Apple wants ‘new’ iBookstore e-books to have bonus content unavailable in paper editions

By Steve Weber | Published: December 10, 2010

Apparently Apple seems to be threatening to withhold from sale e-books in its iBookstore labeled “new” editions unless they have enhanced content not available in an earlier paper editions. Some publishers may be grumbling if they’re forced to buy a new ISBN for the iBookstore edition, only to have Apple penalize them by backdating the publication date. According to a note sent to publishers this morning:

December brings some exciting changes, including new reporting tools, updated documentation, and the recent release of iTunes Producer 2.2.1. Also, starting this week, all publications will need to be assigned a publication type.

Publication Type

We would like to remind you of the Publication Type field that was introduced in iTunes Producer 2.2. To avoid availability interruptions on the iBookstore, make sure that all titles are assigned a publication type: New Release, Digital Only, or Other.

A New Release publication is defined in your contract and is bound to specific discounts. A Digital Only publication has no print equivalent or is significantly enhanced from the print edition (for example, a multimedia title). An Other publication does not meet the criteria for New Release or Digital Only (for example, an older backlist title that has a print equivalent).

You can adjust the publication type for existing content using the Manage Your Books module in iTunes Connect, or by redelivering with iTunes Producer.

Reporting Changes

Pre-Orders
We are pleased to announce pre-order reporting will be available on Friday, December 10 in the Sales and Trends module of iTunes Connect. The new pre-order view will display your total orders to date, allowing you to measure sales performance prior to release.

Pre-order reports can be previewed or downloaded in both daily and weekly periods. The pre-order preview, which is just a partial list, will begin with the item that has the most unfulfilled orders. Following the release date, pre-order fulfillments will continue to display in your daily and weekly Sales and Trends reports.

iTunes Connect Mobile
iTunes Connect Mobile is now available as a free download from iTunes. The iTunes Connect Mobile app allows iBookstore providers to access sales and trend data from their mobile devices.

You can browse through a summary of your top products and markets, search for specific products, and view data by product line (for example, Free Books or Paid Books). Data can be displayed in table or graph format, with controls for product type and period selection. The iTunes Connect Mobile app is available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Deliver Your Content

In an effort to make delivery options as clear and easy to use as possible, the new Deliver Your Content module of iTunes Connect has been overhauled to include all documentation and applications necessary to prepare and deliver your catalog to the iBookstore. New videos highlight and thoroughly explain your options for EPUB creation.

Documentation

Publisher User Guide 1.4
The latest guide includes new Australian price tiers, as well as clarifications and corrections. You can download it from the Deliver Your Content module in iTunes Connect.

iBookstore Asset Guide 4.5
The latest guide is now the sole source of technical details for all iBookstore assets, including EPUB, audio, video and image requirements. You can download it from the Deliver Your Content module in iTunes Connect.

publishing

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Amazon gives authors access to Nielsen BookScan sales reports – book marketing roundup

By Steve Weber | Published: December 9, 2010

Big news from Amazon:

Author Central News

See how your print books are selling across the U.S.!

We’re happy to announce that – for the first time ever – authors can see weekly sales trends of their print books as reported by Nielsen BookScan. On the new Sales Info tab you can view your print book sales geographically, as well as by paperback or hardcover.  These features are on the same page as the existing Amazon Bestsellers Rank History so that you can view all your sales-related activity in one place.

Note that BookScan doesn’t report every book sold. Though it’s still widely regarded as the industry standard for tracking print book sales. And now, through Author Central, you have access to this data for free. Check out Sales by Geography and Sales by Week now!

We’ve also added a feature that shows the history of your books’ Amazon Bestsellers Rank.

Check out Amazon Bestsellers Rank History now!

We hope these features provide you with information you can use to optimize your sales, and develop more effective methods for reaching the widest possible audience.

In other news, the holidays for authors don’t end with New Year’s. Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2011 is open for submissions on January 24th. Visit www.amazon.com/abna for details!

From the Amazon press release:

“Authors are an important community for us,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon. “We’re really happy to make it easy and free for them to see geographical BookScan data updated weekly, as well as historical Amazon bestsellers rank, for their books. We hope this creates an improved feedback loop for authors and enables them to develop more effective methods for reaching the widest possible audience.”

