PUBLISHED APRIL 2015 by Suw Charman-Anderson, social technologist People behave in many different ways when they are unsure what is expected of them, but one of the most common tactics is hanging back and watching what others do. It’s often smart. It allows us to observe the behaviors and expectations of others, see how transgressors …

PUBLISHED APRIL 2015 by Thad McIlroy, publishing analyst Mobile is where today’s customers are headed and where tomorrow’s customers already dwell. And mobile marketing requires a leader who can articulate a compelling technology strategy and keep it on course. This is a vexing issue for publishers. Mobile won’t succeed without a top-level commitment at the …

PUBLISHED APRIL 2015 by Shannon Okey, Founder, Cooperative Press — Independent publishers get their start in many different ways. As an author of knitting and DIY books for large publishers, including Chronicle, Ten Speed Press, and several divisions of Random House, I was fortunate to observe some of their inner workings and gain a large …

PUBLISHED APRIL 2015 by Deb Vanasse, Founder, Running Fox Books Having entered into what seemed an exciting and mutually beneficial hybrid arrangement with a publisher that let me retain all rights except English-language print rights, I was eager to learn how similar agreements were working for others. So I posed the question to a panel …

PUBLISHED APRIL 2015 by David Wogahn, digital publishing consultant In an increasingly online world, metadata best practices go beyond fields in an ONIX record and pertain to how we create, present, and maintain information about ourselves as authors and publishers. Accordingly, I believe we need to define metadata more broadly and develop new habits to ensure …

Since the arrival of the commercial Internet 20 years ago, we’ve seen an upwelling of business model disruption in media companies—music, television, newspapers, and, to a lesser degree, book publishing. Both gradually and suddenly, companies couldn’t sell what they used to sell, or not to the same consumers, or not in the same way, or …

Analytics is not rocket science. And business analytics, which uses relatively simple methodologies on past data, is a problem-solving tool that everyone in an organization can use to effect positive change on a day-today basis. Business analytics can help you solve 80 percent of your business problems at a fraction of the cost of complex …

One problem for authors who publish independently is that each ends up reinventing the proverbial wheel. Convinced that like-minded authors could reach readers better by sharing resources and a quality brand, I formed the author collective Running Fox Books in 2013. Similar reasons have led other writers to form collectives. “The main advantage of a …

I’ve had the pleasure of being part of the Ingram Content Group publisher services team for eight years. During this time, I’ve educated publishers about the business models and the benefits of print on demand (POD), and I’ve consulted with content creators from various industries on how to make the most of their content. Whether …

PUBLISHED MARCH 2015 by Angela Bole, CEO, Independent Book Publishers Association Earlier this year, I participated in a panel on indie publishing at the Los Angeles Public Library. It was part of Indie Author Day, which was sponsored by IBPA and SELF-e, a collaboration between Library Journal and BiblioBoard. The SELF-e program is a new …