Got books, e-books or calendars? ***UPDATED***

***UPDATE***

See my post below dated 1/11/2011


It appears that a growing number of our members have gone into the e-book publishing biz. In order to help you better market your work, we will be establishing an e-book listing service on the NPN website, accessible via the Shop menu.

At this stage I'm just trying to get a feel for how many of our members would be interested in such a service. There are several different ways I could go about creating the service and having some idea of how much use it will get will help me decide which way makes the most sense.

As always, your input is appreciated!

***EDIT***

Let's expand this discussion to include printed books and calendars as well.

After a conversation with Dave the Programmer, it seems the best and most visually attractive way to do this is to create a new version of our gallery software designed specifically for this purpose. It would really present your books, e-books and calendars in elegant fashion. Like the Nature Prints Gallery upload option, a URL field would be provided with each upload to link back to your site where the purchase would be made.

Though this would require a not-inconsequential $$ investment on this end, I think it would be a very cool new feature and service to offer the NPN membership.

Let us know what you think!

This is a great idea Jim. I'm sure there are a lot of NPN members such as myself who would be interested in buying e-books from other members. I would suggest that you also include iPhone apps as I know that some members have developed photography apps as well.

Carol, great suggestion! So, who has iPhone apps they would like to promote?

Jim, most of the e-books and apps that I have seen mentioned have been in the RMNP Forum. I hope those members read this thread.

Hey Jim!

I think this is great. I've got a new business going publishing site guide eBooks and would love to be listed. If I can help on the back end or anything, please let me know! I am also looking for photographers who would like to author a guide on their local haunt!

Best,
Drew

Drew, thanks for the post and offer to help! If this idea is well received, we could have this new feature ready to roll in about 30 days.

I like this idea a lot - especially because a centralized location for calenders would be helpful, I'm sure a lot of our viewers would be interested but aren't going to find them fumbling through forum posts or randomly visiting websites and blogs...

I would certainly be interested in participating in this with my printed guidebooks.

I'm sure a lot of our viewers would be interested but aren't going to find them fumbling through forum posts or randomly visiting websites and blogs...

Exactly! I hope to have a "mock-up" gallery completed this weekend that will show how these member products will be presented.

another great idea!

Wow! Talk about timing! I just authored - and ordered - my first print book via Blurb. I should have the first copy in my hand next Tuesday for review.

So, naturally, I would be very interested in this service.

I'm all ears! As an aside, if NPN can get a financial benefit by offering this service (small percentage of sales?) I would also be amenable to some suggestions along those lines.

This is absolutely a fantastic idea with great timing! I also just published my first book and will have more than 2,000 the copies in stock next week that I need to sell. I'm definitely interested in learning more so keep me in the loop about this gallery. Any new avenue to help our members sell their products sure can't hurt!

I like this idea and like the idea of including printed books and calendars. You could do this through an associate program like Amazon or BN.com, so that you don't have to do any of the distribution and NPN would get a percentage of the sales.

Jim,

Bret Edge and I have three iFotoGuide iPhone apps in the App store.
We currently have ones for Arches National Park, Grand Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park.

We also have a web site, www.ifotoguide.com.

Having them listed here would be great.

- Dan.

Dan, we can include those too - the format I'm envsioning will work just fine for apps!

(this is Jim logging in as Donna)

Not sure how folks will feel about this, but it would be ideal from my perspective if there was an ability to also add customer reviews to listings of e-books and other products. I've purchased a number of e-books and sometimes I've been thrilled with the quality of the work (one of Ian Plant's e-books comes to mind . . . may as well give him a free plug for work well done), but on other occasions I've been very disappointed with other e-books. Just a suggestion to consider.

Overall, I think that the idea of a listing service is excellent and I really look forward to seeing it up and running!

Terrific!!

sounds good Jim. I have one photobook available for purchase direct from the blurb.com website, and plan on doing more. Not sure exactly how this would work

Jim - another vote for including apps. Mine is TPE (The Photographer's Ephemeris) over at http://photoEphemeris.com.

It might make sense to look into the affiliate programs too (e.g. http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/) - that way NPN could recoup some investment for providing the listing service.

Best regards,

Stephen

Thanks to all for your feedback!

At this point, the members' listing service (including iPhone apps) will simply be a membership benefit, with a link to your own site where the transaction will take place. I hope to have the sample page of what the listings will look like done in a few days!

Hi Jim,

I think this is a great idea and I'm quite interested in it for future possibilities. Seems like you have an overwhelming "thumbs up" for the idea!

Jim,

All of these changes you have been making are fabulous! You really are making it worthwhile to be a member of NPN, as if it wasn't already incredibly valuable! I have a number of products to list such as an iPhone app, DVD, prints for the new prints gallery, and I think Todd is taking care of books. Thanks for giving us another avenue to get our work out and help pay the bills!

Great idea, Jim! I'm interested.

