That’s right — Gossip Girl just announced their new spin-off series. Battlestar Galactica is in its final season, again. And we have a new president.
For those of you glued to your television sets for the Inauguration, you may be interested to know that the online world is encroaching on not just the print but also on the broadcast world. Today, the New York Times reports record online viewership of the inauguration. Of course, traffic was so high that viewing live video footage on sites like CNN and MSNBC was difficult (or for yours truly, impossible), although the Timessays that might be the fault of individual offices’ Internet services rather than the bandwidths of the media companies. (At any rate, having decided to boycott my office viewing of the Inauguration — which utilized the Civil War technology known as the “teevee” — I was stuck listening to it live streamed on NPR and then catching the video on YouTube later in the afternoon.)
I find it encouraging that a lot of people in the publishing business are coming around and realizing the influence of online media (helped by posts like this one at Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists about the increasing influence of online media. Phenix & Phenix notes that online coverage means not just online book reviews, but also commenting, links, blogs and more).
For many, now, the question is not “Is online promotion worthwhile?” but rather, “Which site(s) are important?” given that there are now dozens of social networks and hundreds (or thousands, more likely) of publishing blogs and websites. Which makes the social networking numbers GalleyCat posted last week particularly handy. Also of note: according to TechCrunch, Twitter surpassed Digg in traffic last week. (Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows a user to tell followers what they’re doing 24/7. Because you really want to know what I had for dinner last night. Digg is an aggregator that posts the most popular online stories according to readers in various categories.)
If you are pretty handy with social networking sites, you might consider heading over to Booksquare’s social media survey if you haven’t already done so. You could win a free pass to the O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference (sort of the BEA of the social media world). Deadline is tomorrow, January 22, so step on it if you’re interested.
The moral of the story is that we need to view the online world with a new appreciation. Although most of us do indeed have at least some understanding of online and social media, we all need to take the next step and follow through on that with acceptance if we are indeed going to usher in a new era.
January 21, 2009
Posted by Yen |
Blogs, Online Marketing, Social Networking, Trends | Booksquare, CNN, Digg, GalleyCat, MSNBC, NPR, Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists, TechCrunch, Twitter, YouTube |
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It’s nice being able to type with my left forefinger again — I accidentally smashed it so hard in a door late last week I almost threw up. (You figure if you have to endure that much pain, you at least want a black fingernail to show for it. No dice.)
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I could talk about social networking until I’m blue in the face (actually, I do talk about social networking until I’m blue in the face), but there’s only so much you can say without using examples. Booksquare lists several publishing / publisher blogs in this post about social networking. One important point Kassia Krozser makes is that you can’t control what people say about your book / brand — much like you can’t control whether a book garners good or bad reviews — but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t contribute to the conversation.
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Speaking of social networking, some of you may have heard of (one of) the latest additions to the literary social networking world: Red Room. (Authors can join by invitation only. Oooh.) I poked around a bit when one of my authors was invited to join, but haven’t been back since then because I don’t have enough time and / or don’t care enough. Fortunately, others do. Mark Athitakis of American Fiction Notes posts some of his thoughts about Red Room.
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For anyone curious about the microblogging site Twitter, Dave Fleet posts some of the most basic, i.e., useful, tips I’ve seen for the Twitter novice. He briefly explains what Twitter is and how to sign up for an account and then walks you through using the site. To see what others are doing on Twitter, you can check this Buzz Bin post that links to various journalist / company profiles.
November 17, 2008
Posted by Yen |
Social Networking | American Fiction Notes, Booksquare, Dave Fleet, Red Room, The Buzz Bin, Twitter |
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I was in Central Park with my running group yesterday evening when I ran into a friend of mine from high school (who, incidentally, I also saw in the start corral — yes, we do feel like cattle if you are wondering — at Sunday’s Nike-NYC Half Marathon). New York may seem like a big city, but running / cycling paths are scarce and I think every cyclist and distance runner I know has bumped into someone they know in Central Park / Riverside Park / Prospect Park / along the West Side Highway or 9W. Indeed. It’s like in publishing where if you go to an industry event, you’re bound to find someone you know.
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I was whipping through headlines on my RSS reader this morning and saw that BusinessWeek blogger Stephen Baker had posted dates for his September book tour. For authors who are considering blogging, the time to start would be well before the book comes out. Of course, authors who have already built an online following — whether because of their previous books or because they already are popular bloggers — have an easier time attracting an audience, but given time, even an unknown author can build a following by reaching out to friends first and letting the word spread.
