This comprehensive online workshop, The Alliance of Independent Authors, teaches authors how to reach more readers at the Apple iBooks Store. Mark Coker of Smashwords teaches authors how to maximize merchandising opportunities and sales at the world's second largest ebook store. This was part II of a two-part ALLi series featuring Mark Coker. View part I at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3quE1... Learn more about ALLi at http://allianceindependentauthors.org/

1. How to Reach More Readers at the
Apple iBooks Store
Maximize Indie Ebook Merchandising
Opportunities
October 2, 2013
Mark Coker
Founder, Smashwords
Twitter: @markcoker

2. Notes for the Slideshare edition of this
presentation
This presentation was originally presented October 2, 2013,
in a live webinar sponsored by the Alliance of Independent
Authors (ALLi).
It was Part II in a two-part live event.
Part I, titled, “Self Publishing Strategies for Success,”
focused on ebook publishing best practices. View that ALLi
presentation here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3quE1CUvL8
This presentation, Part II, covers iBooks merchandising
strategies. You can view the companion video recording of
this presentation at Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKwwcL_FS_c

3. Part II in the two-part
SMART PUBLISHING STRATEGIES FOR
INDIE AUTHORS
series
sponsored by Alliance of Independent
Authors (ALLi)

4. About this presentation
• What you’ll learn
• Apple’s approach to the ebook
business
• Apple’s ebook strategy compared to
Amazon’s strategy, and what this
means for authors
• How Apple merchandises books
• How indie authors can raise the
visibility of their books in the Apple
store

5. Hello

6. Quick Intro, Mark Coker and
Smashwords
•
Founder of Smashwords, the world’s largest
distributor of self-published ebooks
•
Smashwords is a * FREE * eBook Publishing
Platform
•
•
Distribution to major ebook retailers and libraries
•
•
Free instant ebook conversion and publication
Free learning materials help writers become
professional publishers
Smashwords has been a global authorized
Apple iBooks aggregator since the launch of
the iBooks store in 2010

7. The Problem:
Publishers Controlled Everything
• They controlled the …
• printing press
• distribution
• knowledge to professionally publish

8. My solution: Smashwords
• FREE eBook Publishing Platform
 Free ebook printing press
 Distribution to major ebook retailers and
libraries
 Best practices knowledge to help writers
become professional publishers

9. Ebooks published at Smashwords
250,000+
September 2013
250,000
191,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
92,000
28,800
140 6,000
0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

10. How Smashwords Distribution
Works
•
UPLOAD
•
•
Free conversion to 9 ebook formats
•
•
Upload a Microsoft Word file or .epub
Ready for immediate sale online
DISTRIBUTE
•
•
Distribution to multiple major retailers
GET PAID
•
Author receives 85%+ of net = 60% list from major
retailers

11. Ebook retailers want indie
ebooks

12. LET’S GET STARTED

13. THE APPLE OPPORTUNITY

15. Quick Introduction to Apple
iBooks
•
Launched in April 2010, concurrent with iPad
launch
•
Millions of customers who only shop here
•
Over 600 million iOS devices sold
•
Over 150 million iBooks apps downloaded
•
Over 2 million books listed
•
Operates in 51 countries
•
45% of sales outside US (Smashwords books)
•
#2 global ebook seller 2012
•
#3 US ebook seller 2012 (will be #2 in 2013)

16. APPLE’S AMBITION

17. Apple’s Ambition
Don’t underestimate Apple
Apple wants to do for digital
books what they did for digital
music – become #1

18. Comparing and Contrasting Apple to
Amazon

19. Apple vs. Amazon
• What they have in common:
•
Both are fanatical about customer
satisfaction
•
Both would rather please a customer than make a
buck
•
Both expanding their multi-billion dollar
digital media businesses (music, film,
television, apps, books!)
•
Both ridiculously smart and forward looking
•
Both expanding internationally

