Hello and please HELP (quick survey TO HELP SMALL PUBLISHERS improve)

Lavinia Rsearch · 04-05-2023, 05:27 PM

Hi!

I am doing my MBA project about how small publishers can improve content, findability and branding and how they can help readers suffer less from overchoice (being overwhelmed and having difficulty deciding when there are too many choices available and even causing you to be dissatisfied with the selected option) and have 1 week to collect data.

Could you help me by taking an ANONYMOUS, remote 9 minutes online survey about your preferences, experiences and beliefs? https://nv1hb1shve3.typeform.com/to/BcbDpSs7

No personal, sensitive or confidential information is required. Your data will not be shared with any third party and there are no controversial, sensitive, shocking or any other type of possibly harmful elements in the survey.

WHY am I asking YOU?

Your passion for reading and online presence make you more knowledgeable about the digital publishing industry. Your engagement to sharing your opinions in this online community makes you more articulate about your experiences. Your rate of reading means you are the one suffering the negative effects of overchoice the most.

Pretty please let me know if you need more info. And if you are an author and are curious about what the results will be let me know and i will post what the general consensus of the participants was.

Many thanks,
Lavinia

Quoth · 04-06-2023, 05:05 AM

Quote:

IF you ever experienced overchoice*, please rank the following strategies for reducing it from 1 most effective to 6 least effective. This question is required. *

*being overwhelmed and having difficulty deciding when there are too many choices available, leading to possible dissatisfaction with the chosen option

That, IMO, isn't the major issue with publishing or buying books.

Issues:

Geo-limited publishing especially in English due to world market carve-up making titles (paper or ebook) unavailable as the publishers for other regions have no obligation to take a contract, or existing one may be exclusive.
Poor print quality on paperbacks
Poor or excessive formatting on fiction ebooks
DRM
Amazon exclusivity (Self Pub and small publishers). Large publishers are not affected by KDP/KU rules set by Amazon.
Google, Apple, Amazon etc eBook retail prices set by publisher/author. They should set a price to the Retailer and then retail web site should charge any price.
Misleading Blurbs
Misleading or too many Tag Categories

Quoth · 04-06-2023, 05:17 AM

Also survey has problems:
On lists of 1 to 5 rank, is 1 lowest/worst or highest best?
No don't care for this topic or don't rank this item.
No progress visible. I gave up.
I think other issues too.

JSWolf · 04-06-2023, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

That, IMO, isn't the major issue with publishing or buying books.

Issues:

Geo-limited publishing especially in English due to world market carve-up making titles (paper or ebook) unavailable as the publishers for other regions have no obligation to take a contract, or existing one may be exclusive.
Poor print quality on paperbacks
Poor or excessive formatting on fiction ebooks
DRM
Amazon exclusivity (Self Pub and small publishers). Large publishers are not affected by KDP/KU rules set by Amazon.
Google, Apple, Amazon etc eBook retail prices set by publisher/author. They should set a price to the Retailer and then retail web site should charge any price.
Misleading Blurbs
Misleading or too many Tag Categories

I agree except for the paperback issue as I don't read paperbacks.

JSWolf · 04-06-2023, 08:13 AM

I gave up because the survey was a hassle. The software was not all that easy to use. Also, some answer are N/A and I cannot either rate them as such or ignore them.

I hardly use social media to go find books to read. So that part is useless.

Sirtel · 04-06-2023, 09:32 AM

I did the survey, but I agree it had problems. There's no option to ignore a question, if it's non-applicable. I also don't use social media, so that part of the survey was useless to me.

And overchoice has never been a problem for me as a reader. It's a problem for authors and publishers. So the premise as such was not applicable to begin with.

Quoth · 04-06-2023, 09:34 AM

As it stands the survey will give a misleading answer.

Elfwreck · 04-16-2023, 10:45 PM

I technically use "social media" but the only ones I use are Tumblr and Discord, and neither of them is going to welcome publishers trying to advertise more. (Is Discord social media? I have no idea.)

A good portion of the questionnaire is useless - "what makes a publisher's website more appealing to customers" (or whatever the exact phrasing was) is not something you find out by asking individual customers what they like most, because plenty of people will say "I would buy things if they cost less" and then won't buy them when prices are lowered. Or they'll say "I'd buy more if there were reviews on the books" and again, that's not what actually drives sales.

DRM was not an answer for any of the questions. Format ("ebook, audiobook") was mentioned, but not filetype. (I'm not buying fiction in PDF.) And format was mentioned as an option - one factor among many - rather than "If it's not available in a format that's useful for me, I'm not buying it; doesn't matter how much I might want to read it."

It keeps mentioning "social media" like that's a single thing, or all interchangeable. Like there's no difference between "I follow some book rec feeds on Twitter" and "I'm in some private forums that have book discussions." (Note that publishers can see the former; they can't see or influence the latter at all.) (Most of my actual book recs in the last couple of years have come from a private chat focused around an online dragon game.)

It mentions "influencers" like there's any agreement at all about who those are.

It didn't even ask "how many books do you normally buy in a year?" So it's giving the same weight to answers from someone who reads one or two books in a year, based on celebrity recommendations on TV, vs someone who buys a few books every week based on recs at SBTB and the Hugo Book Club Blog.

