I opened my e-mail today only to find this headline sitting in my RSS feed from Thomas Nelson. My mouth dropped open. How could this happen? It seems like every Christian publisher is getting swallowed up by a big trade publisher.
One of the reasons I chose to track Thomas Nelson was the fact that it seems to have thrived while other Christian publishers are swallowed up by big names. WaterBrook and Multnomah to Random House. Zondervan to HarperCollins. I'm not a fan of this trend, and I wasn't expecting the number one Christian publisher to follow this trend.
Maybe I'm being a little too doom and gloom about this. Maybe there is an upside that I'm just not seeing right now because of the mere shock of the announcement. For now, I'll just keep watching what happens and hope that it is all for the best.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Social Media & Marketing: BookSneeze
I recently discovered a cool way Thomas Nelson is using social media for marketing with BookSneeze.com. When I first discovered the site, I didn't realize that it belonged to Thomas Nelson because their name is listed no where that I could find. I stumbled across this fact later when I was looking through old blog posts on MichaelHyatt.com.
BookSneeze offers bloggers the opportunity to get free books from the publisher in exchange for posting a review of the book on their blog and one consumer site like Amazon.com. Clear cut guidelines for reviews for each category of books are provided, which makes it simple for anyone with a blog to do it. This is definitely a smart move on the part of Thomas Nelson because they can get their books into the hands of the people who will talk about them and spread the word through their social circles.
BookSneeze is a unique way for a book publisher to handle marketing in a social-media driven society. I look forward to seeing how they continue to develop social media strategies to promote their books.
BookSneeze offers bloggers the opportunity to get free books from the publisher in exchange for posting a review of the book on their blog and one consumer site like Amazon.com. Clear cut guidelines for reviews for each category of books are provided, which makes it simple for anyone with a blog to do it. This is definitely a smart move on the part of Thomas Nelson because they can get their books into the hands of the people who will talk about them and spread the word through their social circles.
BookSneeze is a unique way for a book publisher to handle marketing in a social-media driven society. I look forward to seeing how they continue to develop social media strategies to promote their books.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
How are they using Facebook and Twitter?
I was looking at Thomas Nelson on Facebook and Twitter. It seems that they are using these tools not just as a means of marketing their products but also as a means of making connections with readers. They let fans know about new books and contests as well as share a Bible verse. I just signed up for Twitter, so I will be following Thomas Nelson to see how they use both of these mediums.
Why am I tracking Thomas Nelson?
I have noticed that Thomas Nelson is taking definitive action to survive in the digital age with the recent release of their first enhanced e-book as well as their previous development of the NelsonFree products. These innovative decisions make me want to watch closely how they move forward in this changing industry. The areas I plan to track include the general news of the company, the use of social media, and the trends in print vs digital releases and sales.
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