YEAR IN REVIEW
As the book industry faced unparalleled challenges in 2020, our team worked hard to improve and build upon our suite of products so that we may serve as an effective conduit for the flow of books from publishers to booksellers, librarians, and readers. While these challenging times are not yet behind us, Above the Treeline remains committed to supporting publishers at every stage of the book’s journey. Learn more about these exciting developments below!
This new mobile-friendly site isn’t meant to be a replacement for Edelweiss+ but rather a simpler interface for readers who don’t need the robust B2B professional features Edelweiss+ offers. Users can discover new books, access review copies, write and read reviews, collaborate on lists of books, and engage in conversations with other readers.
Edelweiss Community began a “soft launch” in November 2020 and will expand over the course of 2021. Not only will Edelweiss Community allow publishers to target certain types of book professionals and book lovers in new ways, but it will also largely expand the size of the Edelweiss community, reaching more readers and direct consumers.
With Edelweiss360, publishers that subscribe to Edelweiss+ Catalog Services gain a panoramic view of user activity surrounding their titles and catalogs - including views, downloads, reviews, shelves, sharing and opening of markups, and orders - allowing them to track the effectiveness of sales and marketing strategies. This functionality is included for free with publishers' subscriptions to Edelweiss+ Catalog Services.
A premium upgrade allows for direct sales and marketing workflows, including accessing lists of target readers and sending messages or review copies to influencers. Learn more here
Improved Review Copy functionality
In a record-breaking year for review copies, uploads and downloads more than doubled!
While audio review copies have been around since the start of Edelweiss+, we made it easier for users to discover them in Edelweiss+ on the Review Copy page. We also introduced the ability to offer audio AND digital formats for the same title.
We also made it possible to easily send an auto-approved review copy to a community or group of users all at once using Edelweiss360, saving publishers a ton of time!
Finally, we are actively working to to develop a web-based eReader solution to complement our existing Adobe and Kindle reading options. Our goal is to build a better, easier-to-access reading experience for users, and we're partnering with one of the leading eReader application providers.
Edelweiss360 Consumer Collaborative Marketing
Edelweiss360 for Bookstores is a new tool that allows bookstores to efficiently promote titles and events to just the right (targeted) customers via email – and then track conversion to sales. In addition to achieving email open rates between 40-60%, stores are seeing significant boosts in online sales! With Collaborative Consumer Marketing, publishers can sponsor placement in these email campaigns. This program is actively beta testing with interested publishers.
More Opportunities to Reach Buyers, Influencers, and Readers
As stores, libraries, and offices closed due to the pandemic in 2020, finding ways to reach customers and readers virtually became even more important than before. We expanded our advertising and promotional opportunities for publishers while offering discounted rates and promocodes throughout the year. In 2021, we've added monthly special issue newsletters where publishers can promote titles or collections related to a timely topic. Stay tuned for even more exciting opportunities and promotions next year!
Investments in New Technology
The React web framework helps us to deploy fixes and new features faster, exploit modern browser capabilities, and maintain our applications. Cloud-based big data processing technologies allow us to scale our data ingest routines and accommodate ever-growing data streams.
Improvements to Services Architecture
We've implemented more independent services in our application architecture to speed deployment of fixes and new features, take advantage of more efficient cloud-based hosting resources, and promote overall site resiliency.
Improved Markup Workflow
Sales reps can now easily add markups from other title formats (theirs or a colleague's), saving time. Also, the addition of Fill Quantities helps stores to order large quantities.
Event Grid Enhancements
Publishers can bulk upload event grids from a spreadsheet for easy management. The submission export is also now simple to sort and filter by city and state.
Edelweiss+Analytics
Subscribers now receive Year-To-Date and Lifetime Sales data in their daily emailed reports. Additionally, there were upgrades to the comp cross-store view.
Training & Support
Publishers have on-demand access to training programs for new catalog admins and sales reps. Additionally, targeted newsletters for publishers, sales rep, and marketing professionals provide relevant product updates, news, and best practices. (If not receiving these newsletters, users can subscribe here.)
Creation of Treeline 2020
