For authors, writing's just half the job
In today's multimedia world, authors must leave no stone unturned in marketing their books.
BY RICHARD PACHTER
Special to The Miami Herald

It's not enough to write a great book. Authors are now expected to play an active role in book marketing and promotion. In this brave new world of always-on media, scribes are expected to either pursue or make themselves available to every potential reader.

Though there have always been opportunities for interviews, reviews, in-store signings, book fairs, seminars and broadcast appearances, now publishers want to make sure no avenue for multimedia exposure is overlooked as a book competes with every other form of entertainment.

Most book companies have full-time staff devoted to pursuing publicity for their books and authors, but nothing is guaranteed.

''Publicity departments are too small and stretched too thin,'' author Joseph Finder (High Crimes, Company Man, Paranoia) said in a telephone interview from his Boston office. ``They do their best, but there's always another book coming out and I want to make sure that mine gets the attention it deserves before they move on to the next one.''

But he notes his publisher, St. Martin's Press, ''was extremely cooperative when I came up with the idea of including an audio CD'' to promote his current book, Killer Instinct. ''From the CEO on down, they're totally behind my books. In fact, the marketing director is a fan,'' he said.

Still, Finder felt the need to do more.

''I paid for my website [josephfinder.com], hired someone to design it and someone else to run it. It's impossible to gauge, but I see more and more response from reviewers, journalists and booksellers, and readers communicate with me, too,'' he said. ``Everyone likes to get inside information and have a connection.''

Making that connection also includes putting up special websites in countries where his books sell especially well, such as the Netherlands.

Edna Buchanan, a Miami Beach novelist and one-time Pulitzer Prize-winning crime reporter for The Miami Herald, said she works closely with her publisher's publicity department and will do book tours and almost anything else they suggest to sell her books.

''But I hate to leave Miami,'' said Buchanan. ``I'm basically a shy person but also I don't want to miss anything if I'm out on the road. Plus I don't like to go anyplace where they only speak one language and don't have Cuban coffee.''

But with her new book, Love Kills, which brings her recurring character Britt Montero together with the Cold Case Squad, due out in June, she expects to hit the road again if that's what her publisher wants.

Lissa Warren, senior director of publicity for Da Capo Books, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., said authors should first try to figure out how much of a priority their book is to the publisher. ''Is it in their catalog, and if so, how does it compare to other books? Is there a two-page spread? Is there a large print run? A big advance? A tour? Have they sent out galleys to reviewers?'' are the questions that should be asked, she said.

NAB THE BIG FOUR

'They should at least be able to secure reviews from the Big Four trade publications -- Publishers' Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist and Library Journal -- too,'' said Warren, a poet herself and author of The Savvy Author's Guide to Book Publicity: A Comprehensive Resource: From Building the Buzz to Pitching the Press.

''Some authors may initiate their own campaigns, often with the knowledge and blessings of their publisher, but sometimes without,'' Warren said, adding that independent public relations firms may also be hired to work on a project.

''It's big bucks,'' said Les Standiford, author of the series of novels featuring South Florida-based sleuth John Deal, as well as several historical works, including Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America.

''The plain fact is that in an industry where $25,000 is a substantial advance, after your agent's commission, taxes and a little money to live on, how much is left? My publishers have always been collaborative and like to see me tour and do signings, but do you know how many books you usually sell at a signing?'' he asked. ``Six to eight.''

``So if you do a 10-city tour with average expense of a thousand dollars a day, how much does that work out to be, per copy?''

Standiford, who heads the creative writing program at Florida International University, chuckled and added, ``But the publisher thinks it's worth it and that it helps with word of mouth, which is how most books sell anyway. I'm fine with that, because it's the most valuable and effective thing I can do to help sell my books.''

Does Standiford teach his FIU students how to promote their work? ''No.'' he said. ``That would be more of a business course, I'd imagine, but we do cover how to present material to an agent, which is an important step in the process.''

THE RIGHT STUFF

Investigative author Edwin Black, who wrote IBM and the Holocaust, War on the Weak, and Banking on Baghdad, is a skilled and tireless promoter for his books.

After conducting the substantial research behind his current book, Internal Combustion -- which chronicles the history of the energy industry and the suppression of alternate technologies, Black became a road warrior.

''Publishers know that in addition to getting a book, they're getting me,'' he said several weeks ago while in Broward County to launch the campaign for Internal Combustion. ``I'm out there, meeting with people at schools, organizations and other places that make sense.''

Black, who lives in Washington, D.C., wrote and helped produce a video trailer for his book that was completed with the assistance of volunteers, packaged on DVD and distributed online through YouTube. He also works with his publisher to secure reviews in print publications, as many authors do.

Major online booksellers such as Amazon.com and Bar nesandNoble.com also get into the act by inviting customers to contribute reviews and some have become quite prolific, with devoted followings.

But there are no editors or gatekeepers to ensure the authenticity of the reviews and the legitimacy of the reviewers. Political books, for example, are often critiqued on the basis of the author's personality or party affiliation rather than the content of the work in question.

THE POWER OF OPRAH

By far the most influential television venue for books is Oprah Winfrey's syndicated weekday show. Her mere mention of a title sends thousands to bookstores.

''When that happens, publishers have to make sure that there are books in shops to capitalize on it,'' said Da Capo's Warren.

Some authors are particularly savvy about using the electronic media to promote their work.

Prolific British fantasy writer Warren Ellis (Planetary, Transmetropolitan, Fell), sends short e-mail messages several times a week, under the heading ''Bad Signal,'' to fans and others who sign up to receive them. He comments on life, asks questions that come up as he writes his stories and scripts, and announces upcoming projects as well as on-sale dates of books. He even mentions quantities of distributor stock since a number of retailers and other professionals are also on his list.

Ellis rarely makes personal appearances, but his postings to his own website and on other online venues project a presence well beyond his British home base.

Writer and marketing guru Seth Godin's books are often accompanied with clever marketing campaigns. A colorful cereal box, boldly announcing, Free Prize Inside, contained not a decoder ring or tiny plastic soldier, but a copy of Godin's book of the same name.

