The Push Behind the Book Blog

Reports of Publishing World's Death May be Greatly Exaggerated

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:17:00 +0000

New York reported last week that the book business isn't going to get a storybook ending and, in fact, may be in line for an untimely demise. Reporter Boris Kachka's piece cites stagnant book sales, big name authors playing musical chairs, and Amazon posing as some sort of sales "boogeyman." Finally, he suggests that publishing might need to turn to corporate America for solutions.

That last bit of advice seems unusual given the tumble on Wall Street that has the government offering bailouts and the word "Depression" creeping into the pages of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. I am not sure corporate America has the solution.

Publishing may be forced to fend for itself and frankly, I see firm evidence that it is capable. Too often dismissed as an industry that is behind the times, publishing can actually take credit for making great strides in taking its content digital and finding new sources of talent.

Consider that in the last decade a single mom from Britain created the next generation of readers when she concocted a seven book series about a boy wizard named Harry Potter. Not only did kids who'd barely lifted a book in favor of a Game Boy become devoted fans, but famed critic Michiko Kakutani called J.K Rowling's work, "monumental, epic and spellbinding." Kids' literature over? I don't think so. Ask Stephenie Meyer, who is cashing checks faster than her vampire tale Twilight makes it into the local cineplex.

It's not just kids' fare either. Philip Roth published his 25th novel, Indignation, this week to rave reviews. And last time I wandered through Chelsea, The Food Network was turning out celebrity cookbooks as fast as new episodes of Iron Chef. Not only can you now buy COOKBOOKS in the grocery store (nice distribution efforts by the publishers who put them right where you buy the food) but the last time I walked in the front door of my local market I ran into a stack of Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture accompanied by a video screen playing footage of the professor's famous final talk. By the next week, they were all sold, replaced by The Shack, a self-published book that was the talk of this year's book expo convention.

And I haven't even mentioned Oprah. Recommending books that range from Toni Morrison's novels, to Dr. Oz's YOU: series, to Maya Angelou's poetry, the woman has virtually reinvented the book club.

Reading dead? Apparently no one told Oprah. And they are going to have a tough time convincing me that it's game over for the book in all its printed glory.

Best Selling Christian Books

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Welch) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:43:00 +0000

If books and their ideas are about influence and making a difference, then sales must matter, right?

Books like Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven LIfe and Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now are revered in the Christian market. There is a magical quality about them, one that every publisher would like to replicate more often. I believe these books share some common qualities that help push their sales beyond the religious market into the mainstream.

What is it about these books that launch them into the stratosphere? For one, they choose universal themes. Who doesn't want to have a life filled with purpose? Or who doesn't want their best life and preferably do so right now, as Osteen suggests?

Secondly, the writers take the time to find a common language that appeals to the mainstream reader, while still making complete sense to the Christian audience. There is no Christian "code", no gobbeldygook, no "Inside Baseball" double entendres and passages that the un-churched reader may fail to follow.

Being able to do that kind of writing is a bit of a balancing act. Those who can pull it off have a great chance to sell a lot of books and make a difference in their world.

Hefty tomes lose their appeal

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:17:00 +0000

Like millions of others, I'm headed for the beach next week. My favorite part of the ritual, other than packing a suitcase full of shorts and flip flops, is finding the perfect books to accompany me on the flight and at the water's edge. This year, my traveling companion is pushing hard for the work of Ayn Rand. My reaction to the lovely gifts of The Fountainhead (720 pages) and Atlas Shrugged (1088 pages) was an indignant cry, "They're so LONG!"

I was, frankly, shocked at myself, and wondering what happened to the youngster who read all seven of the Narnia books.

It appears I am not alone.

Yesterday's New York Times features a piece by Motoko Rich (registration required) which discusses how America's teens are loathe to tackle books, but instead spend long hours reading or texting sound-bite like snippets on Facebook. Lest we attack only the young, Nicholas Carr's cover story in the July/August Atlantic Monthly says readers of all ages, including him, are similarly shunning long format text.

"Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy," writes Carr. "My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I'd spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That's rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I'm always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle."

Wow. I admit that half of me felt better to be in the same camp with Nicholas Carr, but the other half got mighty nervous for the publishing world at large. Carr's piece cites research, ranging from a U.K. educational consortium to a psychologist at Tufts, that says both how and what we read is fast changing.

Maybe it's not all bad news. Maybe it means the epic novel will go the way of the encyclopedia -- published online in digestible pieces. Maybe the next Charles Dickens will pen his masterpiece via Twitter. As for me, Rand is in my suitcase but that doesn't mean I won't be sneaking into the airport bookstore for a copy of Runner's World or People for a somewhat shorter bit of escapist reading while I'm gone.

Book Blog gig widens at CHC

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:47:00 +0000

My new mantra about blogging comes from the phrase Hillary Clinton made so popular -- it takes a village. Or, I guess the truth is, in my case it does.

After nearly a year of guilt in which I struggled to post twice a month, I've decided to take the advice we give our clients every day and figure out a way to post frequently. So, I'm sharing the space and my colleagues graciously offered to help me fill it. "Barbara's Blog" officially becomes "The Push Behind the Book" and will feature the thoughts and ideas of everyone here at CHC and some beyond.

