Instant Gratification

I've decided that the internet is highly to blame for our need for instant gratification. I will immediately admit that when something on-line doesn't work as smoothly as advertised or as instantly I get highly annoyed. Most of my annoyance, I think, is completely warranted and legitimate. I will explain:

We've all been told over and over that the best way to go with bill paying is to go paperless. I'm all for saving the trees and ink that gets wasted on pages and pages of bills. Going paperless is supposed to simplify everyone's lives and we're not supposed to worry about paying these bills anymore, because they are automatically pulled out of your checking/savings/or some other account. What happens when there's a glitch in the system though?

Twice this month I've had a glitch negatively effect my finances. Every single month for the past year I've had my credit card bill automatically paid and I've never had an issue--until now that is. I followed the lovely instructions that my credit institution provided me, telling me that I should go in and check all of my settings and make any updates that were necessary. I did that. I also decided to simply change my payment date (nothing huge, just a few days). I even thought I was being smart about this decision and made sure that this update wouldn't effect my current billing cycle. I signed out and went on my merry way. And then the glitch hit me 1 month later. The online system decided to change my current billing cycle! This wasn't supposed to happen. I called this institution to see what could be done. They were apologetic and agreed with me that this shouldn't have happened because I had posted the date I wanted everything to go into effect. How did they explain this situation to me? "I'm sorry, there was a minor glitch in the system. It shouldn't happen in the future Ms. Woods." Their use of shouldn't didn't leave me with much confidence in making any future updates to my account.

My second glitch experience goes well beyond annoyance. I will even give you the name of the institution to blame for this issue, Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo loves to advertise all of the online capabilities that they have. They fail to tell you that the majority of the time their systems are down and highly unreliable. I have been trying to sign a master promissory note for 5 days. I have been filling in all of my information in this nicely designed box that's supposed to make student's lives easier. I correctly insert my identifying numbers and press submit. A nice little message pops up telling me that my identifying numbers are nowhere to be found in their system and to "please" give them a call for further instructions. I called. I got to talk to a very nice woman who was very helpful and went well out of her way to try to fix the problem. Nothing was working and what made both her and I upset was the fact that her computer screen said everything was filled out correctly, but for some reason just wasn't going through. She nicely called this a "glitch" and to try again later and on a different computer and if nothing worked, to call back and someone would get to the bottom of this issue.

I called back. This call did not go so well. This issue can be blamed on poor customer service skills. This new helper told me I was filling in the boxes wrong and in a very snippy, know-it-all tone told me she "needed" to walk me through the process. I told her that I understood the process and that there was a "glitch" in the system that wasn't accepting my information. She got angry with me so I requested to speak with her supervisor. She put me on hold for 11 minutes (I really timed it)and then told me she was sorry and that she forgot I was on hold. This must have been a glitch, right? When I finally got to talk to her supervisor she told me that whoever told me that there was a "glitch" in the system was incorrect and that any problems with the Wells Fargo site were being taken care of. I do believe that that is an admittance to a glitch in the system.

I never was able to get the instant gratification that was guaranteed to me through either of these fine institutions websites. These institutions need to realize that when guaranteeing people that something is going to be easier and much more efficient, that people will become upset when "glitches" appear. Especially when dealing with money.

Amazon the Powerful

How do I feel about Amazon's power in the literary market? Uneasy.

Amazon has been at the top of the on-line literary market for quite awhile and they have enjoyed every minute of it. They've been able to set up the "rules" that each publisher has to follow in order to have their books sold on Amazon. Amazon flexed their muscles and took control of pricing.

Sure, each publisher has the option to not sell their books on Amazon, but in reality that would be a big mistake. Sales are so high at Amazon and publishers don't want to miss out on the opportunity to make a sale. This is how the book industry makes their money. No one wants to turn their back on a for sure sale.

The problem with all of this is that Amazon has gotten a big head over the years and they believe that what they say should be indisputable. They have forgotten that they are just one aspect of a publishers book sales and want to be treated as the highest priority.

The risks of Amazon's growing dominance is that they will treat more and more publishers in the same manner as they did Macmillan. Pulling down buy buttons hurts more than just the publishers sales: it hurts the author, readers, and the reputation of Amazon. Who wants to do business with someone/something when they're going to hit below the belt and ignore all possible harmful side effects.

Amazon may continue to do business in the same manner, and they will probably continue to be successful. But, it's the publishers who decide to take a stand on all of the "rules" (Macmillan and Hachette) and make their own demands that will change the way Amazon works. I doubt that Amazon will fall any time soon, but I do think they're going to have to do business in a different way in order to fill the needs of their book buying customers. They can't continue to remove buttons and think that's a good way to handle disagreements.

