Hey there.  Checking in from a surprisingly blog-free vacation to direct your attention to an article from the Times…it makes the argument that the book industry is being slammed by people who are buying books super-cheaply on the Internet.  That is…

What’s undermining the book industry is not the absence of casual readers but the changing habits of devoted readers.

Meaning, someone like me who wanted a book would in the past go into a store, or to Amazon and buy it at close to full price.  Now, backlist and many frontlist titles are available on resale sites like Amazon Marketplace, eBay and Half.com.  These are  all places I have not only shopped on, but sold on, rather successfully on both counts.

At first, reading the article, my first reaction was, seriously?  This is what you want to blame this on?  What about used bookstores, which have been around forever?  Why aren’t they to blame.

But then the idea of finding a book for one penny, plus shipping came up.  I never sold for that little, nor would I buy a book for that little, but I guess people are. 

What about you?  Do you think people reselling books online super cheaply is as much of a problem as the Times thinks it is?

Contrary to my previous posts, I do actually get a chance to read books every once in a while.  Of course, I suffer from the horrific problem of not finishing most of what I read.  Especially with non-fiction, I often start books, get into the middle, and then drop off.  The following are 3 books that I am reading and am damn close to making it all the way to the end of.  In order of pages read…

Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp by Stephanie Klein.  So I’m a little late to the party on this one.  I read her first book, Straight Up and Dirty, and am a reader of her blog.  This one seemed to hit a bit too close to home to pick up.  I had to weight wait until I was down 2 stone (figure it out for yourself, non-Anglophiles) to pick it up.  I’m glad I did.  It’s funny in parts, and terribly touching in others, without making the reader feel like it’s needlessly playing with your emotions.  Yes, I can totally relate with some of the things that she relays in the book, but thankfully I am far enough from them that I can look back without too much angst.  I’m 2 chapters from the end, so this one is totally in the bag for me. 

I’m also reading The Mind of Boysby Michael Gurian.  It’s published by Wiley, so I’ve known about this book for a while.  It wasn’t until I walked into Boy’s preschool and saw that the place was full of boys that I reached for it.  What, I wondered, is going on in the world that a school for kids with speech and developmental delays is populated almost solely with boys?  While what they talk about in the book isn’t necessarily for his age group, it is a great way to prepare for elementary school and beyond.  It makes the point that boys learn differently from girls, and that our educational systems are most often geared toward the learning styles of girls.  I’m about half-way through, and it really is enlightening.  If you are the parent of a boy, you owe it to your child to read this book. 

Finally, the book that I really need to sit down and take the time to read properly, not in between bites of frozen pizza.  The 3 Big Questions For A Frantic Family is the latest from our powerhouse business author Pat Lencioni.  His other books have been for the business shelf.  This is his first book that takes a look at business principles to family life.  In a way, this is something that the IT family needs desperately.  When I started reading bits of “Theresa’s” story, I saw a lot of myself in it.  Too much even.  From the little I have read, it’s already caused me to think of things in a new way.  I’m still in the process of digesting the first question, that is defining what makes your family unique.  As I get through this one, and questions 2 & 3, I will be continuing the discussion here.  Once I find the time, that is, to learn about why I never seem to have any time.  Ah paradoxes.

It’s been a hectic week, but I finally got around to reading Sarah Lacy’s article in Business Week about how book publishing needs to evolve and be more Web 2.0.

Initially, I was a bit skeptical.  Having seen first hand her interview of Mark Zuckerberg at SXSW, I’m not exactly a fan of hers.  I read bits of her book and wasn’t blown away either.  But her article has merit.  Some of it is kind of same old same old, in my opinion, but she has a number of points that people in the industry should pay attention to.

1. Make it social – Remember your mom’s “book club”?  Ok, so the only ones I know of these days are excuses to get together with other moms for “ritas and fajitas”, but it emphasizes the fact that reading is a solitary experience that begs to be social.  You read a great book, you want to tell the world about it.  That’s why sites like GoodReads, Shelfari (recently acquired by Amazon.com) and LibaryThing are getting traction.  I love the idea of Facebook apps around your titles, and we’re working on such things now – some groups at Wiley have already launched them. 

2. Take book tours out of the stores – I agree that the focus on “tours” should be less about the conventional “author goes into a store, talks about the book, and then signs mom and dad’s copy and their cousin Hugo’s copy.”  The model of the author event, outside of the true celebrities, doesn’t work.  It died in my category a long time ago, so I’m fortunate in that most authors don’t bring it up in the course of marketing planing for a title.  Work on new models for author tours.  Great advice.  Think social – webinars, partnering with established players like Social Media Club and NY:MEIG, Facebook sites.  Nothing against the corner bookstore, whether chain or indy, but pound for pound, it’s not worth your time doing in store events.  You’re much better off going social online.

