Will Social Reading Sell Books?

Kendra Bonnett–Getting Read #27

If you haven’t been over to Women’s Memoirs since the beginning of the new year, you might not know that we’ve been running an 11 in 11 series of posts. Starting on January 1st, each day we’ve been posting a list of 11 tips designed to inspire, motivate and prompt writers to move forward with their writing in 2011. Here’s the full list:

11 Memoir Predictions

Journal Writing–11 Tips to Stay Motivated

11 Memoir Writing Tips to Remember

11 Memoir Writing Prompts

11 Memoirs to Read in 2011

11 Tips for Saving Your Story in 2011

11 Memoir Contests for 2011

11 Tips from Editors to Consider in 2011

11 Ways to Use Writing for Healing

And that brings you up to today’s post: 11 Tips and Insights for Marketing, Publishing (and Selling) Your Memoir in 2011. This is my post, and originally I was supposed to post last Friday. But the more I got into my subject, the deeper in websites, flux and new models I found myself. I had to beg Matilda for more time as I dug deeper, trotted out my iPad to test sites, and began downloading a wide range of ebooks and generally try to make sense of what is shaping up to become a publishing sea change.

Without a doubt, our industry is changing. How it falls out is really anyone’s guess today. Oh make no mistake about it, ebooks are here to stay. What’s in question is just about everything else: What will be the most popular format? How much will readers pay for ebooks? Can traditional publishers make money selling ebooks? Does this make publishers out of every author? How long will the traditional book survive? Can publishers make friends on Facebook and gain followers on Twitter?

And the biggest question of all…Do we want to become Social Readers?

I don’t know the answer. Nor do I think anyone else knows today. But we have to consider that the Internet and social media generally have spawned a cultural conversation. We’re sharing our thoughts, emotions, opinions, photos and activities on Facebook and Twitter. We’re making recommendations and posting product and book reviews. We’re using mobile computing to encourage our friends to join us at stores and restaurants around our cities and towns. But are these the basic building blocks for a new way to sell books? Amazon certainly is the pioneer. They’ve built their book sales around reader reviews and recommendations.

When you consider that more than 500 million people are on Facebook, some 145 million have Twitter accounts (although I’ve heard that as few as 30,000 are active Tweeters) and YouTube receives more than 2 billion views a day, social media is a force to reckon with. Social networking has caught the attention of even the largest of traditional publishers.

Publishers are looking for ways to use social media to sell books through something they are calling social reading. And I find this fascinating. Reading is one of the most single, solitary and personal activities we do. Can publishers turn it into a group activity where we discuss the books we’re reading, share our reviews, discuss concepts? In short, can publishers turn the Internet into one giant book club?

I’ve spent time looking at some of the current generation of sites, and I encourage you to do the same. There’s a revolution taking place, and as writers we need to consider how we can put this change to work for us as we try to promote our books. I’m in the process of writing a lot more about this in the weeks to come, including the fact that I’m developing an ebook on the subject that we’ll be making available in the next few weeks.

I invite you to read my 11 Tips and Insights for Marketing, Publishing (and Selling) Your Memoir in 2011 and then visit some of the top social reading sites:

Blio

Scribd

Podiobooks

Goodreads

Bookwormr

Copia

RethinkBooks

I went into my analysis being very pessimistic about the future of publishing and opportunities for new authors. I am coming away from my research with a different (and more encouraged) view. As writers we need to compete harder than ever, but there are being developed and many new tools that will make it easier than ever for us to produce our books. Our new challenge will be to understand the tools available to us online and how we can make them work for us. Stay tuned.