The Independent

Tattered Cover

OK, I've been a very bad blogger. I know. I'm still trying to figure out exactly where and when I should invest time on all the different pieces of my freelance life. I'll figure it out and start to blog more consistently soon enough.

Anywho, I am in Denver this morning. Last night was the book launch party/reading/signing for Who Are You People? at the Tattered Cover. The Tattered Cover is a great bookstore and it was a great event. This was my second time in Denver, but the first time I was here I was on tour with the Milwaukees so visiting bookstores wan't high on the agenda (we are a rock and roll band and have a reputation to uphold), so this was my first time getting to the Tattered Cover. I have to say that it lives up to the hype and the people of Denver are lucky to have such a great resource for books. The staff was very helpful and surprisingly proud of their store and their job--a far cry from the average B&N experience. In particular, the events co-ordinator, Charles, was particularly helpful. I was happy to be able to spend 15 minutes talking with him about bookselling. I was also struck by how well-bought the books were. By that I mean that the shelves didn't seem dense with books. The store's square footage probably rivals many of the B&N superstores but I'm getting their title base is significantly lower. But oddly, I think this is a good thing.  As a consumer, I really felt like the titles that I found in any given category were all pretty good. I didn't feel like I was browsing through a lot of crap to try to find the good books on the subject. It was a much happier consumer experience for me. I could tell that the book buying at Tattered Cover was done by someone who really reads and likes books--which was a refreshing feeling.

As for the event, I think it was a big success.  I've read the book a few times now. When Shari began to read the introduction it was remarkable that she sounded exactly like the voice I hear in my head when I have read it. I had the honor of introducing her at the event, and as a joke I told everyone that it was going to run like an AA meeting and everyone who wanted to talk or ask a question would have to stand up, say their name and confess their passion. Lo and behold, when Shari finished, the first person got up and did just that. I forget what her passion was, but I am so glad she followed the rules, because then everyone else did too.  What is amazing is how everyone seemed to appreciate the opportunity to define themselves as passionate about something. This gave me the idea to work with Shari on doing other events that independent booksellers can promote to their customers as "Fanatics Anonymous" meetings. It would be great to let the events be dominated by the passionate people who show up. The book would be a vehicle for them to share their passions. It would also be a great way for the stores to learn more about what some of their customers are really interested in. If any booksellers read this blog, please chime in with any advice about how this would work best in your store and any tips on ways to make an event like this work. I am even wondering if this is the kind of event that can happen without the author, since there is a very limited travel budget. Anyway, I'm excited about this idea and am looking forward to exploring it.

Well, I'm off to meet with Shari and an entertainment lawyer to discuss all of the issues involved in getting a "Who Are You People?" TV show produced. As Mel Brooks said in Spaceballs: Moichandising! Moichandising! Moichandising!

Seth Godin

A lot on my mind today. Not feeling much like blogging. Instead I'll just point you in the direction of something I found while poking around the internet last night. Here is Seth Godin's Advice for Authors.

Amen.

Snakes on a Plane

On my 14-hour trip back from LA yesterday I bought Esquire Magazine. Don't ask me why. I am not much for men's magazines, but there was a big article on John McCain that interested me and, well, my flights got all messed up and I was bored.

Anyway, in this issue Chuck Klosterman wrote a non-review of Snakes on a Plane. I call it a non-review because he hadn't even seen the movie. This thoroughly (and probably rightly) enraged my girlfriend, but it was a pretty entertaining piece nonetheless.

He begins the piece with a definition of "populist" which seems somehow relevant to the debate about whether marketing is good or evil which I have been blogging and commenting on a bit of late. Anyway, here's what he said:

People get confused by the term populism, especially when the word is applied to entertainment. People seem to think calling something "populist" means it was purposefully consturcted to be stupid, solely to attract the largest possible audience. This is not accurate. The Beatles are populist. The Godfather is populist. The Bible is populist... You can't design populism--and if you try, you'll inevitably construct the opposite.

I guess what I like about this was the idea that watering down a product isn't neccessarily the route to  making it popular. When applied to books that means have a provocative idea, write a good book, and market it to the people. Marketing isn't about watering down, it is about putting it infront of the right people. If the book is good it will gain traction and the right people see it, it will become popular.

Apparently SOAP (hipster speak for Snakes on a Plane) went the other route--going out of its way to find out via the internet exactly what people want and give it to them. We'll see if it works. If it does, I'm not sure we'll know whether it was because of or in spite of their efforts at forcing populism. But whatever, it is just something to chew on.

Hollywood Here I Come

On Thursday I'll be making my first trip to L.A. I drove past it once, actually twice I guess, while on tour with the Milwaukees. Nothing exciting. Going to my girlfriend's college roommate's wedding.

Hardly seems blog worthy, right? Well the subject was really a clever double-entendre, as I am also working on breaking into the world of producing TV shows based on books. My first venture will be pitching Shari Caudron's Who Are People?

I am very excited about this. At the core of my consulting business is the idea that authors and publishers need to look beyond their conventional understanding of how to turn their work into profit. Learning a bit about turning books into TV shows that can then fuel the sale of books seems like it will help position me to be successful in a new publishing economy.

Apparently I am not alone in this thinking. This Washington Post article details how Amazon.com is getting into the business of optioning books to the film industry. The Post article reads:

Positive reviews of "The Stolen Child" from customers, as well as the national media, fueled the decision to option the book's screen rights, Herdener said, adding that it was too early to speculate on how Amazon would market any film eventually made.

Publisher's Lunch noted that Amazon went to great lengths, at no expense to the publisher, to promote the book to its customers. Their efforts included mailing 100 galleys to top customer reviewers and 2 million stickers promoting the book inside Amazon boxes.

Publishers know that Amazon applies, shall we say, lots of pressure on publishers to pay for all kinds of co-op  that isn't nearly as effective as the kinds of promotion they did for The Stolen Child withouot charging the publisher anything.

Maybe I'm too much of a conspiracy theorist, but I really wonder what the deal is there. Did they buy the option then pull out all of the stops to make the book a success in order to make the option valuable? There is a piece of this puzzle missing somewhere.

I am a target market

I feel stupid about how into The Long Tail I am. I always get squeamish when I realize that I am a target market for anything. Well, I am a target market for this. It has resulted in me not only buying the book, new and in hardcover no less (I'm Doing My Part!) but I have also renewed my interest in reading Wired--which I swore off of years ago.

If I were a real conspiracy theorist, I could be convinced that someone focus grouped people like me and built this book to sell just like record labels put together the Monkees, Journey, and Rage Against the Machine.