Some exciting developments here at BookNet HQ. We're creating a repository of excerpts, tables of contents, and reading group guides in BiblioShare!
If you've been creating this content and then sending it out on a case-by-case basis, we're here to streamline that workflow for you. Create it once, send it to BiblioShare, and then point anyone who wants your content our way. We'll give them access through a token and then they'll be able to download the desired files.
Once we get a critical mass of content, there will be even more incentives to use BiblioShare to store your excerpts, tables of contents, and reading group guides. Some possibilities include:
- Excerpt functionality built into CataList. This is a much-requested feature that we are exploring.
- Potential partnerships with sites such as 49th Shelf to allow them to pull the content into their websites.
- Getting your content in front of retailers and librarians. Booksellers could provide copies of reading group guides to customers, and libraries could include them in book club packages.
- So many other possibilities open up once we get a good amount of content from publishers. We're only limited by technology and our imaginations.
So now that we've convinced you to send us your fantastic content, we've got some tips about what you should send:
- For your excerpts, be sure to include enough content to generate interest in your book. Is that a percentage of your book or a chapter? We'll leave that up to you. Feel free to experiment. But we would recommend not including the front matter of the book – get right into the good stuff. Make sure what you're sending is the best content to support sales of your books.
- Your table of contents should have interesting and informative chapter titles. No one wants to see a list of numbered chapters; they want to know what to expect from the book and your table of contents should provide that for potential readers.
- Reading group guides with interesting discussion questions or conversation starters for book clubs. Consider including an author bio, an interview with the author, or recipes inspired by the book — really anything that might intrigue book club members. You want them to choose your book over one that doesn't make it easier to lead the discussion.
- There's no DRM on this content, so make sure you're not including more than you'd like for promotional purposes.
For more information about BiblioShare in general, and naming conventions and file types accepted for excerpts specifically, consult our BiblioShare Quick Start Guide.
If you're a publisher and have questions about how to send us your samples and excerpts, or if you're a retailer/librarian/website owner and have questions about how you can use the excerpts, send them to us either in the comments below, or by email to biblioshare@booknetcanada.ca.
