The Somersault Group Announces a New General Manager – Joe Sherman. 

September 9, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — The Somersault Group (Somersault) announced today that General Manager, John Topliff, has retired after 39 years in the Christian retailing and publishing industries. The company is pleased to announce that Joe Sherman has accepted the General Manager position, effective immediately.

Joe has over three decades of experience in Christian publishing and marketing. Currently he is the Owner and CEO of Marketing and Publishing Strategies (MAPS), a company that specializes in helping Christian publishers and ministries develop and distribute products to churches. He will integrate the Somersault and MAPS services to provide even more value to the clients of both organizations. For over 23 years, Joe was Senior Vice President for Zondervan, a Division of HarperCollins. He also served as the Executive Vice President of Publishing for Willow Creek Resources for six years. Joe has led the development of many best-selling products.

“We are grateful for John Topliff’s leadership, and thrilled to have Joe at the helm of Somersault,” said Jeannette Taylor, Partner, and Research & Product Development Architect, “Joe brings deep publishing experience, proven leadership skill, experience in the digital space, and the ability to help Somersault clients cost-effectively reach the 300,000+ Christian churches in the U.S.”

Founded in July of 2010, Somersault is a Christian publishing strategy and services agency that serves an innovative client base including commercial publishers, content creators, ministry organizations, and literary agents. Somersault provides product concepts, publishing strategy, brand consulting, market research, editorial direction and services, marketing strategy, package design, electronic formatting, Internet and social media presence, website development, advertising, merchandising, and distribution solutions in its comprehensive portfolio of publishing and marketing services.

“Somersault’s mission is to change lives by connecting inspirational content creators with readers using exceptional creativity, right-now technology, and old-fashioned personal care,” said Cindy Lambert, Publishing Strategist. “I’ve worked with Joe previously at Zondervan and know that he aligns perfectly with our mission.”

Somersault’s team includes: Jeannette Taylor—Research and Development Architect,  Dave Lambert—Editorial Director, Cindy Lambert, Publishing Strategist, John Sawyer, Branding and Marketing Director, Estee Wells Zandee — Publishing Assistant, and now Joe Sherman —General Manager.

Somersault Group™ (Somersault™) is a member-managed LLC with offices in Grand Haven, Michigan. Our purpose is to enable ministry organizations, Christian authors, agents, and publishers to quickly leverage rapid changes in communication technology, emphasize excellence in branding and marketing communication for an author’s business development, and extend the highest editorial standards to achieve the goal of helping people experience God’s kingdom. For more information visit www.SomersaultGroup.com. Media contact: Estee Wells Zandee, (616) 850-0545 or ewells@somersaultgroup.com.

To promote the launch of its 2013 Summer Reading Program, Seattle Public Library (@SPLBuzz) set a world record for the longest book domino chain consisting of 2,131 books. Read how it was done.

According to this report by Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly), Montana is the state with the most bookstores per capita (one store for every 15,705 people). “PW collected figures on the number of bookstores in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, a total that includes every branch of bookselling: chain stores, big-box stores, independents, and the Association of Christian Retailers’ CBA stores.”

Here are the top 20:

1. Montana (64 total stores)

2. Wyoming (35)

3. Vermont (38)

4. Alabama (286)

5. Tennessee (369)

6. Nebraska (105)

7. Arkansas (165)

8. Colorado (288)

9. Kansas (160)

10. Missouri (330)

11. Alaska (40)

12. Iowa (168)

13. Minnesota (293)

14. Washington, DC (34)

15. South Carolina (251)

16. Mississippi (157)

17. West Virginia (97)

18. Georgia (508)

19. Indiana (333)

20. North Carolina (486)

Read this in full.

The above Infographic is from The Barna Group (@barnagroup). Click to enlarge.

All of us at Somersault (@smrsault) congratulate Bruce Ryskamp for receiving the ECPA Jordon Lifetime Achievement Award. We all worked for Bruce during our tenures at Zondervan and count him to be a visionary leader and personal friend. We’re thrilled at this recognition of his outstanding abilities that he consistently displayed throughout his illustrious career.

All the details are in the following news release:

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (@ecpa) presented the 2013 Kip Jordon Lifetime Achievement Award to publishing industry veteran, Bruce Ryskamp, at an awards banquet held Apr. 29, 2013, during the ECPA Leadership Summit at World Outreach Church outside Nashville, Tenn.

