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| Book2Look Widget Click to look inside |
I recently attended a Nielsen Book Publisher Seminar which supplied lots of information about the publishing business and the use of ISBNs. Among a lot of other things, they covered electronic trading, the use of metadata, and digital marketing. All useful information which applies to the crowded business of publishing. Did you know there were 178,000 new titles published last year alone, and that 488 new books are published every day? The mind boggles.
One thing that grabbed my attention at this seminar was the session on Book2Look widgets. I’d vaguely heard about these widgets but hadn’t paid much attention. However, as the presentation developed the potential became obvious although I wasn’t sure whether the outlay for the widgets would have any economic benefit for an author. You can find the web presentation on You Tube. Click here to view. You will also find some other shorter You Tube videos. Click here to see a selection.
Promotion and marketing do not come easily to me. It comes from being Scottish and being taught from an early age that you shouldn’t, in the words of my Gran, ‘blow your own trumpet’. So the fact my books are popular does not come from any great efforts on my part. I dabble a bit with Twitter and Facebook but not to any great extent. But even I could see how attractive these widgets were so I decided to give it a whirl and bought a stack of widgets, enough for all of my books.
They came with enough information to get me started. A video webinar, a Quick Guide, and a more in-depth online manual. I found it relatively easy to create my Biblets (that’s what the widgets are called) and instantaneous email help was provided each time I had a query.
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| What you see when you first open the Biblet |
Inside the Biblet, which opens like a book, you can access sample chapters (you choose how many), audio clips, You Tube Videos, a selection of your chosen reviews, plus it automatically inserts information from Goodreads so there is no need to include this yourself. It also includes any shop links you indicate you want included and this is done before you create your Biblet so it automatically links in each time a new Biblet is created.
So, once my Biblets were created I tested the links. All the shop links worked and I was amazed to find I had reviews on Amazon in Germany. Who would have thought? Everything else worked perfectly, the audio, the video and the book sample. I then tested the sharing links and posted to Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest from inside the Biblet. Every single share worked and the Widgets opened in their media destinations.
Why don’t you have a go? Open the widget above and have a look around. There is a menu down the left side of the open widget although once you have clicked one thing it will collapse. Just click the icon with the three dots at the foot of the page and it will open again. If you are using a browser on your PC there is also a tab on the right side of the screen that says ‘Did you know?’ If you click that it will pull out the menu bar. Be my guest and have a play around and let me know what you think of it.
Now I’d compiled and published my Biblets I needed to add them to Blogger, and you can see them all down the left sidebar. If you click on them they will open but I was unable to figure out how to get them to open in a new window (a Blogger thing) so once you’ve opened one you’ll have to use the back button to get back here.
I still have to add them to my website. That’s going to be a major task but I think it will be worth it.
I’m really impressed by the Book2Look widgets. Whether they will pay off for me is another matter but I don’t care, I like them and I think they look good. If you want to check them out this is where you will find them https://www.nielsenisbnstore.com/Home/Book2Look
Do let me know what you think.
Chris Longmuir
Amazon: Author page