This questionnaire will mostly serve to reinforce the biases that went into making it, because there's no options to mention different approaches to finding & buying books.

JSWolf · 04-17-2023, 06:53 AM

I don't use social media to find books to read. So all of that is useless.

Asawi · 04-17-2023, 08:27 AM

I opened the survey. Got irritated by the slick user interface that seemes to be more about looks than functionality. Got to the first question and came to the conclusion that this was not for me...
Can't say "overchoice" is something I worry much about, so I can't add anything useful.

04-05-2023, 05:27 PM	#1
Lavinia Rsearch Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2023 Device: desktop	Hello and please HELP (quick survey TO HELP SMALL PUBLISHERS improve) Hi! I am doing my MBA project about how small publishers can improve content, findability and branding and how they can help readers suffer less from overchoice (being overwhelmed and having difficulty deciding when there are too many choices available and even causing you to be dissatisfied with the selected option) and have 1 week to collect data. Could you help me by taking an ANONYMOUS, remote 9 minutes online survey about your preferences, experiences and beliefs? https://nv1hb1shve3.typeform.com/to/BcbDpSs7 No personal, sensitive or confidential information is required. Your data will not be shared with any third party and there are no controversial, sensitive, shocking or any other type of possibly harmful elements in the survey. WHY am I asking YOU? Your passion for reading and online presence make you more knowledgeable about the digital publishing industry. Your engagement to sharing your opinions in this online community makes you more articulate about your experiences. Your rate of reading means you are the one suffering the negative effects of overchoice the most. Pretty please let me know if you need more info. And if you are an author and are curious about what the results will be let me know and i will post what the general consensus of the participants was. Many thanks, Lavinia

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04-06-2023, 05:17 AM	#3
Quoth the rook, bossing Never. Posts: 11,164 Karma: 85874891 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper11	Also survey has problems: On lists of 1 to 5 rank, is 1 lowest/worst or highest best? No don't care for this topic or don't rank this item. No progress visible. I gave up. I think other issues too.

04-06-2023, 08:13 AM	#5
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 74,015 Karma: 129333114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I gave up because the survey was a hassle. The software was not all that easy to use. Also, some answer are N/A and I cannot either rate them as such or ignore them. I hardly use social media to go find books to read. So that part is useless.

04-06-2023, 09:32 AM	#6
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 10,145 Karma: 224760044 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	I did the survey, but I agree it had problems. There's no option to ignore a question, if it's non-applicable. I also don't use social media, so that part of the survey was useless to me. And overchoice has never been a problem for me as a reader. It's a problem for authors and publishers. So the premise as such was not applicable to begin with.

04-06-2023, 09:34 AM	#7
Quoth the rook, bossing Never. Posts: 11,164 Karma: 85874891 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper11	As it stands the survey will give a misleading answer.

04-16-2023, 10:45 PM	#8
Elfwreck Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,185 Karma: 25133758 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3 (Past: Kobo Mini, PEZ, PRS-505, Clié)	I technically use "social media" but the only ones I use are Tumblr and Discord, and neither of them is going to welcome publishers trying to advertise more. (Is Discord social media? I have no idea.) A good portion of the questionnaire is useless - "what makes a publisher's website more appealing to customers" (or whatever the exact phrasing was) is not something you find out by asking individual customers what they like most, because plenty of people will say "I would buy things if they cost less" and then won't buy them when prices are lowered. Or they'll say "I'd buy more if there were reviews on the books" and again, that's not what actually drives sales. DRM was not an answer for any of the questions. Format ("ebook, audiobook") was mentioned, but not filetype. (I'm not buying fiction in PDF.) And format was mentioned as an option - one factor among many - rather than "If it's not available in a format that's useful for me, I'm not buying it; doesn't matter how much I might want to read it." It keeps mentioning "social media" like that's a single thing, or all interchangeable. Like there's no difference between "I follow some book rec feeds on Twitter" and "I'm in some private forums that have book discussions." (Note that publishers can see the former; they can't see or influence the latter at all.) (Most of my actual book recs in the last couple of years have come from a private chat focused around an online dragon game.) It mentions "influencers" like there's any agreement at all about who those are. It didn't even ask "how many books do you normally buy in a year?" So it's giving the same weight to answers from someone who reads one or two books in a year, based on celebrity recommendations on TV, vs someone who buys a few books every week based on recs at SBTB and the Hugo Book Club Blog. This questionnaire will mostly serve to reinforce the biases that went into making it, because there's no options to mention different approaches to finding & buying books.

04-17-2023, 06:53 AM	#9
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 74,015 Karma: 129333114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I don't use social media to find books to read. So all of that is useless.

04-17-2023, 08:27 AM	#10
Asawi Gadgetoholic Posts: 1,462 Karma: 2731820 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Sweden Device: Kobo Libra2, Tolino Vision 6	I opened the survey. Got irritated by the slick user interface that seemes to be more about looks than functionality. Got to the first question and came to the conclusion that this was not for me... Can't say "overchoice" is something I worry much about, so I can't add anything useful.

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