Novelists: Beware

If you're a novelist, perhaps this isn't the blog to read today. This is not the good news or encouragement you're probably hoping to find.

Nonetheless, it still may be worth knowing.

According to Fairfax Digital's The Age, novelists might want to focus more on achieving fame than on the quality of their work. According to that publication, The British Sunday Times recently tried an experiment in which they sent off the first chapter of a prize-winning novel penned by the 2001 Nobel prize winner for literature -- changing only the author's name and the names of the characters -- to 20 literary agents and publishing companies. All of them passed on the opportunity to publish the novel.

If the work of a Nobel prize winner isn't good enough to make the cut, then what chance does your novel have of taking New York publishing companies by storm?

Still, novelists write, and still, they submit their manuscripts to major publishing houses, and it's a good thing they do. We need to read great novels the way we need to see great paintings.

And, by great novels, I'm afraid I don't mean the work of a few famous romance or crime authors whose names are far larger than their gifts for creating prose. I mean novels that are created by fresh voices and talented people whose perceptions, ideas, and life experiences beg to be shared with the rest of us.

So novelists: keep writing, and keep submitting, and keep hoping. But please don't take rejection personally, and don't ever succumb to the temptation to believe you're unworthy just because the movers and shakers in the publishing community told you so. Their feedback is unhelpful because their credibility is suspect, as the British Sunday Times has proved.


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity, fiction, novels, novelists

For Some, Words Don't Count

I was born in 1963. Everything I know about World War II, and about the Holocaust, I learned from other people's words.

Now Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad requires more than people's words to prove that the Holocaust happened. (In case you've missed the story, you can read it here.)

One has to assume that, if books aren't sufficient proof of the horror that occurred, and if the testimony of survivors is untrustworthy, and if films and photos are inadmissible, then nothing short of a lightning bolt -- or perhaps a trip via a time machine back to 1930's Europe -- will constitute evidence of the holocaust for Mr. Ahmadinejad.

For some people, words just don't count.

Besides words, though, what do we have?

For Some, Words Don't Count

I was born in 1963. Everything I know about World War II, and about the Holocaust, I learned from other people's words.

Now Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad requires more than people's words to prove that the Holocaust happened. (In case you've missed the story, you can read it here.)

One has to assume that, if books aren't sufficient proof of the horror that occurred, and if the testimony of survivors is untrustworthy, and if films and photos are inadmissible, then nothing short of a lightning bolt -- or perhaps a trip via a time machine back to 1930's Europe -- will constitute evidence of the holocaust for Mr. Ahmadinejad.

For some people, words just don't count.

Besides words, though, what do we have?

For Some, Words Don't Count

I was born in 1963. Everything I know about World War II, and about the Holocaust, I learned from other people's words.

Now Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad requires more than people's words to prove that the Holocaust happened. (In case you've missed the story, you can read it here.)

One has to assume that, if books aren't sufficient proof of the horror that occurred, and if the testimony of survivors is untrustworthy, and if films and photos are inadmissible, then nothing short of a lightning bolt -- or perhaps a trip via a time machine back to 1930's Europe -- will constitute evidence of the holocaust for Mr. Ahmadinejad.

For some people, words just don't count.

Besides words, though, what do we have?

For Some, Words Don't Count

I was born in 1963. Everything I know about World War II, and about the Holocaust, I learned from other people's words.

Now Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad requires more than people's words to prove that the Holocaust happened. (In case you've missed the story, you can read it here.)

One has to assume that, if books aren't sufficient proof of the horror that occurred, and if the testimony of survivors is untrustworthy, and if films and photos are inadmissible, then nothing short of a lightning bolt -- or perhaps a trip via a time machine back to 1930's Europe -- will constitute evidence of the holocaust for Mr. Ahmadinejad.

For some people, words just don't count.

Besides words, though, what do we have?

Online Newspapers vs. Real Newspapers

Some would say that a newspaper story isn't an actual newspaper story unless it appears in the "real" version of the newspaper. I disagree.

So would Adam Palmer, author of a 2001 book called Something About Nothing. You can read the story here.

