Daily Thoughts 5/29/2010

New York Sunday Journal, May 3, 1896. Why did I post this on Saturday, to protest the idea of having to collect all my thoughts on Sunday and post them all at once as a Salon post.

Daily Thoughts 5/29/2010

Anyways, the big book convention is over. I had a chance to go through and look at the blog list of the Book Bloggers Convention. I never did put up a button for them. These are a few of the blogs which I liked from the list. I visited all of them to see what they looked like. Sometimes, it is a chance to just see what people are doing. http://bookbloggerconvention.com/attendees I probably should have gone through this before I went to the reception. But, then I am not very good at should have.

I really like the Rasco from RIF (Reading Is Fundamental) blog. It has a very clear design and excellent message. http://www.rascofromrif.org/ Reading Is Fundamental is part of the Summer Reading programs at most public libraries in the United States. I also liked Jeff's, The Reading Ape Blog http://thereadingape.blogspot.com/. His summary of Book Expo America is quite good. I joined the Book Bloggers Hop on Crazy For Books, I am #175, http://www.crazy-for-books.com/. I sometimes twitter with Marie from The Boston Bibliophile which is a quite nice blog. She is also a librarian blogger. http://www.bostonbibliophile.com/ . Maw Books by Natasha is of course wonderful, she was the primary arranger of the Book Blogger Convention. http://blog.mawbooks.com/ . There is also The Book Publicity Blog which I find fascinating.http://yodiwan.wordpress.com/. I have never seen so many book publicists in one place...

I also looked through the industry bloggers. The AMACom Blog looks quite interesting, it is often hard to find decent reviews for business books. I think I will get Investing In A Sustainable World Why Green Is The New Color of Money On Wall Street by Matthew J. Kiernan, Ph.D. http://amacombooks.wordpress.com/ . Another industry blog which looks very nice is Online Publicist. http://onlinepublicist.blogspot.com/. I liked the design of Authors on the Web, they left us a gift in the goody bag yesterday, a reading light. http://authorsontheweb.com/. I was surprised to have missed Quirk Books, http://irreference.com/ They are famous for Seth Grahame-Smith, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. We also purchased Queen Victoria Demon Hunter from them as well as Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter for our library. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was recently turned into a graphic novel.

Some Final Thoughts on Book Expo and the Book Blogging Convention.

One of the underlying conversations at the Book Expo was about reviewing. Although, it was not said out loud, the publishers were giving out a lot less review copies to attendees. Some were also limiting their copies to "reviewers." They were also trying to switch away from physical copies to either codes which allowed downloads to books or egalleys. This was a way to lower costs and improve distribution. While I was following the Ning Book Blog group there were questions about how international readers could get galleys. I would imagine that shipping a physical galley overseas via airmail would be cost prohibitive.

During Ron Hogan's talk he said that blogs had won out against review sites. He told us that places like the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and others were creating their own blogs to review books. The specific blog that Ron Hogan mentioned was Jacket Copy of the Los Angeles Times. Ron Hogan made a statement that Bloggers have won. I read the Books section of the New York Times on occassion looking at Paper Cuts one of the New York Times blogs.

I am not 100% sure about this, but I can tell you that blogs do have some advantages. They do not have to follow a formula or editorial policies created in review periodicals. They can innovate in their style. I often find myself when reading library review material wondering if they copied the dust jacket copy practically word for word to create the review. I think this is one of the reasons that Kirkus Reviews survived; they were willing to include more negative reviews and more florid language.

Bloggers can put an original voice and style into reviews. They can also add new conventions to describing books like adding descriptions of layout, style, and photography in books. There are no rules right now. Also, with nonstandard language it is much easier to prove you have read a book. A blogger can use much more original language. Hopefully, reviewers at the professional journals will adapt some of the better conventions from blogs as they are tried.

While I was at the Book Bloggers Convention, there was another group conversation about bloggers and reviewers. Bloggers do not have to write negative reviews. If someone gives you a book and you write a negative review, you might not get another free galley from them. It is often difficult to write a negative review. A blogger is not getting paid to write a review. Often, they are reading for pleasure. There is no requirement for them to finish reading a book which they do not like. A reviewer is being paid. The blogger can simply stop reading. I still think it is best to have at least a mention that they stopped reading a book and why.

There is an unacknowledged tension between the style of "readers advisory" and "literary criticism." The style of literary criticism appears to be fading a bit for popular titles. During the Librarians 2nd Annual Shout and Share, which is a book talking panel by collection development librarians, at around 3:45 p.m. Miriam Tuliao cofounder of Earlyword.com http://www.earlyword.com/ mentioned a new trifecta for bestsellers. If a book is prominently featured in USA Today, People, and Entertainment Weekly it will most likely appear on the bestseller lists. I hope, I will not have to read these magazines to measure some of the popular titles to get.

