Articles from June 2007

Borders Publishes A Book, Will It Change The World?

June 26th, 2007 · 14 Comments

So Borders has seen Barnes & Noble and raised the stakes: rather than ad nauseum reprints of classic, public domain cash cows, novels, Borders has gone ahead and published an original novel by a living, breathing author. Living, breathing authors are useful because they can do things like publicity. You don’t see Charles Dickens out […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing

Connecting Books With Readers: A Failure

June 21st, 2007 · 16 Comments

Let me share a sad, sordid tale with you. Be forewarned: I do not look good in this tale and admit to what some might consider an ethical lapse. If you are not willing to have your illusions shattered, read no further. The sad thing is that the industry has the technology to get this […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing

Hansel and Gretel Were Right: Number 99 in Our Series on Search

June 19th, 2007 · 5 Comments

Day one of the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference has been both eye-opening and, well, comforting. The latter because, as we’re sure you can imagine, we do so like to be right, and we’re feeling very right at the moment. The former because we’re seeing a strong desire to make fundamental changes in how the […]

File Under: Marketing For Introverts

Publishers Explore the Metaverse

June 18th, 2007 · 7 Comments

BS: While we are off to attend O’Reilly Media’s Tools of Change conference, we invited a guest writer to fill in. Ronin Kurosawa came highly recommended, though, in retrospect, we should have been more suspicious of his references. Still, we find his reporting to be thorough and excellent reading. One note, however: Ronin seems to […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing

How To Behave In The Blogosphere, The Easy Way

June 14th, 2007 · 2 Comments

We know that publishers are huddled in meetings, devising strategies for going forth and embracing the blogosphere. There may be task forces or committees or, shudder, ad hoc committees. Now that they have religion, publishers and more than a few authors are trying to figure out how to make the most of the opportunities provided […]

File Under: Marketing For Introverts

Stealing vs. Search – The Difference

June 11th, 2007 · 6 Comments

Now don’t get us wrong, we think that Richard Charkin is a bright, savvy man. We would have, at one point, even suggested that he understood the difference between search and anonymity. Sigh. Let us try this one more time. Search is not about Google — search is about making sure your customers find you. […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing

Does Anyone Die?

June 7th, 2007 · 2 Comments

[BS: Yes, dears, your fondest wishes have come true! Instead of our regularly scheduled ramblings, today, we offer you a cautionary tale from David Silverman, author of Typo, the Last American Typesetter or How I Made and Lost $4 Million.] “Does anyone die?” the literary agent on the stage asks me. “Yes,” I say, hoping […]

File Under: Wrapped Up In Books

The Tupperware Party As The New Marketing Metaphor

June 5th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Every now and then, we are contacted by very kind individuals who are part of publishing “blogging outreach” programs. Based on our very careful, very detailed research, we have determined that these good folks are tasked with contacting bloggers of various persuasions and asking them if they would like free books. Your corporate website is […]

File Under: Marketing For Introverts

Niche, Niche, Niche — All We Ever Do Is Niche

June 4th, 2007 · 6 Comments

As news trickles our way from the 2007 BookExpo America gathering (breaking: air conditioning not so very available), we are gathering the threads of a few themes. Meaning, yes, we’ll be analyzing and discussing them over the next few days. A biggie to emerge from the conference is the concept of niches. Putting advertising where […]

File Under: Marketing For Introverts