The recent Digital Book World conference was one of the best run and most useful conferences we’ve been part of in recent years. It did a great job of airing necessary conversations and forging new ideas about the present and future of our industry. We couldn’t have picked a better place to debut the initial results of our Consumer Survey. This is an industry that’s ready for hard data. There has been a lot of talk going on related to the conference over the last week, easily trackable with Digital Book World’s own link round-up, here.
If you want to focus on what people are saying, reporting and questioning about the Verso Survey Results in particular, however, here’s a list of some of the talk our survey helped generate:
Publishers Weekly reports that “Verso’s Jack McKeown offered a consumer book survey that acted as a counterweight to Napack’s manifesto…”
On the Digital Book World blog, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez comments on our survey results, “Indie Mindshare Offers an Opportunity…”
The Philadelphia Social Media Examiner cites Verso’s “massive” survey results in the article headlined “Nervous publishing community braces for the e-book revolution…”
Pete Nikolai uploaded the Survey slides to Business Week’s “Business Exchange” site, with brief commentary.
Library Journal mentions the survey in their article, “Digital Book World Attendees Address Changing Future of Reading.”
Industry media reporters Galley Cat reports that the Verso presentation was well-received, “cheering up the publishing crowd.”
In Huffington Post, Steve Ross comments on Verso’s “significant amount of relevant and at times meaningful demographic information…”
Also, here‘s Galley Cat talking about Verso’s pinpointing “Publishing’s Statistical Sweet Spot.”
Publishing industry newsletter, Publishers Lunch headlines an article, “Verso Presents Consumer Survey; Asks Why Indie Market Share Is So Much Lower than Mindshare.”
Industry newsletter Publishing Trends is not available without subscription, but here’s a glimpse of their report on the conference:
SOME OF THE BLOGS:
FSG’s Ryan Chapman: “Verso’s Jack McKeown notes that people who go through the effort of downloading illegal copies, for the most part, represent an opportunity for booksellers….”
Dainty Ninja: “Among the findings was one surprising bit of data that could be a sign of encouragement for beleaguered US independent booksellers…”
Paul Biba led off his Teleread post with “Dedicated e-book readers won’t be the easiest sell if you go by Verso’s 2009 Survey of Book Buying Behavior—presented at DigitalBookWorld…”
Mick Rooney on the Verso Survey Presentation, “It was perfect, and set the tone among delegates for the rest of the day….”
SOME OF THE TWEETS:
@MJRose BTW, I think studies such as Verso’s and BISG’s on book buying behavior are very valuable. –@DonLinn
If you’re an indie bookseller,you need to see Verso’s #DBW presentation and think abt converting mindshare to mkt share http://bit.ly/aAF7qS –@DonLinn
“Turning Indie mindshare to marketshare” Fantastic title! @bookateur @TatteredCover @DBerthiaume @DonLinn #DBW –@AnnKingman
RT@GalleyCat: RT@eBookNewser: Generation Lost? #DBWverso: 2/3rds of avid readers surveyed are 45 or older; 28% are in the 18+ bracket #DBW –@CitrusNaNo
RT @DigiBookWorld: RT @ljndawson: Survey says even avid readers who own ereaders are buying both p-books and e-books. Not mutally exclusive. #DBW #DBWverso –@coopertjon
RT @DigiBookWorld: RT @ljndawson: Maximum $ willing to pay for ebooks! 28% won’t go above $10. 28% are flexible between $10-20. 37% not sure. #DBW #DBWVerso –@krishvenkatesh
RT @BookPros: RT @RonHogan: RT @ljndawson:Author publicity and instore events are biggest driver to purchase. But author tours are dying! #DBW #DBWverso –@ShennandoahDiaz
RT @KatMeyer: slides from @versodigital will be available on slideshare and versoadvertising.com — EXCELLENT information. highly recommend #dbwverso #dbw –@toddbeals
am i crazy to think verso study shows demo most likely to pirate books is demo least likely to *buy* them in any format –@Booksquare
… AND FOR FUN:
CNN’s report on the iPad quotes pundits at the conference and shows Verso’s presentation (don’t blink):
