Google Book Search Helps Authors Sell More Books

The jury is in… and it’s a split decision. Split on the Google Book Search Program that is. Some people love it. Others think it’s the apocalypse. I really don’t want to get into the legal ramifications, copyright law and every other argument out there. The bottom line: 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. I say go for it!

And that’s the point. The world is awash in books. Bowker says 172,000 books were published in the United States, plus 206,000 published in the UK last year! How can Borders, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, your local library or anyone else effectively sell or showcase that number let alone the millions of previously printed titles? Google has created a way for author’s and publisher’s current and back-listed books to be found, read and purchased. Book marketers, authors and publishers should embrace this enthusiastically.

Are there some issues in the program? Yes, and Google in my opinion is trying to deal with them by keeping the rules and policies flexible and by reacting to the feedback and legal decisions. But they are truly trying to move the world forward and improve distribution of knowledge while still protecting copyrights and ownership of that information. Google is being bold in their efforts and should be applauded by the publishing industry and authors alike.

Obviously Google is not doing this for its health. Their motive is clearly for profit by making money offering sponsored ads the same way they make it on their regular search service. Although Google management thinks they are a bit more altruistic. “The main motive is to make search more comprehensive," said Jen Grant of Google. "Many of the books that we include in the program do not include sponsored ads. By including the books of the world in its search engine, Google is increasing the relevancy and usefulness of search for users and connecting them to more information from more of the world's authors and publishers.”

Authors and publishers profit since the book is linked to their respective websites. Google does not profit directly from book sales as of now. How long that will last is up for debate as they are clearly leaving money on the table. With a market cap north of $100,000,000,000 Google (GOOG) is by no means as selfless as the transcribing monks of yesteryear. But, hey, profit is a good thing.

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! (YHOO)

Here’s how it works. Go to https://books.google.com/partner/, sign up for the program. If Google determines you are eligible they will e-mail you information about your account, including instructions for shipping your book materials to Google. Eligibility requirements are that the book must have an ISBN number and must not contain illegal content. Besides English, books are accepted in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian and most European languages. Once Google receives a physical copy of your book the key portions will be scanned and indexed.

As a result, when a user conducts a search with key words related to your book, a link appears in the Google search results. Each Google Book Search result listing shows the books’ title and author, a short excerpt containing the highlighted search terms and the excerpt’s page number. This information then leads users to a Google-hosted web page on which the search terms appear along with a scanned image of your book and publisher information and links to the online booksellers handling your book.

The Google-hosted web page is generated from information that is scanned from your book. Links on this page include “About This Book,” “Copyright”, “Index,” and “Buy This Book.” An image of the book cover appears along with the portion of your book related to the user’s search terms.

Google protects the content of a book by preventing anyone from copying or printing selected portions or from downloading the entire book. Pages displaying the content have all print, cut, copy and save functions disabled. Google only shows full pages of the book if the publisher agrees. The Snippet View offers the potential buyer the opportunity to view a few sentences from the book and some information about the book. The Sample Pages View offers the potential buyer limited number of pages of the book to read. The Full Book View allows the entire book can be viewed. The author or publisher still retains all content rights. Google Book Search is a book-marketing program, not an online library, and so the entire book will not be made available online unless the author chooses to do so.

Arcadia Publishing in Mt. Pleasant, SC, is one of the book publishing firms that has learned it can reach new buyers for several thousand titles with Google Book Search. When the Arcadia team heard about Google Book Search in the fall of 2004 through colleagues in the publishing industry, they decided to explore adding the program to their marketing efforts. Everingham notes that initially, "Within the company, we had some questions about how this would work with our current contracts, and our general consensus was that our standard contract allows us to use a certain percentage of the content to promote the title,” says Kate Everingham, Director of Sales. “And Google Book Search clearly has copyright protected every page, so we were very satisfied." Arcadia submitted all of its front-list titles, and then submitted every single available title in its catalog.

The appeal of Google Book Search for Arcadia is that it provides a tool to increase visibility and public awareness of what Arcadia does and that ends up influencing sales. Google Book Search provides a means for Arcadia to market its books outside of the predictable, and limited, local areas they reach. Currently, Arcadia has more than 1,000 titles in Google Book Search, another 1,000 in process.

Another book publisher that experienced significant success using Google Book Search Partner Program is Crossway Books of Wheaton, Illinois. Crossway is the book division of Good News Publishers, a not-for-profit Christian ministry. Crossway's catalog contains some 400 active titles in fiction, nonfiction, gift and children's books. Crossway produces about 60 new books a year.

Crossway's online marketing consisted of keyword advertising through Google AdWords. This drove qualified traffic to their website, but when Google Book Search launched in October 2004, Crossway's director of operations realized the value in enabling customers to search the full content of Crossway titles. Google Book Search offered another way to raise visibility for its titles as well as drive additional traffic to the website.

"Our objective was to instantly connect readers and potential readers with the content of our books, right down to the word level," says Crossway Vice President of Marketing Randy Jahns. "We strongly believe that letting people browse our books improves sales through all channels. Google Book Search makes them available to people who might not otherwise encounter them – in homes, libraries, and businesses around the world." At present, more than 350 of Crossway's 400-plus title catalog are live on Google Book Search. On the Crossway site, each title features a link to that specific book on Google Book Search.

Once signed up, you have your own account that will provide detailed book level reporting on page impressions (a viewing of one of your excerpt pages), ad clicks, “Buy This Book” clicks, and ad revenue generated on your account. Your reports are updated throughout the day as activity occurs, allowing you to track performance. For more book marketing ideas including Google Book Search visit: www.westwindcos.com/book

About Google Book Search
Google Book Search enables publishers to promote their books on Google. Google scans the full text of participating publishers' titles so that Google users can see books that match the topics they are searching on. When users click on a book search result, they're taken to a Google-hosted web page displaying a scanned image of the relevant page from the book. Each page also contains multiple "Buy this Book" links, which enable users to purchase the book from online retailers. Users may also see contextually targeted Google AdWords ads on these pages. Publishers will receive a share of the revenue generated from ads appearing on their content. Visit: https://books.google.com/partner


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