Tell us about your career trajectory: What brought you to book publishing and what led you to NetGalley?
My first foray into the book publishing industry was an internship at Penguin Random House during college. I was an intern for the Ebooks Development team, helping with the development and testing of tools used for ebook production. My experiences that summer really opened my eyes to how tech impacts the world of book publishing. I graduated college (with a degree in computer science and a minor in creative writing) and while job searching, I was telling people that I felt like I’d do something related to tech but not necessarily be a software engineer. I was also secretly hoping I could find something in the publishing industry. I kept an eye on the Publishers Lunch Job Board, where I stumbled across a job listing from NetGalley. It pretty much blew my mind how well the job fit with my experience and interests while also offering the opportunity to learn new things.
What does a typical day at NetGalley look like for you?
The first thing I do when my workday starts is check my email. I am part of the Product Management team and we often get emails with requests, issues, and questions from others on the NetGalley team. Throughout the day, I spend a lot of time researching and documenting, which helps with planning for improvements and new features. I also track progress on current projects, write and refine requirements for upcoming work, and help with testing to ensure the NetGalley platform looks and functions as expected.
What is your number one tip for new NetGalley members?
Take some time to look over and update your NetGalley Profile! Your NetGalley Profile should be up-to-date with the information that best represents you as a reader and book advocate.
What do you love most about your job? What do you wish people knew about your job?
I love working with so many dedicated and interesting people. I also enjoy researching, especially when we’re planning a new project. That’s always fun.
As for what I wish people knew about my job (besides what my responsibilities are and what my day-to-day looks like), not everyone knows that we work remotely at NetGalley. We’re all across the world, everyone works from home (or whatever location they work best in), and we have Slack, email, and scheduled Zoom calls as our main ways of communicating with each other.
What kind of reader are you: a mood reader, someone who crafts monthly TBRs, someone who participates in reading challenges?
Mood reader 100%! And I switch between books often. I read ebooks almost exclusively, but I’ll purchase physical copies of my favorite books and reread them. Occasionally I participate in reading challenges, but I use them more to keep track of what books I’ve read rather than to plan my next read. The Bookish Bingo boards are a lot of fun—after I finish a book (and draft my review), I look to see what box I can mark off on the board. I rarely get a bingo, but each board is a great visual of the books I read that month!
Do you have a 2022 reading resolution?
My 2022 reading resolution is to read 36 books. I would also like to read more poetry and more historical fiction this year.
February 23, 2023—Firebrand Group (FBG), the book industry’s leading technology company for cutting edge software and services, announced today the official placement of Angela Bole in the role of Chief Executive Officer. Her appointment to succeed previous CEO Fran Toolan was initially announced on June 9, 2022. Since then, Ms. Bole has worked alongside Mr. Toolan, the FBG Board of Directors, and various members of the FBG management team to ensure a smooth transition.
Ms. Bole joins Firebrand Group—a collection of companies including Firebrand Technologies, NetGalley LLC, and Supadu Ltd—at a pivotal moment in the company’s 35 year history. Firebrand Technologies and NetGalley were acquired by Media Do International (MD-i), the US-based subsidiary of Japan’s Media Do Co., Ltd, in 2021; Supadu in 2022. Today, this unique collection of companies, now all co-located under the Firebrand Group umbrella, provides publishers with cohesive tools to effectively manage internal workflows, external marketing, and eventual sales.
Previous to Firebrand Group, Ms. Bole served as CEO of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). Throughout her time at IBPA her mission was “to lead and serve independent publishers through advocacy, education, and tools for success.” Ms. Bole is highly regarded in the book industry for raising the profile and visibility of the IBPA, and for encouraging book publishing best practices and the highest industry standards.
“We are excited to be joined by Angela Bole who will head up Firebrand Group,” says Daihei Shiohama, President and CEO of Media Do International, Inc. “We are fortunate to have secured Ms. Bole whose considerable experience and knowledge of the industry will take our family of companies forward in its next phase of development.”
