Okay…I don’t want to alarm youall or anything, but one of these hats in my bag belongs to an author. Shh…I know, I could have fooled you with the way I update this place. Truth is, since I don’t have all that much stuff out, I’m a pretty small potato and you’d be hard-pressed to give a rat’s…well, you know. But over at Dear Author, there’s a lively and enlightening conversation going on about the top ten promo don’ts, and why you shouldn’t do them. Very good stuff for aspiring authors, newly-pubbed authors, and authors who are still green at this game. Also those of us who may or may not be socially clueless depending on the wind direction and alignment of the planets.

But lemme tell ya about something promo-fied that is, in my humble opinion, promo-riffic. Most posters are of the agreement that the quality of their online interactions with authors means more than the quantity, and that the most egregious of author gaffes does come from the online arena. But in other venues and in other conversations I’ve had with readers and authors and PR people with an interest, the tchotchkes invariably come up, and the DA thread is no different. Some people love the bookmarks. Some people love the postcards (honestly, from the little research I’ve done, the postcards seemed cheaper, but if you roll-your-own bookmarks, five to a sheet, you can actually come out ahead. Postcards are only four to a sheet). Some people loathe both with the passion of a thousand erupting Hawaiian volcanoes. As a reader (and writers start out and continue as readers), I’m equally okay with bookmarks and postcards. Your bookmark comes in handy when I’m marking my place in someone else’s book (so does your postcard, but I bend paperback spines too. I am evil. EVIL, I tell you), but your postcard looks more like a scale-model of your book (and can fit more blurb text on it, too!), and thus it intrigues me more. Has a better chance to hook me.

However, both are items of transient usefulness and limited relevance. Eventually, and it will be sooner rather than later if I’m on a decluttering rampage, I will toss that bookmark or that postcard in the recycling bin. I will eat your candy and probably forget about you (but not before sending up a good thought at that kind fellow author that provided emergency chocolate to tuck in my purse at the event or conference). Your pens will get used, and used well, but ultimately die an untimely death at too young an age (because they seem to always go fast. I don’t think they’re making pens quite the way they used to). Plus, your name will have worn off rather before the pen dries up. Your keychain, business card, or plastic doohickey will blip up on my radar, but do so in a manner unrelated to either your career or your book. But I will tell you freely and with great passion, that if you happen to give away a bag at a booksigning…I am yours.

No, I don’t mean a grocery bag or a baggie. I mean one of those canvas totes with a picture of your book ironed on or silk-screened onto one side. And I will confess, the bag doesn’t have to be of particularly sturdy or well-ornamented quality, either. Although that’s a huge plus. Several years ago I won a drawing for a canvas tote of Rosemary Laurey’s. It contained some nominal things I don’t even remember (although I think one of them was a stuffed bear dressed as a bat because my kid chewed the ear off it at one point). But the front of the bag has an iron-on transfer of the covers of Rosemary’s Forever Vampires books from Kensington Zebra, and the back has her autograph.

I take that bag everywhere.

It’s held books, dancewear, lunches, computer equipment, more books, groceries, crochet supplies, more books, notebooks, changes of clothes and diapers for children, totable toys, and books. In point of fact, it’s held every one of Rosemary’s books that appear on the bag front, and one or two more, to boot. And I know those titles and those covers on sight and by heart.

I have another bag, given by Samhain Publishing to attendees of Lori Foster’s Readers and Writer’s Get-Together event held in Southwestern Ohio the first weekend in June. The Samhain bag is awesome–canvas panels and made extra roomy with mesh inserts. Nice long handles. I could fit a small kid in there. My oldest did fit a small kid (my younger) in there. Thankfully, he didn’t get away with it. I take that bag with me to many, many places, too. The book covers are smaller and a little harder to read, but Samhain’s never far from my mouse when I’m scouting for something to read.

In this day and age, going green is all the rage. I reuse and recycle grocery bags. I have crocheted net bags from leftover scraps of Ye Olde Yarn Stash (and I have a stash, yes I do. I am a happy and well-kept hooker). And the canvas bags I’ve amassed from years of conferences, conventions, subscriptions to magazines, and professional meetings have all found life and use, safely tucked one inside the other and accompanying me every time I go to the grocery store. I get a three-cent discount for every new plastic bag I don’t use, thanks to my bag o’ bags.

I try to conduct my “author presence” by being thoughtful, relevant, and useful, and promo should be the same way. When I next find myself ready to promote a book, and with the wherewithal to do so, I’ll be doing it “green” as well as “relevant and useful” and via canvas tote.

There’s a very hot question making the rounds now, and not just in Romancelandia, or even Author Acres, that oddly-gated subdivision where no one’s really sure if the gates are there to keep others out…or to keep the authors in (hey, why are the bars on the insides of the windows? And why are these walls so softly padded? And why are my closets full of sweaters with really really long sleeves? Anyone? Anyone?). But that hot question–besides the obvious ones about whether or not the inmates are running the asylum–is how best to use the Web 2.0 and Social Networking.