Ryskamp was honored for his tremendous impact on the publishing industry in his role as president and CEO of Zondervan and as one the longest serving members of ECPA’s board of directors.

Serving Zondervan first as vice president of its new Bible division in 1983, then leader of its book division in 1987, Ryskamp was named president and CEO in 1993. Under Ryskamp’s visionary leadership, Zondervan saw remarkable publishing success with bestsellers by Rick Warren, Phillip Yancey, Oliver North, Dave Dravecky, Lee Strobel, and John Ortberg. He also led Zondervan to see the long-term viability of digital publishing; to maintain a commitment to publishing resources for pastors, ministry leaders, and academics; and to serve children’s needs by establishing the Zonderkidz group, which targets kids 15 and under.

A leader committed to excellence, bound by Zondervan’s mission and vision, possessed of good marketing instincts and common sense business principles, Ryskamp was adept at spotting new and unknown talent that had long-term potential. Ryskamp’s character was on full display when interacting one-on-one with the mentally and physically challenged persons who worked at Zondervan daily through a partnership with the local Hope Network.

In his retirement, Ryskcamp and his wife, Jeri, have devoted their time and resources to the non-profit Bruce and Jeralyn Ryskamp Orphan Assistance Foundation, providing funding for families who wish to adopt international orphans with special needs.

ECPA is proud to honor such a man for his lifetime of genuine achievement.

The prestigious Jordon Lifetime Achievement Award is presented by ECPA to an individual for his exceptional contribution to the Christian publishing industry. The award is named in honor of Charles "Kip” Jordon (1945-1997), beloved Christian publishing veteran of more than 25 years, and former publisher of Word Publishing.

Mike Stilkey is an artist who is inspired by books – to paint on them and build structures out of them. Here’s an excerpt from his online bio:

Los Angeles native Mike Stilkey has always been attracted to painting and drawing not only on vintage paper, record covers and book pages, but on the books themselves. Using a mix of ink, colored pencil, paint and lacquer, Stilkey depicts a melancholic and at times a whimsical cast of characters inhabiting ambiguous spaces and narratives of fantasy and fairy tales.

See his artwork.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Innovative Bookshelves & Buildings Made Out of Books.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

In The Guardian (@GuardianBooks), Alison Baverstock (@alisonbav) identifies 10 ways the rise of self-publishing has fundamentally changed the traditional publishing world:

1. There is now a wider understanding of what publishing is – and that it is more difficult than it looks....

2. Gone is our confidence that publishers and agents know exactly what everyone wants to (or should) read, and can spot all the material worth our attention....

3. The copy editor, a traditionally marginalized figure, is now in strong demand....

4. The re-emergence of the book as precious object....

5. The role of the author is changing....

6. The role of the agent is also changing....

7. New business models and opportunities are springing up, mostly offering "publishing services": advice on how to get published or self-publish; guidance on developing a plot or a whole manuscript; lifestyle support and writing holidays; editorial services and marketing assistance....

8. It's not all about making money....

9. An end to the "vanity publishing" put-down....

10. Self-publishing brings happiness....

Read this in full.

Also read our previous blogpost, “Guy Kawasaki's New Self-Publishing Instruction Book.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

(Source: Barna Group)

(Source: Mashable)

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

Jonah Berger (@j1berger), Wharton professor and author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, says, “Virality isn't luck. It's not magic. And it's not random. There's a science behind why people talk and share. A recipe. A formula, even.”

Six key drivers shape what people talk about and share. And the first principle is Social Currency....

People talk about things that make them look good. Sharp and in-the-know. Smart and funny rather than behind the times....

Social Currency...is why people brag about their thousands of Twitter followers or their kids' SAT scores. Why golfers boast about their handicaps and frequent fliers tell others when they get upgraded....

Want to generate word of mouth? Get people talking about you? One way is to give them a way to look good. Make people feel special, or like insiders, and they'll tell others – and spread word of mouth about you along the way.

Read this in full.

See our other blogposts tagged Viral.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

Updating our “Random House, Penguin Agree to Merge” blogpost last October: Techcrunch reports that “after the US cleared the deal, the European Commission has officially approved the proposed merger.... As it is seeking “new digital publishing models,” the merger has been widely commented on as a way to counter Amazon’s influence on the ebook market.”

Penguin Random House will become the world’s largest publisher, ahead of book publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster in size.

Read this in full.

The merger awaits approval by Canada and China.

