The book industry’s digital toolbox is still relatively underused, and there are some truly powerful gizmos in there. At Tech Forum 2012 we heard how eager readers tweeted favourite chapters of PressBooks’ Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto. At the most recent CMPTO we learned how Small Demons is changing browsing forever by hooking books into the web of things. And that’s just to name two. With more and more readers carrying tablets and smartphones around with ever-improving data plans, maybe the time ia ripe to look at new models for selling books in browsers.
Penguin Canada's Groupon Reconnaissance
This week, Penguin Group (Canada) ran a Groupon offer offer for one of their most popular series, the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. But as bestseller lists attest, the Millenium Trilogy is not having any difficulty selling. So, why run a Groupon?Bundle Up: It’s Cold Outside
Put the pumpkins away. It’s time to bring out snow pants and tinsel. As the weather gets colder we’re faced with the daunting task of buying presents for the holidays. Not surprisingly many of us will be giving and receiving e-books or gadgets on which to read them.
Now to find the perfect e-books for the readers on your list. Many are planning on sticking to their tradition of gifting award shortlisted books. So why don’t e-book retailers capitalize on that with, for example, a Giller shortlist bundle of e-books? The answer is they can’t.
Canada Buys then Canada Reads
The Giller Shortlist: What Can Publishers Expect?
Each year since 2005 BookNet Canada has been actively tracking and comparing the performance of the Giller nominees and winners. On the day that the shortlist announces we send a Giller Report to all nominated publishing firms who are subscribers to BNC SalesData. This report is created in order to give publishers a sense of what to expect during the award season, and to help nominees with stock and demand planning. What did we find? In a nutshell: the Giller effect is alive and well.
New BNC Research Study: Juvenile and YA Series
In the past, BNC has turned its eye to researching books made into movies, J.K Rowling vs. Stephenie Meyer, and award-nominated titles, but this summer we decided to look at a trend in Canadian publishing that cannot be ignored: the sometimes-phenomenal, sometimes-underrated, but overall continued success of Juvenile and YA book series.
BookLamp and Whichbook: Two Solutions to the Online Book Recommendation Problem
We’ve all had a helpful bookseller recommend a book at some point. They have those freakish encyclopedia brains that remember every book they have on their shelves. The problem, though, is that more and more people are making purchasing decisions online and it is very difficult to replicate the helpful bookseller experience on the web. Two book recommendation engines—BookLamp and Whichbook—are trying to solve this problem.
Online Reviews Sell Books, So Let People Post Them
Customer reviews are becoming an increasingly common element of product sites. Customer reviews have been on Amazon.ca for as long as I can remember and they’re also on the Chapters website. Reader reviews fuel Goodreads. But why haven’t publishers jumped on board, especially those selling directly from their sites? And why aren’t customer reviews being built into a retailer website creation or redesign?
Is Pottermore a Game Changer?
Going Mobile
A recent New York Times article pointed to the need for retailers to retool their sites for mobile shopping. There is an opportunity here for book retailers too, if not exactly to lead the way, then at least not to lag too far behind. It would seem like there is no time like the present to get your e-commerce site optimized for the mobile space. It isn’t really rocket science. Here are a few things you may want to consider when thinking about this…