3. Create stars—don’t just exploit existing ones – ah, easier said than done.  Every publisher has a mix of titles that they do every year.  Some are from new authors, or on new topics, and these are the ones where they’re taking a chance. However, the bulk of any publisher’s list has to be from sure things and close to sure things.  Of course, we would all love to sign authors who are on their way up, but that’s easier said than done. 

On her other points:

Require as part of the contract that the author blog, speak on panels, attend events. Give them incentives for delivering—say, though Web traffic of the number of followers they amass on Twitter.

Interesting idea, but we’re lucky if we even get an author questionnaire in, much less a manuscript these days.  I don’t see any author agreeing to these kind of incentives.  Authors should want to promote their books, as a part of promoting their own personal brand.  I certainly wouldn’t put this stuff in a contract, but I would be warry of signing anyone who was not interested in doing these things.

4. Go electronic from the get-go – what she’s describing is not necessarily the way we work at Wiley.  Much, if not all, of our development in electronic.  I don’t think our editors would know what to do with a printed manuscript.

5. Make e-commerce even easier – Amen to that.  Increasing the places customers can find out about and buy books is good for everyone.

All in all, worthwhile reading for authors and publishing types.

When I was at BEA earlier this summer, I picked up a few galleys and books to read. 

OK, if you were with me or saw me at the show, you are falling over laughing right now.  I’m well known as someone who cannot pass by a free book.  I have been known to resort to crawling through the show floor while I carry 30 or so new books on my back like a literary sherpa.  This year, I had so many, I had to have them sent back with the convention shipment.  I heard it was, ahem, a large box.  A Very Large Box.  All caps.

Anyhow, among the galleys were a bunch of teenage vampire books.  I had no idea this was a whole genre in the teen book market.   I’ve always said I’m a sucker for a good gothic novel (sucker…get it?).  Apparently, the craze was started by the Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” books.  I hadn’t heard of her or the books before, but those were the first ones I picked up.  I really liked them, and was excited to see the 4th book was coming out this month.  Sure, they’re “teen” books, but it’s not like I get a lot of free reading time these days for the deep stuff, and these were entertaining and fun.

The 4th and final book in the series, “Breaking Dawn” publishes tomorrow, but many bookstores are having midnight release parties in an effort to capture some of the Harry Potter mojo.  Today I read in PWthat ebook customers won’t be able to have their own midnight madness parties – the publisher, Little Brown, is delaying release of the ebook version to 24 hours after the print edition has dropped.  The reasoning they give is a little lame – they want to make sure that everyone has equal access to the book.  If the ebook released at midnight, someone on the West coast could get a jump on reading it online early than someone in the same time zone could get the print copy.

Seriously?  That’s the best they could come up with?  That’s beyond ridiculous.  Why should ebook customers be penalized for being adopters of technology?  Shouldn’t they be able to sit at home and download their hot new book at the time others have access to it?  Even my West coast peeps would agree wtih that one.  Not only should they have not done that, they should, in my opinion, have given ebook customers a 24 hour or more ADVANCE on purchasing.  Why not?  Don’t we want to encourage sales of ebooks and purchases of ebook readers?  Hachette, incidentally my least favorite employer ever, did say that they would try to manage these situations more efficiently in the future, but you have to wonder why they overthought this and managed to piss of all the Kindle, Sony eReader and other customers out there. 

Me, I’ve got a copy coming to me from my local non-chain bookstore.  Just hope I can find some spare time this weekend to read it.

Being on the Blog to Book panel was more amazing than I could imagine. I was so nervous, but it seemed to go well. I’m writing this from the closing keynote where I’m half listening, half reading Tweets about what people thought of the session. The response was amazing, overwhelming, and most humbling.

For those who could not attend, you were missed. But you can view the transcript thanks to a very thoughtful live blogger.

For those visiting my site after the session, welcome.  This is a rather eclectic blog that isn’t necessarily all things to all people, but if you look at the tag cloud and the blog roll, you’ll probably find something that you’re looking for.  If you have a question I didn’t answer, ASK IT IN THE COMMENTS SESSION!  75 minutes have never went by so quickly, and I know we didn’t cover half of what we wanted to.  We did get some really good questions so I hope people found it useful.

We’re just about one week, make that 7 days from BlogHer…and it’s time to get moving!

As you may know from my incessant blogging on the topic, I’m going to be speaking at BlogHer.  Not only that, I am moderating the panel.  Which means I have a good reason for the rash I just broke out into. 

But never fear, because as you can see from the description below, I have what has to be the coolest panelists hitting this session with me…

Yes, it has been a long time between posts.  Odds are, it may get longer.  I leave tomorrow for BookExpo, and am frantically trying to get everything done that needs to be done when you are staring down 2 weeks out of the office, plus 2 employee’s maternity leaves that are fast approaching. 

