Scott Lorenz of Westwind Communications, a book marketing specialist, argues that Google Book Search will increase the net sales of most kinds of books, but not including academic monographs.
From a book marketing standpoint, it’s a good thing. Why? It’s simple. People can’t buy what they don’t know about. Google Book Search lets people find a book with the topic they’re searching for and allows them to peek inside. If they like it, and want more they can buy it.
Most authors should open up their books to Google and submit them. I say “most.” There are some that should think twice. Academic books that have a low print run and have tiny markets, where there may only be hundreds or dozens of potential buyers may be better off avoiding Google Book Search. For the remaining 378,000 books published in the U.S. and U.K. in 2005, I say go for it!...
As a book marketer, the one thing that’s very clear to me is that any serious promotional campaign must make use of Google Book Search since search engines are the first step taken by people seeking information. And Google remains the leading search engine by about a 2 to 1 margin over Yahoo!
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/03/2006 12:47:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
