Posts tagged ‘digital publishing’
E-Book Readers Are For Influencers
Recently, I was struck by a statistic that was highlighted in a July New York Times article. The article pointed out the fact that Amazon.com, one of the nation’s largest booksellers, is now selling more e-books than hard covers for the first time in history as of the second quarter of 2010. In fact, it was selling almost 1 1/2 times the number of e-books to hard covers. This trend doesn’t show any sign of slowing down either. In the 4 weeks prior to the article, that ratio was approaching 2 e-books to every hard cover.
Many credit the proliferation of e-book readers such as Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Sony’s Reader, or Apple’s iPad for driving the consumption of e-books. Though Sony’s Reader has been out for several years, it was the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle in time for the Christmas shopping season in 2007 that launched this rapidly growing trend. The combination of hardware, content, and wireless access was the missing spark that lit the e-book powder keg. It is no coincidence that what started it all was a product called the “Kindle”.
As the proud owner of a Nook, I am amazed at how easy it is to buy, read, and share e-books. I have always been an avid reader (in my adult life anyway), however, I read significantly more with the device than I did before. There are always free e-books that are on promotion and many authors are even giving away the first book in a series in order to get you hooked (I can attest to the fact that it works). I have an e-wishlist with 30 books on it and add one every time I hear about a new book that interest me. Sometimes when I am just sitting around (which isn’t often) or waiting for a plane and get the hankering to read, I just surf the Barnes & Noble eStore to see what’s available.
However, there is an even bigger reason for the growth in e-book sales. In fact, it reminds me of a client I had in another industry. Roaring Springs Water Park is the largest water park in the Northwest. Their season pass program gave the deepest discount to its customers and they considered getting rid of the program. What we did was help them understand that those people who buy season passes were the influencers. They were people who were so passionate about Roaring Springs, they knew they would come to the park enough to warrant a season pass.
Instead of doing away with the season pass program, we helped them add significantly more value through added perks and offerings. One of those was Buddy Tuesdays, where season pass holders could bring a friend for $10. They also stayed open an extra hour on Mondays, just for season pass holders as well as offered a 4th of July BBQ for $1 – again, just for those who were members of “the club”. The result – increased season pass sales and a 30% jump in profit the first year from people who would not only come to the park, but stay longer and spend more money.
How does this relate to e-books? Those who purchase e-book readers are like season pass holders at Roaring Springs. These are the influencers and evangelists. These are those who read so often that they know an e-book reader will be worth the investment. As such, they are shifting their reading habits from regular books to e-books and the book sellers as seeing the shift.
How are Amazon and Barnes & Noble appealing to this crowd? By offering a package of value that goes beyond just buying books cheaper. Those who own e-book readers are part of a club. They get special deals, can lend books to friends, and (in the case of Barnes & Noble) even have dedicated content when you bring your Nook into a store.
What does this mean for the future of the industry? Books will never go away, however, as your influencers and evangelists shift their reading habits you will continue to see a shift in the balance of power. Before, the publishing and distribution process was controlled by a select few. Now e-book readers are making it much more simple to publish and distribute your intellectual property. Barnes & Noble even has a new program called Pubit! that allows to publish your e-book directly to their library. Amazon has its Digital Text Platform which accomplishes the same thing. ePublishing sites like YUDU and Scribd make self-publishing simple and social. The iPad even allows you to have all these ePublishing libraries on one device.
When your influencers are on the move, so goes your industry. The publishing industry is seeing a seismic shift similar to digital music, television programming, and movies on demand. Some might say these earlier movements paved the way. However, one thing is for sure – the book industry is changing forever. Who will lead and who will follow? Who will be caught saying, “it’s just a passing fad”? How will the democratization of publishing affect the quality of the content? All these questions and more have yet to be answered.
Where do you think the growing demand for e-books will take the industry?
The Evolution of the Revolution
This is a concept I often discuss in my presentations, but I thought I would outline it here since I believe that a) it is extremely relevant and b) we may be on the cusp of another revolution.
