FINDING A VOICE: DISCOVERABILITY SELF-PUBLISHING AND THE SOCIAL WEB

Publication process Origins

Hand replication Limited automated production and

development of printing presses

Industrialisation creates mass manufacturing and global publication opportunities

Gatekeepers and network control

The open web, digital and technological innovation increasingly places publishing power in the hands of the individual

Premise: Digital opportunities creating a different landscape in which authors function

Discoverability

Today, we’ll have a ponder about:

Blogging

SEO and writing for the web

Social Media and reach

Self-Publishing

Discoverability: Blogging

Ideas outlined and community engaged

Readers attracted (almost mirroring journal format)

Revisions made and concepts refined

Online engagement with other bloggers

Web-based visibility

Discoverability: SEO

Ensures content is findable

Search engines detect web pages and list them

Text, video, audio and images are ‘optimised’ to make them more searchable and therefore findable

Constructing websites and content with search engines in mind

Dual role of developer and content generators

Top SEO tips for writers Understand your audience – write for humans,

not bots and crawlers. Adopt the correct tone and linguistic

approach Ensure the content is highly relevant

Integrate keywords using a standard keyword tool. But remember, don’t overdo it. Search engines are always on the lookout for spam.

Don’t use puns in headlines – they need to be easily read by Google

Build a strong architecture - this includes tags and categories

Update regularly and seek to spread the word using social media. Through providing new pages that are ‘on brief’, which are then linked to by people who pick up your content, search engines will add additional value to your website

Archive that is searchable – don’t bury away your content , or even remove it from your site [you should also take this knowledge and run with it when being employed by larger publishers. If they’ve hidden their content – let them know they’re losing a valuable resource].

Link Economy

Readers seen as valuable commodity that travel around the web

Blogging communities of interest are formed

Social bookmarking sites drive traffic to writers

Provides transparency and resource for readers and writers

Discoverability: Social Media

Provides reach

Expands audience (potentially)

Prompts conversation and engagement

Analytic information increasingly available Kred Klout

Furthers individual’s online profile and presence

DIGITAL FRAGMENTATION: Jeff Jarvis, Evgeny Morozov and the Public Parts

digital debate

Public Parts Conceptualisation Idea refinement and debate Multiplatform publication

Reviews and counter response Here Here And Here

Digital displacement: Where can you find Private Parts?

“Product into process”

Nieman lab: In a networked world, can a book go viral

?

“Most idea-driven books tread a well-worn path: Book pitched, book bought, book written, book published, book shelved, book reviewed, book ranked, book removed from shelves.” 

"Our assumptions about information itself are shifting, reshaping “the news” from a commodity to a community, from a product to a process. The same changes that have disrupted the news industry will, inevitably, disrupt the book industry; Public Parts hints at what might come of the disruption. Books as community. Books as conversation. Books as ideas that evolve over time — ideas that shift and shape and inspire — and that, as such, have the potential of viral impact."

Alternative value streamS

Crowd funding

Donations

Advertising

Referred eyeballs

Enhanced reach and market penetration

Discoverability: Self-publishing

Self-publishing: the US example

In 2011: Self-published books increased

by 287% since 2006 (Bowker)

Total self-published e-titles hits 235,000

Self published books represent 43% of US market

Print accounts for 63% of self-published titles

Publisher 2011 ISBN count BiblioBazaar

773,857 General Books LLC

249,871 VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller e.K.

68,509 CreateSpace

57,512 International Business Publications, USA

14,294 Kessinger Publishing, LLC 13,395 AuthorHouse

10,644 Literary Licensing, LLC

9,721 Xlibris Corporation

8,152

“Transformation of our industry has brought on a time of rich innovation in the publishing models we now have today. What was once relegated to the outskirts of our industry—and even took on demeaning names like ‘vanity press’ is now not only a viable alternative but what is driving the title growth of our industry today,” said Kelly Gallagher, Vice-President, Bowker Market Research.

“From that standpoint, self-publishing is a true legitimate power to be reckoned with. Coupled with the explosive growth of e-books and digital content – these two forces are moving the industry in dramatic ways.”

A selection of self-publishing success stories

John Locke – million e-books plus Stephen Leather – 2000 ebooks a day

Industry response: Faber Academy to run Bring Your Book to Market

“There is a huge amount of interest in self-publishing at the moment, and we would want to make the most of that, and help them realise their ambition if that is their path . . . I think as a publisher, if we are worried about self-publishing, the solution is to publish people.”

Jason Cooper, Faber Academy directorThere's never been a better time for an author to publish a book. There are so

many options available today, starting at publishing for free, using assisted self-publishing, and even getting picked up by traditional publishers, although that market is shrinking. Where Author Solutions fits in the continuum is we are an assisted self-publishing company.

Kevin Weiss, CEO of Author Solutions

Author tools

There’s an increasing number of self-publishing services that authors can elect to use. These include, but are not limited to Lulu Author Solutions (iUniverse,

Authorhouse, Wordclay) Createspace Kindle Books iBookstore Blurb

The above offer a relatively diverse set of revenue streams and author royalty packages

“Author-publishers”

I, author

Digital publishing within a multilayered platform

Key Factors:

Conversation

Thought propagation

Collaborative writing/editing

Diversifying funding streams?

Publication options

Peer-to-peer marketing and the link economy

Sales

Peer-to-peer review and recommendations

More sales

Digital ecosystem

Flickr

 re:publica 2011 Evgeny Morozov

re:publica 2011 Jeff Jarvis

 lisby1 Rochester  johnharveytolson Platform 3

Darwin Bell Book drop 

Fazen Hiding Cat

Fabi Fliervoet American flags

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center Earth

Social Media webtreats

Danard Vincent Websites JD Hancock Stormtroopers

ed_needs_a_bicycle Writing

Timothy Greig Cat and computer

Resources

Background: Http://reviews.cnet.com/self-publishing/

European expansion: http://www.bubok.co.uk/blog/bubok-opens-its-online-self-publishing-platform-in-uk-sweden-and-norway

A news story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/24/self-publishing

When a book is a book is a book: Private parts: http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/10/public-parts-and-its-public-parts-in-a-networked-world-can-a-book-go-viral/

Self publishing review: http://www.thebookseller.com/feature/depth-self-publishing.html

Bowker's facts and figures:

Author Solutions: http://www.authorsolutions.com/Home.aspx John Locke

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8589963/Self-publishing-writer-becomes-million-seller.html