What’s in a number – everything, if you want to publish and sell books in the competitive global market of today!
What is an ISBN?
The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is the single most important item you will need to publish your book and ensure that it is available to book buyers worldwide, be that trade or consumer, high street or online – it is the only way to ensure coverage of your title in all types of book retailers, libraries and other book related outlets.
Why is it important?
- Discovery
- Persuasion
- Transaction
- Fulfilment
- Measurement
It is a unique number that identifies your book amongst the millions of titles that exist in the world, many thousands with the same or similar title.
The ISBN is used by publishers, booksellers and libraries for ordering, listing and stock control purposes. It enables them to identify a particular publisher and allows the publisher to identify a specific edition of a specific title in a specific format within their output. Systems used by publishers, distributors, booksellers, wholesalers, libraries and library suppliers worldwide all rely on the ISBN to identify books ensuring they select, buy and stock the correct title and edition.
The ISBN is the only way to ensure your book is listed on databases by data aggregators such as Nielsen. Our data is then disseminated widely to thousands of trade book buyers worldwide, ensuring your book is discoverable and enables millions of book consumers worldwide to have the chance to purchase your book.
What can it do for you?
Key benefits:
- Your title is identified by its unique ISBN.
- It is listed on bibliographic databases.
- Your book metadata is disseminated to booksellers and libraries worldwide
- Booksellers, libraries, consumers and book lovers everywhere can search and discover your book online or in their high street.
- Adding enriched metadata to your book record – book descriptions, reviews, author biographies, promotional information, jacket or cover images improves the discoverability of your book.
- You can further improve discoverability of your books by using the Book2Look widget which is a digital marketing tool that enables you to share content of your book via social media and the web.
- If you provide good timely metadata for your books, sales off-line can increase by up to 55% and by up to 178% online.
What’s in a number – all you need is an ISBN to start the process of publishing and selling your book worldwide.
You can buy your ISBNs direct from Nielsen here.
Words by Chris Russell, photos by Nicole Kavanaugh.
On a sweltering summer’s evening in Soho, Byte The Book brought together a panel of industry experts to discuss the very contemporary topic of personalised production. Chair Mike Levaggi (Production Director at Harper Collins) led an informative discussion between Mark Searle, publisher at Quarto, Graeme Burton, consultant at MyPhotoMag, and co-founder of LostMyName Asi Sharabi.
Our sponsors Ricoh from left to right: Mark Gedye, Neil McKinstrie, Will Collinge, Graham Moore and Roger Christiansen.
Personalised production, began Graeme Burton, can mean anything from, say, a reader ordering a book that has been out of print for decades to a customised product bearing the reader’s name, or even incorporating them as a character in a story. It’s a practise that’s far more practical now than it once was, largely thanks to the internet, which has finally brought the per unit price down to a practicable level. Mark Searle echoed this sentiment, pointing out that much of the personalisation now being seen in publishing would have been unaffordable, or at the very least uneconomical, only two years ago. He added that although personalisation originally emerged out of the gift and novelty sector, and has largely been aimed at the children’s market, it is beginning to evolve beyond these parameters, with more and more adult readers taking an interest in high quality, intelligently customised products.
Our panel from left to right: Graeme Burton, Mark Searle, Asi Sharabi and Mike Levaggi (chair).
Asi Sharabi, who formed the now hugely successful start-up LostMyName in 2013, described meaningful personalisation as “the meeting point between customer IP on the one hand and a company’s creative, technical or emotional IP on the other”. The customer “co-creates” the product with the publisher, bringing added value to it and, ultimately, justifying a premium price-tag. Breaking into the customisation market, explained Asi, demands certain key skills that traditional publishers don’t necessarily have in their toolbox, such as building e-commerce platforms, mastering customer service, exploiting data and providing robust customer support for when things go wrong. None of the LostMyName team, he revealed, had any publishing experience before they started, and in a sense this worked in their favour. Asi’s own background in internet marketing, for instance, prepared him perfectly for the challenges of direct-to-consumer selling, allowing him to find and capture the audience which is now the lifeblood of his company.
The panel in full flow at the lovely Groucho Club.