20. Apple vs. Amazon
• Where they differ: Hardware
•
Hardware competency
•
•
•
Amazon: The underdog in hardware
Apple: No one does hardware like Apple
Installed base
•
•
•
Amazon: ????
Apple: Over ½ billion devices
Watch the hardware battle
•
Installed base of devices, more than anything
else, will determine the winner in Amazon vs.
Apple ebook battle

21. Apple vs. Amazon
• Where they differ: Reading Apps
•
Amazon:
•
•
•
Allows reading from Amazon library across
multiple devices and platforms
Amazon app’s features are limited, but functional
Apple:
•
Better UI/UX: better font options, vertical
scrolling, full page, night reading, etc.
•
Robust and user-friendly support for ePub 3, fixed
layout, and embedded media (video and audio)

22. Apple vs. Amazon
• Where they differ: Partnership strategy
•
Amazon: “A favorite Bezos aphorism is
‘Your margin is my opportunity.’ ”
– Fortune Magazine 11/16/2012, story by Adam Lashinsky
•
•
•
Vertical disintermediation from book creation to
book selling
Leverages its power to put squeeze on suppliers
(authors/publishers)
Apple: Actively engages with partners
•
Partners closely with distributors like
Smashwords and major publishers
•
Offers suppliers same margins globally, even in
markets where Apple is sole major ebook player
* http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/16/jeff-bezos-amazon/

23. Apple vs. Amazon
Where they differ: ebook retailing
•
•
Amazon
•
Amazon book sales larger than Apple, but market share has
dropped from ~90% to ~55% since Apple’s entry in 2010
•
Amazon’s retail store is the gold standard for algorithmic book
discovery, comes from browser background
•
Kindle for PC/Mac/Linux apps reading on any device
•
Apple
•
gaining market share
•
merchandising is more editorially focused
•
store within iBooks app and iTunes on the Web
•
no apps for browser reading on non-iOS devices
•
store not as web browser friendly

24. Apple vs. Amazon
•
Where they differ: Exclusivity
•
Amazon: Exclusivity is central to ebook retailing
strategy
•
exclusive content pulls customers away from Amazon’s
retail competitors
•
authors who don’t agree to exclusivity get lower
royalties, less discoverability, less pricing flexibility
•
makes authors more dependent upon Amazon by
undermining author’s long term platform building at
Amazon’s retail competitors
•
Apple: Exclusivity not part of strategy
•
no exclusivity programs
•
same high royalty rate for all territories without
exclusivity
•
Can price at FREE without exclusivity

25. Apple vs. Amazon
• Where they differ: Author engagement
•
Engagement style
•
Amazon: Heavy handed
•
price matching, sends threatening emails to authors
•
restricted FREE
•
Apple: Light touch
•
enforcement is content-related, and on formatting quality
•
NOT friendly to erotica
•
no history of price matching or threatening emails
•
unrestricted FREE pricing

26. Let’s learn about merchandising at Apple
iBooks

27. What is Merchandising?

28. For Authors, Merchandising is a
Fast-Track to Visibility
• Equivalent to front-of-store placement
with a big “Recommended!” sticker
• Merchandised books have HUGE
discovery and sales advantage
• greater visibility to customers
• increases sales trigger additional
automated discovery advantages (also
boughts, bestseller list ranking)
• no cost to author, no exclusivity!

29. The Job of the Apple iBooks
Merchandiser
• Apple maintains a global team of
merchandising professionals
• Seeks to feature books that will please
readers
• Everything else is irrelevant
• Must have confidence in the title
• They’re agnostic re: traditionallypublished books vs. indie books
• Indies have some advantages!

30. How Apple Promotes Featured
Books
• Front-of-store promotion on iBooks
home page and in sub-catalogs
• Often accompanied by custom artwork
• Email promotions
• Rare to get this: the equivalent of winning
the lottery
• Social media
• Apple’s Twitter account has 200,000+
followers

31. Merchandising Options
•
Feature types
•
Single-title feature
•
Sneak Peeks (preorders with samples)
•
Price promos
•
Topical and themed features
•
•
Holidays and calendar events
•
Current events
•
Genre features
•
Price ranges
•
•
Author-specific features (full or subset of list)
What’s hot
Breakout Books!

