Jon Reed is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Publishing Talk, and author of Get Up to Speed with Online Marketing. Follow him at @jonreed or @getuptospeed.

There are natural advantages to being a small, independent publisher when it comes to social media marketing. So are the big publishers too big to use it effectively?

I spoke at the Inpress Digital Conference at Foyles bookshop in London this week, a one-day digital conference for independent publishers run by Inpress, the sales and marketing agency for independent publishers in the UK and Ireland. The conference included: an industry overview of the digital future from Benedict Evans of Enders Analysis; a report on ebooks from Julie McNair; Julia Kingsford, head of marketing at Foyles, on how the company has diversified into selling ereaders and ebooks – including the revelation that Faber and Transworld dominate ebook sales simply because they bother to include bibliographic data; and Inpress MD Rachael Ogden on the explosion of book apps available for the iPhone and iPad and how to get involved.

It was great to see a room full of independents getting to grips with digital publishing. I was speaking on social media marketing for publishers (of course), a two-hour workshop session with plenty of practical advice on creating social media marketing plans, and getting the most out of a range of social media tools.

The independent advantage

I think this is one area where it is actually easier for small, independent publishers to succeed than their corporate counterparts – something I’ve previously written about in The Deal. Why? Because:

1. Social media is a personal medium where things like personality, tone of voice and authenticity matter – things that are much easier to achieve if you are a small business. Last week the Huffington Post identified who it considers the best publishers on Twitter. It is telling that six of the 11 chosen were independents; two were imprints and the remaining three were big publishers. When it comes to engaging people on Twitter, it helps to have an independent voice. Find out more about how two of those publishers, @AAKnopf and @AlgonquinBooks use Twitter for community building in this week’s Huffington Post article Does Twitter Sell Books? Yes, It Does.
2. You can punch above your weight. Because the tools are – mostly – free, you can use them without a huge marketing investment. Indeed, this is why social media is so widely used by independents – they have no choice but to use these tools since they have little or no marketing budget. The investment may be in time rather than money – but they have the commitment to put in the hours.
3. Social media levels the playing field. Independents have the potential to reach as wide a market with these tools as big corporates – especially since some of the big publishers are still not really engaging with social media.
4. Social media is about relationship building – something independents have always done well.
5. You can just do it. No need to worry about getting your corporate comms strategy through a series of committees and approved by a manager who doesn’t get it. Independents are nimble and agile, and adopting a new strategy isn’t like turning a battleship around. If you’re small, you can just do it.

One advantage that big publishers historically had was the resources to create rich media such as podcasts or video, or to terraform islands in Second Life. But now you don’t need expensive equipment or recording studios – just use AudioBoo to create a podcast, or a Flip or Zi8 camera to record video. Everyone has abandoned expensive brand islands in Second Life – though there are still plenty of low-to-no cost opportunities for independent publishers and authors ‘in-world’. Bigger is not necessarily better.

Big or small, there’s a social media marketing strategy for you. Just keep it appropriate to your type of organization, make sure you engage your audience, and go for a personal voice – whether that is you and/or your authors.

I was lecturing at Birkbek yesterday, on digital publishing, social media marketing – and men in their pants in Basingstoke. For this was the key takeaway message for me at this year’s London Book Fair Digital Conference, which I attended and live-tweeted last weekend: if publishers don’t produce digital content, such as apps, there are plenty of men in their basements in Basingstoke in their pants who will.

This industry doesn’t owe publishers, authors, agents or bookshops a living. We need to find a useful service in the space between authors and their readers. We need fewer people in publishing who are English graduates called Jocasta. But why would developers be attracted to publishing? If we don’t produce digital content, there are plenty of men in basements in Basingstoke in their pants who will.
KATE WILSON, Nosy Crow

In a Book Fair blighted by volcanic ash, this seemed to be one event the volcano couldn’t spoil. With only three last-minute speaker replacements, and grounded delegate spaces back-filled from the waiting list, there was plenty of  lively discussion from the platform and the floor. And it was the first digital conference I’ve been to for a long time that wasn’t dominated by Digital Rights Management (DRM) and protectionism, and left me feeling more positive about the future of publishing.