Sara Schneider, our Digital Media Director, will weigh in often about the growing importance of digital media, blogs, social networks, and the online world's increasing clout in launching a book.

Dennis Welch, who heads our Christian Division, will write about faith-based books and what makes them succeed or fail.

I will continue to weigh in on the publishing community at large.

And we plan to invite our authors and others in the publishing community to guest blog on their great books and how they are being received by the world at large.

We’re trying to make our blog more than just a forum for our ideas -- it's part of our effort to educate ourselves in every way we can about digital media and how it’s truly changing the way books and ideas are introduced into the market. Being active participants in this world has really been the best teacher of all.

Media, media, media

noreply@blogger.com (Sara Schneider) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:08:00 +0000

Our authors have been getting some great media coverage recently and we wanted to start sharing it on our blog. We (primarily I, Sara, aka the CHC digital maven) are going to be doing this a couple of times a month, but will post more frequently with big hits come in.

Last Friday night Stall Points authors Derek van Bever and Matt Olson were interviewed on Fox Business Network's "America's Nightly Scorecard." We've just started using RedLasso.com to get clips, and highly recommend it if you can get a beta invite. Here's a link to their interview here. Derek and Matt are blogging and the book also got some nice online attention as well: here and here.

In her June 26 "Ask Annie" column last week, Fortune's Anne Fischer had nice things to say about Steve Little's The Milkshake Moment. The discussion continues on her blog, where people are posting their own "milkshake moments" or (or lack of them).

Finally, last week also saw the debut of CNBC-TV producer extraordinaire Gloria McDonough-Taub's new business book blog, Bullish on Books. The woman is inundated with business books everyday, so she really knows what she's talking about! Our own Jack Mitchell's Hug Your People was mentioned in her inagural post.

Connecting with our community

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:37:00 +0000

I've been attending BEA, the annual book convention, for more years than I care to admit -- I remember when it was the ABA, recall the year it rained through all the outdoor parties in Miami, and even recollect the year that Oprah announced her own book, a deal she famously pulled out of before turning around to be the biggest advocate for reading and books the country has ever seen.

It never gets old to me, spending time with tens of thousands of people who passionately love books -- it's like getting a snapshot of the many talented hands it takes to turn a great author's idea into an equally terrific book.

Dennis, Sara, Lew and I holed up miles from the convention center at the boutique Ambrose Hotel in Santa Monica, a place we highly recommend if you're heading west and have any concerns about your environmental impact -- a very green hotel.

Our convention highlights and a few photos:
**World Cafe in Santa Monica where we celebrated with our friends from 800-CEO-READ (their book is coming out from Portfolio in early 2009).

**We all are forced to live vicariously through Sara, who wrangled an invite to the exclusive book party at Prince's house. We were jealous, but I helped out on wardrobe and at least my dress got to go to the Purple One's backyard and party until the wee hours of the morning.

**Lew scored Rick Riordan's autograph for her son Cody and tells us it was a huge thrill to meet the man "who inspired my son not only to read, but to become an avid reader."

**Barbara waited 30 minutes to say hello to Ethan Canin who was signing his new book America, America. She worked on Blue River with him in 1991 and reports he's still the "nicest and most talented novelist I've ever had the chance to work with."

Our goodie bags -- Sara made her famous toffee and marshmallows and my son posed for our promotional photo along with stacks of our great books.

Dinner at the Wilshire Restaurant with our friends from Gallup.

Dennis and Gallup editor Piotr Juszkiewicz with their selected reading material picked up on the convention floor.

We share a moment of levity before boarding our planes back home -- to the east coast and the heart of Texas.

Good show, good memories, always a great time.

Kindle boasts success; Reader gets my Nod

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:24:00 +0000

Jeff Bezos is welcoming customers to the homepage today of Amazon today with news that the Kindle is back in stock. His cover note (.pdf) on the online seller's site links not only to the company's annual letter to shareholders, which is all about the electronic reader, but also boasts of the product's more than 2,000 reviews to date.

Apparently, the Kindle is living up to its hype - at least in terms of sales.

As I reported earlier this month, I finally caved to the groaning weight of manuscript pages and traded paper for a Sony Reader. And after a couple of weeks, I would say I qualify as a convert, but not an evangelist, for the whole idea of digital book.

Advantages first -- it's light, easy to use, and quick to download Word documents and PDFs. While I have yet to crack the manual (reading directions is not my strong suit), it is straightforward enough to figure out how to pop up the font size, browse through a selection of downloaded files and bookmark a page. I am currently carrying five books around with me and I love the ease of dropping one, slim, leather-bound gadget into my bag. The cover is a nice touch, too, by the way. Earlier versions of the Reader felt more like a PDA, or a Blackberry on steroids. For the book lover, it's nice to open an actual cover. For the multi-tasker, it's great to have more than one option of reading material when you are stuck at the DMV or waiting for a meeting to start.

