Book tours for the 21st century
Book tours really hit big shortly after Jacqueline Susann drove across the country to promote her hit Valley of the Dolls. Today, some authors still draw large crowds while on traditional book tours; a lot of others, not so much.
As a book publicist, I do hope that bookstore events thrive (and I continue to schedule bookstore events with authors) but realistically, there are fewer events — and, unfortunately, stores — than there were before, so I think it’s important that we try new ways to get readers to stores. Enter the virtual book tour.
Facebook is an obvious application to utilize for a virtual event given that it’s free, easy to use and a lot of bookstores, authors and readers already use it, but the downside, of course, is that you can’t see or hear the author. Virtual author events could be conducted via Ning, Skype, Twitter or other applications too. A virtual event could be a stop on a book blog tour in which the publicist has made arrangements for the blogger’s local bookstore to sell signed copies of the author’s book. Or it might be a book club gathering at which an author is Skyped in. Here are some examples:
– Back in July, Barnes & Noble hosted its first Facebook “event” with an author, with author and readers trading comments on B&N’s wall and they recently hosted one for Sophie Kinsella. (I tried something similar with an author last month. We did tour him, but the Facebook chat gave still more readers a chance to interact with him.)
– Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists hosts Tweet the Author sessions with clients.
– Sometimes, the “new” way of touring is sort of like the “old” way but with a 2.0 twist: Stephen Elliott, the founder of theRumpus.net whose memoir The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir of Moods, Murder and Masochism, is just out from Graywolf, has been going on a reading tour (as in, reading in people’s living rooms) to about 20 cities in addition to where Graywolf was sending him.
The tricky part of the virtual book tour is making sure there’s a bookselling component to the event in addition to the conversation part of it. This may mean having a bookstore host the virtual event on its Facebook page. Or it may mean that a store makes some sort of arrangement with an author to make sure books (preferably signed) are for sale.
What do you think about the virtual book tour? Would you “attend” a virtual event with an author in whom you were interested? What kind of events do you envision? As a bookstore, would you host a virtual event?
How book publicists can be Trust Agents
Back when I started The Book Publicity Blog about a year and a half ago, I looked around to find interesting and informative marketing / PR / social networking blogs from which I could draw information that would be of use to book publicists. Every so often, I’d link to Chris Brogan’s blog, which provided a trove of handy information.
Imagine my surprise and delight when Brogan’s publicist, @cincindypat, asked if I’d be open to a guest post from him. (Brogan is now also the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling co-author of Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.) Who better to talk about how to successfully publicize a book? Voila.
***
As you struggle to survive the attention wars, finding ways to connect your authors to valuable audiences has changed. This isn’t easy. Working with bloggers isn’t the same as traditional journalists, but connecting with journalists isn’t all it used to be, either. Getting mainstream coverage is more and more difficult. Budgets are tight. What’s a book publicist to do?
I’m writing this from a strange perspective. My book, Trust Agents reached the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal lists within two days of release. We speak about trust and how to use online tools to build relationships using new tools and new channels, and in the process, we had two publicists helping us as well. So, I have two sides of the coin in mind when I write this, or maybe three. I write it as an author, as a professional blogger, and as someone thinking on how the publicist might develop their efforts. Here’s what I have for you.
Find The Audience You Need – The easiest way to start on this is to grow bigger ears. Use tools like Alltop.com and Technorati.com to find who’s writing in the space your author is trying to reach. Don’t be swayed by big numbers, but instead, pay attention to the people who might connect with the work, and get to know them. Don’t reach out yet. We have more to do.
Do Your Homework – Use sites like Compete.com to find out if the bloggers you’ve picked have a decent audience. Check their blogs for numbers of comments and level of engagement overall. Determine whether the blogger has done book reviews in the past (though don’t let this sway you).
Comments Come First – Leave comments about other posts over a week or so. Make them relevant, and never pitch your author at these points. Just connect on posts that make sense. Don’t ever hide that you’re a professional publicist. This is the art of building relationships before you need anything. It sounds like work. It is work. And yet, the yield is much better.
Break the Big Lie – Want to earn my respect forever? Acknowledge that there are other books from other publishers that are well done and/or that complement your author’s work. Stun people with your grasp of the real world. I say this with a bit of sarcasm, but realize that media makers like bloggers and podcasters know that there are other books out there, and we’ve maybe even read them before.
