Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog

BookAnd: A Social, Virtual Bookstore

I must be more of a visual person than I'd like to admit. After all, I use Goodreads to store and share my book reviews/recommendations but I don't use it much to discover what my friends recommend. My behavior is largely because Goodreads is a list-based service and it doesn't offer an immersive experience. Don't take that the wrong way though...I still like Goodreads!

I've also heard plenty of skeptics who say reading/books and social don't mix, reading is a solitary activity, etc. That's true at times, but when it comes to discoverability there's no substitute for recommendations from your friends. And I seem to be interacting more with my friends via Facebook than ever before. So it still seems to me there's a big opportunity to solve the discoverability problem through the social graph.

I recently discovered an interesting approach to book discoverability. It's a service that's still in the very early stages called BookAnd. BookAnd is a platform where you can build your own virtual bookstore (see the sign-up form here). The screen shot at the top of this post shows my bookstore under construction. It's not just about putting covers on shelves though. You can design your store so that it reflects your personality. If it sounds a bit like Second Life for books that's because it is. I can add tables, stands, chairs, plants, lamps, etc., to my virtual store. And while that's kind of fun, the best part of is that I can feature my favorite books, face out on the shelf, just like how you'd see them in a brick-and-mortar bookstore.

OK, this isn't exactly revolutionary. But think about the experience it could create if this virtual world were embedded in your favorite ereader app. So when you finish that next book on your nook and you want to go find something new to read why are you limited to whatever B&N wants to feature? What if you could easily visit your best friend's BookAnd store, right within the nook app?

That app integration is key. I don't even want to have to go to Facebook to discover what my friends are reading. I'm in the reader app so give me the option of seeing it all right there. That's especially important since we live in a world where even the most sophisticated tablets don't like the idea of displaying windows for more than one open app at a time. (Imagine having to work in Windows or on your Mac with only one window displayed at a time -- it's crazy!)

It's hard to say whether BookAnd or a competitor will catch fire but I definitely think it all hinges on that in-app integration. I hope the big players in this space will jump on that soon. It will only lead to better discoverability and therefore more sales, so why wouldn't they be all over this?

TOC Podcasts: Now in iTunes

A month or so ago we decided it was time to extend TOC's reach with industry news, interviews, etc., in the form of video podcasts. I've already featured many of those segments here on the 2020 Publishing blog but now you'll be able to retrieve them in a more convenient manner.

Head over to iTunes and subscribe to the TOC podcast series using this link. Four of the first sessions are currently available via iTunes and more will follow shortly. Going forward we plan to create 1-2 new segments every week.

We're always on the lookout for new and interesting people, products and platforms to cover via this podcast series. If you know of any be sure to send them my way and I'll make sure the TOC team follows-up on them.

Zite CEO Mark Johnson on the CNN Acquisition and Zite's Future

Every couple of weeks it seems yet another iPad news reader is released in the App Store. Many of them leverage your connections in Facebook and Twitter but only one of them learns what you read and serves up more related content to match those interests. I'm talking about Zite, of course. It's been my favorite iPad app since the day I downloaded it. I've tried others but I keep coming back to Zite. This TOC podcast features an interview with Zite CEO Mark Johnson. He talks about the recent CNN acquisition, what makes Zite special and how the platform might eventually be extended into book-length content.

Should Online Bookstores Go Social?

As I walked through a local brick-and-mortar bookstore the other day I overheard this exchange:

Customer #1: This is why I don't always buy online. I love holding and flipping through books.

Customer #2: Me too, but I really like spending time in the store and seeing if I can get any good recommendations while I'm wandering around.

That's so true. Shopping in person can have a social element to it but shopping online is always a solitary experience. To be fair, I don't make a habit of bothering other customers in the bookstore but there have been times when I've asked their opinion, particularly if I overhear them saying something I'm interested in or if I see them picking up a book I'm considering. Then there are the in-store clerks. I've gotten valuable pointers from store personnel countless times.

What's the analog to that in the online bookstore? There isn't one. Sure you can read through product reviews but that's not the same as talking realtime with other customers or a clerk.

Online bookstores have gotten along just fine despite this brick-and-mortar advantage, of course. But if online stores enable this functionality would it lead to an even richer shopping experience? I think so.

