BookExpo America is a great place to be if you're interested in anything to do with books and publishing. I go every year because I'm a book reviewer. While I'm there, I try to get the most out of it. And there's a lot you can learn.
It can be daunting. The Javits Center is big and ugly and the antithesis of what a business center should be. It's inhospitable, without access to free Wifi and cell phone service. Women have to wait in long lines to use the bathroom and almost everybody has to wait in long lines for coffee. Food is expensive and mostly unhealthy. Sometimes you can't hear a speaker because the speaker in the adjacent room is louder. This year I looked up and saw sparks and burning ash drifting down from the ceiling of the entrance to the packed room where an Authors Breakfasts was about to begin. Yipes!
And then there are the enormous, crushing crowds surging to meet an author and get a free book or cramming into a conference room. Between the vendors on the one hand and all the publishing-related concerns on the other, I've read that there were more than 30,000 attendees this year — a 7% increase over last year.
So I've done the legwork for you. But who are you? Who might want to go to the trouble to read through these notes I've taken and finessed (just a bit)?
My iPad was a great help here, but, still, these notes are far from complete. If I raise a question you don't see answered, feel free to contact me: rae.francoeur@gmail.com.
BookExpo America 2013
Key:
** Rae’s aside
TW=Twitter
or Tweet
EDUCATIONAL
PANELS AND PRESENTATIONS
TWITTER: RAISING A NEW FAN BASE FOR AUTHORS
Presenter: Adrian McDonald. Adrian works for Twitter. His expertise is in TW
content for authors.
TW is akin
to a global town square.
The
Publishing Cycle goes something like this:
Year 1,
author releases a book. Publisher supports it for a couple of weeks. A few
years pass. Author releases another book and publisher again supports author
for a week or two.
How can that
author maintain visibility during intervening cycles? TW helps you create your
own press cycles. You can put yourself in front of new readers.
Be your
own perpetual campaign. Become part of story, create regular engagement, tell
stories
Gossip
Girl: Author live-tweeted episodes including series finale. Got a big boost in
her following.
“Open
City”
author: @tejucole (great young
author originally from Nigeria and a beautiful novel, by the way)
He
tweeted the bones of an essay in 7 tweets. His subject: The White Savior
Industrial Complex argument in response to the Stop Kony campaign. Atlantic mag
saw this and offered him the space to pose a much longer, more reasoned
response.
Express
yourself in smart, thoughtful ways to get new readers. TW poses real opportunity
for authors.
Creativity
on twitter:
Twitter
Fiction Festival. 25,000 tweets #twitterfiction. 29 showcased participants. 120+ hours of live
fiction on TW. Elliott Holt, an author with a book coming out in June 2013. In
Dec 2012 Elliot TW’d a story of a woman falling off a roof from 3 POVs. Slate
loved this. "Twitter Fiction Done Right" Five mo's before her book released she amassed a large
number of followers. A huge opportunity for authors willing to experiment with
their writing in a public space. Consider it a public experiment.
Key: TW a great place for authors. Built on written word.
Built on voice.
To
publishers: Work with your authors to train them to do these tasks; to create
their own press cycles. Be constantly relevant. Always in the public eye.
Q&A:
Q: What about the TW void, that feeling
you’re
TWing into the emptiness?
A: Engage with an audience. Getting
involved in other people's conversations (via hash tags, for example); engage
with other authors you like. TW replies. Get people used to the idea that they
can engage with you on TW.
A: What about TW Cards?
Q: That’s when you experience media
inside a TW. Video or other visual content is the best way to use cards.
YouTube, Flickr. Results in 2 to 3 times engagement.
Q: Tips
for a good hash tag?
A: Short, understandable, start a sentence
with a hash tag,
Q: Is the
hash tag overused?
A: Hash tags drive larger engagement when
used judiciously. Use them to connect with a conversation. With a hash tag in play,
you are one click away from a larger audience.
More
tips:
Penguin
runs a book club via TW.
Following
the TW books acct – you’ll find lots of tips for authors:
Offer
"tune-in" fiction (set time) for serializing.
Collect your
related or serialized tweets using storify, which allows you to gather TWs into
one file and retweet the link.
How to
build engagement:
Engagement:
retweets, followers, and clicks on links
Engagement:
live tweeting (drives higher follower growth)
Engagement:
Q&A, can drive higher engagement vs. follower growth)
Very
interesting: Engagement not directly correlated book sales.
