Personalized Discovery: The Next Publishing Evolution

I'm a bit of a nut about discovery being aided by technology. This consumer demand has to be answered by the industry not individual authors. The significant capital and resource investment required to fund and adopt discovery-technology places it beyond the scope of authors.

Authors should focus on the two things with guaranteed ROI: write the next book and -- as Jeffe and James mentioned earlier -- make strategic "boots on the ground" personal connections.

Using technology reach individual consumers? That's the purview of industry. I say "industry" instead of "publishers" because the answer can be supplied by publishers, retailers, or a new third party. As long as an industry-standard is applied, authors and consumers win.
 
The good news on the discovery front is that marketplace competition has finally put the issue on the corporate agenda. I was equally hopeful and horrified when I spotted this little gem summarizing BEA (BookExpo America) 2012:

"Publishers are realizing that to compete with Amazon they have to be able to sell directly to consumers. One way they can do that is by making their books more discoverable." -- L.H. Owen "5 Things the Book Industry Will Be Talking About Next Week"   

~checks calendar~

Okay. I admit to being disappointed that the industry is a good fifteen years behind the power curve regarding discovery. From the looks of things, publishers didn't want to be in the retailing business, but that pesky retailer-cum-publisher (aka competitor) Amazon is now forcing their hand. That's good for teams Authors and Readers. Amazon started as a book retailer (you remember that, right?).  Amazon figured out how to take the community-model of discovery and make it profitable. 

distributor inventory + consumer-provided reviews + technology-provided recommendations = sales

GoodReads has taken the Amazon discovery model and added more community elements to make it personalized. For GoodReads, retail isn't their primary business. They consider themselves a consumer-review site with referrals to retailers. Their formula is more:

consumer-provided reviews + consumer wishlists + publisher inventory 
= technology-provided recommendations

If you want to know the CEO of GoodReads's suggestions for authors regarding discovery, check out his piece in Publishing Perspectives: Winning the Battle of Book Discovery.

I'm looking forward to dawning of a personalized bookstore. In this virtual shop, there are no limitations to what is available to me nor am I overwhelmed by the selection. Recommendations are shown to me based on what I own, what I've noted as favorites, what I wish I owned, and what readers with tastes like mine have enjoyed. Like any consumer, I want one-click convenience with a competitive price and instant delivery.

Personalized Discovery: The Next Publishing Evolution

I can easily see the day, perhaps in FY 2013, when ebooks surface a final page of "Thank you for reading 'Rogue's Pawn' by Jeffe Kennedy. Here are links to three more of her books. Other readers who enjoyed 'Rogue's Pawn' purchased these sexy contemporary fantasy books by other authors."

If I can trust the industry to recommend a book to me -- me the individual -- as much as I would trust a neighbor to recommend a book, then the last barrier to purchase is removed. As a consumer, I have a constantly updated list of purchases waiting for me to click "buy now." As an author, I have confidence that the magic of logarithms and word-of-virtual-mouth is working for me ...waiting on me to finish that next book.

How to Improve the Discoverability of Books

This is how my office looks as I prepare to head the Romance Writers of American annual National Convention.

(Yes, those are PRISM trophies, for those of you hoping to win one next week!)

Otherwise, those are boxes of bookmarks, business cards, special candies to give away and so forth. There's one reason I do all of this: to call attention to the books. I mean, I go to convention for a number of reasons: networking, rejuvenation, learning. But I could do all that empty-handed. No - the stuff is for discoverability.

And, yes, that really is a word. Now.

It's only become a word in these tumultuous post-paper, post-brick and mortar bookstore days. Oh sure, there are still paper books and libraries and book stores, but these venues are on the decline. Far fewer bookstores are available, even fewer are ones you could go into and have someone passionate about books hand sell you something you're sure to love. And there are all those so-convenient eReaders, which allow you to buy your next read from wherever you happen to be, with the click of the buy now link.

In the old days, the publishing house might have sent the author on tour. The gung-ho author would forge relationships with those hand-selling book lovers. For many years, publishing houses sold books to bookstores, not to readers. It's an important distinction. Publishers knew how to sell to bookstores and then those stores took care of selling to readers.

Thus the consternation in the publishing and book-selling community. In the electronic jungle, how do readers discover those new books to read? Lots of conversations on "improving discoverability," which really means "how do I get them to buy MY book?"

My take on that? I don't think you do.

I heard a great quote recently, when Susan Elizabeth Phillips spoke of what a generous and gracious person Sandra Brown is. (Fair warning: Sandra's website has flash, takes forever to load and has sound - dunno WHAT they're thinking on that!) Sandra said it's because "A high tide floats all ships."

This, to me, is the essence of social media. And of finding the path through the jungle.

We're no longer lone authors hidden away in our secret lairs, venturing out on pre-planned quests to woo booksellers. We're part of a web - a vast network of writers, editors, agents, publishers, book bloggers, readers and book sellers. The high - or low - tides affect us all. Everybody wants to sail their ships.

So, the people who get on the internet and shout BUYMYBOOK BUYMYBOOK BUYMYBOOK are not improving their discoverability. In fact, people are likely to turn their backs and put their fingers in their ears. No - it's about conversations and being passionate about books. All books. In some ways, we're all hand-selling books theses days. And that's about sharing the love.

I discovered this for myself just recently. The Bookpushers Blog (and boy, are they well-named) did  a joint review of Rogue's Pawn. And now they talk up and recommend the book all the time. Because they loved it. People who like them and their blog get excited and pick it up, too. This kind of thing is what our community is about. More - it's so fun.

Okay - so how did Bookpushers discover the book? Netgalley.com, which lists books available for review in digital format. Why did the reviewer first pick it out - pretty cover? Compelling cover copy? Fabulous title? Hard to say. Serendipity, perhaps.

But my point - and I do have one ;-) - is that we maybe should spend less time talking about how to improve discoverability and more time just talking about books.

After all, that's what we love best.