if:book has a very interesting article on print on demand, networked books and the reader as editor.
Here
The above link makes reference to an article in the NYT which as ever with the Times falls a little short of satisfaction.
Here
If you have heard the buzz around The Long Tail by Chris Anderson then these two posts and a guardian article (I know five links in a links post, shocking) will give some interesting detail and tangential thought.
Here,
Here
&
Here
GO GET INSIDE GOOGLE BOOK SEARCH’S FEED
Sorry to shout but this is getting really important. If you are an author, a publishers, an editor, a book marketer, a book seller or just interested you should be connected to Inside Google Book Search either by feed, or e-mail.
Today they have posted yet another piece on the ways of building audience and Helping your niche find you. It highlights some of the ways smart publishers, authors and marketers have spread word and news about their books:
For instance, Ballantine Books distributed gift bags containing copies of James Swain thrillers — which are set in casinos — to hundreds of people at the World Gaming Protection Conference. Jennifer Chiaverini, author of the Elm Creek Quilts series, appeared on a cable TV quilting show to talk about patterns and her latest release. But she didn’t stop with television — she also created a website where she blogs about quilting, shares information about her books, publishes a schedule of her appearances and more.
I have encountered some blogs that dislike Google Book Search and are sceptical (like this one by Bill Trippe) but I think over all I get a really positive impression from Google Book Search. Their customer service team responded within a day when I asked questions regarding printing and online access in the future. Does it dismay me when books clearly in the public domain remain either snippet or information view, it does but overall I love the service it provides and think it can only get better.
But more importantly I love the way Google seems to be offering an earnest partnership with the book trade, from Authors to Publishers. The “Don’t Be Evil” motto seems to run true here. They seem genuine, yes they have conditions and concerns for their own resources but embracing them and working with seems by far the preferred response to what seems a fair offer of assistance, know how and cooperation.
Accentuating the positive
Eoin
Obvious?
It should really come as no surprise to anyone that Pew/Internet [PDF of results] found in a recent study (read more here and here and here) that more people blog to “express themselves creatively” than for money or any other reason. It only takes a quick wander around the blogs tagged books, writing, poems, novel, and reading or indeed any other even slightly creative tag.
From the PDF Summary
Digital Self Expression
As was noted some time ago by a fine post on Gigaom by Robert Young on digital personal expression, the internet is enabling a radical change in personal expression making it easier for people to publish their work online. I am the publisher of my own work on this blog and anyone else who has a blog is too. The engines that facilitate this revolution are akin to presses, printers and broadcasting towers more than they are to actual publishers.
To think that frustrated writers and poet would not take advantage of this new forum is, to be frank, stupid. And it is not just authors and poets, musicians and artists have seen the light as it were. MySpace Music is merely the giant recognising the trend and going with it.
If you think on it this post is directly related to yesterday’s post on submissions. One element of artistic self expression has moved online, the marketing and networking side. Almost as important as getting exposure on the web is building a supportive group of likeminded friends and co-bloggers, taking part in the community might be a kinder way to put it.
Creative Destruction
Soon, and I think sooner than we realise, much more of the process that goes into the finding and weaning of talent will be done online. Authors, artists, musicians and every creative will be exposed much more easily to a global (fractured but global) market in talent. It will be, I suggest, a brutal exposure for many. There are legions of creatives that will survive just fine in their home market but will be slaughtered by more talented, more imaginative or simply more ruthless competition on the global scene. You just have to think of the numerous successful British acts that failed to “crack the states” or the Irish bands that live off gigging in Ireland and have sold maybe 2,000 records globally.
So what do we have?
Opportunities for sure exist and even more go untapped as I mentioned yesterday. But we are faced with a period of shake out too. Some people will benefit from the blogging and internet platform, they will gain links, attention, maybe even book deals and publisher(record company/gallery) interest, others will remain obscure get no links, no attention. The blogosphere already has a very defined power list. It will take a new blogger considerable time to generate the 30,000 or so links that will bump it to the top of the technorati.com rankings.
Even if that is not the goal, gaining exposure in a chosen niche is hard too and requires know-how and networking skill that many do not possess. This is especially true because the web moves so quickly and the early movers now have a massive advantage of links and attention. In short while offering enormous potential the web offers it only to those who know how to exploit it.
Considering the implications,
Eoin
Summer in the city
The last few days in Ireland have been stunning. Temperatures have been in the late 20s and early 30s. Degrees Celsius that is!
It has not helped me make sense of the enormous mountain of reading I have been doing. So much is percolating through my brain right now that it is hard to grasp a single idea, sit down and formulate exactly what I think about it and then write a blog post on it which is why my posting schedule has been erratic.
The Submissions Problem
One massive idea has been rolling back and forward however and it involves commissioning and submissions. Terry Whalin in his excellent blog has recently written some posts about why and how he rejects submissions and how unoriginal/pushy they are:
It’s something else to consider the next time you are going to fire off an email and check on the status of your proposal which the editor has under consideration. Are you giving it the extra push which moves it from consideration into the rejection pile?
The key thought I have had in the last few weeks is how publisher-centric this process is. It seems to me that there must be a better way for the submissions process to work. A way in which rather than authors and their agents being at the mercy of such things as editor annoyance, intern slapdash (I am not dissing Interns it just seems that often they get the chore of slush-pile reading) and publisher tardiness. If you read Miss Snark you will see more of the type of comments that Terry is making. And I should make it clear I am no rebuking Terry. Our own system is much the same (though as a non-fiction house we get less speculative submissions which is a blessing).
What is the solution?
It is surely a mark of an industry that is so set in its ways that this unfair, unjust and really remarkably inefficient system has persisted for so long.
Is there a better, more open way to resolve the issue? Can we develop a quicker and more user-friendly response system? I have one idea.
Is Digg a good model?
Do you think a Digg-like system of ranking would work? Consider that a moment. People submit proposals in a basic form that contains common elements. This would get around the problem of authors with no idea submitting confusing and misleading proposals. They could give an idea of what stage of development the book was at, completed manuscript, concept or halfway between. They might provide links to other content and chapter ideas, they could highlight the other books in the field, the rival authors and the type of sales and promotion experience they have or are willing to engage in to sell the book. In fact any of the material that a normal proposal should contain.
Readers would then vote on the concept. lots of votes would promote the concept to the top of the list. Agents and publishers could peruse at will and pick from this list. It might not even act as the main source but as a check when reading the paper submission that will inevitably be sent to publishers. It might act as a reinforcing device for good projects and ideas, it might not.
The fact is it could flop completely. I just don’t know but it is an innovative way to address the problem. I’d love to hear more and get your feedback on ideas you have to change the system. I’d also like to hear if you are happy with it. Send comments and e-mails as always to eoinpurcellsblogATgmail.com.
Happy Sunny Days
Eoin
Well now this is fun (Thanks to my brother for the heads up), one of MacMillan New Writing’s author’s, Cate Sweeny, is building some buzz usinga book swap and some good old internet freebies.
Here
I couldn’t mention the promo without the author’s site.
Here
Steve Rubel explains how PR is adapting to the modern world and using Delicious to do it.
Here