See continuing news coverage.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

A report in Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly) says “Barnes & Noble is phasing out its PubIt! self-publishing service and relaunching it as NOOK Press, an upgraded ebook self-publishing platform offering an array of new services to authors and publishers.”

B&N is partnering with the self-publishing platform FastPencil (@fastpencil) to supply NOOK Press with its proprietary online authoring technology, while also offering FastPencil authors access to a variety of marketing opportunities via B&N’s NOOK platform.

While B&N is encouraging PubIt! authors to synch their accounts to new NOOK Press accounts, B&N is also planning to phase out new PubIt! accounts and transition new self-publishers to the NOOK Press platform, which essentially builds on PubIt! by adding new services. Indeed, sales of self-published ebooks continue to grow on the NOOK Platform and the company said they represent about 25% of all ebook sales on NOOK devices. According to B&N, PubIt! titles grow by about 20% each quarter and general self-published titles offering through the NOOK are growing by 24% each quarter.

Read this in full.

Read the news release.

Also read our previous blogpost, "Guy Kawasaki's New Self-Publishing Instruction Book."

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

In The New York Times Bits Blog (@nytimesbits), tech reporter David Streitfeld (@DavidStreitfeld) interviews Jason Merkoski (@merkoski), a leader of the team that built Amazon’s first Kindle. Merkoski, author of Burning the Page: The Ebook Revolution and the Future of Reading, dispenses with the usual techo-utopianism and says, “I think we’ve made a proverbial pact with the devil in digitizing our words.” And: “Big Brother won’t be a politician but an ad man and he’ll have the face of Google.” And: “It’s hard to love Amazon. Not the way we love Apple or a bookstore.” But he also says:

In 20 years, the space of one generation, print books will be as rare as vinyl LPs. You’ll still be able to find them in artsy hipster stores, but that’s about it. So the great advantage of ebooks is also their curse; ebooks will be the only game in town if you want to read a book. It’s sobering, and a bit sad. That said, ebooks can do what print books can’t. They’ll allow you to fit an entire library into the space of one book. They’ll allow you to search for anything in an instant, save your thoughts forever, share them with the world, and connect with other readers right there, inside the book. The book of the future will live and breathe.

Read this in full.

Also see paidContent’s review, “Former Kindle Exec on Kindle flaws, Nook Strengths, and Google’s Future in Ebooks.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

In Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly), Lynn Garrett (@LynniGarrett) reports that Zondervan (@Zondervan), a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, is launching Blink, a new YA imprint, with titles debuting this fall.

Chriscynethia Floyd, vp of marketing for Zondervan, said the imprint is designed for the general trade, not the Christian market: “These would be no different from other YA titles published by HarperCollins. They are for anyone, regardless of faith.” She added, “These will be hopeful books. We won’t go as dark [as some other YA novels], but we will touch on very real issues” while striving for a “positive balance and approach” and “[representing] morals and ethical standards.” Five to six titles per year are planned

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

Scott Turow (@ScottTurow), author, lawyer, and president of the Authors Guild (@AuthorsGuild), writes in his commentary for The New York Times Opinion Page (@nytopinion) that the new, global electronic marketplace is rapidly depleting authors’ income streams. He says, “It seems almost every player — publishers, search engines, libraries, pirates and even some scholars — is vying for position at the authors’ expense."

Authors practice one of the few professions directly protected in the Constitution (Article I, Section 8), which instructs Congress “to promote the progress of Science and the useful Arts by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” The idea is that a diverse literary culture, created by authors whose livelihoods, and thus independence, can’t be threatened, is essential to democracy.

That culture is now at risk. The value of copyrights is being quickly depreciated, a crisis that hits hardest not best-selling authors like me, who have benefited from most of the recent changes in bookselling, but new and so-called midlist writers.

Read this in full.

A counter-argument is presented by Jeff John Roberts (@jeffjohnroberts) in paidContent's "No, Scott Turow, Copyright is Not Killing American Authors."

What’s your reaction to Mr. Turow’s assessment? Write your comments below.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

The above Infographic (click to enlarge) is by VerticalResponse (@VR4SmallBiz).

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (@ChristianBkExpo) has selected 36 finalists in 7 categories for the 2013 Christian Book Awards, honoring Christian publishing’s best books and Bible releases of the year. Each category is comprised of 5 finalists except for Inspiration, which has 6 due to a tie.

