“Blogs don’t sell books when that is their intent. They sell books as a by-product when we engage the reader and the reader gets to know us. Eventually, in time, over months, we build a relationship.” – M.J. Rose, writing about Holtzbrinck’s plans to encourage its writers to blog. Related: Grumpy Old Bookman’s reaction.
The TeleRead take: Wise words, M.J. I myself would like to see blogging and forum participation happen inside books—rather than just to promote books. Like the best books, the best blogs are felt by writers and readers alike. Putting blogs in the center of the action—in books—can help. Some writers may even want their core texts linked closely to the goodies that their readers come up with.
Under such circumstances, not just the core texts but also the blogs and forums will need to be readable offline—to be truly permanent part of the books themselves instead of relying simply on external Web sites. Writers are far, far more likely be passionate within their favorite turf, their actual books. The same content could appear simultaneously on the Web, of course; just remember the B word as well, and I don’t simply mean “blogging.”
Bottom line: If publishers truly want to sell books, then they should worry a little less about marketing and a lot more about using blogging technology inside books to improve the older medium. The longer publishers delay in adding blogging capability to appropriate books, the less competitive books will be with the dynamic Web. Increasingly, readers are flexible about the very definition of book. Robert Nagle has even made a case for RSS feeds as books, and Bill Janssen correctly sees the Wikipedia as an e-book. When will publishers catch up and use blogging technology to revivify the book?
Between 1985 and 1989, one of my books (The Modem Reference) sold 200,000 copies. It was never advertised. However, I spent a lot of time online as “Mister Modem” on GEnie, answer calls for help with modems (you had to know how everything worked to get online and stay online back then … and sometimes you had to log on twice to finish a sentence–uphill both ways!)
I also ran the Science Fiction SIG on DELPHI, and Hugh Kenner and Jerry Pournelle set me up with the writers/talk/mike_banks conference on BIX … the equivalent of blogging in those pre-blog, pre-Web days.
Brady Books/Simon & Schuster, the publisher, never spent a penny on advertising. But the book sold and sold and sold. This was in part because of the quality (I’d written the book that I’d wanted to read a few years earlier, back when I first got a modem), but I believe the online presence I maintained, along with networking at a Spring and Fall COMDEX one year, sold most of those 200,000 copies. My editor thought so, too.
–Mike
Aside from replying to questions about modems, I was more or less just there. Not promoting my book particularly (though I posted some excerpts on all the services, including CompuServe), rather talking about whatever came up. This was especially true of the BIX conference, where I and the participants discussed publishing, science fiction, my divorce, aerial photography, antenna design, classic cars, dogs, and so much more.
What a great example, Michael! Be a friend to readers, and they’ll be friends right back. Far better than a huckster-style approach! – David
Some writers turn into obnoxious twits without even being asked. All it takes is a perceived “opportunity” to promote their books.
A case in point: Just a few minutes ago I was reading a bulletin board at a site that shall remain nameless. One of the threads was a memorial to someone who recently passed away, and who counted a large number of writers among his friends and acquaintances.
It was disgusting to see the number of writers who added a list of their novels to each message. I know, I know–those were signature lines. But it still makes the in memoriam statements read like:
“Wow–he was a great guy. I’ll miss him. By the way, buy these books that I wrote, and be sure to visit my Web site!”
I wonder if they hand out book promo at funerals, and maybe take advantage of the captive audience to do a reading?
It can get worse. Back in the 1980s a well-known SF fanzine published a special issue to honor a certain legendary writer. Included in the issue were solicited tributes by fellow writers–one of whom hijacked the tribute and turned it into a personal promotion.
How? By jamming the “tribute” with references to the offending writer’s own work, such as “… and I’ll never forget [honored writer]’s [book title], which inspired my own [egotistical writer]’s [MY BOOK’S TITLE with publisher and date appended]. And my character in [ANOTHER BOOK’S TITLE with publisher and date appended] was inspired by [honored writer], as was the protagonist in [YET ANOTHER BOOK’S TITLE, etc.]” The writer (whom I will not identify even by gender, lest I inadvertently add to its “fame”) did this for each and every book it had ever published!
Someone died; it’s about them, not you. Leave your ego at home.
Regards,
–Mike
Acknowledging a literary debt is a great way to pay one’s respects to a writer’s memory. I don’t think it is self-serving at all.
The problem with castigating self-promotion is that inevitably you end up discriminating against the up-and-coming writer in favor of authors backed by a more professional PR campaign or endorsed by A-list writers/critics. Actually though, signature lines are not really an effective promotional tool, especially if the substance of the message isn’t that interesting.
I’ll be honest with you. As knowledgable as I am about the world of writers, I am totally ignorant of 90-5% of perfectly good writers out there (and my knowledge of sci fi authors is downright pitiful). My memory always needs a lot of jogging, and I appreciate it when people remind me of a book they’ve published or a blog they write. Of course, you can carry anything too far.
Michael, if you are watching this post, I am particularly fascinated by your mention of Hugh Kenner in the same sentence as sci fi. What an intriguing combination!
Robert,
Hugh Kenner was a man of great depth and many sides. I got to know him around the time he retired from Johns Hopkins and moved south. Jerry Pournelle had invited me to get involved in the BIX (Byte Information eXchange) online community, and Hugh was moderator of the writers’ conferences.
Hugh was a computer hobbyist (hm … “hobbyist” would be an inappropriate understatement, but I’ll go with that. He wrote a user guide for the Heath/Zenith Z-100 computer after he assembled one, by the way). When BYTE asked him to review computer books, he agreed. (It is still a bit of a thrill to recall the compliment he gave one of my books outside the review.)
When Byte established BIX, it was natural that Hugh was appointed the writers’ conference moderator. I became an enthusiastic participant in the discussions in the three writers’ topics: Hugh Kenner, Rick Cook, and G. Harry Stine. And after a few months, there were four writers’ conference: I logged on to find this message from Hugh in my E-mail box: “There’s a new conference: writers.talk/mike_banks. You’d better get busy!” I guess I was posting so much that Hugh figured I needed something to keep me busy.
Rick Cook, Harry Stine, and I had all written or were writing science fiction, and Hugh more than held up his end. He was always up on the latest SF novels, as well as the classics, though writers.talk/hugh.kenner tended to run to discussions of Joyce.
It just popped into my head that, among so many other things he wrote a biography of cartoonist Chuck Jones (Chuck Jones: A Flurry of Drawings, University of California Press, 1994), which serves to illustrate the breadth of his interests and knowledge. I have a copy; it’s fun. I’m sorry I never got to meet Hugh, though I did speak with him by telephone a couple of times.
You’ll find a delightful interview with Hugh Kenner here:
http://www.bookwire.com/bbr/reviews/March2001/hugh_kenner_thegrandtour.htm
–Mike
The complete URL for the interview doesn’t appear to come through in the interview, so I’ll insert it in two parts, below, to splice together if necessary:
http://www.bookwire.com/bbr/reviews/March2001
/hugh_kenner_thegrandtour.htm