MARKETING MASTER

Each of his books is foreshadowed and accompanied by a flurry of online promotions, special offers, podcasts, and blog postings from myriad websites. Godin, who lives outside New York City, is also a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences and has deftly managed to keep his message consistent while offering fresh nuances and new insights to cultivate and retain a devoted following.

In response to an e-mail asking about how he markets his books, Godin wrote: ``The unspoken truth is that except for perhaps 250 giant books every year [out of 75,000 published], the publisher is expecting the author to do 100 percent of the sales and promotion. Because authors don't understand that, they end up bitter, angry and perhaps destitute.

WILLING TO RUMBLE

''The most successful authors drive from store to store in a sort of perma-tour, selling books out of the back of their car or just working with individual stores to make their titles stand out,'' he wrote. ``Oliver North made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling his remaindered autobiography at speeches to right-wing groups. This approach is antediluvian and time-consuming, but it works.''

CLOSE COLLABORATION

Godin said he works closely with his publisher, Portfolio, to create and market his books. ''Once we hammer out a plan, they do a terrific job in supporting it. There are other publishers who are far more conservative, far more certain that the tried and true is the only path. The problem with that approach is that it is wrong,'' he wrote.

Godin said he doesn't have a blog to sell books -- but rather to spread ideas. ''I don't flog the blog that hard, which certainly costs me short-term book sales. But that's OK, because the point is to keep the ideas moving around. I think it's pretty safe to say that the investment in the blog has certainly paid off in increased book sales over time,'' he wrote.

His advice to authors is to get out and really work for their books: ``You need a platform to make a published book work. If you don't have a platform yet, you should self-publish your first book and give away enough copies to get a platform, and then use that platform to engage your readers so that you can sell the second one to a publisher and quit your day job.''


Richard Pachter is the Business Monday book critic. For more business book columns by Pachter, go to MiamiHerald.com and click on Columnists. Or go to www.wordsonwords.com.




MiamiHerald.com | 11/13/2006 | For authors, writing's just half the job

National Book Awards Winners

Fiction: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (FSG)

Nonfiction: The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin)

Poetry: Splay Anthem by Nathaniel Mackey (New Directions)

Young People's Literature: The Pox Party: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick)

Pynchon fans eager to feast on new novel
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer
Sat Nov 11, 1:56 PM ET

Zak Smith is a painter, a rebel and an Ivy Leaguer, a Yale University graduate with a green mohawk, an apartment of wall-to-wall illustrations and a passion for comics, classic novels — and Thomas Pynchon.

About 10 years ago, Smith had a feeling that he should try Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow," an instinct confirmed from the very first page. Smith didn't just read the book, he reread it, marked it up and went back to it so many times that his paperback copy is held together by duct tape.

He also began seeing the book in pictures, eventually drawing hundreds of mostly expressionist sketches — one for every page of Pynchon's 700-page World War II novel — that were exhibited at the Whitney Museum in 2004, now hang in the permanent collection at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and will come out as a book this fall.

"A lot of the ideas that were in Pynchon were hovering around in my head — technology and the future and the present, true things and science fiction, and making them into pictures was almost a way to exorcise these ideas," says the 30-year-old Smith, a resident of Brooklyn.

Thomas Pynchon doesn't have the readership of Mitch Albom or Danielle Steel, but he is the rare writer who inspires such obsession by words alone. For more than 40 years, he has built and sustained a legend through such encyclopedic novels as "V." and "Gravity's Rainbow," avoiding all media contact or even publicity photos. For his new book, the 1,000-page "Against the Day," publisher Penguin Press didn't even issue a formal announcement, but assumed, correctly, that simply including it in the fall catalog would take care of the job.

"Pynchon fans tend to take his work seriously I think because, beyond the intrinsically interesting subject matter and intriguing stories, his books are so rich and complex, touching on so many topics," says Pynchon fan Doug Millison, a writer, editor and Web design consultant based in El Cerrito, Calif.

Pynchon is now 69, but time, and the Internet, have advanced in his favor. It's been nine years since his previous novel, "Mason & Dixon," came out, and fans have fully digitized their passion, building an online community worthy of an author who as much as anyone brought a high-tech sensibility to literary fiction. Numerous Web sites and a "Pynchon News Service" have been launched, and a team of experts is busy assembling a Wikipedia-like page for "Against the Day."

"It will, I predict, quickly become a focus of the several hundred reader-researchers worldwide who read Pynchon and write about his works in academic and popular media," Millison says. "The Internet has made it easy for Pynchon's academic critics and lay readers to find each other and sustain an online discussion that's continued now for over a decade."

Smith believes that Pynchon readers share a handful of characteristics, presumably not unlike the author's — liberal politics, an interest in technology and a broad and unpredictable range of interests.

Fans, who have gathered to talk Pynchon in London, Malta and elsewhere, all have their stories of conversion. Tim Ware, who runs the Web site http://www.thomaspynchon.com from Oakland, Calif., recalls having a hard time getting through "Gravity's Rainbow," at least the first time around.

"I went back and looked again at the first page and everything just sort of snapped into view, and I thought, `This guy is a genius,' like those who walked the Earth in the 19th century," says Ware.

"And I got rather messianic about it, and I wanted my wife to read it. I started creating an index of all the characters, because there were so many and it was so hard to keep track of them."

Millison also was turned on by "Gravity's Rainbow." He was an Army private — a company clerk "just like Radar O'Reilly" — in Korea in the summer of 1973, when he read the novel, which came out that year and won the National Book Award.

"`Gravity's Rainbow' hit me hard, especially the parts set in Europe during and just after World War II. I'd never read a writer whose voice on the page came so close to echoing the sound and feel of the Cold War '50s and '60s, hip and angry and complex," he says.

"I've read each of the novels at least twice, studying the text closely both times. I also collect first editions of Pynchon's novels, and first editions of the novels for which Pynchon has written endorsements, cover blurbs or support quotes that have been used in advertisements."

