Publishing Evolution #84: Writer Communities & Author Websites

Exercise 1: Have you contacted your favorite authors or gone to their websites? Do you like knowing more or less about them? Search for your favorite author. Do they have a website or blog? Can you interact with them via web?

When you lead a book club discussion, it is important to add value to the group by bringing in additional information about the author, time period, locale, literary form, etc. One valuable place to find a lot of this information is on the author's website. Knowing more about an author's personal life, education, prior works, geographic location, even "pets", can bring new insight to the book under discussion.

On several occasions, book club participants have e-mailed the author via his/her website, and received responses that they shared during the discussion. This includes author like Robert Kurson (Shadow Divers), Dave King (The Ha-Ha), and Lisa See (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan) who responded directly, as well as less-approachable authors like Jeffrey Archer (Eleventh Commandment) whose office staff replies.

I don't have just ONE favorite author, but I have many of them that I like a lot. For purposes of this exercise, I will look up Alexander McCall Smith, author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, as well as other books. In the Events section, I found out that he will be in Houston on April 27, at Murder by the Book at 12:30pm and at Brazos Book store at 7:00. I suppose these will be just sales events. I wish he would be appearing at a library or a lecture hall where I could hear him speak, rather than just wait in a long line for a signed book. Besides the events calendar, the website has lots of promotional stuff about his many books, audio excerpts, video interviews, and links to print articles about his work.

McCall Smith is a fascinating character! Besides writing perfect books from the viewpoint of a "traditionally built" Botswana woman, he has been a professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh and Vice Chairman of the Human Genetics Commission of the UK. What a mind this man must have!

Exercise 2: Does the idea of a book being published based on popular vote give you more or less faith in the material?

A large popular vote might give me more confidence in the material. After all, this is what the New York Times Bestseller list is all about. People in that case vote with their wallets.

Readers' tastes are so different, though, that just a high popular vote is not enough for me to tell if I will like something. This is true with books, but even more so with movies. Having free access to a wide variety of choices is the American (and the library!) way.

Publishing Evolution #83: Paper to Pixels (or e-ink)

Exercise #1: Do you prefer paper or pixels? Is getting the material faster on the computer or is reading in a paper form more important to you? Why?

I still prefer paper to pixels, but I have only had a cell phone and a laptop to compare. I have not tried to read a book on a Nook or a Kindle, although I am very tempted by them. A number of my book club participants are now using e-readers for their books. I see them get online and order books each time we announce a new selection at the end of a session. These same folks are among the most loyal book club fans, though, so even though they aren't boosting circulation by checking out paper copies, they still keep coming to the library for "social networking."

Sometimes getting the material fast is important. I once bought a paper copy from Amazon that I needed to teach a class. Someone borrowed it and I had to prepare for the next day's session. It turned out that for $.99, Amazon would give me access to the e-book version of the book I had bought in paper. I was able to get it online in minutes and read what I needed. It wasn't a great reading experience, but I was very glad to have the option.

Exercise #2: Does price influence how you get your books or is it availability? Would you pay the same price for a digital book as you would for a paper copy?

Price primarily influences what I buy, but format and the availability can be important on occasion. I would not want to pay the same price for a digital book as for a paper copy, because I don't think the cost of each is the same for the publisher.

Exercise #3: Visit iFiction and look at what it offers. Do you like the idea of preview and then pay?

iFiction did not appeal to me. The titles are almost all science fiction and fantasy that I don't read. A group of the books are written by the person who created the iFiction site, so his motives are obvious.

Preview and then pay could rule out some really good books. I just recently read "The Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver. It is one of the best books I ever read, but it took at least 100 pages to get rolling. Based on the "preview, then pay" model, I might never have bought/finished the book. Also, I don't have lots of time to read samples, hoping for a winner. I'd rather spend my time reading good reviews or talking with fellow readers about what they have liked.

Publishing Evolution #82: Print on Demand

Exercise #1: Visit each of the websites listed above and see what they offer. Is it higher or the same as traditionally published books? Look at some of their published books. Have you read any of them? Would you?

It is not encouraging that the once-independent companies, AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Xlibris, and Canada-based Trafford Publishing are now all owned by Author Solutions Inc. This explains why most of the websites have a very similar look and feel to them. Prices range from $399 to $13,999, and each company has a series of packages. Most of the low-end packages include no images, no copyright, no "complimentary" copies, no sophisticated publicity or marketing. The high-end packages still seem to include some gimmicks, like book-signing "kits", marketing "kits", and other things that still sound like do-it-yourself options.

As the WriterBeware article notes, "When researching POD services, it’s important to remember that you are a consumer buying a service, not an author contracting with a publisher. As with any consumer service, the sales pitch is not intended to benefit you, but to motivate you to buy."

Several years ago, I purchased a copy of the "Happy Minimalist" by Peter Lawrence. Peter used to be a customer at our library until he moved to California. It is a very interesting book, but the topic is probably not one that would have caught the interest of a traditional publisher. Peter had it published through XLibris, and they did a good job with it. I quoted some sections of it in an earlier post on this blog, on 9/6/08, in the iHCPL module on Going Green.

Before I purchased Peter's book, I read a review of it in "Foreword" magazine, which is described as "Reviews of good books independently published." At the time, I felt that "Foreword" was a good way to sort out the wheat from the chaff of self-published materials. The books included there look good for the most part. However, with this module, I took a closer look at the magazine.

It seems that rather than "independently" reviewing good books, authors pay for their reviews, just as they paid to have their books published. The publisher, Clarion, described their Review-For-Fee Service in this way: "A qualified, respected review is one of the best marketing tools an author or publisher can have for a book. With today's growing number of published books and dwindling newspaper review sections, it's harder than ever to get a review. Clarion provides a professional review, guaranteeing the same quality and word length you see in ForeWord Magazine reviews. "

Exercise #2: What do you think of self publishing? As a reader, do you prefer books that have gone through the traditional route and have the confidence of a company’s financial backing, or do you not care how the book got printed, you’re just glad it did?

As a branch librarian, I am increasingly being solicited by local authors to buy their self-published books. Most of them look very good, but most are not well written. The lack of a good editor is obvious.

If the book has any merit at all, we try to give local authors a break. We invite them to present a talk on their book at the library. The Barbara Bush Library Friends assist them in selling their books at the program, and having a signing. Before we offer the invitation, we ask for the book to be added to the HCPL catalog. That way library customers could read the book without having to purchase it. Having someone interested in their book, having the opportunity to sell copies, and having the book added to a library seems to be a big boost to a local author. We feel that this is part of our role as a community library.

There are so many books on the market that I prefer books that have gone through the traditional route. I think you can have more confidence that the book will have valuable content, will be well-edited, well-illustrated, and professionally reviewed.

I am enough of a '60s "hippie" though to not totally trust the establishment. Sometimes people have good messages to tell, but can't get a hearing through the mainstream channels. I am glad that there are options out there for anyone who wants to be heard.