Connections. Summer Update 2021
It’s been a busy few months over here at Glassboxx. Sponsoring events, working on fresh new features, whilst onboarding new partners; it’s been a productive early summer. All without leaving the desk….
We were on the digital podium at two more events in June, and it’s been great to see such healthy debate around direct selling, digital content, Amazon compatibility frustrations – and how, at the end of the day, the reader UX is what ultimately matters.
We’ve had conversations about making the most of an author’s following, the value of meaningful engagement, and the many applications of Glassboxx: for both publishers and authors.
And on that last point, we’re extremely excited to be launching our new service in early autumn: Glassboxx ARC.
Building on existing functionality to fulfil gratis, this is aimed at the pre-pub file-sharing community… There’s some work to go before this solution is ready to roll out, but demand is strong, and we’ll update further in our September edition!
And whilst I joke about productivity levels going through the roof when the entire team is sat in front of the screen, we are very much looking forward to seeing you all again. In person.
In town. In the pub. Wherever.
Have a great summer!
Did you catch The Bookseller’s Marketing and Publicity conference last month? We enjoyed hearing about the masterful campaigns of recent months and were taken with the overwhelming sense of how crucial social media is in today’s marketing landscape. The same goes for promoting books on Glassboxx – and the various talks on supporting authors with big followings to market to their audience were particularly insightful.
On the subject, we also sponsored Byte The Book’s event on direct selling in June, with our team dropping live tweets throughout the event to keep you all updated. Here are some highlights…
“Social offers the best opportunity to engage directly with readers. I have answered everybody and spoken to everyone who tweets us. Then, when something like the pandemic comes along, they support us without question…” – Karen, Orenda Books
“Self-publishing changed everything for authors … digital publishing underlined that change.” – Orna Ross
WooCommerce Updates
We also have a new version of our WooCommerce plugin (and documentation) available in the Glassboxx Portal with the following:
1. Bundle product support
2. Variable product support
3. Logging option added
4. Purchases sent to Glassboxx if order status changed on Order management page by admin user
Gifts – Coming Soon
We’ve got an exciting new feature for both publishers and readers. With this feature, readers can buy books as GIFTS for other people. They simply enter the recipient’s name at the checkout and add a personal message. The recipient receives an email describing how to access the book, and it’s waiting for them in the app. Keep your eyes peeled, this is coming very soon.
The beauty of Glassboxx is that it’s incredibly versatile and will always work for you. This month we want to highlight how Merlin Publisher have made the most of our voucher feature for an innovative promotion. Merlin have partnered with Go to send vouchers to customers.
Here’s Merlin’s leader Chris Gruppetta explaining the promotion himself:
“We figured that the main challenge facing us – as the first ebook providers in the Maltese language – was making people aware of our ebooks and encouraging them to download and set up the Glassboxx app. Once installed, we’re hoping it will be easier to place repeat orders. So we partnered with GO, which is one of Malta’s two main mobile network providers, and sent out €5 ebook vouchers to a section of their subscriber base. An encouraging number of customers have used the voucher, and we’ll be following up with these customers with a mailshot to encourage them to keep using the app and buying our ebooks…”
Here’s a snapshot of the Merlin & Go promotion from their email campaigns below:
Among many exciting publishers, we were thrilled to welcome The Quarto Group onto Glassboxx last month. Quarto recently absorbed Pavilion Books, one of our active publishers, and decided to adopt Glassboxx across the business. Their titles are available from their direct to reader website Quarto Knows.
Our CEO, Darin Brockman, says “For publishers like Quarto with such a strong catalogue of digital titles, selling direct brings serious opportunities. Both Quarto’s digital titles and Glassboxx can shine here.”
We’ve got more tantalising announcements coming soon as we’re establishing the Glassboxx Roadmap and launching projects over the coming months.
Finally, here’s our customer service reports from May and June. As we mentioned in our last newsletter, we’re transparent – so we’re keeping you involved in what issues we’re fixing and solving for readers.
Report Highlights
You can find the full reports for May and June below – but here are the highlights:
– Our first response time in June was at an average of 2hrs 28mins, 19% lower than May
– Our response time (for every contact thereafter) in June was an average of 2hrs 55mins, 17% lower than May
Read Full May Report
Read Full June Report