The biggest downside for me is still the screen -- harder to read than a computer. Another glitch happens almost every time you hit the "next page" button. It flips quickly enough, but often repeats the first sentence or two of the previous page on top of the new page, something that can grow annoying rapidly. I have yet to figure out how to alter the screen's brightness (yes, I realize that the manual must cover this but I have not gotten that far).

I have started carrying the Reader with me wherever I am and conducting my own market research -- looking either for validation that it is the next iPod or evidence that the paper book will never cease to exist. From bankers to bloggers, the initial reaction is always interest. The more technically inclined tinker with it a bit and scan a page or two; the less digital tend to examine the packaging. The overall response -- mostly positive, but no one seems inclined to rush out and buy one.

All the opinions together are probably best summed up by 800-CEO-Read's Todd Sattersten who was in Austin last week and had a few minutes to fiddle with the Reader over breakfast and discussion of his just completed Portfolio book, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. "They just aren't there with it yet," says Todd, whose office holds both an earlier version of the Reader and a Kindle.

As for me, I'm a convert for my work reading, but not sure I will ever feel the urge to download War and Peace. The skeptics say I'll change my tune on an overseas flight. But anyone who has been stranded without a power cord knows, the pages of a book never need a battery.

Publishers Do Their Part to Save the Planet

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:13:00 +0000

The publishing industry is doing its part to go green with two major publishers now equipping its staff with Sony Readers.

New York magazine reported that The Hachette Book Group has distributed the electronic gadgets to its editors and sent out the word to agents that it wanted digital files and not paper submissions. Publisher Jonathan Karp is quoted as saying that not only are they working, but that "people are evangelical about it."

Last week, Random House followed suit, according to a piece in PW Daily which reports that the publisher bought the devices for its sales staff to read each season's titles.

For the high tech crowd, this may seem a no-brainer, but for an industry whose lifeblood is printed words on physical page, I believe it's a quantum leap ahead. I've spent nearly twenty years in offices full of shelves that groan under the weight of paper manuscripts held in the center with a rubber band. Hardly practical, it was somehow part of the mystery and romance of being in the book business to read pages BEFORE they made their way into a book.

But it is clear time for romance to cede to practicality and to the needs of the planet.

My Reader is due to arrive next week and while I wish I could claim it was all due to the noble mission of environmentalism -- I do admit that the major factor in my decision is just the sheer pain of dragging manuscripts through security and onto airplanes during my twice-monthly commute to New York. My shoulders hurt at the memory of my last trip when my bag held one business suit, two shirts, and five manuscripts.

I am sure I will be pleased when my Kinko's bill plummets. Whether I become evangelical about it is yet to be seen. I'll report back on how I like it here in the blog, a very "green" medium, by the way.

A Virtual Hug in the Cold, Digital World (or Yesterday a Blog Entry Fell into My Lap)

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:56:00 +0000

Yesterday was just one of those days. A storm zapped one of our routers, disabling the network and leaving us limping along. Forced to rely on an email system that was less than optimal and definitely not what I was used to, I committed what I can only guess is considered the worst of all technological and public relations sins. Unbeknownst to me, my email began adding the name ROBERT after each first name greeting I typed. Worse yet, it was in bright red font with a single line through it. Something along the lines of "Dear Andrea, ~~ROBERT,~~" Lovely. Just the personal, customized approach I was looking for.

Or not.

I realized what had happened when I got an almost immediate reply from someone on the West Coast, saying certainly I could "do better than this." It was followed quickly by another from a famed marketer with the single word -- "OUCH." Only on these notes could I see how my email was being delivered, with a flaming red errors and mark outs. Ouch is right, although as I went back through my sent items folder and discovered that I'd sent out nearly 300 notes with the same mistake, I wanted to declare myself dead rather than merely wounded.

I tramped off to the dinner table, a grim expression on my face. We play a game every night at dinner, one that I invented after discovering that asking my three kids how school was that day resulted in blank stares and single word replies. Instead, we now go around the table, playing high/low, with each person sharing the best thing and the worst thing that happened to them that day. I was last. When I had reached the end of my embarrassing email snafu, my fourteen year old, who rarely thinks I do anything right, looked me straight in the eye and said, "That's it?" She insisted that I was being ridiculous and only needed to send a brief explanation. "No one is perfect," she huffed before disappearing once again behind her bedroom door. No one indeed.

And that is when, lo and behold, our high tech, steely cold world dissolved. I sent my apology note, praying that I would not be blasted on someone's blog tomorrow for my mistake. Cheery note after sweet email began landing in my box. ABC was particularly kind, with several staffers there dismissing my mistake with a "no worries" reply. I felt more than loved when journalists at Time, Reuters, Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, MSNBC, CNBC, and dozens of others responded with nice notes, mostly saying how they or their colleagues have made similar mistakes. These notes outnumbered the attackers by a long shot, with 10 "no worries" for every one "how stupid are you?" " My favorite was signed with the sender's first name, followed by that bright red ROBERT. Gotta love him.

I must say that I felt buoyed by the fact that when presented with humanity and honest-to-goodness mistakes, even our beloved journalists, undoubtedly deluged by a rain of email every hour, stepped firmly to the plate with reassurances at hand. We're not advocating mistakes and have certainly learned to triple check when emailing, but we couldn't help basking in the nice people out there in cyberspace.

