We are pleased to announce that Issuu publishers can now order beautiful copies of their own documents.

While many of you only publish digitally, we realize that there’s something magical about holding a beautiful copy of something you created.

As an Issuu publisher, you now have the opportunity to transform your digital publication into real, printed copies – magazines, glossy paperbacks and hardcover books – all printed on demand, regardless of the format. NB: Peecho will only print documents over 12 pages

To bring you beautiful prints with flexibility and affordability,  we’ve teamed up with Peecho to integrate their Cloud Print button.

Peecho has the world’s best print production facilities at its fingers, and they can quickly analyze the specifications of any Issuu document in real-time, automatically calculating the accurate, lowest price for your printed version while displaying the price comparisons. Pretty nifty, right?

Discounts kick in for orders over 10 copies, which makes it a great solution for those who want to print copies for their clients, contributors, or friends.

Pick one of your documents, select the size and colour options, choose the number of copies, and your order is delivered to your doorstep. 

Note, you can only print your own documents with Peecho. You can still download others’ publications and print them out yourself, if the publisher has enabled the download option.

Issuu Voices is a recurring segment on our blog. Each segment is written by and for publishers to highlight top quality publications and industry best practices. In this edition, Nicholas Lewis, the Editor-in-Chief of The Word Magazine, highlights some strategies to scale your magazine digitally. 

We’re 24 hours away from going to print on our April-May edition, and the question couldn’t be any more pertinent. Does size matter? Is small really better? How much of a challenge is it for us independent publishers to stay the course and compete with the bigger players? More importantly though, what tools are readily available for us to continue doing what we love doing, without loosing the keys to the house?

Having spent the better part of the last three weeks (well, last five years really) battling it out with advertisers to give us even one tenth of their national advertising budgets, our size-induced flexibility which at first seemed as our main competitive advantage today seems like our main challenge to overcome. We can’t scale through print, it’s simply too costly. But that isn’t to say we don’t have the means to scale otherwise….

Before anything, I don’t pretend to be dishing out some newfound truths that none of you other like-minded publishers haven’t figured out yet. I’m merely drawing on my own experience as the founding editor-in-chief of The Word Magazine to reflect upon what could possibly make us serious competitors to the mass media behemoths making our lives living hell (no, really. You have no idea the amount of times I’ve been told that budget cuts have meant so-and-so advertiser decided to put all his eggs in the same basket at our expense).

So, how can the small guys use their size to their advantage?

Firstly, use online platforms to increase brand awareness as well as your title’s digital pick-up rate. Put simply, platforms such as Issuu, but also Tumblr (for visually-strong titles), Mixcloud (for audio-based medias) or even YouTube all have their own specialist communities and can massively increase your chances of reaching a wider audience on your own terms.

This extends your brand’s reach, but in a specialist kind of way, to an eco-system that’s likely to buy into your offering. Issuu, for example, carries titles which we feel close to in one way or the other (Girls on film, Adbusters, Sid, Eye Magazine, Honk), so we know the platform’s audiences are by and large ours too, given we’re categorized in the rights groups. We know we’re likely to attract new readers with each new edition, and at no (or minimal) cost. This, to the small guys, has an incredible value.

Secondly, use these platforms to better your understanding of your audience – those all-too-valuable insights that advertisers are always asking about. For Issuu, for example, that means knowing who’s bookmarked an edition of yours, who’s following you and who’s subscribed to you.

Why does this matter? You’ll sell yourself better by knowing who you speak to, but you’ll also create stronger content if you keep your ear to the web.

Thirdly, be bolder in your initiatives, something the dinosaurs of media often cannot allow themselves to do. Forge partnerships with other magazines that are also present on Issuu – their readers are yours, and vice-versa. Browse its library for new talent, new contributors, new ideas. Think of ways to launch your digital edition in the same way you would your print edition (an online release party is an idea we’ve been toying with, but are not yet quite sure how to spin).

What can contribute towards increasing the talkability of a given edition’s launch? How can you make it that much more interesting for Issuu, for example, to make it one of its featured titles? Don’t take their platform for granted as I did (read on for more on that).

Lastly, toy around with the platforms at your disposable. I myself just really got into Issuu only a few weeks back, essentially because my web team brought my attention to the fact that some of our editions has a mind-boggling amount of views (think our Russian Issue clocked up something like 21742 views) and, well, there’s something to capitalize on there. But I’m also thinking of getting The Word Magazine onto Tumblr, Mixcloud (we’re about to go live this week with some Word-exclusive mixes) and maybe even Pinterest.

