Connections. July 2020
This month we’ve been especially pleased to see how publishers have been using Glassboxx to their advantage, making use of Buy Now links in a number of ways, from social media posts and newsletters, through to author websites – find out more about this in our Top Tips section.
As always – feel free to get in touch at glassboxxsales@firstygroup.com with any questions – our team are always happy to help out.
We spoke last month about the imminent launch of pre-orders.., and we’re going to need to ask you to bear with us another two weeks on this one. It’s being fine-tuned and tested to the nth degree – a fundamental process in the life of any new piece of functionality, (but frustrating for internal sales teams…)
Anyway, let me give you a quick synopsis of how it’ll work on Vendor+ installations:
Books with a pub date within 30 days will be purchasable, with a message appearing on the book landing page reading: ‘This is a pre-order – you will receive an email when this title is available to download’
Within the app, the user will notice a greyed-out title on their bookshelf, which will not be downloadable until the relevant pub date is reached.
For any titles uploaded with a pub date beyond 30 days, these will not be purchasable, but a message will be displayed stating ‘This title will be available for pre-order on xxxxxx’
Judging by demand, we’re pretty sure pre-orders is going to be a real key feature: for any of you who have not yet registered interest, feel free to get in touch on glassboxxsales@firstygroup.com. With the functionality availability in early August, we will contact you directly to let you know.
Elsewhere – our updated WooCommerce plugin is now live for vendors. This means support for more versions of WooCommerce, the option to customise the end customer’s order completion message, and the inclusion of the order completion message in the new order email sent after a customer makes a purchase. These are all aspects which make a great difference to the user experience.
Delighted to report that our Windows Desktop app is now live, and available to download from the Microsoft Store.
The macOS app isn’t far behind, and we’ll keep you posted as to when it launches.
Also – as mentioned above, the pre-order functionality is going to require app upgrades across the operating systems apps – so watch this space!
Pavilion Books’ celebrity chef, Gennaro Contaldo, continues to pull in readers for his ‘Good Food for Hard Times’, with a surge in eBook sales every time he even thinks about posting on social media. Seriously, his updates on Instagram and Twitter show a marked spike in foodies visiting the Pavilion Books site to grab a digital copy, with the title proving a runaway success since launch – good news for the Trussell Trust, the welcome recipient of all author royalties.
This impact of more direct marketing can also be seen in the case of ‘English Wine’, by Oz Clarke. His own author website features a link to the eBook format of English Wine – increasing visibility for readers, and making buying and downloading the eBook format that much easier. Another example of easy and efficient marketing with a tangible impact on sales.
And lastly, great to see Atlantic Books making the most of Glassboxx’s voucher redemption functionality within their last newsletter. They embedded a 30%-off redemption code on the Walter Scott winner ‘The Narrow Land’, and a direct link through to voucher redemption area within the Glassboxx checkout.
NB – Finally – it’s worth mentioning that we are more than happy to speak directly to your authors, extolling the virtues of the Glassboxx, and the part authors can play in increasing sales of their own titles. We’re speaking with a few of you directly at the moment on this topic, but worth publicising more widely to garner interest.
With publishers signing up every day, the Glassboxx community continues to grow. This month, Saraband, Seren Books, Liberties Press, and G2 Entertainment all went live: a few links to some of their product pages below.
Saraband – A Time of Birds
Seren Books – Mr Vogel
Liberties Press – Setting the Truth Free
G2 Entertainment – Great Heists
We’ve certainly not forgotten the importance of the Shopify plugin, and for those of you sitting on this eCommerce platform, embedding this module will soon provide Glassboxx ‘Vendor’ credentials. The app is currently passing through the hugely forensic Shopify validation process, so all being well, we should see this live on the stores by the time the next newsletter comes out. We’re already in direct contact with many of you on Shopify, but again – for any others, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
