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."