Following on from my previous blog - 25 ways to increase your online book sales - is this short test, which I've interpreted and modified from Google's Zero Moment of Truth report. The idea is to quickly test how well any book, and indicatively your publishing programme, is working to maximise sales via online retail. I'll also give you a few ideas on how to interpret the results. Read more »

After almost 3 years back in publishing - returning from ecommerce (Borders.co.uk) - I’ve discovered that there are masses of opportunities for publishers to improve the way they sell online. This list represents some of the best and most easily achievable ideas. Some require no investment, some require cultural and personnel change but the common themes are entrepreneurism, tactics and optimisation - 3 vital characteristics needed to be successful at ecommerce, whether as a retailer or vendor. Read more »

In Penny Marshall's 1988 film, Big, the twelve-year-old protagonist, Josh Baskin, is turned away from a carnival ride for being too short. Later, standing in front of a fortune teller machine, Josh makes a wish to be big. This being Hollywood, he awakes the next day in the body of a thirty-year-old man (Tom Hanks).
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There’s been a great deal of discussion recently about how well – or otherwise – the publishing trade is adapting to its digital future, embracing change, disrupting its own business models before others come along and do it to us, and so on. It’s a fascinating debate, but it’s notable that companies and the publishing industry are generally talked about as if they’re faceless monoliths. They’re not. They are collections of people, and the skills and experience of these people don’t seem to come in for as much scrutiny as perhaps they should. Read more »