For the first time anywhere, authors can access timely geographic sales trends aggregated across retailers by Nielsen BookScan, widely regarded as the best source for industry print book sales. The new “Sales by Geography” feature displays a map of the continental United States, highlighting the areas where copies of authors’ books have been sold. The new “Sales by Week” feature displays a bar chart of an author’s sales recorded over the trailing four weeks. Authors can also see how many copies of each title were sold by print-edition type, e.g. hardcover or paperback. Digital book sales are not included in BookScan data. Nielsen BookScan estimates that it tracks 75 percent of print trade books sold in the United States, collected at more than 10,000 online and offline locations.

“I love the new sales information features on Author Central, especially the interactive sales map,” said Sarah Mlynowski, author of “Gimme a Call.” “Seeing retail sales by city allows me to effectively target my offline and online promotional efforts — and track their impact.”

The new Amazon Bestsellers Rank History enables authors to see their bestseller rank over time, without needing to frequently refresh their books’ pages on Amazon.com.

“Authors hate to admit it, but checking our Amazon bestsellers rank can become nearly addictive,” said Karen McQuestion, bestselling author of “A Scattered Life.” “Author Central has made it easier for me to track my rankings over time. This feature, along with others on Amazon Central, saves me time which is better used for writing.”

In addition to these new features, authors who use Author Central have the opportunity to share the most up-to-date information about themselves and their work with readers. Authors can view and edit their bibliography, add a photo and biography to a personal profile, upload missing book cover images, add video, information about speaking events, and use a blog to connect with readers. Authors only need a book listed in Amazon’s catalog to be eligible to join Author Central. The Author Central service is also available in the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.

… and more details on this from the LA Times.

bookmarketing

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Google and e-book SEO – Book marketing roundup

By Steve Weber | Published: December 8, 2010

The challenge, for Gray and other Google engineers on the Books project, is that the best known component of Google’s algorithm for determining the the value of a web resource — the number of links to it by others — does not apply to books and ebooks. Although it is possible to link to a selection in certain books on Google Books (here’s a hyperlink into the aforementioned Galbraith title) people don’t generally create links to the contents of a book or ebook. So linking is not a reliable indicator of quality.

via Getting Google to notice your ebook – O’Reilly Radar.

Will the Google ebookstore save independent bookshops?

Readers can purchase directly from the Google Book site or through an independent bookseller by going to IndieBound or an Indie Commerce site that signed a new agreement with ABA. As of Monday at noon, 109 independents had met that criterion, and some booksellers without ABA sites, like Powells.com, made arrangements directly with Google to launch simultaneously with Google eBooks. “Google is acting as an aggregator or wholesaler,” explains Vlahos. “Our arrangement is about the functionality and database.”

via Publishers Weekly: Indie Booksellers Offering Google eBooks.

and CS Monitor: Does it give independent bookstores a fighting chance?.

Twitter for Dummies author sees value in hashtag chats

…authors and publishers alike must get more savvy when promoting their titles. Laura Fitton, author of “Twitter for Dummies” and founder of oneforty.com, has done just that.Beginning December 13, Fitton will embark on the first ever Twitter #hashtag chat book tour, or #booktour, during which she will virtually visit a growing number of popular #hashtag chats to help participants learn how to get more value — both personal and professional — out of Twitter.

via Twitter #hashtag chats emerge as future of author-driven book marketing | ZDNet.

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eBook sales in Apple’s iBookstore are Scrooge-like

By Steve Weber | Published: December 8, 2010

QUESTION: How are book sales via the Apple iBookstore? My Kindle revenue is about 20 percent of my paperback sales and rising, and I’d like to reach even more e-book readers. Is it worth it to publish to the iBookstore?

ANSWER: Sure, it’s worth it — if you’ve got plenty of time and money to burn. I’ve been shocked at the low sales at the iBookstore.

My Kindle experience is along the same lines as yours — the revenue is about 20 percent of paperback sales. So I’m flabbergasted by the lack of Apple sales, less than 2 percent of my paperback sales. For heaven’s sake, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Sony are both selling twice as many e-books for me as Apple. (Sony?!?)

So far, one of my books has been converted into a stand-alone program in the iPhone App Store, and even that app produces more revenue than the ebook edition in the iBookstore.