If their business model doesn't change, that's when Amazon's power will really get scary.

It doesn't hurt to complain

So I had to purchase The Elements of Graphic Design for publishing software. Instead of buying a brand new one from the bookstore I decided to search for a used one on Amazon. Low and behold, I found it. It was only $10.00 and according to the little blurb about it's physical condition, it was in "good" shape with only a few markings on some of the pages. I decided that that wasn't a big deal, so I made my purchase.

Ten days later my book arrived. I was excited at the time because my software class had already been going for a week and I was getting behind in the reading. As soon as I got in the door I opened the package. The cover looked better than "good." It was in perfect condition, not even bent corners from being in someone's backpack.

Then, I opened it up. It was horrible! Every, and I mean EVERY page was covered in highlighter, underlining, or my personal favorite, a combination of both. I looked over my order and made sure I had actually purchased the book I thought I had. According to the receipt it was indeed the one deemed in "good" condition with only a few markings.

I decided to just suck it up and not waste my time returning it. Honestly, I didn't have the luxury of even considering it because I had a lot of reading to do in it.

Then this past Tuesday I got an e-mail from Amazon asking me to rate the books I had ordered over the past month. I decided to be completely honest. I thought over exactly what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it (considering you're only allowed so many characters for reviews) and then I went to town. I politely warned any other prospective buyers of this bookseller (I won't use their name)to be weary of any ratings that say "good" and "a few markings" and to consider a different seller because they will be disappointed when their eyes are assaulted by blazing yellow and black squiggly lines. I wasn't rude. Just honest.

Five minutes after posting my review I received an e-mail from the bookseller. He thanked me for my "well written" and "linguistically pleasing review" and asked if I would consider removing my comments if I were to receive a full refund (shipping and handling included). He didn't want his family run business to lose their five star rating. I politely replied to him saying that I would gladly remove my comment as soon as I was refunded and I asked that he or whoever writes their little book quality descriptions to be more honest.

I received my refund almost instantly and I e-mailed him again saying that I appreciated his customer service skills and he responded by saying that I was a valued customer and that they would consider my requests.

The moral of this little story is that it doesn't hurt to complain. I was polite and never demanded anything. I just wanted them to know that I was not satisfied with my book. In this case I got a full refund out of it. I didn't ask for a full refund, I actually asked him to send me a copy that didn't have any marks in it, but in the end that is was I got. It's important to advertise truthfully and not to guarantee that a product will be in "good" condition when it's not even in fair condition.

Brand Marketing v. Product Marketing

Brand Marketing and Product Marketing:
Brand marketing is the marketing of the broad "name" of a company. Product marketing is the marketing of each individual product that the company has.
For example: Microsoft is the brand and the iPhone, iPad, iPod, iPod touch,and all of the other items are the products that are individually marketed.

It's easy to imagine that publishers look at each individual book as the product they need to market, but that isn't always the way it goes. In reality, the author's name becomes the product. Unlike book titles, the author's name doesn't change. It's a steady, dependable factor in the sale of the book. The author's name also draws attention to new titles, especially if their previous publications were bestsellers or award winning.

I don't think publishers spend as much time marketing their name as they do the author's. The reason I think this is because I don't know many people who walk into a bookstore and say, "I'm looking for the newest title released by Penguin." More than likely, a person is going to ask for the newest book by Nicholas Sparks or some other popular author.

I think product marketing is more effective than brand marketing. People know what products they like even if they don't know exactly who manufactures or publishes them. If product marketing is done well, then the brand will succeed as well.

Get them interested while their young

I grew up with a book in my hands rather than a Nintendo DS or a PSP and I owe this to my parents. Before I could even read I loved books. Taking a trip into town to go to the library was a weekly adventure that my mom set up for me and my older sister and brother. I don't think we ever missed a week and often we were there twice a week so I could go to "Story Time" and fall in love with some award winning children's book. While I was roaming the aisles searching for books I hadn't checked out before I wasn't wasn't thinking about some new electronic game that I could be playing, I was trying hard to pick books that had beautiful pictures and stories I had never heard before. Sure, there weren't nearly as many cool electronic gadgets fighting for my attention, but even when there were I turned to books.

I spent the last two years working as a full time nanny and part of my job description was to get the children interested in books. Rest time became my favorite part of the day, not because Anja was going to nap or play alone quietly, but because I had a full 45 minutes to spend one-on-one with her to just read--no other distractions.

