Wellington
How can the book publishing world engage in a digital world?
Amazon’s claimed much of the high ground in the ebook format, and others are scrambling withtheir own offers.
At the same time, your traditional publishers aren’t going to shuffle wordlessly into thenight, and they’re looking for ways to remain relevant and profitable in both a hardcopy anddigital format.
Wellington’s Lisa Buchan been involved in publishing through a rights trading platform,
Well, that’s been a middling success, so…time for a pivot. (Buchan was an early contender forthe initial 12 week Lightning Lab startup incubator atthe beginning of this year, but couldn’t make work from a financial or time point of view).
The result, the change in direction, is
One of the first onboard publishers is HarperCollinsNZ , who just before Buchan knocked on their door with the SmackFiction app idea had beendiscussing how they could reach young adults.
Early supporters also include the NZ Book Council and Hutt CityLibraries .
All see the mobile app as a way to encourage a younger generation away from games and ontoreading.
The app features sample chapters for readers to browse, particularly those commuting or waitingfor class, as well as entertaining articles about authors and their creations. People can see whattheir friends have been reading, and status points are awarded to readers who explore new books andshare comments about their friends.
Individual details are kept under wraps, but libraries and publishers will be able to getaggregated reporting on their reader activity.
For Buchan, an ex-IBM executive, the self-funded journey to deliver a means for authors,publishers and readers to engage in a virtual world has been a real learning and adapting one.
Good Reads is possibly the best forum for discussions around books – though Amazon bought itrecently!
“There’s no discovery mechanism to find a good book to read,” Buchan says.
Which is where this app, with its reliance on friend recommendation (which is shown to be easilythe most powerful form of advertising) is attracting its sponsors’ interest.
Young people have little engagement with the web as digital immigrants know it; they live ontheir mobiles says Buchan – the time they spend on laptops is mainly devoted to video andgames.
At the same time young people (with a slight caveat, Buchan’s focus groups have been youngwomen based) have a huge attachment and love for a physical book (reinforced by this
Lovers of reading, want to share their interests, know what others are also reading – andhaving a latest feed update on a mobile is one way to tap into this love.
This comes down to a potential for engagement. Publishers will be able to (at an aggregate level)collect data, and direct their actions at something most likely to result in sales.
Buchan’s the first to admit she, and SmackFiction, are on a journey of discovery with theapp.
Along with recently repatriated developer Adrian Parker, she’ll be seeing what works, whatneeds to be tweaked, and how to leverage public participation in the digital world with the(necessarily) private sphere of reading.
“As I appreciate more than most, it’s a punt; which as far as I know, no one else has managedto crack,” she says.
If she gets it right, publishers, libraries and authors will beat a path to her door. If not, itwon’t be for want of trying.