2. Follow the eyeballs: 2013 will be the first year unit volume of ebooks exceeds print
…..7. Passive discoverability trumps other book marketing methods
…..marketing isn’t quite as important as most people think it is. Marketing is a catalyst, not a fuel. The book, and the customer’s reaction to that book, is the fuel. In the year ahead, authors and publishers will place increased attention on passive discoverability.
Passive discoverability is all about making books findable by readers. The secret is to apply viral catalysts, a term I introduced and describe in detail in The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success. A viral catalyst is something that makes a book more available, discoverable, accessible, and enjoyable to readers.
Think of your books as an object, and attached to the object are dozens of dials and levers (the viral catalysts) you can twist, turn and tweak to make your book more available, discoverable and enjoyable. When you get the combination just right, reader word of mouth kicks in and propels your book sales forward.
Think of these viral catalysts as beacons that are working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to broadcast your book’s virtues to readers looking for a book just like what you published. The beacons will shine on ebook retailer shelves, and readers will discover them through retailer-operated merchandising systems, search engines, reader reviews, and social media hyperlinks. By leveraging viral catalysts for passive discoverability, your book becomes findable forever.
…..13. Barnes & Noble will rise again like a Phoenix
