Controlling one's content

We've been working with a new client who wants to gain greater control over her book's online marketing potential (as in, life beyond Amazon). She had a web site, which was OK in look and content, but the site lacked the most critical component to selling your own book: an e-commerce portal. If a reader on the site wanted to buy the book, he was pointed to other online vendors, Amazon or Borders. While there's nothing wrong with those sales, why shouldn't authors instead capture their web site visitors and make them buyers exclusive to the author?

Adding a PayPal or other shopping cart button is easy to do. Even more effortless if an author uses a blog format for their web site. Most authors don't need to develop a web site from scratch. Instead, Obie Joe recommends using a template from blogspot, or WordPress and go. Many of these templates can be customized with the latest in e-commerce tools for just a few hundred dollars.

Even better is the ease in which authors can update and control the content of the site themselves. Having that ease makes the task of responding quickly to a marketing potential -- say, an article about the rise in YA vampire novels -- successful.

Not invading our shores, apparently

As usual, the combination of our friends Bella Stander and Galleycat inspires giggles for the wryness of the sentiment.

She'll Wait for McEwan to Come Out on DVD
Most everybody else may be all excited about how Powell's Books and Ian McEwan have reinvented book promotion with that short film about On Chesil Beach, but Bella Stander ain't impressed. After watching an online trailer for the film, she dubs it "icky-sticky treacly," and doesn't think much of McEwan's ability to read his own fiction out loud. She also quotes an author interviewed for the WaPo article about the film, who wonders aloud, "at what point... does it feel like an infomercial?" Me, I was feeling a little more generous after watching the trailer—I thought it looked like a low-budget documentary from the Ovation Channel. And while it might be an acceptable compromise for somebody like McEwan, who hates "the three-week stab around the United States and the 25 media escorts," I have my doubts about this being the mainstream future of book promotion.

(And what is it with all these foreign novelists looking for ways to get out of doing U.S. book tours? First Margaret Atwood invents a robot arm to sign her books, and now this. The way things are going, Julian Barnes is probably going to unveil hologram generators so he can do in-store appearances for his next book from his living room.)
(from www.galleycat.com)

Just bring yourself

One other note about the BEA Book Expo: In retrospect, we see we spent too much time on the preparation of company materials. In many ways, all you need is your business card, your gregarious manner, and the reconnaissance on the person you're meeting.

Pantheon to Pages and People

Just returned from Mr. Obie Joe's visit to the BEA Book Expo in New York City. Given it was our virgin visit to the Book Expo (previous incarnations had us there as journalists), we had no expectations. Except to say hello to old and new friends. We had been advised to map out a dead-certain strategy to cover the numerous booths, programs, author signings and presentations. How we tried, but we were soon dazzled and redirected like greedy children inside the Wonka Chocolate Factory.

So we concentrated on gathering catalogs, business cards, and some books (BTW -- what was with the miserly handouts in the children's booth?). The networking became giddy at a certain point in the overheated Javits Center: in the span of one hour, Mr. Obie Joe asked Nora Ephron about her neck (we know, cringe city), chatted about viral marketing with Jane Friedman, cajoled a book from a Kensington Books rep, and had the most interesting conversation with author Abigail Thomas.

The previous day we attended the programs for African American titles. The genre is wide, with titles from self-published authors to major houses all competing for the same space. It's about the hustle, not the hype, so the programming was refreshing for the content on tools on promotion, marketing, and bookstore negotiations. More, though, more, is needed. Mr. Obie Joe thinks next year's AA programming could include commentary on the status of the political voice in AA literature, the explosion of YA titles, and integrating street lit promotional techniques to standard titles. (Ms. Villaroasa...give us a call)

Next year in L.A. we promise to stay more than just the day-and-a-half we had. And to stay on task.