One title from each category will be honored as the year’s Christian Book Award winner. ECPA’s highest honor, the 2013 Christian Book of the Year, will be bestowed upon one title from all nominees. 2013 Christian Book Award winners will be named at ECPA’s 2013 Awards Banquet at 6 pm, Mon., Apr. 29, 2013, during the ECPA Leadership Summit at World Outreach Church (WOC) in Nashville, Tenn.

The Christian Book Awards, established in 1978 as the Gold Medallion Book Awards by ECPA, recognize the highest quality in Christian books. Based on excellence in content, literary quality, design, and impact, the Christian Book Awards are the oldest and among the most prestigious in the religious publishing industry. Christian Book Award finalists and winners receive recognition and support throughout multiple retail and media outlets.

See the full list of finalists.

Also see our previous blogpost “Christian Publishing’s 2012 Best Book Covers.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

Both marketing and publishing seek to reach consumers’ emotions. So we found the following research to be interesting.

NPR reporter on psychology, emotion, and the business of emotion, Alix Spiegel (@aspiegelnpr), investigated how British anthropologists used a computer program to analyze the emotional content of books from every year of the 20th century — close to a billion words in millions of books. And not just novels or current event books. Many were books without clear emotional content — technical manuals about plants and animals, for example, or automotive repair guides.

This effort began simply with lists of "emotion" words: 146 different words that connote anger; 92 words for fear; 224 for joy; 115 for sadness; 30 for disgust; and 41 words for surprise. All were from standardized word lists used in linguistic research.

The original idea was to have the computer program track the use of these words over time. The researchers wanted to see if certain words, at certain moments, became more popular.

With the graphs spread out in front of him, Bentley says the patterns are easy to see. "The twenties were the highest peak of joy-related words that we see," he says. "They really were roaring."

But then there came 1941, which, of course, marked the beginning of America's entry into World War II. It doesn't take a historian to see that peaks and valleys like these roughly mirror the major economic and social events of the century.

"In 1941, sadness is at its peak," Bently says.

But words that express emotion are being used less today (except fear-related words).

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

Amazon (@amazon) has acquired Goodreads (@goodreads), a website featuring user-generated reviews of books. Goodreads, which is one of the most popular among a raft of sites created as a book recommendation engine – members are directed to titles by seeing what their friends are reading, or have recommended – does not currently sell any books, but many in the industry saw it as an ideal sales outlet.

The site currently has over 16 million members, averages 37 million unique visitors a month, and has over 30,000 book clubs.

Read this in full.

Read Goodreads announcement.

Salon (@Salon) says the “brilliant business move” shows Amazon is “determined to monopolize book publishing.”

In just five years Goodreads has grown into the largest outlet for armchair reviewers and readers to share their opinions, as well as a safe space for author-reader interactions. Most members saw Goodreads as an unbiased haven for books, a place where they could profess their bookish love free from the ugly noise of commerce. And the noise has certainly been ugly the past few years, with the closing of Borders and many independent bookstores, the consolidation of the corporate publishers, the e-book pricing wars. In the background of all this ugliness has been the rise of Amazon and their unabashedly thuggish way of doing business

Read this in full.

Forbes (@Forbes) sees the purchase as an assault against Bookish (@BookishHQ).

Read this in full.

TOC (@toc) declares, "Amazon marches on toward global retail domination."

And Huff Post Books (@HuffPostBooks) asks, “What Does It Mean for Authors and Readers?”

Also read our previous blogposts, “What's Going On With Readers Today?” and “All About Goodreads.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

The above chart is by Business Insider (@businessinsider) SAI (@SAI) Chart of the Day (@chartoftheday).

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

The Crowing with Thorns

The Denial of St. Peter

An article by Stuart Elliott (@stuartenyt) in The New York Times (@NYTimesAd) explains another facet of the revolutionary change occurring in society because of the Internet:

The language of social media — “fans,” “friend request,” “like,” “social network,” and, yes, “status update” — is increasingly appearing in advertising, whether or not those ads are running in social media like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Such ads are also increasingly being aimed at mainstream consumers, not just the younger consumers who were the early adopters of social media.

The appropriation of the trappings of social media for marketing purposes is an example of a tactic known as borrowed interest, by which brands seek to associate themselves with elements of popular culture that are pervasive enough to be familiar to the proverbial everybody. Social media’s new starring role in product pitches signals that agencies and advertisers believe they are sufficiently prevalent to refer to without producing puzzled reactions.

Read this in full.

