Great Author's Bookmark Idea

Author Chris Crutcher has a great idea that also saves money on his webpage. He has uploaded his newest bookmark (front and back). The beauty of this particular bookmark? While most authors create new bookmarks for each new book they write and promote, Crutcher has chosen to promote himself - the story writer.

It's a awesome concept and if I'm late on the train, so what! He never needs another bookmark. On one side it has an outstretched photo of him with the phrase "I feel a story coming on . . ." and on the reverse is his headshowt and contact information. Brilliant!


Don't totally copy or plagerize it, but please use the concept. And give Chris his props. Check out his site here:
Author, Chris Crutcher - Homepage

HarperCollins Publishers Promotion to Make Select Books Available Online for Free

According to Seth Godin at the O'Reilly TOC conference this week "Authors are really idea merchants. The ideas that spread best win. Free ideas spread better than paid ideas. The way you monetize this is to sell 'souvenirs'.... It's not a new way of promoting, it's a whole new business."

This was part of his take on HarperCollins new program to offer complete online access to a select group of books for a month at a time. They are also providing "sneak peaks" of selected books by activating online access (limited to only 20 percent of the text) two weeks before the on-sale date. The files can only be viewed via the web and cannot be downloaded or printed.

Author and marketing guru Godin sees the Harper announcement as a typical traditional book publishing mentality attempting a new initiative: "They took all the [viral marketing] things that work--that make it spread--and they're turning them off." His idea is that marketing is "trying to start conversations, and if that conversation takes place the ideas spread."

Godin may be correct, but the big houses are scrambling to recreate the old publishing paradigm within the expanding internet universe. Tor Books is now offering a program with "free digital books from bestselling and award-winning SF and fantasy authors" through a newsletter sign-up on their website. Random House has announced "a pilot project to sell individual chapters of a book online."

HarperCollins Publishers Promotion to Make Select Books Available Online for Free: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

The More Things Change . . . Books and Race - Blah, Blah, Blah

As a writer, where do you want your book to reside in ANY bookstore? That's right. WHEREVER the most people interested in your genre will find it. It's a shame that writers of Sci-Fi, horror, and other genres are instantly installed in the "African American" section of the major booksellers just because they also happen to be a different shade.

Simply put, bookstore segregation must stop. However, there will be no busing of novels across the store aisles. Supposedly, Barnes and Nobel has begun to integrate their fiction stacks.

I am going to keep my eye on the lawsuit filed by Nadine Aldred against her publisher, the Penguin Group. This lawsuit and the larger issue are covered in this article written by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in the December 6, 2006 issue of the Wall Street Journal: Why Book Industry Sees the World Split Still by Race - WSJ.com

The blog, "On The Wrong Side of the Alligator" has posted a large portion of the complaint. It's lengthy but fascinating reading for those of us that want the best chance to produce an international bestseller. Ms. Aldred's pseudonym weighs in on her blog here: Millenia Black | Taking Care of Business

Easy Trackers for Book Trends & Statistics Junkies

You're not the only one obsessed with your sales ranking on Amazon
and Barnes & Noble. There are several free online tools for tracking sales rankings, because authors and publishers just can't wait 
for their daily fix of the numbers.

Title Z instantly retrieves historic and current sales rankings from Amazon and creates printable reports. Check the trends and see how topics or titles perform over time - for free (for now).

Check out charts of the top gainers, losers, and the 'currently hot' on Charteous. You can even see the 'all time favorites' (Hmm . . . let's see - Harry Potter, any thing in Oprah's book club, and the tell all for 2007 - The Secret).

If you can't get your numbers fix on here, nothing will do. The true numbers gatherers are those that subscribe to the 'Amazon BestSeller' pitch. Wow! I'm a best seller if I get every one in my mailing lists and my uncle Bob's email list to buy my book at 3:47 am on Amazon. I will then be the best seller for an entire hour. Hot Diggity! Oh yeah, where's my bling?

Don't sell the trailer and buy that Mercedes just yet. According to Steve Weber in his newest offering "Plug Your Book" - ". . . a single technique doesn’t support a book for long; steady sales depend on continuous promotion." On page 34 he demonstrates with Title Z charts the importance of a  'Long Tail' strategy versus the InstaBestseller Campaign.

Oh well. I never take a look at the sales ranking when I buy online. I always go by content, what I need at the time, and personal recommendations. Go figure.