32. Let’s view some of these merchandising
features

33. How iBooks’ “Shelves” are
Organized
•
Built inside free iBooks app
•
Front “Featured” page of app shows
multiple categories of features
•
Major features at top
•
Brick features horizontally
•
•
By genre, author, book, category, price range, topic, etc
Quick links to
•
“Top Charts” bestseller lists, by category
•
Top authors
•
Search

34. Breakout Books: Special Merch
Feature for Indie Authors Only
•
In late 2012, Apple launched an indie-only
promotion called Breakout Books, first in
Australia, then worldwide
•
A recurring, regularly
updated feature in AU, NZ
US, UK, Canada and others
•
Receives front-page promo
•
Hundreds of Smashwords
authors have been featured!

35. Top of store
rotator
Major themed
feature
Multiple minifeatures
“Bricks”
iPhone

36. iPhone

37. iPad
US promo

38. iPad

39. Discovery via Bestseller lists
Storewide
By category

40. iPad

41. How to get your book found on iBooks

42. How to drive discovery in iBooks
I’ll share:
1. What the author can do
2. What Apple does for you

43. 1. What the author can do

44. What the author can do to get
found
• Get your books to Apple iBooks!
• Complete list
• FREE promos and perma-FREE
• Free titles yield ~91x more downloads than
priced
• Author marketing
• Promote direct links to your book page at Apple
•
On blog and web site
•
On all social media
•
Apple offers helpful online marketing tools (next slides…)

45. Apple Tools: Widget Builder
•
Get at http://widgets.itunes.apple.com/builder/

46. Apple Tools: Link Maker
•
Get at https://itunes.apple.com/linkmaker

47. Other tricks for finding your
book’s hyperlink at Apple
•
Google ‘book title Apple iBookstore’ then click on
the listing
•
Use the ISBN:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn97814760004
11
^ country code
^^
ISBN

48. Apple Tools: Banner Builder
1
2
3
4
5
6
Go to https://banners.itunes.apple.com/

49. Apple Tools: Badges and Buttons
• Go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/
then click Linking Tools, then click “Get
badge and art guidelines”

50. Apple Tools: Join the Apple
iBooks Affiliate Program
•
Join at http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/
•
Earn extra 7% list on all sales of all digital media
products for 24 hours
•
some geographic restrictions apply

51. 2. How Apple Helps Authors Get Found

52. How Apple Helps Readers Find Your
Book
1. Automated merchandising
2. Merch team selects titles

53. 1a. How Apple Gets You Found
•
Search
•
•
•
Customer searches for your title or author name
Web search
Bestseller lists
•
Customer-sales driven, unit volume
•
+ Category filters
•
Also boughts
•
Other books by this author
•
“Buy this book” at end of samples
•
Preorders (next slide)!

54. 1b. Preorders (Smashwords
delivers preorders to Apple, B&N
and Kobo!)
• Customers reserve copy before book is
officially available
• Can download free sample
• At onsale date, accumulated preorders
credit at once, causing spike in sales
rank and increased discoverability
• Tips for preorder success
• Budget 4-8 weeks preorder runway
• Promote heavily during preorder period
• More at www.smashwords.com/preorders

55. How Apple Selects Books for
Merchandising Love

56. How Apple Selects Books for
Merchandising
• Can only feature a small number of
books each week (less than 1 in
20,000, or .005%)
• Global merch team considers
combination of factors to gain
confidence to recommend a book
• 1. Customer-driven factors
• 2. Book/Author-specific factors
• 3. Publisher/distributor recommendations

57. 1. Customer-driven editorial factors

58. 1a. Customer-driven factors
• Leverages customer-driven metrics to
identify books worthy of promotion
• Sales performance
•
What’s trending, what’s holding
•
Preorders - Apple and Smashwords track preorder
rates
•
What’s selling well at other Smashwords
retailers?
• Customer ratings and reviews
• Most downloaded free titles
•
Does author have priced titles too?