[**what
does create book sales on TW, then?]
USING GOOGLE+ TO MARKET AND HOST A BOOK TOUR
Lynette Young, presenter @Lynette Radio
Author of the new book: "Google+
For Small Businesses"
This
discussion focuses on Google+ Hangouts. Lynn Young is very keen on Google+, in
part because it’s
associated with such a powerful search engine that puts users at the top of the
list when searches are conducted.
Hangouts
is like a video roundtable where you can engage groups of up to 10 in a
conversation that is broadcast live or later on YouTube. Every Hangout
discussion goes to YouTube. It’s also a good way to be interviewed or answer a Q&A and
embed it in your website, etc.
Young is a
self-described big fan of Google+
2nd
largest social network in world
Has 500
million users
There are
60+ online properties of Google+; she calls it a "social layer"
Almost 2
years old
Google+
Hangouts now an app.
can text,
and make audio and video calls from the Google+ Chat
How do
you find interested readers in Google+?
Search
for groups. You can search hash tags (G+ comprehends related hash tags); communities;
pages, events
Search:
key to G+; she searches for #bookclub.
Look for
tighter niches. Lifestyle specific. Businesses.Women's issues. "Google
& YouTube is almost the same thing right now."
Nobody
loves Google more than Google; their stuff goes right to the top
** She said Google Alerts just tanked. I’ve noticed this with my own
published work. I’m not
getting nearly the number of alerts I used to get. Young says it may have to do
with the fact that the internet has doubled in size.
Google+ finds
things faster.
About 1/3
of G+ users don't use any other social media platforms.
Don't
forget to network with other writers.
(1) Hangout
and (2) Hangout on Air are video chats (10 people).
Hangouts
only visible to people participating.
#HOA
(hangouts on air): broadcast live and recorded on YouTube. Have high priority
in searches.
Here’s how to set it up:
practice
set up in
advance
have a
google acct
log in
go thru
checklist
visit
plus.Google.com/Hangouts to install plugin
join a
hangout
http://goo.gl/UjqP1 — Lynette's cheat sheet for how to get set up and started
Hangout
applications: screen share; work on docs together; post a hangout party
invitation; take meetings with clients
Can do
HOA by yourself. Can have readers message questions and you can answer on air.
Just invite yourself on the HOA. Can bring in people afterward. Think of it as
a talk show.
You can
embed a hangout. A YouTube embedded link. Can use same link to see the live and
later the recorded link, which means you can post in advance.
Can start
and stop using start button.
http://goo.gl/VZCYx
Books & Beer; one of Lynn
’s Hangout video series
Ideas to
promote a book on Google+
- Seek
out book clubs
-
Interview other authors
- Hold a
fan Q&A
- Create
or join Google+ Community
- Look
for book reviewers in your genre
- Run a
live Google+ Event
- Make a
page for your book
- Create
a writer's group
- Do
"virtual book signings"
--
AuthorGraph.com (can do
virtual book signings if you are on Amazon)
- Start a
discussion group around your book topic
- Host your own book tour.
VBTs:
Virtual Book Tours
Make a
one-sheet for VBTs
Create a
landing page to direct readers to view HOAs and video archives
Determine
how much time you can dedicate to VBTs
Reach out
to unconventional Tour Hosts.
You can
have polls integrated into hangouts (third-party apps)
WHAT'S WORKING NOW:
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, AUTHOR PLATFORMS & NEW
SOCIAL MEDIA
Panelists
(they all write for BookPromotion.com):
o Katherine Sears, Chief
Marketing Officer of Booktrope Publishing; co-author How to Market a Book
o Lisa Hazen: President, Hazen
Creative; formerly web dir at Chronicle now has her own web design biz and
specializes in author website
o Brittany Geragotelis, Author
o Lori Culwell, self-published a
novel, marketed in MySpace
www.oriculwell.com bookpromotion.com
Katherine Sears
Booktrope
publishing
team
publishing
formal
submission process
published
122 books. 200 team members. Our most successful title "Book
Marketing"
Methodologies
new, but it's word of mouth marketing. WOMM: family, friends and coworkers best
word of mouth
Pew
internet research: did study, family, friends and trusted cohorts generate the
largest percentage of WOM recommendations.