For those who wonder about these kind of things, here are the authors that will be at our booth at BEA.  We’re doing BlogTalkRadio interviews during the show, and I will post links for those who want to listen to the interviews live…

• Hugh Hefner, with his three Playmate “Girls Next Door”, Holly, Bridget and Kendra
• Steven Watts, author of “Mr Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream”
• Recording artist and former Eagle, Don Felder (Heaven & Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001))
• Editor-in-Chief of Bon Appetit Magazine, Barbara Fairchild (Bon Appétit: Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook); 
• Career Specialist Joyce Lain-Kennedy (Job Interviews for Dummies)
• Erin Manning (Portrait and Candid Photography: Photo Workshop)
• Award winning filmmaker Brian Michael Stoller (Filmmaking For Dummies)
• eBay queen Marsha Collier (Starting an eBay Business For Dummies)
• former US Attorney David Iglesias (In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration)
• author Peter Economy (Writing Children’s Books For Dummies)
• Marty Brounstein (Communicating Effectively for Dummies)
• Etiquette expert, Sue Fox (Business Etiquette for Dummies)

Audio for the shows can be found at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Wiley

Combine that with Dr. Ruth’s 90th birthday party, many meetings with publishing partners and authors, and trying to find time to see “Sex and the City: The Movie”, well, you’ve got quite a week going.  Not to mention I leave LA on Sunday morning to head to Orlando to work at our booth at Microsoft TechEd.  Then, I return, and make a trip to Indianapolis for a Dummies meeting.  Sleep?  That’s for wimps, and the airplane.

If you are in LA for BookExpo, please stop by the Wiley booth at the show (947/1047) and say “hi”.  I’ll be the frazzled chick in the Digital Lifestyle t-shirt. 

My session is posted!  On the 2008 BlogHer conference session list, you can see the Blog to Book session is listed.  So, this means I might have to do some thoughtful research and planning, like all good speakers are supposed to do.

So I turn it over to you.  If you are thinking of writing a book, what types of questions would you want to ask someone in publishing?  What would you like me to talk about?  How to get an agent, do you need an agent, what are editors looking for?  If you have written or are currently writing a book, what would help you then?  How to work with marketing and your editor on promotion?  What are the 5 things every author should be doing to promote their book?  Let’s start the conversation now, so come July when I am in full-on panic/sweat mode, I have some good stuff to work with. 

Cover designers may loathe this type of activity, but Bantam is doing what Wiley did some months back on our blogs and asking the public to choose a new cover for their upcoming book Super Crunchers.  Publishers are doing this as a way to quickly engage readers and buyers (I saw an ad for this on Shelf Awareness) and generally it does work.  I’d hate to think of someone NOT buying the book because his or her favorite cover wasn’t picked, but hopefully customers will still feel attachment to the title.  Me, I’m voting for red, because I’ve seen too many white cover business books fading out on the shelves, and want to declare that trend over. 

I saw a tweet this morning from @garyvee, aka Gary Vaynerchuk, where he was thinking about new ways to promote his book. Gary’s a master of social media marketing, and I’ve been looking forward to reading his book for a while.   Instinctually, I went to his Amazon listing page (ok, so I maybe I was just looking to see when my pre-order would ship). and saw a couple of things that he could do immediately to help sales of his book.

1. Search inside – no, the book hasn’t shipped yet, so that’s probably why. But this is a must for any book. How can customers virtually “leaf” through your book without it? We’ve seen this make a noted difference in sales of titles, so he should make sure his publishers have this feature enabled at publication.

2. Author comments – authors can put blog posts on their pages. I know some authors who don’t like to duplicate posts, or want to drive all traffic to their own blogs. Regardless, authors should put some blog posts on their page. It’s as if you were standing at the front door of a store waiting to hand sell your customers. And who doesn’t want to hear what Gary has to say?

3. Better Together – some of these are automatically selected, some are picked by publishers as coop (can’t for the life of me remember how to tell the difference). Ideally, you want the book you are paired with to be ranked higher than yours – they’re getting more traffic, which means more visibility for your book. Right now, the Better Together is probably doing more for the Dornenburg book than for Gary’s.

In less than 5 minutes, I came up with these three things.  If I spent more time there, I would probably find even more.  Well, to be truthful, I work with the best marketers in the industry, and THEY could really do some big pimping here, along with our Amazon rep, who is also aces. 

Every author should do an autopsy on their Amazon (and B&N, and Borders eventually) pages and make sure they and their publishers are doing everything they can on them, in an effort to help the customer and eventually maximize sales. 

Now, off to find a good red zin…