A Wisconsin-based newspaper ran a story about Palmer. Someone posted a link to the story on fark.com, a Web site with a cult following. That link stayed active for two days, and 12,000 visitors clicked on it which was a book promotion coup for Palmer and his five-year-old book.

Now Something About Nothing is poised to receive even more publicity from other media outlets, and Palmer is hoping to see some good news on his next royalty statement -- and all because of some online book promotion that has no real-world counterpart.

I'm sold on the value of online-only newspaper articles. Are you?

Technorati tags: online publicity, online promotion, book promotion, book publicity

Coffee, Tea, or Books?

There are three kinds of people in this world: those who love Starbucks, those who do not love Starbucks, and those who may or may not love Starbucks . . . but still hope to sell their books there. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Starbucks is moving beyond musical CDs (Dylan, anyone?) to promote books and movies.

Is anyone buying books these days?

Yes, it would seem so. According to the same article, Borders' book sales rose by 6 percent in the fourth quarter.

Did someone postulate that ebooks would one day render "real" books -- the kind you had to kill some trees to produce -- obsolete? Or that most Americans are just too busy, or too stupid, to open up a book these days? Not so fast. Apparently, some people are still looking for a good read in a clean, well-lighted place. And soon, I'm glad to report, they'll be able to find some possibilities at their local coffee shop.


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity

To Refund or Not to Refund. That Is the Question.

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm becoming gleeful over the "A Million Little Pieces" saga. Update: contrary to recent reports, Random House will not offer refunds to customers who have bought copies of James Frey’s memoir directly from the publisher. Plus, if they were offering refunds (which, once again, they are not), those refunds would be given only to nonexistent customers -- or at least, I have to assume the customers are nonexistent since I've never met an actual person who bought a book directly from Random House or any other major publishing house.

For anyone who's similarly enjoying the story of the memoir that isn't, do check out Jackie Michard's blog entry, called "MISS WINFREY REGRETS" where the "MISS WINFREY" in queston is the Oprah Winfrey who phoned into the Larry King Live television show on CNN last night to defend her book club pick. Here's the story on that.

I strongly suspect someone will get another book out of this whole thing before the "A Million Little Pieces" concludes.


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity

Bad Book Reviews -- Bad PR

In keeping with yesterday's theme (about whether any book promotion is bad book promotion), I'd offer up two bad book reviews from today's Boston Herald. If you'd rather not read the entire article, I'll offer up the title, anyway: These words of wisdom are more likely to make you laugh. I think you get the point. In the event you want to see the reviews for yourself, click here.

Talk about a roller coaster for authors. First you get the good news from the Boston Herald's book review editor ("your book is slated for review on Wednesday"), and then you click on the review and -- wham! The reality may be that not many readers will rush out to buy a self-help book at which everyone is snickering. Or, if they do, they won't be excited about reading it in public for awhile.

Which brings us back to the question of whether any PR is bad PR. In the case of book reviews, I'd have to believe the answer is: yes. A book review can go a long way toward convincing readers that someone, somewhere, is taking your book seriously. That's a good thing.

On the other hand, a scathing book review can have the same effect on book sales that you'd expect an awful movie review would have on ticket sales. Have you run into anyone, besides a long-suffering movie reviewer who had no choice in the matter, who actually caught Ben Affleck's flick, "Gigli?" Me either.


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity

Is Any PR Bad PR?

I've been pondering the question since I read the New York Times article about how "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey -- yes, the Oprah Winfrey-endorsed James Frey -- may not be as factual as we were led to believe it was.

Now, I don't have to believe every word of a memoir in order to enjoy it. The jury is still out on whether Augusten Burrough's depiction of his childhood in "Running With Scissors" was one hundred percent accurate, and I wasn't too disturbed by the pending lawsuit against Burrough (by some of the people depicted in his book) as I chomped my way through his tantalizing narrative.

But I do wonder whether Frey's publisher, Doubleday, feels as good about their investment in Frey as they did before the New York Times article. And I have to wonder whether Doubleday feels good enough about Frey to treat his next two books as royally as they did "A Million Little Pieces."

Book promotion is what all authors hope for. But sometimes, authors should be careful what they wish for, because they might get it -- and who knows what will happen then?