About the Firebrand Group – The Firebrand Group, consisting of Firebrand Technologies, NetGalley, and Supadu, provides leading software and services to help publishers achieve success. The Firebrand Group is owned by Media Do International Inc. (MD-i), the US-based subsidiary of Japan’s Media Do Co., Ltd, one of the largest ebook distribution companies in the world retaining the largest share of Japan’s ebook market. For more information, visit firebrandtech.com. For more information on Media Do’s services and corporate divisions, visit mediado.jp/english.
How much Feedback should I expect for my Audiobooks?
Since NetGalley introduced Audiobooks on our platform in 2020, publishers have been interested to know answers to these questions and more. Over the past two years, we’ve been paying close attention to how audio publishers are using NetGalley, and we’re excited to share what we’ve learned so far!*
How early should I upload my Audiobook to NetGalley?
The most frequent comment we get from audiobook publishers is that there is a much smaller pre-pub window for Audiobooks because of the production requirements for this format. Files are not usually available until very close to the pub date.
First, let us emphasize that books can be promoted using NetGalley if they’re already on sale, or even deep backlist. We encourage publishers to add any of their books to NetGalley, regardless of pub date.
Upon analysis, we have seen that most Audiobooks are uploaded to NetGalley within the one-month period before the pub date. However, some are made available much earlier!
Most Audiobooks are uploaded to NetGalley within the one-month period before the pub date.
Books can be promoted using NetGalley if they’re already on sale, or even deep backlist. We encourage publishers to add any of their books to NetGalley, regardless of pub date.
We know from conversations with our clients that some publishers are starting to adjust their pub dates to add some pre-pub buffer time so they can benefit from opportunities to build early buzz, and we’ve also spoken to publishers who are experimenting with AI to create early audio files using realistic synthetic voices. Using early AI files is an effort to quickly get the content in the ears of important early listeners, without having to wait for the final version of the Audiobook. These types of strategies contribute to the number of Audiobooks added to NetGalley much earlier than the pub date.
How long do Audiobooks remain Active on NetGalley?
Regardless of when an Audiobook is uploaded, a little more than half of them have remained Active on NetGalley for six weeks or less.
55% of Audiobooks remain Active on NetGalley for six weeks or less.
Although just over half of the Audiobooks uploaded to NetGalley are active for six weeks or less, it’s still a close split. Nearly 650 titles remained active for longer, resulting in higher Impressions, Requests and Feedback.
Does time on site impact Impressions?
YES. The longer a book remained Active, the more Impressions it received.
The longer a book remains Active on NetGalley, the more Impressions it is likely to receive.
There are many factors that may impact Impressions, in addition to how long the book remains Active. Publishers may have scheduled NetGalley Promotions, or directly invited their own list of Audiobook fans to access the book on NetGalley. There may be strong appeal if it’s read by a popular narrator, or written by a bestselling author. Time on site is just one of many pieces of the puzzle.
Activity on NetGalley is a funnel, which means that the more Impressions a book has, the more overall activity it will receive. Once members submit requests, it’s up to the publisher to approve requests so they can start to listen. Depending on how many requests the publisher approves, a portion of them will result in Feedback.
Generally, the more you fill the funnel with Impressions, the more requests you can choose to approve, and the more Feedback you can expect.
Publisher comparison of activity. Each of these four publishers uploaded over 100 Audiobooks to NetGalley in a 12-month period.
In this chart, and those below, we are comparing four similarly-sized Audiobook publishers. Each of these publishers uploaded over 100 titles to NetGalley between August 1, 2021 – August 10, 2022.
In all cases, you’ll notice the funnel of activity in effect but there’s one interesting exception related to time on the site. Although Publisher 4 kept their titles Active for 77 days on average, their Impressions and overall activity are much lower. This publisher actively limits which types of members can request their titles, which is a very different strategy from the other publishers. Keep this in mind as you view the other comparisons below. You’ll really start to notice that activity is directly impacted by how the NetGalley tools are used.
How much Feedback can I expect for my Audiobooks?
As you saw above, the strategies you employ will directly impact the activity your books receive. This makes it challenging to share specific expected stats for any particular book, but we can glean some insights from digging further into these four publishers’ activity.
Most publishers approve more requests than they decline.
Each publisher has a different strategy for managing requests, as well as how they incorporate other types of approvals like Read Now, Auto-Approving members, and using the Widget. These strategies may differ on a title-by-title basis, too.