Considering that I bought an iMac for the sole purpose of uploading my books directly to Apple through its iTunes Producer software, and spent endless hours resolving niggling issues from the ePub  format Apple requires, the venture has been a colossal waste of time, money and energy. I’d recommend that self-publishing authors who want to avoid these headaches upload their MS Word files to Smashwords, which can handle the distribution to Apple and virtually all other ebook stores without many headaches.

The interesting thing to watch for now will be whether the Google eBook Store, formerly known as Google Editions, will truly expand the ebook market, or just steal a bit of market share from Amazon and the others. I have been very hopeful about Google’s entrance to the market, but after seeing the Apple debacle I’m unsure.

Apple’s iBookstore has a lot of potential, with something like 90 million iPhones and 15 or 20 million iPads out there. Apple needs to get this program into gear by bundling its ebook reader with the operating system, and launching an affiliate program to incent authors and publishers to link to their books. That’s something that Google has already promised, although the company hasn’t made any details public.

So far, the only positive resulting from the iBookstore was that Apple’s entrance into the market forced Amazon to boost the royalty rates on Kindle editions. Let’s hope that Google’s entrance to the market can convince Apple to shake up things at its moribund iBookstore.

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Google updates policies for its ebook program

By Steve Weber | Published: November 16, 2010

Google updated its Editions e-book retailing program, which it expects to launch this autumn:

Digital File Types Accepted by Google for Google Editions

Google accepts PDFs of both text and images. PDF with a text layer is preferred. Google also prefers that you provide digital files with structure information where possible. Such digital files may include but are not limited to (in order of preference): EPUB, xml, html, mobi, pdb, MS Word documents (though only EPUB and PDF are guaranteed to be used at time of launch). Google also accepts physical books to scan, but this method does not produce the highest quality text for ereader devices.

Industry Standard DRM

Google supports Adobe ACS4 as its current provider of an industry-standard digital rights management (DRM) solution for downloaded files of Google Editions. Google will require users to link each of their Adobe ACS4 reading systems to their Google account via a one-time authentication. These devices may then request ACS4-encrypted EPUB or PDF files via a Google-provided API. Google will also allow users to download ACS4-encrypted EPUB or PDF files to supported reading software such as Adobe Digital Editions.

“Specified Price” and “Default Price” explained

The “Specified Price” allows you to recommend a price for a Google Edition. If you do not recommend a “Specified Price,” Google will recommend a “Default Price.” The “Default Price” recommended by Google is currently 80% of the lowest print price of the print book upon which the Google Edition is based (regardless of format) as determined by Google through metadata and other sources. The Specified Price or Default Price are only recommended prices and may not be the final sale price of the Google Edition. If Google is acting as the publisher’s agent when selling a Google Edition, this paragraph will not apply to that publisher.

“Bundled Price” and “Default Bundled Price” explained

The “Bundled Price” allows you to recommend a price for a Google Edition when the print and digital editions are sold together. The “Default Bundled Price” recommended by Google is currently 20% of either the Specified Price or the Default Price (as defined above). The Bundled Price or the Default Bundled Price are only recommended prices and may not be the final sale price of the Google Edition. If Google is acting as the publisher's agent when selling a Google Edition this paragraph will not apply to that publisher.

Reporting for Google Editions purchases

Google will make reports on the sales of Google Editions available via our Partner Center. These reports will show sale transaction dates, list price at time of sale, revenue share, Google Editions ISBN, and the print ISBN of the book upon which the Google Edition is based (meaning ISBN of the source EPUB if Google is provided an EPUB but not a print copy). Aggregated reports of this same information will be made available at the ISBN level as well as at the account level.

Refund Policy

Google will accept refund requests that are made within 7 days of sale, although we may also consider requests outside of this period, for example to comply with applicable laws. Google will grant a (timely) refund request when a Google Edition does not perform as stated, but the determination of whether a Google Edition performs as stated will be in Google's sole discretion. Google may also consider factors other than the peformance of the Edition, such as whether an error was made during the sale and whether the refund request appears to be abusive. When a refund is granted, the sale transaction will be reversed: the user's access to the Google Edition will be discontinued, the user's money will be recredited, and your account will be debited. (Users may, in some cases, retain limited access to a refunded Google Edition if they have already downloaded a copy to a reading device.) Google's reseller partners have their own refund policies, which Google will honor.