Our author Jack Mitchell, the bestselling author of Hug Your Customers and the just-launched Hug Your People, has been telling us for months that treating everyone you deal with in business with kindness and respect is the best kind of "hug" that exists in our sometimes impersonal world.

The media, apparently, is already well onto the idea. And I, for one, am extremely grateful.

(side note: I spent yesterday looking for a good topic to blog about. My colleague Dennis Welch, who's an amazing singer/songwriter in his other life told me, "Great country songs usually come from trouble - maybe blog entries do too."

Go Digital or Die

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:00:00 +0000

We in the publishing world have come a long way in recent weeks in putting real clout and actual staff behind our opinion that the importance of digital media in marketing a book is growing fast and, in fact, has probably hit what Malcolm Gladwell so elegantly dubbed "the tipping point." If digital media isn't the most important driver of getting public attention for a book, it is running a close second as information is now instant, paperless, visual and ever-present.

Two public relations firms, including this one, and a major publisher have recently announced plans to assign staff to newly created positions that specifically address the opportunities of Web 2.0, the blogging world and all things related to the Internet. While proud of us all, it's not hard for me to conjure an image of the geniuses at the Apple store, the Generation Y staffers at Google headquarters and probably most of our children saying, "What took you so long?"

Sara Schneider in our New York office has moved up to Associate Director and we officially redefined her duties to include creating a web-based strategy for every book the agency represents. We don't consider this a value-add for our clients, but rather a must-have for every project hoping to get widespread public attention.

In fact, we'd already dipped a toe in the digital water by starting this blog in the fall. Its purpose, in part, was to give all of us a chance to experience first-hand how to write, position and create traffic for a blog. I'm certain our first readers were only those whose paycheck I signed. But then marketing guru John Moore mentioned our blog in his blog, Brand Autopsy, and traffic jumped. We attended an event hosted by 800 CEO Read in December and a dozen bloggers there gave us shout outs, and we were on our way. The rules are being written and we, like our colleagues, want to be on the front line in learning them all and embracing the opportunities they create.

This week Simon & Schuster appointed Elinor Hirschorn to the newly created role of Chief Digital Officer, in a move it said "reflected the growing importance of digital publishing to traditional publishers." And in January David Hahn at Planned Television Arts was promoted to Managing Director will as part of his new duties will head a digital division, PTAInteractive.

Just as academics learned to "publish or perish" to ensure their success, we in the publishing world must now embrace digital or risk losing our relevance not only to new readers, but those among us determined to ride the wave of the information age.

Tech Guru Dances with Timing Before and After Book's Release

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:01:00 +0000

When I met first met Roger McNamee, I was working with him to promote his book, The New Normal, which Portfolio published in 2004. Part big-time fund manager, part rock star (well, lead guitarist in his own band), former business manager for The Grateful Dead, and part high-tech geek who carried half a dozen gadgets on his belt, Roger was brilliant and intimidating, with a mind so facile and non-linear I always felt half a beat behind his pattern of thoughts.

When I opened the January issue of Portfolio magazine, there appeared a full page photo of Roger, his hair now shoulder length, standing next to Bono, his partner in Elevation Partners, a fund he was forming as the book was launching -- a situation that alternately brought him attention and held us back from talking to some in the media. Given the fund had not yet been completely raised, it was a sensitive time. We did score press coverage in Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, Worth, and a large feature in USA TODAY, but many opportunities were lost when journalists wanted to discuss the story of a rock star partnering in a venture firm.

The New Normal described the world post-internet boom and asserted the ways in which technology was transforming our world. Roger was, in my opinion, WAY ahead of the curve. He was describing a social and business landscape in which HE lived but most of the rest of us had yet to fully join. As we tooled around Manhattan between interviews, he was glued to one of his gadgets, getting immediate response from friends, associates and even his wife, to his appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" where he deftly delivered a three hour stint as guest host. I sat beside him carrying with what looked like a first generation cell phone, fretting all the while about what email was coming in my laptop, back at my hotel.

The article and Roger's new fund with Bono reminded me anew of the crucial issue of timing in releasing a book.

This is a slippery issue, one that in so many ways is beyond our control. We can't predict when the headlines will suddenly be dominated for weeks by indictments at Enron, when an accounting scandal will spread like quicksand through the major firms, or worst of all, when world catastrophe, be it a terrorist attack, a tsunami wave or a hurricane makes it all but impossible to reach anyone in the media at all.

The upside of timing is that it can boost a book's chances of coverage. Case in point from three titles I have worked on: Hard Sell, a witty and wise memoir by former pharmaceutical rep Jamie Reidy got an enormous boost during its 2005 publication when Pfizer, the company he used to work for, laid off large numbers of reps the week the book was released; There is No Such Thing as Business Ethics by John Maxwell got great coverage in the New York Times when he was interviewed about the wake of scandals at Enron and the big five accounting firms; and F'd Companies by Philip Kaplan scored ink throughout the campaign whenever another dot com venture fell to its knees.

