So Misguided

index // mb has a great article: New Digital Initiative: Indigo Takes Wheel, Tries to Reinvent?

Indigo’s online strategy re: ebooks and digital content and what would be better.

Totally agree and wish I had time to reflect more on this topic.

Madness of the day awaits ...

Posted by Monique at 11:06 AM. Filed under: Books • Technology •

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Thank you daylight savings time for giving me an extra hour to find fluff on the internet. (Thanks for the link Sio!)

Posted by Monique at 07:27 PM. Filed under: Party Tricks • Technology •

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Kate Trgovac‘s wise words are now part of the Age of Conversation, a book written by an international team of 237 bloggers from 16 different countries.

Way to go Kate!

Posted by Monique at 06:59 PM. Filed under: Blogging • Books • Technology •

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Wow, the new Whitecap Books website is awesome. I am bias because I’ve worked with Paschal on Trading in Memories. But this is a really cool redesign. I think his specialty is Drupal sites that don’t look like Drupal sites. Love it. Looks very yummy and friendly. I want to spend time looking around.

http://whitecap.ca/

Posted by Monique at 10:39 AM. Filed under: Book Publisher • Technology •

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Latest News

April 29, 2009: Justice Dept. Opens Antitrust Inquiry Into Google Books Deal

The inquiry does not necessarily mean that the department will oppose the settlement, which is subject to a court review. But it suggests that some of the concerns raised by critics, who say the settlement would unfairly give Google an exclusive license to profit from millions of books, have resonated with the Justice Department.

October 29, 2008: Google Settles Suit Over Book-Scanning by MIGUEL HELFT, New York Times

Google said Tuesday that it had agreed to pay $125 million to settle two copyright lawsuits brought by book authors and publishers over the company’s plan to digitize and show snippets of in-copyright books and to share digital copies with libraries without the explicit permission.

Well that has taken a long time! The lawsuits were originally launched in September and October 2005.

According to the NYT article, the money will be used for a book registry and to resolve existing claims. The settlement still has to be approved but if it goes ahead then, I think, it means all those books will be available online and the money just goes to settling claims.

The lawsuits were brought about because Google worked with libraries to scan millions of copyright and non-copyright books. The scanning became an issue for the copyright-protected material, in particular material that the publishers or authors did not want digitized and made available.

Background as per the NYT article:
The settlement agreement resolves a class-action suit filed on Sept. 20, 2005, by the Authors Guild and certain authors, and a suit filed on Oct. 19, 2005, by five major publisher-members of the Association of American Publishers: the McGraw-Hill Companies, Pearson Education, Penguin Group, John Wiley & Sons and Simon & Schuster. It is subject to approval by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

In the long run $125 million is probably worth it. Steep and dear now, but to have digitized and to have available for in perpetuity all that content ... woah!

Posted by Monique at 05:12 PM. Filed under: Books • Technology •

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Kitty Lewis is one of the publishing folks that I love talking with and following online. She is the phenom behind the Brick Books Facebook page and a tireless promoter of the press’ titles.

And, now they have a new website:
http://www.brickbooks.ca/

Good work Kitty!

Posted by Monique at 01:24 PM. Filed under: Book Publisher • Technology •

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Defining Success: Accountable Online Marketing for Book Publishing ran a session last week and I had a chance to present some ideas that have been brewing in my head for awhile.

Here are the links:

7 Sentence Online Marketing Plan
How to quickly create an online marketing plan and where to start.

Internet Marketing: How to Measure Success
Figuring out cost per conversion and how to measure successful online campaigns. Good for offline too.

4 Myths About Internet Marketing
Why we waste money online and how to spend it wisely.

Posted by Monique at 12:46 PM. Filed under: Books • Marketing • Technology •

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Defining Success: Accountable Online Marketing for Book Publishing was a full-day session run by BookNet Canada and the ABPBC on Thursday, September 18, 2008 at the SFU Downtown Campus, Vancouver BC.

2:00 – 2:45 pm: Tools to Use: The Google Suite from Genevieve Brennan
From Analytics to Website Optimizer, Google tools offer clear methods to set goals and track results of actions. Partner Manager Genevieve Brennan gave a thorough overview of the Google products relevant to online marketing for books. Genevieve Brennan, Partner Manager for Google Book Search, helps publishers develop and execute a strategy for promoting content online. She particularly enjoys working with publishers to maximize the benefits of adding search features directly to their own websites. Prior to coming to Google, Genevieve was Sales Manager for David R. Godine Publisher. She now works at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.