Build Non-Book Relationships With People – By getting to know people on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on Twitter, on blogs, you’ve got to talk about non-book things from time to time. This is part of the whole relationship-building experience we’ve written about in Trust Agents. People don’t want to hang out with promoters. They want to spend time on online social networks with friends who interact with them, ask them questions, and talk about things beyond their business interests. It’s not wrong to talk about your author or authors. It’s wrong to make that the primary thrust of what you talk about.
This all adds up. Over time, it’s connecting in these human-shaped ways that will make all the difference in the world. People connect with those they know and who make them feel comfortable. Earning trust before you need something for business is a fast track to getting the kinds of coverage your authors deserve. This is how we’re seeing it done. There’s more to it than just showing up and typing, but these are some of the ways I feel you’ll be able to do business in the new social space. I hope they work for you.
Chris Brogan is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling co-author of Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust. He writes about social media and how human business works at chrisbrogan.com.
Ode to change
Over at Booksquare, a thoughtful publishing industry blog, Kassia Krozser penned Competing for Eyeballs, in which she exhorted publishing companies to change the way they (we) reach readers. (Patience, Kassia — you can sometimes still hear the clack of typewriters as you walk down the halls of a publishing house.) And publishing consultant and Cursor founder Richard Nash posted about the evolution of independent bookstores.
As a book publicist, my role is to reach readers through venues like the media (or bookstores), so these are issues that directly or indirectly affect what I do. Of course, word of mouth always has and continues to win over new readers, but while the “word” has not changed, the “mouth” has — now, people are as likely to hear about books from Twitter and GoodReads as from friends and family (or their local newspaper).
For many readers, books are also popularized by movies, as Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicity points out. (These are called “movie tie ins” in publishing speak.) These aren’t new, of course, but it seems like there have been more movies based on books in recent years.
The point is, readers, as Kassia said, are moving at the speed of light (Exhibit A, the Networked Book). And that means that publishers need to, well, move.
How Twitter works and why people in publishing should consider using it
Someone walked into my office the other day and saw my Twitter screen. Caught in the act? Actually, it was about 4:30 p.m. ET on a Thursday and I was in the middle of a #followreader discussion about successful book promotion strategies.
You see, Twitter is possibly the most robust network to link readers and the publishing community since Gutenberg built his printing press. I realize Twitter doesn’t work for everybody and I’m not suggesting that everyone use it — there are days when even I don’t have the time (or simply can’t be bothered) to type even 140-character status updates — but what must be recognized is that Twitter is no longer the latest fad among tweens; it has since evolved into an incredibly powerful communications tool (and it can be fun, too). I realize I’m pretty much preaching to the choir with this post, but please feel free to share the following with colleagues / authors.
***
Most people now know the Twitter basics: you have 140 characters to update your status and you have a list of people whose status updates you follow and a list of people who follow your status updates. But for all practical purposes, what does that mean? Why should authors and people in the publishing industry use Twitter? Here are some reasons why:
– Networking: Although most publishing houses, literary agencies and book publicity firms are in New York — which means many of us see each other in person — many are not. And of course, media exist all over, as do readers. Twitter is how we meet. Publisher @artepublico uses Twitter to connect authors with the media. @calli526, a book publicist, uses it to connect with the media.
– Promotion: Twitter can be used to talk up a book, blog, event, author, giveaway or pretty much anything else.
– Feedback: For example, @benrubinstein polls his followers for ideas and suggestions.
And here are some specific examples of how Twitter works:
– #followreader is a weekly publishing discussion conducted on Twitter on Thursdays at 4 p.m. ET and moderated by @charabbott and @katmeyerwho also blog at Follow the Reader. (Summaries of the discussions are posted on the blog for people who miss the Twitter conversation.) Here’s a tip, though: for Twitter discussions, it’s best to use an application that’s optimized for chats like Tweetchat.
– @RustyShelton and his colleagues at Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicity developed a Tweet the Author service.
– Author Anastasia Ashman posts about how she uses Twitter.
– @meredithkessler points out that Robert Olen Butler’s @TweetsFromHell was picked up by @LATimesbooks and followed by major critics and Butler fans.
– Literary agent @janet_reid found a panelist for a publishing conference via Twitter and has also used it to fact check some locations/spellings/customs.