You can't control timing, but you can be aware of it each and every day you're thinking about your book. Read the headlines with an eye toward how your opinion or book's content might be inserted in the news. And if you're reading all your news from a handheld gadget, remember that Roger McNamee was among those who predicted that the shift to electronic information was the wave of the future.

Business Books provide "practical magic" to PR Firm

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:20:00 +0000

This time last year, I wasn't baking cookies, shopping for holiday gifts or doing anything remotely holiday related. I was getting ready for the challenge of my life -- launching my own firm.

I would love to be able to claim that the minute I walked away from a steady paycheck and a job I'd devoted a decade to, that I slipped into the CEO's chair with a flourish. But as with so many things in life, it didn't work quite that way.

I'd say that the enormous thrill of being in charge lasted until about lunchtime on day one. The giddy feeling of accomplishment that came with writing "president' in the title line of my email signature was like bubbles in champagne -- great, and gone quickly. By afternoon, I realized that I actually had to do something to dig in and get my public relations firm in gear. I had to turn my great business idea into the semblance of something that actually, well, did business.

Lucky for me, I had a solid ten years of reading business books in my favor. What's more, I actually got paid to read some of those books that I turned to in year one, when I provided PR support to the authors. This came with the huge fringe benefit of tucking the pieces of wisdom into my back pocket for the day that I needed them. And it quickly became empty-the-pockets time. While I had taken some small steps toward my own firm, on January 1 this year it was, as my favorite-CEO Larry Bossidy would call it, "execution time."

Here's what I learned:
From The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, I was reminded that I now had TWO jobs. One doing the PR work I was familiar with and one was running this thing called a company and involved things like payroll and tech support.
From First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, I learned that I could flout conventional wisdom in selecting and rewarding my team.
From Seduced by Success by Bob Herbold, I learned not to get giddy with my company checkbook when my first clients climbed on board.
From The Middle Class Millionaire by Russ Alan Prince and Lewis Schiff, I learned that entrepreneurs who stayed with their line of business even in the face of setbacks and failures, are the ones most likely to succeed. I also learned to worship Ben Franklin, but you won't understand why until this book actually launches in February!
And in the aforementioned Execution by Larry Bossidy, I learned that the best leaders have the confidence and power to push their plans into reality.

I realize this is anecdotal evidence of the power of business books, but it comes from everything I do and see every day.

Year one has been quite the ride. The end of it finds me very grateful for everything I've learned and with a heart full of thanks for my team, Dennis Welch, Sara Schneider and Lew Campbell, who never hesitated to do anything and everything it took to move us ahead.

And for those of you who also have not purchased your holiday gifts, consider a business book? You really can't go wrong.

Windy City Hosts Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 03:21:00 +0000

I rarely need reminders about why I love what I do. Since the day I was four, learning to read perched on my father's lap, his patient fingers running under the headlines of The Chicago Tribune, I was hooked. The day I could read those headlines to him, we headed down the block for my first library card, a trip we repeated every week until the day I headed to college.

My love of books has never wavered and I've never earned a dime doing anything that wasn't connected to words, first as a journalist and then in publishing.

But this week, I had the rare experience of falling in love all over again. Leaving balmy Austin for the windy city, I was off to my second annual "Pow-Wow", a conference run by 800 CEO READ where roughly 50 people from all walks of the publishing world gather. So nervous about my duty to discuss publicity and marketing, I admit I didn't give much thought to the grander purpose at hand -- the rare opportunity to spend two days with people who write, publish, edit, market, distribute and sell business books.

It didn't take long to get swept away. In a day and time when social networking is the hottest buzz word and "relationships" are things that can happen virtually, it is a rare and amazing thing to spend face time with people who share a passion for books that collectively capture the best business ideas of our time. Gathered together in the kitschy, 1950s decor at Catalyst Ranch. we plopped into armchairs, around chrome dining tables, grabbing sodas from the old Frigidaire in the back of the room, got comfortable and started to learn from one another.

Nick Morgan of Public Words gave a captivating talk about how ideas can go from good to great. Susan Williams, publisher of Jossey-Bass, took us inside her world of acquiring and advocating books as they come to market. Ben McConnell and David Meerman Scott were among the experts who gave a great insider's guide to the brave new world of blogging, while Todd Sattersten of 800 CEO READ served as host, moderator, interviewer and tour guide. There wasn't a session where I didn't see people taping away on their laptops to capture what was being said or waving their hands like eager third graders to ask a question. When was the last time you had THAT experience at a conference?

In a world where cut throat competition is celebrated and civility too often gets lost, it truly was magic to watch people who compete for contracts, shelf space, and media time, willingly reach out to those around them to offer insight from their own experiences that would help their colleagues. I'm guessing that no one left this two day session without learning at least one thing about publishing that had never crossed their mind.

Just as it was so famously suggested that it takes a village to raise a child, it sure couldn't hurt to have this kind of community around when you next release your book into the world as a permanent record to be viewed, judged, bought, and read. Everyone can benefit from a hand at their back and this week, I think 50 people just got a safety net as they go bravely forth to bring us great books.

Thanks to Jack, Todd, Kate, Rebecca and the rest of the gang at 8CR for pulling off a great event!

