How Ebook Buyers Discover Books

Most writers write to get read, so how do readers discover ebooks?

To discover clues to the answer, I posted a survey over at Mobileread, the online forum popular with many ebook readers.

I challenged readers to select the single most common criterion they follow to discover their next read.

The results provide some interesting data points Smashwords authors and publishers might consider in their marketing efforts.

To capture a broad range of usable data, I suggested 12 answers, one of which was "Other." Respondents were allowed to select one answer only since I wanted to identify the single most important discovery criteria.

As of this writing, 206 people answered the survey. Click the image to enlarge it.

Key findings, plus my observations:

1. The most-selected answer was "Recommendations from fellow readers on online message forums, blogs and message boards," with 29% of respondents choosing this. By contrast, only 4% selected, "Personal friend/family member recommends it to me." I think this is fascinating, because it implies readers might trust the collective wisdom of strangers and online acquaintances more than they trust the recommendations of immediate friends and family. At the risk of placing too many eggs in this basket, remember 71% selected something else.

2. The second most common answer was, "I look first for my favorite authors," coming in at 18%. This makes sense. As I mention when I present my Seven Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success talk, the author is the brand and if the author can earn the trust and loyalty of readers, readers will return to that brand for their next read. Readers in this group may also be more risk-averse. One respondent commented, "I'm at a point in life where I mostly stick with authors I already know and like. Why waste time and money on something I may not like?"

3. I found it interesting that the top two answers accounted for 47% of responses, with the other 53% of answers fragmented across ten other answers. This implies, I think, that in order for authors to reach the maximum number of readers, it requires them to orchestrate multiple touch points.

4. Several answers indicate buyers prefer a random discovery approach. Readers like to browse. Taken in the aggregate, random browsing rivals the single largest discovery method, with over 25% of respondents. The following are all random browsing methods: I browse book covers, and if it grabs me I investigate further (7%); I browse randomly then look at reviews (7%); I read free ebooks, and if I like the authors I buy their other titles (5%); I browse paper books at brick and mortar bookstores, then search for the ebook online (4%); I'll sample anything, and if it grabs me I'll download/buy it (4%). Most other answers involve some element of random browsing.

5. The Mobileread community has apparently abandoned traditional print media as their first choice for reviews and recommendations, with only 3% citing this as their preferred book discovery method. This isn't surprising, considering Mobileread is a hyper-focused community dedicated to e-reading. It's not representative of the entire population of book buyers. However, I think Mobileread does serve as a leading indicator of how consumer sentiment will change once readers make the transition to e-reading. Looking at the answers in aggregate, it's clear that over 90% of ebook discovery is occurring in the online realm.

6. I was surprised only 3% of respondents looked first to the bestseller lists, which scored just as poorly as print media reviews. Possibly it's a flaw in how I structured the survey. I was also surprised that retailer recommendations, such as the "people who bought this bought that," scored only 5%. Maybe if I asked, "Name the top three methods you use for discovery," these would have scored higher.

7. The "Other" answers, where I invited Mobilereaders to leave comments and elaborate, elicited 11% of responses. Judging from their comments, several of them found it difficult to choose a single favorite discovery method (in other words, they didn't follow the survey instructions which asked them to choose their #1). Of those who provided true "other" answers, several mentioned they discover books at libraries, or select primarily by title or book description (I should have included these as a survey options).

What to make of the results? How might authors and publishers focus their e-publishing efforts based on the data above? I think it boils down to the following:

• Write a great book that resonates with readers and gives them something to talk about
  
• Target readers who are active in online communities because they influence their fellow readers (The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide provides 30 online marketing ideas)
  
• Maximize the availability of your book so readers can randomly stumble across it and sample it
• Boring titles, unprofessional cover images and poorly written book descriptions are instant turn-offs

Do the findings above match your experience as a reader or author?

Smashwords Adds Longer Book Descriptions

You asked, we listened. Smashwords today added support for longer book descriptions.

Our previous book description supported only 400 characters. Many authors found this limiting. We now offer an optional second, longer description that supports 4,000 characters.

The longer descriptions are available immediately for all new book uploads.

For our current 30,000 + titles (yeah! we surpassed 30K the other day!), you can add the new descriptions by clicking to Dashboard: Settings.

In the next few weeks, the longer descriptions will begin appearing at Smashwords retailers such as Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and Diesel.

If your book is already approved for the Smashwords Premium Catalog, your longer book description will trigger the "Resubmit this book for premium distribution" button. Click the button. This will put your description into our fast track queue for approval (see the approval requirements below). While the description sits in the queue, the previous version will continue to ship to retailers. Some of our retailers support both short descriptions and long descriptions in their feeds, so we'll provide both if available.

After you upgrade your description with the addition of the longer version, we'll automatically ship the longer version to retailers that support it.

As I write this, the feature has been live for only a few minutes and already I see Smashwords author DN Charles from Australia has become the first author to create a long description for their book, Child of the Moon.

As with the previous descriptions, there are some basic dos and don'ts we and our retailers ask you to follow.

First, the "don'ts":

• Don't assume the reader has read your short description
  
• DON'T WRITE THE DESCRIPTION IN ALL CAPS. AVOID ALL CAPS.
• Don't include email addresses or web addresses
• Don't add Smashwords coupon codes (our retailers cannot honor them)
• Don't mention limited-time pricing or other promotions
• Don't mention our retailers' competitors in the description (or in the book for that matter)
  
• Don't insert fancy glyphs or symbols, because these will turn into "?" marks at retailer sites
• Don't make promises the book or the retailer cannot keep
  

And here are some recommended "Dos":

• Do make it a complete, standalone description
• Do make a good first impression. Write snappy, articulate copy that hooks the prospective reader from word one. I'm often surprised when I see authors write an uninspiring description such as "This is my poetry. I hope you like it." J.K. Rowling or Dan Brown could get away with that, but you can't. Take advantage of your description to celebrate your book. Sell!
• Do check your description for typos and grammatical errors (common sense).

The longer descriptions are consistent with our ongoing effort at Smashwords to help our authors, publishers and retail partners improve the visibility and discoverability of Smashwords books. These improvements also improve discoverability of your books at Smashwords.com and in search engines.

In the last few weeks, we've begun distributing author bios and other enhanced metadata to some of our retail partners. At Barnes & Noble, for example, we're now shipping author bios and double BISACs (BISAC codes are industry-standard category identifiers that help retailers place the book on the proper virtual shelf). More to come as we continue evolve our enhanced retailer metadata feeds.