I like that I get announcements about new an innovative ideas and one just popped up in my inbox today. Margaret Atwood is a well known author who developed a revolutionary idea and put it into action.
Drum roll please . . . She developed software and hardware that enables authors to sign books from thousands of miles away. I know, it sounds like it is straight out of science fiction but if you think about how surgery can be done with the doctor in charge in another country, it doesn't seem so far fetched.
From what I understand, the author can be in England and the fans in New York. The invention called "LongPen" uses video conferencing and the internet to bring authors and fans together. Fans place an object they want signed on a special machine with a pen attached, the author signs a special tablet they have at home and like a miracle, the pen duplicates the signature!
During the signing, the author and fan see and interact over a webcam where they can make eye contact and converse. The trials seem to be successful with fans saying it's less intimidating to be out of the author's immediate presence.
As a big sci-fi fan, this whole idea brings to mind a Star Trek episode where one world was dying off because the people interacted over the computer only. There was one teenage boy and girl left and the crew's mission was to find a way to get them off the computer and interacting with each other. Is signing from miles away the next step towards this future? Probably not but it's fun to speculate about!
The "LongPen" will be premiered at BEA this year with several authors staying home and saving all that airplane fuel (and ticket, admission and lodging costs) to show the book industry how the device works. I look forward to hearing more about what fans think! You never know, this may be the next step in publicity!
To find out more about "LongPen", go to http://www.longpen.com/lp-welcome.html.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Monday, May 7, 2007
Update
If you have read all of my history, you know that I considered writing a book on this topic. I decided to go full steam ahead and write a book I'm entitling "Writer Beware". Check back soon for more information!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Would you turn down the opportunity for a traditional publisher?
I am contracting with an author right now that is in essence doing just that. He was contacted by (yes you read that right -she sought him out) the former vice-president of Penguin Books about his novel. She has been trying to hook him up with a traditional publisher since last year and wants to publicize him after that.
He is tired of waiting and so he called me back (a year after we talked last) to represent him.
He decided that he wants a book in print so he's just going to publish the book himself through Book Surge (a subsidiary of Amazon.com) and sell thousands of copies and be picked up by a traditional publisher later. Here's the kicker: He's not making the book available to major distributors like Baker and Taylor and Ingram. If you've read the other posts you know that means bookstores cannot order his books. He plans on selling thousands of books through Amazon.com alone. He talked about nationally syndicated book review programs that he wants to be on. He has great plans for his book but all that resonated through my head was our conversation from a year ago when he said, "There's typos in the book but they don't matter!"
I think it's an understatement to say I was floored through our whole conversation as he revealed more and more of his plans.
Here are the main points in our conversation I felt he needed to know:
1. I can't make any guarantees about the media who might want to interview him because I haven't even seen a copyof his manuscript. (I have to check and see if he cleaned up all the typos he mentioned before.)
2. The big nationally syndicated shows he was talking about aren't going to look at him because he doesn't have a major publisher behind him. Your publisher matters when you want in with the big players in the literary industry.
3. The cover price matters. He said he chose his cover price of $15.00 but if there's only 100 pages we have a major problem!
4. He can't expect to do any bookstore signings since the bookstores can't purchase his book from the distributors.
The other topic I discussed is that I would never encourage an author to stop trying for a traditional publisher until he got his final no. He has not received a single rejection! He said his friend waited 2-3 years and was published by a small publisher that didn't rocket his friend to the top so he wasn't going to wait.
Wow. He wants to sell thousands of copies right off the bat without making them available to bookstores, getting a top of the line publisher or even possibly having a crystal clear manuscript. But he's hiring a publicist so that should make it all better!
Memo to authors:
Publicists can typically do what you can't but we're not demi-gods or miracle workers. Please give us something to work with!
I can already see the cloud of doom on the horizon making me the bad guy because his book didn't sell thousands of copies.
He is tired of waiting and so he called me back (a year after we talked last) to represent him.
He decided that he wants a book in print so he's just going to publish the book himself through Book Surge (a subsidiary of Amazon.com) and sell thousands of copies and be picked up by a traditional publisher later. Here's the kicker: He's not making the book available to major distributors like Baker and Taylor and Ingram. If you've read the other posts you know that means bookstores cannot order his books. He plans on selling thousands of books through Amazon.com alone. He talked about nationally syndicated book review programs that he wants to be on. He has great plans for his book but all that resonated through my head was our conversation from a year ago when he said, "There's typos in the book but they don't matter!"
I think it's an understatement to say I was floored through our whole conversation as he revealed more and more of his plans.
Here are the main points in our conversation I felt he needed to know:
1. I can't make any guarantees about the media who might want to interview him because I haven't even seen a copyof his manuscript. (I have to check and see if he cleaned up all the typos he mentioned before.)
2. The big nationally syndicated shows he was talking about aren't going to look at him because he doesn't have a major publisher behind him. Your publisher matters when you want in with the big players in the literary industry.
3. The cover price matters. He said he chose his cover price of $15.00 but if there's only 100 pages we have a major problem!
