In 2008, book industry veteran Kristen McLean began research for a book seeking to answer the question “How many decision-makers have to touch a book on its way to market?” Even within a major publishing house, she realized, most people didn’t know the answer to this question. It wasn’t long, though, before McLean decided to give up her book contract and begin a business – Bookigee – that would answer the question for the digital age. Earlier this year, Bookigee released WriterCube, which Publishing Perspectives calls, “a do-it-yourself marketing analytics app for authors that combines robust sales and social media information.”
Before co-founding Bookigee, Kristen spent seventeen years in publishing in a wide variety of roles, including her most recent position as the Executive Director of the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC), a nonprofit trade association that networks the children’s book market that merged in 2011 with the American Booksellers Association. Kristen also edits Bowker Pubtrack’s biannual consumer study of the children’s book market, “Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer in the Digital Age.”
With the rise of self-publishing as a viable business model, McLean tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally, authors no longer must rely on publishers to bring their works to their audiences. A job that was never easy in the first place, writing has now become even more challenging.
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