Copy/Paste and Printing

At this time, all Google Editions will have copy/paste and print features disabled. Google will use commercially reasonable efforts to disable these features but cannot guarantee that its efforts will in every instance be effective. Google may offer other copy/paste and print options for Google Editions in the future and you can decide to change these settings by visiting your account.

Content Policies

Books that you sell as Google Editions should comply with the Google Editions Publisher Content Policies. You must limit the preview of books containing images of sexually suggestive nudity that have no artistic, educational or political purpose to 0% viewable, and you must charge a minimum of $1.00 for these books. You may not offer such books for free.

via Google Editions Program Policies – Books Help.

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Plug Your Book with Book Trailers

By Steve Weber | Published: August 16, 2010

by Darcy Pattison

The term “book trailer” refers to video advertisements for books. Patterned at first after movie trailers, the form has been developing rapidly since it was first introduced in 2003 and starting taking off in 2005 with the advent of MySpace.com and Facebook.com. Early versions were created with powerpoint and were essentially a set of slides; creativity quickly upped the ante as many spent time and money to actually videotape and professionally edit trailers. Where are we today?

Art Form

The best book trailers today are true videos. Talking heads is out; simple retellings or a synopsis is cliche. Instead, trailers are designed to entice an audience, to tease, to leave the audience wanting the whole thing, the real thing. Actually, anything goes right now, as long as it leaves the audience wanting to buy the book.

Here are some of the things I’ve seen done: the author reads the entire picture book in an endearing way, author reads a small section in front of an audience of kids, animated art, reality-videos shot at conferences of real-time reactions to a book, editor discussing the fabulous creativity of the author or artist, original music played by a fiddler, middle school kids talking to author, synopsis of story, book trailer that sounds like flap copy, or a creepy/romantic/scary/frustrated mood established by music and images. Each project will demand a different approach depending on the story, the expertise of the creator, the availability of funds for original music and videotaping, whether it’s done by the publisher or author, etc.

Where?
Already, you can see book trailers at libraries, on school buses (captive audience!), in classrooms, on YouTube.com, LibraryThing, Shelfari, Filedby, Amazon, publishers’ websites and on and on. Wherever you might find an audience for your book, you might find a book trailer. Experiment! Track results someway so you can track ROI, or return-on-investment.

Essential or Optional for Plugging Your Book Online?
Definitely optional. But fun. Exciting. Something that gives the author an illusion of control. In fact, I think this is one of the driving forces behind all the current hype about the author doing more marketing themselves. Publishers and booksellers are always searching for new ways to find an audience for their books; in today’s uncertain market, they’ve enlisted the author in the effort. This gives the author the illusion of control. It’s a mirage, UNLESS–ah, this is a big exception–you are testing different channels and tracking results and improving on those results.

It’s not good enough any longer to simply “put up a website.” It’s wasted effort unless you know what you want to achieve with the site, with the trailer, with the free giveaways, etc. AND, you know how to track the results. You should have clear goals for each step, specific ways to track. In other words, unless you are committed to becoming a marketer, with a set of clear-cut trackable goals for each action you take online, then it’s wasted time. Just a hobby. And hobbies are not essential to the success of a career.

Where Next?
For the top books in each list, publishers are investing a lot in trailers. Scholastic has started doing trailers for numerous books and placing them on their websites. They may have trackable results, but for the rest of us, the jury is still out. Do book trailers sell books? We don’t know. You won’t know until you try it and track it.

What is the best mix of marketing efforts? What should you spend time on, where should you put your money? You should look at your strengths and your stories to make a decision. But often a combination of approaches works best. Are you great at writing sales copy? Gather names and emails and do direct email marketing; but why not consider sending your list to view your book trailer. Are you consistent and eager to check your Facebook.com page? Focus on a fan page, but also include a book trailer on the page. Play to the needs of your book, your story and your strengths.

–
Darcy Pattison is the author of The Book Trailer Manual (www.booktrailermanual.com/manual), which provides specific how-tos for trailers. Included are 14 approaches to content, 10 options for combining images and sound, 42 sites to submit to, how to track viewers, and recommendations for hardware and software. See recommended book trailers at http://www.youtube.com/user/booktrailermanual

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eBook publisher hacks Apple sales figures

By Steve Weber | Published: July 6, 2010

Interesting nugget from Info Week about an e-book publisher who hacked Apple’s app store to make it appear his titles were bestsellers:

Apple removed a seller from its online applications store after discovering that he gamed the store’s sales ranking system to make it appear as though his e-books accounted for 42 of the site’s top 50 electronics books.

