Webtips for authors & self-publishers
Posted By Sue Collier on January 20, 2012
My team and I come across so many useful websites, I thought it would handy to put them together in a regular blog series. If you have or know of a website that would be of interest to my blog readers, please post it here.
Enjoy!
Digital media gaining on traditional email—but not always. comScore, which keeps tabs on digital media, released its The comScore 2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review earlier this year. As might be expected, younger users 12 to 17 years of age have lost interest in email to the tune of 59 percent. In fact, when all U.S. Internet users under 55 sit down in front of their home computers, they are spending less time on email. What are they doing? Nine out of ten are visiting a social networking site more than four hours every month. To be sure, 1 out of every 8 minutes online is spent on Facebook. You can download the report for free here. Meanwhile, marketing agency Merkle has published “View from the Digital Inbox 2011” (available for download here), which found that consumers spending 20 minutes or more per week with personal e-mail tipped from 71 percent in 2009 to 66 percent in 2010. Mobile technology is picking up the slack. Still, the survey revealed a cross-breeding effect. Almost 87 percent of Internet users checked their personal email daily in 2010, and social media users are more likely to check their email four or more times a day. While interchange with friends and relatives is decreasing, commercial messages are on the rise. Facebook users (73% ) have become fans of at least one company or brand, either through preference (34%) or exclusive offers (24%). Let the social networking begin.
Celebrate International Women’s Day in publishing, all year long. International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8th every year, but the awareness continues around the globe during all year long. To mark the 100th anniversary of IWD, GalleyCat culled tweets that rolled in after Jane Litte (cofounder of romance novel review site Dear Author) posted a list of her favorite women in publishing. From “Charlotte Abbott” to “Zoe Winters,” the roster is assembled as a Women in Publishing Twitter Directory for all to explore. Watch for 2012’s IWD events, which will be built around the theme, “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures.”
Self-Publishers Can Profit from Book Club Sales. Book clubs can be an important sales outlet for the self-publisher. Yes, with the exception of block-buster bestsellers, the truth is that the income from book club sales (though very welcome) may not be as great as one might wish. But the added visibility selection that a book club brings can be even more valuable than its immediate cash value. Since most successfully self-published books are niche market nonfiction, the specialized book clubs are your most likely outlets. Get more insights at Literary Savannah.
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