre-order button for all ebooks. Better yet, make the ebook sample available on your own website, in all formats (EPUB, mobi, PDF), before the book releases anywhere else. What do you care if it gets out in to the wild and everyone shares it? It's called "establishing a direct channel with your customers", and it's a good thing to do.

P.S. -- The reason I'm on Metaxas' mailing list is because I read his amazing book Bonhoeffer a year or so ago. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's one of the most inspiring books I've ever read.

Author (R)evolution Day videos now available

If you missed TOC's first Author (R)evolution Day you missed a lot. Cory Doctorow kicked things off and more than 20 speakers followed with terrific presentations on marketing, audience development, choosing service providers, and my favorite topic, data.

The room was filled throughout the day and we know there were countless others who wanted to be there but simply couldn't make it. That's why we recorded the entire event. You'll find more than 5-1/2 hours of Author (R)evolution Day programming in this $19.99 video product. Cory will be pleased to know there's no DRM or other irritating technology restrictions on this content. In true O'Reilly fashion, we trust you as our customer and want you to have the flexibility of either streaming or downloading all the video to your computer.

If you're an author searching for marketplace success you'll definitely want to purchase this video collection. Let us know what you think about the programming for our first Author (R)evolution Day and stay tuned here for more information on future events.

Best of TOC

It's challenging keeping up with publishing industry news and analysis. I have way too many content feeds to monitor and I'm sure you do too. We do our best to highlight the most important developments on the TOC website but you're forgiven if you fall behind or miss an article every so often.

Most of analysis on the TOC site is somewhat timeless but the blog format might not make it feel that way. That's why we gathered the best of the best articles and assembled them for you in a handy, to-go version. It's called Best of TOC: Analysis and Ideas about the Future of Publishing. More than 60 of the most thought-provoking articles from the TOC team and community are featured and it's available in EPUB, mobi and PDF formats. Best of all, it's completely free.

If you need to catch up on your TOC reading you no longer have an excuse. Download your copy today and tell us what you think.

One author’s Kickstarter experience

David Lang is working on a book project for O’Reilly called “Zero to Maker: A Re-Skilling Guide for New Makers”. Like some authors these days, David is using Kickstarter to get the project off the ground. I was recently introduced to David and thought it would be good to share his Kickstarter experience with the TOC community. Here’s what he had to say…

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Length and spine width in a digital-first world

I’m still working through this extremely long exchange between Nicholas Carr and Clay Shirky about containers and contents but one point keeps jumping out at me: We have got to get away from thinking every “book” has to be at least a couple of hundred pages long.

The Carr/Shirky discussion pulls in the oft-used music analogy. And yes, the shift to digital music meant we no longer had to buy the entire album. We are now free to buy only the tracks we really like. Many look to extrapolate that into books and claim consumers are dying to buy individual chapters. That may be true for a few genres but there’s a much more important lesson here.

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MediaShift on the future of print and ebooks

I recently got to take part in a Mediatwits podcast for the PBS franchise, MediaShift. Mark Glaser and Rafat Ali were the hosts and the panel consisted of Miral Sattar, Jason Allen Ashlock, and yours truly.

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Author and publisher relationships

I had the pleasure of meeting with representatives from Schilling earlier this year as they prepared a white paper called “Author and publisher relations — how publishers stay competitive in digital publishing.” You can download the free report here.

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Authors as marketers

Authors are always looking for an edge. In a world where thousands of new traditionally- and self-published books are released every month it’s hard to rise above all the noise. We’re launching Author (R)evolution Day at TOC NY in February is because we realize authors need better resources to understand marketing, publicity, discovery, and distribution.

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Free and the medium vs. the message

I wrote a short piece earlier about an interesting ebook from HBR by Joshua Gans. It’s called Information Wants to Be Shared and I’m declaring it the must-read ebook of 2012. If you buy it direct from HBR’s website and use the code ADINFO1 you’ll only pay 99 cents, btw.

I spoke with Joshua and his editor and, true to the promise of the title, they’ve given me permission to share many of the longer excerpts I highlighted while I read the book. This is the first of what will be a two- or three-part series with those highlights.

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