Clever Mr Mark • 30 July 2007 • The SnowBlog

Clever Mr Mark

          
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He writes wise things that I should listen to, like the idea that publishers should at least have a decent search engine on their websites. Presto! See the searchy thing to the left, and also on our home and catalogue page. (I know, I know, concept of home page outmoded, but still.) (Don't you love how google have a product for everything?) Mark's suggestions come as part of an article that asks 'what are publishers for' which regular readers of this blog will know is a question we could be said to be slightly obsessed with. Other suggestions in his post (at The Bookseller blog ) include: - 'a great search engine' (check, although not sure it counts because I only created it 45 seconds ago) - 'intelligent recommendations' (er...) - 'bang up-to-date catalogue information' (check, phew. Hooray for Anko's APM, ONIX and XSLT that makes this touch-of-a-buttony) - 'News pages are great -- if they are kept updated' (the blog will have to do) - 'Book detail pages should all have book cover graphics' (check) - 'additional content (index, introductions, afterwords) should be online as a matter of course' (EEK! There's no excuse here, it's all part of the ONIX standard. I just need to amend the XSLT.) - 'Detailed information about all authors and links to fan sites etc. should come next' (almost eek. We have some info but not much, really) - 'An interesting blog would be nice' (check check check. Well, a blog. You'll have to judge whether it's interesting) - 'forums are possible.' (nah, can't be arsed to maintain one) - 'Social networking sites and Web 2.0 technologies offer still further chances to build a publisher's brand and their readership.' (watch this 'ere space). OK, so I have a bit of work to do. [rolls sleeves up, looks purposefully off into the distance.] Best crack on, then.

Emma

The SnowBlog is one of the oldest publishing blogs, started in 2003, and it's been through various content management systems over the years. A 2005 techno-blunder meant we lost the early years, but the archives you're reading now go all the way back to 2005.

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