Charles Hollander, a Baltimore-based "independent scholar" of Pynchon, first read him as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University. It was 1963, the year Pynchon debuted with "V." Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" was becoming a counterculture classic, but Hollander believes that "Catch-22" was more about the veterans of World War II.

"Pynchon was the guy who wrote for my generation, so much so I heard people joke at parties that he had a receiver by which he could read others' late-night falling asleep thoughts," he says. "The reason ... (Pynchon) is important to me and his `fans' is he seems a bit ahead of the curve in seeing what is important, and what will become the important issues we are faced with."

He is as remote from the general public as J.D. Salinger, but Pynchon experts say they care more about his work than about the man himself, who reportedly lives in New York with his wife and agent, Melanie Jackson. Both Hollander and Ware say they know people friendly with Pynchon who insist he is not "some guy squirreling away in his attic," according to Hollander.

"My sources tell me he is pretty social, in his style. I think he avoids the media because he sees the media as an arm of the establishment, a means of social control that he won't be a party to," Hollander says.

"I've stayed away from the cult of personality. I don't play in that zone," Ware says.

"His reluctance to speak with the press or have his photograph taken kind of plays into the style of the novels. There's a lot of mystery and ambiguity in them, and a lot of mystery and ambiguity about the author. When you know things about the author, you begin to insert those feelings into the books. Not having any information makes the reading experience a little purer."



Pynchon fans eager to feast on new novel - Yahoo! News

YouTube video sets stage for novel

A film version of the opening chapter of Michael Connelly's 'Echo Park' is posted on the website to whet readers' appetites.

By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Times Staff Writer
November 4, 2006


Books have long been made into movies. Now, they're heading straight to YouTube.

Author Michael Connelly adapted the first chapter of his new murder mystery, "Echo Park," into a 10-minute film for YouTube and other online video sites in an attempt to attract readers.

Harry Bosch, Connelly's dark protagonist who is a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department, made his brooding debut online before "Echo Park" reached bookstores last month. The video, shot for about $10,000, ends with the tagline: "Read what happens next in 'Echo Park.' "

"I do believe this was a tool in getting people excited," said Connelly, a former reporter at The Times. "It was on the Internet, it was on YouTube, before the book was out. It sharpened excitement. So when the book came out, they were ready to buy it. I do know statistically that the first week of sales for 'Echo Park' was the best first week of sales I've had."

Book publishers face the same challenge bedeviling all media: how to compete for attention in an ever-growing entertainment market that includes TV, cable, online social networks, downloadable music and video, podcasts and video games.

The average time Americans spend reading has declined from 117 hours a year in 1999 to about 105 in 2006. Meanwhile, about 172,000 books were published last year — more than 19 new titles published for every hour of every day of every week.

"The author and the publisher realizes there isn't just clutter in the marketplace, there is massive clutter in terms of competing with other books," said Albert N. Greco, senior researcher at the Institute for Publishing Research in New Jersey. "Then, you compete with newspapers and magazines and video games and cable and satellite and music and doing nothing."

Publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux was among the first to try YouTube as a way to bring literature to the masses.

In August, it released a video book trailer to coincide with the release of "The Mystery Guest," a memoir from French writer Gregoire Bouillier. Others were soon to follow.

Broadway hired Santa Monica-based VidLit to create a book video of humorist Bill Bryson's memoir, "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid," using an audio book reading and black-and-white family photos.

"If you never saw Bill Bryson before, you definitely get an idea of what it's about," VidLit founder Liz Dubelman said.

Little, Brown and Co. produced a movie-slick trailer for "Echo Park" as part of an extended promotional campaign that mixes traditional book readings and television appearances with less conventional approaches, like podcasts and downloadable audio clips.

"The philosophy is just to create a movie-releases type of excitement for it," said Anthony Goff, an associate at Little, Brown's audio and digital media group.

Connelly wanted to do more.

He developed a script with Terrill Lee Lankford, a screenwriter whose credits include "Storm Trooper" and "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers."

They selected a location with special significance — the apartment building where Robert Altman shot the classic film "The Long Goodbye," from the book of the same title by author and screenwriter Raymond Chandler, creator of hard-boiled Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe.

Lankford hired actors Tim Abell, who appeared most recently in "Soldier of God," and Bill Bolender, whose television and movie credits include "The Shawshank Redemption."

Lankford and Connelly hope the online video does more than spur book sales. They hope it will persuade Hollywood studios to bring Bosch to the big screen.

"We're not saying this is studio-level quality, but that piece is about mood, it's about atmospherics. That's what Harry Bosch is about," Lankford said. "It was kind of a steppingstone to say Harry Bosch could exist. We could make a movie of this."

I had started watching this before I read the book, but I just couldn't get through the whole ten minutes. I'd love to know how other people reacted to it. Here is a link to the YouTube video: Echo Park

YouTube video sets stage for novel - Los Angeles Times

Selling Literature to Go With Your Lifestyle

By JULIE BOSMAN
Published: November 2, 2006

Most customers at the Anthropologie store in SoHo come for the delicately woven knits and the ultrafeminine floral dresses. But these days at least some are coming for the books.

Last Sunday the merchandise and books were coordinated with near-perfect precision. Resting beside a black sweater ($68) and a jet-black skirt with orange embellishments ($118) were copies of Annie Leibovitz’s “A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005,” big and black and gleaming, for $75. A pop-up book called “One Red Dot” echoed a display of polka-dotted canvas sneakers, while another title, “The Persistence of Yellow,” perfectly matched a strategically positioned yellow knit sweater.

Books are turning up in the oddest places these days.

With book sales sagging — down 2.6 percent as of August over the same period last year, according to the Association of American Publishers — publishers are pushing their books into butcher shops, carwashes, cookware stores, cheese shops, even chi-chi clothing boutiques where high-end literary titles are used to amplify the elegant lifestyle they are attempting to project.