This is a bit stunning. I like many of the print publications like the New York Review of Books which is on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/NYRB.Classics and hope they are quick and adaptable in meeting the challenges facing them. My hope is that purely popular institutions will not have too much impact on our reading habits.

The final question which I faced directly, is "Is a blogger a reviewer?" Many people both write literary reviews and blogs. How do you approach a company and ask them for books who want their books reviewed, but are a little shy of giving a blogger a book. Luckily, because I work around a constant flow of books, I don't have to hunt for new books to read and review. Others do. I still really want certain titles on occassion. At the Book Blogger Convention, we were given contact sheets for Harper Collins to request review copies if we wanted them for blogs.

Problogger Secrets of Blogging Your Way To A Six Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett

Problogger Secrets of Blogging Your Way To A Six Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett

This book is refreshing. The writing is honest, clear, and straightforward. Chris Garrett has a background in computer programming and writes a blog at http://www.chrisg.com/ and Darren Rowse has a blog at http://www.problogger.net/ . These blogs are two of the most popular blogs on the internet about blogging. I like that they immediately tell you that blogging is not a get rich quick scheme, it takes years of diligence to make your blog both profitable and widely read.

They tell you the truth about quite a few things. I wish I had read this book earlier. Post every day with original thoughts and content. Track your blog and see who is visiting and where they are coming from. Include original content and write original thoughts.

One of the most important reminders I got from this book is do not rely on a single source of traffic for your blog. The traffic can be very ephemeral. If a blog uses traffic generators like Digg or Stumbleupon, these sources of traffic do not guarantee that the blog is getting regular visitors every single day. It is the regular visitors who come back over and over again that matter. For a while, I was using Entrecard, I sometimes got a hundred to two hundred visitors a day. When I stopped using Entrecard, my visitor count dropped to about 40 people per day. Of these ten of them were from Entrecard.

The best way to generate traffic is to talk to the people who are visiting, go visit them, and comment on their blogs. Don't just comment. Say "Please comment on my blog." or "What do you think?" So, "How do you like what I am saying?"

In the beginning of the book, the authors remind you that there are many reasons for blogging including hobbies, practicing writing, improving your computer skills, and other things. Think about whether it is worth it to advertise and make money. Sometimes advertising conflicts with your other goals.

There are a lot of subjects covered in this book. Some of them caught me by surprise. You can learn to sell your blog, create a monetary value for your blog, about the social media popularity contest, and many other subjects.

The main focus is how to make money in the long term from blogging. Chris Garrett describes other methods of making money from blogging; consulting, being a guest blog poster, writing for other blogs, designing blog templates, not just advertising. Darren Rowse has a job board on his site, http://www.problogger.net/ for those seeking employment working on blogs.

The voice of this book is one of honesty. Darren Rowse comes across as the conservative preacher he once was. There is a lot of integrity in this book. The authors want you to create a unique and unique content. People are looking for something worthwhile to read which is remarkable, educational, and informative.

Problogging is surprisingly easy to read. I read it in afternoon. The book is 229 pages long. Punctuated throughout the book are black and white photographs, many of them of different blogging sites. This book is a popular book by a pair of popular authors that have direct experience on what they are writing about.

More Thoughts, Subway Reading, Working With Books

I have been at jury duty all week. This is the first week I haven't been to a library or bookstore in a long time. It is kind of relaxing. I got plenty of rest. I read the paper in the morning. I don't read the New York Times except for occassionally. The New York Times is a national newspaper and rather weak on local news. I read the Daily News. It is pretty light weight in its presentation.

My case is luckily not in the papers or I wouldn't read the paper. I had a nice relaxed lunch at a small Colombian restaurant. The coffee was very strong and bitter just perfect.

When I had free time during the day, I continued to read Oil by Upton Sinclair. I am about half way through the book. I am not going to go see it in the movie theater. I will wait until it comes out on dvd.

Two other people out of the group I was with were reading books, one was reading a book by Tom Brokaw, the other was reading a paperback.

It was very funny. I've noticed that less and less people are reading books these days. They are reading the newspaper or the internet but not books. They would ask me what I was watching on television and I would say sorry, I don't watch television, if I really want to see the democratic or republican debates, I'll watch them on Youtube. That may sound funny, but all of them are there.

I read on the subway coming home for a little bit. Now I am home. It is too late to wander down to the library. In the subway, only a few people were reading. Sometimes I try and look to see what a person is reading. Often they will stare back at me, close the book and hide it. It is considered rude to try and find out what someone else is reading on the subway.