As we saw before, Publisher 4 chooses to limit their reach into the community. Here we see that they are also the only publisher who declines more people than they approve, even within their already-limited requests. In the previous chart, we saw that Publisher 2 has fewer requests than 1 and 3, but they approve nearly all of them.
So, how does that impact the Feedback Rate?
Total number of Approvals compared to total amount of Feedback.
Here, we’re looking at the total number of Approvals compared to the total amount of Feedback received. These numbers make perfect sense with the funnel we’ve seen so far—the more Approvals granted, the more Feedback is submitted.
Although Publisher 2 approved nearly all of their requests, they still only had about half the total number of requests as the other publishers. Their books’ average time-on-site was also half as long as Publisher 1.
Publisher 3 has the highest feedback rate: 50% of approved members submitted Feedback, with Publisher 1 close behind. If we look at the strategies used to achieve this: books were active for more than one month and Approval Rate was close to 70%.
Publisher 3 has the highest feedback rate: 50% of approved members submitted Feedback, with Publisher 1 close behind. If we look at the strategies used to achieve this…
– Books were active for more than one month
– Approval Rate was close to 70%
Since Publisher 4 is such an exception, we’ve separated their Feedback Rate from the rest. These numbers are on a very different scale than the other three. For instance, Publisher 4 approved a total of about 650 requests, compared to nearly 45,000 by Pub 1. As a result of their limited use, their Feedback Rate is relatively low as well.
Publisher 4’s strategies have resulted in a lower Feedback Rate.
Keep in mind that their goal may not be entirely related to Feedback! Success on NetGalley can be defined any number of ways. Some publishers may rely on NetGalley as the secure digital fulfillment tool they use to offer a book to a very specific list of existing contacts, whether to drive trade reviews from one particular outlet, or offer an audio format to help booksellers more quickly assess content in their TBR pile. Others are taking advantage of the NetGalley community to fill a need for more widespread reviews for the Audiobook format, and still others are using NetGalley to drive discoverability and awareness of their books across all formats.
What’s next for Audiobooks on NetGalley?
Audiobook Promotions
Audiobooks can be promoted to all types of members in any NetGalley Newsletter! We also offer seasonal Audiobook Newsletters, targeted specifically to members who indicated an interest in audiobooks. Boost your consumer marketing efforts by activating our highly engaged community to generate both reviews and sales. The 2023 Media Kit is available here!
Spanish-language? ¡Sí!
Keep an eye out for a Spanish-language category coming soon. We are excited to introduce an easier way for members to discover and request these books.
DRM for Audio
In 2023 we anticipate adding DRM protection to Audiobooks available on NetGalley. This will add an extra layer of security to our already-secure NetGalley Shelf app. The NetGalley Shelf app is the exclusive way that approved members can access Audiobooks.
We love digging into our data to help answer your important questions, so we’ll continue to update you on how Audiobook publishers are using the NetGalley tools. What other questions can we answer for you?
*Dataset for the charts in this article included 1,452 Audiobooks uploaded to NetGalley between 8/1/2021 – 8/10/2022. Audiobooks that were never added to the Find Titles catalog were removed from this dataset.
NetGalley is thrilled to co-host the Firebrand Group Community Conference next week (Sept. 26 – 28, 2022) in Baltimore. We can’t wait to present you with this stellar lineup of sessions, featuring speakers from across the industry including keynote addresses from Kirsty Melville and Alistair Croll, plus an introduction to incoming CEO, Angela Bole!
Connect with Your Audience: Marketing Sessions
Building & Scaling Influencer Programs Effectively: TikTok, Instagram, & More
Activating social media influencers is one of the fastest and most effective marketing tools to drive awareness—but it can also be one of the most time consuming and challenging. This session will focus on the tactical elements of building influencer programs based on individual titles as well as entire genres across TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Learn how to scale collaborations and maximize budgets with long-term partnership advice, negotiation tactics, and efficiency ideas.
