How to use Nielsen’s Book2Look Biblet for book marketing
Nielsen has released a book marketing tool, Book2Look Biblet, which usefully captures and helps authors with key aspects of book marketing.
Recently, editor, author and agent Danielle Binks set my sights on a new book marketing tool she’s started using, created by Nielsen. The ‘Book2Look Biblet’ is an interactive widget for each of your books, which can be embedded on a website, and made to be shared on social media. The widget can include readable excerpts of your book, reviews, links to retailers, and more. Here’s Danielle on her experience with using a book2look biblet:
“I think authors can get a little too much in their own heads when it comes to book promotion – so using Book2Look Biblet as a resource with the basics (reviews, preview, links to purchase…) just takes all the hassle out of having to write promo-copy on channels, and keep copying & pasting endless links. It’s just so much neater, and really breaks down the pressure points of the promo!”
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Book2Look Biblet features and benefits
As Danielle’s quote suggests, Nielsen’s widget is useful because it identifies the key sources of online promotion an author needs to do for each book they release. The Book2Look widget is designed to have the look and feel of an e-book which you can open from the book’s front cover, and flip through in a double-page spread, where readers will find an excerpt of your book, with the visuals and formatting of the original book retained. Appended to the excerpt, the widget also features:
- links to online retailers,
- social sharing buttons,
- book reviews,
- and media like book trailers and audiobook excerpts.
In terms of book promotion, these are all key aspects you should be thinking about and pouring your time and resources into, even if you’re not using a Biblet. But Biblet serves as a useful hub for these various sources of book marketing.
I’ve embedded Danielle’s biblet below so you can see how it works (this is how the Biblet would look embedded on any website). You can open the Biblet’s features using the menu button in the lower left-hand corner.
You can also see some more examples of Biblets at Nielsen’s website.
In the back-end, Biblets are easy to create and manage in your ‘dashboard’. Here, Nielsen also gives you access to detailed analytics tracking for each widget you have:
If you’re thinking Nielsen’s widget is like a book page on an author’s website, you’re not wrong. Book2Look offers the key features every book page should have, but it has its limitations. Outside of providing your own book cover and excerpts, you’re constrained by the Biblet’s design. Every Biblet’s user interface looks the same (including the buttons and the pop-ups that appear when you click them). You won’t have the flexibility to control or choose the layout and visual design of the widget as you would with an author’s website.
You also shouldn’t think of Biblet as an alternative to an author’s website. Whilst Biblets are about book promotion, author websites are about book and author promotion. An author website has other important marketing features a Biblet won’t have, such as blogging, and a book index page to showcase all your books, not just one.
Where Biblet works best is when it works in tandem with your website (for example, Danielle has embedded her Biblet on her book’s page), as well as other marketing tools such as social media. These widgets are made to be shared, and they’re well-integrated with platforms like Twitter and Facebook:
Plus, each widget’s minimalist, non-intrusive design not only looks great on your own site and on social media, but also on other people’s sites. This means the widget can be sent to bloggers to be embedded to their reviews of your books.
How to get a Book2Look Biblet
UK customers can purchase Biblets directly from Nielsen here.
Australian authors can buy one by getting in contact with Australian Book2Look sales: [email protected]. Website: https://nielsenbook.com.au/book2look/
Authors from other parts of the world should make an enquiry to Nielsen’s international distributor at: [email protected]
Payment for each Biblet is a once-off (not subscription-based).
Is a Book2Look Biblet widget worth it?
Biblet is great for identifying and focusing your attention on key aspects of book marketing. It’s worth thinking about if you’re not ready to devote the time and resources into investing in an author website yet. However, it shouldn’t be seen as an alternative to one. Rather, you should be thinking about it as a useful addition to your existing toolkit of online author marketing.
Have you tried book2look Biblet? Got any other questions? Feel free to leave a comment down below.