Certain shifts in culture and technology are already having an impact on the landscape of personalised production. Pokemon Go, argued Graeme, has thrust the concept of augmented reality into the mainstream, and it’s only a matter of time before this kind of technology seeps into the book market. Equally, a recent boom in personalised photobooks, reflecting people’s need to physically share their memories with others, has generated significant business in the customisation industry, and shows no sign of slowing down.
3D print samples from our sponsors Ricoh included replica body parts.
In other words, the directions in which personalisation could travel in the future are endless. All it will take are companies willing to listen to their audiences and, using a combination of technology, experience and imagination, push the boundaries of publishing beyond the confines of the simple paperback book.
If you enjoyed this report and want to keep up with the latest happenings in publishing as well as network with publishers and authors alike keep yourself posted by visiting our events page here. You can join us from £30 a quarter here
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Lots of you will have seen or read about the amazing Mark Dawson who spoke at our event with Amazon in 2015.
Mark has sold millions of copies of his books and is now teaching others how to make thousands of pounds a day through their own book sales.
The course is only available for a limited period, but we wholeheartedly recommend you to take a look if you want to understand how to use Facebook to make money from your writing.
Please do watch the video below and sign up for the course here.
COURSE DETAILS
Cart Opens:
Friday 3rd June 2016
22:00 London
Cart Closes:
Tuesday 15th June 2016
04:59 London
Cost:
There will be 2 payment options:
- $697 (one-time payment)
- 12 monthly instalments of $69 (total cost of $828)
The cost includes access to a bonus course - Twitter Ads for Authors - and they will be adding YouTube Ads for Authors in the summer at no extra cost to paying students. A raft of VIP bonuses will also be available from 15th July.
All purchases come with a 30-Day Money Back, No Questions Asked, Guarantee.
You can sign up for the course here.
Words by Chris Russell, photos by Nicole Kavanaugh.
May’s Byte The Book was a bustling affair - the venue was so packed that people were being turned away at the door. Authors and industry professionals alike gathered in droves to hear chairman of the London Book Fair David Roche, agent Donald Winchester, production expert Heather O’Connell and accountant Andrew Subramaniam discuss how today’s “authorpreneurs” can get ahead in the book business.
Our sponsors HW Fisher from left to right, Barry Kernon, Chris Pitsillides, Deena Samachetty and Andrew Subramaniam
David, who was chairing the event, began by asking each panelist what an author’s first step should be on the road to publication. Donald pointed out that, while finding an agent is traditionally the first rung on the industry ladder, before approaching agencies writers must, quite simply, “write something good”. He lamented the all-too-frequent e-mails he receives from authors announcing that their manuscript “isn’t that great”, and requesting his editorial input (he likened this to walking up to a stranger in the street and offering them a half-baked cake). Once your book is ready for submission, Donald added, you must do your research. The information available online today is exponentially greater than it used to be, and there’s no excuse for not following agency guidelines.
Our fabulous panel from left to right: Donald Winchester, Heather O'Connell, Andrew Subramaniam and David Roche
Heather counselled authors to think about what they actually want to achieve before diving headlong into the melee. Are you publishing “for fun”, she asked, or do you want to make a serious career as a novelist? The answer to this question will inform almost every aspect of your writing life, so it’s worth having a strong idea of your goals from the very beginning (she added, as a caveat, that if your ambition is “to become an internationally best-selling author”, you may have to accept that the odds are against you!). Next, bringing a dash of financial practicality to the discussion, Andrew Subramaniam - partner at the HW Fisher accountancy firm - advised authors to register as self-employed with the Inland Revenue as soon as they anticipate generating income from their writing. On landing a deal, he said, it’s not uncommon for novelists to be careless with their advances, failing to realise that in the not-too-distant future they will need to pay a reasonable chunk of this money to the government in tax.
Our event was packed out - again!
