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Information in this article is pulled from Episode 144 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast featuring Joshua Stone.
The landscape of digital book ownership is undergoing a transformation. With traditional ebook monopolies like Kindle dominating the market, emerging platforms are challenging the status quo by restoring true ownership to readers and providing exceptional benefits to authors.
In the latest episode of The Book Marketing Action Podcast, Joshua Stone—CEO of Book.io—explains the significance of digital book ownership and the potential for reshaping the industry.
“Technology hasn’t evolved in the ebook and audiobook space, basically since it was invented. And I feel like it’s definitely time that occurs, and it’s going to usher in a lot of new changes.” —Joshua Stone
Rethinking Digital Book Ownership Through Emerging Platforms
Traditional ebook platforms have long embedded a licensing model that limits readers’ access to digital content, meaning that:
- Readers don’t truly own the digital books they purchase. They are effectively just purchasing a license to view the books.
- Readers can’t resell their books, leaving the books forgotten on a digital shelf.
- Authors don’t actually own their audience—the retailer does—so there is a lack of transparency and no way for authors to communicate directly with their digital book consumers, which limits their marketing efforts.
Platforms like Book.io are working to redefine this dynamic and improve the experience for both readers and authors. Their goal is to take the freedom, transparency, and ownership that people have when they purchase a physical book and have that exist in the digital world, as well. The benefits of this shift include:
- Giving readers full ownership of any ebooks and audiobooks they purchase, eliminating the risk of having their access taken away.
- Providing readers with the option to sell their books on a global secondary market.
- Allowing publishers and authors to earn royalties for first-time digital book sales, and continued royalties on secondary sales.
- Giving authors access to user data, helping to inform their marketing efforts and engage their audience.
This last point in particular is a significant one. By allowing data transparency and direct interaction, authors can optimize their marketing strategies and offer tailored reader experiences.
Optimizing Author-Reader Interaction and Marketing Opportunities
Unlike traditional platforms where authors are distanced from their audiences, Book.io offers unparalleled access to user data, enabling targeted marketing and strategic audience building.
“You can start to do really interesting marketing and merchandising and gamify the experience, which exists in many, many other verticals, but has never been opened up to book publishing in the way that this allows—because it’s not licensed, it’s actual ownership. There are just an infinite amount of ways that it helps from the marketing standpoint.” —Joshua Stone
This direct line to consumer habits and preferences allows authors to innovate in ways unimaginable before. Joshua Stone provides an example of what one author has been able to do through Book.io:
- When releasing their second book, the author offered a discount to anyone who had the first book on their digital shelf.
- If users owned the first book and the second book, then they automatically got the third book for free when it came out.
- Every user who had all three books and kept them got exclusive access to the fourth book in the series.
This strategy incentivizes initial sales while fostering deeper reader engagement. The ability to verify who has read a book also paves the way for creating exclusive reader clubs and personalized interactions between authors and their audience.
By enabling genuine ownership and facilitating direct engagement, platforms like Book.io offer exciting new avenues for both creating and consuming content. As these technologies continue to evolve, they promise a future where authors and readers alike have true agency over their digital assets.
Next Steps
Explore Book.io for yourself—either as an author or as a reader. Take time to familiarize yourself with the platform and experience the difference of actually owning your digital content, being able to resell it, and having access to your audience.
With more than 25 years in tech, Joshua Stone has experience in all stages of development from fledgling startups to established enterprises. In 1999, he contributed to the initial development of Fandango.com, later he led the interactive marketing teams for AT&T, and further led the Product/UX team for hotels.com/Expedia, Inc. Josh has had two startup exits, Big Jump Media (GodTube.com), and BookShout.com, where he was President and Chief Product Officer. Most recently, he served as CEO of a NYT-Bestselling Author’s digital training platform before starting Book.io.
I am the founder/CEO of the Weaving Influence team, the author of Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, and the host of the Book Marketing Action Podcast. I’m a wife and mom of three kids, and I enjoy running, reading, writing, coffee, and dark chocolate.