I have no doubt about it: aggregating all these platforms into one cohesive strategy is the future for us. Size does matter, yes, but that isn’t nearly as important as what you choose to do with that size (somehow an ex-girlfriend’s words spring to mind here).

Small publishers such as ourselves can and should be more creative in their initiatives – which also leaves room for having a little fun. What I mean by this is go beyond merely seeing yourself as selling ad space, click through rates and eyeballs, and develop a narrative that positions your content as key to advertisers’ strategies. If you cannot sell quantity, sell quality.

The next edition of The Word Magazine comes out on April 2. Subscribe to their Issuu profile to make sure you don’t miss it.

In a time of overflowing digital content, publishers know that they’re competing for  readers’ attention more than ever. If you’re looking to attract more readers to your magazine, try taking a page from Fiasco Mag‘s marketing book. In just over a week, they saw their Issuu readership skyrocket by 400 percent with one simple campaign! Here’s how it worked.

Fiasco Mag, is a London-based fashion and pop culture monthly. They’ve got great content – but so do plenty of related magazines. They’ve got a well-designed website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account – but so do plenty of others. So how did they manage to snag a massive new readership and keep it?

Fiasco editor-in-chief, Vincent Nord, explains that they were fairly new to digital publishing. They had tried some PR tactics through their own website or social media platforms – with no major results.

In late October however, he set up a simple Issuu AdPages campaign and the results were immediate. On the first day, their readership shot up by 300%. By the second day, it had climbed to 400%.

Here’s the ad they ran:

Fiasco mag also saw their site visitors jump from 20,000 to 25,000 daily – a figure that Nord says has stuck. This is his experience:

“When we previously tried to increase traffic via Facebook, Twitter and the like, the time and effort verses the rewards were minimal by comparison,¨ Nord said.

¨The overall experience has shown us that including AdPages in our digital marketing/advertising strategy is a certainty. It will help us in attracting more advertising to our own publication and our digital advertising offering.”

Issuu now offers a free 7-day AdPages trial to all users to test out their campaign. While most successful campaigns run for a slightly longer period,  it’s a great way to try out Fiasco’s strategy.

A Brief Glance

An indie skateboard mag from Italy with great design and content.

Skateboard!

The original skateboard magazine from Britain. First published August 1977.

Uno Magazine

With over 50 issues, UNO is one of the definitive freestyle culture and skateboarding magazine. Based out of Barcelona.

Who Cares

An Italian skateboard mag

Born Ugly Mag

Born Ugly Magazine is the voice and visual of the everyday skateboarder, with content focused on the lives of people that skateboard for the love of it, and not a paycheck.

Skunk Mag

A magazine dedicated to the artistic minds of skateboarding.

WOOD

Skateboarding in the Benelux

MUTE

A photography & skateboarding book, in multiple issues

Vista

A beautiful, free bimonthly magazine. It covers the aspects of urban culture through art and skateboarding. 

6:00 AM

A skateboarding culture mag from Milan

Le Mag

A french skateboard fanzine

Soma

A sweet French skateboarding mag

What do you believe it takes for a magazine to be interactive today?

We believe that interactivity adds to a magazine’s ability to engage readers.  Linking for linking’s sake isn’t really the point.  Magazines have to use interactive possibilities to enrich and enhance their magazine’s content.  Digital, interactive magazines make reading a more active experience than just flipping pages and reading.  They also make it easier for readers to connect with products and ideas they like.

How do you prioritize interactiveness when creating Leaf Mag?

Our first priority is always the content of Leaf.  We want it to be beautiful and informative as well as useful.  The interactive component is based more on the latter two criteria.  We ask ourselves…Is this something that our readers want to see more of?  Can we enhance their experience with Leaf with an interactive component?  We’d love to have even more interactive options like embedded video on our pages, but it’s one step at a time.

What takeaways or best practices can you recommend to other digital publishers?

We did two things that have really helped us understand what we are dealing with.  The fact that Issuu allows for a private upload enabled us to upload dummy versions and find problems and fix them before going live.  This was, in retrospect, one of the best things we could have done.  We found mistakes and made changes to make our readers’ experience more rich and enjoyable right up to the last minute before going live.  The other thing we did and still do is link back to the magazine and share individual page links within our social media and email promotions.  Sometimes people miss things at first glance…being able to show them things in a new context is very valuable and helps build readership.