59. 1b. How to earn the attention of
Apple’s customers
•
Requires a consistent, long term focus
•
Bestsellers invariably earn 4.5+ stars and “WOW”
reviews
•
Great book + great cover + great price + great promo
plan
•
Promote your Apple titles on your blog, website and in
social media
•
Each of Apple’s 51 territories represents a separate
micro-market
•
It takes time to build readership in each market
•
Distribute all your titles to Apple, and never remove
•
A breakout in a smaller market may catch attention of other merch
managers (K. Moseley broke out first in AU!)
•
Pre-orders (now at Smashwords!)

60. 2. Book/author-specific factors

61. 2. Book/Author-Specific Factors
• Factors for editorial judgment
• Apple merch team reads books!
• Cover design
• Look at author track record, platform
• Evaluate author marketing plans and
social media platform
• Breadth of author list
• Series starters

62. 3. Publisher/distributor
recommendations

63. Smashwords recommendations
•
Apple makes all merchandising decisions, but
they also regularly solicit input from
publishers and aggregator partners such as
Smashwords
•
Smashwords aggregates sales data from
Smashwords-distributed titles, shares with Apple
•
Sell at Smashwords store
•
Distribute with Smashwords!
•
We track preorder performance
•
If you have a track record at Apple, provide
Smashwords advance notification of new
releases

64. Preorder Case Study

65. Kirsty Moseley Case Study
• April 30, 2012, published this
at Smashwords …
• Published next title
October 31, 2012…

66. Kirsty Moseley
•
Limited marketing beyond social media, Wattpad
•
Maintained pricing at $2.99
•
Maintained non-stop distribution everywhere
•
Sales grew organically, held steady and strong
•
Great “wow” reviews, 4.5 stars+
•
Caught attention of merch mgr in Australia
•
•
•
Led to on store promo, which led to greater breakout in AU
Titles sold well, caught attention of other merch mgrs,
broke out in other countries
Alerted Smashwords in advance of next
release, FREE FALLING

67. Kirsty Moseley
May 15 Launch of FREE FALLING

68. FREE FALLING Launch May 15
•
Carefully orchestrated multi-stage campaign
involving Apple’s global merch team,
Smashwords and Kirsty Moseley
1. Pre-order with sample (first for Smashwords!)
2. Front of store promo in multiple countries
3. Inclusion in multiple front-page standalone features
and group features in weeks leading to launch
4. Author promotion
5. Multiple email blasts
•
Hit #2 in US, UK, Australia and Canada on
launch day after Dan Brown!

69. Home Page Merchandising of
Free Falling (one of several)

70. Home Page Merchandising of
Free Falling

71. Book page to sample download

72. Sample reading to buying preorder

73. All pre-orders at Apple credit to
sales rank on day one

74. Thanks for watching!

75. Summary of Key Points
•
Apple is the world’s second largest ebook retailer
•
Every week, Apple is providing indie authors highprofile promotion alongside traditional publishers
•
If a book is selected for merchandising love, it can
dramatically increase the author’s sales
•
Title selection for merchandising love is merit-based
•
Write a book that WOWS Apple customers
•
Make sure your marketing supports Apple and their
millions of customers
•
If you’re a Smashwords author, and your book is among
our top sellers at other retailers, we’ll advocate for you at
Apple (because Apple realizes we can help spot promising
titles worthy of promo love).

76. Free Ebook Publishing Resources
•
Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (best practices of
successful authors)
•
Smashwords Book Marketing Guide (how to market any
book)
•
Smashwords Style Guide (how to format an ebook)

77. Connect with Smashwords
Web: www.smashwords.com
Blog:
blog.smashwords.com (offers
email subscription option)
Facebook: facebook.com/Smashwords
Twitter: @markcoker