I should clarify something here: I feel positive about the future of publishing – not about the future of the publishing industry. An important distinction. Digital publishing opportunities are huge. Publishers are not necessarily the ones who will benefit.

Speakers included game developers, app developers and mobile experts as well as traditional publishers who are doing digital, plus one author, Alison Norrington, who has been experimenting wildly with social media, and presented her experiences to the slack-jawed amazement of publishers. All positive stuff for a digital conference, since publishers can learn a lot from other industries who have engaged sooner with digital – and from authors, who are often way ahead of their publishers. As Kevin Shrapnell of EA Games pointed out: “The lines between books, ebooks, websites, games are blurring”.

The real asset publishers have is their content – yet they are not really set up to capitalize on the digital economy. David Miller of Rogers, Coleridge & White (@drearyagent) said: “Publishers don’t have the structure to choose whether to publish their content as a hardback, paperback, ebook, website or  app – they need to invest in staff and skills to make that possible.”

Publishers don’t have the structure to choose whether to publish their content as a hardback, paperback, ebook, website or  app – they need to invest in staff and skills to make that possible.
DAVID MILLER, Rogers, Coleridge & White

I think it is even more serious than this. While publishers agonize over business models and skill sets and which direction they should go in, the world moves on regardless. It is not just men in pants to watch out for – it is authors. As the stigma and barriers to self-publishing continue to drop, authors are not only doing their own marketing with social media, they are disintermediating their publishers with the online self-publishing tools that are also available to them.

The Profit Imperative

Conference chair Richard Charkin said in his opening remarks that there are no shortage of books – but we should be concerned not about volume but value: “Please, please, in the digital age let us price at a sensible level and not underprice to gain volume”. Profit is the real issue in the industry. That suggests to me premium pricing – something difficult to achieve in a digital world where we expect things for free or cheap.

One attempt to maintain the print price of a book in the digital space is with ‘enhanced’ ebooks. Peter Collingridge revealed an interesting new business model for his company Enhanced Editions: no upfront costs for app development (though these are costed and shown to the publisher in advance), and then revenues are split 50/50 with the publisher after development costs have been earned out. This reduces risk and means you don’t need to be a big budget publisher to get started. I would go further and suggest that, to use services such as these – which are proliferating – you surely don’t even need to be a publisher.

I can see enhanced ebooks really working for certain genres: children’s, textbooks, illustrated non-fiction; any sort of ‘how to’ material such as cookery books; and travel books that use augmented reality. I’m less convinced by their potential for fiction – unless you want to avoid carrying around a massive tome – which is the reason I downloaded the app for a book written by a neighbour of mine called Hilary Mantel. I don’t want to read Wolf Hall in the bath, but I’d like to read it while waiting for the bus. I did buy it for a discounted £3.49 though. Would I have paid the full £6.99? I don’t know. But with such a massive market for the iPhone – much bigger than the Kindle – low pricing can surely work in this market. Premuim pricing isn’t the only way to make a profit – mass distribution is another.

It’s not about creating books any more – it’s about creating content.
JOHN DUHIGG, Dorling Kindersley

Simply transferring a printed book to an app – even if it is enhanced with a bit of add-on video – seems less of a value proposition to me than creating something specifically for an app in the first place, such as Jamie Oliver’s hugely successful 20 Minute Meals. Some publishers are doing this. Kate Wilson said: “We’re not interested in transfering books to apps. We commission for apps, and some of them spin off into books.” John Duhigg of Dorling Kindersley previewed the augmented reality iPhone apps they are experimenting with for their Rough Guides, such as an augmented reality version of the Rough Guide to London which ovelays tags of nearby restaurants onto the image of the London street in front of you. And Fionnuala Duggan of Random House introduced their Nigella Quick Collection app, which was produced in-house.

Those publishers not doing this – well, your author can do it anyway and disintermediate you. Jamie Oliver went to a software developer called Zolmo to produce his 20 Minute Meals app. Are they his developer – or his publisher? I see app developers, in the publishing ecosystem, not as service industries operating in the space between publishers and readers but as publishers in between authors and readers. I know not everyone has the profile or resources of Mr Oliver. But, to varying degrees, we can all do this.

