Will ebooks Kill Printed Books?

Are print books dead?

This past weekend at Bob "Bob the Teacher" Jenkins SIMPLE program in Wilmington, NC I meet a very impressive woman. Felicia Slattery went to college on a public-speaking scholarship and has made speaking and effective communications her life work.

Felicia has written a pretty cool book, which I bought with real (plastic)money. The title is CA$H in on Communication. This book is for home-based and small business owners and could be your essential guide to effective, inexpensive communications. I didn't find it on Amazon (yet, it just very recently came out), but you can contact Felicia at 630-554-0636 or felicia@communicationtransformation.com.

Anyway, to get to the point here, yesterday on Twitter Felicia (@feliciaslattery) sent a Tweet about a New York Times article of interest to anyone on any side of the book authoring and publishing business. Click the link in this sentence to see what the New York Times says about the business side of ebooks versus print.

How Can Authors Use Social Media?

This 4 minute video of Chris Brogan speaking at O'Reilly's Tools of Change in New York has some direct answers.

Does Everyone Want to Author a Book?

As you know, I write. I write articles, blog posts, an email newsletter and books. Lately, because I've recently published one book and have three more due out any day now (wooohooo!), people who know me and people I meet ask me often how we got 31 Days to Networking Event Mastery published so quickly.

It turns out (and this may be no surprise to you, but it was to me), lots and lots of people, both business people and people who aren't in business have books in them they are driven, eager or at least interested in getting out.

When I attended Bob "Bob the Teacher" Jenkins SIMPLE program in Wilmington, NC last weekend there were lots of conversations about book publishing. Several in attendance already have books in print (some quite recently) and many others want to publish.


On of the attendees, Kristen Eckstein, owner of Imagine! Studios works with people who want to publish a book but need help with either a whole range of services from cover design to butt-kicking, with editing, development and physically registering and publishing 100% in your name included. Kristen will also provide services a la carte. You can contact Kristen at 336-510-9629 or kristen@artsimagine.com.



My publisher is Alfred Poor with Desktop Wings, Inc. Alfred is a (young) old friend who has written and published more books than I have fingers and toes and is now working with a select group of authors in what can best be described as joint ventures. Alfred is keeping this side of his business on the down/low (ooops) so it's best if he talks with you about it directly. Here's his super secret office phone number 215-453-9312 and private email: apoor@verizon.net.

I'm going to explore this topic and post about it occasionally in the next few months, but it's not going to become a business for me. I'll likely work out some kind of finders fee or affiliate deal with Kristen and Alfred and maybe other services I find, so there's that, but I'm only going to promote people I've met and with whom I've either had good first hand experience or who have been recommended by people I know. Two degrees of separation at most.

If you know of other great folks, companies or services (other than traditional book publishing houses, or vanity press) that you know totally rock, please send me their info at bruce@quantumresultscoaching.com.

Business Social Media Tip #30 - Watch Your Numbers

So how do you know if your business social media marketing efforts are working? Are they worth the required time and focus? And how exactly do you measure social media effectiveness? If there is one number to watch to tell if you've made the right decisions regarding social media, what would it be?

I know what the answer is for me, but yours may differ.

Here are some possibilities of numbers to monitor:

-- Friends and Followers - If your goal is to build a massive following, sheer numbers of friends and followers could be the best measure of success. This is an easy number to track since social media sites routinely report how many connections you have - it's actually a device the social media companies use to keep us using their services, enticing us to be competitive and build larger followings so we'll feel somehow 'better'. But is a large following in the best interest of your business?

-- Grading or Influence Rating Services - There are third party companies that will track your influence. Two popular services for are HubSpot, Inc.'s Grader.com and Twinfluence.com. Grader.com for Twitter (there are other versions as well) tracks your updates, your followers, and those you follow and then gives you a grade on a 0-100 scale and will display your ranking in your location. Twinfluence.com provides a ranking and percentage rating based on "social influence" measures which are also detailed and explained by the site. Twinfluence provides more data than Grader, but the actual value for your business isn't proved.

-- Internet and Web Site Metrics - This is the world of hits, and eyes, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There are plenty of tools that measure Internet metrics and you can be sure that more will emerge for social media, some within the services themselves, others provided by third parties. Don't assume that the same metrics that work for a web site that sells products will have relevance to social media, where the most successful participants are often those who are most socially adept. In this respect, social media success might not be best measured just by numbers.

-- Your Bottom Line -- With all respect, the best number to watch to measure your business's marketing success with social media might be outside the purvey of the Internet, but rather with your accountant. Realtors know that the best advertisements are those that bring people who end up with a successful closing, not just people who want a tour of the area. If you have a way to track the source of your sales or contracts, that's the strongest tool at your disposal. Track where you first met people who brought your business revenue. If you connected in multiple ways, in person, through traditional ads, and through social media, you may have to be a bit subjective here to decide which made the strongest connection - (Why not use this as an opportunity to connect with customers by asking which contact mode was most important).

In the end, your financial bottom line is the most important way to measure effectiveness of anything you do in your business.