What began as a trickle of cookbooks in kitchen shops and do-it-yourself titles in hardware stores has become, in recent months, the fastest growing component in many major publishers’ retail strategies.

“It’s a way for the book business to stay alive,” said Abby Hoffman, the vice president of sales and marketing for Chronicle Books in San Francisco, which sells most of its 350 offbeat titles each year to places like high-end grocery stores, children’s clothing stores and wineries. “Anyplace that sells merchandise is a place to sell books.”

When Starbucks got into the book business last month, it hitched its brand to Mitch Albom’s latest inevitable best seller, “For One More Day,” helping propel it to the top of the lists. But the shift in the business can more clearly be seen in the sale of lower-profile authors in lower-profile settings, where the right title in the right location can make all the difference for a book that might otherwise sink without a trace.

Mike’s Deli in the Bronx, for instance, has sold more than 4,500 copies of Ann Volkwein’s “Arthur Avenue Cookbook” at $25 each. That book otherwise sold only 8,000 copies nationwide, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks sales at major book chains, independent bookstores and online retailers, but not at places like Mike’s. But it sold so well at Mike’s that David Greco, the deli’s owner, began stocking more titles, including “The Italian American Cookbook” by John Mariani and “Con Amore: A Daughter-in-Law’s Story of Growing Up Italian-American in Bushwick” by Bea Tusiani.

Mr. Greco says he must factor in at least one expense that bookstores don’t: “When you deal with salami and mozzarella, its a little greasy. So we keep the books in plastic bags.”

After years of concentrating on big-box retailers like Borders and Barnes & Noble and online retailers like Amazon, many major publishing houses are retooling their tactics to take advantage of this new frontier.

Simon & Schuster, one of the industry’s largest publishers, is urging its sales representatives to punctuate their bookstore rounds with impromptu pitches at promising shops and markets they spot in their travels. The Time Warner Book Group routinely changes the color or design of book jackets at a store’s request so the book will color-coordinate with merchandise. And HarperCollins plans to design books for its spring catalog in shades of “margarita and sangria,” greens and reds that store owners have told the publisher will dominate that season’s color palette, said Andrea Rosen, vice president for special markets.

At Penguin Group, sales representatives have begun pushing into rural areas that are short on big bookstores, selling at cattle auctions, among other places.

The total number of books sold outside bookstores is impossible to discern. BookScan’s sales figures typically account for 60 percent to 70 percent of a book’s sales, but those figures do not include copies sold in nontraditional places.

Nonetheless, publishing houses know how it has affected their bottom line.

In the last four years Simon & Schuster’s special market sales, as they are called, have grown by 50 percent, surpassing total sales to independent bookstores, said Jack Romanos, the publishing house’s president and chief executive.

“The publisher now has a responsibility to put books in front of more eyeballs,” Mr. Romanos said. “The market was always there, but I don’t know that most publishers were as aggressive about trying to develop it 10 years ago as they are today.”

Some placements make intuitive sense: publishers sell a baby book to a specialty store like Buy Buy Baby; cookbooks go to Williams-Sonoma and other cookware outlets; glossy fashion books to clothing boutiques; design books to stores like Restoration Hardware. But some matches may not be so obvious. Even Bath & Body Works, at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., for instance, sells a half-dozen titles on subjects including weddings, gardening and travel to Provence.

With the proper placement, a book displayed at a national chain like Urban Outfitters can easily sell more there than at any other retailer, including blockbuster stores like Barnes & Noble. A recent article in Publishers Weekly noted that one surprise fall hit, “Wall and Piece,” written by the graffiti artist Banksy and published by the Century imprint of Random House in Britain, saw its biggest sales at Urban Outfitters and independent bookstores.

The point, publishers say, is to follow customers who might not otherwise visit bookstores into the places where they do shop, rather than waiting for customers to show up at bookstores or click on Amazon.com and other online sales sites.

People who buy books at farm-supply stores, for instance, are a prime potential market because there may be no bookstores in their rural communities, said Barbara O’Shea, president of nontrade sales for Penguin. “There is nobody selling books, so we’ve gotten these places to sell books,” she said.

The phenomenon is an urban and suburban one, as well.

Martin & Osa, a new clothing retailer aimed at 25-to-40-year-olds, stocks dozens of titles in its four stores and is planning to add more, including a “reading list” of graphic novels, fiction and nonfiction for customers. “We try to offer them things that aren’t mainstream, more unusual, more unique,” said Arnie Cohen, the chief marketing officer.

At Anthropologie on Sunday, Ruth Rennert lounged among the throw pillows on a mustard-yellow sofa — not far from that display of yellow sweaters and books — leafing through “Jackie: A Life in Pictures,” about the former first lady. Shopping for books in a setting like this, she said, is preferable to enduring the hustle and bustle of big bookstores.

While the bulk of books sold in some of these places are novelty titles — like “Bruce Aidells’s Complete Book of Pork” from HarperCollins, now in hundreds of butcher shops — in recent months a broader list of titles has also begun to emerge.

Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” is for sale at Urban Outfitters, for instance. Staples, the office-supply chain, began carrying business books several years ago, but more recently has added titles like “Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential,” by Joel Osteen.

And publishers have stumbled on advantages that often come with this territory: outside of a bookstore, a title enjoys less competition, a more inviting display space and the store’s implicit stamp of approval.

“You walk into Restoration Hardware and you want the couch and the vase and the nightstand, and then you want the two books that are on the nightstand,” Ms. Rosen said. “The books complete the story.”




Selling Literature to Go With Your Lifestyle - New York Times

More Pop

I checked with the fabulous Young Adult librarian, Karyn Dombrosky, at my library because if there was anyone who would know about the status of Pop and the likelihood of it appearing on the library's shelves, it would be this Goddess of all things pop culture and young adult. Not only had she ordered a copy, she had also read it. She liked it, thought it funny and cute but definitely graphic in the portrayal of sex - although not necessarily in a bad way.