A QR Code

Ways of selling cheaply were explored by various panelists. Agent David Miller floated the idea of using technology to enable people to buy books, such as by selling ebooks for £1 or £2 and including a QR code as a voucher that could be used to redeem the cost of the ebook against a printed book. Mobile expert Tony Lynch of Spoken Group Ltd suggested selling ebooks cheaply but making them expire after a certain time, like library books. He also pointed out that mobile networks see books as a major content category in the next five years, and are trying to create a buying culture on their networks – partly through giving books away for free.

But who pays for ‘free’? Someone has to work to create the content in the first place, right? I was pleased to see agent Ed Victor on form, asking sharp questions of the publishers on the panel, as he often does at these conferences. He asked them to explain: “If there are no warehousing costs, no manufacturing costs, no distribution costs, and no bookshop returns, why did we have to drag you kicking and screaming to 25% of net receipts?”

If there are no warehousing costs, no manufacturing costs, no distribution costs, and no bookshop returns, why did we have to drag you kicking and screaming to 25% of net receipts?
ED VICTOR, Literary Agent

Obviously there are costs associated with the production of digital content – but not everyone is going to spend tens of thousands of pounds or dollars on a Jamie Oliver style iPhone app. What if you’re just transferring a printed book to an ereader? I’m a publisher turned author, but even when I was a publisher I think I’d have had sympathy with Ed’s point of view. Despite palpable eye-rolling in the room, this is a fair question that deserves an answer.

If publishers charge too much for digital content, they are at risk of piracy. If they pay authors too little for creating it, their authors will self-publish. And self-publishing was tacitly agreed upon as ‘A Bad Thing’ in the room. But the new digital economy requires new business models – not new ways of holding on to the old ones.

Anyone can do it

It’s great that publishers are engaging in a more open way with digital, making it part of their publishing, and exploring the models for doing so – rather than using these conferences to reassure themselves that everything will be OK, we can protect ourselves with DRM, and it’s still business as usual. But I can’t help thinking that they are still not being radical enough. The problem is that publishers no longer own the publishing industry. When the cost of producing and delivering digital content is minimal, anyone can do it. Where does that leave publishers?

I say anyone. I mean anyone with some creativity. As Kate Wilson said: “Publishers have always outsourced creativity. It’s called authors.”

Richard Charkin concluded the conference with a Jerry Springer style closing thought: “Publishers used to be generalists a few decades ago. They used to have a fiction division, a children’s division, an academic division and so on. We also used to have a single, unified sales medium – called a bookshop. Publishers gradually specialized into more and more niche areas at the same time as they reached more readers with direct marketing. Today we once more have a single, unified sales medium – called the Internet. Perhaps it is time for publishers to become more generalist again?”

Perhaps. In the digital age, there may be opportunities for publishers to publish anything they like and find a market for it online. Trouble is, those same opportunities are open to all. Anyone can be a publisher.

Overall, this conference successfully moved the debate on, and the tone was more of a wake-up call than an invitation to lock the door and have a lie in. More engagement with what is happening than squishing the new digital realities into old business models – what David Miller called “putting new wine in old bottles”. The problem I still have with all of this is that, while publishers are still receiving wake-up calls, the rest of the world has Carped the Diem, been to the gym, had breakfast, taken a few calls and is on the way to a lunch meeting. The world has moved on.

I have some sympathy with Jocasta, the English graduate. She went into publishing to publish books, not develop apps and monetize content. Unfortunately for Jocasta, the market is always right. Responding to what the market wants – how people want to consume and pay for content – is what is needed, rather than reacting to the ‘threat’ of digital.

Is the future as hard to predict as a volcano? Not really. It’s already here.

Catch up on the conference tweets at @publishingtalk. Were you at the conference? Let us know your thoughts.

