Archive for July, 2010

Bill Ayers leads quite a few “meet-ups” focused specifically on the ever-evolving publishing industry.  I attended one featuring three self-published authors to learn from their experiences.  Here are three tips from three different self-published authors:

(1.)  If you self publish, BUY AN ISBN for your book! This will enable you to sell it in bookstores, place it in libraries, and get it in national databases.  (from Tracy Jones, author of I think Therefore I am, and Still Breathing…).

(2.)  Ramp up publicity before your release date. Don’t wait until it’s already out to start promoting it.  Time your release with a well-planned publicity campaign.  (From David Jedeikin, author of Wander the Rainbow.)

(3.)  Self-publishing is good for super-niche markets, or if you already have an audience willing to buy your book. Lots of “how-to” authors follow this advice.  If your topic is extremely narrow, then chances are your audience will come looking for you.  If, however, you’re looking for broader exposure, consider the traditional publishing route.  (Curran Galway, author of The Aquarians).

(click to enlarge!)

Think the novel is dead?  Far from it.  These are rough stats culled from various sources.  Numbers only refer to U.S. publications and tweets, and are based on 2009 figures.

VS

Methodology is as follows:

Words per day in books: based on Bowker’s stats of approx 1,000,000 books published in the U.S. in 2009.  An average length of 240 pages is assigned to traditionally published books and 50 pages to self-published books.  An average of 250 words per page assigned for all books.  (Data from Bowker’s and PWCwriters).

Tweets per day:  based on 2009 estimate of 32 million tweets per day, and a U.S. share of 1/3 of all worldwide tweets, and an average twitter message length of 15 words (data from Twitter and Oxford University Press).

Folks, I’m just having fun here.  The numbers are real, but it’s a back-of-the-envelope estimation [insert smiley face here].

Best literary event in San Francisco?  You decide.

Quiet Lightning happens Monday, August 2, 7:00pm, at the Rickshaw Stop.

(Bring all your friends).

(And what a great way to witness print-on-demand in action!  Every piece read at the event is collected in an anthology and published through Lulu.com.  The books are ready to go the night of the show.  Check it out.)

(as told by Seth Godin)

I just listened to an astute speech from a proven guru delivered to a convention of indie book publishers.  You can hear the whole recording here.  It’s a bit long, so I’ve transcribed my favorite points:

Godin breaks the traditional publishing business model into five components: Curation, Venture Capital investment, Production, Distribution, and Promotion.

He says four of five of those components are now dead.  Curation is the only role for publishers in the years to come.  So what does that really mean?

According to Godin, it means four things:

(1)  Curate: collect relevant content.

(2)  Lead: earn the right to talk to your audience by delivering honest, relevant information, then tell your followers what content (movie/book/blog etc.) is worth their time.

(3)  Connect:  Serve as a hub for like-minded individuals to meet and connect.

(4)  Create a movement:  Rally your audience.

We can already see this happening.  TwelvePublishers puts out a book a month, and “seeks to establish communities of conversation surrounding our books.”  FlatmanCrooked is “deeply dedicated to the cultivation of our authors’ careers,” and creates cult followings around books through limited releases, imaginative book tours, and contests.  Soft Skull Press has been called “The literary version of a punk rock label.”

These are just three examples of small presses embracing the new world of publishing.  They curate, connect fans, and create a movement about their releases.

I already wrote a bit about the book in an earlier post.  Author James Kaelon and videographer Miles Kittredge are mid-tour, by bicycle, promoting Kaelon’s “We’re Getting On.” They just left San Francisco this morning and are heading north.  Abandonment of technology is a central theme of Kaelon’s stories, and now he and Kittredge are living the dream.  The tour and the book are 100% carbon neutral.

The novel has garnered exceptional reviews and landed Kaelon on the cover of Poets & Writers.  I got to see Kaelon read at Green Apple Books on Friday and was not disappointed.  If you have the opportunity to see these guys somewhere along their journey, seize it!