Happy birthday to Google Hangouts, which turns one year old this month. Chats featuring notable authors such as Toni Morrison have put Google Hangouts on the map as an innovative way to engage with readers. Here’s what you need to know and keep in mind when planning a Google Hangout.
Email is anything but dead. It’s a vital part of any marketing plan, allowing you to reach readers easily at any time. But with all the inbox competition that emails face each day, how can you make your emails stand out? And if you’re new to email marketing, where should you begin? Here are 10 tips for making your email program shine.
Authors across numerous publishers, including Penguin Random House, recently transformed Twitter into a forum for experimental storytelling during #TwitterFiction Festival 2014. The festival, which took place March 12 through 16, was a partnership among the Association of American Publishers, Penguin Random House, and Twitter. It resulted in a five-day round-the-clock global literary event that reached 50 million people on Twitter.
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.
This month, the Random House Sales Analysis team offers an answer to the age-old questions “Do women prefer to buy books written by women? And do men prefer to buy books written by men?” We share their point of view, including some surprises about how this varies by genre.
Authors increasingly create content on an ongoing basis through social media, blogs, and video. But what makes a piece of content likely to be shared—and maybe even go viral? We look at some of the latest research in this fascinating area.
In an age where we are defined by social media, it’s constructive to make a good impression when engaging with others. Each platform comes with its own rules of etiquette, which leaves many people feeling like outsiders until they catch on. This can be true of Twitter, as new users decipher the use of RT or MT, and fret over whom to follow back. Play by the rules and use common sense, and you’ll have the best chance of being rewarded with responsive followers. Keep in mind: You are what you tweet.
What happens to a manuscript after it leaves an editor’s desk? This video explores the next critical steps in the pre-publishing process, from copy editing the text to designing and coding each interior page so the book renders beautifully in print and digital formats. Watch the video and go behind the scenes of preparing a manuscript for print and eBook production.
Finally seeing the cover for your book can be a thrilling moment. More and more authors are choosing to share that moment with fans with a dramatic “cover reveal.” As well as being fun, cover reveals can help build buzz and momentum in advance of a book’s publication. Plus they are easy to do—with a bit of planning and good communication with your publishing team.
Here is some advice on whether cover reveals are a good tactic for your book, and tips on execution. (more…)
What is Tumblr?
Tumblr is both a blogging platform and a social network. It’s a network of over 165 million blogs, and a great place to build a readership for your books or just share your daily thoughts. Your posts get distributed, liked, and reposted just like on Twitter—but instead of displaying 140 characters, you can display unlimited text, images, animated gifs, photo sets, audio files, videos, and more. You can follow whomever you like and get a beautiful dashboard that streams the content you’ve selected throughout the day. (more…)