Related articles

• Mobile Opportunities: The London Book Fair Digital Conference (futurebook.net)
• London Book Fair Digital Conference Digest: “Take Risks, Fail, Learn, and Try Again” (publishingperspectives.com)
• Publishers must become ‘fleet of foot’, depleted LBF conference hears (thebookseller.com)

Are you at the London Book Fair on Tuesday 20th April? If so, there are still places at the London Book Tweet After Party! London Book Tweet is the official tweetup of the London Book Fair, organized jointly by the London Book Fair and Publishing Talk. The publishing Twitterati will be out in force, tweeting, drinking and networking with fellow publishers, authors, agents, journalists and other book industry folk – and we’d love you to join us!

When and where?

It all starts at 5.30pm-6.30pm at the Market Focus Bar in Earls Court 1 (in the Children’s Zone, near the West Brompton entrance), at which the winner of the Author Blog Awards 2010 will be announced by Anna Lewis and Jon Slack.

We are rather at capacity for that part of the evening, but we then move on to the After Party which is from 7.00pm till around 10.30pm at Eclipse, 158 Old Brompton Road, which holds up to 120 of us. We have exclusive use of their boutique basement club, just a 10 min walk from Earls Court: great cocktails, great music, great people. And we’re thrilled to announce that Jonathan Davis (aka @canadiancat) and  Ernesto Priego will be DJing at Eclipse. Expect some Latin, salsa, soul and deep house!

More details are on the Twtvite at http://twtvite.com/lbt10. It says ‘full’, but that’s just for the first part: click ‘Waiting List’ to add yourself to the list for the After Party at Eclipse.

There will be much AudioBooing, Tweeting, videoing and Twitpicing. We’re delighted that Toby Rhind-Tutt will be on hand again to take the official photographs (and if you want to add your own to Flickr, there is a Publishing Talk Group Pool you can submit them to, and/or tag them with lbtweet).

Bring on the Twitterwall!

Can’t join us live? Follow the action with the Twitter hashtag #lbtweet. We will also have a Twitterwall at the Market Focus bar, which will display all the tweets containing #lbtweet during the tweetup; and it will display #LBF10 – the official hashtag of the London Book Fair – at other times. If you want your own Twitterwall on your own screen, go to www.twitterfall.com and enter the hashtags you’d like to follow.

You can also follow the action at the London Book Fair Digital Conference on Sunday 18 April with the hashtag #LBFDC. I will be live-tweeting the conference on @publishingtalk.

And if that all sounds too much like hard work, here’s a Twitterwall pre-loaded with #LBF10, #LBFDC and #lbtweet. Or just click on the image below. Simples! Hope to see you there, and watch this space for details.

The cost of free books: who pays for ‘free’?

The second and final panel discussion at the recent Free or Fee 2010 conference was designed to explore the cost of free books, with presentations from Duncan Campbell of Wiley-Blackwell, Chris Meade from if:book, Frances Pinter from Bloomsbury, and Henry Volans of Faber Digital.

Campbell started by presenting what he considers to be 5 critical points to remember in the free or fee digital content debate – particularly worth bearing in mind when considering the challenge that the Open Access movement has on demand for research that is traditionally published in journals.

1. free to consume does not equal free to produce
2. free is always paid for by someone (else?) somewhere
3. free doesn’t necessarily lead to paid
4. free to consume doesn’t necessarily mean copyright free
5. free doesn’t equal end of publishers. There is still a need for registration, discovery, validation and archiving.

Chris Meade made an impassioned plea for us to consider it from the reader’s perspective: books will become just “stuff” and you won’t be able to continue charging for them. So the focus needs to be on the quality of content: it’s about literature, paper doesn’t matter!

Critical to this is teaching children the value of literature. Without that, they won’t want our content, regardless of format.  Literacy is key and the asset is the quality of the engagement, not the stuff on shelves. If you focus on this, then ways to make money will emerge.

Frances Pinter provided an insight from the approach they are taking using Creative Commons licences at Bloomsbury Academic. They are experimenting with the idea that free promotes sales rather than cannibalises. Print is supplemented by different levels of add-ons such as metadata, content, rich media, that institutions will be prepared to pay for in addition to the printed copy.

