Wordful» Publishing

How Will Publishers Humanize the Ebook?

Charles — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:23:48 +0000

The delectable scent of fresh pages, the curious art of the dust jacket, the weight of a title in our hands—how will the ebook ever measure up to its sliced-tree ancestor? The immediate and obvious answer is it can’t—there is no nostalgic substitute for ‘curling up with our favorite (paper) book’. But that’s certainly not an answer future readers will accept as we enter the age of digital reading. Ebooks must offer a Proustian experience equal to if not better than that of traditional books. The publishers who pick up on this will be the ones who stay in business.

Smart, Good Looking and Charming

Smart, good looking and charming are qualities that attract us to potential partners. Ebooks should be no different in how they attract readers. Gadgets like the Kindle and iPhone give ebooks a platform to be smart. They remember your page, let you take notes and make it easy for you to download books instantly. The iPad takes it one step further by giving ebooks a platform to be beautiful. Publishers no longer are constrained by blah grayscale artwork (Kindle) or a tiny screen the size of our palm (iPhone). E-reader apps will soon be charming us by transforming the act of reading into something deeply engaging and personalized. These apps will know exactly what we want and how we want to hear it based on what they learn about us. How many publishers are paying attention to this? How many are busy fighting the price war crusades?

It’s Still Early…

If we compare the invention of the ebook to the invention of Gutenberg printing press, then it’s safe to say we’re still tadpoles. It took several hundred years for printed books to become commonplace. During this time bookmaking blossomed into the art form we now cherish. Ebooks are still a novelty—the technology that powers them is outpacing and overshadowing those small but important craft details that make printed books so humanized: rich artwork, colophon, bookshelves, used book stores, the freedom to share them with friends, etc.

…but Time Will Tell

Half the remedy for readers totally smitten with the printed book is having the patience for publishers to catch up to the aesthetic wisdom of the Apples and Amazons of the world. The other half are publishers willing invest their energy into extracting the deeper value of the ebook. It’s more than just spreading ideas at low cost replication, convenience and portability—let’s not forget the printing press offered this as well. When this value proposition is made clear, then publishers will have smarter, better looking and more charming platforms of their own. Photo by eflon.

How Will Publishers Humanize the Ebook? is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

3 Proven Ways to Succeed in Publishing

Charles — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:53:56 +0000

As I’ve mentioned before, now is a good time to start a commercial publishing operation. Startup costs are low, marketing is free and of course — great content is always in demand. The question that has everyone stumped, however, is how to make publishing profitable. Print as we now know it is a slippery slope. Slapped-up Adsense and banner ads aren’t cutting it, either. And those magic, get-rich blogging formulas — so tragically 2008. Here are 3 models that work. Of course, success with any one of these rely heavily on editorial integrity and what David Meerman Scott calls The New Rules of Viral Marketing.

Ebook

Summary: one-time download designed to solve a specific problem
Editorial: solution-based self-help booklet targeted to a specific audience
Marketing: customer research, heavy SEO, flexible branding, attention more on solution than author
Revenue model: direct and affiliate sales of ebook product
Benefits: low overhead, affiliates help boost sales, low community value, passive income
Challenges: low community value, often perceived as gimmicky, involved formatting process
Example: howtosellyourebook.com (an ebook on how to sell ebooks)

For people low on resources, the ebook model offers a lower-risk entry into publishing. Some cheap market research and SEO can help you can craft and target an ebook that solves a specific problem to a specific group of people.

Single Author Blog

Summary: solo blogger strikes a chord with readers, organically builds community
Editorial: single voice with distinct persona, artful blended with commercial
Marketing: self-branding on social media platforms
Revenue model: blog-to-book deal
Benefits: ultra-low overhead, high creative latitude, perfect for one person, catching on with big publishers
Challenges: time consuming, often lacks editorial strategy, tough to monetize
Example: savvyauntie.com

The single author blog model is by far the quickest: you can have a free blog and social media platforms set up in minutes. Of course the real challenge is writing content interesting enough to excite readers over the long haul. The other side to the single author blog model is to scout for up and coming authors (bloggers) and approach them with a blog-to-book deal. Many of the bigger companies are following this trend, so you’d need at least a basic education on how the book industry works and how to negotiate contracts with authors. On that note, one Harper Collins editor says they’re experimenting with a 50/50 split model, where all revenues and costs go into a big pot and the profit is split at the end. The publishers front the costs but all decisions are made jointly with the author.