Children's minds are so amazing and there are authors and illustrators who take this into consideration when they write. I search for these books and I have found that books with the Theodore Seuss Geisel award stamped on them do a fantastic job of captivating little kids with both illustrations and words. In a nutshell, this is the awards purpose. This award is given to authors and illustrators of beginning readers only.

It can be hard to get children to sit down and want to read, but if you have the right book, how can a child honestly say no. I recommend searching out these award winning books. They are written in simple language so kids can use them to learn how to sound words out or for sight recognition and the pictures are always beautiful.

If we want children to love to read as much as we do, we need to put in the effort. Set up a time just for reading and stick with it. As a nanny, it worked really well for me. Here's a link to the American Library Associations information on the Geisel award. Check it out.

"http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardgrants/bookmedia/geiselaward/index.cfm"

Direct Sales...

Question:
The vast majority of online consumer book sales are not conducted on publishers' web sites, but this hasn't stopped most publishers from targeting their web sites primarily at consumers. What do you think is the reasoning behind this? Do you think that book publishers can expect to see significant, ongoing growth in direct sales through their web sites? Should the presence or lack of strong direct sales affect the manner and extent to which publishers address their web sites to the general reading public (as opposed to their primary market of booksellers)?

Part of the reason I put Harper Perennial's website on my bad list was due to the fact that they blatantly ignored all of their markets except for the one that wasn't doing them much benefit--direct consumers. Their entire site was laid out for their benefit. I think publishers websites are designed with the hope of increasing their direct sales. They have chosen to target a market that they are the least successful at reaching.

I think it's a waste of a publishers time to put so much of their time into designing websites to increase direct sales. To be completely honest, I would never buy a book directly from a publishers website unless it was the only possible place I could get it. On the Harper Perennial website one of their new releases is The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell. Their hardcover price is $24.99. This book was just released on January 19, 2010. Why would I pay that price when I could go to Amazon and get it for $11.00? I think this is exactly why consumers don't buy directly from the publishers website. The price is crucial and people are always hunting for a deal.

Even though direct sales are low, I still think it's important that the publishers website markets towards direct sales. For me, that just comes with the territory. Some people will buy their books this way while the majority will head to a bookstore or Amazon to do their shopping. Do I think they should keep that as their primary goal? No. Providing more information for booksellers seems like a more logical choice. If more time and energy was given towards them this would most likely increase sales elsewhere.

My opinion: a target market is a market no matter how small. Attention should be given to all, but publishers need to be realistic and prioritize their websites. It is important to reach the ones who are creating the most revenue first.

Blogging Tips

Blogging is brand new to me, so I've been reading articles about how to create a successful blog. They all say pretty much the same things. If you're a frequent blogger or a new one just like me, I hope these tips are helpful to you.

1. Update Frequently
Don't forget to post on your blog. If you want people to notice you, you have to make sure you're giving your blog the time and attention that you want from your audience(s).

2. Comment on Successful Blogs
Be a follower of successful blogs in your niche and comment on their blogs. This is an easy way to get your name and voice out there. Your comment leads to potential clicks to your blog. Successful blogs have found their audiences and are reaching them well. It's ok to use them for your benefit. When you're commenting, make sure your comments are well written and a great representation of you. The better your comments are, the more likely you'll gain more readers off of the already successful blogs.

3. Do Your Research
Use blogging directories to find the most popular blogs in your niche. There are quite a few of different directories you can use, I have listed several below.
- Technorati www.technorati.com
- Blog Catalog www.blogcatalog.com
- Blogarama www.blogarama.com
- Bloghub www.bloghub.com
- Blogging Fushion www.bloggingfushion.com

4. Gain Credibility
The best way to gain credibility is by providing original content on your blog. People want to read something new, not something reguritated. Hopefully people will like your originality and keep coming back to read more and more,which will build your web traffic. Don't steal something off of someone else's blog. There's no need to upset people. Always think about copyright laws.


5. Whatch Your Web Stats
You want to know who is coming to your blog. Knowing your audience well will keep you ahead of the game. With this information you can configure your blogs around your readers and possibly fill their needs in new ways. You can add a blog log widget to keep an eye on the web traffic you are gaining.

6. Cut Down on the Clutter
Keep your blog clean. Don't fill it with useless things. If you want people to visit your blog more than once, don't use flashing text and animated images that move all around. Simple is always a good way to go. Keeping you blog free of clutter will allow your readers to navigate it well and this will lead to being indexed in the blog directories mentioned above.

7. Create Offline Publicity
Use the marketing materials you already have. A good place to start is to add your blog web address on to your business cards. People are always looking for information and the more places you have your address, the more likely people are to see it. Do this tastefully though. Don't over do it. Keep it simple is a good motto.