Will it work? She thinks so for certain kinds of books. And someone does have to pay somewhere for it. You can see more of her in action at the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference in this video.

Henry Volans, Faber & Faber’s Head of Digital Content provided an alternative view from one of the late-comers to the digital party. He feels the trade sector still lags far behind other areas of publishing, it is an immature and new market. He shared the results of Faber’s “pay-what-you-like” experiment, a Radiohead-esque model of asking readers to decide what they wanted to pay for a novel.

In a moment of refreshing candour, he admitted most people chose to pay nothing. But of those who did, the average price was £5. Not a bad result and the publicity generated was invaluable.

For Faber, while free digital content doesn’t currently make sense as a business model, it is being used successfully as a marketing tool. They are open to seeing how things develop.

The panel concluded that while boxes around industries are dissolving as everything can be viewed through one device, publishers need to think clearly rather than just tinker with their own model.The traditional linear model of author-to-publisher-to-retailer-to-consumer no longer holds true. Agile project management, reflexive and responsive ways to develop projects and the ability to adapt to change are essential.

The industry needs to learn how to build, develop and fail fast so it can learn and move on. We need to move quickly, but think deeply.

Useful links

• Free or Fee? Valuing Content in the Digital Era – Part 1
• Free or Fee 2010 conference website
• Free or Fee 2010 photostream on Flickr

Have you attended a publishing event that you would like to report on and share with the Publishing Talk community? Let us know.

Those who know me well have seen me out and about at various events to network and discover the latest thinking around key issues for publishing.

There’s nothing like a few conferences to broaden your mind and get you thinking about the future. Last week was no exception with three events.

And so my conference roadshow rumbled on to LCC’s annual student-organised offering: two afternoon panel discussions on the value of digital content.

This was a short event, but I found myself writing copious notes. So I’m providing a couple of updates, to give you a flavour of what was said at each session.

Books are dead! Mobile is king! Long live books!

The opening speaker was Ben Hammersley, Editor-at-Large of Wired UK (indeed he was at large and spotted 20 minutes after he’d finished at another event at the LSE).

He is an engaging speaker, not afraid to tell the audience: “if you’re not producing content for all platforms – especially mobile – your business will die.” Straight to the point, then.

He also made a pertinent point (much to the relief of many in the room) that the old formats won’t die. Cinema didn’t kill theatre, the iPad won’t kill print. Each format is usually better in one way than the other.

What it means for digital writing skills is that you have to use words to maximise each of the different platforms. He also stressed the importance of metadata: you HAVE to get it in at point of source (and here comes the sell) his new company Dangerous Precedent is a way of working with authors to do just that.

Getting the right metadata for enhanced discovery online is critical. No one else knows the places, companies, names, subjects, brands or key words like the author.

He raised a chuckle in the audience with his candid views on magazines “most magazine websites and apps are rubbish”. His closing remark was that Steve Jobs has broken the industry, but there you have it. For Hammersley, it’s simple. We’re in a totally digital world. Deal with it.

Free or Fee?

The first industry panel had a focus on the magazine and business media industry.

Each panelist was (strictly) limited to five minutes on the “Free or Fee?” question. Mark Beilby, Chairman of Apollo Media, technology and app developer, kicked off.

With a technologists take on the changes impacting publishing he claimed “the world has changed irrevocably” (world = business model). It’s not all bad as other revenue models will open up, but bear in mind that people won’t pay for what they can get free. Communities are particularly suited to digital. The key to being successful is about being timely and adding value, wrapped around good content.

Fiona Dent from IPC Media, reeled off some impressive stats on consumer women’s market that blow assumptions about women’s digital appetite out of the water. With 10 million women on Facebook (2nd only to Google) and 70% of mass market consumer purchase decisions made by women, this is a market you cannot ignore. At the heart of her argument is that you have to know your market – inside and out – and it is clear that IPC do. This is key to knowing where, when and what you can charge for with digital content (or any other format for that matter).

An interesting example of how digital has subverted the usual business model is their web-first product – www.goodtoknow.co.uk – which now has a spin-off print product called Good to Know Recipes. It launched in May and is 30% ahead of target. Traffic to the website and searches in Google have increased. The website makes money. They are obviously chuffed about this.

