The PC in those Mac ads, the Daily Show's "resident expert" — yes, him. After a star turn in our recent
State by State film,
John Hodgman returns to Powell's with
More Information Than You Require,
his second volume of complete(ly made-up) world knowledge. At the Burnside Street store, during a break from Wordstock, he talked about mole-men and hobos, of course, but also Battlestar Galactica, Mall of America food stands, and life as a famous minor television personality.]]>
Graphic designer extraordinaire Chip Kidd presents
Bat-Manga!,
the first collection of Japanese Batman comics anywhere in the world! Originally published in 1966, at the height of the first worldwide Batman craze, and written and illustrated by manga legend Jiro Kuwata, these adventures were never collected in Japan, and had never been translated into English. We spoke with Kidd about his lifelong Batman obsession, the process of hunting down and collecting these incredibly rare issues, and why these 40-year-old comics are some of the most entertaining Batman stories ever made! ]]>
Thirty years after its initial publication, the new edition of Art Spiegelman's
Breakdowns
is bookended by a brand new, career-spanning, illustrated comic and a prose postscript supplemented by yet more classic drawings. Together, the three sections offer a grand, unifying vision of a master's career. In conversation, Spiegelman covered just as much ground, from the seminal early strips in Breakdowns to
Maus
(winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1992) to
In the Shadow of No Towers,
even his much-loved commercial work. (Remember Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids?)]]>
Iain Banks first published
The Crow Road
in the UK in 1992, and it is one of his best-loved books. Time Out called it "Riveting...exhilarating...its pace, development, intensity and, above all, its hip and sexy humour never allow it to flag." The Crow Road is a philosophical saga and a romantic coming-of-age story, a mystery and a comedy, and a raucous, moving, and deeply human look at relationships and family. As Publishers Weekly says, "Readers unfamiliar with Banks's prodigious output have a great starting point here." ]]>
Neal Stephenson has been a staple name in science fiction ever since his incandescent opus
Snow Crash
appeared. What separated Snow Crash from the other cyberpunk novels of the world was, first, Stephenson's knowledge of computers and programming and, second, his wealth of research on topics as obscure as Sumerian mythology. This theme of in-depth research has continued through his other books, especially
Cryptonomicon
and
The Baroque Cycle.
Before his reading, Stephenson discussed the mathematical philosophy and quantum mechanics in his newest novel,
Anathem,
as well as why he still writes by hand.]]>
Inspired by a WPA state guide series from the 1930s and 40s,
State by State
will surely rank among 2008's most notable literary achievements. Fifty writers on fifty states: Anthony Bourdain on New Jersey, Susan Orlean on Ohio, Sarah Vowell on Montana, S.E. Hinton on Oklahoma, Dave Eggers on Illinois... the list goes on and on. Weeks before publication, editors Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey discuss working with the authors, noteworthy contributions, pleasing surprises, and
the new Out of the Book film,
which stars 19 of the collection's contributors.]]>
Annie Barrows's creative process for co-authoring The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was, by her own admission, unusual. It's not often that your adored librarian aunt hands you a rough manuscript to finish. And allowing for the fact that we are prejudiced towards the novel's pure expression of love for booksellers, we found it to be absolutely delightful. Barrows takes the time to explain her experience of co-writing Guernsey, what it means to be a community of readers, and why we hunger for charm in these modern times. ]]>
As David Carr tells it, "The dude was addicted to coke, got off the coke, obtained custody of his kids, a single parent, got off welfare, survived cancer, married well. But that's not what is resonating with people. It's much more the pathology." The dude being Carr, himself. Kurt Andersen attests,
The Night of the Gun
is "a breathtakingly candid, laugh-out-loud funny, heroically rigorous, consistently riveting, and deeply moving account of a nightmarish descent and amazing redemption." Carr discusses coke and cancer, fact and fiction, parenthood, new media, hope, and his new remarkable book.]]>
Why do Americans spend more than $10 billion a year on bottled water? "The facile answer is marketing, marketing and more marketing," supposes the New York Times Book Review, "but Elizabeth Royte goes much deeper into the drink, streaming trends cultural, economic, political and hydrological into an engaging investigation of an unexpectedly murky substance." The Boston Globe calls
Bottlemania,
"Ingenious. Amiably, without haranguing or hyperventilating, this veteran environmental writer has produced what could be, assuming enough people read it, one of the year's most influential books."]]>
City of Thieves, the newest novel by David Benioff, author of The 25th Hour and When the Nines Roll Over, has been hailed by critics as "a smart crowd-pleaser" (Publishers Weekly, starred review), a "gut-churning thriller [that] will sweep you along" (Kirkus, starred review), and "a funny, sad, and thrilling novel" (Entertainment Weekly). Set during the Germans' brutal siege of Leningrad in World War II, the novel follows the captivating odyssey of two young men trying to survive against desperate odds on an impossible mission through unimaginable depravity. Surprisingly, it's also thrilling, absorbing, and very funny. In this interview, Benioff discusses why it took so long to finish the first chapter, the difficulty of trying to capture the voice of a 17-year-old Russian boy during World War II, and more.]]>
Kirkus calls America America, Ethan Canin's first novel in seven years, "[a] novel of character [that] is powerful and haunting, a major work." It is a sweeping, epic story that more fully explores themes Canin has written about previously — class, politics, fatherhood, wealth, and power — in a seamless and beautiful multigenerational American saga. America America is both an important work and a page-turning summer read. Especially in this election year, it is a powerful reminder about what is great, and what is broken, within our country. In this interview, Canin discusses his new book, the politics of generosity, class-jumping, and method acting for writing.]]>
