Dear ePublishers,
I have talked about eBook Content & Generating Sales before but when I read articles about Apple working with music publishers trying to make music downloads more appealing and unique I keep worrying if you got what I was talking about.
This is about packaging for multiple distribution channels not controlled by you (eBook stores like Amazon or B&N) and increasing sales by leveraging the basic format of your product. Let’s go over one of the these things I think some of you are doing right and maybe add one thing I think none of you are doing right. OK?
These are things you could fix or make better within a short period of time. They are highly doable and I think you could even measure their impact easily.
First and foremost in my mind is DRM.
Locking your files and wasting your pennies locking your files is bad, got it? Making sure your eBooks are available in every major file format for use in readers like Cool-er or Sony or Kindle is good and even better if they are sold in those product makers eBook stores. Diverse distribution channels can only help get your name and your authors out there to be sold to new eBook Readers. That’s good! Let’s move on then.
Second the cover of the eBook.
I think we all know that good cover art can easily effect sales but just having a good cover is not enough to me it’s how you present it.
Here’s an example of Samhain’s cover page…
It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s colorful and it says to me that this publisher is proud of this eBook. Even the margins, a judicious use of white space, seems to frame the cover properly.
Here is an example from Loose Id when I copy out the cover image with no manipulation…
This is it’s raw size copied right out of the eBook and it is a freaking huge ass image. I can now downsize this while keeping the image’s details and use it to review or promote this eBook on my blog or on any other website. ePublishers should always keep this in mind. Large cover images is a good thing. Promotion and word of mouth is a good thing. Customers like and buy “pretty”.
Here is an example from Liquid Silver Books…
Um yeah, why have a well known cover artist create a beautiful cover image for you and then turn it into a postage stamp in the eBook? What is this a text book? Figure 1-A represents what an eBook Cover might look like…
This is the actual cover image size from a Liquid Silver Books eBook. Dimensions: 240 x 360 The normal image size I find in eBooks for the cover image. Dimensions: 500 x 750
Sizing down any image is good since you keep the details but having to size up the cover image so it matches all the other cover images on your blog or review website makes the image muddy. Small cover images in the eBook is bad.
Now let me show you something none of the major ePublishers are doing that I think is just common sense sales wise. Take any well known series author in any of the genres like sci-fi or mystery or romance and next to the title page in any one of their books you will find this…
It’s a simple and formal series page. If I were to randomly pick this book up at Barnes & Noble or buy it on sale at Amazon.com and be sitting in my home looking at it for the first time I would know this was a book in a series and where it fit in that series and what other books I should buy if I wanted to read that series.
WHY DOES EVEN LORA LEIGH NOT GET THIS TREATMENT?
What is up with this guys? Don’t you want people to buy the back catalog of this series if they happen to pick up one of the newer eBooks by this author? Why must they research either on your website or the authors website or go anywhere else than the actual eBook itself for this information. I think you are losing potential sales this way and it’s just a formatting issue.
Anyway, those are just the basics and not that much different than my original post on eBook content.
I just wanted people to start thinking about all this with all the announcements of new eBook stores. I think you need to consider leveraging your eBooks and their very format as much as possible for selling your products especially if the eBook is purchased somewhere other than your own website.
Tags: ePublisher, Web Design
Angela James wrote,
I’m not sure I understand, so I’m hoping you’ll clarify. We have a page in the back of every book that lists all of the author’s works with Samhain . Both in the same series and outside the series. What are you looking for differently?
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 8:32 am
TeddyPig wrote,
I think Samhain is starting to address it with the listing in the back but just by most series I have read the series information is considered “front matter” and found in the title pages.
I do like the overall “also by this author” listing in the back which is a lot like DAW used and they even provided check boxes for printing out and taking with you to buy more books by the author.
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Angela James wrote,
Hm. I disagree that we’re “starting” to address it. We have addressed it. There’s a list of the author’s books within the book, including books by series. I can argue both sides of it appearing in the front versus the back in an ebook, but that’s because I think it comes down to the reader preference when it comes to ebooks. I personally think it’s fine appearing in the back in ebooks because ebooks are a different browsing/reading experience.