3 Steps for Online Marketing (from the perspective of Google tools):

1. Drive traffic (PPC and SEO)
2. Measure (Analytics)
3. Test (Optimizer)

Quick Facts (any errors are mine):

• 1.4B online users, up from 500M in 2003
• $420B in 2007 of ecommerce sales
• 183B emails sent per day 2M every second (jeez, I think they all come to me!)

Funny Traffic Spikes Marginally Related to Books:

1. Paris gets out of jail and is holding Power of Now
2. Search volume for “Power of Now” spikes 36% from April to May 2007
3. 2nd book gets picked up on Oprah on Jan 30, 2008. Old book also mentioned.
4. 73% spike in search volume for “Power of Now” from Jan to Feb 08

Other Tips and Conversation Points:

• Drive Traffic: SEO and PPC: Nolo is a good example. They publish non-fiction, legal books and are optimized to show up for the search “legal books.”
• Measure: Conversion tracking in Adwords, put the code on the thank you page to track conversions.
• Other measuring tools: Google Trends: measure buzz (now insights), Google Alerts, Google Analytics: reverse goal path, internal site search
• Potential tracking goals: ecommerce, lead generation, brand & product awareness, member acquisition
• Testing: Test Google Book Search: you can change the percentage of book that is viewable, try 50-80% viewable, experiment. How much to people flip in a store? Browsing does lead to buying. Test.
• Test & Analyze All Marketing Campaigns: Banner, search, email; SEO, referrals, affiliate, offline

Step-by-Step Plan:

1. look at organic: what are they searching for? Book, author, topic. Then make decisions about what to feature.
2. Take that message and buy the keywords in that vein
3. Make sure analytics and adwords are tied together
4. Check Keyword positions > click on keyword and select visits in the drop down, then in the second column set it to Average time on site.
5. Optimizer with adwords: test, test, test

All the tools are available here: www.google.com/bookpublishers

Q: How does Google index full site?
A: Sitemaps is one way.

Q: Is there a Google Book Search equivalent for magazines?
A: Yes, the News Archive Program is the Google Book Search for newspapers and magazines.

Posted by Monique at 09:40 AM. Filed under: Blogging • Book Publisher • Books • Marketing • Technology •

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Defining Success: Accountable Online Marketing for Book Publishing was a full-day session run by BookNet Canada and the ABPBC on Thursday, September 18, 2008 at the SFU Downtown Campus, Vancouver BC.

10:00 – 10:45 am: Event Marketing: Taking the Faces Out of Facebook from Evan Munday of Coach House Books
The Coach House Books Facebook Group has more than 1000 members (and continues to grow). Coach House publicist Evan Munday discussed how to channel online passion to drive turn out at offline events. Evan Munday is the publicist for Coach House Books, a Toronto-based literary press, where has worked for the past 2 1/2 years. He is also a sometime artist who has done illustrations for various magazines. He collaborated on a novel with author Jon Paul Fiorentino, Stripmalling, out in Spring 2009, and is semi-hard at work on a YA novel. He is also very funny.

Here’s what Evan had to say:

• Over 1000 facebook users. Word of mouth is what drives more members.
• Event marketing on facebook: If you have over 1000 members in your group, you can’t invite them to an event. Instead you have to send a message and ask people to rsvp.
• With Facebook, we use the event as the publicity hook.
• We [publishers] are all fishing in the same pond when we use our regular tactics. With Facebook Coach House is seeing new people at their events, people they’ve never met before.

Facebook Promotion of the Open House:

• Coach House Books’ annual Open House: 132 confirmed guests on Facebook (doesn’t mean people will show up)
• The Open House is for friends, readers, neighbours. No readings. Instead it’s a tour of offices and book table. Publicize on Facebook. Usually about 300 people come to the event.
• This year we set up a ballot box. How do you know about Coach House: Author, friend, facebook, avid reader.
• Only 30 respondents. 1/6th said the Facebook group, no other relationship to the press.
• The Idea is to convert these unrelated strangers to Coach House book buyers. Get them talking about Coach House.

