Yes, you do want to sell books.

On your web site most especially.

Most author websites include the obligatory amazon.com button; a few others process to their publishers. For the most part, the convenience and price are OK; the cut amazon takes from your publisher is a dent in what the publisher will eventually grant you.

But there are other benefits to making your site the point of purchase:

• Money. If you buy a standard of 200 copies from your publisher, expect about a 40% discount. That's decent enough for your website sales to clear a modest profit after S&H costs.

• Audience connects. This is another way for your fans to connect to you direct. Especially for capturing their e-mails for future updates on your next project.

• Popularity proof. The best book promotion for your current book sets up your next book; by showing your publisher the e-mail lists, sales and other direct connects, you're drawing out that much more of the dollars your publisher is willing to spend on the next go-around.

For those of you wary of taking on the hundreds of orders, Mr. Obie Joe advises use of a fulfillment house. One of the best, and willing to scale for a few dozen to more in orders is BCH.

Books in the Street

The Book Tent at the world-famous New Orleans Jazz Festival. At this week's NOLA Book Fair, readings in the street, a screening of the documentary about John Kennedy Toole at Snug Harbor, and author panel discussions at Three Muses. In many ways, NOLA native brothers Ronald and Bryan Williams, owners of music company Cash Money Records, and kingmaker of Lil Wayne, learned streetside the worth of selling books like music. Much has been made of lessons learned from the dramatic shifts in music promotion and sales as predictors for the book industry. Use more digital, expand to unconventional venues, reward your fans consistently....with one exception. As access to products collapse their profit potential, music acts can still make a moola by touring. Authors can't, for the most part.

Their first line of the Cash Money Records books suggest the Williams brothers strategy rests with impulse buying. Plus, their backing from Atria/Simon & Schuster should grant decent production oversight and distributorship. But much of their list -- Raw Law: An Urban Guide to Criminal Justice; Justify My Thug; and Pimp, a memoir by the late Iceberg Slim -- trend toward street lit, a successful genre, but not one that encourages fan loyalty. Mr. Obie Joe will be intrigued to see the pricing. Will fans be tempted to spend $10 on Raw Law, or put it to the $35 tour t-shirt?

Love this quote from Vernon Brown, the Williamses' attorney and business manager: "Our books will also be sold at our concerts. When you're out in front of 18,000 people, some will buy books, some not. But right now many of those fans aren't being told what books are great. We'll do that."

Told. Interesting verb. Not asked, not invited. Still, if they've got first dibs on Lil Wayne's post-Rikers memoir, our cash is ready.

Wasting money on your ARC?

An ARC, or Advanced Reading Copy, has several uses. For garnering reviews, especially in media intended to create buzz or library sales, a large scale mailing of ARCs is essential. Most ARCs have the last-to-final edit, though rarely an index or TOC, and a plain cover. The emphasis really is on the quality of the writing and/or information.

For all of the attention on the production of the ARC, authors and publishers often forget the most important step: distilling which publications get the ARC, and which get the book.

Go see the Midwest Book Review, and inhale their excellent list of Pre-Publication and Post-Publication advice, and places to get reviews. Make your Excel sheet to carefully denote the submission guidelines.

If you don't believe in the worth of this, instead of wasting your stamps, just send to Mr. Obie Joe.

Book reviews your own mother would love

So just how discriminating, skilled or objective are the blogger book reviews you can get from newly launched booksneeze? Judging by the Browse Reviews section, fandom seems to inspire most of the book reviews. Categories in children's books; entertainment; conservative politics and Christianity have the most reviews. Many of the books are from small publishers; The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield is the only title we recognized as major.

That said, the number of reviews is impressive: most books garner on average 50+ reviews. Even more killer is the SEO booksneeze does for your title. On searching for The Chronological Study Bible, the first five google results were reviews by bloggers coordinated by booksneeze. It didn't replace amazon.com, but it gave another layer of conversion possibility for a new reader. Plus, there seems to be informal cross-posting with Amazon.com and other sites; each review gets around.

TIP: Make your own audio book

Not every book get to be an audiobook, but every book gets ito be heard. Check with your publisher on their policy on excerpts, and if their definition of "fair use" is generous, get out the iPod. Make an excerpt of your book as an audio feature on your site; a podcast on another site; or a download via iTunes. If you're comfortable with your voice, go do that, but if not, look for a volunteer via your local college drama departments. Why do the audio and not just the book trailer? Because an audio recording is stickier in the task of familiarizing a new reader to your work. (And definitely check out LibriVox for free recording software, hundreds of free downloads of books in the public domain.)

Ready for the Fall.

Obie Joe Media is ready for new business. Just in time for the August slow, and the Fall feast.

Give us a call. Let's catch up. Truly, Obie Joe Media is eager to hear what's new with your book. 

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!"

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.)