Apple said the hack was carried about by a developer named Thuat Nguyen.

“His apps were removed from the App Store for violating the developer Program License Agreement, including fraudulent purchase patterns,” Apple said in a statement.

via InformationWeek.

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PR society takes stand on phony Amazon book reviews

By Steve Weber | Published: June 16, 2010

The Public Relations Society of America issued a statement in response to reports about shill book reviews posted on Amazon.com. PRSA cautioned against the use of deceptive identities or misleading descriptions.

“PRSA members should not engage in or encourage the practice of misrepresenting organizations and individuals through the use of blogs, viral marketing, social media and/or anonymous Internet posting,” said the statement issued by Thomas E. Eppes.

“As social media expands public channels of communication at the same time public confidence in government, corporations, the news media and other organizations has reached historic lows, trust is becoming an increasingly precious commodity,” Eppes said. “This crisis of trust can be solved only through aggressive education on ethical behavior. If people understand ethically appropriate behavior, and why it’s important, more are likely to adopt it. For others, though, the best cure is the public spotlight, particularly if the behavior doesn’t cross into illegality.”

via “Scamazon” reports result in PR Society of America ethics statement.

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Don’t ask your mother-in-law (or PR agent) to review your book on Amazon

By Steve Weber | Published: June 8, 2010

It appears Amazon has expanded the ethical guidelines for book reviews. Now it’s official: authors can’t review their own books. And someone who works for you — or has a financial interest in your book — can’t post a review, either.

This long expose in the Cincinnati Beacon treads some familiar ground, but contains some interesting nuggets:

Ever read a book review on Amazon.com that was so rah-rah and uncritical that you wondered if the reviewer might have connections to the author or publisher? That’s what happened to us recently. A few mouse clicks later, we found ourselves asking serious questions about scores of five-star book reviews posted by one Amazon user and her connections to a prominent national PR company in Clearwater, Florida.

And here’s specifically what Amazon has outlawed (more details here):

Promotional content:

  • Advertisements, promotional material or repeated posts that make the same point excessively
  • Sentiments by or on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product (including reviews by authors, artists, publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product)
  • Reviews written for any form of compensation other than a free copy of the product

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    Q&A: How can I get my book reviewed on Amazon.com?

    By Steve Weber | Published: June 1, 2010

    QUESTION: I’ve self-published a children’s book and would like to have it reviewed on Amazon. How does this work?

    ANSWER: The bad news about book reviews is that nearly every newspaper book-review supplement in the country has gone defunct in the past five years. Most of them never reviewed self-published work anyway. The New York Times, for example, has an ironclad policy. No reviews of self-published books, period — even if it’s best book since paper was invented.

    The good news is, it’s easier than ever to find qualified, enthusiastic book reviewers who will post a review to Amazon or a popular literary social-networking site. And those reviews will last, unlike newspaper reviews, which are often used to line bird cages.

    My article at Amazon.com discusses tactics for getting Amazon book reviews. However, there’s no longer a mechanism to contact people directly through Amazon because the “friends” feature no longer works. But with so many people belong to Facebook, etc., nowadays it’s pretty easy to contact someone by Googling their name. I discuss the changes regarding Amazon Top Reviewers here.

    An increasingly popular way to distribute complimentary review copies of your book is by using two popular book social-networking sites, Goodreads and LibraryThing.

    With LibraryThing, you’ll want to sign up as a “LibraryThing Author” and then participate in the “member giveaway.” (Self publishers aren’t eligible for the “early reviewer” program, nor Amazon’s Vine program. Prejudice dies hard.)

    With Goodreads and LibraryThing reviewers, gently request that they also post a review at Amazon. Of course, there’s no obligation. Some reviewers are happy to do so, but perhaps two out of three will not. You can run into the occasional Amazon-hater who won’t go along, and there’s a certain percentage of people who don’t follow up generally. So you might have to give away 10 or 12 books to get 3 or 4 reviews posted to Amazon. But it’s well worth the time and expense. Most book buyers pay close attention to online book reviews.

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