Revolutions have littered human history as the tired, the worn, and the downtrodden have risen up and taken back control of their lives. The American Revolution, the French Revolution, and even the Russian Revolution are prime examples of the disadvantaged masses exercising their right to self-governance. As Wikipedia defines it, “A revolution… is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.”
There have also been several non-violent revolutions that occured that have fundamentally changed the way marketing works today. These typically occur because of some technological advancement that gives the masses broader access.
The first of these is the Learning Revolution. The technological advancement:
The Gutenberg Printing Press
Before the printing press, the collective knowledge of humanity was held by a select few. Books were created through a laborious handwritten or block printing process, therefore, there were only a few of them existed and they were well guarded. It is no coincidence that the Renaissance coincided with the invention of the Printing Press. This allowed books and knowledge to be mass produced and mass consumed, creating a revolution in the education of the masses.
The second revolution was the Information Revolution. The technological advancement:
The Television
Although the radio was the first mass communication device, the television ushered in an entirely new level of information. It’s as the old saying goes “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Now scenes from all over the world could be broadcast instantaneously into millions of homes. Ordinary citizens had access to images that, before, were seen by only the select few. Television also provided an incredible opportunity to reach mass audiences with marketing messages.
The third revolution was the Consumer Revolution. The technological advancement:
The Internet
With the advent of the Internet, consumers had unprecedented access to information. As Richard Saul Wurman said in his book, Information Anxiety, ““A weekday edition of the New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in seventeenth-century England.” In addition, a 1987 report estimated that “more new information has been produced within the last 30 years than in the last 5000.” Think about how much information has been produced since 1987 when that report was written and 1989 when Information Anxiety was published.
At the same time, the information overload has caused a consumer backlash. 3 of the top selling technologies of the last 5 years are the iPod, Tivo (or DVR), and Satellite Radio – all advertising avoidance technologies. Consumers now have it within their power to control when they recieve information, how much of it to receive, and when they will receive it. Consumers have taken back control of their lives and the Internet has proven to be one of the primary weapons in the fight.
I can walk into a car dealership with the exact price the dealer paid for the car – including rebates. I can compare your prices in an instant with hundreds of other retailers, both online and off. I can read hundreds of reviews of your product or service that will inform me of almost any issue that I might have during its use. I can research any media story to see if you are telling the entire truth or omitting key facts so that the story reads according to your own political leanings.We are connected globally in ways that were never thought possible (see my post about Web 2.0 bringing the world together)
This has forced marketers to fundamentally change how they connect and engage with consumers. They can no longer talk at them, but with them.
Finally, the current revolution is what I am calling the “Publishing Revolution”. My friends Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell wrote what I believe is the seminal book on the trend called Citizen Marketers. It started with blogging but quickly spread to photos, video, audio, and social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Even social tagging and voting networks like Digg and Delicious allow consumers to comment on what others publish. What is fascinating is that this revolution brings us full circle back to the days of the Printing Press, except now the consumers are the publishers.
Recently, I came across a company that now combines all of these technologies into a single digital publishing platform. YUDU Media is a UK based company that offers a bureau service converting existing printed publications into digital publications for major media publishers such as Metro in the UK. They launched a product called YUDU Freedom in about April of this year that offered the ability for anyone to upload PDF files in order to self publish a digital publication. This week, they just launched their public beta of their YUDU Plus product which now combines digital publishing with social networking, tagging, reviews, comments, and multimedia.
The Testicle Cookbook on YUDU - You heard right...
I was invited to review the new site and, to say the least, I was extremely impressed. In my opinion, this could be THE tool of the publishing revolution. I can upload PDFs, Word documents, and PowerPoint presentations and then add video and audio to the publication. I can tag and pull in web pages into my library and make my publications public or private. I can even search the library to see other’s publications and YUDU even has a mechanism for selling my content should I so choose. Wouldn’t it be fascinating if this were the next evolution of the blog?
To see how YUDU works, click on my presentation on the Consumer Revolution below:
How do you see the Publishing Revolution evolving?
*Disclaimer: I actually liked the YUDU product so much, I picked them up as a client.