Because it is an uncataloged paperback, there aren't nearly as many hoops to jump through to get the book into the library. But shelving it is another matter, and Karyn wasn't comfortable enough with it to just put it out there. Instead, she plans to turn it over to the branch manager to determine whether it should be shelved in the adult or young adult section. Generally books that have a protagonist that is a teenager and revolve around teenage angst would be shelved in YA, so we'll see.

Karyn then introduced me to Johnny Hazzard by Eddie De Oliveira. The hardcover came out last year but we had just gotten in, again, the uncataloged paperback. Karyn called it the "boy version" of the Pop book - a sexual coming of age story but told from the male perspective. Miraculously the book fell open to a graphic sex scene that included my favorite new phrase, (although I must confess that I'm unsure of its exact meaning) "spank the cheeky monkey."

Then our unrestrained librarian turned the tables on me and asked what I thought as a parent of a young teenager. She is aware that I don't believe in censorship as a rule, and this was no exception. After reading that bit of Johnny Hazzard, my feelings are that I wouldn't bring it home and say hi honey, here's a great book you should read, but on the other hand, I wouldn't mind if my daughter brought it home on her own. Although frankly, I do know other parents that would mind. A lot.

Books that feature sex among adolescents is a touchy subject but I still feel it best to err on the side of openness and availability. If you don't want your child to read certain books, then monitor what they take out from the library or buy from the bookstore or borrow from their friends - but don't ask the library or bookstore not to sell it to anyone else. And even worse, bookstores shouldn't censor themselves; after all, they are in the business of selling books and you can't sell what isn't on your shelves. Leave it up to your customers to decide how to spend their dollars.

Jessa Crispin Pops A Question To Borders
October 26, 2006
By Jessa Crispin

It's no revelation that today, getting a book published is only the beginning of an author's battle: The old fantasy that just having a book "out there" might be enough for it to find an audience has been replaced with the reality that an author has to take control of her own publicity—because as likely as not, the publisher-assigned publicist has moved on to a bigger, more marketable titles—in order to get potential readers into stores to buy books.

But what about a promising writer who finds herself at a huge disadvantage—essentially before even heading out of that starting gate—because one of the largest bookstore chains in America is refusing to stock her book?

Aury Wallington recently went from writing for television shows like Sex and the City and Veronica Mars to writing a young-adult novel called Pop! Her tale of a seventeen-year-old virgin and her quest to have sex is funny and reminiscent of another young-adult novelist. Wallington explained, "I wanted to write a book that would serve a new generation of girls the way Judy Blume's Forever served me—answering questions that I was too embarrassed to ask anyone, and showing the emotional issues of sex and virginity through a character I could identify with."

But sexual content in young-adult novels is a tricky issue right now, with books like Craig Thompson's Blankets getting pulled off of library shelves in Marshall, Mo., library because of an image on its cover of a couple lying in bed together, even though there isn't any sex depicted. As for Pop!, Wallington describes the book's sexual content as "on-screen, so to speak, although the language and act itself are not graphic."

While Barnes & Noble made the decision to carry Pop!, that’s not what happened at the other big store. Ami Hassler, children’s buyer for Borders Group, Inc., said, “It is true that we monthly review many titles and because the space in the YA section is not unlimited, we make choices every day regarding what to carry and what not to carry. Other factors in this decision include the format of the book, the price, the cover design, and the competitive landscape.”

So where does that leave Wallington and her book? Hassler does say that Borders will special-order Pop! if a customer requests it. But having the book available, and visible, in the stores is important. After all, a book’s marketing campaign has to be that much more convincing if a customer has to remember enough about the book to special-order it through a major retailer.

Wallington was disappointed to hear that Borders wouldn’t be carrying her first novel, especially with no clear answers as to why. Sexual content? No established audience? Perhaps it really was just the cover artthough that seems pretty unlikely, considering the image is of a soda can emblazoned with the title. Wallington believes the young-adult section is in need of books like hers. “There are so many contemporary young-adult novels that trivialize teen sex, where the characters are so glib and sophisticated that sexual intimacy seems like no big deal, and sex has few or no physical or emotional consequences, as opposed to the awkward, confusing struggle that most real teenagers go through, which I tried to capture honestly in my book.”

She continues, "I've been so pleased with the reaction I've gotten to Pop!, both from readers and organizations like Planned Parenthood (which is running an interview with me about both the book and the issues surrounding sex and virginity on its website, teenwire.com) that I was surprised and disheartened to learn that Borders won't be carrying it, especially since sex is such an immediate and overwhelming issue for most teenagers and there isn't a whole lot of current YA fiction which addresses the subject frankly without sensationalizing it."

Wallington's work will appear in Borders stores—just in the form of Veronica Mars DVD sets instead of Pop! Meanwhile, Wallington's editor at Razorbill, Kristin Pettit, is optimistic. "We remain hopeful however that Aury's voice will be heard through other channels."

I wonder if my library will be carrying this book? I wonder if yours is?

AGAINST THE DAY by Thomas Pynchon lands on my doorstep...

...and it makes quite a thud. I hated V, which is the only Pynchon I've read, but it's been a while since he's published and my hatred has simmered down to a general feeling of discomfort so I figured what the hell, I'll give it a try. I'm an English Lit major, I'm supposed to like this sort of thing. I can be like the cool kids, dis genre fiction and wax euphoric over novels with no plot. Oy.

I had a few days between reading assignments and I thought I'd plow through it and see what happens. But people, this isn't a book, it is a doorstopper. Over 1100 pages. Many, many characters and the setting spans numerous countries, some of which are made up. I can't do that in a weekend. And I've been sick and I'm too weak to even pick the freakin' thing up. It will take me a year to get through this and I don't know if I have the stamina for it.

Stay tuned...my trials and tribulations of dealing with Pynchon to follow...

Michael Connelly at Murder on the Beach


Sunday night I had the pleasure of attending a talk and book signing given by Michael Connelly at Murder on the Beach Mystery Bookstore in Delray Beach, Florida. Connelly is usually not all that comfortable with public speaking, but this is a small bookstore, and it was his second event of the day so perhaps that contributed to a greater comfort level than I've seen before. He spoke a bit about how he constructs his novels, in particular his latest, ECHO PARK. Then he took questions from the standing-room-only crowd - and there were lots of questions.

