Author Marketing Experts

Google Print - It's a good thing

Ever since the BEA (Book Expo America) there's been a lot of buzz about Google’s latest endeavor: Google Print (a service technically still in Beta testing but launched by the company in October) which allows prospective readers to take a quick peek at the book they're considering purchasing. Some in the industry have come out quite vocally against Google largely because of potential copyright issues (these same issues were brought up when Amazon launched their "Look Inside the Book").

The concept is this: authors and publishers sign up for this free program and Google makes up to 20% of the book available for viewing on their Google Print site. If a reader decides to purchase it, Google refers them to an online bookstore (such as Amazon). Pretty simple, right? Yes, in fact it is. While I was at BEA I got a walk through this program and it's simple in execution and powerful on the consumer end. A recent article in PC World (see link: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,121247,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp) discussed at length the issues related to Google Print - many of which I disagree with. One issue in particular that was brought up was that "if readers see the actual content of the book they might not be inclined to purchase it" - Huh? So, let me see if I get this straight. It's ok to sell a book but let's not let the reader see what's in it or they may decide not to buy it? What about people browsing bookstores, doesn't the same apply there?

So how about this: write a great book, so great in fact that *even* if readers browse it, they'll still want to buy it. What a concept.

The idea my friends is that we live in an electronic society, meaning that we live and die by email and the internet, bookstores are not dinosaurs but they soon might be and browsing a book "electronically" is in my opinion the next big thing. Google gets it because they are visionaries. Yes, there are copyright issues. I'm sure that Google in its wisdom isn't going to jeopardize a program they're putting so much muscle behind to list books that aren't supposed to be listed (i.e. publishers or authors who haven't signed up for this program). They are, in fact, doing us a favor. Let's face it, Google's got clout. It's the biggest search engine on the net right now, so big in fact the competition can't even keep up. Now, they're offering authors an additional way to get their books noticed. I say let's stand up and applaud them.

As a publicist I'm front line everyday trying to push my authors into the spotlight and the facts are brutal: with 477 books released in this country each day authors need every bit of help they can get. I have seen authors with great books struggle to get *anyone's* attention. To me, Google Print is another way for them to get noticed in a noisy world and it's another way for readers to find the books they might not otherwise be exposed to. Forgive the cliche but it sounds pretty win-win to me.

So if you're an author looking for another way to "get out there" give Google Print a look-see. In my opinion if you're not using every avenue to promote your book then you're not only doing your career a diservice but cheating your potential reader out of some pretty great stuff.

Here's the link: http://print.google.com/googleprint/about.html

posted by Penny C. Sansevieri @ 8:02 AM 0 comments   

Latest Publishing Trend: The Micro-Genre

Welcome to the world of publishing, an ever-changing dynamic that seems to reinvent itself nearly every season, some might even say everyday. The latest of these reinventions is what I call the “micro-genre.” It’s a way of niching a book in such a finite way that it feeds into a category within a category. An example of this is the micro-genre of chick-lit. Now we have hen-lit, mommy-lit and a few brave UK publishers are even dipping their toe into the daddy-lit category. So why are publishers pushing micro-genres? Well, the world of publishing faces its biggest hurdle ever: a lack of readers. We’re publishing more books than ever but overall readership is down. Combine that with the scourge of the publishing industry: book returns and you’ve got a recipe for publishing peril. Micro-genres give publishers a focus group of readers they can hone in on. No longer marketing a book to the “chick-lit” reader, they can now break this down even further into sub-genres. But this doesn’t stop at the chick-lit market, just about every genre is seeing this breakdown and authors are being asked what micro-genre their book belongs in. But there’s an even bigger reason for this in my opinion. In a world of digital-on-demand everything we want what we want when we want it. This trend started when Napster entered the scene some years ago offering digital downloads of the songs you wanted, when you wanted them – now in their revamped form (read: legal) Napster and other music download sites are giving us what we want, no more no less. Enter TiVo, Podcasting and RSS, we’re now becoming more discerning saying we simply won’t be sold a bag of goods we don’t use. We won’t buy a CD for just one song, we won’t watch a show when the networks want us to watch it and we won’t buy books that are “sort of” what we want to read. We live in an on-demand society, micro-genres is part of that trend. Look for your very own micro-genre, coming to a bookstore near you.

Here's a recent interview I did on this topic for the Arizona Republic Newspaper: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/arts/articles/0522summerbooks0522.html

posted by Penny C. Sansevieri @ 8:18 AM 0 comments