Continue reading…

Found this waiting in my queue for pending comments this morning:

Free Trial
blog.bookglutton.com/?p=42
greatdeals209@xxxxx.xxx

Submitted on 2009/03/08 at 12:26am

Keep up the great work, I love your posts

Now aside from the fact that “greatdeals209″ couldn’t be spammier if it lightly fried itself and hopped on a plate with an over-easy egg, the URL actually seemed relevant. Of course, I’ve been tricked before, so I held my breath and clicked, hoping “bookglutton” wouldn’t turn out to be a dummy blog for any one of a number of magic solutions for small packages (ahem!).

Turns out BookGlutton is a form of social networking site that essentially revolves around live-blogging books, sorta. Reading groups have an e-text and annotate right on the text as they are reading. I joined, because there’s an Austen group and one of my goals for this year is to read and/or re-read Jane Austen without the pressure of “ZOMG test on Friday!” or the more subtle pressure of crafting my answer to fit the teacher’s expectations, or the irritation of stopping every other page to remind myself that I’m reading for an assignment and can’t just get lost in the book.

The site itself isn’t badly designed–not garish with ads, but rather like a facebook-y setup. You can search by title, user, or group. The neat and useful raison d’etre of the site is the online reader–it’s got a pleasing appearance that fits the screen, with page navigation buttons at the bottom on either side of a progress bar, text resize, a “pocket/pop-up” guide to the reader on the right, and a chapter jump on the left. There’s a top right “Save and Visit Site” that marks where you left off, if you want to close the book and return to the social networking site’s page. But the real beautiy are the left and right sliders along the edges of the “page” that allow you to pull up either live chat on the book (left), or on-the-fly annotations for the text (right).

I will warn you that signup leads you to one of those “invite your friends” things where you log into google and it hijacks your contacts list, so be aware of that before you automatically click.

I also sent them an email through their contact form, asking more, which I will share here. Because it wasn’t quite clear as to how Book Glutton obtained their right to use the author’s work. So far, it doesn’t appear to be a problem–all the stuff in my browsing appeared to be public domain. But since I (and every other author I know) would like for people to read and discuss my books, I thought I’d better ask ‘em how they handle works with copyright still present.

Hi,
Your blog runner hit my blog and since you actually seemed relevant, I decided to investigate. BookGlutton sounds like a new way to blend social networking and reading. I’m interested in learning more, particularly for the authorial side of things.

Can you share with me a little bit more about how you handle licensing and copyright from content creators, or your future plans to do so? Current books appear to be mostly public domain classics. What would be the benefit for an author with a copyrighted work in print to use Book Glutton (and how would that work)?

I’m part of an extensive community of romance readers and writers online, and I’d like to share this information with them. If I understand correctly how BookGlutton is supposed to work, it sounds like a new and interesting way to take advantage of digital connectivity and the social aspects of reading. The community would like to hear more.

Thanks for your time.
Xandra Gregory
www.xandragregory.com

I’ll let y’all know what I find out.

Valentine’s Day being what it is, it’s not surprising that Romancelandia rolls out the pink and red carpet for it. This year, having sick kids and a sick Mr. Xandra led me to be around for participation at least part of the day in the festivities.

Now…I do try to participate in some things here and there. I’ve been known to get into web-based discussions or email loop chats about one thing or another. But I am not by nature a very peppy person, and if there’s one thing they give you when you get that “OMG I sold a book, now WTF do I do?” it’s the feeling that you absolutely, positively need to become Pollyanna in public. Okay, there really is no “they” and there’s no hit squad that will hunt you down for wearing the crankypants every so often, but if you do happen to be around the Romancelandia side of the internets, there are some pretty memorable examples of what happens when Authors Behave Badly that will convince you that if you can’t say something nice, keep your mouth shut and your fingers off the keyboard. And if you can say something nice, better to leave the keyboard anyway, just in case it wasn’t nice enough. To be honest, it’s not that far off the mark. Being kind and polite to people keeps things civilized, and heaven knows the internets are full enough of populated troll-pastures.

But I also have to be honest in saying that I have a pretty low fill-requirement for the tried-and-tested fare found on many Romancelandia menus. Not that I don’t appreciate the hunks, and the squeeing, and the dirty jokes (because I do–I’ll take a Double-entendre shot of Freudian slip with my coffee every chance I get), but I find myself gravitating towards parts of Romancelandia where the washboard abs and kinky humor are served with a hearty helping of more serious discussion.

Now don’t get me wrong–I love giggling over over-the-top erotica as much as I love writing it (and giggling when I’m doing it), but I refuse to believe that we’re all reading and writing romance, erotica, and erotic romance in a literary vacuum. I know I’m not just writing to titillate. I’m putting some heart and soul and gray matter into it, too, and I’d bet good money that readers are putting a nice hunk of their own gray matter into thinking about what the authors are writing about. And I’m sure we can discuss that while remaining civilized, and without losing our enthusiasm for the genre.

Okay, it is…but it’s subtitled.