Publishing University 2013

Friday and Saturday I attended Publishing University, a day and a half workshop sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association, which was held in Chicago. I previously attended Pub U in 2010 as a scholarship recipient. On that occasion it took place in New York. Since Chicago is an easy drive from St. Louis as well as a more economical city in general compared to New York, I decided to attend this year. Another woman from the St. Louis Publishers Association and I drove over together and shared a room. Additionally there were two other members of our organization who were there as well.

Guy Kawasaki

The opening speaker on Friday was Guy Kawasaki, former evangelist for Apple computers as well as a published author. His new book Ape (subtitled Author Publisher Entrepreneur) was released recently, so he shared his experiences in getting it ready to go to the printer. He had hundreds of beta readers go through the book before turning it over to a couple of trusted reviewers. Then he gave it to an editor. She came back with over 1,400 errors! As they say, you can never have too many eyes looking at your book. He joked that the name of his book can be a noun or a verb. "I aped my book!" He was very entertaining as well as full of helpful suggestions, so that certainly started the conference off on a good note.

Publishing University vendors

Up next was a general session on publishing trends and best practices, followed by one on eBook sales and their buyers. The last general session was Inventory on Demand, and the public's expectation to buy it and get it now. Your book needs to be listed In Stock and available for shipment, or you will lose the sale. I followed those up with a breakout session on meta data that was over my head, but then attended one on secrets to selling more books on Amazon. That speaker was awesome, and offered up solid numbers on book pricing and return on investment. The day wrapped up with a reception in the exhibit hall.

Dan Poynter

Saturday began bright and early with a book promotion session with Dan Poynter at 7:00 a.m. I was thrilled to meet Dan back in 2010 at Publishing University. His book on self-publishing got me through the process of setting up my publishing company and producing my books. I refer to Dan as my book's birthing coach. My favorite quote from Dan this year was, "I never said promoting your books would be easy. I just said it would be worth it." Dan was followed by an eBook production and distribution panel, and we learned that eBooks account for 30% of book sales today. Online retailers want to carry every book that is available, so the problem is no longer one of distribution but rather one of discoverability. Amen to that!

My first breakout session was on marketing strategies for finding new readers, and I didn't pick up too much there. Next I went to one on promoting your books to online communities. Key takeaway is that the average Facebook user has 133 friends, so use your friends to get them to spread the word about your books to their friends. Following the luncheon I listened to marketing strategies for reaching a niche market. Find out what the reader's problem is and tell them how you can solve it. For the last session of the day I went to the panel discussion on tips from authors who are with small publishers but have large sales. It was an inspirational hour and fifteen minutes. And who doesn't love a cowboy writing historical western romance novels?

Reid Lance Rosenthal

We were on the road back home by 5:00, making for a very long day. I met some very interesting people, learned a lot of new tips, and feel re-energized about my company and my writing. A winner all the way around.

Day 2 of PU

Wow, I don't know how to describe the information overload I am experiencing right now. The day began at 7:00 a.m. with Ask the Experts. The tables in the Grand Ballroom each had a person with a certain expertise assigned to it, and the attendees had the opportunity to sit down and pick the experts brain before moving on to the next table. I started with a publicity expert, who offered some suggestions for marketing my book that I had not considered. The other people who sat down at the table were so interesting that I ended up staying in one spot longer than I anticipated. As I changed tables I could see that others were getting wrapped up in their discussions as well. It was so much fun to hear about all the different projects people are working on.

For my first session I again chose one dealing with marketing since that is where I feel I need the most assistance with my book. Dan Poynter (pictured above) spoke for this one and a half hour session, and he began by telling us not to define our business as a "book business". People buy books to learn something or solve a problem. We can help them do that. One of the most thought provoking things he said was that large book advances are just thinly disguised political contributions. Hmmmm.... One of the funniest things he said was when he motioned to a lady in the room and smirked, "I see you brought your Apple Maxipad with you!" He took on the vanity press companies when he threw out that they are in the business of selling books to authors. Dan ended on an upbeat note by saying that the future of self publishing is very bright. We should invest now and reap later. "Write your book," he urged.

For the second session I chose a panel discussion on social media marketing with a couple of gals from PR by the Book and a man from PassPorter Travel Press. They offered a lot of good tips for maximizing your return with social media, and Dave from PassPorter added how important message boards have been in his success. There was a subgroup of a subgroup on the Disney message board who latched on to his Disney travel book and ran with it. One good suggestion was that we all set up a calendar for our blogs, listing the topics we will cover each month. That will help with your organization as well as take some of the pressure off on what you are going to write about next.