Evan’s Take-Away Lessons:

1. Be selective about event marketing on Facebook
2. Coach House has 60 events: Only invite people to bigger events, not all events.
3. Be careful about location. 60% in TO, don’t waste their time with Calgary events.
4. If members are outside TO, Coach House will create the event pages but maybe send only an email with links to all events across the country.
5. Don’t harass people. Be judicious in messaging.
6. Inject your personality. Make it seem like it’s not a marketing message.

Other Interesting Points:

• Facebook referrals visit at least 5 pages and have a 43% bounce rate.
• Nomediakings: Jim Munro, a self-publisher, drives a lot of traffic. We are unsure why. No link on the site.
• Make Facebook the rec room of your publishing company. Post videos and links from the event.
• All my friends are superheros: published in German by Random House, who created a very strange music video. (I’ll have to check it out.)

Things we don’t do:

1. No Facebook ads becasue it costs money and sometimes there are minimum buys of $1000. They are also not effective.
2. No Facebook Fan pages. Like Anansi. Instead of we have group, they have “Anansi”. You become a fan instead of joining group.
3. In a Group: no applications, no analytics, little info on members, no ability to send targeted ads. Fan page might be better for your press. Know the options.
4. Facebook pages: unlimited apps, extensive analysis, more info on members, ability to send targeted ads.
5. No Free copies: HarperCollins. First 10 to send message get X. Idea is to get people excited and posting. Thinks it’s great but Coach House print runs are so low, we can’t do it. Eg. Quest for the Ice Fox: contest to win a $200 travel voucher, users had to find the fox.

Our Facebook Plan:

1. start group
2. invite friends
3. make events and invite people
4. see strangers at your event
5. report on events (send photos to quill, blog, facebook group, encourages fun. “I’m sorry I missed that”. Come next time.

Q: How much time?
A: Very little time: 1 event week or every 2 weeks (15 min); post info. Ehren: online is his fulltime job is online, but blogging has moved to a publicist role now.

Q: Do you have a blog?
A: Coach House coffee room serves as a blog. (But really, the whole site is run on a content management system, which is what blog software is. The Coach House site, the whole site, is a blog, the coffee room is the bit that looks like what we think is a blog.)

Posted by Monique at 08:10 AM. Filed under: Blogging • Book Publisher • Marketing • Technology •

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Defining Success: Accountable Online Marketing for Book Publishing was a full-day session run by BookNet Canada and the ABPBC on Thursday, September 18, 2008 at the SFU Downtown Campus, Vancouver BC.

9:00 – 9:15 am: Opening Remarks from Michael Tamblyn, BookNet Canada
Michael Tamblyn couldn’t print his presentation so he read it off his phone. A perfect intro to a day about online media and the changes it has brought to consumers and book publishers.

9:15 – 10:00 am: Blogs, Context and Conversations: Interaction, Change and Measuring Results from Ehren Cheung, online marketing specialist for Dundurn Press
Ehren Cheung discussed the elements required to build, maintain and grow a successful blog like Dundurn Press’ Defining Canada with a focus on how to set goals that measure what matters. Ehren has been involved with expanding Dundurn’s Internet marketing initiatives since he joined the publisher a little over two years ago.  I really like following Ehren online: Dundurn blog, on Twitter, he’s great.

Key Points from Ehren Cheung:

• Using Facebook and other social media is about sharing. I’m defining my identity. I’m telling people about myself.
• There are 3 basic ways we discover something new: Browsing (exploring), sharing, searching
• Defining Canada started because Dundurn was overhauling its main site. In the interim the blog was created to tell people about what was going on. Sharing the news about the news: interviews, Q&As, videos, insider news.
• In planning a blog, started with: What do we want to do? What are our goals? What should we be measuring?
• Start by measuring: Unique visitors, how many pages do users visit, are they loyal, are they increasing their time spent on the site, how many clicks through to ecommerce do we see, what’s the impact of blog posts from authors ...
• Ehren has worked hard on the design of Dundurn blog, which I think works for them.

Ehren’s Top Take-Away Points:

1. Make it simple.
2. Practice.
3. Make use of social media: Use Twitter and Shelfari.com
4. Listen to the conversations, connect on a genuine level, Share content and information.

Questions from the Audience

Q: How has the purpose of Defining Canada changed over time?
A: Defining Canada currently is an extension of the brand messaging. We arel slowly moving toward building community, focusing on calls to actions.

Q: How does the management view the blog and outreach?
A: We have 521 unique visitors per month. How do they feel about that? Good.