Insights Into Action: The Making of a Bestseller
Presented by: Andrea DeWerd, book marketing strategist, consultant, author
As publishers are competing with streaming services, TikTok, podcasts, and every other hobby for consumers’ attention, book marketers have to adapt new technology for the competitive edge. In this session, book marketing strategist and consultant Andrea DeWerd will present a simple and effective approach for leveling up your organization’s MarTech stack to streamline and scale campaigns for success. We’ll look at the audience insights that drove a New York Times bestselling cookbook, as well as the steps to:
Become a data-informed marketing organization
Solicit buy-in for new technology at every level of the organization
Create a culture of teaching, training, and learning for new tech adoption
Beyond the Book Review: Leveraging Media Placements for Lasting Author Success
While securing book reviews is a major goal for almost every author, what happens after is just as important. During this session, discover how to leverage book reviews from NetGalley and other sources for well-rounded author success. Topics include:
The different types of reviews including endorsements, trade, media, and consumer reviews and the impact each has an on author’s brand
How consumer reviews affect retail algorithms
How to leverage reviews to line up author events, speaking engagements, etc.
The long-lasting impact of book reviews—reviews serve as a foundation to further opportunity
Placement and use for NetGalley reviews
Finding Your Audience/Growing Your Community
Presented by Tarah Theoret, Senior Director, Community Experience, and Kelly Gallucci, Executive Editor, We Are Bookish
Join the NetGalley Member Experience team to learn how targeted acquisition efforts can help expand your audience. This session will explore using data (from NetGalley as well as external sources like Google Analytics, social media platforms, & newsletter subscribers) to identify product/brand champions and inform your community engagement and retention strategies.
Discussion: Maintaining Momentum Beyond the Pub Date
Book publishers know that they have a wealth of IP in their backlist, but what is the most effective way to mine it? In this session, we will explore creative ways to surface the most relevant backlist titles of the moment, in order to drive their momentum when the time is right. For this group discussion, we hope attendees will come ready to share their concerns, ideas, and successes!
NetGalley 101
Presented by Darcy Piedmonte, Senior Sales Manager, NetGalley
Rediscover the roots of your NetGalley publisher account! Kristina Radke, VP of Business Growth & Engagement, will guide you through each important moment of a book’s life on NetGalley. We’ll cover everything from creating new titles, setting Availability, incorporating the Widget in your day-to-day efforts, managing requests, building your Auto-Approved List, as well as looking at and using the robust reports available to you.
NetGalley Promotions Overview
Presented by Lindsey Lochner, Executive Vice President, NetGalley
Learn how publishers use NetGalley Promotions to launch their frontlist and leverage their backlist to reach trade professionals and early influencers, generate reviews, run giveaways, collect pre-orders, advertise around the pub date, and connect directly with their audience. With advertising options for every budget, goal, and type of book, NetGalley’s popular programs are highly valued for their strong engagement rates—delivering outstanding results while remaining at a competitive price.
More sessions will be announced as they are finalized! While you wait, be sure to talk to your colleagues about attending the Firebrand Group Community Conference. Each track focuses on different aspects of the publishing process.
Connecting Publishing Workflows | Sessions for production, editorial, and business ops teams, including Title Management users and administrators.
Connect with Your Audience| Sessions for book marketers and publicists, including NetGalley and Supadu users.
From Connection to Conversion | Sessions for sales and business ops teams, including Title Management, Eloquence on Demand, and Supadu users.
Connect the Dots with Data | Sessions for data analysts, business ops, and marketing teams, including Eloquence on Alert and NetGalley users.
Register today to ensure your space and take advantage of the Early Bird Discount rate! A Group Discount is available for multiple team members attending from one company. Please email us for details.
An indie bookstore you love:TYPE Books in Toronto, where I spent a million hours during publishing school. Mabel’s Fables, the stuff that dreams are made of! Glad Day Bookshop, the oldest queer bookstore in the world. And I can’t forget my local indie, Someday Books, where I’ll be buying out their entire stock of board books. Sorry, did you say just one?
What does a typical day at NetGalley look like for you?
I work with publishers—both large and small—to ensure that their books and audiobooks reach the hands of book advocates and influencers. On the day-to-day, that means an inbox full of questions from publishers about how their books can see the most success on NetGalley, troubleshooting tech questions, and queries about how to best use the tools we offer to their advantage! I also do lots of one-on-one training with publishers, strategy calls, sales calls… all the calls.
What brought you to NetGalley?
