Penguin Group is launching a service to help writers digitally publish their own books. Its subsidiary, Book Country, will offer a range of tools from e-book conversion to cover creation – meant to market books through digital book outlets and print-on-demand operations, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Penguin is following the numbers with this move – the self-published titles have nearly tripled to 133,036 in 2010 from 51,237 in 2006, the Journal said, citing R.R. Bowker LLC.
New Ad Opportunities
Ads for e-books are likely to follow suit as the number of self-published titles continue to grow. E-reader ads received a big push earlier this year when Amazon.com unveiled a Kindle with software to show ads to readers. General Motors, Buick, Procter & Gamble’s Olay skin products and Visa were among the first advertisers.
The technology Amazon uses to display the ads is called AdMash. It allows readers to choose which ads are shown on the Kindle. These ads are unobtrusive, usually as screen savers or small banners under the text.
Other Formats
Other formats may gain traction as eBooks grow in popularity. They include:
Sponsorships. Some companies, according another Wall Street Journal article, are exploring sponsorships to give readers free digital books.
Rich Media Displays. Marketers are also looking at inserting video or graphic ads that appear at the beginning of an e-book or along the borders of a digital page, the Journal also said.
Movie Promotions. Fandango has tried out this model, offering movie-goers for the film Gulliver's Travelers a copy of classic in e-book form. When the e-book was downloaded from online bookseller Wowio's web site it was embedded with Fandango’s promotions.
Social Media Strategies for E-Books
E-books also easily fit within larger social media marketing strategies. "Before, you might see three people reading ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ on the subway," Clare Ferraro, president of Viking and Plume, imprints of Penguin Group USA, told the New York Times. "Now you're going to log onto Facebook and see that three of your friends are reading ‘Eat, Pray, Love.’ "
