By Tom Collins
Our friend Toby Bloomberg has written a thoughtful and thought-provoking post on how social media and publishers are interacting to sell books. She includes results from a survey that asked the question, "Where did you hear about the book you're reading?"
The #1 answer is (not surprisingly) "Friends." But if you add up all the online sources that can be classified as social media (blogs, websites/review sites, Amazon recommendations/reviews, Twitter, blog promotions/tours) the total is nearly double that of "Friends." And if you consider some bloggers as friends, or if some of the respondents thought "Friends" meant Facebook, the results may be even more dramatic! ;-D
The combination of friends and social media blew away bookstores and libraries and left traditional advertising a not-worth-mentioning afterthought lumped into the "Other" category.
So is social media going to help save publishers? Or is it part of the Publishing 3.0 (r)evolution that will empower authors and readers to connect directly and make traditional publishing irrelevant? I've already left my comment on Toby's post and urge you to go dig into her insights ... and add yours.
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