I actually began using NetGalley as an intern for Second Story Press, a feminist publisher. It was my job to manage requests, and I had a blast doing it—sometimes falling behind on other projects because I loved using NetGalley so much. Studying members’ profiles and book blogs really appealed to me. After my internship was over, a sales assistant position at NetGalley happened to open up, and my former manager at the internship pushed me to apply! Nearly seven years and many job title changes later, here I am!
What recommendations do you have for anyone looking to follow a similar career path?
It was equally important to my career that I had a background in tech, as well as other more obvious publishing experience, like editorial and marketing. If you’re going through publishing school and they offer a technology specialization—take it! These types of jobs are in high demand and can be so fun and interesting. I love the tech side of my job.
What is your number one tip for new NetGalley members?
Utilize the Reader Recommended carousel on each Category page! This is where the real gems are. They’re highly rated books that were vetted by other NetGalley members, so you know they’re good! I find a lot of my future reads here, and I have yet to be disappointed.
How do you make time for reading?
That’s been a big struggle for me over the last few months! I’m currently 9 months pregnant and it can be hard to not fall asleep when I really want to be reading. A big help has really been my book club. It was formed during the pandemic and was not only a way to connect with my friends during that time but also helped me keep my eyes on a book regularly and in a way that kept me motivated and excited.
In what ways have you seen the industry change since you first started, and in what ways do you hope it continues to evolve?
I really love how much audiobook accessibility has grown over the last few years. From the dinky little one-shelf section at your local bookstore to the enormous amount of digital availability that we have now, it’s been a joy to watch the growth in this particular section of the industry.
And of course, I’m a firm believer that audiobooks are books, and listening to audiobooks totally counts as reading. Physical copy purists are just jealous we can read and eat snacks at the same time.
Do you have a 2022 reading resolution?
To find the best baby book of THEM ALL!! Seriously, my kid isn’t even born yet and his dad has read him half the library already.
Angela Bole, current CEO of Independent Book Publishers Association
(Manhattan Beach, CA & Newburyport, MA – June 9, 2022) – The Firebrand Group (firebrandtech.com), the book industry’s leading technology company for cutting edge software and services that enable publisher success, announced today that Angela Bole, current CEO at the Independent Book Publishers Association (ibpa-online.org), will succeed Firebrand CEO Fran Toolan on February 1, 2023. Toolan, who founded Firebrand as Quality Solutions, Inc. in 1987, passes the reins to Bole after 35 years as the company’s sole CEO. He will remain on the Firebrand Group Board of Directors post transition.
Today, the Firebrand Group includes Firebrand Technologies, NetGalley, and Supadu. Firebrand Technologies Title Management Enterprise Software and Eloquence on Demand service headline a group of technologies that help publishers track and manage titles from pre-acquisition through their long tail of sales. NetGalley helps provide excitement about titles by connecting eBook and audio content with reviewers. And the newest addition to the Firebrand family of services, Supadu, is the leading provider of publisher e-commerce solutions in the US and UK.
Upon launching Firebrand Technologies, Toolan understood that the publishing industry was a unique and creative business that needed efficient tools and workflow processes to thrive and be profitable. “These tools must accentuate the creativity in publishing,” he said at the time, “not hinder it.”
Fran Toolan, current CEO of the Firebrand Group
In February 2021, Firebrand was acquired by Media Do International (MD-i), the US-based subsidiary of Japan’s Media Do Co., Ltd, one of the largest ebook distribution companies in the world retaining the largest share of Japan’s $4.5 billion eBook market.
“With the support of MD-i, the Firebrand Group is growing and innovating at an unparalleled rate of speed,” said Toolan. “The opportunities in front of us are very exciting, and I’m equally excited that Angela will be here to guide us going forward.”
Said Daihei Shiohama, CEO of MD-i: “Both here and in Japan, we are so excited to have Angela succeed Fran. We are determined to provide utmost support to Firebrand Group with Angela as new CEO. With the annual growth rate of close to 20% in Japan’s digital publishing market where NFT, XR, and other diversified elements stimulate the publishing industry, we are convinced that Angela will lead the group to uplift the global publishing industry’s expansion.”
