May 28, 2009

Predatoress Bites BEA (Book Expo America)

Translation: This morning we delivered the Predatoress and Blood™ dessert wine gift pack for display at the New Title Showcase section of Book Expo America. A terrible drive to the J. Javits Center in NYC, but worth every mile!
















And yes, this is our own June Marshall, marketing maven, author, artist, etc. etc....

Yes, yes, I know, in our Author section we still show the old title The Hungarian Bride - Dracula Defeated. Not for long, as Predatoress will be released the 4th of July, just a few days later than the promised Q2 publish date. Thank you, Emma!

As of now, our marketing campaign is in full swing: in addition to exhibiting at the BEA, we already started a Print Campaign and are ready to roll with:

* Our Virtual Author Tour
* Blog Tour
* Fascinating Author Interview and Podcast
* Social Networking Tour
* Microblogging Campaign

This is a LOT, but we and our marketing partners from Author Marketing Experts are up to the task!

May 5, 2009

Will New Digital Readers Save the Newspapers?

According to the New York Times (which should know, as it has been steadily losing readers and advertisers like the rest of the trade), several newspapers plan to introduce digital newspaper readers by the end of the year.

The devices will have screens roughly the size of a standard sheet of paper to present much of the editorial and advertising content of traditional periodicals in generally the same format as they appear in print. Publishers hope the new readers may be a way to get consumers to pay for those periodicals — something they have been reluctant to do on the Web. This could save millions on the cost of printing and distributing, just when business is under historic levels of pressure.

"We are looking at this with a great deal of interest," says John Ridding, CEO of the 121-year-old British newspaper The Financial Times. "The severe double whammy of the recession and the structural shift to the Internet has created an urgency that has rightly focused attention on these devices."

The new tablets do have some serious shortcomings: the screens, which are currently in the Kindle and Sony Reader, display no color or video and update images at a slower rate than traditional computer screens. Then there is the contrary opinion that says digital readers are too little, too late. "If these devices had been ready for the
general consumer market five years ago, we probably could have taken advantage of them quickly," says Roger Fidler, program director for digital publishing at the University of Missouri, Columbia. "Now the earliest we might see large-scale consumer adoption is next year, and unlike the iPod it's going to be a slower process migrating people from print to the device."

I agree. Once the early adopter market is saturated, it will take a long while, especially in this economy, to switch "mass market" readers to e-papers. Unless they are given away free, and/or as part of a subscription plan. Similar to mobile phone plans, maybe?