Bezos' Kindle rocks the book world

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:14:00 +0000

Jeff Bezos, the man who reinvented the way the world buys books with Amazon.com, has started a new firestorm of publishing controversy this week, releasing the latest in a series of electronic gadgets which, by design, could render the books we hold, read, linger over, revist, catalogue and collect -- all but obsolete.

Others have tread into these electronic waters, most notably Sony with its Reader, a device I've briefly sampled but couldn't get too excited about. The Reader seemed clunky and too complicated, lacking both the tactile experience of cracking open the pages of a book and featuring a screen that required some tinkering to be legible. And although I have grown weary of toting a very heavy bag of reading material on every flight and jamming books and magazines in my handbag to kill any potential downtime, I found that I couldn't like the Reader even though logic told me I should. And the bottom line is, when you don't like something, you probably won't use it.

It seems that a trio of improvements to the idea of virtual book are making the Kindle a big story -- so big, in fact, that Newsweek devoted a cover story to it. The Kindle allows the download of books directly to the device without a stop at a computer. It allows one to change the the size of the font, something the over-40 crowd struggling with the decision to use reading glasses will no doubt appreciate, and it packs 30 hours of battery life. Weighing in at less than a pound, there can be no doubt that it will lighten everyone's luggage which is no small feat in a day when passing through airport security makes most people wish they could leave everything they own at home to avoid the hassles of packing and unpacking while lines of fellow passengers sigh around you.

The advantages are clearly there, but will the reader follow? Will it, as Bezos has said, "change the way readers read, writers write and publishers publish."?

While the purist in me refuses to imagine a world without physical books, I can't help but think of my children and the entire generation to which they belong, who have grown up in a world not only digital, but instant and on demand. The other night we dug out an old VHS holiday movie and my youngest had to have the concept of "rewind" explained. Many of us will recall gathering around the television set (minus remote control) to watch those classic movies which aired once a year and were major social events. We can also remember when computers filled not desks but rooms, 8-track tapes were "really cool" and playing with friends involved no screens but things like bikes and board games. Given that all that, is it really so hard to believe that a world without physical books is possible? Again, the purist moans, but the hard eyed realist who barely moves to a different room in the house without her blackberry isn't so sure.

Herb Schaffner, the publisher of McGraw Hill and someone savvy and excited about the digital potential of the written word recently said me, "books are the original portable entertainment device." Clearly, he's right. But Jeff Bezos just may be the man to change the form of those books forever.

Newspaper of Record Discovers Its Inner YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 13:39:00 +0000

I am going to drag out my soapbox for a new discovery of mine, something I would not only go out of my way to watch, but would actually motivate me to watch that stuff called "streaming video" that made the founders of YouTube a fortune when they sold it to Google.

I make a disclaimer up front that I am VERY cautious about playing favorites with the media in any form. Just as a parent never admits to having a favorite child, as a publicist I feel compelled to profess an equal love for all media. The truth is, while I haven't watched a regular sitcom since Seinfeld, I have a new favorite program that is so good I find myself becoming an outspoken fan. That is something called "viral marketing" by the way, and we work to establish it for books every day.

The New York Times recently started showing up on my commutes to Manhattan via JetBlue from Austin. As I settle in for the almost-four hour ride, I find myself from tempted by the direct television staring at me from the seat in front. That particular perk didn't make me a JetBlue customer, but I will tell you that I am now deeply addicted to an offering on that television-in-the sky -- "Times on Air". A joint venture of the airline and the newspaper sponsored by JetBlue's American Express card, it's a video magazine featuring stories from the paper. It launched in August 2007 and was described in the press as a "branding extension" for both companies.

The first episode I watched featured reporter Harry Hurt III, who pens the "Executive Pursuits" column for the Times Sunday business section, attempting to master enough dance to partner a New York City ballerina. Wearing his trademark polo shirt and, in a nod to the ballet studio, a pair of tights and slippers on his lower half, the slightly portly Mr. Hurt could not have been more earnest in his efforts at the barre. His stories are reportage of participation and he has pitch-perfect ability to make his own efforts illustrate his stories rather than take center stage. Subtle, skillful, and dead-on compelling.

This week, I made a round trip to Manhattan from Austin in a single day and I watched the following segment twice -- once in each direction. It featured Times reporter Julie Salamon in a side-splitting interview with Daniel Handler, the author known as Lemony Snicket who wrote the popular children's book series, "A Series of Unfortunate Events." While Salamon reported that her 11 year old son had pleaded with her to get an autograph, which she dislikes doing, she decided to relent. When the signed book arrived on her desk, she opened it expecting to see an inscription along the lines of "To Eli, I enjoyed meeting your mother," instead she found one that read, "To Eli, here's hoping you will be an orphan one day." Asked to explain, the author replied that he saw nothing outrageous in the suggestion that her child would indeed, outlive her. Handler is a treasure who should be lauded not just for the 13 books that brought him fame, but for his offbeat, slightly sinister, and deeply amusing interviews. The segment ended with Handler lustily singing a song about "Lemony Snicket" while accompanying himself on the accordion. Priceless.