It's rare that you have the opportunity to interview someone as notorious as James Frey. Whether you were a fan or reader of A Million Little Pieces, you couldn't escape the news of the Oprah endorsement or the subsequent drubbing Frey received on her program when it was revealed that parts of his memoir were embellished. After reading an early advance copy of his new novel Bright Shiny Morning, we couldn't wait to talk with him about it. It's a compelling book about hope and firmly establishes James Frey as the comeback kid of 2008. Kudos aside, our interview with Frey made for one of the most interesting conversations we have had in recent memory.]]>
Two predictions:
The Outlander
will win at least one major award. And
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
will find a home on bestseller lists. When we discovered these two remarkable debut novels and decided to feature them together in
Indiespensable,
Powell's subscription club, someone on staff proposed a joint interview with the authors. Their books share more than you might imagine: runaways, ghostly visions, improvised outdoor survival, scenes rendered so powerfully you may forget you're reading fiction (you may forget you're reading, altogether), and characters that linger long after you close the book.]]>
|
|
African American Authors: Promote And Sell Your Self-published Black Book
By Helen
You can have the best book in the world, but if no one knows about it, no one will buy it; publicity, promotion, marketing and a focus on selling more books should now be a big part of your daily life. It's one thing to write a book, but an entirely different thing to write one that's saleable, viable, and marketable. Self publishers need to have a good marketing plan to sell books and should be written prior to writing your book and in place a year prior to publishing your book.
Using press releases for marketing or promoting your book or book's website has become increasingly popular as publishers discover the powerful benefits of using press releases. Mail a press release to all the trade journals in your field over and over again; you can use the same release. Make sure your press release spells out the 'who, what, where, when, and why.'
Mail a press release to at least 1000 print and broadcast contacts just prior to publishing your title and again and again after you publish; you can never send too many. Don't underestimate the value of a good press release for making book sales. Learning to write and use powerful optimized press releases can often drive tons of traffic to your website while providing multiple back links that can lead to increased page rank and numerous top ten search engine rankings for your targeted keywords.
Invest in press release submitting software and set aside time every week to send out a press release online to the press directories. Send out at least 10 press releases to the print and broadcast media in your area every month.
If your book fits a specialty market, find a store that fits the genre and offer to leave books on consignment; many publishers have sold thousands of books this way. Find a non-exclusive distributor with a good reputation to carry your book for the book store trade, as well as for other retailers. Print and online publications provide longevity to your marketing campaign in terms of having something tangible for people to reference ongoing.
I've not found that book signings sell many books for publishers and are often a waste of time; better to spend it elsewhere. Make sure to promote and market your book each and every day, both online and offline. Market your book
to your number one market first, and then go after the secondary markets.
Make five telephone calls a day that relate to marketing your book. Be your own publicist and send a press release along with a review copy of your book to publications in your book's genre and to book review magazines. Remember to make sure your book is listed in Books-in-Print; don't assume it's already listed.
Make sure not to overlook the Internet; get yourself interviewed or profiled for sites both about writing, publishing and about the topics covered in your book. Contact any companies, corporations or organizations that might use your book for promotions; offer significant discounts for volume orders or for thousands of copies offer a specified amount above book production costs. Get as many testimonials about your book, as possible, from experts in the field relating to your title, not customers; use on your fliers and back of books.
Place free ads periodically for your book's website on Craigslist in different categories to drive even more traffic to your website. Women buy more books then men; see how you can fit your book into the women's' market.
When you get a nice write up or feature about you and/or your book, have it laminated and set it up on an easel at trade shows. Build a web site that provides another avenue for ordering, a virtual online press kit and link exchanges with sites that relate to your topic.
Yes you can market and promote your book on a shoestring budget, just be careful about your marketing dollars. If you apply yourself every day and you promote your book like crazy, you can achieve that ultimate goal of selling thousands of copies of your book, many self publishers have. With these book marketing tips you'll be well on your way to conquering the world of and book publishing.
Here are some more self publishing articles...
Who Says Nothing Lasts Forever?
By Patricia Twitchell
In a world of instant gratification and so much that is made to be tossed out after one use, there are some things worth preserving. Childhood memories are among those things worth Read more...
|
Web Content Strategy 101
By Joel Walsh
Your content is what gets you in search engines, speaks to visitors, and ultimately decides the success or failure of your site. Meanwhile, your content has to be updated at least once a Read more...
|
|
|
|
Resources |
Uranus And The History Of Science
By basic-info-4-organic-fertilizers.com
Uranus in signs and the Scientific DiscoveriesThis article highlights the extraordinary importance of Uranus' position in signs and its association with the main scientific Read more...
|
|
|