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For those of you who missed Monday’s NewsHour segment about the demise of print book reviews, Gabi from Viking Penguin passed on the link. Jeffrey Brown interviews Steve Wasserman, formerly editor of the Los Angeles Times’ book review and Kassia Krozser of Booksquare.com, a very insightful book marketing / publishing blog. If you get antsy listening to interviews, you can also read the transcript.
July 30, 2008
Posted by Yen |
Blogs | Booksquare, BusinessWeek, NewsHour |
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For those of you who didn’t receive the postcard, Salon’s New York office is moving. As of July 1, the address will be:
15 W 37th St
New York, NY 10018
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Kassia Krozser of Booksquare posts about why publishers should blog. She brings up a couple examples, bad and good: St. Martin’s page for Janet Evanovich and Simon & Schuster’s page for Judy Blume. Which reminds me, I was on the Penguin Group website the other day and saw the DK imprint has begun introducing staff members on their blog. I think that’s clever move — as someone who works in publishing, I’m always interested to know more about my colleagues. And for authors, agents and other people who are interested in the publishing industry, it’s a good way to get a peek into a publishing house.
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Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists recaps the Landing Ink, Airtime and Blog Buzz in Today’s Changing Media Environment panel at the Writers’ League of Texas Agents & Editors conference over the weekend. Among the panelists: Ron Hogan (GalleyCat), Michael Merschel (Dallas Morning-News) and Sara Nelson (Publishers Weekly).
June 24, 2008
Posted by Yen |
Blogs, Pitching Tips, Update Your Database | Booksquare, Dallas Morning News, DK, GalleyCat, Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists, Publishers Weekly, Salon |
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Joan Reeves at Sling Words posts about the importance of linking (which I have just done here to Joan’s blog in case anyone is hazy about what exactly a link is). Links enable a new blogger to build an audience and increase their Google rank. Think of a blog as an island and links as the bridges. How long have they been on the island on Lost? Four months. No bridges. Don’t create the Lost of blogs — help people find your blog with links.
Frank Wilson also discussed linking the other day on Nigel Beale’s Nota Bene and how it contributed to the success of Books Inq.
My personal preference is to always include one link to the blog itself and one to the individual post. This can be redundant since the link to the blog is the same as the link to the post … until the next post appears.
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Kassia Krozser of Booksquare summarizes some online myths heard at BEA including that an author just needs a Facebook page not a website. Websites get a bad rap these days — they’re static, they’re hard to update. This is true, but is this necessarily a bad thing? Depending on the book, it may not matter.
June 4, 2008
Posted by Yen |
Blogs, Online Marketing | BEA, Booksquare, Google, linking, Sling Words |
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No April Fool’s jokes from moi today, so I’ll just jump right in.
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Kassia Krozser of Booksquare pointed out an interesting piece on Medialoper that talked about maintaining contact lists. More specifically, the post noted that many writers (and musicians, artists, etc.) have built large fan bases on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. What if those sites disappeared? For authors very dependent on their social networking “friends,” they may want to encourage those fans to additionally sign up for mailing lists / newsletters so they have fans’ contact information should the networking sites ever go kaput.
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TechCrunch posted a piece yesterday about traffic on blogs versus traditional media sites. The writer, Erick Schonfeld, brings up an interesting point, which is that the blogs with the highest traffic, like TechCrunch or CNET.com, have professional staffs, while traditional media sites that have the highest traffic, like the New York Times, have very active blogging staffs — in other words, the sites with the most traffic are really a mix of the old and new worlds.
This raises another issue which is that not all blogs are the same — many blogs are like this one, with one person writing posts. (This applies to pretty much all the literary blogs.) Other blogs — often those in the technology and political spheres — like CNET.com or the Huffington Post, are pretty big enterprises, some with with dozens on staff. Naturally, this will affect how you build a relationship with and pitch a blog / blogger.