Q: Why do you suggest Twitter?
A: It’s important to my day. Monique suggests it’s like a news ticker in the background. Keep a finger on the pulse of personal contacts and business. Follow us and see what it’s all about:
@ehrenc
@definingcanada
@somisguided
@BookNet_Canada

Posted by Monique at 07:24 PM. Filed under: Blogging • Book Publisher • Marketing • Technology •

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More things happened than I have links to, but here’s the skinny on the fat:

1. WeBook.com, a great collaborative writing tool or user-generated book writing tool, got a $5M deal led by Vertex and Greylock Partners.

2. Crab Whisperer: James’ exploit hand-catching crabs is caught in VanMag. (Ok, not book related but publishing related.)

3. Stowe Boyd has a great list of the tools he uses. I’m there baby! (Yup, also not book related but Stowe is awesome.)

4. ATM for books: Print on Demand. “Angus & Robertson today became the first Australian book chain to install the Espresso Book Machine (EBM), capable of printing, trimming and binding a paperback book on demand within minutes.”

5. BookNet Canada and the Association of Book Publishers of BC ran a full day session on internet marketing for book publishers. I presented on understanding and measuring results and will post those notes over the weekend.

Posted by Monique at 10:03 AM. Filed under: Blogging • Book Reviews • Books • Marketing • News • Technology •

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According to the Shelfari email newsletter, “Shelfari joins the Amazon.com family.”

Shelfair.com, acquired by Amazon.com on August 28, is a social networking site for book lovers. You create a virtual bookshelf and share reviews with your friends. I’m also a member of GoodReads.com, which I like for the email messages I receive of friends’ book reviews.

Both systems let users pull in your Amazon reviews, which is great and saves time. It will be interesting to see what happens now with the other virtual bookshelves using Amazon’s API (will they continue, get stronger, disappear) and what will “working hand in hand” (as claimed in the Shelfari email) actually look like.

I suppose I should go update my bookshelf in all of these places.

Is there not some way to do this in one place and have all my reviews distributed and posted to all my bookshelves? Hmmm. Must be…

Posted by Monique at 08:10 PM. Filed under: Book Reviews • News • Technology •

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Another plug because I’m getting excited ... I’m organizing an event called ExpressionEngine Roadshow on September 26 in Vancouver.

Are you interested?
http://www.eeroadshow.com/

ExpressionEngine is a CMS that I use for web design. I love it. SoMisguided runs on EE, as does BoxcarMarketing.com.

The event is for designers, developers, project managers and EE users who want to learn more about the tool, how to use it and design in it, what’s coming in the next release, how it performs with modules, extension and SEO capabilities, and there will be drinking and nibbling on tasty Havana treats.

Why Havana? Because it’s at Havana restaurant in the theatre there. $50 for the afternoon (1-5 pm) and then the party (5-7pm).

Registration is filling up so here’s a link if you’re keen.
http://eeroadshow.eventbrite.com/

Hope to see you there!

Posted by Monique at 04:48 PM. Filed under: Blogging • Marketing • Party Tricks • Technology •

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A small business group that I participate in has pulled together a panel for SXSW. It’s about how to create your own small biz mafia to rule the world (or at the least to rule your niche and get support from peers).

For our session to be selected we need some votes. If you’re so inclined, please go vote for us.

You create a free login, it’s quick and ease.
Voting closes Aug 29.

Vote Here: Micromafia: Building a Local Small Business Support Network

Click on the stars beside the title to vote. If you’re not logged in, you’ll be prompted to do so.

Many thanks!

About SXSW
The SXSW Interactive Festival features five days of exciting panel content and amazing parties. It’s a festival/conference for digital creatives, technology entrepreneurs, hard-core geeks, content creators, and other bright lights. I wanna go!

Posted by Monique at 10:12 AM. Filed under: Technology •

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PutPlace.com is one of my Boxcar Marketing/Capulet Communications clients and on July 3 we announced the Pull a Face for PutPlace contest. Remember my little photo story?

Well the 5 finalists have been selected and I think they are all awesome so you should vote on the one you like.

Got to putplace.com/pullaface to vote.

And, if you want to avoid pulling a face because of lost data. Do the Back Up!

PutPlace is one option and you can get 2 GB of free storage in their limited time offer.

Posted by Monique at 08:58 AM. Filed under: Technology •

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