Previous month:
January 2016
Next month:
March 2016

3 posts from February 2016

A vision for making ebooks more engaging

Light-bulbs-1125016_1920I’m convinced we’re still in the very early stages of ebook evolution. The current print-under-glass model works great for some books but long-form digital content has so much more potential.

The market will ultimately move beyond the only option readers have today of consuming dumb content on smart devices. Content enrichment is one way forward but neither authors nor publishers have an appetite for the effort required to add video and other web elements to their books. And before anyone suggests that I’m trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist, let me once again say that some books are just fine with the print-under-glass model. But there are plenty of books and genres that would benefit from digital enrichment and those are what we need to focus on.

If the manual process isn’t viable, how can we use technology to our advantage to take this content to the next digital level? I propose an automated solution, one where auto-tagging, text analysis and search results all play a role.

Here’s how it would work:

  • The ebook contents are analyzed by an enrichment tool where key phrases, names, locations, etc., are identified and tagged,
  • Those tagged elements are then viewable by the reader when they tap the screen in their reading app; the service remains completely invisible to readers who don’t wish to use it,
  • When the reader taps on one of the tagged elements a pop-up menu provides the opportunity to dive deeper on that topic with links to video, audio, maps, web pages, etc.; all of this is fed by the application’s preferred search engine (e.g., Google, Bing, etc.),
  • The reader is then able to take that deeper dive, pin links to the page for future reading and share their favorites with other readers of the ebook.

Because this vision integrates web elements with the book it requires an active internet connection. If the reader is offline they’re still able to read the original print-under-glass version of the book.

The video below is a quick walk-through of how this concept is presented to the reader. As you watch it, remember the intention here is to develop a front-end content analysis/parsing tool that tags and builds all the linkages, so no work is required by the author or editor. Also note the opportunity to create new income streams for the publisher and author via paid and sponsored link campaigns.


Ebook sample subscriptions and automation

Censorship-610101_1920Each time I finish a book I end up going through the same inefficient process: I head to Amazon and a couple of other sites to look for other titles on similar topics that might interest me. I usually find several candidates and then I go through the equally inefficient process of requesting samples for those ebooks.

Why is it that I can subscribe to dog food for my three basset hounds but I can’t subscribe to ebook samples? This is an opportunity not just for retailers like Amazon but for publishers as well.

As I’m browsing a book catalog, either a retailer’s or a publisher’s site, a seemingly endless list of titles and covers are presented to me for consideration. Once I find one that looks promising I should be able to click once and have the sample sent to me. That assumes I have an account set up on the site, of course, but if you’re browsing a catalog you probably have log-in credentials there; if not, it’s a terrific opportunity for the retailer or publisher to encourage you to create an account.

Since I tend to read books on a narrow range of topics why not let me subscribe to new samples in each of those areas? Retailers and publishers, push the sample content to me and quit waiting for me to come to you.

I get a kick out of back-of-book ads that promote related titles at the end of an ebook. Those are nice solutions for print, especially when you have a few blank pages at the end of the last signature. They’re next to invisible in an ebook though. Here’s a better idea: add info about a couple of related titles inside the ebook, maybe between a couple of chapters. Don’t disrupt the reading process, hence the suggestion to message between chapters, but please feel free to let me know I’m getting close to the end and that I might want to consider a follow-up title, especially if you’re going to give me an extra discount as an owner of the first title.

What I’m ultimately suggesting here is to think about applying some technology and automation to the ebook sample distribution process. And as I’ve said before, make sure you’re sending those samples in a totally DRM-free format and one that encourages sharing via email and social channels.

Anyone who has been reading my articles over the years knows that samples are a hot topic for me. Long ago I suggested that ebook samples are one of a publisher’s most underutilized marketing assets. What’s changed since I first started hyping the ebook sample opportunity years ago? Pretty much nothing. Now that I’m back in a publishing role I plan to take my own advice and make sure that we’re getting the most out of our ebook samples. Stay tuned as I’ll be sure to report on our team’s progress in the weeks and months ahead.


How “Send to Kindle” can help neutralize Amazon

Screen Shot 2016-02-07 at 10.52.39 AMPublishers who sell ebooks direct to consumers typically do so in EPUB format. That’s because most publishers are still wedded to the false sense of security DRM provides and EPUB offers a popular DRM solution. Contrast that with Amazon’s format, MOBI, where Amazon is the only company who can apply and manage MOBI’s DRM’d files and settings.

A former colleague of mine and I used to get a kick out of reading the many painful steps readers are forced to go through when buying DRM’d EPUB files direct from publisher websites. It’s not uncommon for the process to require more than a dozen steps to proceed from buying to reading. Most of the process has to be endured once again if the consumer decides to start reading the same book on another device.

Click here or here to see the many hoops one must jump through to install DRM’d EPUB ebooks on one device as well as read them across multiple devices. It’s no wonder when you search for help on the topic the most popular links aren’t how to manage the process but rather how to remove the DRM and eliminate the associated headaches.

More and more publishers are starting to realize that DRM is pointless but they’re still missing out on one of the biggest opportunities of all: Putting their DRM-free ebooks into a reader’s Kindle library.

It’s no secret that Amazon dominates the ebook marketplace. Most readers have built a substantial Kindle library and the last thing they want to do is create a new library outside the Kindle ecosystem. They simply want all their books in one place.

Amazon’s Send to Kindle functionality has been around for quite awhile and I believe it’s one of the most underutilized services available to publishers. The Send to Kindle email option lets publishers push non-DRM’d ebooks directly onto a consumer’s Kindle bookshelf. I’m sure it was originally designed for documents other than ebooks but I think it’s time for book publishers to take advantage of it for their ebooks as well.

In addition to simply selling EPUB or PDF ebooks, why not provide readers with the MOBI version and push them directly onto their Kindle devices and apps? All you have to do is ask the reader for their unique Kindle email address and then have them enable inbound emails from your domain. Once that’s in place you’re able to place the ebook on their shelf just like Amazon does.

Once you’ve established that direct relationship with the consumer and their Kindle account, why not ask them if they want to opt in to receiving future related ebook samples from you? They’ll no longer have to search for similar books from your list as you’ll be able to automatically push samples to the reader’s Kindle bookshelf as they’re published. Take it a step further and make your samples available via this service 30 days before they’re available anywhere else. Get even more creative and offer a random free ebook prize to some number of lucky winners every month. There are plenty of ways to make Send to Kindle work for you and your customers.

It’s all part of creating a compelling reason for readers to come to you, the publisher, rather than always relying on retailer partners. Used wisely, the Send to Kindle service can help neutralize Amazon’s dominance while also helping publishers establish a better direct relationship with their customers.