Bole, a 2019 Publishers Weekly notable person of the year, began her career at an independent bookstore in Jackson, WY before moving to NYC in 2005 to pursue a Masters in book publishing from New York University. While in NYC, she held various positions with the Book Industry Study Group (BISG)–including a stint as interim executive director–where she spearheaded research into consumer attitudes toward ebook reading, oversaw initiatives supporting the industry’s transition to ISBN-13, and developed best practices and other documentation for use of the ONIX and EPUB standards. Bole served as treasurer of the International Digital Publishers Forum (IDPF) from 2011 to 2014, before moving to Manhattan Beach, CA to become ED and later CEO of IBPA, where she has stabilized and grown operations for the past nine years.
“During her years leading IBPA, Angela has transformed the organization into the leading association for advocating and supporting the growing community of independent publishers,” said current IBPA Board Chair Karla Olson (Director, Patagonia Books). “During the last two challenging years in particular, Angela made certain IBPA provided innovative and essential member support and increased efforts to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion within all aspects of the association. IBPA will be forever grateful to Angela for her leadership, her vision, and her passion for publishing.”
Bole officially assumes the position of Firebrand Group CEO on February 1, 2023. When asked what she hopes to achieve, she said, “Firebrand has been powering the publishing industry for over 30 years through quality software solutions and a dedicated and committed staff. Given all we’ve learned over the past few years, I hope to build upon what’s already working to enable even more efficiencies for the companies Firebrand serves. I know this will be a team effort; I couldn’t be more excited to join and lead the team.”
About the Firebrand Group The Firebrand Group, consisting of Firebrand Technologies, NetGalley, and Supadu, provides leading software and services to help publishers achieve success. The Firebrand Group is owned by Media Do International (MD-i), the US-based subsidiary of Japan’s Media Do Co., Ltd, one of the largest ebook distribution companies in the world retaining the largest share of Japan’s ebook market. For more information, visit firebrandtech.com. For more information on Media Do’s services and corporate divisions, visit mediado.jp/english. The Firebrand Group’s bi-annual Community Conference shall be held in September this year in Baltimore, MD. For more information, please visit firebrandtech.com/conference.
About the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Founded in 1983 to support independent publishers nationwide, the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) leads and serves the independent publishing community through advocacy, education, and tools for success. With over 4,000 members, IBPA is the largest publishing association in the U.S. Its vision is a world where every independent publisher has the access, knowledge, and tools needed to professionally engage in all aspects of an inclusive publishing industry. For more information, visit ibpa-online.org.
Join us for a very special opportunity to connect with the NetGalley team and your peers from across the publishing industry! We have two very exciting keynote addresses for you during the Firebrand Group Community Conference, September 26- 28 in Baltimore!
Kirsty Melville
Kirsty Melville, President and Publisher of Andrews McMeel Publishing
When we connect, we feel less alone – Rupi Kaur, author of Milk and Honey
The term “Instapoetry” is used to describe short form, accessible poetry on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. It has been derided as superficial, and “not real poetry” because it originates from social media. Yet the “Instapoetry” label masks the incredible depth and intersection of creativity, marketing, technology and human connection represented by this form of expression.
In this talk, social poetry publisher Kirsty Melville provides a behind the scenes look at how this contemporary poetry phenomenon emerged, and how its impact reflects a significant shift in the publishing dynamic between authors and publishers. Rupi Kaur leads her poetry peers in kicking down the walls of publishing, and we have much to learn from their power to connect and engage with readers worldwide.
Alistair Croll
Alistair Croll is a founder, bestselling author of Lean Analytics, and conference organizer.
It’s no secret that the arrival of digital technologies has upended most aspects of human society, from how we live and learn, to how we fight and play. The pace of change can be overwhelming, and indeed has overwhelmed many of the established businesses across a wide range of industries. But these changes can be harnessed—if only we have a framework for understanding them to which we can align our organizations.
In this wide-ranging talk that borrows from science, philosophy, and technology, bestselling author Alistair Croll offers an unexpected—and often hilarious—look at how innovation actually happens. You’ll learn more about horse manure, lab-grown meat, tea clippers, the economics of coal, YouTube unboxing videos, child seats, and baggage carousels than you ever thought you wanted to.