The Lincoln Lawyer is one of my favorite Connelly books, so I was happy to hear that another story featuring Mickey Haller will be forthcoming. However, when I asked if the two series - Harry Bosch & Mickey Haller - would at some point be merged into one, Connelly was quick to point out that Haller is not a series, and Bosch is the only series he writes. He did concede that since they are half brothers, at some point there will undoubtedly be a book where they come together.

Connelly also explained that Harry is getting near retirement age. He was born in 1950 (no birthdate ever given besides the year) and cops in L.A. don't generally work past age 60 because it's a money-losing proposition for them at that point. He also gave the impression that it is extremely unlikely that Harry would ever be killed off - and a collective sigh of relief was heard.

Raymond Chandler was cited as one of Connelly's biggest influences, along with Joseph Wambaugh and Ross MacDonald - and it shows in his writing, in my opinion. But that led me to ask another question, about the Janet Maslin review in the NY Times (Oct. 16, 2006) in which she stated, "And Mr. Connelly now does some of his writing in Mr. Chandler’s old apartment, a place he uses for inspiration. No living crime writer has a better right to be there."

Connelly was quick to point out that it was a mistake - yes, in the NY Times. He does rent an apartment in Los Angeles but it isn't Chandler's apartment. However, there is a connection - the apartment is at the address of Chandler's famous fictional character, Phillip Marlowe. Connelly said he didn't think that Chandler had ever stepped foot in it.


pictured, left to right: Tom Corcoran, Jonathon King, the BookBitch, Michael Connelly, James O. Born



The audience was appreciative and there was a long line of people waiting to get their books signed. A lot were serious fans and some were wanna-be crime fiction writers. I also ran into Oline Cogdill, mystery reviewer for the Sun-Sentinel, and some local authors, including James O. Born, Tom Corcoran, and Jonathan King. King told me that the Miami Book Fair was gearing up for Mystery Sunday on November 19, and I'm really looking forward to that!

THE KING IS COMING TO LONDON
(or going, depending on where you are)

Stephen King will soon make his first UK appearance in 10 years to coincide with publication of LISEY'S STORY. This exclusive event, presented by The Times, Hodder & Stoughton and Waterstone's, will take place at Battersea park Events Arena on November 7th at 7.00pm. Tickets cost £15.00 each. Book yours now on: 08708 303 488

I wish I could go, but since I can't, I'd love to hear all about it!

A Crowded Autumn Book Season Presents a Pileup of Name Authors
By JULIE BOSMAN
NY TIMES

Fall has always been the busy season in publishing, with its inevitable crush of titles scrambling for attention and a toehold in bookstores, but at no time in recent memory has there been such a traffic jam of big-name authors unleashing top-drawer books.

Already, the October best-seller lists read like a who’s who: Mitch Albom, Bob Woodward, Frank Rich, John Grisham, Michael Connelly, John le Carré, Cormac McCarthy, Charles Frazier and Janet Evanovich.

In coming weeks, they are likely to be joined by literary rock stars like Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Richard Ford, Thomas Harris and Thomas Pynchon.

To the great delight of retailers, autumn is packed with big-budget, name-brand writers, and winners have already begun to emerge, though there have been some crackups as well, and the climate has made it a particularly difficult season for lesser-known writers. The nonfiction star of the season, Mr. Woodward’s “State of Denial,” has moved 309,000 copies since it went on sale Sept. 30, according to Nielsen BookScan, and stores are having trouble keeping the book in stock. “Right now, it’s like printing money,” said Gerry Donaghy, a purchasing supervisor at Powell Books, an independent bookstore in Portland, Ore.

Last week, Mr. Grisham came out with “The Innocent Man,” his first work of nonfiction, a book that has inspired so much confidence in his publisher, Doubleday, that it has already printed 2.8 million copies.

The latest Bill O’Reilly book, “Culture Warrior,” made its debut at No. 1 on the best-seller list of The New York Times and has sold roughly 121,000 copies since it was published Sept. 15.

Among the casualties of the season have been “The Interpretation of Murder,” by Jed Rubenfeld, a literary murder mystery starring a fictionalized Sigmund Freud that has fallen well short of its publisher’s expectations. Also falling short has been “The Meaning of Night: A Confession,” by Michael Cox, published by W. W. Norton on Sept. 18. “A Spot of Bother,” by Mark Haddon, appeared briefly on the Times’s expanded best-seller list but then dropped off completely, a disappointment for an author whose last book, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” spent 58 weeks on the paperback list.

Publishers and retailers are hoping for an industrywide lift during this high season, when holiday gift giving pushes up bookstore traffic. It may also be a respite for booksellers, who have been grumbling for several years about sluggish sales and a dearth of dependable blockbuster fiction.

“This is one of the best fall seasons for fiction that we’ve seen in a long, long time,” said Stan Hynds, a book buyer at Northshire Bookstore, an independent bookseller in Manchester Center, Vt. “The category has been hurting for a few years because political books have been so dominant, so it’s nice that it’s going to bounce back this season.”

The lineup of writers this season includes many who have large and loyal fan bases, the kind of customers who will buy anything a favorite author writes. One of those authors, Mr. Albom, has a new book, “For One More Day,” to yank at his readers’ heartstrings; it has sold roughly 319,000 copies, according to BookScan. The much-anticipated “Thirteen Moons,” Mr. Frazier’s follow-up to his hit novel, “Cold Mountain,” has been closely watched since its debut on Oct. 3. So far, 74,000 copies have been sold, according to BookScan, a sizable number for a literary novel, but hardly Albom territory.

Others are expected to sell more modestly but reliably, like Mr. le Carré’s “Mission Song,” which was published by Little, Brown on Sept. 19. “It’s like bread: grocery stores know they’re going to sell it,” said Margaret Maupin, a buyer at the Tattered Cover in Denver. “He is such a comfortable sell because people who love him will come in and ask for him.” So far, the book has sold 41,000 copies.

