All Romance eBooks turns 3 This Year -- no small feat for a start-up bookseller in what has been an incredibly tumultuous time for the book industry. To celebrate their anniversary, each day in November ARe/OmniLit will be giving away $100 worth of books to one lucky customer. But, that's just one small example of how ARe/OmniLit has been granting readers' wishes for the last three years. "How can I wow you today?," is more than just a motto at ARe/OmniLit -- it's a way of doing business.
Quick Facts about ARe and OmniLit:
· ARe site Launched: Nov. 1, 2006
· # of publishers represented in Nov. 2006: 18
· # of titles available in Nov. 2006: 2000
· OmniLit site launched: July 21, 2009
· Total # of publishers represented in ARe and OmniLit today: 3000+
· # of titles available in ARe and OmniLit today: 250,000+
· Most recent publisher to sign on with ARe/OmniLit: Ellora's Cave (ARe will carry more than 3,000 EC titles in open format)
Interview with Lori James of All Romance eBooks/OmniLit
On the impetus for creating ARe/OmniLit:
"Like almost everything that Barb Perfetti (CFO) and I do together, it started with one of us calling the other one and uttering those four little words that honestly can make both of our husbands wince: “I’ve got an idea.” In this particular instance, it was the belief that Romance readers deserved their own on-line store, one place where they could find books by all of their favorite authors and publishers.
Barb and I are both very driven, we seem to find inspiration everywhere, we have similar values, and we’ve each had lots of experience working in big business. ARe wasn’t our first collaborative endeavor, we also once owned Linden Bay Romance, LLC, a small independent press that was sold to Samhain Publishing, Ltd at the end of 2008.
Although it was our experience as a publisher that initially sparked the conceptualization of ARe, it quickly became apparent that in order to establish something that was truly unique, something we could be really excited about, we needed to focus on meeting the needs of three primary customers—readers, publishers, and authors. This has been very much a collaborative effort.
Barb and I decided early on that we wanted the customer experience at ARe to be spectacular. During the development stage we interviewed a lot of people and we listened. Raven Moore, president and publisher of Liquid Silver Books, gave us a piece of advice in the beginning that has served us well. “Make it easy,” she said. That became our mantra. So much about life is already hard. We face enough challenges.
We started with what we knew best, Romance. Today we continue to work closely with readers, publishers, and authors, accepting their feedback and often incorporating their suggestions as enhancements. We’re constantly looking for ways to improve and we’re very invested in doing what we can to help grow the eBook market.
While broadening our customer base is an on-going focus, we’re also very committed to keeping the customers we have and providing them fabulous service. There’s a personal feel to the All Romance site akin to that of an independent brick and mortar store that specializes in Romance. We know our site, we know Romance, we know the publishers and the authors, and we know that even though we don’t see our customers face to face, that they are real people that are entitled to real service."
On ARe/OmniLit's approach to marketing:
"Our primary market in the beginning was thethe romance eBook reader. Because of our publishing experience we knew this community and had experience marketing to the demographic. We knew the bigger challenge was going to be attracting the print romance reader and young female internet users in general who we believed were ripe for becoming romance eBook readers. Since this was a new concept, we tried many things in the beginning. In addition to a vast array of web-based advertising, we've done everything from trade shows to developing commercials for movie theaters and spots on television. Julie Cummings, our Marketing Manager and Barbara Perfetti, our CFO, are continually trying to pinpoint the effectiveness of various campaigns so that we can refine our approach."
On why ARe/OmniLit is unique among online e-booksellers:
"We developed our business model and are maintaining it by balancing the needs of our various customers - readers, publishers, and authors. Barbara came from a publishing family, I'm a published author, we're both voracious readers. We didn't approach this thinking it was going to be a hobby, we went into it knowing it was going to be a very consuming business. But it's more than a business to us, it's something we're extremely passionate about. I think it's that passion that helps set us apart and drives us to continue to innovate and improve.
Our readers, publishers, and authors are very important to us. We listen to them, we listen to what they want, and then we try to give it to them. We're always looking for ways to enhance the reader's experience (our Wildfire nNewsletter, wireless transfer for Kindle, catalog on the iPhone/Android Smartphone), ways to help authors promote themselves (What's Hot in Romance rRadio sShow, economical on-line and print advertising), and ways to support busy publishers (real-time trend and sales reports, 24/7 access to upload titles, preferred pricing with industry vendors for services)."