Along the way, get a structured approach to different kinds of change, from keep-the-lights on incremental improvements to the unknowable discontinuities of complete transformation. You’ll leave with concrete concepts you can put to work immediately as Alistair shows you how to adjust your thinking so you can thrive amid rapid change.
Join us for a very special opportunity to connect with the NetGalley team and your peers from across the publishing industry!
We are thrilled to announce some of the sessions that will be presented at the Firebrand Group Community Conference, September 26- 28 in Baltimore! Experts from across the publishing industry will be speaking about topics critical to your work. This track is dedicated to book marketers and publicists, including NetGalley users, and is specifically designed to help you connect with your audience.
Building & Scaling Influencer Programs Effectively: TikTok, Instagram, & More
Activating social media influencers is one of the fastest and most effective marketing tools to drive awareness—but it can also be one of the most time consuming and challenging. This session will focus on the tactical elements of building influencer programs based on individual titles as well as entire genres across TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Learn how to scale collaborations and maximize budgets with long-term partnership advice, negotiation tactics, and efficiency ideas.
Insights Into Action: The Making of a Bestseller
Presented by: Andrea DeWerd, Senior Marketing Director at Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins
The Harvest lifestyle marketing team at HarperCollins has adopted a unique MarTech stack to streamline and scale campaigns in a traditionally very old-fashioned industry. Please join us for this session with Senior Marketing Director Andrea DeWerd and learn how this team adopted new technology to launch a New York Times bestseller and leads the organization in marketing experimentation driven by audience insights and data synthesis.
Key Takeaways:
Becoming a data-informed marketing organization
Soliciting buy-in for new technology at every level of the organization
Creating a culture of teaching, training, and learning for new tech adoption
The path to a New York Times bestselling cookbook
Finding Your Audience/Growing Your Community
Presented by Tarah Theoret, Senior Director, Community Experience, and Kelly Gallucci, Executive Editor, We Are Bookish
Join the NetGalley Member Experience team to learn how targeted acquisition efforts can help expand your audience. This session will explore using data (from NetGalley as well as external sources like Google Analytics, social media platforms, & newsletter subscribers) to identify product/brand champions and inform your community engagement and retention strategies.
Discussion: Maintaining Momentum Beyond the Pub Date
Book publishers know that they have a wealth of IP in their backlist, but what is the most effective way to mine it? In this session, we will explore creative ways to surface the most relevant backlist titles of the moment, in order to drive their momentum when the time is right. For this group discussion, we hope attendees will come ready to share their concerns, ideas, and successes!
NetGalley 101
Rediscover the roots of your NetGalley publisher account! Kristina Radke, VP of Business Growth & Engagement, will guide you through each important moment of a book’s life on NetGalley. We’ll cover everything from creating new titles, setting Availability, incorporating the Widget in your day-to-day efforts, managing requests, building your Auto-Approved List, as well as looking at and using the robust reports available to you.
NetGalley Promotions Overview
Learn how publishers use NetGalley Promotions to launch their frontlist and leverage their backlist to reach trade professionals and early influencers, generate reviews, run giveaways, collect pre-orders, advertise around the pub date, and connect directly with their audience. With advertising options for every budget, goal, and type of book, NetGalley’s popular programs are highly valued for their strong engagement rates—delivering outstanding results while remaining at a competitive price.
More sessions will be announced as they are finalized! While you wait, be sure to talk to your colleagues about attending the Firebrand Group Community Conference. Each track focuses on different aspects of the publishing process.
Connecting Publishing Workflows | Sessions for production, editorial, and business ops teams, including Title Management users and administrators.
Connect with Your Audience| Sessions for book marketers and publicists, including NetGalley and Supadu users.
From Connection to Conversion | Sessions for sales and business ops teams, including Title Management, Eloquence on Demand, and Supadu users.
Connect the Dots with Data | Sessions for data analysts, business ops, and marketing teams, including Eloquence on Alert and NetGalley users.
Register today to ensure your space and take advantage of the Early Bird Discount rate! A Group Discount is available for multiple team members attending from one company. Please email us for details.
