New Cambridge Venue for Bookbuilders Casual Networking

This past week's casual networking event was held at UpStairs on the Square in Cambridge.

We had a warm welcome and a good turnout. Excellent drink service. And what a cute logo!

There were about 25 people gathered, and -sniff- I think I was the oldest among them. For a fresh perspective, I'll quote from one of our new prospective members, who sent me this after the event:
 

I walked away from the event with a MUCH better sense of what the publishing world is looking for in terms of qualifications, skills, etc. and where I may fit in. I also picked up on some key terms and the language of the industry.

 

I made a couple of good contacts ... and look forward to connecting and continuing my exploration.

 

We also have an unrelated DEAL to share in this post. Last week I received an email advertisement of a course being held by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) in New York. The event caught my attention because of the title: Book Metadata & ONIX: Practical Guidance and Best Practice. Since working for a book wholesaler and attending subsquent conferences, I came to feel that the importance of metadata has been understated in the Boston publishing community. The topic may have a different impact on textbooks, which have their own means of discoverability, but on the whole, metadata is critical for sales.

 

I am pleased to say that BISG will extend its member discount to all Bookbuilders members for this course (members: $449; nonmembers: $799). Please request a coupon code from info@bisg.org for this offer, and be sure to mention your membership in Bookbuilders of Boston. The original March 4 date is sold out, but there are still seats available for March 5. The course takes place at Random House in New York. Check it out--your career will thank you.

Snow's Coming: DBW, Final Day

The second full day of programming at DBW further emphasized the importance of consumer data for publishers. In a morning presentation, BISG (Book Industry Study Group, Angela Bole) and Bowker (Kelly Gallagher) revealed some demographic features of the e-book consumer. Firstly, according to Bowker, "power buyers" are apparent and very important. Constituting about 20% of buyers overall, these avid readers are most often women, aged 30-44, and they purchase e-books weekly. They are urban or suburban, and their overall profile is similar to that of the print buyer (i.e., not a new category of book consumers). They purchase books on impulse, as one often does in a bookstore.

An enthusiastic presentation on consumer sales data followed, kicked off by Bob Kohn of Royalty Share, Inc. (RoyaltyShare's Digital Advantage product was adopted by Faber and Faber to consolidate e-book sales reporting from over thirty resellers, as announced Tuesday). Kohn encouraged publishers to seek and acquire consumer demographic information from retail partners, including zip code and customer ID. The ID would allow publishers to deploy promotions to specific customers based on their past purchases without the need for their names and email addresses. 

Michael Tamblyn from Kobo, speaking on the same panel, described his company's passion for data and the need to act quickly on weekly, daily, or even hourly trends. Kobo portrays an openness to sharing data with publishers, undoubtedly a point in their favor when publishers consider resource allocation. Tamblyn described a "steady heartbeat" of core sales data received by publisher partners, as well as Kobo's willingness to research trends for publishers, "across weeks and days, frontlist versus backlist."

Even a breakout session on metadata, one of the more practical, less "social" aspects of publishing, referenced the importance of user (reader) experience. Comparing the unrestrained inclusivity of enhanced metadata to the Wild West, presenters agreed that reader comments on Facebook et al. should be reviewed and perhaps harnessed by publishers as part of the overall "consumer facing" data package for books. The appearance of linked publisher content on these sites is also a metadata concern: the tagging of appropriate images, blurbs, reviews, etc. is critical to increasing discoverability.