Nick Brett from BBC Worldwide was next up. As a former anarchist, he welcomes the challenges that multi-platform content presents to editorial teams. This is an unbridled time of creativity. His top tip? Be aware of the consumer and only then decide what the appropriate medium is.

Kurt Edwards from Future Publishing closed the presentations. His was a plea to ensure that the number of subscriptions you gain from new digital content, minus the number of print subscriptions lost, must equal more money. Otherwise there’s no point doing it. The major challenge for publishers is to understand why people will pay for digital content. It’s about convenience. It’s about a great experience. It’s about ease of purchase, value and timeliness.

The questions session was quite lively and raised a number of thorny issues. The panel felt that the industry needs to take the self-indulgence out of writing, there’s just no room for it anymore. We shouldn’t focus on the iPad too much – despite the rumoured 25,000 iPad orders per minute – with technology companies such as Samsung and LG sinking huge amounts of money into lightweight mobile devices and operating systems. And remember, the market is clearly opening up for handheld reading devices: Princeton having recently announced that they are loading the whole reading list on to a Kindle (cue groans from the audience).

In Part 2: Who Pays for “Free”?

Useful links

• Free or Fee 2010 conference website
• Free or Fee 2010 photostream on Flickr

The various blogs and Twitter accounts covering the Book Fair include @thebookseller, the ever irreverent and entertaining @missdaisyfrost, and @pubperspectives – whose Frankfurt Book Fair Daily can be downloaded as a PDF.

It seems to have been a relatively subdued Fair, with fewer publishers than usual – at least fewer editors attending from the big publishers, allowing more space for independents. But there have been plenty of digitalists.

The highlight has to be the first European O’Reilly Media Tools of Change conference, held yesterday – which we could also vicariously follow with the Twitter hashtag #tocfrankfurt. Speakers included Sara Lloyd, Joe Wikert, Neelan Choksi and Cory Doctorow – and you can find some highlights over at The Scholarly Kitchen.

If you missed out on TOC Frankfurt, or want more of an author’s point of view, here is one of the highlights from the TOC conference in New York last year: Seth Godin’s presentation “Using New Media, New Marketing, and New Thinking to Create 10 Bestselling Books”. Enjoy – and maybe I’ll see you in New York next February!

1. download the slides from your favourite presentations
2. watch Chris Brogan’s presentation on Blogging and Social Media.

Enjoy!

5 Facts

1. You are no longer in control
2. There are no destination websites any more – if you build it, they won’t necessarily come. You need to be where people want you to be.
3. People on online communities are not who you think they are (i.e. hoodie-wearing yoof)
4. Get the content right and the rest will follow
5. The future is niche – i.e. the much mooted and predicted proliferation of niche social networking sites that will provide an alternative to the generic Facebooks and MySpaces.

3 Opportunities

1. Engage existing social networks
2. Socialize your existing online marketing
3. Create a new, niche community.

So far, so familiar, to regular readers. But Will’s call to action is exactly what the publishing industry needs to hear: start small, start now, beg forgiveness rather than seek permission, don’t let the weeds grow, and don’t miss the boat. You can experiment, measure, and see what works. But, really: don’t ignore it. Authors, readers, and consumers certainly aren’t ignoring it.

Ros had some interesting examples from Random House, who famously terraformed an island in Second Life last year. But the other thing I keep banging on about is that you don’t have to be Random House (or Nature, or Penguin). Small, independent publishers have a real opportunity with social media.

I was fortunate to meet many independents at the Fair this year – and they get it. They’re doing it. As one publisher said to me yesterday:

“Social media offers the publishing industry the opportunity for the kind of direct to consumer dialogue that it has never had before. In addition it also levels the playing field between media giants and independents since the scope and quality of the relationship between publisher and consumers can be the same for both.”

I couldn’t agree more. And it can be easier for smaller publishers, because social media is a personal medium where authenticity matters. That can be harder for corporates – though they can make it work by staying focused on their authors, who can be authentic individuals online. But whether you’re a tiny independent, a multinational conglomerate, academic or trade, social media is a game the whole industry can play.

