Mary Carlomagno, director of sales and business development at Bowker, writes:
Bowker is extending its publisher service offerings with Book2Look, the ‘view inside’ widget featured on Bookshop.org.
Most publishers know the Bowker name through the ISBN agency, but today Bowker offers a suite of services that help with every function of the publishing process. Bowker general manager Beat Barblan explains: ‘It really comes down to discoverability; there are more books being published every year, so creating online marketing tools that can help a title stand out matters.’ As Book2Look has been adopted by more and more publishers, it is now considered the industry standard, moving it from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’, continues Barblan.
Book2Look (or ‘Biblets’) gives customers the option of previewing a few pages of a book while browsing, increasing the likelihood of purchase. Market research shows that the option to look inside a book before purchase is among the top deciding factors after a book’s author, the topic and/or genre, and the price. At Bookshop.org, which has featured the Biblets for a year, there has been success. According to Bookshop.org CEO Andy Hunter, books with Biblets are three times more likely to be purchased and have a 35% increase in cart value.
More than just an elegant flowable reader, Book2Look is offering publishers a deep analysis of where their books are being viewed online and even how long readers are engaging. Average view times range from four to six minutes. The research highlights that these statistics are promising: when a reader engages with a title, they are more likely to purchase.
After a very successful free trial period sponsored by Bowker, the exclusive US distributor of Book2Look, over 400 publishers now have Biblets in their marketing plans, including small and independent presses. Dr Kurt Brackob of Histria Books, an early adopter, says: ‘Book2Look has empowered our marketing team and our authors with the flexibility and usage data to better promote our books on social media, expand our digital footprint, and ultimately drive sales.’ The analytics component of the product is easy to access through a publisher dashboard, which provides key metrics like page views, click-throughs and time spent in Biblets.
With Book2Look, publishers can add their own ‘DNA’ onto their Biblets—adding video clips, audio clips and reviews, all of which enable the reader to experience the book in more depth before purchase. These features, which publishers can embed into their ecommerce sites, are showing increased engagement. Kelly Hannagan, senior digital manager for Johns Hopkins University Press, says: ‘Since integrating this functionality, we have seen a remarkable surge of 350% in the duration spent on our book pages. This innovative feature has not only enhanced our website, it’s also a huge win for our customers.’
In terms of affordability, Bowker has kept the price point low, offering promotions, such as a free backlist upload when new titles are purchased. This feature has been very popular with smaller presses, where marketing budgets are traditionally small and usually nonexistent for backlist titles. Independent publisher the Warbler Press engaged in the free trial last year and has now added all this year’s frontlist. ‘After creating and posting Biblets for my entire list, my sales increased by ten per cent in the first month,’ says publisher Mary Bahr.
Bowker offers Book2Look to self-publishers as well; it is featured on the company’s My Identifiers website. As with all Bowker products, US customer service reps are available to answer questions about any Bowker products from 9 to 5 EST on the phone and via email, isbn-san@bowker.com.
Future aims for Book2Look include continuing to grow, with a focus on adding more retailers in the US and Australia; solidifying more distribution channels; and continuing to sign up more social media savvy presses like Regal House, the 2021 Foreword Reviews Independent Publisher of the Year. Regal House editor-in-chief and publisher Jaynie Royal is looking forward to more engagement for her list. ‘We are seeing an expanded digital footprint for our catalogue, increased press brand awareness, and easily accessed quality content in a variety of formats for our readers and for booksellers interested in shelving our titles—all of which drives sales and furthers audience engagement,’ says Royal. ‘We could not be more excited about our partnership with Book2Look.’
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