Guy

Sounds like a great idea, Jim. :)

I'm wondering about maybe segregating this into sections like apps, books, calendars, ebooks, maybe others. With all the publishing that everyone is doing, it could be a little hard to wade through all the different items. Some type of organization might be useful in trying to locate specific items or types of items. Maybe a search function in this would be nice too since if there are pages of publications, locating a specific item could be difficult.

Tony, there will be separate listing galleries as follows;

e-Books
Books
Calendars
iPhone Apps
DVDs

This will be a new piece of software on our server with the ability to create new listing galleries as needed. Each will also have a search function.

I am currently working with Dave the Programmer on this project, which we hope to have ready to roll out by the end of the month. It will be a considerable investment in the programming, so we want to make it the best it can be!

I plan on posting a mock-up of the listing page in the next few days.

Good idea Jim.

One suggestion would be to have category for Videos. Downloadable videos are just starting to pop-up on the internet and it will not be far when we photographer will jump on the bandwagon.

I agree with Tony's suggestion about sorting function. Here are some sorting options that would make the site very user friendly:

author,
tag or categories (as defined by the author or we have some predefined categories),
Newest,
Price List,
Browse by type (ebooks, Calendars, iPhone Apps, DVDs, Books)

Thanks.
-Jay

Jay,

Thanks for the input!

Just like we have Avian, ESS, Fauna, etc. selections under the Galleries menu, there will be separate listings for each kind of product. Under the Shop menu, there will be a selection for each kind of product (books, e-books, DVDs, etc.). Each product type will have its own "gallery" (listing).

Once at a listing gallery is selected, there will be a search function to search by author, key words, etc.

This will make more sense once I have the mock-up page ready to view, which I think will be today.

OK, here is a sneak-peek at this new piece of NPN software we're working on, using Ian Plant's e-books to illustrate;

Nature Photography e-Books

1. This page shows two listings, each page will have ten before generating a new page.

2. Thumbnails will be sized to 250 pixels on the longest side. You can size them to 250 or upload anything up to 720 pixels/300kb and allow the software to generate the thumbnail (just like we do in the IC galleries).

3. View Composite Image - just like the current IC galleries, there will be an option to upload a 1200 pixel/500kb JPEG file that will open in a new window. This can be used, for example, to create a composite image of all 12 photos of a calendar, show pages from the e-book, etc. If you do not use the option, the link will not appear with your listing.

4. More Info - Buy - this is a link to the page on your site where the product can be purchased (the thumbnail is also a link).

Post New Listing

Just like the Post a Photo screen in the IC galleries, there will be a Post New Listing upload screen. On this screen you will;

1. Type in a title

2. Type in a description

3. Type in a purchase URL (link to your website)

4. Browse/upload a thumbnail

5. Browse/upload the optional 1200 pixel (composite) image

6. Select Listing Gallery from drop-down menu (e-books, books, calendars, etc.)

Upload!

Once the listing is uploaded, you will have edit and delete links to manage your listings.

A few notes;

1. There will be space/character limitations in each field you fill in on the Post New Listing screen to preserve page formatting.

2. These listings will NOT appear in your Personal Gallery, My Photos, All Photos, etc.

3. There will be a new My Products icon that will appear with all of your posts (all forums and galleries) that will lead to a listing page of just your listings from all listing galleries. This will work just like the Gallery link in the IC galleries/discussion forums.

4. Like the other NPN software, I will be able to create new listing galleries as needed.

To start off, we will have the following listings, each of which will have their own listing gallery (just Like Avian, ESS, etc.) and appear as separate listings under the Shop menu;

- e-books (mock-up page above)
- books
- calendars
- iPhone Apps
- DVDs
- add more as needed!

Since this will be a separate piece of software on the NPN server, there will be development time and expense associated with it. However, it will be based on the current IC gallery software so hopefully Donna and I won't have to take out a 4th mortgage on the house to get it produced.

I think these new listing galleries are going to be awesome, both for our members to market their work and for our site visitors to peruse for great nature photography products. Hopefully we can have this done in about 30 days - I will keep this thread updated with our progress!

This is fabulous Jim! I wish there was a way you could take a percentage to help pay for the programming.

Erik, we definitely won't be taking a slice of this pie.

However, one thought is to do an update of our extremely out-dated NPN banners and logos. We plan on creating a new assortment of logos for our members to place on their websites to help generate interest in NPN. That to us would be "payment enough."

Jim,

The page looks very good. It is clean and it contains relevant information. Here are couple of suggestions.

Perhaps we should include author field. Since quite a few us have ebooks/calendar with multiple authors. So the person posting this may not be the only author.

Is it possible to have a page browsing done with or without details? With details it would show the page as it. Without details it would show thumbnails, title, author and purchase link. Here is an example: http://www.jaypatelphotography.com/learn. The idea is that this would allow a customer to quickly browse the content using the title page.

Comments?

Thanks.
-Jay

Jim, how will the listings be sorted or organized? Will there be a search feature (by topic, author, price etc.)? I suspect the list will grow very rapidly.

