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 »

When we look at the book supply chain in its most simplistic form we find; authors, who create the work; Publishers, who acquire the rights, develop, hone, produce and take the work to market; Retailers, who promote and sell it and finally, the consumers who buy and read it. The Physical book supply chain was always made complex by the sheer numbers of unique titles, from thousands of publishers, which were sold through thousands of retailers. Read more »

Book reviewer Amanda Rutter has kindly provided our first website review: When I read Sam’s article concerning the general weakness of publisher websites, I broadly agreed with the points that she made. Read more »

Making Facebook pay

Some thoughts on social media monetisation for publishers

We have been saying for some time now that social commerce, the use of online social media in the buying and selling of products and services, is going to be the next big thing for publishers and that Facebook and other social network sites will become the megamalls of the future. But just how realistic is it to make money through social networks and how can publishers get involved in this phenomenon?

Facebook and monetisation Read more »

We've just had month four since our 'online expansion', and overseas paperback sales were over 200% up on last year. Now that we are confident the growth is sustained, on Thursday at 3pm (UK Time) we will be hosting a free webinar to share how we are doing it.

We will be sharing the key actions we have been taking since the 1st December when we started our online expansion overseas. We'll be covering:

- The websites

- Social Media (Facebook, Blogs, Twitter)

- Resellers and New Authors

- Print on Demand

- eBooks Read more »

If last week was anything to go by then during the time it takes you to read this article, UK consumers will have spent over a £1m online. It's "Cyber Monday / Mega Monday" or what the retail industry predicts is the going to be the biggest online sales day in UK history. Publishers should all be very excited by the UK consumer’s appetite for online shopping as books were one of the first to go online and they continue to feature in the top 3 most purchased products. Read more »