The media isn't dead, it is reinventing itself. When the great gray lady is making television THIS good, it's clear to me that while the lines between print and online, broadcast and cable may be blurry, they are also creating an environment where the bets are off, the rules are broken, and great ideas are born.

Commercial over. I'm going back to work to figure out how to get my authors featured on this great new offering.

LINK

Know Thy Audience

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:44:00 +0000

Who's reading your book?

This is one of those tricky questions -- the answer seems SO obvious, but the answer may be more elusive than you think.

Books enter the market in a unique and largely untested way. There are generally no focus groups or beta testers. And while no one would dream of launching a computer game, a new line of low-fat snacks or a snazzy new sneaker without extensive market research, every year 6,000 business books hit the shelves exactly that way -- based on one author's vision, one editor's belief and one publishing company's faith that they will find a market.

Sometimes it seems a wonder that books EVER work.

But, they do ...sometimes magically by word of mouth alone, more often with a long, hard, concerted effort by author, publisher, lecture agent, publicist and every other advocate of the written word working together.

Authors have an impressive sense of mission and perseverance. They are so compelled to share an idea, a message, a theory or an opinion, that they are willing to commit untold hours to putting that message on paper in the form of a book. But somewhere during the deep drive required to churn out 60,000 words on a subject, many authors lose sight of their core audience.

Without truly knowing the core audience for the book, it is impossible to reach them. That spells missed opportunity across the board.

Within the business genre where our firm works lies a raft of categories-- leadership, management, branding, personal finance, economics, and so on. It's unlikely that someone trying to shore up their bank statement will go shopping for "Finance 101" and end up buying "101 Ways to Lead Your Company" instead. And herein lies the danger.

If everyone who dabbles in the stock market is a target market, you should be reaching out to CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News Channel, "Marketplace," Investor's Business Daily, Kiplinger's Personal Finance and dozens of other media outlets designed to appeal to just that group. A management theory book is more likely to score ink in Chief Executive, strategy+business and Carol Hymowitz's column in the Wall Street Journal than on "The Today Show."

This may all seem elementary, but I consider it the biggest blind spot in publishing. And while I am a paid champion of the written word, I dismiss many a project when an author has a distinct disconnect between a book's intended audience and his media goals.

When you write your media wish list, ask yourself these questions

What daily newspapers do I read every day and what sections in those newspapers pertain to my industry?

Where do I see books reviewed or covered that influence me to buy them?

What are the top 5 websites bookmarked on my computer that have any coverage of books whatsoever?

What does my book add to the discussion of this subject?

These questions will give you a realistic hit list for your book, if you can keep it honest. Oh, and discard any of the guilty pleasures on your reading list too. People.com is loads of fun during conference calls but unless Katie or Tom or Paris is cited clutching a copy of your book, the chances are weak that your business book will rate coverage here.

It's all About the Book

noreply@blogger.com (Barbara) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:19:00 +0000

When I decided to start my own publicity firm, my 7 year old son was POSITIVE that this would be a snap. "It's easy," he piped up from the dinner table, "just pick the ones that will be bestsellers!" Sure thing, kiddo. And when I figure out how to do that, I'll probably ditch it all to become a stockbroker since picking those winners is likely to be a lot more lucrative.

Selecting the books our firm will work on for a given season or year is my biggest challenge. It is also the part of my job that I love most deeply and treasure the most. Mine is a life-long love affair with books beginning the day I got my first library card when I was 4 years old. My father signed for it after I could climb in his lap and read to him from The Chicago Tribune. I feel the same way today - lulled by the feel and touch of a book and of the power of words to teach me something or take me into a world which I might otherwise never know.

When the manuscripts begin to come in and the discussions with authors get underway, the subjectivity of the publishing business always hits me full in the face. I love it, but will anyone else? Does this author really have something new and different to say about China or marketing or change management? In many ways, these are the same decisions that an editor faces, although I am lucky enough to see books that have already found a publishing home. That is some indication that someone liked the idea.

But there are thousands of books published in a single year, and I am in the business of working on publicity for perhaps a dozen or so. The books I select will become my sole focus for at least six months and I will live with the decisions and books for each of those days as I work to bring the book to the media's attention. I have learned that every author can deliver a truly stunning and fascinating 15 minutes on their book. This makes perfect sense given that they have generally spent a year or so of their lives writing on this one subject. And then it is time to start reading. If I hit page 25 without checking the page count, that's a good sign. If I am re-reading page four for the 6th time because I am positive I missed something, not so good. And then there are the magic moments, the times I wake up in the wee hours thinking about something I read or even having fallen asleep amid the manuscript pages because it was so good I couldn't put it down.

I believe that nothing - not a charismatic author, a huge marketing budget, or a killer publicity campaign - can actually substitute for the quality of the book's content itself. If I want to read it, I'm interested. If I'm not, I am pretty certain that there is no way I can convince the media that THEY want to read it. Once it passes the read test for me, there is a trio of questions that must be considered:

*What is this book saying?
*Why do I care or how is it relevant to me?
*Who is telling me?

Message, relevance, author credential. Once you've got a readable book that answers those questions, I think you've got a solid shot at finding others in the media willing to write about your book and share it with the world at large.

