BookSmarts Podcast: Booktrovert – a Brand New Consumer Marketing Platform

For more info, or to get started with Booktrovert, reach out here.

Kristina Radke has over 15 years of experience in book marketing, publicity, and reader engagement. In her role as Senior Vice President of Business Growth & Engagement at NetGalley (and Booktrovert), she leads an experienced, international team dedicated to helping publishers and authors achieve their goals. Kristina is a member of the Women’s Media Group, formerly served on the Board of Directors and executive committee for the IBPA, and is a proud graduate of the NYU Master’s program for book publishing. She also holds an executive education certificate in book publishing from the Yale School of Management.

In this episode of the BookSmarts Podcast, she discusses plans to launch of Booktrovert, a new consumer marketing platform for books. Booktrovert allows for easy creation of marketing campaigns with digital giveaways and interactive tools for readers, designed to complement the existing NetGalley platform. Booktrovert campaigns are available exclusively for NetGalley clients to reach U.S. readers. If you’re interested in creating Booktrovert campaigns, reach out to concierge [at] netgalley.com.

BookSmarts Podcast: Kristina Radke on Audiobooks in NetGalley

Full transcript available here.

Kristina Radke is the Vice President of Business Growth and Engagement at NetGalley, a service that helps publishers and authors promote digital review copies and audiobooks to book advocates and industry professionals, including reviewers, booksellers, librarians, educators, media/journalists, and other book trade professionals. With over 15 years of experience in book marketing, publicity, and client relationships, Kristina joins us on the BookSmarts Podcast to discuss NetGalley’s expansion into the audiobook market, along with trends and strategies for publishers to be aware of when uploading audiobooks to NetGalley.

Data in this podcast is based on audiobooks created on NetGalley.com between July 1 2023 – June 30 2024 unless otherwise noted.

“For audiobooks, the feedback rate is absolutely astounding, we’re seeing about 60% of approved members sending their feedback in after listening to an audiobook.”

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.

BookSmarts Podcast: Marika Flatt on Book Publicity

Full transcript available here .

Marika Flatt is the owner and founder of PR by the Book, an Austin, Texas-based publicity firm. She is a regular speaker in the book industry regarding marketing and publicity and joins us on the BookSmarts Podcast to discuss book publicity tips for both publishers and self-published authors, as well as how publicity should be conducted throughout the entire publishing process.

Her publicity firm, PR by the Book, helps authors elevate their relevancy and create buss for their titles by helping authors turn into influencers. With over 900 book titles and over 20 years of experience, their success and specialty spans over many different genres, including travel, lifestyle, outdoors, self-help, parenting, and Christian titles.

To learn more, visit PRbythebook.com. You can also request to join their private “Author to Influencer Accelerator” group on Facebook to learn how authors can take advantage of DIY publicity opportunities.

BookSmarts Podcast: Emily Lyman, Building Brand Trust

Full transcript available here.

Emily Lyman is the CEO and Founder of Branch & Bramble, an award-winning digital marketing agency for lifestyle brands. With nearly a decade of experience helping companies achieve tangible marketing results, Emily joins us on the BookSmarts Podcast to discuss the role of empathetic marketing in publishing and the importance of building brand trust with consumers.

Emily will speaking about how to build brand trust at the upcoming inaugural Publishing Innovation Forum, September 24-26, in Nashville, TN! This conference is open to the entire publishing community and will focus on the many changes our industry has faced, and how to prepare and adapt for the future.

Follow Emily Lyman on LinkedIn! To learn more about Branch & Bramble, visit their website.

“[Brand trust] is essentially the level of confidence that consumers have in a brand’s ability to keep its promises. And these promises can include the quality of products or services, the brand’s values and mission, or how the brand treats its employees and its customers. There’s a lot of factors that go into brand trust. And what’s been fascinating as a marketer is to see the evolution of brand trust over the years, and how it changes, and how important it becomes not only to consumers as a whole, but we have some really interesting data on how brand trust is thought about generationally, as well.” – Emily Lyman

Cory Verner on the Growth of Audiobooks

BookSmarts Podcast

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.

Transcript available here.

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).

Mark Herschberg How Books Might Escape the Page

BookSmarts Podcast

Episode 23: Mark Herschberg How Books Might Escape the Page

In this episode we are joined by Mark Herschberg, publisher at Cognosco Media, author of The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You, and the developer of a new app that is attempting to promote a new take on reader interaction with book content.

Transcript available here.

I was a bit skeptical of Mark’s approach from the offset, having seen so many ebook apps and new ideas about digital engagement flame out over the years. However, Mark and I had a great conversation about how the relevant content in a book might be more or less than the actual page count, how so many new technologies are just like sticking a fake horse head on the front of an automobile, and more. Mark shared some of the ideas behind his app, most notably the notifications feature that can help readers recall key points from books they have read.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can check out Mark’s publishing company, Cognosco Media (https://www.cognoscomedia.com) and take a look at both his book and the related app (https://www.thecareertoolkitbook.com).