Highlights from Digital Book World, part 2 (of 2)

The last three days flew by, with so much great information and insights.

Here are some highlights from Tuesday and Wednesday of the 2016 Digital Book World conference:

The final plenary session panel, Women at the Intersection of Publishing, Finance and Tech. (l to r): Joanna Stone Herman, Dominique Raccah, Katherine McCahill, Susan Ruszala and moderator Charlotte Abbott

One slide (of many) sharing some fascinating information about our industry from Data Guy.

Mike Shatskin (Conference Chair; Founder and CEO, The Idea Logical Company):

As shelf space for books shrinks, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google become more important.

Jon Taplin (Director, USC Annenberg Innovation Lab):

$50 billion has moved from content owners to platform owners.

Rand Fishkin (Founder, Moz):

If we know a small handful of the right customers (i.e., readers) we can know their influencers, their social media habits. Survey them. Clone them. Leverage attention by contributing to platforms where they already are.

and

Google drives seven to ten times more traffic than Facebook.

Mary Ann Naples (was Senior VP and Publisher at Rodale, about to start as Publisher at Disney):

Get excited about failure... Do experiments, test your hypotheses.

Data Guy (Data Analyst, Author Earnings):

There's an opportunity for publishers to give debut authors different (lower) pricing so they can find their audience.

Scott Galloway (Clinical Professor of Marketing, NYU Sterns):

Facebook is the most successful thing ever, with 2.3 billion people. They're "giving us the ability to love at scale."

Dominique Raccah (CEO and Publisher, Sourcebooks), on women at the intersection of publishing, tech and finance:

"The ebooks revolution was driven by women. Sorry, guys."

Andy Hunter (The Literary Hub), on content marketing:

 "It doesn't hurt to go very narrow." When you try to go broad, nobody feels like this is for them.

Ricci Wolman (Founder and CEO, Written Word Media), on email marketing:

"The more relevant you can make the content, the better it's going to do."

Highlights From Digital Book World, part 1

I just attended Digital Book World and it's Monday Launch Kids conference, and it was a great experience. There was so much information, insight, and engagement with the process of how all of us in the world of Children's Literature are dealing with the digital changes afoot, that I've broken it up into two posts.

Here are ten highlights from LaunchKids to start:

Dominique Raccah (CEO and Publisher, Sourcebooks), on all the digital possibilities:

It's additive. An "and" transformation, rather than "or."

David Kleeman (Senior VP of Global Trends, Dubit):

Kids prefer print to digital. Kids love to share, which is harder to do in digital.

Kristen McLean (Director of New Business Development, Nielsen Book/Nielsen Entertainment):

Children's is going to be THE growth market... Juvenile nonfiction will be THE growth category for the next 4-5 years.

Jennifer Perry (VP of North America Media Products & Publishing, Sesame Workshop--the Sesame Street people), on apps & ebooks:

"We have not figured out the secret sauce."

Jenny Han (New York Times Bestselling Author): "

"I'm in driver's seat with social media."

Ashley Anderson Zantop (Chief Content Officer, Capstone):

"The kids in kindergarten this year have NEVER been alive without tablets" and will have "fundamentally different expectations of technology."

Agent Joanna Volpe (Agent, New Leaf Literary):

"Focus on engagement rather than # of followers."

...which was followed by Ned Rust (VP, James Patterson Brand & Marketing Director, Hachette Book Group) saying:

"If you get engagement, the #s will grow."

Preeti Chhibber (Senior Editorial Manager, Teens & Book Beat, Scholastic Reading Club, Scholastic):

"The number one thing teens want "is to know someone is listening... that they know we care what they think about books.

Mike Shatzkin (Conference Chair, Founder and CEO The Idea Logical Company):

"If discovery through search matters, giving up on author websites is a big strategic mistake."

Susan Katz (President and Publisher Emeritus, HarperCollins Children's Books):

"Nothing has gone away and everything has been added."

More great highlights of #DBW16 in tomorrow's post!

ps - sorry this Tuesday post is late... the conference was a busy time!