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity

Promoting Children's Books

If you want some visibility for your children's book, here's my suggestion: be a celebrity. Otherwise, you'll have to compete with celebrities.

Here's the bad news: Senator Edward Kennedy's new children's book, "My Senator and Me," will be published by Scholastic Inc. in May of 2006. (And you were wondering why Scholastic Inc. didn't offer to publish your book?) Now, don't get me wrong. I'm from Massachusetts, and I worship the Kennedy family despite everything, and so on and so forth (it's a regional issue I can't seem to do a whole lot about, similar to saying "pizzer" when I mean "pizza"). But it does strike me as unfortunate that Kennedy's book will receive instant publicity because, well, it's Kennedy's book, whereas you'll have to work hard at it to get attention for your children's book.

You can read all about Kennedy's book on MSNBC.com, by the way. Your challenge: to get MSNBC.com to feature your children's book. You can do it, potentially, by attaching your book to a news hook or trend. It just pains me to think that it would be so much easier to do if your name were, say, Kennedy.

Technorati tags: promoting books, children's books, book promotion, book publicity, Ted Kennedy, Edward Kennedy, Scholastic Inc., MSNBC

A Book Promotion Riddle

Here's a book promotion riddle. You're Andy Rooney of "Sixty Minutes" fame. You're on the Larry King Show to promote your latest book. The interview begins, and a few minutes into the interview, Larry notes, for the benefit of his viewers, "You can get his book, "Years of Minutes."

Okay, now remember. You're Andy Rooney, and this is your book that Larry King has just plugged to his international audience of thousands upon thousands of potential book buyers -- all of whom have tuned in to see this interview. Do you:

A. Thank Larry for mentioning your book and graciously continue the interview.
B. Chastise Larry for wearing suspenders instead of a suit jacket and diss his mother.
C. Scowl and diss your own book by saying: "You can't get it anymore. That book sold about nine copies."

The answer to the riddle, naturally, is C. No, seriously. Talk the viewers out of buying your book. That's the actual answer to the book promotion riddle.

If you don't believe that Andy Rooney would do such a thing (and I'm convinced his publisher doesn't believe it yet, either), then do click on the transcript for the Friday, January 6 Larry King Live television interview.

Authors often ask me how they should handle themselves during interviews. I provide some tips for successfully negotiating an interview, to which I would now add the following.

Note the mistake that Andy Rooney made last night and never, ever make it. Never, ever do what Andy Rooney did on the Larry King Live show last night. Just never, ever do it.


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity

Authors: Are You Blogging Yet?

You should be blogging, if you're not already. So says the recently converted book promotion specialist -- yours truly. I've been preaching my "blogging for book promotion" mantra for weeks, but now I can cite a couple of influential blogging supporters: The New York Times and Amazon.com. When the New York Times and Amazon.com tout blogging for authors, you know it's something you should look into.

A client of mine, Joe Vitale ("Mr. Fire"), just launched a blog for his latest book, Life’s Missing Instruction Manual. You can view his blog by clicking here.

As the New York Times points out, all authors' blogs are not alike. Authors have a variety of reasons for creating and maintaining blogs. Some authors want to disseminate information beyond what's in their books. Others want to drive traffic to their Web sites or create a dialogue with readers.

Some authors, of course, don't know yet why they're creating blogs for their books. They just have the gut feeling they "should" do it. That's the feeling of this book publicist, as well. You "should" be blogging, if you're an author, and you "should" encourage blogging, if you're a publisher.

I think Joe Vitale's blog serves as a good example of what an author's blog should look like. He's on the cutting edge of author blogging. Will you be the next author to create a blog? It's not rocket science, as they say. Visit any of the blogging sites, including the one I used -- Blogger.com -- to get started quickly and painlessly.


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity

Book Promotion Advice from the Trenches

What can a business consultant teach us about book promotion? Quite a bit, if the business consultant in question is Barry Maher, author of the science fiction novel, “Legend.”

In an Apex Digest article written by Jason Sizemore, Maher suggests treating your book as though it were a small business. Focus on your customer' needs, and promote what you have to offer them.