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FishBowlNY reports that the editor behind Blackbook will launch a new magazine this fall called Tar. You can check here for details, although it doesn’t actually say what the magazine is about although it will be glossy, expensive ($20) and eco-friendly …
April 1, 2008
Posted by Yen |
Blogs, Circ. / Hits / Ratings, Miscellaneous | Blackbook, Boing Boing, Booksquare, CNET.com, FishBowlNY, Huffington Post, Medialoper, New York Times, Tar, TechCrunch |
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The popular How to Change the World blog posts some information about how social networking actually works. For those of you who have yet to sign up for a social networking profile, try Facebook first — we’re pretty much all on there. (Although MySpace is still the biggest social networking site, Facebook and other sites are growing much faster.)
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I read a post this morning on Booksquare about the future of reading/books and I wasn’t initially going to link to it here, but then I read a second post by on the same topic on the Penguin blog. Kassia Krozser on Booksquare focuses more on youth online and the ramifications that has for us as publishers who will one day be trying to sell to that market; Clay Shirkey on the Penguin blog writes more about the logistical inconveniences of books. Given that many tweets (that would be people who use Twitter) today consider email too troublesome, we should think long and hard about what Krozser and Shirkey are saying.
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There’s been a lot of talk about book trailers lately. If you haven’t already seen it, you may want to check the book trailer channel on YouTube.
March 17, 2008
Posted by Yen |
Book trailers, Online Marketing, Social Networking | Book trailers, Booksquare, How to Change the World, Penguin Blog, YouTube |
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Kassia Krozser from Booksquare posted today about using social networking sites to target consumers. One of her main points is that users are wary of the obvious pitch. Although that’s not really news to any of us, it’s something we’re often thinking about and a similar issue came up last week when Rachel from DK gave an informative and entertaining presentation about O’Reilly’s Tools of Change conference. Someone asked about the value of message / discussion boards in promoting a book since she said she would be inclined to listen to a recommendation in such a forum — I would have to agree, having run right out and done a book trade for (which is pretty much buying when you work in publishing) a book someone mentioned on a message board I used to frequent.
We all agreed that it’s impossible for a corporate entity to use message boards without completely turning off users. That doesn’t mean, however, that an individual author with expertise in a certain area can’t become a member of a community with such a message board (and perhaps mention his / her book in the process). The key to being listened to on message boards is being a genuine and longstanding member of the community — many discussion boards have ranking systems for posters and even on those that don’t, members will only recognize / respect posters who have proven their interest and expertise over time. So forget about the sleek marketing pitch and tell your authors to start planning ahead if they want to go down this road …
March 10, 2008
Posted by Yen |
Online Marketing | Booksquare, message boards |
3 Comments
Kassia Kroszer, who blogs at
Booksquare, posted an entertaining and informative
piece about pitching bloggers. I encourage you to click through to the post to read her frank but fair opinions about the matter.Here are a few things I’d like to add/elaborate on:
1. Know the blog: The key here is an RSS reader like Bloglines or Google Reader. (My friend Sharon at Bantam said Bloglines allows you to organize sites better than Google Reader. I’ve never tried the latter myself.) Without a reader you can’t possibly hold down a full-time job and follow the dozens of major literary and publishing blogs out there. Setting up a reader may seem overwhelming, but once you’ve done so, it takes only a few clicks, scrolls and minutes to keeps tabs on pretty much anything important going on in publishing (blogs and more), whether it’s an article by Motoko, a post by Ron or Terry’s latest interview. This site’s blog roll provides a good starting point for building a robust RSS reader. I haven’t had the time to add a lot of other blogs, so feel free to suggest your favorite literary/publishing sites.
2. Know how important the blog is: There are millions of blogs out there. Use sites like Technorati or Alexa to see how authoritative a blog is. Check the blog roll (the list of blogs, usually on the right side of the page) to see how frequently a blog is linked to. Popular blogs will appear on dozens (or hundreds, in the case of a site like Gawker) of blog rolls.
3. Use the “Comments” section: Bloggers like to know people are reading what they write. Although the big literary/publishing bloggers don’t need you or I to pat them on the back, they’ll still appreciate another reader and a thoughtful or entertaining comment.
4. Don’t blast email (most) blogs: Realistically, it’s not feasible to never pitch with a mass email. That said, limit its use. As Kassia points out, most blogs don’t do the “standard” interview or review, so your standard pitch won’t work. In fact, many bloggers don’t list email addresses on their sites, preferring instead that readers use their Contact page. Use it. Some sites like Boing Boing have said they will not accept pitches not submitted on their site.
March 7, 2008
Posted by Yen |
Pitching Tips | Blogs, Booksquare, RSS reader |
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