David then swung the discussion back to Donald, asking precisely why an author needs an agent in an age when, in theory, they are able to achieve so much on their own. Donald cited an example of an unrepresented writer who had contacted him after signing what he described as “the worst contract I’d ever seen”. An agent, explained Donald, never accepts draft one of an agreement, and acts as an essential negotiation buffer between authors and their prospective publishers. Without an agent, as this poor soul had discovered a little too late, a writer can be ripped off without even knowing it (the company in question, incidentally, was no tin-pot operation - it was a well-known and respected publishing house). Heather agreed, advising writers to seek out experts at every stage of their career, from lawyers and accountants to publicists and printers. She explained that, while it is possible for self-published writers to get their books onto the shelves of major bookstores, those books must be effectively indistinguishable from traditionally published works. The cover, the blurb, the content, the marketing - everything must be 100% slick and professional for a bookstore to gamble their valuable shelf space on an aspiring author.
Super smart, Harper Collins' Sam Missingham's brilliant interjections from the floor
The buzzwords and sound bites of the evening? Perseverance. Tenacity. Do your research. Ask the experts. Hone your product, be professional, pay your taxes, and never offer a stranger an under-cooked cake. Because although everyone loves cake, nobody enjoys salmonella.
If you enjoyed this report and want to keep up with the latest happenings in publishing as well as network with publishers and authors alike keep yourself posted by visiting our events page here. You can join us from £30 a quarter here
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The Club at Café Royal is offering a month’s free membership to Byte the Book members. Originally this was just for April but it's been such a success they are extending the offer. Please email us on info@bytethebook.com if you’d like to sign up.
Here's some more information:
Celebrating Café Royal’s long legacy of famed patrons - Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, Noel Coward, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Taylor and Brigitte Bardot, just to name a few - The Club welcomes the return of today’s leaders and stars from the worlds of fashion and design, business and politics, entertainment and media, arts and culture, gastronomy and sport, aristocracy and royalty.
Frequented by writers and artists such as Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley, the conversations, inspirations and discussions at ‘The Café’ were profound. Arthur Conan Doyle, H G Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling, W B Yeats, Walter Sickert and James McNeill Whistler were all patrons. Distinguished figures such as Winston Churchill, Augustus John, D H Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Noël Coward, Jacob Epstein and Graham Greene were also often seen.
Members are actively encouraged to work from The Club, and use the premises as a headquarters in the heart of the West End. Cellphone conversations are permitted on the expansive Gallery floor.
At its centre, The Gallery is an informal lounge serving a light menu, the Library Bar offers classic cocktails in tribute to its bohemian heyday while The Domino presents a fine dining experience. The Studio is a lounge bar and cultural event hub overlooking Regent Street. Boasting a curated programme of events, The Studio hosts intimate parties, pioneering talks and seminars. In addition, the Oscar Wilde Bar, formerly known as The Grill Room, the jewel of Hotel Café Royal’s most famous moments, is available to club members until 3am with live entertainment.
The Club as a whole is open to members from 7am until 1am Monday to Saturday (11am - 10:30pm on Sunday) for breakfast, lunch, cream tea, cocktails, dinner and drinks.
If you're interested please email info@bytethebook.com
Words by Chris Russell, photos by Nicole Kavanaugh.
Byte The Book’s April event was its first in the opulent surroundings of the Hotel Café Royal. With introductory drinks laid on by sponsors Blurb, the mood was set for a lively and engaging discussion on trends in food and drink publishing. 
Our sponsors Blurb, in the form of the rather lovely Milena Canazares and Kent Hall
Chair Eric Treuille, of Books For Cooks, opened the floor by asking publishing director of Octopus Books Stephanie Jackson how aspiring food writers should go about approaching publishers. “There are no rules,” replied Stephanie (a phrase which she employed more than once over the course of the evening). “In fact,” she added, “sometimes I despair because I don’t get enough people approaching me”. She went on to describe the publishing world as a “relationship business”, revealing that she finds many of her clients by getting out to restaurants, meeting chefs and making personal, face-to-face connections.
Our fabulous panel from left to right: Lizzie Mabbot, Eric Treuille, Kathy Slack and Stephanie Jackson
One of Stephanie’s authors, food blogger Lizzie Mabbott, joined her on the panel. Although Lizzie has a considerable platform on social media, Stephanie was quick to point out that, while an author’s profile is important, she didn’t publish Lizzie’s book Chinatown Kitchen because she was impressed by her follower count - she published it because she loved the idea (the book aims to de-mystify Asian ingredients, offering cheeky modern interpretations such as toasted kimchi and cheese sandwiches, and udon carbonara). That said, when it comes to actually selling the book to readers, a healthy online following can of course make all the difference. Lizzie explained that she sells most of her books to her Twitter and Instagram followers, and has had to learn to be, as she put it, “more American”. British awkwardness and self-deprecation, she told the audience, doesn’t sell books! Writers have to learn to “be their own cheerleader”.