– When I write a blog post, I try to tweet about it (and include a link to the post). That means my post could potentially be seen by the 1,267 people who follow me. Realistically, a tweet won’t be seen by all of one’s followers, but even if only a fraction of those people see an update and click through to the link, that still amounts to a lot of eyeballs. (And certainly a lot more eyeballs than if you’re not using Twitter.) Similarly, some authors will tweet about upcoming events to let readers know where and when they will be speaking or about reviews and interviews.
– And lastly, how do you think I found the examples for this post? Yup, you guessed it.
***
What are your Twitter success stories? Do share.
Finding friends on Facebook
With so many more people joining social networks, of which Facebook is one of the most popular, the question becomes how to find connections since, after all, a network is only as good as its contacts.
Facebook’s Friend Finder function will allow you to go through your email address books to find contacts who are already on Facebook (and other networking sites have similar applications). Once you’ve friend requested your contacts with Facebook profiles, you will be asked to invite your contacts who do not have profiles. Do *not* invite them. This is the thing: you’re not the first one on Facebook. Your friends have profiles … that were opened with alternate email addresses. (It’s 2009 and lots of us have multiple email addresses for multiple purposes.)
It is, in fact, frustrating getting a request from a friend that’s been sent to the “wrong” email address since there’s no way to redirect the request to your profile to accept it. (Well, maybe there is a way to redirect the request / look up your wayward friend, but that certainly can’t be done after you’ve accidentally deleted the request because you thought it was spam. Which may or may not have happened to me. More than once.) Any who.
Facebook also has a “Suggestions” function that, well, suggests people you might know. It finds people who are friends of your existing friends and, although I don’t have this on good authority, I swear it now also trawls through your address books automatically. (I’ve seen people pop up in my suggestions box who are not mutual friends of any of my friends but whose names I know are in my email address books.) A third way to add friends is to simply scroll through the Friends list of one of your friends.
If you find yourself adding friends willy nilly, you will want to make sure that you either censor yourself so that your posts are appropriate for a general audience (and by “general” I mean “your boss and your parents / children”) or you should set your privacy settings / group your contacts so that your narratives of your enchanting but untoward behavior is not shared with people with whom you should not be sharing enchanting but untoward behavior. (Authors should use the lowest privacy settings, however — unless a profile is for personal use only — since the point of joining Facebook is so that fans and readers can find and see everything.)
Different networking sites will have different etiquette when it comes to “friending” people you do not know. On Twitter, for example, most people follow friends as well as random people who just seem interesting. On Facebook, though, while some people (like authors wanting to connect with readers) accept friend requests from everyone, many others prefer to only accept requests from people who are actually friends.
***
For those of you looking to join / become more active on Twitter, check this post about the Follower / Following lists. Do you belong to other networks popular with people in publishing like Good Reads? Any tips / tricks for finding contacts?
What kind of web presence is right for an author?
I was in a meeting yesterday when the issue of author websites arose. Of course, these days, “website,” actually means ”web presence,” because depending on the book and author, an author may opt for a website and / or a blog and / or a social networking profile. The point is, when a reader Googles a title or name, something in addition to a buy link needs to pop up.
But as a book publicist, how do you know what’s best for an author? Realistically, most authors don’t have the time to manage a website anda blog and a social networking profile (not to mention write and promote their book). So here are some pointers for all three types of sites in order of least to most interaction:
Author Websites
Pros: Don’t need to be updated as frequently as other online ventures. Look more professional than social networking profiles and most blogs.
Cons: Unless you use a free DIY web template (which looks free and DIY), websites cost money to set up. Because many sites are maintained by third parties, changing / correcting the site can be cumbersome.
Best for: Authors who don’t have the time to update a site and / or who aren’t comfortable with the web, but who can pay someone to update the site for them.
Social Networking Profiles / Fan Pages
Pros: Free. Quick to set up (the basics — fleshing out a profile and acquiring friends takes time). Easy to post pictures, video and links. Once you’ve acquired friends, easy to send messages to them to promote events / news about the book.
Cons: Takes (some) time and (some) familiarity with the web to maintain. You don’t own the information — the social network does — so you’re at their mercy when it comes to layout / rules / etc. Of course, if the network goes under, so does your profile, information and friend list.
Best for: Authors who do want to interact with readers and who do have a little time to maintain their profiles (status updates, accepting friend requests, reading and writing messages, etc.) but who don’t have the time or the inclination to maintain a blog.
Blogs
Pros: Can be set up and maintained for free (or for a minimal monthly charge). For authors who blog consistently and who are successful at building an audience, a proven way to increase readership of their book(s). Fairly quick to set up the basics (although creating pages, blog rolls and other features takes time).