Some of you may have noticed that we recently introduced a 7-day AdPages trial for all users. It’s designed to give your content a burst of exposure, at no cost.

With a $5 per day allowance, the trial gives you the freedom to

• tweak your ad
• fine-tune your audience targeting
• see what major impact it can have on your reader count.
• monetize your Issuu publications

If you’ve got a public document, you’re eligible. Start my trial now.

At the end of the free trial, you will receive a detailed performance report and options on how to continue.

Start your trial now:

BIG day at Issuu! The BETA release of Issuu for iPad is finally here.

It’s a web-based HTML5 reader for Safari. We’re really proud of bringing the beautiful reading experience from the Issuu desktop browser to Apple’s tablet.

As a BETA, there’s alot we plan to build on. Links, sharing, downloading, and printing aren’t in this version. Nor is the ability to embed a document or read an embedded document. Read the iPad FAQ.

The best way to access a document on your iPad is via direct link or from Issuu site. To make things easier, there’s a new tab on our home screen shelf, called ‘Read on iPad.’ We’ll be constantly updating this with newly converted documents.

You can also find select iPad-ready publications through our explore page, featuring Issuu staff picks for lifestyle mags and beautiful catalogs.

Start exploring now.

With over 5 million documents in Issuu’s library, it’ll take some patience before everything becomes available. In the meantime, we’ve asked our 1-year and 2-year Pro publishers to try it out before we roll it out to everyone.

For publishers who can’t wait, you’re welcome to join the BETA.

Upgrade to 1-year Pro to join.

If you’re one of the thousands of publishers or retailers using Issuu to share you Holiday catalog, why not kick it up a notch? Advertise it on Issuu’s AdPages to make sure Issuu’s 50+ million monthly readers notice your products…. before it’s too late.

Get started:

- Set up an AdPages campaign for your catalog via My Library or our AdPages start page.

- Target it to a specific countries with Ad Titles that relate to each country. Try something like ‘Hey America, see inspired gift ideas’ or ‘Hi Sweden, chilly isn’t it? Enjoy these outerwear loobook.’ You get the idea. 

- Use keywords or topics to catch the attention of certain readers. The more you use, the better your results!

Plus!

If you integrate or embed your Issuu document into your website, enter it in our latest Issuu contest to win $100 to AdPages. Tweet @issuu your website/issuu integration to #issuucontest. Deadline Dec 15.

We’re thrilled to see lots of catalog publishers using AdPages to get new sales and visits to their sites. Read also: The Winning Combo that Catalogs need to Copy!

Little White Lies

LWLies is a bi-monthly, independent movie magazine that features cutting edge writing, illustration and photography to get under the skin of cinema.

FILM

The Danish Film Institute publishes its magazine FILM prior to the film festivals in Berlin, Cannes and Amsterdam.

Off Beat Cinema

Independent film magazine in English, based in Amsterdam.

Doha Film Institute

A magazine focusing on the ambitious future of Arab film.

Filmic

An eclectic mix of old, new and independent films, reviews and previews.

Film Maker 8

An alternate take on film mags – how to make film! This magazineis dedicated to the support of Super 8 film making

Fan the Fire

A beautiful magazine combining the latest and greatest in film and music

Synergy Magazine

In their own words, Synergy is an unusual publication dedicated to the exploration of the diverse world of cinema and entertainment.

Cinemann

U.S. prep school, Horice Mann, puts out this publication dedicated primarily to cinema.

Movie Mail

MovieMail specialises in the rich areas of film that many people overlook, including World Cinema, Classic Movies and French film.

movieScope

An 80-page, bi-monthly print magazine focused on covering the process and business of international movie making.

The Big Picture

A new visually-focused free film magazine that goes beyond the borders of the screen to reveal cinema’s unique power to entertain.

See NL

A publication promoting Dutch film and film makers to an international audience.

Close-Up

A great German film review magazine

Preview Magazine

If you’ve got a handle on Dutch, you’ll enjoy this film preview magazine

Get more daily publishing inspiration via Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn

Issuu’s launched a contest to discover the best magazines and publications!

This week, we want to see you best interactive magazines. Show us how you incorporate sound, use the link editor, or spice up a regular pdf.

Submit your best by Thursday, Dec 8. We’ll pick a winner Friday and announce a new category.

To enter, tweet your publication to us with #issuucontest

The winner gets a $100 voucher to use on AdPages, and exposure for their publication on our social media channels.

Get going!