Let's say you're searching your preferred .com for books about one of my favorite topics, the New York Yankees. Wouldn't it be cool if part of the screen listed other shoppers currently browsing the online store who have a history of buying books about the Yankees? They'd appear in a frame just like you see with instant messaging apps and you could initiate a quick chat with any of them about a book you're considering.

Before you privacy advocates get too wound up I'd like to point out that this service is something you'd have to opt into. If you prefer to shop without chatting with anyone you'd simply leave this service disabled. But if you're interested in talking to others with common interests and would love to get their recommendations this service is for you.

The service would automatically include your purchase history, excluding items you may not want to make public or just showing topics/areas of interest, not specific titles. Think of it like an overlay of your Goodreads shelf with a chat service, built right into the online bookstore.

As a consumer I'd love to have access to something like this. As a publisher I'd get even more use out of it. You could do real, live customer research anytime you want to (assuming the right customers are currently logged in).

Forget about the customers for a moment though and let's think about the in-store clerk. Wouldn't it be cool if there were virtual in-store clerks available to chat with, ready to make a recommendation or answer your questions? You might figure it makes no sense for an online bookstore to add to staff just to have a bunch of subject matter experts online for customer inquiries. I agree, but this is where the brick-and-mortar stores could use it to their advantage...

Think about B&N, for example. There are hundreds of stores open from about 9AM ET till about 10PM PT each day. That's 16 hours each day and every store has one or more in-store clerks on the job at any given time. Connect the in-store computers to this service so that the NY clerk who manages the sports section and loves baseball gets notified when I have a general question about Yankees books. The clerk steps over to the computer and joins me in a chat session. The in-store employee now adds value to the online bookstore experience as well.

I'm just scratching the surface on this idea. How about making it more compelling with badges and credits earned for answering customer questions? Better yet, how about including an affiliate program so that if my recommendation results in a purchase I get a cut of the transaction? Then there's the ebook side of this. How about letting me send you an excerpt from a book I'm recommending? If it's a better sample than the one the publisher made available it only increases the likelihood of generating a sale. And if it doesn't, the retailer should be capturing all this information and using it to follow-up with that customer to nudge them again on that book (or other related books).

I'm convinced social will play a crucial role in the future of search in general and I also see a terrific opportunity for it to add to the online book buying experience. How about you? Would you be interested in something like this if your favorite online bookseller implemented it?

"Google-level Relevance, Facebook-level Social, & Apple-level Design"

Of all the items I read over the holidays, a blog post from Bradford Cross called Why the iPad is Destroying the Future of Journalism was by far the best.  It's a must read for everyone involved in any form of publishing.  Here are some of my favorite excerpts (italics) and with a few comments of my own mixed in:

The iPad has been dubbed a revolutionary device and the journalism industry has raced to embrace it.  But their embrace is more of a desperate final grasp at the past.

Yes!  That's exactly why I've tried out at least 4 or 5 different magazines on it but have yet to subscribe to a single one.  Wired is my favorite example.  I spent $4.99 on the first iPad issue and never went back for more.  Even though they lowered the price, why should I buy the iPad version when I get the print one for $10 a year?  There's nothing new and exciting enough to get me to switch.

Publishers want to have their own branded channel - whether in their own app, or in some meta-app.  They are fighting back against syndicating their content on the web and they want you to come to their sites and pay.  Nobody gets their content from only one source; this is the Internet.  Nobody is going to pick their favorite newspaper or magazine and just stick to their app.

This is where we in the publishing industry need to think more about getting our content to where readers already are and not expect them to always come to us (or grab our latest app).

Nobody wants an app for each content source.  The parallels to RSS are striking.

This reminds me of a conversation I was part of at a recent conference.  One person in the session mentioned that he couldn't recall the last time he opened his RSS reader.  Another agreed, saying she felt too guilty seeing the new tally of unread items in it.  How true.  I also can't tell you the last time I looked at my RSS reader, but I certainly don't like the idea of individual apps for every type of content I'm interested in.

Since most non-direct traffic for news now is coming from search, Facebook turns out to be the largest subscription source of news content on the Internet.

Even though Bradford's post is all about the news industry, I believe there are parallels to book publishing here as well.  See this earlier post on publishing in the social world for more info.

The success of search, social, and design seem to indicate that the future of news products need Google-level relevance, Facebook-level social, and Apple-level design.