Cons: Posts must be regular, i.e., at least twice a week, for the blog to gain a following, so blogging takes a lot of time (and inspiration). It can take a while to build a following on a blog, so you must commit to blogging for several months at the very least. Blogs don’t magically acquire an audience; they must be promoted just as books must be promoted to reach readers.
Best for: Authors who have the time to write weekly posts and who are willing to make a long-term commitment not only to writing the blog but also to promoting it. Good for repeat authors (who have an incentive to keep up their site over the long term) or for authors who have a cause and / or organization they want to continue championing even after the promotional window for the book has ended.
***
Those are the basics (anyone have anything to add?) but keep in mind that an author can mix and match. So, for example, you could have a basic website + Facebook profile. Or a DIY website for which you pay a small monthly fee — these sites look pretty decent and for authors who have some web savvy, it allows you to post updates yourself. Or you might have a blog and a Facebook / Twitter profile. (So many bloggers belong to one or more social networks — these are great ways to connect with others in the blogging community and promote a blog — that if you’re not comfortable with social networking, you probably shouldn’t consider blogging.)
The bottom line is that while a web presence is essential for authors these days, what’s just as important is that you pick the site type(s) that works best for you.
What’s a book blog tour?
An interesting discussion emerged on Colleen Mondor’s blog Chasing Ray a couple days ago about the blog book tour and in particular who schedules them and how they are set up. I caught the tail end of the discussion on Twitter.
Blog tours aren’t new — this New York Times article from a couple years back explores one author’s blog tour experience – and sites like Blog Book Tours or this post at The Dabbling Mum contain some excellent information about what exactly a blog tour is. But beyond that, I thought it might be useful to look at how blog tours are set up and how they differ from online publicity in general.
First, the basics: for those of you who attended the book blogger panel at BEA, you will have heard the blog tour explained as an author going from blog to blog (rather than from store to store as they would on a traditional book tour) which is a great, quick way to explain it. Depending on the author and the blog, coverage may consist of any of the following: book review, Q&A (either posted or live) or book giveaway and then I’m sure some bloggers have gotten creative and come up with other ideas. Blog tours, like traditional bookstore tours, will feature a designated number of “stops” — often 10 to 20 blogs — and can roll out over the course of a week or a month (or whatever other length of time that has been decided upon).
Here’s some more information about blog tours.
How do blog tours get set up?
Blog tours are typically set up either by the publicist of a book or by blog tour companies / coordinators. Since it takes time (and expertise) to schedule blog tours, publishing companies sometimes feel it is worthwhile to pay a third party — an online marketing company, a freelance publicist, a blog tour company, etc. — to set these up. (We’ve been doing this for years with the broadcast industry — we hire companies to set up a series of radio or TV interviews, also known as radio or TV “tours.”)
Although typically book publicists ask authors not to contact the media directly, different rules apply to (some) blogs. For example, Natasha from Maw Books Blog, mentions that authors sometimes contact her directly to schedule a “stop” on a blog tour. (Other bloggers may prefer to work directly with publishing houses — many bloggers will have information about how to contact them on their sites.) Sometimes, a group of bloggers may come together on their own and contact the author (or publishing house) to schedule the tour.
Regardless of who sets up the blog tour, the end result is the same.
What’s the benefit of a blog tour?
As with radio and TV tours, blog tours enable a book and author to generate buzz for a book without having to travel.
How is the blog tour different from online publicity?
A blog tour is simply one type of online publicity. One difference between a blog tour and online publicity in general is timing. Blog tours start and end on designated dates, the goal being to generate a certain amount of publicity within a certain amount of time. A general online publicity push, on the other hand, could start months (or weeks) before the publication of a book and could end months (or weeks) after.
Also, while the goal of online outreach is to generate any coverage of a book — from a mention to a full-fledged review or interview — blog tour “stops” will typically skew on the more robust end of coverage, e.g., a post rather than a one-line mention.
Are bloggers paid to participate in the blog tour?
No — paying anyone to cover any books would be unethical. (Paying for ads is a perfectly ethical practice, of course, but with PR, coverage — good or bad — should come free). To clarify — since this can get confusing – with blog tours (or with radio or TV tours), publishing houses aren’t paying bloggers (or radio or TV hosts) to cover a book; we’re paying someone to schedule the tour: finding blogs that would be appropriate for the book, arranging dates for the reviews / interviews, reporting back to us about who is running what when, etc. It’s like we’re paying a party planner to put together a party and the guest list (but we don’t pay guests to actually attend the party).