And the next several weeks will bring potentially best-selling books by Erik Larson, whose previous nonfiction book, “The Devil in the White City,” has held a place on the paperback best-seller list for more than two years; and Mr. Harris, whose “Hannibal Rising,” a prequel to his “Silence of the Lambs” featuring America’s favorite serial-killing cannibal, is to be published on Dec. 5 by Delacorte Press, a Random House imprint.

BookScan measures sales at bookstores, online retailers and some mass merchandisers, which make up roughly 70 to 80 percent of a new hardcover’s sales. (Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, does not provide sales figures to BookScan.)

Publishers attribute the crowded house of fall fiction to a handful of factors, some planned and some coincidental. Since the fall months see higher sales in stores and online, publishers purposely release big books during this season to maximize attention and sales. Some authors who publish books only sporadically, like Mr. Pynchon and Mr. Frazier, happened to have new works this year, squeezing the market even more.

For companies that choose fall publication dates, it means taking a risk that a book that might snatch a best-seller list spot in a quieter month will be muscled off by an even bigger book. “There’s some cannibalization that goes on,” said David Rosenthal, the publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint. “You can only carry so many books at the register.”

By the same token, Mr. Rosenthal added, whatever sales might be lost because of the crowded market are usually made up in the higher sales in bookstores.

Some publishers took pains to avoid being swallowed up by the big names this season, releasing their books during quieter months. “A lot of people we have pushed to January or pulled forward to August because we knew it was going to be a killer fall,” said Neil Nyren, the publisher and editor in chief of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, a Penguin imprint. He moved one such book, “The Afghan,” a novel by Frederick Forsyth, to August. “I just didn’t want to plunk it down in the middle of all that,” he said of October and November. “Putting it in those slots would just be killing it.”

HarperCollins has chosen to wait until Jan. 9 to release “Sacred Games,” a 900-page novel by Vikram Chandra that has been described as the Indian version of “The Godfather.” A book by Norman Mailer, “The Castle in the Forest,” will be published by Random House Jan. 23.

It appears that the crop of books by big-name authors may have squeezed out some mainstays in the fall season. For instance, celebrity memoirs are scarce, and the few examples in that category that are holding spots on best-seller lists could practically be classified as political books, like “In the Line of Fire,” by President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, or “Saving Graces,” by Elizabeth Edwards.

One or two historical biographies usually emerge during the fall season, as “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin did last year and “John Adams” by David McCullough did in 2001. So far this year, none have occupied that space, so some bookstores are depending on the paperback version of “Team of Rivals,” released on Sept. 26.

Still, Mr. Rosenthal said the fierce competition in the fall can be traced to the high level of store traffic that is irresistible to publishers. “It is Darwinian,” Mr. Rosenthal said. “Some books will live, and some books will die.”



Fall Season - Books - Report - New York Times

At Reuters, a New Book and a Lost Job
By NOAM COHEN

On Tuesday, Joe Maguire, one of two editors in charge of markets coverage at Reuters, handed his bosses the galleys of his new book, “Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter.” On Wednesday, Mr. Maguire discovered he would have plenty of free time to promote his book, which comes out this week. Neither side in this dispute would say that he was fired.

“There was a difference of opinion about the approval I received to write this book,” Mr. Maguire said. “I thought I had met the conditions, and proceeded accordingly. As a result, I no longer work there.”

Mr. Maguire, who joined Reuters in April, said the book “looks at Ann Coulter’s arguments, and deconstructs them to show how misguided they can be.”

He added: “When the political discourse has dropped to the unfathomable levels it has, someone has to say this is wrong.”

He said he was unable to interview Ms. Coulter for the book, or even get her to return e-mail or phone messages left through her publicist.

Reuters confirmed that Mr. Maguire was granted conditional approval to write his book on Ms. Coulter — a conservative lightning rod, author and TV talking head. When asked what changed once the book was ready, a company statement pointed to Reuters’ principles of “integrity, independence and freedom from bias.” The statement reads: “Our editorial policy and The Reuters Trust Principles are prominently displayed for all to see on www.about.reuters.com. Mr. Maguire’s book will soon be available. Both speak for themselves.”

Mr. Maguire’s publisher, the William Morrow imprint of HarperCollins, said, “It would be very disappointing if Joe Maguire’s dismissal from Reuters had anything to do with him authoring, ‘Brainless,’ ” which it described as a “compelling and witty book.”

A Reuters employee who insisted on anonymity out of concern at angering management said that the 20 or so employees at the markets desk where Mr. Maguire had been one of two editors in charge “took a group coffee break” in solidarity on Thursday.

On Friday, the employee said, there was a meeting with Reuters management informing the workers there that Mr. Maguire would no longer be working there and that they “weren’t allowed to ask why.” Printed copies of the principles of trust were handed out, however. NOAM COHEN, NY Times

Thanks to an anonymous comment on a previous post about BRAINLESS by Joe Maguire, I was easily able to find this article. ~Stacy


At Reuters, a New Book and a Lost Job - New York Times

Web Event with Paulo Coelho

At 3 PM ET on Wednesday, October 11th, Paulo Coelho will be discussing his books and answering readers' questions. To participate in this free event, readers will need to register and login at 3 PM ET on October 11th.

To register for the event, readers should visit:
http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=27697&s=1&k=D0DBA084ADF0D73D3CFA29491E49B1A4&partnerref=BR

Throughout this web event readers can submit questions to Paulo and hear his responses. Participants will need access to a computer, an Internet connection and audio capabilities (built-in or external speakers). The questions will be posed to Paulo by a moderator --- Beliefnet Spirituality Editor Valerie Reiss. While Paulo is talking, participants can view a slide presentation about him and his books and submit questions via the event interface. Upon registration, participants will be sent to a confirmation page, which will have information on system requirements and how to login to the event.