What a terrific way to state it.  And unlike the famous words of Meatloaf, two out of those three simply isn't good enough.

If journalism is going to rediscover a model that works, it has to figure out how to integrate with the social web.  What should I be able to do with that Economist article?  Should I be able to share it à la carte so I can discuss it with the people I want?  Should I be able to share it within my network?  Should I be able to share it publicly?

I think the answers should be yes, yes and yes.  Btw, I read this article using the Instapaper app on my iPad.  Doing so helped me realize social network functionality that need to be added to Instapaper as well -- see my latest iPadHound post for more info.

Publishing in the Social World

I spent most of last week at our Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.  If you missed it, you'll find all of the video for it here.  I came away from it with two things in mind.  First, Google is under attack from every angle.  Sure, they've felt competitive pressures before but whether it's from Facebook, Bing or some startup in a garage, I get the impression it's more intense now than ever before.  No wonder they're giving all employees a 10% pay raise!  Seriously, search is getting more social every day and tomorrow's recommendations from people you know via Facebook are infinitely more valuable than search results from yesterday's algorithm.

That brings me to my second key takeaway from Web 2.0: The importance of a social strategy for every industry, inculding publishing.  I can already hear the skeptics saying, "reading is a time of solitude, not something that's done socially."  That's mostly right, but it ignores at least two key areas where a social strategy can have a profound impact on the publishing industry: recommendations and remixes.

Amazon pretty much pioneered the online recommendation aspect of book publishing.  Everyone wants 5-star reviews of their book, but I'm pretty sure we could also agree that a trusted friend's recommendation is even more powerful than a stranger's.  Almost every ebook purchase I make these days is because a friend suggested it.  There are just too many options (and too little time!) to risk buying a dud, even if it's only $9.99.

What's missing in the recommendation area though is a fast and easy way to share excerpts.  If I come across a terrific sentence or paragraph I want to share from Drew Brees' ebook, Coming Back Stronger (a terrific read so far, btw), what are my options?  The Kindle reader on my iPad doesn't offer a way for me to even tweet/email from within the app let alone share an excerpt.

Even though I mentioned Google could face challenging times ahead I think they're on to a solution for this particular problem.  Google Books lets you share links right into the book's content.  For example, I love it when Brees says, "Anyone can see the adversity in a difficult situation, but it takes a stronger person to see the opportunity."  I could tweet that sentence but it wouldn't leave much room for an attribution.  I prefer to share a link, like this one, which takes you right to that page in the book (the quote starts at the bottom of the previous page and runs through the top of the one linked to).

Since Google Books already offers this service it seems likely the much-anticipated Google Editions will too.  If it does, that's one reason I'll seriously consider switching from Amazon to Google for all my future ebook purchases.  I want to be able to not only share excerpts but also give my friends more context though a service that lets them dive right into the book I'm talking about.

Even though Google lets publishers determine what percentage of a book visitors can view for free in their Books service it's clear many publishers aren't participating.  For example, I've queued up Bill Bryson's At Home to read soon but all you'll find about it on Google Books is this content-free catalog page.

Any publishers who are skittish about sharing content previews today are likely to choke on the idea of content remix in the future.  Remix isn't great for all types of content but it lends itself to formats like how-to, for example.  The author may have one way of solving a problem but a reader might find an even better approach.  Why not make that reader's solution available to other readers, even if it's just a small change to one of the steps originally provided by the author?  Some readers will offer their appoach for free and others might want some form of compensation; we need to come up with a model that supports both.  And remember, nobody's trying to jam these remixes down anyone else's throat.  I envision an ereader app that lets you hide all other reader comments and content.  But for those of us who are curious to see what other readers, especially our own friends, have to say, I think this will be a nice new service.

The social publishing/content options suggested in this post are things that can't effectively be executed in the print world.  Up to now, ebooks have mostly been nothing more than quick-and-dirty conversions of the print product.  I look forward to a future where social options and other features more fully leverage the ebook medium.

My TOC Frankfurt "Ignite" Session, Part One

Last week was our second TOC Frankfurt conference and it was a thoroughly enjoyable day.  I had the pleasure of being one of eight Ignite speakers at the show.  If you're not familiar with Ignite presentations, they're each exactly 5 minutes long consisting of 20 slides which auto-advance every 15 seconds.  The title of my Ignite talk was "My eContent Wish List".  Not surprisingly (given the Ignite pace) I found myself rushing through my presentation so I thought I'd cover some of the slides in a short series of blog posts (where I can control the pace myself!).  The entire deck can be found here on Slideshare.