What’s in it for bloggers? They have to read the book and write a post and someone *else* gets paid for their participation?
Bloggers are never obligated to participate in a blog tour — like radio and TV hosts (or like bookstores), they cover books and authors only of their choosing and only when they have the time. If and when bloggers do choose to participate in a blog tour, we assume they are indeed willing to take the time to read the book and write a post because they are interested in the book and because it helps the blog (by, say, maintaining / increasing the audience), much like the way a radio host interviews an author because they’re interested in the author and it helps the radio show. (To get back to the party analogy, guests are welcome to accept or turn down our invitations, but if they do accept, they attend because they want to and not because we’re paying them to show up.) Just as some radio shows choose to find interviewees on their own and never accept pitches from PR people, some bloggers choose never to participate in blog tours and only write about books and authors they find on their own, which is fine — to each his own.
The blog tour coordinator (or the freelance publicist or online marketing company) only gets paid for being the liaison between the publishing house and the blogger — for doing the “party planning” that is involved in scheduling the blog tour.
Will all coverage in a blog tour be positive?
It’s understandable that authors who take the time and effort to engage in promotional efforts for their books don’t want to walk the online gauntlet. However, just as you can’t guarantee that a guest won’t get drunk and go on a rampage at a party, you also can’t guarantee that a blogger (or a book reviewer or a radio or TV host) will positively cover a book. Some may love the book while others may give it a more lukewarm reception — the hope, though, is that coverage will at least be intelligent, substantiated and thought-provoking. (This is where the expertise of the “party planner” comes in handy — they will find blogs where book coverage is intelligent, substantiated and thought-provoking.)
Some bloggers who find a book absolutely dreadful — or who feel so neutral about a book to the point of not having much of anything to say — may opt not to participate in a blog tour, but loving a book or author isn’t a prerequisite for tour participation. (I don’t think it should ever be a prerequisite — I don’t think publishers should try to steer coverage of a book beyond sharing our love for it — but should the author or publisher insist on the hagiotour, that should at least be made clear up front.)
I’m an author. Should I ask my publishing house to set up a blog tour or should I try to set up one myself?
First, it depends on the book — some books lend themselves to online discussion; others don’t. Also, what blogs are available in that genre? Are the blogs actively updated and is there a vibrant community of readers?
Second, it depends on the author — blog tours will be most successful if the author has at least some time to participate in either an ongoing discussion or at least to contribute in some fashion (for example, by providing a Q&A).
And lastly, it depends on the resources of the author and publishing house. How much time and / or money are you willing to spend?
How do you promote blog tour “events”?
Just as we promote bookstore events to try to get people to attend traditional author talks, we also want to drive people to blog tour postings. Participants in blog tours will often promote their participation on the blog itself as well as on Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites. Authors should promote the tour on their websites just as they would promote bookstore events. Also, keep in mind that the site Booktour.com can be used to list events for both IRL and online book tours.
Where can I find blog tour companies?
This list (in alphabetical order) is made up of companies I know of, companies I found on Google, and companies suggested by Facebook and Twitter contacts. (I haven’t worked with all of these people, so I can’t vouch for their services, but all reputable blog tour companies will provide details about their services and prices as well as references.)
JBH Marketing & Public Relations
Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists
Pump Up Your Promotion Virtual Book Tours
If you set up blog tours and are not listed here, feel free to add your website in the Comments section, but please do not email me since I may not have a chance to post your information. Also, please only add your company name if you work on blog tours specifically(not in online marketing and publicity in general).
***
Have you participated in (or arranged) blog tours and if so, what was so your experience?
Book bloggers — the old and new “waves” and what you need to know about both
A few weeks ago, I posted some tips about how book bloggers can work with publishers to get review copies. Although the post itself was fairly straightforward, an interesting discussion emerged in the comments section. Sarah Weinman of Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind made a distinction between two “waves” of bloggers who write about books:
“Wave one are the ‘litblogs,’ the ones who are cited most often in mainstream media. The original bloggers who fit this bill include the Literary Saloon, Bookslut, Maud Newton, MobyLives (which has had several incarnations since), Moorish Girl and LitKicks. By the end of 2003 Ed [Champion] re-started his blog as Return of the Reluctant, I joined the fray, as did Old Hag, the Elegant Variation, Beatrice.com, The Millions, Conversational Reading, The Reading Experience, Bookninja et al. Many of us were either contacted by or solicited book review editors to write for their newspaper sections. There was a journalistic feel to many of the posts on said blogs, and a sense that the blogs were, and still are, a jumping-off point to professional writing.
