Picking on the cover

A good cover can convey the content inside, whatever the story. 

But the best covers entice, making the task to crack the spine to see inside an irresistible impulse. 

Much will be continue to be said about Publisher Weekly's cover. (Loved that the arresting photograph by Lauren Kelly came from the new book, Posing Beauty by Deborah Willis). That the cover's connotation detracted from the necessary conversation inside, etc. 

Perhaps. It's been too long of a day since an interesting cover on the issues faced by Black writers and the marketplace came along -- especially for PW -- and if anything, the cover made readers look inside (read the excellent essay by fellow Baltimorean Felicia Pride). It would be different if Mr. Obie Joe suspected cynicism in the cover choice, but PW is often not that creative. Rather, the choice of this photo for this dedicated issue was representative of the sometimes clueless nature with which the traditional parts of the publishing industry approach the voices in the Black community. 

And, c'mon, the amount of puns inspired is too irresistible. 

TIP: Letting readers be the editors on your book's outline

Mr. Obie Joe is of the opinion that the greater involvement a reader has in the author, the book's subject, or the book's hype, the better the chance an author wins the lottery: the reader buys the book, tells friends & family, and goes to the event.

What if your reader could collaborate with your book? As in, say somethin' about the way you put your book together? A new site, a book outline Wiki, posts a book's outline, and then allows registered users to give their notes on your genius. (also good for books still under development.)

Ms. Obie Joe is liking the Act One by Moss Hart book.

Sales, accolades, sales again

Recognition, gathered via awards from officious places, or premature death, always bring sales of your book.

Many authors spend their entire careers unjustly unappreciated by awards and/or sales. Trust that you are not alone, and that every sale is worth something. Mr. Obie Joe was intrigued to read of the book sales for the five nominees for the prestigious National Book Award:

(winner) LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN, by Colum McCann 17,200 copies
LARK AND TERMITE, by Jayne Anne Phillips 15,250 copies
IN OTHER ROOMS, OTHER WONDERS, by Daniyal Mueenuddin 8,750 copies
FAR NORTH, by Marcel Theroux 1,275 copies
AMERICAN SALVAGE, by Bonnie Jo Campbell 1,100 copies

Sidenote: A hearty congrats to McCann, a fav around Obie Joe Media for his book, Zoli, about the Romany, and the struggle to be left alone by the dominant culture. Best line: "I still call myself black, even though I have rolled around in flour."
(Photograph: Tina Fineberg/AP)

TIP: Fancify your online invites

Sure, fancify is only a word the littlest Obie Joe could conjure, but the intent for online invites is the same. How best to match the online invitation to your event? There are a fair amount of these services, and nearly offer the same points:
• Ease of design. Some offer more options in clip art. Most offer templates for any occasion; Constant Contact is known for their range.
• Tracking. Evite pings you by cell phone; all services notify you by e-mail as the yea/nay/maybe somedays roll in, as well as tell you how many opened the invite at all.
• Cost. Only Evite is free, and scrolling through the ads can annoy. Constant Contact does offer e-mail management; those authors with multiple e-mail lists arranged by niche audiences can find this service a life-saver.

We're also been intrigued by a new player, paperlesspost. Still in beta, and not offered for free (yet), there are aspects of using an online invite system that looks more at home with a wedding planner. When we received an paperlesspost invite from Love Is a Mountain author Mozella Perry Ademiluyi for appearances in London, we paid more attention because the look, and suspense of "opening" the invite gave a larger sense of exclusivity to it.

When designing your next evite, try for a personal, formal look. It might not work for an event in an institutional setting (library, bookstore), but for a more intimate setting (book club), where you want to guarantee close to 100% confirmation, something along the lines from paperlesspress might work.

Perhaps an author tour is worth the time...

Not a fan of Wal-Mart, and probably should know more about Mr. King, and yet this event located just miles from the Obie Joe Media home inspires much love for all involved. Hundreds of fans showed up to meet the man, many of whom camped out the night before.

Get out there and tour! Surprise yourself with the possibility of fans. Maybe not King-size, but surely well enough for building to the same.

(image courtesy of The Baltimore Sun)

Just like the Alien vs. Predator fight, we don't know who will win in the Amazon vs. Wal-Mart fight to sell bottom-priced books. We do know the loser: those who love books. Sure, the price wars are limited to the blockbusters, so what's the damage for 95% of the other books?

Lots. Those blockbusters also shore up the independent bookstores, authors, and the publishers by subsidizing the more modest sales. That's Mr. Obie Joe's opinion. Pudd'nhead Books found a few other opinions, including the first comparsion of books to pork chops.