Next was lunch followed by the headline act: Seth Godin, who was named America's Greatest Marketer by American Way Magazine, and who also has the most popular marketing blog in the world. You might not necessarily like the message that Seth is spreading with the changes in publishing from p-book to e-book, but you had to admire his delivery. He is an excellent speaker with a great stage presence. Seth suggested that we find our tribe - the people who care about topic, and then get their permission to talk to them. We need to treat readers as an asset and publish for them. "Find writers for your readers, not readers for your writers."

I had to miss the last session after lunch because I needed to head to Javits Center to pick up my badge and breakfast tickets for Book Expo America. The counter there was only open until 5 today and doesn't reopen until 8 tomorrow morning. Since the breakfast rountable begins at 8, that wasn't going to work for me. After all, I didn't want to walk in late on Sarah Ferguson, who is the moderator. Assuming she doesn't do anything to get arrested between now and then, that is...

PU finished up with a hospitality hour at 5, during which I met a couple of other publishers I hadn't connected with yet. This day and a half experience has been one that I am sure will change the direction of my publishing company, and perhaps myself as an author as well. So to the IBPA, my heartfelt thanks for providing me with this opportunity. Write on!

The E-volution of Books

This was day 1 of Publishing University. At noon the recipients of the scholarships to P. U. got together for a meet and greet. There were 13 of us, and quite a variety of experience from the one book (so far) publishers like myself to one company that has 60 titles under their belt.

Dominique Raccah was the opening keynote speaker. She started Sourcebooks in 1987 and has grown her publishing company into the largest female owned publisher in the United States. Her topic today was the digital revolution in books. She captured my attention right away with the following comment: "I don't care how I feel about the content [of a suggested book]. I only care about what the customer thinks about it." And she basically is not interested in what I would call one hit wonders. She only wants to publish authors who have multiple books in them.

After talking about changes in printing books such as digital print, print on demand and e-books, she asked the question "We are morphing from being book publishers to what?" Because really, when is a book no longer a book? She said that we are in the business of delivering our content to readers, and we need to remain flexible on how we do that. Her summary? We need to be able to connect author and readers anytime, anywhere, and in any format.

Her presentation was a great segway to the next general session entitled "E-Magination". Moderated by Chris Kenneally of the Copyright Clearance Center, the illustrious panel included Mike Coker of Smashwords, David Hetherington of BLIO/Baker & Taylor, Jack Sallay of Vook and Sara Nelson from O Magazine. Each of the panelists gave a short synopsis of their company and how they approach the e-book market, and this was followed by Q. & A. Vook's approach takes the e-book concept and expands on it by embedding photos and videos into the book as well as offering communities for the "readers" to connect with each other. This is where you begin to see the relevance of the question "When is a book no longer a book?"

For the final session of the day I elected to go to the session "What Kind of Printer Do You Want to Be?" That's a pertinent question for me, but also Dan Poynter was one of the speakers. His bible on self-publishing was crucial to me as I brought my book to life, so I was very interested in hearing him speak. Also on the panel with him were Steve Carlson of Upper Access and Danny Snow of Unlimited Publishing LLC. Dan did not disappoint with his presentation, and even though a lot of it is covered in his book it was still great to hear him live. Favorite quotation made by Dan - "Publishers buy authors, they don't buy books."

Tomorrow's schedule has many great choices on the agenda. It will be hard to decide which sessions will be of the most benefit to me. But I'm up for the challenge!

Dear Diary

Can't remember if I wrote about this or not, but on the CBI Theater website I came across a woman who had submitted information about her dad's service during WWII, specifically in India which is where my dad was stationed. Her dad kept a diary of his adventures, and he was transported to India aboard the USS Andy E. Anderson on the same day as my dad. I sent an email to Glenda telling her how excited I was to learn of her dad's diary, and she emailed me the pertinent passages from the voyage. It certainly put words to the pictures I have gathered about life on board the "Andy".

Over the weekend I contacted Glenda by phone, and we spent an hour discussing our dad's war service and what we are doing with the information we have gathered. While I am writing a book about my dad's military days, she is compiling a book about her family. This of course led into a lively discussion about genealogy. No one in my family has much interest in my other pastime, so it was fun to have a conversation with someone who shares my passion. I hope to remain in touch with Glenda in the future.

On Sunday I leave for New York to attend Publishing University. I received an email from IBPA (the sponsor) requesting that the email recipients meet at noon on Monday to introduce ourselves and get acquainted. The email didn't say, but I am assuming this will be a gathering of the scholarship winners. Hopefully I will find someone I connect with so I have someone to hang out with during what little free time we'll have. My goal is to post my thoughts and observations about the seminar on twitter, facebook and this blog. That is assuming I have access to the Internet, so fingers crossed on that. I hope to be inspired by the other publishers, and perhaps gain some perspective on where to go with Provenance Publishing.