“Wave two are the book blogs [of which] there are hundreds, if not thousands, of examples. The emphasis is less on ‘blog-as-professional vehicle’ and more on community, on having conversations about books, often active ones, with a small but devoted following of readers.”
(And in an earlier Follow the Reader interview with The Book Maven’s Bethanne Patrick, Patrick also spoke about “professional” versus “community” book bloggers.)
I was fascinated by what Weinman and Patrick wrote because although as a book publicist I’m familiar with both the “old” (professional) and the “new” (community) book blogs, I’d never made the distinction between the two except when it came to figuring out whether to stick a blog in the “Lit Blog” or “Book Blog” folder in my RSS reader.
Why is this important?
What it boils down to for us in book publicity is how we pitch — and work with — these bloggers. The other day, for example, a book blogger asked if there was an appropriate “waiting period” between review copy requests. I nearly toppled out of my chair — you don’t get questions like this from someone with whom you’ve worked for years — until I realized that someone new to the book blogging scene would have no reason to have any knowledge about requesting review copies from publishers. (For the record, there isn’t a waiting period.)
Kassia Kroszer refers to a similar issue in her Booksquare post entitled “Bea 2009: A Bit of Deja Vu All Over Again” in which she wonders exactly how many times a BEA book blogger panel will discuss how bloggers can work with publishers. (This year the panel consisted of bloggers from Stephanie’s Written Word, Book Club Girl, Beth Fish Reads, Maw Books, Booking Mama, My Friend Amy and She Is Too Fond of Books.) For the bloggers who’ve been around since the Internet was invented — or at least since book publicists first figured out what a blog was — this panel was indeed what Kroszer calls “hallucinatory,” a bit like teaching a book editor how to, say, read. But for those bloggers who have only recently come to the book scene, the panel provided invaluable information. (For complete coverage of the SRO-panel, you can check #bbpbea or write ups at Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits or Publishers Weekly. And Firebrand Technologies — best known for their NetGalley product — hosted both the old and new waves of bloggers for “signings” at their booth; Levi Asher of Literary Kicks lists all the bloggers who signed in his Book Expo Wrapup.)
What do you think about the “waves” of book bloggers? And how would you characterize the two? Or do you not make the distinction?
The future of publishing a la Book Expo America
Being rather interested in both publishing and the future, I wanted to put together a post about the future of publishing. The first panel I attended was Do Publishers Still Hold the Keys to the Kingdom? A Panel of Authors Weigh In, held on Friday afternoon. Moderator Steven Johnson, author of The Invention of Air, was joined by Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson, author of the new book Free and the Long Tail, Lev Grossman (TIME senior book critic and author of the upcoming The Magicians) and Tom Standage (editor at The Economist and author of An Edible History of Humanity) as they discussed whether publishers are still necessary or whether authors could (or should) go it alone with self-publishing platforms. Tweeps in the audience commented on the, well, lack of publishers on the panel. Which sort of was a recurrent theme at the convention.
Jumping Off a Cliff: How Publishers Can Succeed Online, moderated by Publishers Weekly’s Andrew Albanese with Chris Anderson, Scribd cofounder Jared Friedman, and New York Times digital guru Nick Bilton, also lacked a publishing house presence. (Thanks to PW for these recaps.)
And Thursday’s The Concierge and the Bouncer: The End of the Supply Chain and the Beginning of the True Book Culture panel featured Richard Nash, former Soft Skull publisher. Hmm.
But before the conspiracy theorists jump in, I’ll say that I helped organize the “Keys to the Kingdom” panel, so I can say firsthand just how tricky a situation this is. When it comes to discussing the future of publishing, publishers will admit that we’re at a crossroads but are, understandably, reluctant to issue more detailed public proclamations. It’s unfortunate because there are plenty of people interested in and knowledgeable about the publishing industry who would like to participate in these “future of publishing” discussions. So how can we rectify (or at least amend) the situation? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Tackle part of the problem first
On Saturday evening, for example, publishers Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks and Bob Miller of HarperStudio participated in the discussion about Stupid Things Publishers and Booksellers Do, moderated by Praveen Madan, co-owner of The Booksmith in San Francisco. Carole Horne, general manager of Harvard Book Store in Cambridge rounded out the panel and Carla Cohen from Politics & Prose in Washington, DC and others in the audience chimed in periodically. Each panelist spoke about three things they feel should be changed about the book publishing industry — no one divulged the meaning of life, but those three things (actually, 12) provide a place to start figuring it out.
