Firsty News

Glassboxx Sponsors Indies

Editor’s note:

As we move into spring, and lockdown restrictions ease, we’re looking forward to seeing the industry opening up again. Although it may be a while before events become face to face, we can’t wait to start collaborating more creatively – that said, we have seen how strongly publishing has responded to this way of working, and are curious to see how sales, particularly digital sales, will hold up when booksellers are able to operate at full capacity again. We suspect that a lot of readers will have seen the benefit in being able to access eBooks and audiobooks so easily, while still supporting publishers.

We’ve been working with publishers on Glassboxx to make this as easy as possible, and you might have noticed that we’ve got a new look – we’re proud of the way that Glassboxx has grown and the impact it’s making, and we needed something to reflect that. To keep up, check out our social media – you’ll see more of who we’re working with, our top titles each month, and more of what’s new for us.

Darin Brockman
Firsty Group Founder & CEO

Just the other month, we spoke about the challenge faced by publishers in establishing a sense of identity – particularly on a wider scale. What sense of identity do publishers pride themselves on, and how can this be used to appeal to readers? The answer lies in the way they use the best resources available to them – authors themselves, and their online presence.

Just a quick look at any bestseller list will show a plethora of celebrity titles. But as the definition and expansion of ‘celebrity’ becomes more nuanced, and more polarising, so does the variety of celebrity- fronted titles on hand, the publicity around them and the discussion that they create. To take an especially polarising example, Piers Morgan’s latest title, Wake Up: Why the World Has Gone Nuts, went up in the book charts following his controversial actions on television. As a notoriously divisive figure, he provides a reliable source of publicity, for better or for worse. We could surmise that all press is good press, but that wouldn’t be strictly true; one of the most successful books this year, The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig, has struck a chord with existing fans and new readers alike – but how is he reaching both? He is extremely active on social media, Instagram in particular, and despite quitting Twitter he has remained popular. Perhaps we can put this down to a less contentious personality making the most of a less contentious platform. The differences between these two examples involve cultural, social,and political factors, which all have an impact on how these books sell, and to whom they appeal – not to mention the power of each of their social media audiences.

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