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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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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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. (more…)

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 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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With over 100 million registered users, this social network’s star is clearly rising. Instagram can help boost your visibility by allowing fans to go behind the scenes of an author’s life. (more…)

With the rise of new social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, and the continued popularity of blogging sites like Tumblr, having great images to share has become increasingly important. Here’s our best selection of simple tips for finding, cropping, resizing, and enabling your photographs to look their best.

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If you missed some of our great author webinars, do not fear! They are all recorded and available on the Portal. And, just to whet your appetite, here’s some of the advice we heard from experts from Twitter, Goodreads, Tumblr, and the Random House marketing team. (more…)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is that bit of magic that makes web content discoverable, increasing traffic to your website for free. Truly, though, there’s nothing terribly magical about it. In layman’s terms, SEO is about selecting words that people might use when they’re searching for something in particular online. As content creators in the digital space, we can make smart choices about the copy in our headlines and posts, incorporating keywords and terms that are seen as desirable to search engines.

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One of the core decisions when using Facebook is whether to have a Profile or a Page (or both). Although they function slightly differently, either can work well for an author.

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