PUBLISHED SEPT/OCT 2019 by David Marlin, Co-Founder, MetaComet Systems — An abundance of digital sales platforms has given independent publishers exciting new routes to market—but with them have come new challenges around sales reporting and royalties. It is a headache familiar to many independent publishers handling their own digital distribution. You receive perhaps a dozen …

PUBLISHED NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 by Michial Miller, Account Manager, NPD Book and Brianna O’Driscoll, Senior Account Executive, NPD Book — BookScan introduces new features to elevate the book industry’s data service. To check out BookScan discounts available to IBPA Members, click here. In January 2017, NPD Group purchased Nielsen BookScan, and since, we’ve been going through …

PUBLISHED JULY/AUGUST 2018 by Joshua Tallent, Director of Outreach and Education, Firebrand Technologies — Is your book’s metadata hurting or helping your sales? IBPA Board Member Joshua Tallent explains the importance of getting your metadata right. IBPA Publishing University 2018 was, by all measures, a complete success. We had record attendance, powerful engagement, and some …

PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2017 by Geoff Habiger, Senior Partner, Artemesia Publishing LLC — Several years ago, my business computer’s hard drive, where I kept all my important files, crashed. While I had some backups, they were mostly out of date because I was just too busy (or too lazy) to get them done. It was a …

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2017 by Allison Risbridger, Client Development Specialist, NPD Books – So, you signed up for BookScan. Now what? We’ve teamed up with the BookScan experts at The NPD Group to bring you five tips to make the most of your subscription. To check out BookScan discounts available to IBPA Members, click here. 1. …

PUBLISHED MARCH 2017 by Deb Vanasse, Reporter, IBPA Independent A media company uses propriety algorithms to identify trending topics, then assigns nonfiction book projects to freelancers to meet the demand. A pair of authors create an algorithm to identify the elements of bestselling novels. Publishers mine the data generated by e-book readers to inform editorial …

PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 2016 by Kristen McLean, Director of New Business Development, Nielsen Book Because you don’t have to be “big” to be “smart.” Running your business without good information about your market is a little like driving without road signs—you know you’re going somewhere, but you have no idea where that is. Gathering this information …

PUBLISHED DECEMBER 2015 by Lynn Rosen, IBPA Independent contributing editor IBPA MEMBERS: Don’t forget to check out your exclusive member benefit with Nielsen BookScan and Nielsen PubTrack Digital. Thank you for your membership! For many publishers of print books, bookstore sales are important, and Nielsen BookScan is the tracking service that reports on such sales—which …

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2015 by Mark Rodgers, Principal, Peak Performance Business Group Persuading people to say Yes to your ideas, offers, and suggestions requires intellectual heavy lifting, and entails making a solid business case for what you’re proposing. And as noted last month in Part 1 of this series, your business case needs two primary building …

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2015 by Kimberly Grabas, Founder, YourWriterPlatform.com One of the biggest mistakes first-time publishers make is believing that the larger a book’s potential market is, the greater the chances that the book will get noticed and purchased. In fact, the opposite is generally true. The larger the market, the more competition you are likely …