On hiatus

The Obie Joe particles and people are booked full, and won't be able to take on other projects until the Summer. We hope to see everyone later this year.

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!"