to the making of books there is no end, so let's get started!
I’m pouring one out for JManga. Today, May 30, 2013 is the last day of the service before its complete shutdown. Can’t really say why exactly it failed. I’ve read elsewhere that even its most popular titles only sold in the hundreds of copies. And I’ve read speculation that the marketing was not as good as it could be, or that there were just too many pirate manga sites to complete with.
In any case, I was a paying customer who will miss them. Thank you JManga.
Inuyasha and Kagome from Rumiko Takahashi's Inuyasha
As I was ironing my shirt this morning I found myself thinking about Rumiko Takahashi, the creator of the popular Inuyasha manga and anime series. A song from one of the Inuyasha movies was playing on my iPod and I was remembering how much I’d enjoyed that series and how it would be fun to meet the Takahashi-san some day.
I’ve never been all that big into getting autographs, but with so much of my reading being in digital format now, including manga, the question arises of what exactly would I give the author to sign? Inuyasha is now available in digital format via the Viz manga app. It’s a long series that was a hard to follow in print because the releases were a bit sporadic, and now with the collapse Borders and the general deflation of the printed manga market in the U.S., it’s even harder. So Viz’s digital releases have given me a new opportunity to enjoy the full series in its original format. But what do I give the manga-ka to sign?
Signing my iPad would probably not be such a good idea, but buying an Inuyasha poster or wall scroll for this purpose would. An author of a popular established series will have plenty of merchandise that can serve this purpose. As the eBook becomes the primary publication medium, I think even new authors will need to have something to sign. Merchandising isn’t just for the big shots anymore. There are already a number of companies that manufacture customized merchandise of all sorts at reasonable prices. A simple postcard featuring the cover of their book or a personal portrait would be a good start for what will hopefully be a growing fanbase. After that, the sky’s the limit so plan for success now!
It’s every publisher’s hope that new books will catch on and find an audience. You promote, promote, promote and then watch the sales figures. If all goes well, the rocket takes off and a smile comes to your face. I’d been smiling a bit lately about Oh My! A thinking man’s guide to crossplay.
The eBook has been doing reasonably well on the Kindle, but when sales recently spiked a bit, I was curious and began to do some digging. What I discovered was that the book was also available on a number of file sharing sites on the web. My book was being pirated!
I knew that this was a possibility from the beginning. Piracy is just an unavoidable part of the digital ecosystem that has to be accounted for in any modern business plan. So rather than becoming angry, I was rather proud that someone thought my book was worth pirating. At $1.99, it certainly isn’t too expensive, and the sales spike is very likely due to the increased exposure.
So it seems that there really is no such thing as bad publicity!
Oh My! A thinking man’s guide to crossplay is available for Kindle, Nook, and iPad/iPhone.
The growing popularity of eBooks, the success of online bookseller Amazon, and the implosion of Borders would seem to argue that large bookstores are more liability than asset. But Barnes & Noble is seeking to refute that logic by hosting in-store events to promote PubIt authors. PubIt is the eBook self-publishing platform Barnes & Noble launched back in October of last year. Michael at Good eReader writes,
Barnes and Noble is taking advantage of their tangible retail spaces and large book stores, that are a great place to showcase their own authors and build their brand internally. Meanwhile Amazon has a virtual website only and cannot put its own authors in the forefront, while their Digital Text Platform continues to be THE most popular self authoring program on the internet.
Marketing eBooks has been a concern of mine from the very beginning of the Learncrest venture. The online avenues are apparent and easily available, but how does an eBook author cross over into 3D space to promote his/her digital works? Now it looks like B & N is providing just that bridge and going somewhere that Amazon cannot easily follow.
In another current promotion, Barnes & Noble is offering a free cup of coffee to anyone who comes into their stores and tries out a Nook Color eBook reader. Again, this isn’t something Amazon could easily match to promote the Kindle. But I think it may also reveal that B & N’s underlying strategy is not very different from that of a movie cineplex. As high as movie ticket prices may be, that’s not really where a cinema makes its money. Movie theatres make most of their money from concessions sales. The profit margins on soda and popcorn are very high, and I suspect that the same can be said for the sales of eBooks relative to paper ones.
