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BB eBooks Newsletter – August 16, 2013

Dear Friend,

First and foremost, we are delighted to inform you of our official launch of Substance B, an innovative platform to better connect our client with readers and vice versa. For the past several months, tons of programming and testing have been gone into the new website to make sure that our valued clients of BB eBooks will receive the highest benefit from our latest marketing service. Nonetheless, there are also several stories about the publishing industry to discuss.


Grand Opening of Substance B

Substance B

It has been almost a year that we have been working on a platform that will benefit our clients. This very creation is meant to facilitate our clients to market their books with less hassles and, most importantly, better connect with their readers. Based on our experience in the eBook business, we learned that marketing has become the biggest challenge for every author, especially in this social media era where we can hardly unplug. Instead of creating a platform with extensive bells and whistles, we keep our interface simple and readable. In the landing page, authors will always remain the center of attention leading to their corresponding individual pages. To make Substance B easy to navigate, we list the headers in a logical order focusing on Authors and Books as the first two featured topics. Genres list all the books in systematic categories for readers to discover new books apart from authors and books. The Substance B Reader is another great section, with the courtesy of BB eBooks authors, providing free samples of the published works. Like a virtual library, readers only have to click and read their favorite titles instantly. So far, we have 31 authors and 85 books listed on Substance B.

For our valued clients of BB eBooks, we have provided necessary tools for you to better connect with your potential readers. Once the readers sign up for your newsletter, you can contact them directly and keep them updated about your future announcement, public appearance, book signing etc. Additionally, you can personalize an eBook for your fans and have it sent straight to their inbox for a nominal fee. Please refer to our FAQ for authors for more information. Contact us now to add your books to the ever-increasing catalog and keep checking back at the Substance B website to witness the organic growth of reading and writing. Last but not least, we are grateful for your support and will continue to work hard to develop this platform for your book’s maximum visibility and reader’s discoverability.


Out of the Box Intuition

Jack in the Box

In a transitional period like this, the negative impact falls hard on the brick and mortar bookstores unavoidably. To compete with online vendors that have a virtual warehouse and massive distribution centers, the future is looking dim. Andrew Rhomberg of Digital Book World even questions the profitability in keeping a physical bookstore operated. Perhaps, the physical shops should be changed to a mini-mall to bring uniqueness to their customers. An article from Harvard Business Review suggests that Barnes & Noble bookstores may want to consider the above mentioned option in order to survive in this highly competitive market. One lesson publishers and authors can learn from J. K. Rowling’s Robert Galbraith case study is that a new author has to fight harder to be recognized by readers. Onto something beneficial for indie authors, The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) proposes the Open Up to Indie Authors campaign, spearheaded by Dan Halloway, for everyone in the book industry to work harmoniously.


Smashwords’ Preorder

Bar Code

Following the lead of Amazon that has secretly offered readers to preorder their favorite title in advance of the actual publication date, Smashwords announced its own preorder program. Basically, authors can refer to the preorder page as the reference to promote their books better, existing and new ones. Although the latest offer might not be totally revolutionary, more than 70,000 Smashwords authors are more likely to benefit from greater discoverability rate from readers who will be the key factor in raising the book’s rank according to the increased popularity. The more popular the book becomes, the higher chance it will climb the bestseller charts, not only on Smashwords, but also elsewhere in the long run. There are a few concerns whether the preorder will actually be useful for everyone when certain stores’ approval criteria can last up to 8 weeks. Mark Coker did point out that Smashwords will plan to add more vendors.


Publishing an eBook to Market Your SME

Slide

In Thailand Paul Salvette, our Managing Director, was invited to speak to the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand Small-Medium Enterprise (SME) Committee. The presentation explains why small business owners should focus more on writing books to help market their business. There was a brief introduction to the history of publishing and extended discussion about independent publishing. Since our audience was entrepreneurs and private company employees primarily, Paul exclusively highlighted how business sectors can take the full benefit of eBook to convert their corporate documents into eBook formats for a much more flexible document management in-house. In fact, if business owners have great ideas to pitch sales through writing, eBooks are one of the best solution to promote your brand and sell your ideas to the mass. At the end of the presentation, several entrepreneurs asked about the opportunity to have their documents converted into eBook format. If you are in the business sector and wonder whether what we can do to produce your content in eBook format, please contact us directly so we can send you a sample of our non-fiction eBook conversions for your consideration.


The Washington Post’s Future New Owner

Newspaper

When “The Ablest CEO in America” moves, the earth shall tremble. Only a couple of weeks ago, Jeff Bezos made a huge impact on the front page of several newspapers. His agreement to buy The Washington Post was greatly supported by the insiders, including the family that has owned the newspaper for many generations. Donald Graham’s close friendship with Bezos obviously played a pivotal role that led to the decision. Alan D. Mutter, a newspaper consultant, was quoted by The New York Times to praise the idea of having someone “with a native digital background” to lead the traditional business as opposed to approaching “an old-time businessman” to treat the declining business ‘like 1953 Plymouths in Cuba’.

Yours sincerely,

The BB eBooks Team


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