TIP: Make sure your press release has a home

What's an arrow without a target?

Earlier this week Ms. Obie Joe viewed a new company promising all of the tools needed for a successful book promotion campaign. $100 for a press release (spell-checked and all!). $50 for bookmarks (also known as placecards). $200 for a web site. $125 for a book trailer.

All very well and nice, but without a strategy for these tools, what's the use? Meaning, you have a press release, but where is it going to land:
• Wide broadcast online via PRWeb, CSWire, etc.
• Mailing list to trade magazines, major media, TV/Print/Radio
• Online and mailing list to optimal vendors.

It's interesting to note that it's cheap to have a press release written, but twice the price for a customized list of targets for that press release. You could hire a firm to customize, but even after that, you should take your own chop at the list and customize it as you go along on your book campaign.

This is one of the reasons Ms. Obie Joe has lukewarm feelings for the enthusiasm for book trailers. (With the marked exception of any book trailer by Chip Kidd, of course). Book trailers just seem to flail at any old target, and unless your trailer features a sharp-shooter hamster, dressed like a Disney Princess, good luck on having your trailer seen on YouTube.

Freshening the sheets

Cobbler's children go without shoes, and publicist's web sites lie stale.

We've finally gotten around to updating the web site for the magical entity for book promotion & production that is Obie Joe Media.

Check us out.

Do the independents book more authors than chains?

Sure, all books and authors hold equal weight when we construct a campaign of venues, media and online. But truthfully? You know when you're really loved when your publicist emphasizes independent bookstores on your book tour.

Why the love for the independents? A few coins:
• They know how to bring the audiences. Not only through regularly scheduled salons which in turn encourages people to take a chance on an unknown author, but also through a relationship between bookseller and client which in turns tells the bookseller which books might be a bigger crowd drawer.
• They grant generous sale splits for smaller publishers, as well as flexibility in stocking.
• They talk with their customers with regular e-mails, newsletters, and even phone trees, all of which saves an author tremendous stress in publicity efforts.
• They welcome diversity; for authors with controversial topics, independent bookstores are one of the few remaining town halls to debate topics.

Best of all? When you call the person at the independent bookstore to request a booking -- they actually return your call or e-mail.

So. Don't forget. Shop local. Give your thanks during this holiday season for this cornucopia of generosity: your independent bookstores.

Some libraries like you more than others

Forgive Ms. Obie Joe's near-obsession with libraries as a market; it's just that, for many small publishers, libraries are rich Uncles for granting visibility and sales for your book.

Even though an author or publisher can connect the Acquisitions Editor for an library system, one can also move copies by contacting the sole Acquisition Editor or Head Librarian for a particular branch. Ms. Obie Joe thinks each branch has its own flair, and some might match your book more than others.

This morning, Ms. Obie Joe escaped the home office for the library's quiet. Of great distraction, though were the shelves of the new books. Dozens of photo narrative books. Like candy for Ms. Obie Joe's other obsession. Apparently the orderer at this branch loves photo narratives.

Sure thing Ms. Obie Joe will ferret the name of this fellow fanatic the next time Obie Joe Media represents a photo narrative book.

(photo by Rebecca Lepkoff, from Life on the Lower East Side, Princeton Architectural Press)

Book people offer the kindess of strangers

You know that old scraw that doctors and lawyers never escape a dinner party without a inquiry about a rash or ex-wife (or both)? Most often, however, these inquiries are met with hesitation.

Given that nearly every one of us thinks a book waits to be called from brain to paper, us book people can be popular people at parties, too. But here's a difference: with some exception, most any book person will offer free help when asked.

Today, as Mr. Obie Joe watches the game with the Miss Obie Joe, Ms. Obie Joe is working on a manuscript given to her by the friend of the neighbor on the hill. Some of the changes will be stylistic, others reside with defining the author's vision. Did the writer want to emphasize his growing up days, or with his time overseas as a mercenary soldier? We'll never be this author's agent, official editor or publisher, yet the impact of these early decisions will move the thing.

And that's why an acknowledgments section on a book can resemble a Christmas Card list with its sentiment and size. Not only does mean the author is a grateful sort, but is also an author smart enough to ask for help from all corners.

Which we're always happy to front free of charge.