4. He can't expect to do any bookstore signings since the bookstores can't purchase his book from the distributors.
The other topic I discussed is that I would never encourage an author to stop trying for a traditional publisher until he got his final no. He has not received a single rejection! He said his friend waited 2-3 years and was published by a small publisher that didn't rocket his friend to the top so he wasn't going to wait.
Wow. He wants to sell thousands of copies right off the bat without making them available to bookstores, getting a top of the line publisher or even possibly having a crystal clear manuscript. But he's hiring a publicist so that should make it all better!
Memo to authors:
Publicists can typically do what you can't but we're not demi-gods or miracle workers. Please give us something to work with!
I can already see the cloud of doom on the horizon making me the bad guy because his book didn't sell thousands of copies.
What exactly do you do on a publicity campaign?
This question was posed to me today and the answer isn't cut and dry simple unfortunately. It depends on the topic and merits of the book.
For example, I am representing a retirement book for government employees soon. This is a non-fiction book written to inform government employees of their many retirement options and advertise a company's services at the same time.
The book is well written with no apparent typos, has a great cover and has a relevant topic. The author obviously isn't as interested in book signings as in lectures for people who are interested in his topic to garner new business contacts. He is also more interested in local media so he can reach potential clients.
For this client I will planning an event calendar around his area at local libraries and other free venues then send that calendar to the local teacher's unions, fire union, fraternal order of police and any other civil servants I can reach. I will also be contacting his local media around the events I line up and try for several interviews. So long as there aren't any devastating events such as the Virginia Tech shooting I should be able to garner interest in his local area. After I have covered his local area, I will spread out to the national level and make contacts.
A book I represented last year was a political thriller. The premise of the book was fascinating and was decently written. Unfortunately, that genre is extremely hard to write well because all of your facts have to be dead on to get a good review. This author was not dead on all his facts. He also was not returnable for book stores and if you have read my other posts, you know that this is the kiss of death for book signings at book stores. This author is also from a large metropolitan area so authors aren't big news.
I struggled with representing this author. None of the bookstores in his area would host him since he wasn't returnable. Not a single one would even host him on a consignment basis. I set him up to do signings at several local coffee shops but he went to one and stood up the rest. I tried for any and all local media and I did get him some articles and interview requests. The last interview request he turned down. I really wasn't too hard on him though because by this time he was getting reviews back that weren't bad but did point out a lot of storyline flaws. I really don't blame him for getting discouraged.
Another author I'm speaking with has a book that he churned out quickly -he admits this -and is a powerful message delivered poorly. I have told him flat out that I will not send it to my reviewers because I won't get positive reviews from them if they even post a review at all. This author's message is so powerful though that I am trying to figure out how to sell his message without really pushing the book angle hard. Wish me luck on that one. I really just want the author to rewrite but his publisher (not truly traditional but claims to be) REALLY doesn't like that idea.
Honestly, a media campaign cannot be planned until the book is in the hands of the publicist. What I do for an author depends on the topic, quality and region of the author. As I come across different problems in the campaign, I shift my tactics and try different ideas continually.
For example, I am representing a retirement book for government employees soon. This is a non-fiction book written to inform government employees of their many retirement options and advertise a company's services at the same time.
The book is well written with no apparent typos, has a great cover and has a relevant topic. The author obviously isn't as interested in book signings as in lectures for people who are interested in his topic to garner new business contacts. He is also more interested in local media so he can reach potential clients.
For this client I will planning an event calendar around his area at local libraries and other free venues then send that calendar to the local teacher's unions, fire union, fraternal order of police and any other civil servants I can reach. I will also be contacting his local media around the events I line up and try for several interviews. So long as there aren't any devastating events such as the Virginia Tech shooting I should be able to garner interest in his local area. After I have covered his local area, I will spread out to the national level and make contacts.
A book I represented last year was a political thriller. The premise of the book was fascinating and was decently written. Unfortunately, that genre is extremely hard to write well because all of your facts have to be dead on to get a good review. This author was not dead on all his facts. He also was not returnable for book stores and if you have read my other posts, you know that this is the kiss of death for book signings at book stores. This author is also from a large metropolitan area so authors aren't big news.
I struggled with representing this author. None of the bookstores in his area would host him since he wasn't returnable. Not a single one would even host him on a consignment basis. I set him up to do signings at several local coffee shops but he went to one and stood up the rest. I tried for any and all local media and I did get him some articles and interview requests. The last interview request he turned down. I really wasn't too hard on him though because by this time he was getting reviews back that weren't bad but did point out a lot of storyline flaws. I really don't blame him for getting discouraged.
Another author I'm speaking with has a book that he churned out quickly -he admits this -and is a powerful message delivered poorly. I have told him flat out that I will not send it to my reviewers because I won't get positive reviews from them if they even post a review at all. This author's message is so powerful though that I am trying to figure out how to sell his message without really pushing the book angle hard. Wish me luck on that one. I really just want the author to rewrite but his publisher (not truly traditional but claims to be) REALLY doesn't like that idea.
Honestly, a media campaign cannot be planned until the book is in the hands of the publicist. What I do for an author depends on the topic, quality and region of the author. As I come across different problems in the campaign, I shift my tactics and try different ideas continually.
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