Another article says “every business should embrace change.” Kevin Chou, CEO and co-founder of Kabam, writes on his LinkedIn blog about counsel he received from a colleague, who said, “Business change is never popular, and it's a messy affair, but survival depends upon it."

"It's tough to put difficult advice into action, and harder still to have the conviction to see necessary changes through. For one thing, you need a thread-the-needle combination of self-confidence that you've made the right decision, and humility, so that you and your team learn quickly to fix the inevitable mistakes in the messy road ahead. For anyone facing a dreaded but necessary change process, I give the same advice – you likely won’t be popular, and will make inevitable mistakes – but standing still is certainly not an option."

Read this in full.

We at Somersault believe the unprecedented changes occurring in the publishing world aren’t a crisis to avoid; they’re a playground of possibilities. We’re here to help you embrace change and leverage it to fulfill your mission. We like to say we’re flipping the publishing world right-side up!

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

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A report in the The Bookseller (@thebookseller) says “the crucial role of physical bookshops to a healthy publishing industry” is evident “by findings from both Bowker Market Research UK (@Bowker) and research company Enders Analysis.”

“We estimate that when a bookshop closes, about a third of its sales transfer to another bookshop,” says Enders analyst Douglas McCabe. This means as much as two-thirds of sales disappear. Some of this spend doubtless migrates online, but much of it vanishes from the book sector entirely.”

Both McCabe and BMR director Jo Henry agree on the crucial role of bookshop browsing. Discovery still does not work online, McCabe asserted. “Consumers do not browse the Internet as is often suggested,” he said. Enders Analysis estimates that serendipity and discovery generate as much as two-thirds of UK general book sales, much of this down to bookshops. “There is almost nothing that can be done to sustain the health of the network of bookshops that should be collectively considered too extravagant,” McCabe said. “Without bookshops, publishing would have to rethink its model at every level.”

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The UK bookstore chain Waterstones (@Waterstones) is now “stocking special limited edition books with exclusive extra material to try to give it the edge in the competitive book-selling market. The book retailer has signed contracts with publishers to sell unique versions of their books, only available in Waterstones stores” to lure buyers away from Amazon and other online outlets.

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Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

This article in The New York Times on “how JPMorgan Chase got into the mess of the London whale trades that dominated the financial news last year” illustrates the real costs of inexact communication.

A key figure in the controversy wrote at the time the following in a memo to “the International Senior Management Group of the Chief Investment Office:

...sell the forward spread and buy protection on the tightening move,... use indices and add to existing position,... go long risk on some belly tranches especially where defaults may realize,... buy protection on HY and Xover in rallies and turn the position over to monetize volatility.”

Gibberish. Yet it was approved, even though “relevant actors and regulators could not understand” it.

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This is a reminder to all of us in the publishing trade that good writing is rooted in clear writing! As Strunk and White said in The Elements of Style,

Since writing is communication, clarity can only be a virtue. When you become hopelessly mired in a sentence, it is best to start fresh; do not try to fight your way through against the terrible odds of syntax. Usually what is wrong is that the construction has become too involved at some point; the sentence needs to be broken apart and replaced by two or more shorter sentences.

Muddiness is not merely a disturber of prose, it is also a destroyer of life, of hope: death on the highway caused by a misplaced phrase in a well-intentioned letter, anguish of a traveler expecting to be met at a railroad station and not being met because of a slipshod telegram. Think of the tragedies that are rooted in ambiguity, and be clear! When you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically (and clearly) publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

Writing in Christianity Today (@CTmagazine), Bryn Sandberg (@brynsandberg) says “new opportunities from journalist David Aikman and novelist Jerry Jenkins aim to help aspiring authors who lack a platform.”

To address the difficulty that new writers are having [in getting published], Jenkins and Aikman are independently starting new initiatives they hope will improve the odds that fresh Christian talent can get work published.

David Aikman created the Aikman Opportunity Award for Young Christian Writers (@AikmanAward) to give authors a start as well as persuade them to go into Christian writing as a career. The purpose of the award is to identify nonfiction Christian manuscripts to steer toward publication in 2014....

In his own effort to help aspiring writers get published without having a "name" in the industry, Jenkins recently launched a self-publishing company, Christian Writers Guild Publishing (@CWGuild).

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Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

Click Image to EnlargeSource: 10 Lessons on Leadership

(Click to enlarge the Infographic).

The above Infographic is by the online backup service Mozy (@mozy).

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.