Category: Kelly Speaks

Kelly Speaks

Top 4 iPad Apps for Readers

The iPad is perfect for people who love to read! Whether you prefer books, magazines, or newspapers, there is an app for everybody. Here are five of my favorites.

Zinio

This app is perfect for readers who love magazines. The best part: Zinio subscriptions are often under $10 for an entire year.

Kindle

Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader for iPad has the largest library of titles. No matter what title you are looking for, you can probably find it using the Kindle app. If you buy a book, you’ll be able to read it on your iPhone, iPad, Kindle device, and other smartphones. Plus, WhisperSync lets you pick up right where you left off on another device.

Press Reader

If you are an avid newspaper reader, this app is for you! There are 1700 international papers in its library, so there is a newspaper for every interest.

Flipboard

Flipboard is a web reader that combines all the things that interest you. In one place, you can view social media articles and photos as well as relevant headlines and web content. A recent update has even added Google Reader support for RSS. This app is customizable and allows you to share your comments.

What are your favorite reading apps?

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Vice President of Outskirts Press.  In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Kelly Speaks

Houghton Mifflin Declares Bankruptcy

It is becoming more and more clear that the publishing industry is seeing a major shift from traditional publishing to POD publishing. Traditional book publishers are also facing pressure from the online availability of published material, including e-books. Houghton Mifflin declaring bankruptcy is one event that is illustrating this shift.

Houghton Mifflin is a textbook publisher who has been struggling for various reasons. This isn’t a tiny company who is suffering. With a history dating back to 1832, Houghton Mifflin’s products serve 60 million students in 120 countries. They also publish legendary classics such Curious George and Lord of the Rings.

Houghton Mifflin recently declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy to eliminate $3.1 billion in debt. The publisher plans to restructure the company in hopes to again become a profitable business.

Despite the struggles among traditional publishers, non-traditional publishers are thriving and that is great news for self-publishing authors.

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Vice President of Outskirts Press.  In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Kelly Speaks

POD is Fueling the Publishing Market

Bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information, recently released an annual report on book publishing, which shows just how much self publishing is fueling the publishing market.

While the report shows growth in the publishing industry, if you took self publishing out of the equation, the market would be relatively flat since 2010.  This shows that self publishing is not only a viable publishing option for authors, but it also suggests that self publishing companies and their titles are strongly influencing the publishing industry.

New publishing methods, such as POD, have the power to change the face of publishing and improve opportunities for authors. This is true for all genres, including both fiction and nonfiction.

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Vice President of Outskirts Press.  In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book

Using Twitter as a Marketing Tool for Self-Publishing Authors

Have you ever wondered whether Twitter could be an effective book marketing tool?  I often encourage self-publishing authors to use social media to market their books, and recently came across a really great story I wanted to share.

As I was monitoring the views on the Outskirts Press blog a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that in one day the blog’s Twitter referrals (viewers that came to our blog after clicking on a link from Twitter) went up by 40 percent! Yes, 40 percent!

How did this happen? Simple. Glenn Skinner, one of our Best Book of the Year Award Finalists, had tweeted about the contest that day in an effort to get more votes for his book.  Glenn (@KeyaQuests) currently has over 2,800 followers on Twitter, so his one tweet brought in so many more viewers that the referral rate went up by 40%.  Wow!

By building a strong social media platform, you can create similar results. Whether you are promoting your author website, blog, or book, you can drive website traffic and increase book sales by using Twitter. The key is to build a network of followers who are read your posts and visit the links you share. While keywords can get you some traffic through search engines, social media is the key to increasing website traffic.

If you are new to social media, you may want to consider a self-publishing company that offers help with social media marketing. For instance, Outskirts Press offers an Author Platform Set-up Through Social Media Option which helps authors harness the power of social media to market their book.

I’d love to know, how has social media helped you connect with your readers?

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Vice President of Outskirts Press.  In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Kelly Speaks

BookExpo America 2012 – Recap

BookExpo America (BEA) 2012 took place June 5-7 at the Javits Center in New York City. BEA is the largest annual book trade fair in the United States. The event features major publishers from the US and abroad. Attendees are typically authors, librarians, and book purchasers. This year’s event featured several new events, including Digital Networking Cocktail Hours, streaming of favorite BEA events, and a refreshed BEA Education Program. A few highlights from the event this year included the following:

If you missed BEA 2012 (or just really loved the event), you can stream live events by clicking this link or visiting http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/. Next year’s event will be held June 4-6, 2013 at the Javitz Center in NYC. For more information, please visit http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/.

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Vice President of Outskirts Press.  In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog at http://kellyschuknecht.com.