I do agree it should be in the front in print books, and that’s where you’ll find it in Samhain print books :P
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 8:53 am
TeddyPig wrote,
*cough* Well, I don’t see you putting the publish date or ISBN in the back so it seems to me you are following some formal standards.
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Angela James wrote,
I don’t really think that’s quite the same thing, do you? Copyright information isn’t even on the same planet as bonus material.
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 9:07 am
TeddyPig wrote,
Right, but much like most information found in any book it’s being placed where it is expected in the title pages as front matter.
I am just saying that what is considered bonus information to you might not be to a customer looking for that information where they have found it before.
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Angela James wrote,
I already agreed that I could argue either way for the list in the front versus the back. I understand that you like it in the front, but as an ebook reader, I like it in the back (and omg, I’m trying so hard not to let my inner-adolescent out to snicker at this conversation) so what I’m saying is that it’s personal preference for each reader, and sure, we could move it to the front to make you happy and say we’re doing it right, but then five readers might come along behind and say they wish we’d kept it in the back.
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 9:18 am
TeddyPig wrote,
Well, as I said this is a standard format I have always seen. The information regarding the series name and where the book fits in the series is found formally in the title pages.
I also agree with you “the bonus information” was “also by this author” found in the back. That was usually in a mass market paperback format.
You must admit most ePublishers have little to no information regarding this at all in their eBooks.
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Angela James wrote,
Yes, but without trying to sound snide, I’m only concerned with what one epublisher does. Until I’m appointed Queen of the Universe, then I’ll worry about the others and make everyone do it my way.
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Mistry wrote,
This is something I’d appreciate in ebooks (series listed in the front matter), because I do buy on impulse (despite the enormous TBR list … drat, just remembered, all those bookmarks are lost *sob*) and I won’t always be familiar enough with an author to know whether or not there is a another in the series. If I was to go and check the publisher/author site, a degree of momentum would be lost.
While the bio/other books/other titles by this publisher thing in the back is fine, it does not serve the same purpose (it sort of invites one to browse through the selection, as opposed to a quick check to make sure one understands the series/’verse before jumping in) – well for me.
Cheers!
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 10:45 am
MT wrote,
Hey, Teddy.
Dang, you should have told me about our freakin’ huge ass covers. LOL I’ve since revised our formatting. Contact me off-list, and I’ll have you test drive one of our latest copies, ‘k? See if it passes muster. ;)
Take care,
MT
Production Manager,
Loose Id
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
NOOOOOOO!
I like your huge cover images! Please, leave the good thing good!
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
MT wrote,
Will do, Teddy. Sorry ’bout that. I was trying to get our PDF formats to reflow so that the covers would appear on a Palm Pilot, such as my T/X. But reflowing a PDF is dicey at best, at least in my experience, so I think I’m going to throw in the towel on THAT little project, and format our PDF for computer reading.
Back to the drawing board.
MT
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
A nice crystal clear Apple Tablet screen will fix that PDF problem right on up for you.
When I read a review about a new eBook Reader the biggest part of it for me is how well it displays the typical standard PDF. All my web server security books are standard PDF, all my application manuals are standard PDF, all my router and hardware manuals are… you guessed it standard PDF and so all my eBooks I buy are standard PDF.
If the reader can’t handle PDF then most likely my company will not buy it for me either.
One thing I love most in the world are the words “business expense” that’s just a fact of life.
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Emilie wrote,
The last couple of very recently published books I got from Loose Id had tiny cover pictures. Those two were Off the Beaten Path and Heaven Sent 6. I especially expected HS 6 to have a big cover, with that great artwork.
Amber Quill Press seems to generally list the author’s previous books in the front. It’s not always terribly clear which series are connected, but you can see what other titles they’d written up to that point.
Samhain does list the author’s other works — in the back of the book, as mentioned. I don’t necessarily expect anything after “The End,” so I have to vote for having other books by the author listed in the front.
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
That’s exactly why I like going back to the use of the formal Series page right after the Title page Emilie.
The Series page makes it clear the eBook is part of a series and what that series is called and how it fits in.