Just do it. And do it now!

photo by FlickrDelusions

Another year, another Book Fair, another year older. Yes, Publishing Talk is one year old, dear reader; and you’ve helped develop it into one of the largest publishing communities on the Internet – now with around 1,200 Facebook Group members.

As for me, I’ve been a bad blogger. Busy with Other Things (who wants to do a guest posting? no, really…) This week I’ve been busy at the London Book Fair. Unlike last year, when I pitched up to meet mates and go to seminars, I’ve been in constant meetings, and not had time to attend sessions, despite various friends of the show – including Danuta Kean and Sara Lloyd – being involved with them. I’m starting to think I may need a stand for next year – I don’t have the stamina to flanneur around Earl’s Court for three days! Maybe a little Publishing Talk party next year too – whaddyarek?

It’s not all work, though – most stands seem to start cocktail hour as early as 3.30, so plenty of opportunities for catching up with friends. Including, today, Suzanne Ashley in her new role as Publishing Sector Manager at Skillset, which launched this month – an important development for the UK publishing industry; and publisher-turned-author Keith Mansfield, widely touted (by me) as the new J.K. Rowling.

I will be attending the social media seminar tomorrow, so will report back on that one. Meanwhile, here’s what other’s are saying about this year’s London Book Fair:

• Daisy’s Book Fair Survival Guide – Daisy Frost’s entertaining guide to surviving the hoopla of the Fair:

…There is no use wandering through the delights of West London, admiring the pretty clouds and listening to the birds tweeting before nipping in to the fair for some light banter. If that is your attitude then just go home now. Remember at all times that the LBF is a war zone and you have got to be Kate Adie/Martin Bell and Osama Bin Laden all rolled into one. Watch “Jerry Maguire”, “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Apocalypse Now” the night before, read The Art Of War on the way in and listen to “The Ride of the Valkyries” on your iPod as you stride through the doors to face the enemy.

• Crystal Balls Or No Balls At All…the Future Of Publishing? – Darren Laws at Book2Book on the Book Fair agenda:

If smaller publishers had the same income to invest in new technology or the resources to embrace podcast, vodcasts, email marketing and full-on public relations activities as these mighty giants, than I am sure the book industry would be a different game altogether today. Is it change that the established players fear? I don’t think so. I believe it is a mixture of ignorance and arrogance. The upshot for the small guy though is that many of these new marketing and promotional tools can actually cost nothing more than time and intelligence. Many publishers have not even embraced blogging yet…why? Opinion matters and the Internet has enabled small and large alike to influence and help change opinion through argument and constructed thought.

• What Ex-Smokers and Ebook Early Adopters Have in Common – Andrew Savikas writing on the O’Reilly TOC Blog:

During a seminar today at the London Book Fair titled “How to Digitize your Content” (not to be confused with our own “Digitizing Your Backlist“), Penguin Group Digital Director Genevieve Shore shared some interesting insights about Penguin’s growing ebook program:

• Though Penguin USA has been selling ebooks for 10 years, 2007 was the first time they saw “interesting revenue”
• In the first two months of 2008, Penguin USA has sold more ebooks than in all of 2007
• Readers now expect new frontlist titles to be available as ebooks at the same time they show up in bookstores

But the thing that really caught my eye was Gavin Bell’s presentation: From buyers of books to a community of readers. It nicely illustrates, for me, the divide between where most publishers are and where most readers are.

Gavin makes several points that I keep banging on about, yet which very many publishers are still not doing:

• if your author has a blog, link to it
• focus on your readers, not your internal company structure or catalogue
• author-led blogs are more effective than publisher-led ones
• the author is the brand
• facilitate your authors’ use of social media

And, as Kassia says:

Tomorrow’s publisher (for those wondering, tomorrow started about ten years ago) needs to be positioned to make the process of reaching and maintaining the social aspects of the book business as effortless as possible for authors.

It’s about tapping into, discovering and building communities of readers. Books are social objects. Create a space for authors and readers to have a conversation, and you’re on your way to social media marketing.