News for Authors

Authors Rock at SXSW

by Christine Hung, Joe Gallagher, Emily Davis, and Milena Schmidt|April, 2013

This spring marks Random House’s third year participating in South by Southwest (SXSW), the country’s largest digital and interactive conference, which brings together influencers across all industries for nine high-spirited days of creative exchange. SXSW is the perfect venue for Random House to showcase the work of authors and company developments, while learning new and innovative ways to improve capabilities across divisions. The event also provides a unique opportunity to foster the creative and professional growth of our employees.

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Join Our Online Communities!

by Milena Schmidt|April, 2013

Random House is constantly working on new ways to bring together authors and readers. Whether it’s through social media, author engagements, or events such as South by Southwest, our divisions lead the charge in connecting with consumers and generating discussions about books around cultural trends.

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Facebook’s Smarter Search

by Sonia Nash Gupta|April, 2013

In January, Facebook launched their new Graph Search experience, which works with information users themselves have put on Facebook to create more tailored and personal search results. We look at the impact on Facebook users and how to adapt your Page to take advantage of this new functionality.

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Building Support for Breakout Books

by Milena Schmidt and Katherine Fleming|March, 2013

Every year, Random House, Inc.’s imprints publish hundreds of new titles by authors who don’t yet have an established fan base or sales history. Every book is acquired with the expectation of bringing it to the widest audience.

While there is not a single recipe for doing this, we keep analyzing and learning from what has worked before, and finding new ways to apply the success factors to other books. Read more

What I Look for in a Rough Draft

by Andrea Bachofen|March, 2013

Working with an editor is a unique experience that differs for every author. However, from fiction to nonfiction to children’s books, each author/editor relationship has the same goal: to publish the best possible version of every book.

With that in mind, we asked a broad group of Random House editors where they start when they first lay eyes on the rough draft of a book. Read more

Think Mobile

by Sophie McNeill|March, 2013

The most talked-about internet trend of the last year has been the huge growth in mobile browsing, driven by sales of smartphones and tablets. We review some surprising mobile stats and suggest what authors can do to take advantage of this trend.

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Was it a Digital 2012?

by Jeff Weber|February, 2013

The online book market moves so fast that we frequently have to take a step back and reevaluate. In that spirit, I recently reflected on four key trends that we saw in both the eBook and physical book sales numbers for our online accounts last year.

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Discover Reads with BookScout!

February, 2013

There’s a new way for readers to find out about books they’ll love—BookScout! Random House’s new Facebook app encourages conversation about books on the world’s largest social media site and makes it easy to get personalized recommendations. Read more

Monthly Marketing Tip: Get Engaged!

by Emily Davis|February, 2013

In the early days of social media, much of the focus was on increasing the size of your community. People would boast about their hundreds or thousands of followers and fans. However, it’s become increasingly clear that it’s actually engagement— the quality of interactions—that matters most.

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Who Reads eBooks? [Infographic]

by Mina Park, Senior Analyst, Consumer Insights|January, 2013

Who are eBook consumers and what are their reading habits? These questions are frequently posed to the Random House Research and Analytics team, and fortunately we have some great sources for understanding this technology-savvy group. One of those resources is data that we acquire through regular surveys of U.S. book consumers, which we can filter to look solely at eBook consumers. This has enabled us to get a good picture of who they are and their attitudes toward books and reading. What emerges is a portrait of the highly engaged reader: avid readers across digital and print formats, and technology “fast-forwards” who are more accessible than ever via both online and offline touch points.

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