Multi-format, DRM-free

This is one of those areas that I can't believe there's still debating.  When I buy an ebook I want it in all popular formats (EPUB, mobi, PDF) all of which have no DRM attached.  Yes, I'm biased since this is how we sell ebooks on oreilly.com but it works exceptionally well for us.  Unfortunately, I can't name another publisher that does this; more importantly, you won't find that option in the Kindle or iBooks stores.  Publishers, wake up and follow O'Reilly's lead.  The (current) leading retailers are trying to protect their own platforms, although those rules will change when (and if!) Google ever releases their Editions program.  Imagine how many more ebooks the industry would sell if every time a customer buys one they knew they wouldn't be locked in to a single device or platform.

Readers for All Platforms

If you're too stubborn to follow my format/DRM advice, at least be sure the content purchased works on all the popular platforms.  This is one area where Amazon truly shines.  Even though they're largely selling DRM'd mobi files, they've got a reader for each and every platform.  That's why I buy my ebooks from them and not Apple.  I know that I can read my Kindle books on my iPad, my Mac, my iPhone, and, if I ever want to go retro, even on my first-gen Kindle.  There's also a Kindle reader app for the Android platform, which is good to know since I'm seriously thinking of switching from iPhone to Android next year.  Do you suppose Apple will ever offer an iBooks reader app for the Android?  Yeah, I don't think so either, so I'll continue buying Kindle editions instead.

Social Networks, Please?

This is another head-scratcher to me.  If I've just read a great sentence or two in an ebook, why can't I tweet it from within the reader app?  "Tweet this" buttons are everywhere except ebooks.  I'm looking for a bit more though.  I want an e-reader app that lets me not only tweet my enthusiasm but also link to the actual content in the ebook.  After all, how many meaningful excerpts can be stated in 140 characters, not to mention the need to include the title of the book?!  Amazon has a chance to take the lead here.  As I mentioned in last week's post, their "Kindle for the Web" service has a share feature but they need to extend it so that readers can tweet links to specific locations within the book.  Facebook proved long ago that recommendations are much more valuable when they come from your friends rather than strangers; e-reader apps could drive more e-book sales using the same philosophy.  They also need to incorporate their affiliate program to further incent readers to tweet these excerpt links.

One Author's Pre-Publication "Lending Library" Experience

I just read this terrific post by Stephen Elliott, author of The Adderall Diaries.  His summary should be required reading for every author and publisher who wants to learn more about building buzz.

Elliott's story hits on a number of important points.  First, author platform isn't just about who the author knows, it's who those people know, and in turn who the next level of people know, etc.

Second, I love it that the only requirement to participate in his pre-pub lending library was that you had to agree to read the book and pass it along to someone else.  That's it.  I would suggest taking it one step further and asking everyone who reads it to also post a review of it.  That's not asking much given that they just got to read a book for free.

Third, how about the total cost of the promotion?  It was $800 plus the cost of the free copies.  Talk about ROI! How many PR campaigns cost 10 times that or more and don't produce anywhere near the same results?!

Finally, I love it that the author took such an active role in this.  He tracked the books and did the in-home tours.  (Speaking of which, this Tupperware Party-like approach is still as effective today as it was 40 years ago.)

Kudos, Mr. Elliott.  I hope your book becomes a bestseller!

You, The iPhone App

Life seemed much simpler in the pre-Twitter days. You found a blogger you liked and you grabbed their RSS feed.  These days, if I want to follow someone I still do that but I also need to keep an eye on their tweets, their Facebook updates as well as a host of other specialty networks they might be part of.  To tell you the truth, the more social networking evolves the more distant I feel from the people I (try to) follow.

That's why I look forward to the day when we'll be able to say, stealing Apple's catchphrase, "yeah, there's an app for that."

I read a great quote by Albert Einstein recently that applies here:

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

The source for this idea was an ad I saw in the latest issue of Wired.  The ad is for an iPhone app I was previously unaware of...then again, thanks to the ongoing discoverability issue with the App Store, this isn't exactly surprising.  The ad's headline is "Our Killer App" and it promotes the All Things Digital app, featuring Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.  I immediately downloaded the free app and I love it.  I've always enjoyed reading Mossberg and now I have a single place where I can quickly and easily keep up with him; no more hunting through countless feeds.