Online Magazine

Summary: commercialized niche topic with multiple authors and intense community herding
Editorial: journalistic, with focus on special interest and newsy articles
Marketing: strong branding, equal parts SEO and social media
Revenue model: banner and contextual ads, premium memberships, mailing list, affiliate sales
Benefits: can dominate market, multiple voices/variety, dispersed workload, high profit potential
Challenges: rigid content strategy, rigid editorial strategy, requires high overhead and management
Example: treehugger.com

The online magazine is more involved and riskier, but has the greatest revenue potential. If you can pinpoint the right niche, manage multiple authors, invest in content strategy, then strap yourself in for an exciting ride. *** This is about as intro as it gets on new models of publishing, but hopefully you’ll find it useful. The devil is in the details. Whatever path you choose, remember that each project is an opportunity to establish your brand as a new generation commercial publisher. So don’t settle for anything less than ordinary! Photo by Katie@!

3 Proven Ways to Succeed in Publishing is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

Where Content Marketing Meets Branding

Charles — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:12:01 +0000

After years of gawking over web design, flash animation, scripting languages and relational databases, I think we can now safely agree the internet is made of and for content (it’s King alright). It’s the impetus for nearly all innovation on the web. But if you’re a content specialist like me, the career path feels a lot like the Wild West: opportunistic (make thousands a day from home with Google!), risky (do I blow my next paycheck on the latest and greatest blogging course?) and discouraging (out of work writers/journalists/editors). Thankfully a few qualified content specialist genres exist. Let’s briefly examine them: Content Strategist The content strategist strikes me as a cerebral editor type concerned with things like style guides and editorial execution. Many of them work behind-the-scenes for large Fortune 500 brands (like eBay) or savvy web consultancies (like Razorfish). Pros: Disciplined, serious and passionate about all things content. Put content before marketing. Understand digital medium. Cons: Seeming obsession with self-definition and taxonomy, less focus on marketing makes them better as consultants or part of a large team. Blogger Bloggers are content renegades, pioneers who constantly test new waters to see what works and what doesn’t. A few bloggers have figured out how to go pro and earn a sizable living from their blog. Elite bloggers often achieve internet marketing celebrity status. Pros: Fresh and energetic, highly innovative, influential and fluid. Profitable self-publishers and effective guerrilla marketers. Cons: Lacking in editorial discipline; usually put monetization and marketing before content and publishing; easy come, easy go. Media Industry Professional These are the writers, journalists and editors — the talent pool of content specialists. They’ve been hit with tough times that include mass layoffs, corporate restructuring and severe underpay. Pros: Very savvy writers and editors who are experienced, educated and well-connected in the publishing industry. Cons: Jaded, slow to adapt new content business models, many stuck in stodgy newspaper mentality.

What about ‘Branded Content Marketer’?

I know it’s an unusual term, but what I’m getting at is someone who publishes niche content in a commercial capacity under the umbrella of their “content brand.” So let’s say Wordful starts publishing and monetizing several content-rich websites for niche audiences. The websites become popular based on their own merit as well as the merit of Wordful brand. Kind of like a highly-decentralized media company. It’s certainly a gamble, but I’m convinced it can be done given the right mindset and resources. Of course what I’m hinting at here is a hybrid of all three content specialists mentioned above. You’d need the discipline of the content strategist, the innovation of the blogger and the experience of the media industry professional. Is anyone else picking up on this besides me [ and Jonathan Kahn of Lucid Plot who makes a brief but notable mention at the very end of his article, Content Strategy for the Web Professional]?

Photo by *Mandana.

Where Content Marketing Meets Branding is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

How to Walk the Walk of Content Marketing

Charles — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:02:06 +0000

Be a publisher first, marketer second.

When your content is stellar, your marketing become easier. Certainly not the other way around. Keep a healthy, obsessive focus on this.

Actually do something.

Stop talking. Go out and build a site around some great, marketable content. Publish it. Get people passionate about it. Sell them something cool. Measure it. Do it again.

Be experimental.

There are a few emerging theories on content strategy and marketing, but it’s your job to go out and test them as well as try out some of your own stuff. Content marketing is a slowly blossoming industry and now is the time to take some chances.

Limit your consulting.

This may sound strange to some, but I see more value in setting up your content marketing business as a B2C rather than B2B. This means building content-rich sites for consumers rather than helping other businesses set up their own websites. There’s higher risk but much higher reward.

Think Big, Act Big

If you can build one successful site, you can probably build another. And another. And another. And so on. Pretty soon you could be sitting on a small publishing empire. Imagine the possibilities.

Photo by wili_hybrid.

How to Walk the Walk of Content Marketing is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.