Thanks,
Guy

Guy, you are correct - I think these listings will become highly populated so it will be important to devise a way to sort them in some logical fashion. Here's what we have planned right now;

1. Each product type will be in a separate listing "gallery" - one for e-books, another for DVDs, etc.

2. Each gallery will have a search box so that the listings can be sorted by author, key words, etc. The search will be much more effective as there will be no comments posted to clutter the search so I think it will work well.

We could also add a "select category" feature on the listing upload screen - when the author uploads the listing, they select a single category which their product best fits. These categories would then be listed in a drop-down menu for the viewer to select. It could include the following choices;

View All
Bird Photography
Landscape Photography
Macro Photography
Wildlife Photography
Flora Photography
Photographic Technique (composition, use of light, camera support, etc.)
Photo Marketing
Photo Editing Software (instruction on Photoshop and other software)
Photo Gear (technical user guides, gear selection, etc.)
Printing, Framing and Matting
Slide Shows (for DVDs)
...and any others we can think of to ihnclude.

I would create a "How to Search this Gallery" page for viewer use that would describe in greater detail what each of these categories encompasses, including instructions on how to make best use of the search function. Once a broad category is selected, the viewer will be able to drill down via the search function to refine their search.

All tolled, I think these features would make the listings reasonably easy to search and navigate.

Jay, your suggestion is a good one! Having just thumbnails to see more product without scrolling and going to another page is certainly beneficial. My only reservation is that we are now "adding clicks" and I wonder if we did so if it might be better to just have the thumbnail go directly to the member's site. If we did that, we would lose the benefit of the large image upload, product description without leaving the NPN site, etc. It would also add another "layer" we would have to build into the software; thumbnails pages > description pages > click to purchase.

I'm hoping that with the ability to narrow the product selection decribed above that the larger amount of real estate we're now looking at won't be an issue.

Hmm...I see your point and additional software layer.

My suggestion was based on the fact that the coverage pages for the ebooks, calenders, DVDs and books will have a title embedded into it. So, a quick browsing page would be beneficial for the customers looking to purchase a specific book.

Either way works fine...it is just a trade off between detailed information vs. overview.

Let see if someone else has a preference. Thanks.
-Jay

count me in Jim!

Jim, A great Idea and I will use it for sure. I have several products coming out soon.

This project will be moving ahead with a planned roll-out date of late February.

Based on the conversation so far;

1. We will have separate "listing galleries" for ebooks, calandars, DVDs, etc. that will be listed in the SHOP drop-down navigation menu at the top of the page. New listing galleries can be added as needed.

2. Each listing gallery will have search capability (just like our current IC galleries and forums)

3. There will be a feature to view the listings of just one author

4. Upon uploading a listing, an optional "category" can be assigned to the listing

5. Each listing gallery will include a drop-down menu of the categories to narrow the listing

Based on numbers 4 and 5 above, here are the proposed categories;

Bird Photography
Landscape Photography
Macro Photography
Wildlife Photography
Flora Photography
Photographic Technique (composition, use of light, camera support, etc.)
Photo Marketing
Photo Editing Software (instruction on Photoshop and other software)
Photo Gear (technical user guides, gear selection, etc.)
Printing, Framing and Matting
Slide Shows (for DVDs)

When viewing a listing gallery, you will also be able to "view all" categories since they may not apply to all listing galleries (such as calandars).

So, when viewing a listing gallery, you will be able to narrow your results by;

1. category (drop-down menu)
2. search (standard search box)
3. listing author (listing author name will be a link to all listings by that author)

Let me know if there are any other categories you think we should add to the above list.

Thanks!

Yes, Jim, thank you so much for thinking of this. I have a couple of books (+ a couple more in planning stages) that I've had printed in limited quantities to sell to friends, and the calendars of which I made very limited quantities for gifts for 2011 could have sold had I had the right forum. Please count me in.

I think this is a great idea...and I like the idea of being able to read a small paragraph of info before clicking off to the author's website (my two cents). I think this will be hugely popular...why, I'm not really a much-published photographer, but even I have a couple calendars, etc! And it should make terrific browsing as well, for the bookworms among us who still have lots to learn.

Also anxiously awaiting the new logos, etc. Glad to see us "updating". Thanks for your work to that end.

I'm a little late to the game but this is an outstanding idea, Jim. Our iPhone apps will definitely fit here and if I decide to write an e-book or two (you know, in my "free" time) I would certainly list it here. Thanks for doing this!

Update

The new commercial software is progressing nicely and we hope to be beta-testing by the end of the month. As is usally the case with custom software, some changes are being made in the development stage to make the software work as efficiently as possible (less drag on server resources).

I am anticipating that we will be asking members to participate in some beta testing, which will entail posting your listings with the possibility that you may need to upload them again if some major bugs show up. Our goal is to have the new commercial galleries fully functional by the end of March.