Or in the 7×20x21 panel presentation on Friday evening, seven people in the publishing industry spoke about issues that excited them. Again, no one shared their secrets about how to save book publishing, but everyone was able to provide a few nuggets of inspiration.
2. Take the discussion online
If “future of publishing” issues don’t have much of a future in offline discussions, then (to state the obvious) let’s continue them online where they’ve been for a while. There are a number of general interest publishing industry blogs like Booksquare, Follow the Reader and Galleycat where you can read about important publishing issues. There are many more, some of which are listed on this Book Publicity Blog under “Future of Publishing Blogs” and “Publishing Blogs.” (Check the blogroll on the right.)
3. Be patient
What can I say — Rome wasn’t built in a day.
What to download for your BEA trip
As the countdown to BEA / Book Expo America begins, I thought it would be useful to think about what wired folk should download (besides books, of course), so you might consider:
Signing up for:
Your Twitter arsenal: Twitter will be *the* way to keep up with people and panels. If you haven’t already signed up, chances are you won’t be familiar enough with the program to utilize it at BEA, but for current users, make sure you’ve got your mobile app like Tweetie or Twitterberry and, if you’d like, a desktop manager like Digsby or Tweetdeck .
Flickr: if you want to post / share pictures
Downloading on your iPhone (although you can access these applications on the web, too):
Hopstop: particularly handy for getting around the city because it provides both subway / bus and walking directions. We use it for getting to neighborhoods with which we’re not familiar (or any areas served by the G or M trains).
NYC Subway Map: There are several free iPhone applications that provide maps of the NYC subway system. @DBerthiaume uses CityTransit (available for $2.99) that uses GPS to find you the nearest subway station (and which also includes maps of Metro North — with trains serving Westchester and Connecticut — and the Long Island Railroad). Maps for New Jersey Transit buses and trains (including PATH trains that serve Hoboken and Jersey City) can be found on the NJ Transit web site.
*** Note: A lot of subway lines are “affected” — by which I mean “royally screwed up” — by track work on weekends. Check the MTA Service Advisories site for details (and the iPhone application CityTransit provides these updates from the MTA site). ***
Yelp: information about nearby bars, restaurants, shopping, hotels, banks, drugstores and more
Loopt: find people (but only if they’re on Loopt as well — Twitter sort of does the same thing)
Any New Yorkers have other suggestions for handy getting-around-NYC applications? Please comment.
***
Once you’re in New York, these web sites may be of use.
Menu Pages: @kalenski reminded me of this useful site that lists menus for hundreds (thousands?) of New York City restaurants broken down by cuisine, neighborhood, zip code — pretty much any designation you’d want.
GoMobo: Allows you to place on order online with a local eatery and then have it delivered (or you can pick it up).
Open Table: If you know where you want to eat, you can make reservations here.
***
And here are some tips for catching a bus the New York way (or at least my way).
As you may know, the Javits Center, located at 34th Street and 11th Avenue, is a bit out of the way. The closest subways are at 34th and Seventh Avenue or at 34th and Eighth Avenue; depending on how fast you walk, you’re looking at a 10-20 minute hike.
The Javits Center Directions page notes that there is an M34 crosstown bus available. I will take this on faith. I have never taken it. I am not sure I have ever seen it. Nevertheless, if you would like to try, this is how to do it: walk west on the north side of 34th Street, which is the side of the road on which the bus allegedly arrives.
At each bus stop — one is located on each avenue, check to see if a bus is in view. If it is, wait for it; if not, continue walking to the next avenue. Periodically, turn your head to see if the bus is coming — it’s perfectly normal; New Yorkers are paranoid — and if it is, book like all heck to the next stop. Keep doing this until you catch the bus or get to the Javits Center. I always find it tremendously fulfilling when I beat the bus to my destination. The small pleasures.
***
And lastly, for tweeple coming to New York, feel free to use #nychelp if you have questions about the city (and if you’re from New York and are willing to help out, check the hash tag and answer what questions you can). Check my Want to help out bookish folks coming to NYC for BEA? post for details.
