Against Orthodoxy

Michael Jensen | 03/18/2009 | Digitization

I’ve been playing with an idea that runs counter to existing orthodoxy,that I’ve been trying to find the downside to: crosspromotion.

We have these potentially potent devices—the Web pages that we build for each book, the blog entries about the book that we put on our sites—that we unfortunately think of as billboards, *not as networks.*

Today, publishers are competing for a billion people’s time. And we are asking people to pay a lot of money for the privilege of committing *more* time, to long-form works, when the world of free abundance is a click away.

I’m fearful of the survival of long-form works, and I think publishing needs to *promote long-form works in general* in order to maintain a long-term niche in society.

We need to be defensively strengthening ourselves by promoting our kind of publishing—whatever kind that is. The best way to do that in the digital world is to promote ourselves through muscular crosspromotion.

Google (and all Web search engine) weigh “relevance” in part by paying attention to the *quality* and *quantity of* links to a page and to a site. It is not just the words upon the page that are indexed—the networked context is also analyzed, to determine what to display on the first page of Google’s search results.

Given this algorithmic reality, we need to compete in networked terms.

Canadian crosspromotion can start simple: simply include, at the bottom of Book X’s Web page, a list of “Related Links” that are to your own *and other Canadian publishers’ related books.* These could be easily suggested by our authors and our editors.

In doing this as a group, you could:

a) strengthen Canadian publisher sites in the algorithmic eyes of Google,
b) strengthen the value of each linked-to publisher’s page,
c) build stronger readership of long-form work,
d) increase customer satisfaction,
e) increase the interested readers who can find you,
f) increase the overall chances of finding buyers and readers for your ebooks.

What’s the downside?

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US Children and Adult Reviewers

Rebecca Ross | 03/01/2009 | Reviewers

Publishers selling books within the United States have a plethora of choices to help them market their wares. Some of the key ways publishers can promote titles within the United States are by:

1. Sending books to major book reviewers
2. Sending books for awards pertinent to the subject areas of the books
3. Attending regional book fairs
4. Attending regional bookseller and trade shows

In order to support Canadian publishers’ efforts in the US, the AECB is pleased to provide a database of key children and adult book reviewers at major US papers and publications.

We would note that most of the key adult newspapers also review children’s books, thus the list of children’s reviewers should be considered a supplement to the key adult reviewers.

While we have made every effort to ensure that this list is up-to-date and accurate, please also note that the participants and organizations come and go, so you should double check with each newspaper and publication before sending any material to them and continually update your files.

Key Adult Reviewers [excel sheet]
Key Children Reviewers [excel sheet]

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