We all loved being in the beautiful Cafe Royal
Chef, food writer and blogger Kathy Slack has experienced the other side of the publishing coin. When Kathy’s food blog, which she started “for a laugh”, turned into a supper club and cookery tuition business, she realised there could be a book in it. Being impatient by nature, she created the book in just six weeks, and self-published it. Like Lizzie, Kathy emphasised that platform makes all the difference, explaining that the vast majority of her buyers are her blog readers, social media followers and people she meets at her workshops. Self-publishing cookbooks is an expensive business, she added, pointing out that your production values must be high if you want to compete with traditionally published titles.
Anna Faherty asking one of the great questions from the audience during the Q&A
The discussion ended with some interesting reflections on where food and drink publishing is now, and where it’s headed in the future. Kathy pointed out that cookbooks used to be about experts imparting their knowledge to rookies, but in the digital age, that dynamic has shifted. Now, when your readers sometimes know nearly as much as you do about your subject, it’s all about staring stories. Lizzie agreed, noting that she often buys cookbooks simply to hear the stories behind them, as opposed to actually following the recipes. Eric concluded that “if you want to write a new recipe, you have to create a new ingredient”, as certain areas (such as Middle Eastern cuisine) have become totally saturated.
But of course, as always it's all about the networking
Finally, Eric closed the evening on a satisfyingly positive note, when he announced to the room: “It’s a happy business to be in, so when you write a cookbook… make it happy”.
Thanks once again to our brilliant sponsors Blurb and our hosts The Club at The Hotel Cafe Royal
If you enjoyed this report and want to keep up with the latest happenings in publishing as well as network with publishers and authors alike keep yourself posted by visiting our events page here. You can join us from £30 a quarter here
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We extremely excited to announce that members of Byte the Book can now get a 10% discount on the superb book marketing platform NetGalley. Please read on for more details:
Byte the Book members enjoy a 10% discount on a first-year subscription or single-title listing for marketing and publicity platform, NetGalley. NetGalley is a service that provides secure digital advance reading copies to professional readers such as booksellers, librarians, reviewers and media contacts. More than 300 publishers – from multinationals to specialist independents – in the UK, US, Australia and Canada use NetGalley to increase the buzz around their books, boost discoverability and raise awareness of front- and backlist titles. Over 310,000 professional readers worldwide use the site, making NetGalley the destination for readers of influence. To find out about a demo and pricing, please email yourbookssoar@netgalley.com
T&Cs
1. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion or offer
2. 10% discount on first-year subscription available to new NetGalley clients only. After one-year period, pricing reverts to regular rate
3. 10% discount on single title listing is available to existing clients, but only on new single title listings and cannot be applied retrospectively
4. Offer ends 31 October 2016
5. NetGalley reserves the right to end the promotion at any time
Ali Muirden of Creative Content wasn't able to get to our last event on International Transmedia Rights, so instead she's written a short blog piece on her thoughts on the audio market.
There has been a lot of media coverage recently over the surge in audio book popularity. Sales of audio books in the USA in 2015 grew as much as 13.5% on the previous year and the audio industry there is estimated to be worth $1.47 billion.
Once the "poor relation" of publishing, audio books are finally enjoying the limelight as sales outpace those of their once sexier cousin, the eBook.
Where is this growth coming from and is it sustainable?
Statistics released by the American Audio Publishers Association show that the demographic for the average audio listener has changed dramatically in the last 5 years and they are now younger than ever before (24-35 year olds).
It is believed the shift is due to availability of audio content on mobile devices but I wonder if it is also a result of the Harry Potter effect? We are now seeing a generation of children who grew up listening to the audio editions read by Stephen Fry (in the UK) and Jim Dale (in the USA) and they are very much at home with the format, used to buying and consuming audio books.
Audio content has also been increasingly used to enhance apps or podcasts and is frequently used by publishers in interesting and innovative ways in marketing and publicity campaigns. This may also have had a knock-on effect on sales of audio books in general as more and more people got into listening as just another way to enjoy books.