For more details about Paulo Coelho and his work, please visit: http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/1858/Paulo_Coelho/index.aspx and http://www.paulocoelho.com.

Beliefnet's feature on Paulo Coelho can be read at http://www.beliefnet.com/paulocoelho.

Young Adult Book Club Gathers in Unusual Location

A cooperative effort between the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) and the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County (PLCMC) supports the biweekly meeting of the Freedom Reads Book Club. This reading group is composed of young adult males, ages 16 & 17, housed at Jail North. Their reasons for being in jail are varied but not relevant to participation. The only requirement is an interest in reading.

Until recently, the group met at 8:30 on Wednesday mornings. Most adults would not voluntarily arise and attend a book club meeting at 8:30 a.m. But these young men did and continue to attend on Tuesdays at 3:00 p.m. In addition to reading, activities are planned that replicate opportunities available at ImaginOn.

Club members created puppets and produced a puppet show using folk tales such as the Three Billy Goats Gruff. Four members registered for the summer reading program at PLCMC. They maintained a log of their reading that was recorded by MCSO librarian, Margo Fesperman, on the PLCMC website. Several won prizes at the 10, 20 and 30-hour levels.

Like most book clubs, this group reads a book and discusses the plot, characters and appeal during the meeting. Kelly Czarnecki, Teen librarian from ImaginOn, clearly understands the nature of teenage behavior. The library standard of "Casual but not Chaotic" provides an atmosphere that encourages self expression and exploration of ideas. "We want the teens to feel comfortable coming to the public library once they reenter the community", Czarnecki concluded.

Although the club was formed in January 2006, it has reached several milestones already. It was selected as a GreatStories CLUB by the American Library Association and received an award of 10 copies each of 3 popular young adult titles.

GreatStories CLUBs are an ALA project aimed at "Connecting Libraries, Underserved Teens and Books." The group was also featured at the Diversity Fair during the ALA convention in New Orleans in June.

Reading is not limited to the book club members. Approximately 75% of all youthful offenders at Jail North request to come to the library and nonfiction books are as popular as fiction. During a recent month, 73 kids checked out 370 books.

Because these young men are such avid readers, the partnership between PLCMC and MCSO is invaluable. However, extra support is always needed. Neither library has endless resources. MCSO Library has a special fund for monetary donations that are tax deductible. Liquid funds help us procure designated titles that are specifically needed for the young adult collection, Fesperman said. Another avenue of support is the Adopt a Book Club program. Eight to ten copies of a book are needed for each session of the club so everyone can read the book simultaneously. Interested persons or groups can purchase copies of an upcoming title and donate them to the book club.



News Releases

Let's Talk About Blogs

You can't talk about books and the Internet without talking about blogs. Or maybe I shouldn't be; according to Websters New Millenium Dictionary, "blog" is a word, but "blogs" is unrecognizable.

Nevertheless, there are more book blogs than you shake a stick at (although why you'd want to shake a stick at a blog is beyond me.) Something for everyone, or so it seems. I got an email last night about a new one - Detectives Beyond Borders: A Forum for International Crime Fiction "Because Murder is More Fun Away From Home" written by a copy editor from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Hey, I wonder if he knows John Grogan, a columnist at the Inquirer who was a former columnist for the south Florida Sun-Sentinel, and is the author of the mega-bestseller Marley & Me, and a really nice guy. If he is, he hasn't said so he's not cashing in on that at any rate. But how can you not be intrigued by a blog with a subtitle like that!

Crime fiction has spawned all manner of blogs. Some of the best are:

Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind
Sarah Weinman, crime fiction columnist for The Baltimore Sun, blogs for mystery and suspense lovers.

Crime Fiction Dossier
Commentary on the world of crime fiction, including mystery and thriller novels, authors, reviews and publishing. From David J. Montgomery, a writer and critic specializing in crime fiction - who I believe has a first novel in the works.

Crime Lab Project Forum
A place to talk about the Crime Lab Project, forensic science,
and news from the CLP News/CLP Morgue.
The CLP Forum is moderated by Jan Burke on behalf of the Crime Lab Project , a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of the needs of public forensic science agencies.

First Offenders
Four mystery authors share their journey: Karen E Olson, Jeff Shelby, Alison Gaylin, & Lori G. Armstrong.

Girl-Detective: Baby Got Crime...
The Girl Detective is Diana Killian, mystery writer and fan of vintage crime films and books. She'll be cracking wise on movies, books, writing and publishing--and whatever else catches her magnifying glass.

It's a Crime (or a mystery...)
UK based reader of crime fiction brings you the best of crime and mystery fiction.

The Lady Killers
Rhys Bowen, Lyn Hamilton, Meg Chittenden, Mary Anna Evans, Cara Black: Five female writers of mystery fiction share their wit and wisdom, writing tips and travel
experiences.

The Lipstick Chronicles
Where the book tarts - Harly Jane Kozak, Nancy Martin, Susan McBride, Sarah Strohmeyer & Elaine Viets - talk love, laughter, laundry and the mysteries of the writing life.

The Little Blog of Murder
Confessions of six Ohio mystery writers: Don Bruns, Judy Clemens, Casey Daniels, Jeffrey Marks, Sharon Short, Heather Webber, with an occasional guest blogger.

Murderati
7 mystery writers dedicated to Mysteries, Murder and Marketing: Pari Noskin Taichert, Denise Dietz, Naomi Hirahara, Simon Wood, JT Ellison, Elaine Flinn & Jeffrey Cohen.

Paperback Mysteries
Reviews of new paperbacks by Dick Adler, who writes the crime fiction column in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday.

Rap Sheet
Information about new and forthcoming books, special author projects, genre innovations, and distinctive crime-fiction-related Web sites.

And no list of book blogs would be complete without mentioning these gals --

BookSlut
Do you really need an explanation? Suffice it to say: for the literati.

Buzz Girl
A publishing insider gets the skinny on tomorrow's bestsellers.

Finish reading all those then come back for more. I'm just getting warmed up. I haven't even touched on author blogs...