Authors On The Net

As we think about the publishing status quo and how it might be changing, think about the following statements and see if they ring true. I’ll be taking each paradigm set on in future posts:

Old Paradigm: Authors are artists, publishers are entrepreneurs/business owners/venture capitalists

New Paradigm: Authors are both artists and entrepreneurs.

I’ll be discussing a recent report I heard about Pirate Bay. I couldn’t believe the mindset of the operators of this site.

Old Paradigm: Information comes as hardcopy media.

Current and New Paradigm: Information comes as hardcopy media AND all forms of digital media: ebooks, audio books, Blog posts, ezines, Facebook, Twitter, Podcasts, Internet Radio and who knows what’s coming next.

I’ll be discussing a recent Wall Street Journal feature (among other things) on how ebooks will change the way we read and write.

Old Paradigm: Customers have longer attention spans, can read longer articles and books.

New Paradigm: Customers get information in snippets – i.e. Twitter, short articles, Blog posts and shorter books.

I’ll be searching for research to back this up so if anyone has any information on this apparent trend I’d love to hear it.

Old and Still Current Paradigm: Majority of authors write the book inside them and then look for a market to sell to.

New Paradigm: Authors will be plugged into their target audience before, during and after writing their book and they will write books that fit their target audience.

Successful publishers look for books to fit a “buying” audience. Authors will need to be just as market savvy to compete.

Old Paradigm: Authors need to write the right book at the right time for the right audience.

New Paradigm: Authors need to be leaders of a tribe they create around their book; they pull people into their cause rather than pushing their book onto an audience.

Maybe the whole idea of a target audience will change . . .

Old Paradigm: A published author is someone who receives money from a Royalty publisher like Random House and signs a standard royalty contract.

New Paradigm 1: A published author is any author who has an ISBN and a bound book, an ebook, an audio book or any other version of a book.

New Paradigm 2: A professional author is a published author who earns his or her primary living by writing and selling books.

We’re decades into the self-publishing revolution. I think it’s time to discard the whole discussion on what it means to be a published author. The question is whether or not you make a living as a published author.

So these are a few of the paradigms I’ve identified. If you have others, please share.

This is the second video I took at Brandon Mull’s (author of Fablehaven) book signing. Scroll down to see the first video and more information on this book signing. Many people these days are saying that book signings are an ineffecient way to sell books, but if you can parnter with your local library and have the kind of turnout that Mr. Mull does, then a book signing can be very productive. I was very impressed with Brandon’s energy and enthusiasm as he spoke with his target audience. It was a lot of hard work, but seeing the long line of avid readers with books in their hands waiting for him to sign them was validation that a good book signing is still a viable way to promote books.

I recently attended a local book signing with my daughters who love Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series. I took my video camera with me as I thought our members might like to see what a book signing looks like. I will share several videos and as you watch the videos look at how well Brandon addresses questions and at his energy level. It is also interesting to see his primary target audience sitting in front of him and his secondary target audience standing on the fringes. What I mean is that while his target audience are children, look at all the adults standing around who are now more likely to not just buy his books for their children, but to also read them. Myself included. Enjoy.

When making your book promotion plan, one concept I like is the idea that each author needs to invent his or her own strategy. In the past, I’ve written about targeting the top 10 literate cities in the states when planning your book launch. Today I read the following article listing the 10 brainiest cities in the US. Depending on the type of book you have, you might consider promoting your book in these cities. Here’s the article:

The 10 Brainiest Places to Retireby Liz Wolgemuth
Thursday, June 5, 2008
provided by U.S. News

. . . U.S. News consulted our list of more than 1,000 Best Places to Retire and came up with 10 retirement destinations that attract highly educated folks.

One brainy spot that won’t surprise: Berkeley, Calif., where residents might head for a screening of a film on urban organic farming in Cuba at the local Unitarian Universalist congregation, attend a University of California-Berkeley professor’s speech on counterinsurgency in Iraq, or get a tour of the UC Botanical Garden. While traditional bingo is on tap at the South Berkeley Senior Center, residents can also learn a less common skill like self-acupressure or take a class on the millinery arts, says director Larry Taylor.

Across the map in Chapel Hill, N.C., residents might spend their evenings paddling out in kayaks to watch the stars with an astronomy educator from the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Boulder, Colo., may be best known for its environmental-protection efforts and green savvy, but this city offers its residents a wealth of cultural activities. Albert Boggess, former project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope, and his wife, Nancy, also a former research scientist for NASA, retired to Boulder in 1994, drawn by both the climate and an academic community that included many of their colleagues. “It’s a university town, which is important to us, and there are all sorts of activities which come with that automatically,” Albert Boggess says. “There’s lots of good music here, both classical music and popular music. And that appeals to us.”

Upper St. Clair, Pa., is near Pittsburgh and has 29 area colleges, including Carnegie Mellon University, while the quintessential college town of Ann Arbor, Mich., offers an array of intellectual and cultural programs through the University of Michigan’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

West Lafayette, Ind., is home to Purdue University, which hosts lectures and brings in ballets and plays—”a variety of different programs that you wouldn’t necessarily normally get in this size community,” says Joann Wade, president of the Lafayette-West Lafayette Convention and Visitors Bureau. The city’s nearly 29,000 permanent residents can also get “bigger-city opportunities,” Wade says, by driving an hour to Indianapolis or two hours to Chicago.

Hoboken, N.J., and Brookline, Mass., also have the big-city experience close at hand. Hoboken is just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, while many Brookline residents commute the short distance to work in Boston’s medical centers and universities.

Some suburbs have a main attraction all their own. Reston, Va., was developed as a planned community or “new town” in the 1960s, and it’s only a half-hour drive to Washington, D.C., and its panoply of world-class museums. Out west, Lake Oswego, Ore., hugs the city of Portland but also offers culture and beauty of its own, making the most of its 405-acre lake.

The brainiest places to retire:

1. Ann Arbor, Mich.
2. Berkeley, Calif.
3. Boulder, Colo.
4. Brookline, Mass.
5. Chapel Hill, N.C.
6. Hoboken, N.J.
7. Lake Oswego, Ore.
8. Reston, Va.
9. Upper St. Clair, Pa.
10. West Lafayette, Ind.

Copyrighted, U.S.News & World Report, L.P. All rights reserved.