My son still thinks it is easy. And I still fret about how subjective this is every time I pick up a manuscript. Did I mention that I passed on Bill George who went on to become a bestseller? The only way I can keep from cringing about that is when the best literary publicist in the business told me she turned down "Tuesdays With Morrie." She didn't get it. For the record, neither did I.

Publicity Goes Online

noreply@blogger.com (modernjazz) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:55:00 +0000

The Financial Times announced this week that it will now allow 30 free views per month before charging for the digital version. The last couple of weeks have brought news that The New York Times will be discontinuing its TimesSelect service. And rumor has it that under Rupert Murdoch's ownership, The Wall Street Journal won't be far behind.

It was actually a striking staff change -- John Byrne's recent move from the print world to the online edition of BusinessWeek -- that finally moved me from complacency about personally participating in the digital world and got me to the keyboard to write a blog that I've long considered. While many may feel the world would be complete WITHOUT a blog about how to promote a book, I hope you will allow me this forum --- a forum that is fast growing and wielding more and more influence every day.

To me, Byrne's new role was one of the most striking examples and proof that we as a collective public have gone online for our information. As recently as three or four years ago, the road to the top of a masthead would likely have been the reverse, with someone doing a fabulous job for the online edition of a magazine, and then being anointed to the seemingly more prestigious print version. Permanence and all that. But, Byrne's new position suggests that time has come and gone. A journalist of his position (in addition to his editorial role at BusinessWeek, Bryne was most recently editor in chief of Fast Company and authored Jack: Straight from the Gut with Jack Welch in 2001) leading the face of a magazine online is striking, dramatic and a signal to all that "just" being in the online edition of something isn't so second rate after all.

With the importance of this vast new media landscape widely acknowledged, what's the impact and power of online coverage for a book? It's something I've been thinking about as I spend my days communicating with the media about books and authors and I've come to the following conclusions:

*No coverage is "local" anymore.

You used to be able to hide a bad review in Baltimore, a mediocre radio interview in Minneapolis and a truly unspectacular television appearance in Topeka. Now, anyone with an internet connection and passing familiarity with Google, can probably find these things about your book and a whole lot more. The upside of that is that someone OUTSIDE of Baltimore will see the coverage and that has more impact. The downside, of course, is the transparency. There is no room to exaggerate the coverage or the tone and tenor of that coverage.

*Email is the New Voicemail

A recent study showed that 70% of all calls go to voicemail. That means I've got a much better chance of getting a reporter's attention with a brief (I repeat brief, meaning no more than one screen, ever!) email that makes your book relate to what that reporter is covering right now than I do of reaching them on the phone. As a communicator who thrives on spoken word (please don't ask my colleagues about this), I may not like this, but I've absolutely had to master it. The number of reporters who respond to my email first is easily 75%. I've found the number of reporters conducting interviews with authors via email rather than phone or in person has doubled in the last six months. Sure, it takes out the human connection, but it is the reality of how the media operates today.

*Real Conversations Just Got Better

When I actually do get someone on the telephone to discuss a book, the conversation is much better. Since conversations are more rare, they seem to be more valuable to both reporter and publicist. It's my belief that eventually online coverage will more closely mimic conversation -- a verbal version of YouTube that is something past what we now have in the podcast. Oh, and if I get someone live, I always ask if the interview, review, or coverage will show up in their online edition as well (the answer is almost always yes).

*If You Build It, They Will Come

Back when websites were novel, every author wanted to have one. But getting traffic to the site was much more difficult and unpredictable than it is today. Publishers worked hard to get author's URLs listed in their catalogs, on their own websites, and in press materials. But in truth, unless there was a real reason to go online for something (as was most definitely the case with the Gallup bestseller, Now, Discover Your Strengths, which offered an online assessment) the chances were slim that anyone would find it. Today, that's completely changed with the ease of search engines. So before you even think about publishing your next book, reserve several URLs for your name and possible titles. The value of even one reporter finding it on a Google search will pay for a whole lot of domain names!

*The Next Generation is Digital

An author of mine recently shared that her college-aged daughter declined the offer a daily subscription to the New York Times delivered to her dorm, explaining "I read that online." The average high school student today probably got familiar with a keyboard and mouse during pre-school. By the time they are ten, they want half of their allowance in iTunes credits. They've never seen an actual set of bound books called an "encyclopedia" but instead can spell "Wikipedia" as easily as their own last names. You may say these kids aren't your audience. But guess what, in the blink of an eye they will have grown up and become your audience. I don't think you want to skip them.

For a book and author working hard to break from the pack of the some 6,000 business books published a year, the information superhighway may be the Autobahn you've been looking for. The digital age isn't coming, it's here and it is time to embrace the advantages it brings.

Some notable examples:

Wired magazine's Chris Andersen rapidly countered a very nasty review of his book, The Long Tail, that Lee Gomes wrote for The Wall Street Journal, in his blog, a move that got as much attention as the bad review itself.

Seth Godin, who was among the first wave of authors to harness the power of the internet, began his latest book, The Dip, after watching the idea get firm traction in his popular blog.