The ways in which audio books are consumed have also changed slightly. We know that they are still mostly used during commutes to and from work, either in the car or on public transport, but the APA research also notes that people are using them to relax at home via their laptops, which is an interesting development.
My personal view is that audio books are great for those boring domestic or DIY chores when your hands are busy, but your mind is free to roam. Listening to a great book makes the time fly.
In the USA, the majority of listeners are adult (87% according to the APA) and the most popular genre is still crime fiction, especially in a series. Thrillers and suspense novels are also big sellers, as is non-fiction in the memoir and history categories. It also seems true that if it's a big seller in print, then it's likely to do well in audio too.
Also growing in popularity are the big budget multi-voice performance audio productions. These are more like mini radio plays, often with a large and prestigious cast, breathing new life into many classic favourites.
Amazon-owned Audible have also enjoyed some high profile publicity over their use of big celebrity names as narrators of classic backlist titles. Their "A List" collection includes readers such as Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet, Colin Firth and Samuel L Jackson, to name just a few, and they are cleverly matched to the content they are narrating.
If you're not yet publishing your books in audio format, then you should definitely be looking into planning your publishing strategy and exploiting your audio rights to the maximum. There's never been a better time to start.
Words by Chris Russell, photos by Daniel Solomons.
Byte The Book’s March event brought together Strathmore Publishing’s Nic Jones, screenwriter and novelist Jeff Norton and literary agent Rachel Mills to discuss the topic of global rights. It was chaired by publisher and entrepreneur Tom Chalmers (IPR License, Legend Press).
Justine thanks our event sponsors, Frankfurt Book Fair (Amy Webster in blue sitting next to Alex Hippisley-Cox in the literary frow)
Rachel, who works for leading literary agency Peters Fraser and Dunlop, began with some background on the importance of global rights to authors. International deals, she explained, are becoming more and more important to the average author’s income. The UK market simply isn’t lucrative enough to sustain most authors and, as a result, those hoping to write full time have become heavily dependent on international sales. She cited the case of Bear Grylls, one of PFD’s clients, as an example - in the UK, a recent title of Grylls’ sold around 50,000 copies. In China, it sold 2.2 million.
Our fabulous panel from left to right: Jeff Norton, Rachel Mills, Nic Jones and chair Tom Chalmers
Managing and nurturing authors’ international profiles is central to Rachel’s job. She pointed out that very rarely would an agent encourage an author to sign world rights to a single publisher since, unsurprisingly, “fifty deals are more lucrative than one”. A wide portfolio of deals also allows an author to earn out each advance separately, which can be hugely beneficial when it comes to royalty distribution.
The audience rapt (Litopia's Ian Winn at the back, agent Patrick Walsh in blue sat up on his chair and Byte the Book's new assistant Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone in the fore)
Jeff Norton, who has worked on every side of the negotiation table (though primarily as a storyteller), had some words of wisdom for the aspiring writers in the room. He called himself “media agnostic”, stating that he “cares passionately about story”, above all else. Books are a very efficient mechanism for delivering stories, he said, but they are far from the only one, so when approaching a new project, writers should keep an open mind about which medium to use. Find the one that’s right for your story, and the audience you want to reach, and build the project from there.
We were immensely grateful to Nic Jones for stepping in at the last minute to cover for Ali Muirden of Creative Content
Nic Jones, who has been with publishing services company Strathmore for twenty years, echoed this sentiment. “Put yourself in the position of your audience”, he said, “and consider who you’re aiming at, and what they want”. Like Jeff, he urged writers to think about which medium their story will work best in, and not just create, say, an audiobook, for the sake of it. Apart from anything else, audiobooks (along with apps, computer games and all the other various channels for delivering stories) are a huge amount of work, and deceptively difficult to do well.
Rachel told us about overseas markets
When the floor was opened to the audience, one writer asked whether authors should be honing and modifying their work, as they create it, for different global territories. Rachel warned against this approach, advocating that writers simply focus on the book they want to write, and let the experts worry about selling it around the world. As Nic put it: “If the author isn’t honest, it shows”.