"It's a totally different market. If Wal-Mart started selling pork chops for $1.79 a pound, they're not going to put Whole Foods out of business. There is plenty of room for everyone."
Barbara Meade, co-founder of Politics and Prose, Wash., DC

"I'm tickled pink (that Wal-Mart and Amazon.com are fighting), and I'm hoping that they lose a lot of money."
Jane Kessler, owner of Appletree Books, Cleveland Heights, OH

"Bestsellers are not the strength of independent bookstores," Klein said. "We don't live and die by the bestsellers. . . . What goes on between Amazon and Wal-Mart affects them more than it affects us."
Richard Klein, co-owner of Book Revue, Huntington, NY

"It's the chain bookstores and the readers that are going to be hurt by this the most. Chain bookstores can't do what what independents can do, not can they pay their bills by selling toothpaste and electronics. Readers will suffer the most, however. If the general public learns to expect cheap books, publishers won't be able to afford to take a chance on new writers, so quality, story, research and expertise will slowly disappear from new books, and we'll only have those most commercial and bland books to choose from. Again, you get what you pay for."
Nikki Furrer of Pudd'nhead Books, Webster Groves, MO

TIP: Memorize these terms

Ellis Weiner's new piece, "Subject: Our Marketing Plan," would be funnier for Mr. Obie Joe had we not realized we knew most of the terms used in marketing books the modern way. Even tab-skimming your blog's comments.

Sigh. (And the image is inverted to push the point.)

How u doin', MySpace?

At this point Mr. Obie Joe wonders if the old becomes the new in the ever dizzying swirl of social networking tools. All of advertising appeals to the fantasy within, and we are driven by similar desires by choosing which social network to use for ourselves and our book.

So, Facebook is in, MySpace is out. Facebook is for younger, hipper, richer, more active people. MySpace? Sniffed one social media researcher to NPR this morning: MySpace is too brown and too poor. How does she know this? "Because, she says, low income people are more likely to click on ads, in MySpace," notes NPR.

If social networks are like our neighborhoods -- welcome to only those who live there -- then how to expand your book's presence within social networks? Well, for one, don't believe the balderdash of these "social media researchers." There are a few teenagers in the Obie Joe family, and judging by the average 1,000+ count of friends on their Facebook accounts, we'd say teens are a lot more open to new ideas and friends than we think.

So, start up a MySpace page. Use MySpace's wonderful capacity to post calendar, audio clips, and segments of your book. Granted, it's more difficult to filter in MySpace to find your prospective readers (try typing in names of your favorite authors to see what MySpace groups they are placed in), but not impossible.

Plus, you know those fickle teenagers: if you think they'll be on Facebook by graduation, they have a Tweet for you.

Biting the hand

The good and bad about the latest throw-down over what is the new paradigm of book publicity is found on Huffington Post by Jonathan Fields, whose new book Career Renegade benefited from his techniques.

Best closing line: "There's a new world order in arena of buzz and it's called conversation."

Best comment: Left by Time correspondent and author, "Going on Leonard Lopate's radio show in an hour. I've decided to make book publicity a full-time career."

Worst use of comment section in article about clueless nature of publicists navigating online publicity: "Authors? Contact me!"

TIP: Managing your Facebook popularity

In using Facebook as a publicity tool, many authors prefer to keep their publicity among their friends. Which is an admirable, but limited goal.

Keep your friends, and keep up the creative talk on your personal page, but also create a Fan page. An aside: there is a difference between Fan Page and a Group Page. Mr. Obie Joe is of the opinion a Fan Page might work best for a book, as membership is unrestricted. That said, authors should consider building a Group Page, because the discussions on these type of pages are more involved, and the chosen members more willing to help you with your viral marketing.

OK, here's what a Fan Page can do for you and your book(s):
• Manage, at a more professional level, those announcements distinct to your book.
• Expand your circle to include other Friends whose influence might help your book in different ways, and independent of whether they've your "friend." This would include reviewers, book clubs, libraries. Asking another Fan Page to join your Fan Page is easier than Friend2Friend.
• Increase the focus: on a Fan Page there's no talk of "OMG! I saw a bluebird." Instead, it's about you, and the book.
• Allows you to let almost everyone in. For the most part, the focus eliminates nonsense, and you don't have to worry if you do, or don't know, the new Fan.
asked you; on the other • Even though you might want to share the same info. from your Friend page to the Fan, it's best to keep the content feeds separate. Friends don't want to what strange Qs the bookclub had, your Fans would thrive on that tidbit.
(the pic is of Ms. Meyer, because she holds the record for the number of Fan and Group Pages)

TIP: Put your books in the trunk

But don't drive them off the cliff.

Having a few copies of your book is an essential marketing task, whether you're the author from a big or little or no publishing house. Best of all, these techniques are evergreen, and can be done well after the book's publication date. A few ways those books will come in handy:
• Sell-outs at a reading. Particularly if it's a non-retail setting, i.e., library or reading series, chances are the few copies the venue pre-bought might not suffice.
• Chance conversation with a co-worker who knows someone in charge of booking that killer venue you've been seeking.
• You ran into Jonathan Yardley in the grocery store parking lot and he agreed to review the book. True story.
• Last-minute inspiration to put on the preacher persona, and hand-sell your book at the Farmer's Market. Or along a traffic jam. At a subway station.
• On a day-trip, see that cozy independent bookstore, and decide to drop off 5 copies on consignment.

Would you let B&N bully you?

Some of the more loyal readers to Obie Joe note the, uh, primitive nature of our blogroll. In some ways, the intent reflects the loyalty to a few sites, and in another way, it's an avoidance of paying the devil its' due for return favors.

If you're an author with an involved site/blog intended to gather your audience and move sales, you've had to consider the bargain of referral links. As well as the balance of these referral links to your own e-commerce goals. Does the inclusion of an Amazon button take sales from your e-cart? Plus, the heavy-handed suggestion from B&N to include their button has worried several more of the entrepreneurial authors.

The answer is do a bit of both. To place your book in the most comprehensive marketing plan, it's best to include all buttons, including, Indiebound (to refer to a local bookstore to handle your sale). But here's the thing: make your deal the best. Grant the best discount (at least 40% off retail price), throw in swag (free bookmarks, gumballs or stickers), and decent customer service. Most people don't mind clicking on your shopping cart, if the price and convenience is about the same. So, go ahead, welcome all buttons, but make sure to make yours the prettiest.

Blackhatting your book on FaceBook

Technically, this could be another Tip from Mr. Obie Joe, but since it's just evil, perhaps not.

Tag the name of every one of your FaceBook friends on your book cover, and just like that, your book cover appears on hundreds of pages in FaceBook.

How cool! What little time needed on a nifty marketing technique.

Except -- leaving aside the possible revulsion your friends feel -- it's a get rich quick kind of promotion. If you're in the game of developing your career beyond one book, it's not a technique used for gathering an audience for keeps. Tagging doesn't cultivate your audience; other, more content-rich, individualistic techniques do.

Remember, most social media tools are only enhancements, not the thing. Use FaceBook to cultivate your already burgeoning audience (which probably got its start with your real-life F&F). FaceBook can't create your audience; only you can.

(The icon is from "booktag," a Shelfari type application in FaceBook, which might be a good way to build new FaceBook fans for your book.)

Swing by the Salon today, why don't you?

Obie Joe Media is sponsoring two panel discussions, both possibly essential, at the 14th annual Baltimore Book Festival. Check out these conversation makers on Friday, September 25:

Black Money-Why the Urban Genre is Remaking the Book Business
3:30PM - 4:15PM, Literary Salon
• Troy Johnson, founder, aalbc.com
• Christopher Herz, publisher and author, Canal Publishing
• Tracie Howard, Random House author, urban marketing expert
• Ellis L. Marsalis, III, founder, Obie Joe Media

• Will Online Save the Printed Word?
4:15PM - 5:00PM, Literary Salon
• Kevin Smokler, noted as a founding father of online book promotion, founder with WIRED editor Chris Anderson of booktour.com
• Ami Greko, digital marketing, MacMillian
• Brad Grochowski, Director of Baltimore-based AuthorsBookshop.com, a nationally acclaimed online bookstore, or alternative to Amazon.com, dedicated to selling self-published, independently published and small-press published books.

No time for a F2F book club?

At minimum, you as the author have received the advice from your publisher, publicists and friends: contact book clubs. Not only do clubs buy in bulk, the word-of-mouth generated by book clubs is unmatched in content and effectiveness.

The truth is, book clubs -- at least the ones of some stablilty and open membership -- are swamped by review requests like elephants to a pumpkin feast. Tapping the cane, Mr. Obie Joe asks you to open your eyes to other ways to promote your book in ways similar to a book club.

Susan Larson the inestimable book editor for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, compiled a list of sites where you and your friends can go into depth why your book is everything.
(Excerpt from 8/12/09 Times-Picayune)

GoodReads.com
This site is a great place to recommend books you've read and see what books others are reading.

It's easy to sign up, and one way to build your virtual bookshelf quickly is to rate the books you've read, from such classics as "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee to contemporary favorites such as "The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Nighttime" by Mark Haddon. In no time at all, I had a virtual shelf of 90 books. There are also categories for books you're reading now, and a place to list books you want to read.

This is also a good place to post quotes, your own writing, or publicize literary events. GoodReads also sends out a monthly newsletter, and there's a group for almost every taste.

The top five "must read" books on Good Reads this week are "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," by Junot Diaz; "The Host, by Stephenie Meyer; "Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse No. 2)," by Charlaine Harris; "Olive Kitteridge," by Elizabeth Strout; and "Outliers," by Malcolm Gladwell." GoodReads also runs an ongoing, fun-to-follow poll of the best and worst books of all time; Stephenie Meyer's bestselling vampire novel, "Twilight," appears on both lists.

Librarything.com
I became aware of this personal book collection cataloging site during a visit from my old college roommate, who, like me, has too many books. Just type in the title, author or the ISBN number on the back of the book and the description will appear. Users can enter 200 books for free or as many as you like for $10 a year or $25 for life.

Currently, the site has more than 700,000 users with more than 40 million book listings. One user has more than 30,000 books listed. The top five authors on Librarything are J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Neil Gaiman.

Shelfari.com
This Seattle site, founded in 2006, became so successful that it was purchased by Amazon.com in 2008 (so naturally, every entry features a "buy from Amazon" link).

Another virtual shelf-building site, it offers readers a variety of groups. Top postings on the current Shelfari blog are entries about children's summer reading, hilarious parodies of children's literature in "The Runaway Mummy" and "Where the Mild Things Are," by Maurice Sendup, and fond reminiscences of Frank McCourt and Walter Cronkite.

Bookcrossing.com
This site is for the booklover with a generous streak who wonders what to do with books that they have no room for in a permanent collection. "Help make the whole world a library" with more than 700,000 members in more than 130 countries.

Here's how it works: Take a book from your collection, put a note inside the cover about Bookcrossing.com, register the book on the Web site, and release it "into the wild" -- leaving it behind in a hotel room, airport waiting area, restaurant booth, park bench, wherever. Whenever I travel, I take books I can leave behind, and so far I've released books in Louisiana, Maine, Georgia, Florida and Texas. Happy reading, you lucky people who found those books.

You can also find out where books have been released in your geographical area if you want to go book-hunting. Currently there are 18 books "in the wild in Louisiana," 2 in New Orleans, and 8 in Pineville..

My Space and Facebook and Twitter
Those social networking megasites are also must-stops for booklovers. Many authors have their own pages now, and local bookstores such as Garden District, Maple Street Book Shop, and Octavia Books have online presences. It's fun to check out the stats of such best-selling writers as Anne Rice, who has more than 30,000 fans, and Rebecca Wells and Michael Lewis, who each have more than 400.

"Facebook is a networking tool, but it is not a substitute for the face-to-face communication with our customers which we value above all else," said Tom Lowenburg of Octavia Books, which also posts YouTube clips of author visits.

Twitter recently came in handy when Maple Street Book Shop only had a day's notice for a visit by best-seeling author Dave Eggers. "About 150 people follow us on Twitter," said owner Donna Allen. "We had a great turn-out."

TIP: Be a cultural filter

Several decades ago -- well, it seems so -- Ms. Obie Joe was a new parent, and unwise to procuring the good influences for children. As in, what were the actual good books for kids. Ones that entertained without pandering, intrigued without scaring, and soothed without boring.

This being the 90's, without the web, recommendations were gotten piecemeal from librarians, other parents, or something heard. Then Ms. Obie Joe got her hands on the Chinaberry catalog. It was, and remains, one of the best filters for the surfeit of children's books in the library.

Beyond reading with some satisfaction of the predictable drama of someone's life, most of us read blogs for the type of information that's a quick tip, a secret, a new crush. Like Chinaberry, your blog can be an essential filter for readers, inspiring them to return repeatedly. Tell readers about the new book, the best hat, the spiciest sauce.

Entertainment on the brain

After Hurricane Katrina, Obie Joe decided to load up the minivan for a trip to the hometown. What better bulk than dozens of books slated for one of NOLA's recently reopened schools?

A woman in the neighborhood responded to our call for donated books. In her living room, boxed and labeled, were hundreds of books.

"What can I say? I'm a romance novel junkie. I love a good story," she shrugged. Turns out she bought and read about 30 books a month, which is about the average for romance novels.

Pulp fiction, romance, sci-fi, historical fiction....all easily derided as detriments to "true" literature, yet for the readers of these forms, the story is key, and they could care less about the aspirations of the form.

Ms. Obie Joe loved today's Lev Grossman's editorial in The Wall Street Journal reminding us that literature shouldn't exult in distancing itself from the reader. Perhaps one of the reasons why Young Adult as well as graphic novels are gathering huge contingents of new fans might be a response to the lack of good stories found in grown-up lit.

(credit: Jon Krause, Wall Street Journal for graphic)

TIP: Start your own book club - online

Some books are tougher than others as candidates for book clubs. 

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace would qualify. Fans of the books, unwilling to be the pariahs at their own book clubs, have formed an online book club to scale the 1,000-plus page book. Readers gather at 75-page benchmarks every week for three months. Community, complex discussion, and the thrill of suffusing one in a worthwhile book. 

So, why not start an online book club of your own? If you think of it, your Reader Guide is one step forward to your own online book club. But make the content matter, and follow-through. Peruse the structure of the Infinite Jest site in its straightforward blog format:

• The last 10 Posts

• Archives

• The last 10 Comments (many in the wonderfully DFW loquacious way)

But the site's searchability is what Ms. Obie Joe likes best. The search box rocks, but the categories section is particularly astute. 

TIP: Cultivate your live line cranks

The news was startling: President Kennedy was reported shot during a motorcade in Dallas. Walter Cronkite of CBS Evening News was having trouble finding a clear phone line for an outgoing call. In the newsroom, he picked up one of the lines, but a caller was already live. From his autobiography, A Reporter's Life:

I reported (ed: can you imagine how many times that word appeared in his book?) that she had reached our newsroom. 

"I want to complain," she complained, "of your having that Walter Cronkite on the air at a time like this, crying his crocodile tears when we all knew he hated Jack Kennedy."

With all of the outraged dignity I could muster, I told her: "Mrs. Llewellyn-Arbuthnot, you are speaking to Walter Cronkite, and you, madam, are a damned idiot."

One of the first jobs a J-school grad gets is triaging the calls from the newsroom's live line, be it newspapers, radio or TV. What happens on the journey from live line to the news editor is an expression of what was wrong with traditional media, and why Ms. Obie Joe has trouble shedding tears for newspapers who refuse to update themselves to the new media. As in, allowing, and welcoming input from their audiences. The type of derogatory comments and dismissive responses from editors who received the message slips from the live line exampled the 1,001 reasons why traditional media lost their audiences. 

Many authors and publishers snapped on to blogs and other social networks as a way to reach out. But regardless of your format, watch your live lines. Treat those who e-mail you, leave comments, and generally reach out with a welcome mat. Many times their feedback and accolades will fuel your own literal lifeline. Granted, sometimes the life lines -- comments, generally -- do get out of hand. The battles among commenters have been brutal for Stephenie Meyer, Haven Kimmel and Jacquelyn Mitchard, and each has either frozen or shut down the participatory parts of their sites in the past year.

But if you are willing to start your line, push that Cronkite button. Gently.

Why Friends & Family need to show the love

In the attic of the former home of the Obie Joe, sat a box of PartyLite candles. At double the normal retail cost, Ms. Obie Joe bought these hallowed candles because she was at a party of friends all engaged in loving the PartyLite.

There's been a long-running debate whether books and/or authors would benefit from traditional advertising. Arguments against include: too difficult to do justice to a book's complexity; book audiences are too niche to risk wide advertising; ads depend on namebrands, only known quantities like Jodi Pincoult go. Plus, advertising is not the same as marketing, which are the tasks most suited for books. Think. When was the last time you saw an ad -- in any of the standard media -- for Avon, Amway, Personal Chef? These brands depend solely on the exploitation, uh, invitation, skills of friends and families. This method is not to be underestimated; Obama's presidential campaign was cited as Internet savvy. Perhaps. Internet was the tool, but Friends & Family was the campaign.

You know your Friends & Family love you, and your book. As your book premieres, give them a nudge to show it. After you send out a postcard via online and mail about the book, shout to your people to do these tasks:
• Request the book at your local book store and/or library. The request will prompt an order, and in some cases with libraries several copies.
• Boost your book to book groups via local bookstores, or readerscircle.com, and libraries.
• Post a review on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, shelfari.com, goodreads.com, or anywhere that takes reader reviews. Speaking from Obie Joe experience, e-opinions are powerful motivators for a new reader.
• Leave an anecdote, cheer, or good wishes on the author's blog, facebook, or elsewhere.

On the postcard, or flier, help your Friends & Family out by including:
• Publisher's name
• ISBN number
• Order information (if self or small published)
• Contact information, w/ reminder that author is available for any event, in-person or electronically.

And...of course, you can always ask ya Friend/Family to host their own book party in your honor. Promise them a pink Cadillac if they sell 1,000 copies.

Teachers and your book

As recommenders and buyers, teachers are the bunch worth cultivating. Unfortunately, they can be an elusive bunch, reticent to provide direct contact with their classrooms and core curriculums. Too often teachers are asked by authors to do in-classroom presentations; that might work if you're an author with acclaim, but for most authors, a teacher's interest needs to be attracted in other ways.

In a recent BookExpo discussion recounted on Shelf Awareness, several tips on building relationships with teachers, were suggested by Kristen McLean, American Booksellers for Children:
• Subject-based book talks with teacher-only invites at libraries and bookstores.
• Offer teacher in-service.
• Form creative partnerships with local schools. As in, a course on Sioux Nation, taught over span of weeks, involving several authors.
• For bookstores, create an in-store education information center.
• Spearhead buy-local programs using attractive discounts and delivery systems.

Shelly Plumb, owner of Harleysville Books, in Pennsylvania, noted that children's books are her bestselling category for which she has developed several programs:
-- Participation in the Pennsylvania State Certification Program and offering PSCP courses to teachers. (Most attendees are private or parochial schoolteachers.)
Establishing eight types of book fairs for schools, from preschool through middle school.
-- A contest with schools where they earn "book bucks" and a prize goes to the school that's read the most books.