People spend a lot of time on the internet, but we are still physical beings living in 3D space. Free Wi-Fi and in-store promotions that encourage customers to bring their Nooks to the store with them, coupled with events to promote eBook authors is a powerful one two punch to promote your most profitable products. And, of course, it doesn’t hurt to have good old fashioned books on the shelves to be purchased in either physical or digital form.
How well this strategy plays out against Amazon remains to be seen. But with Barnes & Noble’s eBook market share having risen to 25% and strong sales of the Nook Color, they must be doing something right.
A tweet this morning from WriterDonna lead me to The Quest for eBook Sales on Green Ink. In answer to the perennial question of how to get more eBook sales, the author had this to say.
The good news is that indie authors can get sales on a very limited monetary budget; the bad news is that this method has an unseen cost: your time. Happenstance customers usually lay down good money to purchase an unheard-of indie writer’s book because of all the rather unrelated posts said author has taken the time to research and write, along with a host of complimentary articles, columns, reviews, short stories and other Freebie Flags staked along the heavily-trodden beaches of eSales Island.
I must admit, that when I started writing eBooks, I half hoped that readers searching for books in subject areas of their interest would just naturally find my books using the search functions on the bookstore site. But the other half of me knew that selling eBooks is much like selling anything else. It takes a concerted and continuous marketing effort to build and maintain brand awareness. Even the most successful writers have to market their new books.
Marketing is nothing new to me. When I started college, the Science Fiction Club, which I had just joined, had fallen to maybe 4 or 5 members. Things weren’t looking too good for the future, so rather than waiting for it to die or looking for another club to join, I started putting up signs all over campus promoting the club. The signs were fairly whimsical and illustrated with a science fiction theme that often parodied some current campus event. During one prospective students weekend, the theme was “Prospie Women from Outer Space!”
I had fun making the signs and traveling across the University of Chicago campus to put them up. I always made sure to put the signs up outside the dining halls because I knew a lot of people would be standing in line there every night. My efforts were quickly rewarded and the club more than doubled in size and continued to grow during my 4 years as the official unofficial Minister of Propaganda.
Those same marketing principles apply to the selling of eBooks. Using the online people hang-outs of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and forums in a natural way can be an effective method of driving sales. By natural, I mean becoming a good citizen of those communities rather than a drive-by spammer. I won’t join any forum that I don’t have a natural interest in.
As for Learncrest, I needed a site to promote my eBooks. But no one is going to just happen by an unknown site for no reason, there has to be some compelling content. So I started writing, and writing, and writing. Most of what readers will find on this site is related to eBooks and is personally interesting. It’s hard to write about things one has no interest in. So I scour the news for stories of interest and things that inspire the imagination. I write, then I tell my friends about it. Traffic was very slow at first, not even spammers had taken notice, but slowly as search sites index more posts, traffic has increased (and so did spam). And eBook sales have continued at a steady pace which indicates buyers beyond just my personal friends, the Holy Grail!
It also doesn’t hurt to promote eBooks in the real world. A few weeks ago, I printed up postcard fliers for Anime Aftershocks and distributed them at Ohayocon, an anime convention in Columbus Ohio. I cannot tell whether the flyering was effective or not, but it’s a common practice at conventions like Ohayocon that see tens of thousands of attendees each year. The cost of the fliers was minimal and I was planning to attend the convention anyway, so any sales would be a bonus.
Content is king! Having just purchased a block of 10 ISBN numbers, I have more than enough incentive to write more eBooks to use them. I currently have 3 or 4 books in various stages in the pipeline that will be released in the coming months. What better way than a well developed library of works to gain an audience and drive sales?
There has never been a better time in the history of humankind to be a writer. With some time, effort, and imagination we can surely reach more readers than would ever have been possible in print alone. Writing the book is just the beginning!
© 2024 Learncrest
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