Bookstores charging for placement and newsletter write-ups

I recently did an article on Associated Content on three local bookstores. In talking to one of them we started to discuss local authors, since this bookstore did a lot of booksignings with them. It turns out the store charges for preferential placement (as I remember it's $50 a month). They also charge for a featured write-up in their monthly newsletter which goes out to their customers. This also costs $50 a month. Not bad, I guess, considering what some authors pay their "self-publishing producers" like Xlibris and iuniverse for marketing.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5625524/local_bookstores_in_mendham_clinton.html?cat=38

I suppose this was bound to come since most independent bookstores cannot discount their prices the way big-box chain stores do. It is one way to handle the growing demands of self-published authors who want to see their books in the bookstore. By the way, the man at the store I spoke to said they would not handle a self-published book unless the author offered proof that it had been professionally edited. That's one way to draw the line. Here's another article I did last March on the subject:
http://marketingsellingbooks.suite101.com/article.cfm/authors-to-pay-for-placement-in-bookstores

Bad book reviews -- the writer's greatest fear

A few days ago a self-published author complained on a writers/publishers forum that he had gotten a bad review although the reviewer (it was one of those online services that sometimes take money for quick reviews) had promised him a good one. Well, this prompted a great deal of discussion, since it turned out the review service had only promised him a review, not a good one.

One of the most interesting responses was from Jim Cox who runs the Midwest Book Review. This is one of the few reviewing websites that specializes in reviewing small publishers and self-publishers. They have all sorts of information and guidelines on their website: www.midwestbookreview.com

Here is Jim's post which is self-explanatory.

Over the more than three decades I've been Editor-in-Chief of the Midwest Book Review I've encountered hundreds of well-meaning authors confronted with bookreviews they felt were substandard, erroneous, or simply wrong.

If the author could demonstrate a reviewer's error then I either had the reviewer correct the review or simply deleted it. If the author's objections were on matters of taste or perception, then the review stands as is. But I also provide the author with an opportunity for a second reviewer if the author wants to invest another review copy on the chance of an improved review given by a different reviewer with a different background, set of life experiences, etc.

One difference that makes the Midwest Book Review stand out from other reviews is that my reviewers are instructed to not bother writing a review for book that they feel they cannot positively recommend to the attention of the prospective reader. They are to simply discard that book and pick up another.

The background to this distinctive policy is that, from it's inception some 34+ years ago, the Midwest Book Review was and is dedicated to priority consideration to self-published and small press authors over titles from the major New York publishing houses -- although we routinely review large numbers of their titles every month as well.

Back before the desktop computer revolution in publishing there were 'vanity' presses such as Vantage. The Midwest Book Review was (as far as I could tell at the time) the only book review willing to give Vantage authors a consideration for review. For those who don't remember (or aren't old enough to recall) all an author with a manuscript had to do with vanity presses like Vantage was to write them a check. Just like the POD-published titles of today.

When you accept for review consideration books whose authors have paid to have them published you encounter a very great many defective titles that simply cannot be given a positive recommendation to their intended readership. Not then and not now.

But when an author has invested their time, energy, hopes, dreams, expectations, and cold hard cash in the publishing of their book, their response to a negative review is going to be somewhat emotional and all to often hostile toward the reviewer. That is one of the main reasons why so many established book reviews and book reviewerswill not accept a self-published title in the first place.

Why do I still do it (and believe me, I've been on the receiving end of
many an unhappy and disappointed self-published author)? Because every now and then I find a diamond amidst all the coal. That diamond might be rough and in need ofpolish, but it's a diamond none the less.

Plus, self-published authors have steeper odds against them than any others, and the Midwest Book Review can make a larger impact in their professional lives and aspirations than it can on those 'Best Seller List' authors from those corporate owned and financed New York houses. And when you can furnish a self-published author with a positive review and position that review in a number of various forums making it accessible by large numbers of potential readers, the thanks that come my way are very special indeed.

Just some thoughts and a bit of history with respect to reviewing self-published books by amateur authors.

Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review

Report on the BEA

For those who didn't go to this year's BEA (that's the yearly book trade show that supplanted the ABA/American Bookseller's Association) here is a report from book publicist, Shel Horowitz who I know from various publisher's lists. I met him at the 2002 BEA when I was a panelist at the PMA (now IBPA)publisher's university that traditionally precedes the actual BEA.

Last time I went the BEA was huge with two floors and lots of booths even though it was down from previous years. This year, with all the talk about e-books and such, the BEA was considered hardly worth the trouble. Many large publishing houses that usually take up several booths and have cute looking ladies hawking their latest titles have opted out or cut down on space.

Having big name celebrities does bring in people, but not necessarily book buyers (that is, bookstore owners and managers and librarians).

Here is Shel's report:
http://frugalmarketing.com/dtb/bea2010.shtml

AP Stylebook Finally Relents -- It's website, not Web site

For those of you who have to adhere to certain policies put down by your bosses in newspapers, PR firms and such places, here's a bit of good news. The Associated Press Stylebook is now allowing the spelling of website to be website. Isn't that nice? For years they insisted on Web site, while the Chicago Manual of Style did not enter into the fray at all. Here's an article on the subject:



http://languagestyle.suite101.com/article.cfm/ap-stylebook-finally-relents----its-website-not-web-site

Copyright Verdict for Jessica Seinfeld

The courts ruled in favor of Jerry Seinfeld's wife again in a copyright suit. The plaintiff alleged that she had plagiarized a cookbook which featured sneaking pureed foods into children's meals.

Ideas cannot be copyrighted, and the court favored the assumption that this was an idea not a fixed articulation. See the article at:http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/28/jessica.seinfeld.ruling/index.html

Can Self-Publishing Lead to a Contract?

Here's an article I found by way of a retweet on Twitter. I hardly ever open up those things but this one looked interesting. At first I thought it was just a plug for some subsidy press aka a "self-publishing company" but it seems to be legit. All the books mentioned were published by the authors themselves and not some middle-man.

One thing all these authors had in common was a platform, and sometimes an organization with a large following. Also sales of at least 5000 books. Goes to show it takes more than a good book to get a a good-paying publisher to look at you.

http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2010/03/11/how-self-publishing-can-lead-to-a-real-book-deal/

What is Indexing?

One of the biggest problems with books, especially self-published books in the last few years has been the sorry state of indexing. It seems so easy to use the index facilities of book template programs like Adobe's InDesign that most people don;t realize that basically all you get is a concordance. Even if you put a limited number of words in, the program will pick up every single time that word is used whether it is relevant or not.

Here's an interesting look at it from twitter:
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-make-money-from-home-as-a-book-indexer?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter