Taking a bit of your fans home with you

Before heading out for your book reading/signing/performance/panel discussion or whatever, make sure to pack your Sign-In Sheet.

What's a Sign-In Sheet you say? Whether it's a clipboard with a single sheet, a spiral bound notebook, or an Leeds officially sanctioned and ruled ledger, the Sign-In Sheet asks audience participants to leave their name and e-mail address. Some authors also ask for mailing addresses, but most have found that to be unnecessary. The e-mail addresses are what you want, as you send out news of your next appearance, essay or project to people who already like you. And who already are interesting in forwarding the e-mail to their friends to tell them about you.

There's some controversy as to where to place the Sign-In Sheet at an event. Some authors discreetly place it at the back of the room, with the hopes audience members will take the hint. Other authors place it on the signing table, as the author signs your book, you're told to sign your name, too. Possibly the most aggressive method witnessed by Mr. Obie Joe included a publicist walking up and down the aisle getting people's names.

We recommend a combination: at the reading's conclusion, tell people to please sign the Sheet at the back of the room, or on the table.

Because a connection this magical should never end with just one evening.

Hate/Love Book Trailers

Mr. Obie Joe collectively, for he/she is more than one, have a hate/love relationship with book trailers. Most of them -- as in the majority -- are forgettable because:
• The production values are hideous. If it's not bad lighting or jittery editing, the music is muzak and the featured author uncoached.
• The story being told -- usually of why this author wrote the book -- lacks drama.
• There's no real point to it; the trailer introduces the author, talks about the book, and that's it.

Plus, if we see one more book trailer with shots of the author writing and thinking, well...

Then we saw this new trailer: www.chipkidd.com Chip, wonder man, we want you. We want you to design, write, promote a book for us anytime.

Now, note his book trailer says nothing really of relevance to the book or the man, but damn, if it doesn't make you want to buy the man. Uh, the book. Totally, the book.

Serious conversation about serious black lit

A book is about an idea. Sometimes about one person's idea, but more often, a book contains ideas derived from conversations from dozens.

For black-identified literature -- meaning, books inspired by the black experience -- Mr. Obie Joe has sought to participate in more conversations. Frankly, it's been a tough going; there's not enough of it, and much of it feels confined to arch categories.

That's one reason the Mr. Joe is very happy to hear of the ringShout blog. The kick-off party was just a few weeks ago. Led by novelist Martha Southgate, the group of book sellers, writers and publishers hope to move the conversation in many ways, including a booklist, reviews, and tool kit for authors. (Thanks to fellow Baltimorean Felicia Pride for the tip).

The content is a bit light right now, so just bookmark the site and check back: www.ringshout.blogspot.com

Who knows your book better?

Of course, a decent book publicist reads a client's book. Preferably before signing the employment contract...

So, if you, as the author, ask your publicist to pick out the best quotes or excerpts from your book, you might expect a bit of hesitation. Sure, a publicist knows your book, and what the market wants, particularly for matching an excerpt to the publication.

But, really, who knows your book better than you? Why would you want the task of picking the quotes and/or excerpts to go to anyone else but the person who wrote it?

Are you in the database?

This goes out to small presses, or self-published authors, but even those of us with large publishers might find the exercise of use, too.

Recently one of our clients visited a location of chain bookstores; he wanted to check shelf placement. After checking several possible locations, he could not find the book. He asked a store associate to enter the book's title into the database. No go. How about the author name? Nope. The publisher's name. No go. Not even the ISBN #.

And this was for a book produced nearly exclusively for this chain.

So. Mr. Obie Joe says to make sure your book is in the book. If your book is carried by a major wholesaler -- Baker & Taylor, for example -- then you should be OK.

But to be safe, travel to your local independent bookstore, B&N, and even the library, and see how your book is listed. If it isn't, ask how to rectify the neglect.

Post-book author reconnaissance

Most of us who work with books choose the field because we love books. Yet, once in, it's rare that we read books solely for pleasure. It's not that we don't enjoy the books, but more, we can't quite turn off the book making machine.

A book publicist is completely vexed by the dilemma. Each time Mr. Obie Joe finishes a book, we hit the web to see what kind of book promotion this book got.

Two excellent starting points are the author's web site and/or blog, and the Amazon page. From there, search via google or LexisNexis their media coverage. Then check out technorati and others for blog mentions. And don't forget any presence on social networks like MySpace, and a big fav with writers, Gather.

I know there are writers who cringe at the relentless tasks that can be associated with online presence, and to them, Mr. Obie Joe advises to stick with a decent web site that has a lot of timeless info. points like: discussion guides; Author Q&A; PDF of press kit, and calendar.

Like gold paper

There are many tools of necessity for book publicists as they begin to publicize a book and author. Some are essential: a willing author, cash for the tour; an angle for media pitches, press kits, among others.

Mr. Obie Joe is also of the opinion that books, yeah, the actual BOOK, would be of help to a book publicist. If we have a book, we can send it to a bookstore on the fence about a booking, or send it to a media source we're cultivating, and so on.

Yet given the trouble many publishers give book publicists on securing adequate numbers of either the ARC or the finished book makes Mr. Obie Joe wonder if these books are made of gold. Granted, publishers are leery of feeding Amazon's used book sales, but caution has overridden reason. Recently we had to make our own Xerox version of an ARC because the ARCs had been used by "senior management."

Give your book publicist the ARCs they need, or you can bet that book's worth will soon be worth just pulp.

Blog hunting

One of Mr. Obie Joe's favorite features of Google Alerts is the blog section. After the news stories on a particular topic, there is a listing of blogs commenting on the same. Many of the blogs are worthwhile -- meaning the writers are real, and not phishers.

Plus, many of the blogs are ones not easily found through technorati and other engines, so that's another reason why Google Alerts, e-mailed daily, are a great resource for putting together your own blog book tour.

Handheld book design

Recent talk about Kindle as another entry in the electronic book reader category has given occasion for Mr. Obie Joe's thoughts on the perfect e-reader:

• Include book design as an essential element. Cover design is important, but the flow of the book is granted by the book design. Kindle delivers every book in the same font and point size. C'mon. The technology can't be that much of a jump up to include a variety of fonts, spacing, and point sizes.

• The e-book currently under development by the Library of Congress for their sight and mobility-impaired readers places an emphasis on lighting and sound. Any e-reader should have a variety of sound functions. I know Sony's Reader has it, but not as flavored as preferred.

• Cut out the nonsense with the proprietary approach. Sony has placed a 60-day expiration date on their books; other e-readers have similar "rent-to-not-own" features. One of the reasons iPod took off so surely and quickly as it did came from the merging of content with hardware. Wouldn't it be great if a publisher like HarperCollins (surely a publisher on the forefront of digitalizing its books) collaborated with a tech company to design their own ereader?

• For the existing ereaders, Mr. Obie Joe wonders if celebrity editions might move things along. Just as celebrities boosted sneaker sales, make a Stephen King ereader (black, optional scream button, extra lights for reading in the dark), or a Jayne Ann Krentz edition (purple, curvy, capable of storing way more text than the average ereader), or even an Ian McEwan edition (emphasis on the high tech look, small text).

• Libraries will soon rent out ereaders from the Library of Congress' disability program. Those companies with ereaders looking for their audience would be wise to donate hundreds to libraries for regular readers to take for a turn.

Does promotion sell books?

The universe is made up of mathematical equations. We're all fascinated with the discoveries of formulas, that when followed, point to the desired result. (Which is odd, because most formulas point to more questions).

In book promotion tasks, many formulas abound:
Today Show appearance + PW starred review + "accidental" celebrity endorsement = bestseller.

Or:

Blog tour with lots of reviews, author interviews, and discussion + non-bookstore retail store placement = quirky, decent seller.

Or:

Get book in front of niche audience in variety of settings (media, shelf placement, online) at least 8 times.

In meetings with new clients, Mr. Obie Joe is often asked, "Well, can you guarantee we'll actually sell books if we do any promotion?" Resisting the impulse for the obvious answer -- well, I can guarantee no promotion will sell no books -- Mr. Obie Joe tries to focus on what matters. Which is, we're not always sure which technique gets what sale. Many times a person buys the book from something seen or heard weeks before.

Any book promotion technique seeds the ground for an eventual sale. Just as there are no guarantees, there are no shortcuts. Book promotion is a series of steps, one inspired by the one before.

We do know this: many books become hits by word of mouth, which is tough to quantify.