Some book selling sites also support the functionality of giving a sneak peek of the book, displaying some of its pages. Thus you should be able to influence what they send. I am guessing that publishers will have a say in what the description used by book sellers will be.
It's also worth mentioning that by including the community while you are working on the book, you are getting them excited about it. For example, in an origami forum Nicolas Terry asked about models for his upcoming book around Vietnamese designers, and Brian Chan used Facebook.īrian Chan publicly asking the community for favorites
For example, you could write an email to a mailing list, or post a question in a forum or on a social networking site. Second, there’s no harm in asking the community directly for advice. It’s probably the clearest signal for increased interest in a model - and thus it's a potential seller for your book. The same holds if you get queries for diagrams for a model. These are great indicators that you should consider including the designs in your book. on Flickr? If so, check which models get lots of complimentary comments, or are favorited often.
How to get that information? I’ll mention two ideas to get you started.įirst of all, are you posting pictures online, e.g. And the community can help you decide which models people are most excited about. And when talking to other origami enthusiasts, I found out I’m not the only one for whom it’s like that.īut what is there to learn from this? If you are a designer and thinking of publishing a book, selecting the right models for the book is key. The book obviously also includes many other great models, but very often there’s that one model that makes me really want to buy the book.
For example, in License To Fold it was all about the Eagle designed by Hung Cuong Nguyen. I don’t know about you, but I personally often buy a book because I am interested in one particular model. Model SelectionĪ single fantastic model can already be a great selling point.
Most of the tips will be targeted at authors, but some of them can also be put into practice by origami enthusiasts who want to help with promoting their favorite creators. This article is all about some ideas on how you can promote origami books online. Indeed, the internet can be a great place to promote your book and increase sales - rather than choking them. Some might say the internet is the biggest risk, and that origami books might disappear because of it. I do want designers to keep publishing books, though.
After all, I produce instructional videos myself, and have also posted some free diagrams online. At the same time I know that there are other media of sharing emerging. For me it is about the diagrams, but also about supporting the creators, and having something to hold on to. I love origami books, because they can be so beautiful. To put that into context, I’ve been into origami for 67 months now - which gives me an average of acquiring over one book a month.
The best way of exemplifying that is probably to mention that I own 95 origami books, plus some magazines and booklets. There’s no doubt about it - I love origami books.