I see a lot of people reading bibles on the subway. They are reading the bible in a variety of languages, Hebrew, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and English. You usually can tell it is the bible because it is a black book with a cross on the cover, or it has the format of the the bible when it is open. Occassionally, they are reading the Koran as well. Maybe they are using it as a protective talisman. Some of the riders are fingering prayer beads, or staring at the ceiling in meditation.

At Grand Central and Times Square you will see lay preachers yelling about the new testament, sin, and hell. The Jehovah's Witnesses stand inside many of the subway stations and hand out their magazine "Awake". If you are in chinatown or Main Street in Queens, or Grand Central Terminal in New York you will also get Falun Gong pamphlets.

Also people read books in a variety of different languages on the subway. You see a lot of foreign language books on the subway, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and other languages. Most of the time people are reading paperbacks or trade paperbacks which are easier to carry or read on the subway than hardcovers.

Occassionally, people will ask what I am reading. I usually will show them the book, and read them the title, but not let it out of my hand. I don't go into too much detail what I reading about and say simple, "It's a good book."

I have to pace myself, and figure out where I am supposed to get off the subway before I start reading. If I get too absorbed, I will miss my stop. I usually put my book away one or two stops before I have to get off the train. I also get on the train in about the third car. There are usually just enough people around to avoid trouble if you avoid the front two and the back two train cars. I carry a big shoulder bag with me most of the time. A man bag.

I'm also a little paranoid. Because I am reading, and seem a little distracted, I put my wallet inside my coat and leave loose stuff in my outside pockets. I try and see the hands of people who are sitting next to me. Pickpockets have to use their hands to get at things.

I never wear earphones on the subway. I am worried that I won't hear something which is happening like a fight, a distraction, a repairs announcement, a police activities announcement, or that a passenger is sick. There is a lot which can happen on trains.

I currently have one other book in my book bag which I have not read, Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. I am used to carrying around five or six books which I might decide to read. Briar Rose is one of the Mythopoeic society award winners.

When you are not thinking of books most of the day, it makes it difficult to think about what new books or subjects to come up for this blog. I am actually feeling pretty good right now.

For a year while I was working at an ISP, I stopped working with books. This was during the dotcom boom. I helped find people. The internet is about creating connections between people mainly. We like to think of it as connections between two pieces of information, but it is really not that at all.

Doing jury duty is a kind of deja vu experience. It makes me realize just how much I like working with books, information and the internet. I don't really miss the library aspect of the thing. It could just as easily be in a publishing house, bookstore, or online site.

One of the directors I worked with suggested that I should be working for an online publishing house or online business, I would do well there. About four years ago I took the Introduction to Publishing class at New York University. I was thinking about taking the certificate in publishing course for online publishing. http://www.scps.nyu.edu/areas-of-study/publishing/ . They discontinued the digital publishing course, but kept the magazine and book publishing course at New York University. The real stumper was that I was told if I finished the the certificate, they suggested I might be able to get a sales position in one of the larger publishing companies.

I have been told various things about where I fit in the library world, some by recruiters, some by other people. I know I am not quite a match for a traditional corporate structure. However, I know I would probably do well in a business casual environment. I have looked at law librarianship, corporate librarianship, and academic librarianship and none of it quite seems to fit. The recruiters I talk with are really never able to help me. I have always found the positions I have held on my own after I have been told there was nothing available by recruiters. There were always a lot of places open when I was looking. Many more than the recruiters even new about.

I am really not interested in most levels on doing competitive intelligence. The confidentiality bit bothers me too much. I also like my ego too much to submerge it and my ethics are a bit too strong for dumpster diving, rusing, or cracking. For a bit I was a member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals which was an odd experience. I went to some of the meetings to see what it was about. Virtually every aspect of information fascinates me.

I also joined the SLA-- Special Library Association for a while, but it did not get me where I wanted to be. I did not seem to fit in with the special librarian crowd that well. I let the dues slide and looked elsewhere.

I've looked at what it takes to start an information brokerage, the Association of Independent Information Professionals is the main association for independent researchers. I really don't think I would do well as an independent searcher. It is the books which interest me not just the searching.

I have an entrepreneurial streak in me. Venture capital is actually pretty interesting. I went to a couple pitches to see how it was done and watched people pitch their ideas. I am interested in business. If you are interested in learning about business, it is easily worth the $40 or $50 to go to an evening where people do pitches to sell their venture capital ideas.

http://www.mitef-nyc.org/mc/community/eventdetails.do?eventId=148346&orgId=mefny

I pulled this event out of Bernardo's List for New York, a kind of amalgam of networking for business events and schmoozing events. http://www.bernardoslist.com/ Take a look at the events list, I find it quite entertaining. If you are looking for business networking events, he lists a lot of them.