To paraphrase Maher, the best book promotion is a satisfied reader. If it works for Maher and his book, "Legend," it will probably work for yours.


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity

Start to Promote Your Book Yesterday ... or Sooner.

Most book promotion specialists advise writers and publishers to begin their outreach to the media six months before the book's publication date.

The truth is, the more lead time you have to promote your book, the better off you may be. And it's never too early to start marketing your book ... even if it hasn't been written yet.

Here's a very clever book marketing plan that I came across yesterday. It's slated to begin well before even a word of the book it's supposed to promote has been penned.

The strategy goes like this:

Create a Web site, bring people to it, earn at least a million dollars through the Web site ... and then write a book about how you accomplished it. Not an easy trick in this post dot-com economy, but not impossible, either.

Oh, and these authors-to-be are not lacking in self-confidence (or in credentials). They've already alerted us to the fact that their Web site, Tooxta, will soon be as popular as Google and Ebay. And you know what? I believe them.

Tooxta. Tooxta. Tooxta. Commit that name to long-term memory. I have a feeling we'll be hearing a lot more about it. Stock tips, anyone?


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity

In Changing Publishing Times, Oprah Remains a Constant.

The Canton, Ohio Repository published a must-read article on Monday, December 26, 2005 called ""Publishing Looked to Internet as New Frontier in 2005." It points out that we'll soon be reading books via cell phones, buying books online one page at a time, and using blogs to promote books.

Book publicists: take note. The world of book publishing is changing.

But, in these days when a book promotion campaign might include opt-in emails and videopodcasts, it's nice to know there's one constant: Oprah Winfrey. Oprah, the queen of the televised book club, can still turn any writer into an overnight sensation. So, for every novelist and self-help author on the planet, an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show will continue to be the holy grail no matter what else changes in the world.

The publishing industry may change and grow amid hype and lawsuits, but it's good to know that some things will remain unchanged. Thank you, Oprah, for giving us something to count on in the new year.


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity

Book Promotion Shortcuts: Are They Worth It?

There are trade secrets in all professions, and promoting books is no exception. But, recently, I've discovered the #1 best book publicity shortcut of all: not taking shortcuts.

Here's what happened. I've been submitting articles that were written by authors for years. I offer these articles to weekly newspaper editors around the country. The editors can print the article for free as long as they include the author's attribution -- book title, URL, and so forth.

But, lately, I've become pumped up by the possibilities of submitting articles online. So I did some research and, ultimately, bought a software package that promised magic: I'd cut-and-paste the article into the software, add information about the author, and hit the "go" button. Before I knew it, the article would be submitted to the appropriate Web sites. All I had to do was sit back and watch the software automatically work, and then check my email to find confirmations that the article had been published online.

Easy? Not very. It took me about 7 hours to set up the software so it would work. Then, once I'd taken another hour or so to carefully review the software, I realized that I could not successfully use the software to publish articles by various authors. In other words, I could use the software to submit my own articles online, but not my clients' articles.

I was not feeling good about the software at that point. Still, I conducted a test of the software using one of my articles to see whether the software would be useful to me at all. At least, then, I could recommend it to my clients. Almost immediately, the confirmations did start to come into my email box. This was good, so I checked each one of the sites that claimed to have published my article.

It's a good thing I checked, because here's what I found. In no case (so far) was the article published correctly. The article, as published, was either completely missing the appropriate attribution, or -- in a couple of cases -- it was a blank page that contained only a title (no text and, mercifully, no attribution). I'm assuming the software uploaded my information to the wrong fields, but since I'm not a programming expert, I don't know for certain what went wrong.

I only know that the software test proved one thing: Book promotion shortcuts can be counterproductive. This particular experiment cost me the price of the software and a great deal of embarrassment. I'm certainly not recommending it to my clients.

So, you see, there are valuable book publicity tricks and tools of the trade out there, but the old wisdom applies. If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Avoid the snake oil, and invest your time in money in those book promotion strategies that have been proven to work.


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity

Support Your Local Bookstore

Are you still looking for holiday gifts? It's almost too easy to order a book online these days, or to stop at one of the chain bookstores while you're in the mall.