That’s important information for me understand in reading the eBook.
Finding out ALL the other books the author wrote for the publisher in a page at the end of the eBook is fine and adds other important information for the publisher to sell more eBooks by that author but it is not necessary for me to know in order to enjoy the current eBook I am reading.
The Series page helps in understanding the eBook I just bought and making sure I know the other eBooks I should have read in the series.
The “also by this author” page at the end of the eBook is for me to find something else I might enjoy after I finish this series.
Link | July 29th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
medumb wrote,
I would argue that the series list should be at the end.. so if you have finished the book and enjoyed it, you can immediately see where you are at in the series, or if there are other books by the author.
Just to throw my two cents in.
Link | July 30th, 2009 at 4:21 am
MT wrote,
The newer format with the small cover is my fault, Emilie. I was trying to make the PDF file more compatible with Palm-type readers, and I’ve found it to be hit-or-miss. So my apologies. I will fix that for the ebooks we release next week.
As for series names, sometimes our books are released without a series associated with them at the beginning, but subsequent releases will have the series name, and there should be a series link on the product pages where you can check the books in a series.
I’m messing a bit with the formatting right now and will run the change by the Quad for approval before implementing it.
Link | July 30th, 2009 at 5:21 am
TeddyPig wrote,
medumb,
I am not really arguing where something could be placed as much as pointing out where a Series page is expected to be placed.
Here are two references I have that show what the standard accepted format is…
Reference 1…
The first four pages of the book (i–iv) are referred to as the front matter (the half-title page, the series page, the title page, and the copyright page)
Reference 2…
Front matter includes the following, in this order:
• half title page (consisting of the main title only)
• series page or blank (we will provide)
• title page
• dedication or epigraph
• table of contents (called simply “Contents”)
• copyright page (which we provide)
• foreword (written by someone other than the author of the book)
• series foreword (if applicable)
• preface
• acknowledgments (if these are not included in the preface)
• introduction (if not the first chapter of the book)
Publishers of course decide what they include and do not include of what is called front matter. The general layout is pretty much a known thing if they do decide to include this or that part.
Link | July 30th, 2009 at 5:25 am
TeddyPig wrote,
Is that because of the new Palm Pre MT?
Do they even have a reader created for that thing yet or did they cart over the old one?
Link | July 30th, 2009 at 5:40 am
MT wrote,
I haven’t seen the new one. I’ve got a Palm T/X that uses Adobe Reader for Palm and was using it as my, pardon me, guinea pig. Sometimes it looked great, but most of the time it didn’t really work. So either I’m doing something wrong, or the PDF reader program for Palm sucks eggs. I’d swear I’d had a different program on my T/X awhile back but made the mistake of “upgrading” my reader program. Noooo. Nonononono.
Link | July 30th, 2009 at 5:47 am
TeddyPig wrote,
MT I have a Palm TX too. You know how ancient that Adobe Reader is? It sucks.
Yeah I have a Palm TX but I stopped using it a long time ago. The synching and the really really small screen and the controls on it just got to me finally. I love my Apple iPhone much much better.
Link | July 30th, 2009 at 5:59 am
Emilie wrote,
To MT: If I get a book with a P.L. Nunn cover, I expect to be able to see that cover without squinting to try to make out the details. Is there a way you can send me a copy with a decent-sized cover picture, or at least send a copy of the cover at the size you were using previously?
Link | July 30th, 2009 at 7:44 am
MT wrote,
Emilie, please send your email addy to me off-list at creativity@loose-id.com, and I’ll see what I can do for you.
Link | July 30th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Emilie wrote,
MT, thanks for looking into this for me. I appreciate the response.
Link | August 6th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
MT wrote,
You’re welcome, Emilie. Come check out the new format we started using this past week. :)
And thanks, Teddy, for all your input.
Link | August 6th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Dear Dead Tree Publishers ~ Quit Sucking Like Sony! | The Naughty Bits wrote,
[...] have discussed particulars about formatting I enjoyed seeing in eBooks before and resurrecting things like series pages and other thing DAW used to put [...]
Link | April 15th, 2012 at 4:53 am