Ms. Obie Joe really loved how the Little Shop of Stories in Decatur worked with parents to originate a book fair to counter the mass market titles and "gimmicky things" offered through Scholastic Book Fairs. That kind of book fair may be modest in profit, but big on profits in goodwill and name recognition among teachers.

What? I can't do book promotion for free?

Book people, because of their affection for literature and ideas, tend to do a lot of free work when moved. And that's cool, because many of us are both beneficiaries and philanthropists (thank you, Michelle, for my latest book edit!).

But sometimes it goes too far, as it does in many service sectors. Just because you adore what you're doing doesn't mean you have to tolerate the attitude that it's not worth much.

Bella Stander of Book Promotion 101, sent the apt link of how many Vendor-Client relationships go.

Beware the duck-handled umbrella!

As fellow blue collar workers, parents, and of course, book promoters, this anecdote of a book appearance gone awry prompted much laughs.

The temperament of author Alison Uttley didn't quite match the sentiment of her classic “Little Grey Rabbit” children’s books.

MobyLives, the blog for Melville House Publishing, caught the best part of a anecdote from Uttley's publicist:


"...the release is also prompting some who worked with her to come forth with their own stories about her that are even juicier. For example, in a remembrance at the Fotolibrarian site that’s worth reprinting nearly in full, Gwyn Headley recalls:

When I worked for Collins (the predecessor of HarperCollins) I was detailed to accompany Alison Uttley to the Children’s Book Fair at the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster. She was a sour little old woman, with no small talk, and I was clearly merely a minion.

But I was quite good at publicity, and I’d arranged for everyone attending the fair to be invited to COME AND MEET ALISON UTTLEY. At half hourly intervals the PA system hollered out ‘ALISON UTTLEY!! LITTLE GREY RABBIT AUTHOR!! HERE AT 12!!’

Teachers were whipping their charges into a state of frenzy. Me, I just wanted to sell some books.

We’d placed Uttley on a curtained daïs, and on the dot of 12 the curtain rose. A howling crowd of excited children stormed the stage.

As Uttley hadn’t bothered to listen to a word I’d told her, she was completely unprepared for this. Dimly she perceived an overwhelming mob running at her and with British pluck she unhesitatingly grabbed her duck-handled umbrella and waded into the attack, felling infants right and left.

The kiddies paused, briefly regrouped, then broke up and ran off, screaming in terror. Uttley strode among them, lashing out freely."

Tweeter is the super blog?

In reading the hash tags from the first 140 characters conference, held this week in NYC, Ms. Obie Joe is struck by the possible over-enthusiasm for the Twitter as a building and disrupter in promotion campaigns.

Twitter works not because a new brain wiring distills our attention span into further squashed increments. Rather, Twitter works because, at its best, it provides a consistent stream of information, or with authors, observations that feed into a story. People leave 4,000 and counting congrats on dooce.com when the newest participant is born because her blog has reliably produced content for years.

Online is the fancy tool, but really, people, we keep returning to the same thing used for eons to transfer and translate information: the narrative.

"The fin de siècle/industrial revolution gave us stream of consciousness, the nuclear age gave us post-modernism, and now the information age has produced what? Writers need to experiment with narratives across media in the same way that alternate reality games have experimented with the video game." (@chapmanchapman Ryan Chapman, Macmillan Internet marketing manager)

Use Twitter -- absolutely -- but don't forget the story.

Strategize for the scatter

Everybody's online, huh? You might be hearing that from your publicist, publisher and friends.

Certainly, the range of options seem so vast as to start hitting anything that moves.

Moving the cane to the tip of his boot, Mr. Obie Joe would remind you to not chase, but to strategize. Perhaps your book, or your personality, would not match a Twitter campaign. There are authors who work with "only" a web site. Think through your choices, and then commit fierce. Few things are as disappointing as a blog with no entries. Or a web site with just a landing page. Or a Facebook page with no friends.

A few steps at the dance:
• Familiarize yourself with all tools.
• Determine the typical time commitments for each tool. Twitter is daily, blog tour is intermittent, and so on.
• Use tools to track your progress: how many hits, your search engine position, direct feedback/comments on your sit, etc.
• Coordinate original content. Use you Author Q&A for a blog tour; send a blog essay for a press release; and so on.

Online publicity changes the game from traditional marketing is that you, handsome you, chase the consumer in a way that engages them over the long-term. Not for the one-time product buy. Many of Mr. Obie Joe's people work with us not just to sell their book, but to to build their career so their next book sells, too.

Another way social networks sells your book

There's a general sense that the participation in social networks sell books in a vague, sort-of by association way. Feeding into the "you have to hear it 8 times before you buy the new detergent" advertising theory.

Sure, it can't harm to put a jpg of your book cover on your Facebook, or to troll for other Facebookers who love the same things you do, therefore lining up to buy your book.

There are several social networks for professionals. These are proving to find profitable products for their members. Recently, one of Obie Joe's authors, a physician, was approached to direct a CME course in partnership with Sermo and a respected medical school. His book would be included as well as compensation for his presentation.

