Omni-channel this!

We are one step closer to release of my book on the SAP economy. The edit is done, the next steps are the inside layout, eBook conversion and prep for printing. Assuming all moves well, the media review PDFs should be available by Turkey Day, the eBook on Amazon and in soft cover by middle of December, and the hardbacks in January.

From book being largely written to market availability that’s about three months. Too long for bloggers like Dennis Howlett who asks me “Amazon and Kindle versions to start are your friend - no?” (and even for me - seriously, as a blogger I see how quickly we can get content out). Sure, you can upload anything quickly and make it available as an eBook, but if you want any semblance of consistency with the printed versions, the formatting and design does add time

Why bother with printed versions? Here is the unspoken truth in book world. Business books still sell largely in print. Speaking engagements, marketing campaigns etc all order 00s of copies. Fiction books are bought on an indie basis and ideal for eBook world.

Amazon still has not made bulk distribution of eBooks easy. It would be so easy for an event organizer to hand out gift cards with the book image. But Amazon will not restrict the card to the book being promoted so why would the organizer subsidize some other product? Also consider this - if you order 50 copies of a book, Amazon’s book ranking algorithms still treat it as one copy sold. Someday, Amazon or someone else will make bulk eBook delivery a reality but we are not there yet.

So, you still have to live with offset printing, warehouses, UPS deliveries. Print on demand works fine – again for small orders, and sometimes the quality of the content is compromised.

And you have to live with multiple prices. Amazon encourages eBooks to be priced under $ 10. Print on demand with soft cover does well under $ 20 and hardbacks under $ 30.

Talk about inconsistent UX across channels :)

Here is the good news – three months is a significant improvement over six months Wiley took for previous books. And in that time I have lined up another three case studies for the book.

Almost there, folks – thanks for your patience