One of the real stumpers for me is to advance in librarianship, I have to take either extremely specialized positions which are hard to get, director of collection development or director of reference. I am not entirely sure I want to manage librarians. I could stay in my current position, but I really don't want to stagnate. I could try and learn a whole set of technical skills like content management, but I am not sure that I would do well with it.

For a while, I had a dream of opening a bookstore, then I stepped back when I saw so many of the small independent bookstores closing up. I talked with a few people at SCORE-- Service Corps of Retired Executives about a business plan to start a small bookstore and it wasn't quite right. I also considered taking the American Booksellers Association course on bookselling. I could take the course in 2009 when Book Expo America comes back to New York. I have had SCORE in a couple of times to do workshops at the library where I work.

I look at the publishing world and it makes my teeth grind. There is very little that looks like a viable business opportunity right now. The book world is changing. Publishing is like the headless horseman right now. It looks to have a direction, but there is no understanding why.

I always dreamed of being a librarian, but when I got there, it was different than what I expected. It is still fun, but I am not sure where it will take me right now.

I've also thought of writing, but not as a career, more of a pastime and hobby. At one point I took a seminar on writing science fiction short stories. I was told my grammar is bad. Maybe, I don't need to write lies (novels), people seem to be more interested in my every day opinions, reviews, and experiences than in galaxies far far away. I guess it is hard to make things up when you already have interesting things happening to you.

Advanced Reading Copies.

An Advanced Reading Copy is a stage between the manuscript which the author wrote, and the final publication. It is used to check the quality of the final work before it is published.

Usually an advanced reading copy will be trade paperback in size and have a glossy finished paper cover. In bookstores and libraries they are usually sent with a letter asking about any suggestions for final revision of the book. In big libraries with central branches, they usually have several bookshelves of advanced readers copies. Most of the time they say Advanced Readers Copy not for resale on them. Libraries cannot add them to their collections because of the notice.

Librarians will look over the Advanced Readers Copies to see how many of the book they will buy for a whole library system. Brooklyn Public Library, Queens Public Library, and New York Public Library all have central collection development departments as do most very large city library systems.

Independent booksellers often ignore advanced readers copies, they are busy selling books and often don't have time to read for pleasure. They often have an unread pile of them behind the counter. Sometime, they give them to their assistant to read. Or if the ARC is by a really famous author, they will stick it in a closet somewhere, because it might be worth something to someone some day.

ARCs of famous authors like Steven King are valuable. They are not supposed to sell it because of the notice. This is sometimes ignored. Usually to be considerate, most booksellers wait several years after the book is released until the item is collectible, have the item signed then sell it.

Often after meetings, the librarians will take a few minutes and pick up some of the advanced reading copies to read. They are meant to be distributed to get a first impression of a book before it is published. The more professionals in the book trade who read it and give an impression back to them the happier the publisher is.

If the librarian or bookseller is considerate and the review sheet is still in the ARC, they will send back a review of the Advanced Readers Copy to the publisher with comments like, the sword fight on page 53 read like a fight with a fencing blade not a broadsword, or I didn't like the poem on page 56 it didn't match the tone of the story, or you spelled cope verde wrong three times, it is cape verde. These will most likely be some of the final revisions before publication.

If the author liked the review, they may even send a signed copy of the book to you. This is rare, but it has happened to me once with a short review. They will also ask the bookseller to tell them how many copies of the book he or she might want to buy in the future.

Advanced Readers Copies are also handed out at the big book conventions. If you go to Book Expo America, each booth will have copies of their latest forthcoming to be published book in Advanced Readers Edition format. They hand out hundreds of them to generate buzz from the attendees. There are stacks piled up on the floor, on tables, in book racks, and on display stands for people to look at and handle. There are more than most people can even look at in passing. You could take home a hundred pounds of them and still barely scratch the surface.

If you go to author events or readings at a convention like Book Expo America, they will often have the latest ARC of their book at a reading or presentation. You are supposed to take one so you can read the book and tell your friends how great it was.

____________________________________________________________________

The logo in this blog is my new logo for Entrecard which I designed. I hope it looks decent. I had to replace my hit counter last night because it broke.

Here are some more thoughts about entrecard has a very large number of users. However, they don't have a very wide readership. For example, currently in the category of books, there are only 3 members, in the category of writing there are about 14 members, and the category of art there are 12 members, and in the category of education there are 8 members. This is not a whole lot of membership for the arts. While I get a lot of traffic from there, I don't get enough repeat traffic. It would be nice if more artistic people "like you maybe" joined the network.

Sometimes widgets and counters stop working because the code on blogspot gets changed, or the producer of the widget has problems with their server. This is the first time this has happened to me. I am thinking of redesigning the banner at the top of the page. I think it needs to have a little more lightness to it.

Sometimes I sound like a pitch man, but that is what I am doing selling myself and my blog to you.