TIP: Which to choose first: general or niche audience

When putting together a marketing plan, the first task (besides budget) is figuring out who is your audience. Not necessarily who your reader is -- wonderfully, one could make the case none of us really knows what type of reader will find our book -- instead, what audience most interested in the book promotion tasks. Who will show up at your book reading? Who listens to your radio interview? Don't always assume the reader and the interested party are one and the same.

Why choose one? Why not develop a marketing plan to include both? Well, sure, except an author does risk diffusing the sharpest aspects of their platform, issue, and book. Instead try these steps:

1) Choose your buddies: Niche or General. Remember that the one not chosen will get its turn later.
2) Develop tools, venues and goals specific for the side picked. The Today Show for the General; Popular Mechanics for the Niche.
3) Go do.
4) As you go do, take notes of the places suited for buddy left waiting. In a hotel lobby, see the niche magazines. In your readings, get the name and number of the Polish dancing organizer for later contact for their e-ail lists, events, publications.

Ms. Obie Joe has a preference to pick the General buddy first, because it gives her time to develop new places and tools exclusive to the Niche. But with Fiction titles, it is a challenge to pick General first, unless the author has a killer author platform (hopefully not literally). In Fiction, Niche (the Author's hometown, quirk of personality, etc.) always pushes first.

Which ones would you prefer?

TIP: Coordinate your content

For those authors struggling to prioritize pertinent bits of information as they use online tools to promote their book. Mr. Obie Joe knows it's tough to figure ut which ones go first, and which ones can go monthly (never your blog, right?).

Some online tools make better matches than others:
• Twitter to FaceBook: Same amount of words, and same depth of content. Perfect for updates from book tour. Just don't forget to sprinkle in a few event photographs.
• MySpace video to YouTube: similar audience attention span, and similar stan possibilities on topics.
• Your blog's podcast to your own channel on Vox or YouTube. When you build your own channels via YT and Vox, you build audiences based on people who like your audio style. Plus, you can mix in excerpts from other artists to explain a larger point.
• Eons to Gather. GoodReads picks to Shelfari.

In these efforts, you're not only connecting with an increasing audience, you're also pushing up your Google spot, both for your book, and your name as an author.

Ha, ha, ha. Ahem.

"We'd like to publish it, do nothing to promote it, and watch it disappear from the shelves in less than a month."

TIP: Cloud compute your next novel?

The shazam speed of success for the free, online publishers like scribd.com and issuu.com have inspired many to post full copies of their zines, manuscripts and books.

There's another reason why authors looking to increase their fan base might consider using these sites. Say you're a writer fascinated by the Gilded Age ruins, you can bet many share your fascination (like Ms. Obie Joe). Use these sites to post elements of your book in progress. Think of it: what could be cooler than posting the latest finding in your research? For nonfiction books, posting research bit by bit is akin to Dickens' posting chapter by chapter the rivets of Nicholas Nickleby.

For finished books, authors should definitely post a chapter of their book, as well as post links or aspects of other works that influenced your book.

When musicians and singers are interviewed about their latest work, the first question is often about the influences of other artists and other art. Given that books and authors are suspectible to even more infuences, here's your chance to draw in your fans with similar connections.

(Obie Joe's preference? Both sites are easy to use, but scribd.com is a bit better suited for visual, and has more visitors to boot).

Twasn't the name, it was the game

One of the more unique aspects of the hit book, The Convenant with Black America, edited by Tavis Smiley, are its back pages. These resemble the last pages of a program from a high school graduation: pages and pages of names. Each name resembles a thumbprint of someone who helped to include valuable, and from the ground up, stories in the book. People contributed through many forums: church seminars; black literature study groups; writer edit sessions and political discussion coffees.

Thanking each contribution in the book may have been seen as unusual or generous, but Ms. Obie thinks it was a savvy investment. Including each name inspired each name to become a champion of the book. After the book was published, each contributor was encouraged to host a Convenant party. Across the country, there were hundreds of these parties to discuss the ideas, and to buy the book.

While this book was certainly one of the biggest successes for small press Third World Press, publisher Haki Madhubuti must have sensed the buy-in was already there. In its first month of release, over 300,000 copies were sold.

For those authors and publishers, particularly in nonfiction, make sure to not forget your first customers: those in the book. Some audiences are right there waiting; look no farther than your own address book.

Her name means commerce

She's two sides of same coin. Found without request. Runs on sweetheart setting until wrong car or any dog crosses her path. Shares her couch with generosity. Misunderstood like the rest of us.

TIP: Candy makes them stickier

On one of those ridiculous hot days when brains are sodden, Ms. Obie Joe listened to campaign staffers worried about getting coverage of the next evening's rally.

"Send every newsroom a cake. Preferably sheet cake, with the time, date and place spelled out in perfect icing," said Ms. Obie Joe.