On the changes she's witnessed in the ebook retailer market over the last three years:
"While the overall landscape hasn't changed tremendously over the last three years, it is shifting. When we started out there were a handful of eBook retailers that had been in the market place for a number of years. We had some different ideas and started out pursuing a niche market in which there wasn't a lot of competition. We walked on to the playing field as the little independent who attracted the independents. Now we're a much bigger independent and we've moved into the general market. We have relationships with and sell titles from just about every major publisher out there - but we've remained attractive to and continue to value the small and mid-sized presses.
It isn't so much that there's more competition now, as there's different competition. In the beginning almost every publishing house maintained their own website. They were both publishers and retailers. Readers are getting used to the convenience of shopping where there is a vast selection and the technological demands of maintaining a website that caters to their increasing needs are huge. We're hearing more and more from publishers who are wanting to focus exclusively on creation of the product and less on having to maintain a retail business. On the flip side, there are new retailers popping up all the time. Some seem to be trying to ride the coat-tails of success and capitalize on what they perceive is a low-entry but burgeoning industry. Some, like Smashwords, are doing unique and exciting things."
What's in store for ARe/OmniLit's Future?
"You don't even want to know what our enhancement and project queue looks like - Ay-yi-yi. Every quarter we step back, re-evaluate, and re-prioritize. It seems that for the past six months we've been completing one major integration after another. This month we've been focusing on some small things to improve search speed and overall performance. Before Thanksgiving we'll be adding an enhancement that will allow readers to gift a specific book to another user. This is something we're all excited about.
As a reader, I know there's nothing more valued than the recommendation of a book from a friend. Many folks are going to find gift-giving a challenge this holiday season. Their hearts are likely to be much larger than their purses. With the average price of an ebook coming in under $5.00, giving the gift of an eBook is something that's affordable. I've also been watching the arguments about eBook piracy and eBook sharing with great interest. Just over the weekend I read a recent post of Dear Author's Jane Litte for the third time. While I don't have a technological or philosophical solution to the conundrum - we are going to try to incentivize the sharing of opinions and recommendations (not ebooks themselves). How? By giving readers who gift specific titles to others a rebate - on us."
On rumors that eReader format and audiobooks will soon be available at ARe/OmniLit:
"The eReader rumor, I can confirm the eReader rumor. Mobile users is one of our fastest growing demographics. We have custom catalogs for the iPhone/iPod Touch and the Android Smartphone. But right now those users can't access our DRM books and that's a frustration. I've been getting emails from readers of the eReader formatapp for months asking if we could start carrying that file formatit. That's our next priority. Audio is something that's on the agenda for 2010 at this point. We want to ensure we're servicing our core business well before expanding into that market."
What's the ARe/OmniLit customer service philosophy?
"Our customer service philosophy is, ''How can I wow you today?''
Seriously. I have an extensive background in overseeing customer service and believe that there is nothing more valuable than a good customer service experience... except for a bad customer experience that you've managed to turn into a good customer experience. That means responding to requests in a timely fashion and working through problems efficiently, effectively, and in a user-friendly manner. Our customers are just like us, readers who can't wait to dive into their purchase. Our goal is to make it easy for them to do that, to get that book into the reader's hands. Many times we're teaching readers that are new to eBooks how to access and read for the very first time. It can be challenging, but it's exciting. We're helping to open new doors and new possibilities. I personally average close to a dozen thank you notes a week from customers. That's unheard of. It tells me we're on the right track."
ARe/OmniLit's *Currently Available Formats:
Adobe Acrobat (PDF)
Palm DOC/iSolo (PDB)
Microsoft Reader (LIT)
Franklin eBookman (FUB)
Hiebook (KML)
HTML
Mobipocket (PRC)
Rocket (RB)
Epub (EPUB)
*Soon to be offering eReader and audio files as well.
ARe/OmniLit November Book Give Away Details:
Each day in November ARe/OmniLit will be choosing a winner at random from that day's purchasers and buy them (at ARe/OmniLit's expense - the publishers and authors will be compensated as usual) the books they have on their wish list. Customers simply fill their account wish list with books they'd like to read (be sure to log in first) and then every day that they make a purchase during the month of November, they'll be eligible to win up to $100 worth of books from ARe/OmniLit. For more information, visit ARe/OmniLit.