NetGalley is a member of the Firebrand Group, which provides leading software and services to help publishers achieve success. In addition to sessions geared toward marketers and publicists who use NetGalley, the Firebrand Group Community Conference will include tracks dedicated to users of Firebrand’s Title Management and Eloquence services, as well as Supadu’s website and ecommerce solutions.
Get smarter about your books! The BookSmarts podcast features discussions about publishing data and technologies and interviews with industry experts, deep thinkers, and doers, bringing you insights that will help you sell more books.
Episode 24: Cory Verner on the Growth of Audiobooks
Cory Verner is the CEO of ONE Audiobooks, a publisher of audiobooks and a turnkey audio services provider. Cory has been working in the audiobooks industry for over 20 years, and has seen the changes in technology, the changes in focus, and the growth in sales as the format has taken off in the last 6-7 years. Cory and I talk about some of the reasons for that growth, the demographics of listeners, and some specific differences between the Inspirational Books market that he is closely connected to compared to the general audiobooks market.
We also talk about how the audiobooks industry has changed over time, including technology changes that have driven much of the recent growth, and we discuss the risks publishers take on when they create their own audiobook program.
You can learn more about ONE Audiobooks at oneaudiobooks.com (corporate site) and oneaudiobooks.app (customer engagement tools).
Joshua Tallent is an acclaimed teacher and guide on the role of data in publishing, and a vocal advocate for high quality book metadata. In his spare time, Joshua enjoys playing complex board games, playing Minecraft, and fiddling with his 3D printer.
At the 2022 London Book Fair there were four separate sessions devoted to sustainability in the industry, making it one of LBF’s most debated topics. At the start of the second panel discussion, Stephen Lotinga, CEO of the Publishers Association, summed up the common theme that bound them all: “We want our industry to be around for as long as possible,” he said. “This is clearly the challenge of our time.” The question is, how do we all rise to meet it?
The answer, as those LBF panels attested,
is complex, and comprises a huge range of potential initiatives and strategies.
The one thing that everyone seems to agree on, however, is the importance of
taking action now. As EJ Hurst and Julie Raddysh from New Society Publishers
said in a
recent interview, “It is imperative. Business will only thrive on a stable,
healthy planet”.
Where once sustainability might have been
primarily a moral or ethical consideration, or something multinationals might
add to their Corporate Social Responsibility statements, it is now a commercial
imperative too: consumers are demanding ‘greener’ products, just as much as
environmental groups are urging root-and-branch changes to the way products are
made and distributed. This means sustainability is no longer something to be
deferred: everyone, from boutique house to corporate monolith, is implicated
and impacted.
In software company knk’s Publishing
and Sustainability 2022 whitepaper, two key areas of concern were
identified: one, the polluting nature of physical book fulfilment; and two, the
problem of power consumption from data centres. While the latter can be
mitigated by using providers who provide more renewable energy and better
systems, industry responses to how best to print, store and ship books will come
to define how sustainable the publishing world really can be.
There are many disparate factors that need
to be addressed here – from paper stock to print on demand; from where books
are printed to more effective warehousing and distribution channels – but for
many, the decisions taken on a daily basis are the ones which will ultimately shape
the future. One of the most important of these is pre- and post-publication
reading copies.
Exact figures are hard to come by, but, were publishers in the UK and US to produce the same number of physical ARCs as they made digital copies available on NetGalley, this would equate to around 3 million books*, the vast majority of which are packaged and mailed to individuals around the world. Notwithstanding the huge cost of printing, then sending these books, the ‘book miles’—the environmental impact of their shipping—accrued by this strategy are staggering. Reducing the number of ARCs produced and sent is a quick and easy way to increase sustainability—but at the same time, it requires a mindset shift from all stakeholders in the process. Publishers must reiterate to influencers that physical ARCs are not the norm, while authors will have to understand why only a small number of ARCs are being printed. Influencers might need to accept that they need to read at least some of a book digitally before requesting a physical ARC, while publicists might have to change the decades old practice of stuffing envelopes with books and press releases. It is a small part of the puzzle, but one that will reap huge benefits if taken seriously by all players.
*Total number of digital review copies approved on NetGalley.com and NetGalley.co.uk from March 2020 to February 2021
A former bookseller, editor and marketer, Stuart Evers is Director of NetGalley UK. He is also an award-winning writer of short fiction and novels.