"Cake? What does cake have to do with moving them tomorrow?," said the earnest staffer.

Ms. Obie Joe, having worked in many a newspaper newsroom, knew the arrival of cake shook the staff awake. We'd descend upon the cake, curious or hungry, and before the knife sliced many pieces, you can bet a few of us knew the date, place and time (as picked up a copy of the news release).

True, the cake trick worked a bit more effectively for a nonprofit's event rather than a political event (maybe a bottle of whiskey would be better suited), but the truth is the same. Sweets are sweet.

At your next book signing, put out a bowl of candy -- make sure it's the good stuff, not the Dollar Store lead filled junk -- and watch as many more stop by to take a look at the book. Our advice may seem simple, but it's an extension of how each Author can approach any event: with an appreciation for the fans and those yet to be your fans.

TIP: Share your bookstore's blog

One of the more wonderful parts of generating content to connect with your audience -- via blogs, e-mail newsletters, podcasts and perhaps all of the above -- is the creativity to find new homes for the same content. Trading with other author blogs is one standard source, but Ms. Obie Joe counsels to find unconventional, or un-obvious (can that be a new word?), source:

• Bookstores blogs. In anticipation of her appearance at Book Passage bookstore in California, Meredith Norton (Lopsided: A Story About Breast Cancer) posted an entry not entirely relevant to her book, but very much so to Meredith's world view.
• Expert blogs: Given the specificity of his book's topic -- concierge medicine -- Dr. Steve Knope could easily jump from one blog on CM to another (and did). But given that CM is a response to the crisis with primary care, Knope found other places within expert blogs in primary care, nursing, senior health, etc.

More later...it's Friday, and the hours are once again outmatched by the tasks....

Read-aloud words assault?

An earnest suitor, riding on the crosstown bus in New York City, reads aloud to his beloved. While she is besotted with the caress of his words, many on the bus register outright hostility. Why is reading aloud akin to hoisting a blaring boombox on that same bus?

Robert Gray was on that bus, and he shares our curiosity. While the bus situation was a bit extreme -- reading aloud like that is more of a performance than a shared pleasure -- there does seem to be divides in the literary community on standards of reading aloud. In poetry, there is a segregation between what Mr. Obie Joe calls the "slow" or formal poetry readers versus the spoken word poets whose words reflect both the paper and the poet.

Then there the readers, often nonfiction, who depend on a colloquial, barstool approach. Each anecdote they tell seem like a great story. Rick Bragg is like that, though he is also an unusually good reader of his own books, too.

The worst? Those who read with an affected or theatrical voice. Look, unless you have the silky smooth of Chip Kidd, just read in your regular voice. Like the suitor on the bus, leave it at home.

Be an early adjuster: cell phone your next novel

For publishing to survive -- not by cost cuts, but by attracting new customers -- the stories and insights will have to go in places beyond paper and ink.

Why are we book lovers so afraid of new technology? Why is there the sense that another technology displaces the importance of the story? Perhaps the dread comes from the last go-around with a new technology: movies. We all know how well those literary translations worked out.

Ms. Obie Joe has been reading with great amusement of the Dickens-type of storytelling in Japan. There, over 86 Percent of Japanese high schoolers are great readers of the modern novel -- on their cell phones. The novels are delivered, in many cases at no additional costs -- in segments. Interestingly, just as a book's sales shoot after a movie version is released, many teens buy the book version. Not so surprisingly, 10 of Japan's print bestsellers in 2007 were based on cell phone novels--successfully selling about 400,000 copies each.

Mr. Obie Joe was intrigued at the saturation of the cell phone novel; beginning in 2002, the first edition came from by Yoshi who wanted to experiment with a new market for Deep Love: Ayu's Story. The book was an instant success, and beget print books, cartoons, and a film. Each installment is Twitter-length, 70-140 words, with segments timed for delivery several times a day. (Always with cliffhangers, one supposes).

Not only does this prove technological advances will help publishing, these also reach the so-called "nonreader," ages 10-20.

No one is asking any of us who love books to be an early adopter for technology, but at the very least, let's be an early adjuster for the technology already here.

Back from bacteria

Now that each Obie Joe member has emptied out the pharmacy, we're in good health. Returning to the joy of surveying publishing and the promotion therein.

Good Books blog rewards readers

Even though Ms. Obie Joe can sometimes squirrel a skeptic's eye at books of spirituality and so forth, she greatly celebrates the effort to establish niches for readers of genres. Writers and fans of romance and sci-fi have always managed to generate numerous blogs to filter what new books are coming out, and how they relate to other older titles.

From HarperOne, a house that publishes titles in religion, spirituality and personal growth, a new blog, Good Books in Bad Times. As the founder of the blog, associate marketing director Laina Adler said the blog includes titles from all publishers on those topics (including those from self-published market?)

Good to see a publisher interested in rewarding readers of a genre with collaboration possibilities.