Hachette lets you read free chapters from upcoming books on Facebook

[stonetools]

The BPHs are trying all kinds of experiments involving direct to consumer interactions:

Big-six publisher Hachette Book Group is making free chapters of upcoming books from bestselling authors like James Patterson and Michael Connelly available through a new Facebook app.

The app, ChapterShare, lets Hachette publishing divisions, authors and retail partners post free chapters of books on their Facebook pages. Readers can preorder the books directly from the page and share links to sample chapters with their Facebook friends.

“Publishers need to become application developers in order to connect writers and readers more closely,” Hachette COO Ken Michaels said.

LINK

I think we can now put to rest the idea that the BPHS "don't get" the Internet. They seem to be doing their darndest :

1. Not to be disintermediated.
2. To disintermediate you know who.
I've argued elsewhere that publishers might go direct to consumers with an app-centered approach. Looks like Hachette is on its way.

[JoeD]

That's great, other than the bit about tieing it to facebook which I won't have anything to do with (a sentiment I'm not alone in, even though it's likely a minority group

With any luck they'll cater for both groups though by also pushing an epub version onto their site. Not that it matters all that much whilst Amazon are making samples of books available (to me that is, it certainly matters to anyone wanting to not rely on Amazon).

[whitearrow]

Readers can preorder the books directly from the page

In hard copy only? (At full retail price, I imagine... which only dopes and people trapped in airports pay.) If an ebook, what format, and readable on what devices?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by JoeD

That's great, other than the bit about tieing it to facebook which I won't have anything to do with (a sentiment I'm not alone in, even though it's likely a minority group

I'm the other half of your minority group

[plib]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I'm the other half of your minority group

Nah, you're only a third!

[Gardenman]

I am also in the no facebook group. i guess Hachette does not want me to read any samples of their books.

[odiakkoh]

I have a Facebook but I'm not a fan of linking everything to it.

[RDaneel54]

I'm not on Facebook either.

I'm irritated with how many websites think it's necessary to link everything there. Must be some kind of kickback scheme.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by RDaneel54

I'm not on Facebook either.

I'm irritated with how many websites think it's necessary to link everything there. Must be some kind of kickback scheme.

That and PayPal (another one I don't do). Recently I wanted to take advantage of some deals with Delphi Classics, but couldn't because they require a PayPal account to checkout.

[stonetools]

I'm not much for Facebook, either.
That said, we all sound like old men sitting around saying,

" I remember when the Internet meant BBS and Usenet.There was none of this WWW or GUI frippery, and people typed commands into a terminal window, the way God intended." (waves cane)

There are 800M Facebook users and rising. For quite a few people, especially the young, Facebook IS the Internet.The great thing about FB, from a marketing standpoint, is the ease with which you can share content and recommendations. If I download a sample and "Like" it, everyone of my Friends instantly knows it.Now I don't have many Facebook friends, but my teenage daughter in law has 1,035.
It makes sense for publishers and authors to use it (and Twitter) as a marketing tool. It may make sense to use it as a sales channel. Through a Facebook app, the publisher/author could arrange to sell a book directly to me with one click, using my Facebook credentials. Once the sale goes through, my friends get updated and creates more buzz and additional sales. What's in it for Facebook? A cut of the sales.Facebook could become the Facebookstore.
Setting up the app though is the easy part. What about customer service? Neither FB or the publishers have a background in that. That's a huge hill that needs to beclimbed before FB could be a viable sales channel.

[JoeD]

stonetools: There's no doubt we're in the minority and it makes perfect sense for businesses to use twitter and facebook and other sites to market their products. No disagreements there. However, if they tie their services to one site, then that's where I think it'd be a bad idea.

As an example, Spotify won't let you create an account anymore you have to login with a facebook account. Whilst easy facebook integration likely increased their customer base a lot, they still managed to annoy quite a few people who wanted to sign up but now can't because they don't want anything to do with facebook.

What's silly about it, is there's not really a reason most companies can't hit both groups. Which would also mean they're not tieing themselves to a 3rd party and having to scramble for alternative options when facebook decide what they're doing should involve a payment to fb (see Apple/Amazon or Apple/NewsApps for example)

For Hachette, that would mean providing a way for non facebook users to access samples of their books. Something they could easily do by making the first few chapters available on their website as HTML or a downloadable epub. No need for protection either since it's a sample/taster and ideally you'd want people to copy/share it with everyone they can find.

[stonetools]

stonetools: There's no doubt we're in the minority and it makes perfect sense for businesses to use twitter and facebook and other sites to market their products. No disagreements there. However, if they tie their services to one site, then that's where I think it'd be a bad idea.

Agreed. You have to start somewhere, though. With FB, you are using a site whose users regularly log onto. How many people log on to a publisher site? You have to show your wares where the
people go.