blogs.zdnet.com — Bloomsbury, the publisher behind the hit book series 'Harry Potter', has announced that it has plans to create the MySpace of the book world. With the final 'Potter' coming out later this year, and amidst falling profits, the company sees entering the social media space as a way of filling the void.
Apr 4, 2007 View in Crawl 4
bookshortsApr 4, 2007
Bloomsbury wants to create a literary alternative to online communities such as YouTube, Bebo. Seems to be a better use of resources would be using tech like BlipTV, Revver already available -- one then needs only content, focus on brand, and a spend on marketing = more book buyers. Don't waste resources on re-creating what already exists - leverage leverage leverage! ~~~www.BookShorts.com
mrspinApr 4, 2007Submitter
I agree -- a good strategy would be set up shop in existing social networking sites and social cataloging sites to promote certain titles and to build community. However, I'm also sure Bloomsbury want a cut of ad revenue from their online ventures and to sell more books directly (not via Amazon).
bookshortsApr 4, 2007
One *can* sell books directly -- a link to the e-commerce publisher site and you're done. BlipTV now allows addition of a post-roll ad for your own product on your own videos. Both Revver and BlipTV give producers a cut of advertising with having to get into the business of finding advertisers. Publisher can sell graphic ads around the content on their own. Really no down side. A service organization could just as easily set this up, publisher agnostic, pay back proportional ad revs to the participating publishers. Anyone need a business plan (lol!) ~~~~ BookShorts.com