Libby Whitehouse of IPR License enjoying the event, between her colleague and Amy Webster of Frankfurt Book Fair
Speaking of honesty, one of the highlights of the evening came when Jeff lifted the lid on his submission figures. Talking about the importance of perseverance, he pointed out that although he currently has six screen projects in development, those six victories came from a pool of 286 submissions. “Know what that means?” he asked the audience. “It means 280 people told me to f*** off”.
And in an industry defined by rejection, that was strangely comforting to hear.
Jeff Norton and others networking post talk
If you enjoyed this report and want to keep up with the latest happenings in publishing as well as network with publishers and authors alike keep yourself posted by visiting our events page here. You can join us here.
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Words by Chris Russell, photos by Nicole Kavanaugh.
February’s Byte The Book brought together Crystal Mahey-Morgan of Own It Entertainment, Helen McGinn of The Knackered Mothers’ Wine Club, “Mr Byte-The-Book” himself Daniel Solomons and co-founder of Sorted Food Jamie Spafford to discuss the brave new(ish) world of digital, and how it can be exploited to increase revenue for authors. The event was chaired by the impossibly debonair Tom Chatfield, a writer and broadcaster best known for his book How To Thrive In The Digital Age.
Our fabulous sponsors for the February were ALCS (The Authors Licensing and Collecting Society). In the literary frow, Maureen Duffy and Jonathan Fryer, and behind from right to left, Alison Baxter Barbara Hayes and Katie Webb.
Crystal opened the floor, urging authors to think of their work as “stories” rather than “books”. This philosophy is at the bedrock of Crystal’s company, Own It Entertainment, a “storytelling lifestyle brand” which reaches a variety of audiences by presenting stories in innovative, cross-platform ways. She has, for instance, printed stories on T-shirts, and has found that customers who buy the shirts often go on to buy the book as well, thus flipping the traditional book-to-merchandise trajectory on its head.
Justine Solomons welcoming the crowd and introducing, from left to right, the chair, Tom Chatfield and his panel, Jamie Spafford, Helen McGinn,Crystal Mahey-Morgan and Daniel Solomons.
Daniel, who works at Google Digital Academy as Head Of Delivery, expanded on this topic by emphasising the importance of audience. “The power has shifted from artist to audience”, he explained, quoting David Bowie, and the secret to success is in discovering who your audience is, and nurturing them. This would have been virtually impossible before the advent of digital, but now, authors can mine precise data about their readers and tailor their content accordingly. In short, said Daniel, “data is the new oil”.
Another packed event and lots of listening, tweeting and learning going on.
The importance of conversation was another core theme of the evening. Jamie Spafford, co-founder of wildly popular online cooking channel Sorted Food, stressed that he and his colleagues know far, far less about cooking than their audience do, and that’s part of the fun. “Nothing is a finished article until the community have had their say,” he explained, describing Sorted as “a cooking channel run by people who don’t know how to cook”. Content, he concluded, is conversation, and vice versa. Conversation builds relationships, relationship build communities - and communities spread the word.
Tom masterfully leading the discussion
Helen McGinn of The Knackered Mothers’ Wine Club echoed that sentiment, revealing that taking directly to her audience - and finding out specifically what they want from her content - has been instrumental in building her business in recent years. TKMWC, which grew organically from a casual wine blog into an award-winning brand and best-selling book, owes its success partly to Helen’s willingness to engage with other members of the wine tribe. “Be authentic,” she advised, when connecting with your community. Join in conversations, add value, support your peers. You’ll soon build up a network which will, in time, form the foundation of your readership.
But the real star of the night was Maureen Duffy, seen here again with Jonathan Fryer, Maureen was once described by Rose Tremain as "one of the most honourable and interesting writers we have."
One audience tweet in particular, from Byte The Book regular Derek Farrell, threw an interesting light on the evening: “Amazing how so much huge success starts as ‘We wanted to have a conversation with friends’. Then the circle of friends grows”. An appropriate lesson for the digital age, perhaps, when so much time is spent staring at a screen. At the end of the day, when it comes to storytelling, it’s still human connections that matter.
If you enjoyed this report and want to keep up with the latest happenings in publishing as well as network with publishers and authors alike keep yourself posted by visiting our events page here. You can join us here.
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