But here's my thought for the day: if you need another holiday gift, how about buying it at your local bookstore? You'll feel good about supporting an independent bookseller, and your gesture might repay you many times over.

Independent booksellers make independent decisions. Thus, they're more likely to buy your book or set up a signing for you than a chain bookstore would be. Enjoy the holiday, and buy wisely -- and pragmatically.


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity

The More the Publishing Industry Changes . . . The Fewer Changes We See

Does the world need another literary agent? Well, we have one, thanks to the changing face of the publishing industry. Laurence Kirshbaum, the former chairman and chief executive of the Time Warner Book Group, has walked away from his prestigious position at a mainstream publishing house to pitch book projects to . . . well, other mainstream publishing houses. Here's the story.

I'm just wondering why changes in the publishing industry often seem to lead us back to our starting point -- more literary agents, more submissions to mainstream publishing houses, more waiting for advances and hoping for royalty checks, and more trying to entice publishers to promote books they often don't even care about.

Why do so many unpublished authors ask me to create a book promotion plan that they'll use to impress literary agents who might then agree to pitch their books to mainstream publishing houses wo that maybe, someday, their books will see the light of day? (I'll do that for you, if you insist, but it may not be the best idea because presenting an independent book publicist's promotion plan to a mainstream publisher may discourage that publishing company from conducting its own in-house PR campaign for your book.)

Why can't we see that, since the times are a'changing, we can change, too? We don't have to jump through the same old publishing industry hoops as we did a few years ago.

We don't need a literary agent, and we don't need a publisher.

We can want to work with a literary agent. We can want to work with a publisher. But we're not forced to do so.

We have the choice to self-publish.

I'm not talking about vanity publishing or working with one of the nondiscriminating P.O.D publishing companies.

I'm talking about becoming the publisher of your own book: getting your own ISBN and Library of Congress numbers, hiring your own production team, hooking up with a distributor, marketing and promoting your book, and taking on all the financial risk yourself -- and making all the key decisions about your book. What could make more sense than that?

Okay, I know that not every author wants to be a publisher, and for that reason, not every should be a publisher. Also, I rarely turn down the opportunity to promote an interesting book that's published by a prestigious house, so I fully understand why an author would accept an attractive advance from a renowned New York-based publisher.

But for those who are seeing the changes in the publishing industry and still feel forced to do things in the same old way to avoid the stigma of self-publishing, please get over it. Distributors, the media, and potential book buyers really will take your self-published book seriously if it's worthy of their time and attention. You don't have to have a mainstream publishing company's imprint on your book anymore. There are other, and often more lucrative, options for you. Feel free to explore them.


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity

There's Nothing Like the Face . . . of a Publisher Eating a Candybar.

You've heard about the candybar company that's suing Simon & Schuster, publisher of Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire and Utopian Dreams. Stories like this make me wonder whether publishers, authors, and even publicists ought to consider their potential legal liability before they commit to book projects. Perhaps they should.

I'll admit that part of me is relieved that I wasn't hired to promote the Hershey book (here I feel compelled to repeat the disclaimer you'll find on the Amazon.com site: "Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams is not authorized by the Hershey Company.") But that's only one small part of me.

The rest of me -- the part of me that gets blissed-out by seeing her clients' books in the national news -- would have found it deeply rewarding to be a part of this particular book project. Imagine: a book that automatically makes headlines courtesy of a high-profile lawsuit. The only thing that even comes close to that type of "free" (well, unless you count the legal fees the publisher will accrue in defending itself) publicity it is when the pope recently asked his faithful followers to avoid buying a bestselling novel (does Dan Brown owe the Vatican a percentage of the royalties on The Da Vinci Code, or doesn't he?).

Of course, those of us who work in and around the publishing industry could refuse to take on any projects, ever, just to keep ourselves safe from lawsuits. But even that would only offer us limited protection from litigious entities who are committed to creating difficulties where there should be none. For example, just imagine what a company like Hershey could do to a publicist who admits in public that she's just not a big fan of chocolate bars? I don't even want to go there.


Technorati Tags: book promotion, book publicity