So what does this have to do with publishing?  If you're an author looking to build your platform I'd argue you should consider creating an iPhone app that's all about you, your work, your observations, etc.  Why not give your readers a single tool they can use to keep up with everything you have to say, show and report?

Publishers should have their own iPhone apps as well.  We've released several books as iPhone apps at O'Reilly but we haven't created a single "O'Reilly iPhone App."  I think we should though and it ought to contain a number of different elements including new release summaries, excerpts, articles, industry information and more.  The base app could be free but there could be a paid subscription option as well that offers much more premium content.

What would a typical author's iPhone app look like?  It too could have multiple levels with the free version including the type of information currently shared via blogs, Twitter, etc.  The paid version might have more content and a chance for readers to speak directly to you from time to time, for example.  I'd pay for one of these from Thomas Friedman or Nassim Nicholas Taleb, for example.  These are just a couple of authors I frequently read but they probably get swamped with reader emails.  Imagine a premium iPhone app by either one that gives you direct access to them, sort of like when they speak at a smaller corporate function.  How cool is that?  Every author can't command this sort of model but the big ones certainly could and the next tier could do the same but at a lower price point.

You know how all those industry pundits say that the publishing industry needs to learn from the music business and figure out how to monetize something other than the book (like they're doing with concerts, t-shirts, etc.)?  Maybe this app model is a step in that direction.

Let's not stop with authors and publishers though.  How about conferences?  Shouldn't there be an iPhone app for every conference and trade show?  I recently attended OSCON and I could see where an iPhone app for that show would help "keep the fire burning", as my O'Reilly colleague Allen Noren likes to say.  The same goes for pretty much every other conference out there.  Why limit the event to a once-a-year activity when an iPhone app could make it year-round and encourage even more participation (as well as drive more revenue)?

The iPhone app dev world is still in a gold rush mentality.  It's a seller's market as good developers are hard to find and even harder to negotiate with.  The apps I'm describing don't all have to be different though.  They could use the same common framework, levels of functionality and be easily skinned to meet individual branding and look-and-feel requirements.  It seems like a terrific opportunity for a smart iPhone app developer to step in and corner the market with something that's both powerful and flexible.

I can think of several individual, corporate and conference-based iPhone apps I'd immediately download, several of which I'd be willing to pay an annual subscription for.  How about you?

P.S. -- I recently read that Bill Simmons, aka "The Sports Guy", is retiring from his ESPN The Mag column.  I'd buy an iPhone app featuring Simmons.  The same goes for Steve Rushin.

Three New Books from Our O'Reilly Team

One of the benefits of coming home after a long trip is that there's usually a package (or 2 or 3) waiting for me.  My return last Friday night was no different as I came home to about a dozen of our recent publications.  Three of them really jumped out at me and I wanted to highlight them here.

Twitter API: Up and Running is an extremely timely book.  Twitter continues to grow at a torrential rate and more and more developers are trying to figure out how to tie into it.  Our book provides everything you need to know to ride the wave.  And as I mentioned in this tweet yesterday, auto-tweeting and other services are likely to make Twitter an even more important technology in the future.  (Btw, don't miss our next important title on this topic, The Twitter Book, by expert tweeters Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein.)

Next up, Search Engine Optimization for Flash.  SEO remains vitally important but think about all that Flash content out there that's so hard to leverage on this front.  Our book offers one-of-a-kind solutions for applying SEO techniques to your Flash video.  The book is part of our Adobe Developer Library program and is written by Todd Perkins, an Adobe-Certified Flash Instructor.  If you've got a lot of Flash content on your site, make sure your SEO expert is aware of this one.  It's a quick read at only 250 pages but it's loaded with wonderful insights.

And finally, a gorgeous book with an equally eye-catching cover.  I'm talking about Beautiful Teams, the latest in our Theory in Practice series.  This book offers more than two dozen "inspiring and cautionary tales from veteran team leaders."  The list of contributors includes Scott Berkun, Grady Booch, Cory Doctorow, Steve McConnell, Scott Ambler, and our own Tim O'Reilly.  And when you buy a copy of this book you'll be doing your good deed for the day as a portion of the proceeds is being donated to PlayPumps International.