Goal:
meaningful interactions with friends/family
Women put
more emphasis on WoM recommendations
ID your
target market
- be very
specific: where they live, how old are they, what do they do. Make use of one
or two raving fans
- 3 to 1
rule.
- Write a
character sketch of your reader
- Picture
your ideal reader in your mind. imagine what's in her purse
- Keyword
grab! Go through my book and pick a page and a key word on the page
-Have
discussions. Talk to target reader about what they like to talk about
-Where
are they engaging: pinterest, facebook, twitter, instagram, tumblur
-Modern
marketer: part artist, part scientist
Lisa Hazen (all panelists write for
bookpromotion.com; go there for whole
presentation)
-Use
author website as extension of your own voice. Blog natural extension once a
week
-Julia
Sweeney, her lively website has a lot of short elements; broken up with lots of
energy
-Grethen
Rubin: all her social media and newsletters feed back to her site
-Make it
easy to buy your books
-Press
Room on site
-Maintain your website. Not
keeping site up to date #1 mistake we make
-Same
rule applies to social media and blogging
-Book
authors favor longform copy, which is not translating well for web. But you can
layer down by starting short at top.
-Everything
should circle back to your site. Encourage press to visit your site.
Brittany Geragotelis
**Check
out BG. She’s successful,
she's organized, she gets results.
Got her
start online with Wattpad, an online book community of writers and readers.
Great place to get a fan base. "LIfe's a Witch," her book, uploaded
to Wattpad. She got 6 million reads. 18 millions reads after a year. Decided to
self-publish; The book was up 3 to 4 weeks; PW did article and then the book
went to auction; between 4 pub houses for the rights to the series.
wattpad.com It’s like YouTube
for writers; anybody can post; one of the largest online communities of
readers/writers
**What BG
does everyday:
Facebook
Twitter
Wattpad
YouTube
Pinterest
Instagram
Tumblr
Blog
Website
is the central hub for all of these media
“I
cover all the bases.”
** Each
medium requires a
different voice
Lori Culwell
Every
author should:
-- build mailing list. Collect emails.
This is the minimum thing you need to do.
--
Reputation management is your always your concern.
--
Keyword research:
wordtracker.com or Market Samurai. Do this
search first and then add these words in titles, etc.
--
knowem.com: 500 social media sites
-- don't
be afraid of "free," as in give-aways and free books.
Tips:
Don't
repeat keywords on metadata; search for your topic's keywords and then use them
in a natural way. The best SEO is an organic SEO.
KDP
Select is the only official way to make your book for free on Amazon. 5 out of
90 days. Hard to get it back to paid.
KEYNOTE panel
Barbara Marcus, president, publisher Random House Children
Books
Jane Friedman CEO & Co-founder, Open Road Integrated
Media
John Ingram, CEO, Ingram Content Group
Michael Pietsch
CEO Hachette Book Group
Steve Bercu, co-owner BookPeople, Austin TX
Steve:
E-book sales leave people no reason to come into the store; what's the added
value?
Barbara
Marcus (Random House Children’s Books): How to hook kids into reading? Start with great
content. We depend on retailers who are selling the books. Kids aren't walking
into the stores. We need the parents.
"Discoverability"
is key. Our job is to increase discoverability. We need to increase social
media. We have to figure out how to build the brand so people know these books.
Jane
Friedman (Founder, CEO Open Road, which publishes classics as e-books): She created
a publishing business from scratch, building from the content. “This is an amazing time for
independent bookstores. They can really help with spreading the word in local
communities.”
“Eternal
Wonder,” a
newly discovered Pearl S. Buck ms.
“It’s a clean slate. We bring the
greats back to life. Started with Wm Styron. Now it is the new Bill Styron.
Alice Walker. Leon Uris. We are the digital pubs of those authors. Easier to
reach out because of soc med and technology. We are thinking of ourselves as a futuristic
publishing enterprise: e, on demand, short print runs. Open Road.
Michael
Pietsch (CEO Hachette): The publisher’s job, more than ever, is to get the book heard (marketing,
publicity). Nowadays, with great books, true excitement builds, and word spreads
faster than ever. 3/4 of books sold in US are physical books.
Sense of
community imposed on publishers. Have to make partners with authors. Most
exhilarating time in our business. We're here, books biz is strong, big sigh of
relief this year. Yes, there's a path forward, let's go.
John
Ingram: Not an either or world. It's an either and world (Moderator).
