News for Authors

How Authors Can Prevent Phishing Attacks

by Phil Stamper-Halpin|January, 2024

Across emails, texts, and social media, phishing attacks have skyrocketed over the last few years. As public figures, authors might be particularly vulnerable. Read on to learn how to protect yourself from scammers.

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Persona: A Refreshed Way to Reach Today’s Readers

by Grant Griglak |June, 2023

What is Persona?

Persona launched in 2017 as Penguin Random House’s first proprietary market segmentation project. It was our largest market research study of readers in the United States and a major milestone in our company’s journey toward being the most consumer-centric book publisher. The research was rolled out to the entire company, providing foundational insights on U.S. readers while also focusing on understanding and segmenting adult and teen readers, and gaining a better understanding of parents of younger readers.

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How Authors Can Protect their Privacy in 2017

by Phil Stamper-Halpin|April, 2017

From logging in to your website, blog, and social accounts to emailing book-related materials, staying on top of cybersecurity is more important than ever. Thankfully, with each new threat come new tools to block it and keep your identity and data safe from harm. Below are some specific tips and best practices for protecting your privacy. Read more

The State of the Book Club

by Casey Blue James|November, 2016

Millions of Americans take part in book clubs every month, in their own living rooms and via ever-expanding forms of social media. Read on to find out how the landscape of book clubs has changed, and how authors can engage with them. Read more

Trends in Book Discovery [Infographic]

by Jill Greto|April, 2016

How do readers find new books? What makes readers pick up a book when they haven’t heard of the author? The Penguin Random House consumer insights team polled a panel of more than 40,000 readers to find out how readers discover books and what influences their reading and buying choices. Read more

Defining Metadata: Putting Your Books into the Hands of More Readers

by Andrea Bachofen and Laurie Stark|February, 2016

From writing descriptive copy to choosing the right keywords and BISAC subject codes, we take a look at a few of the nitty-gritty metadata decisions your publishing team makes to ensure that your book reaches the widest possible audience.

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Book Publishing: Is It a Stable Business?

by Dave Thompson|October, 2014

Two years ago, amid myriad speculations in the media, on blogs, and in internet forums about the looming death of the book business, we were happily surprised to find that these speculations were far from the truth. In fact, the data showed a very stable progression of the industry’s revenue pool.

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Tuning In, Hanging Out, and Turning Pages: Book Purchasers and Media

by Sophie McNeill|June, 2014

There’s no doubt about it—book purchasers are curious about and engaged with media content across a variety of platforms and channels, especially online media. This makes book purchasers more accessible than ever to messages from authors and publishers.

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Random House Builds Consumer-Insight Capabilities

by The Random House Consumer Insights Team|April, 2014

Publishing has traditionally been thought of as an industry that instinctively knows the reader and draws primarily on experience and general market trends to design publishing and marketing plans. Even as that instinctive factor remains a critical element of success, Random House has built a Consumer Insights team that draws on a number of data sources to help marketers and publishers better understand consumers. One of the most useful resources is the Random House reader panel, which allows direct access to and feedback from readers.

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Do You Have Klout?

by Milena Schmidt|June, 2013

Perhaps you’ve heard of Klout, the website that assigns you a score based on your social media influence and awards perks to high-scoring influencers. Klout frequently makes headlines for its rewards, which most recently included VIP access to American Airlines airport lounges. Now you’re wondering whether you’ve got Klout, how much of it you have, and how to get more.

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