As strange as it sounds, one of the things I love most about my job is analyzing stats. I love looking at the interplay of dozens of different analytics to determine the reach and level of audience engagement of a potential client. And when I sign an author/blogger/entrepreneur who I think is incredibly talented, I love to spend our first few months tweaking and optimizing their platform so that it can grow in the ways that will give them…to be totally wonky…the best ROI.
So what to prioritize? Here are the numbers I zero in on when I’m assessing a potential client’s platform:
Ebooks. It’s hard to believe that the e-book as we know it didn’t exist until 7 years ago. As Jason Matthews noted in Ebooks: What a Long Strange Trip on The Book Designer, Amazon didn’t launch the Kindle (and therefore the e-book market as we now know it) until 2007.
I still vividly remember sitting in on an editorial meeting at Simon & Schuster in 2009 and hearing the caution in the voices of editors as they discussed this new format. Back then the prognostications were big and bold (ebooks would take over the world and wreck all our lives!), but the numbers were tiny and insignificant. Ebooks were maybe 2-3 percent of the market–not a number anyone could really act on.
Between 2009 and 2012 we saw huge double-digit growth in the e-book market, and though we seem to be past the largest spike in e-book adoption, the market still grew from 23% to 27% of all book sales between 2012 and 2013.
What I wonder most: how will people read another 7 years from now? I don’t think this is an e-book vs. print book debate. I think it’s an e-book vs. print book vs. blogs vs. magazines vs. newspapers vs. online verticals vs. any other format, digital or print, where readers go for words.
As complex as the landscape is, we all want something very simple: to get our authors’ words in front of readers. I think that’s the only certainty we can cling to in these uncertain times.
So here’s hoping 2015 (and beyond!) will bring us even more ways to get writing to readers!
Eat:
Huge milestone alert! I finally, finally, finally (finally!) ate at Rose’s Luxury. It. Was. Incredible.
Which was a bit of a surprise, given that my expectations were sky-high. I’d first read about Rose’s in this article from August’s issue of Bon Appetit, when Andrew Knowlton named it the Best New Restaurant in America in 2014. So yes, I was expecting greatness.
And I am so happy that I was not disappointed. I can easily say it’s the best restaurant I’ve eaten at this year, and that the Pork Sausage, Habanero, and Lychee Salad was one of the best things I’ve eaten, ever.
But my very favorite moment of the night? Digging into the Cacio e Pepe Pasta and being absolutely floored by how something so simple can be so delicious. Granted, I have a soft spot for pasta, always and forever, but this? This was special. I would give all my worldly possessions to be able to know how they did it.
Cacio e Pepe Pasta from Rose’s Luxury. ‘Tis a thing of beauty. Source.
Oh, and there was also a Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ice Cream that blew our faces off. There was much moaning and gushing from our table that night!
Drink: Kicking it over to Jarrett, our resident bartender, for a fun drink recipe:
The holidays are behind us, and you know what that means: taking stock of all the liquor left over from holiday parties. Some bottles you savor, like that glorious bottle of Bulleit Bourbon Uncle Bob gave you as a present. Others make you cringe, like that fifth of vanilla vodka your cousin’s girlfriend brought to New Years.
This year, I decided to come up with a plan for that nasty vanilla vodka once and for all by playing a fun game. It’s called: “figure out how to make a decent cocktail with disgustingly flavored alcohol” (FOHTMADCWDFA for short). Catchy, I know. But, in the end, I actually came up with a pretty good drink – we’ll call it the Apple Pie Cocktail.
Apple Pie Cocktail (Vanilla Vodka)
Apple Pie Cocktail
• 2 lime slices
• One granny smith apple (for garnish)
• Two leaves of mint
• 3 oz. vanilla vodka
• Ginger ale
• Apple juice (we used honeycrisp apple juice, but regular works)
• Dash of cinnamon
Muddle lime slices and mint leaves in bottom of an old-fashioned glass. Fill glass half way with ice. Add vanilla vodka. Then fill remainder of glass with ginger ale and apple juice (2/3 ginger ale and 1/3 apple juice). Add a dash (around 1/8 teaspoon) of cinnamon. VERY briefly shake in a shaker (but only a shake or two because ginger ale carbonation will make it explode if shaken too much).
Using a paring knife or peeler, cut a strand of the granny smith skin off and add it as garnish. Imbibe and enjoy!
People judge books by their covers. This is the cold hard truth of publishing. A book cover is the very first thing a reader will see of your work, and so it’s incredibly important to get it just right.
Think of a book cover like the package of any other consumer good (and by “package” I mean the overall look or style of a product, not its container). A MacBook Pro might have a super-fast processor and long battery life, but it’s the elegant design that draws in most consumers. A BMW might have great horsepower and a fuel-efficient engine, but the sleek lines are what catches your eye on the road. In a crowded marketplace, looks matter.
Leo Babuata of ZenHabits, one of my favorite sites on creativity and living, is finally launching his new book. Watching this launch has been incredible–it’s funny how sometimes we can learn so much more from people who are outside of the publishing industry.
He traditionally published a few books several years ago, and he’s self-published a few ebooks since then, but this is his first self-published print book to be sold direct to his fans (he has over a million readers on his blog). And he decided to approach writing a book the way a coder would approach writing new software. As he explains:
The traditional way of writing a book is like the old Microsoft model of developing software: you write it in isolation for a year or two, and then put it out as a fully-formed product.
The problem with that method is that it’s never been tested in the real world. You don’t know if readers (or users) will want it, you don’t know where you’ve made huge mistakes, you don’t know how it will work in the wild.
That “Microsoft” model of making programs has been replaced in the last decade or so by iterative programming, where you make a Minimum Viable Product as soon as possible, and let a small group of people (alpha or beta testers) use it and give you feedback and report bugs. Then a new version is made, more testing and feedback, and so on, making the product better and better each iteration. I love this model, because it leads to a better product over the long run.