Barbara:
app developers have done especially well in children's books. We (random house)
should concentrate on great print products. We are publishers. And we put out e-books.
Jane:
apps fizzled. We are a marketing behemoth. A Night to Remember. Sinking of
Titanic. Acquired rights. 100th anniversary of sinking of Titanic. Our marketing
is done through milestone marketing. We develop our own milestones. “A Night to Remember” became #1 ebook in country.
Paperback had a little bump. But it wasn't in the stores (so it couldn’t sell). You will sell more of
these books because of Open Road.
Michael: 99cent
books a way to bring new readers to an author. Evelyn Wagh 99 cents for a day.
Steve: What about self-published authors?
Strategy, try to treat self-pub authors with same respect as published authors;
and I expect the same behavior from them as any other publisher. We vet the
book; show preference for local authors (put anything on shelf fr local
authors); and, finally, we expect to monetize the hassle of dealing with an individual
publisher of one book.
Jane:
(worked at knopf); We are listening. Ebook is "and." It is the
additional sale.
Readers
want relationships with writers.
Steve:
inde bookstores like ours bring authors in contact with readers. websites, 3
newsletters, 3 blogs, tweet, we do stuff I don't even know what it means. We're
part of all of that. What we have to do to be relevant.
BEING SOCIAL: REACHING YOUR BOOKSTORE CUSTOMERS AND
COMMUNITY
PANEL
Kristen
Hess
Amy Cox
Williams (Dir of product mktg at Ingrahm. Email, print, all media
Lynette
Young (expert at Google+) Calls
herself a ‘solopreneur.’ Owner of Purple Stripe
Productions. Likes digital platforms that allow peo talk to ea other.
Andrew
Fitzgerald (Twitter) Works with authors and publishers; prt of TW media team;
focus on TW content
Amy
Stephanson (social media and
events coordinator for Booksmith, SF, Silicon Valley). Does tons of social
media.
Lynette:
sees a lot of social inertia right now. People stay in a platform they're
comfortable with. Need to go out and find your audience. Audience not in one
place, at the same time, in same ways.
Diff
platforms have diff cultures. Learn the cultures (Amy S).
Who are
we talking to? Are we talking with them instead of at them? Want to know more
than what the book is about; they want to know why you liked it.
Amy
Williams: E-mail still works for us. All media feed into it. e-newsletters can
have a call to action.
Question
about TW: What is the biggest misconception about TW?
Andrew
Fitzgerald of TW answers: It's ephemeral. Real time. It gives you the opp to
interact/engage w/ customers when they're not in the store. TW out what author
is saying when they're in store.
Amy S:
Use TW all the time. Asked why do they follow you? We live-tw events; and we have
“Booksmith recommends”
Lynn: You
can learn how to hand sell in Google+.
Utilize search engine feature. Google Local; Google Events.
Amy S:
Ask yourself, How do I keep in touch with my friends? You send a text to a
friend with your fun message.
Andrew F:
Leverage an author's pull. Get them to TW about your store. The same with publishers.
Amy W:
"E-mail is social media's secret weapon (in an ironic twist of fate)"
Q: Should
you share same content over various platforms?
AS: No,
mix it up. Meet them where they live. Diff content and voices for ea platform.
Amy W: E-mail
great for coupons.
KH: Let's
face it, we'd all rather read a book.
Andrew F:
prominently display TW handle in your bookstore. Look for communities that are
already there. Try to engage them in conversation. If something is happening
around town, talk about it. (In SF, museums tw at ea other; becomes part of
culture) Search for hash tags
KH:
Authenticity is key vs. selling at us. Do you have a social media strategy?
Amy W:
Stay engaged. We are creatures of habit. FB page lets you sign up for e-newsletter
(app)
*** LY:
purplestrip.com: Go to her website to find out how to write a social media
strategy and tactics. Goal. H- holistic. O-objectives. S-specific T-tactics
(what I'll do) GHOST strategy.
Andrew F:
TW has a wealth of performance info. To see how well you're doing.
Amy S: I
don't have a strategy but do have guidelines. Lots of them.
The
internet has the memory of a goldfish. Post your enthusiastic hype mere days
before an event or publication date of a book unless you are doing pre-orders.
Andrew F:
TW makes it easy to connect w/ just about anybody. Authors fans of inde stores
and will respond.
Question:
What are the downfalls of social media?
Misspellings.
"We're a certain kind of audience"
Andrew F:
Time mgmt. hootsuite/tweetdeck. Set up mobile notifications on cellphone. So
you won't miss anything. Schedule your TWs.
Amy S: TW
is what's happening right now. I have a smart phone and carry the Internet in
my pocket. Take the time to get to know the community you’re serving and it will cut
down the learning curve.
*** iPage: all an author's info on one page
****Vine:
TW, 6-sec video we create w/ phone. We can embed these videos in a TW.
BEA EDITORS' BUZZ
Editors
pitch favorite books in the fall schedule.
Very fun
to see editors so excited and articulate about the books they acquired.
Moderator:
Betsy
Burton, co-founder and co-owner of The King’s English Bookstore.
“It feels
more like passing on the Holy Grail, not like selling a book. Our faith lies in
books, not one book.”
Discovery
takes place 81% of the time in face-to-face communication.
Houghton Mifflin: Hitler's Furries
Wendy Lower (author). Deanne Urmy (ed)
We know
very little about the thousands of women who killed.
Women
systematically mobilized to betray other women and children.
Eric Lundgren's The Facades. Liese Mayer (ed) for Overlook
Books.
Founded
by Liese's father and grandfather. “Good books create a hunger for other great books.” Based on one of Calvino's invisible
cities. Plot grabs you: opera singer vanishes; not an ordinary det story;
imaginary city and troubled det. About self-deception and self-discovery.
The Affairs of Others by Amy Grace Loyd. Ed Anna deVries at
Picador
The
protagonist is grieving the loss of her husband. She’s a landlady in NYC with a
select group of tenants that begins to change as time goes on. A taut and breathless read.
Very sexy.
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged
Hospital by Sheri Fink
Venessa Mobley, exec ed Crown
Fink is a
journalist and physician. Spent 6
years reporting on this New Orleans hospital that suffered great loss
during/after Katrina. Conducted 500 interviews. 45 patients died in one day. The 2nd half of the book explores
what happened. This book is about the basic foundation of society. Ethical and
moral certainty. Out Sept
10
Knocking on Heaven's Door by Katy Butler. Scribner
ed Whitney Frick
This book
started with an article titled “What Broke My Fathr's Heart” in NYT in 2010.
Part memoir,
part investigative reporting and part spiritual portrayal of dying.
All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood
by Jennifer Senior
ed Lee Boudreaux, Harper Collins
Jennifer investigated
the documented effects of childhood on parents and winds up documenting the
agonies of parenting.
Started
with this New York mag article: "I love my children, I hate my life"
This is a
parenthood book; describing to us the topography of our lives
How we
got to be in this age of madness.
ALL’S
FAIR? BOOK REVIEWS AND THE MISSING CODE OF ETHICS
PANEL
Lorin
Stein, Editor, Paris Review
Parul
Sehgal, Editor of NY Times Book Review
Eric
Simonoff Literary Agent, William Morris
Carlin Romano,
reviewer
Maureen Corrigan,
book critic, NPR Fresh Air
Here’s a link to the video of this
event:
http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/video-nbcc-on-the-ethics-of-book-reviewing
National Book
Critics Circle ethics project (see http://bookcritics.org)
• Surveyed authors, critics,
publicists, editors
• From this, they
will develop what they say is a badly needed code of ethics and best practices. Coming in the fall
About
objectivity/partiality: One critic said, "Check your bias at the
door"
Maureen: “Be clear as a reviewer about
your own biases; make them explicit in the review. I read reviews to get the
sensibility of the critic. My biases are part of what make me worthwhile as a
critic.”
Carlin:
pay attention to the review venue; they’re very different (and readers have different expectations
of them). Your biases will come out. Part of book review world to be quasi-bereft
of biases. A review is a performance.
Lorin:
Reader expectations change with the medium.
There’s a difference between
impartiality and bias: Tell the reader, be present, own up.
(not sure
who said this) I like it when I find reviewers interrogating their own tastes:
poetry reviewers are especially good at this. Reviews use adjectives and other
evaluative words. A lot of people commit their biases in the reporting of the
book but getting the facts wrong or misrepresenting the book. Panel considers
this a more serious fault.
“Any
bias can be overcome by ruthless honesty.”
Talk
about what the book does and be accurate.
Basic
honesty.
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