The Big Bad Book Blog

Our friends over at Ingram Book Company are getting in the holiday spirit; they designed these cute little “Buy Books” and “Give Books” images you can drop right into your email signature. What a great way to remind all your friends that books are the perfect gift for pretty much anyone. Seriously, there are books that appeal to pretty much every taste and affinity (as Auburn points out in the previous post). And don’t hesitate to buy them for the non-readers in your life: they need to be given great books most of all!

Give books this season and you’ll be giving lasting enjoyment, promoting literacy, and, if you’ve written a book of your own, earning some book-sales karma. Selling books is, of course, what keeps publishers, booksellers, and authors going! Here for you to download and drop into your email signature are the images Ingram created:

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BONUS: The Austin Chronicle’s book blog has compiled a great list of gift ideas for the book lover in your life, including jokey literary baseball shirts and accessories for Kindle owners.

Holidays. They’re upon us, as always, coming too rapidly, though months ago they seemed like glittering, far-distant things that we would never reach. When I was younger and privy to gifts from my parents, I asked for (and often received) gifts that were attractive, shiny and new—and for which I cared very little after a month or two. And the gifts I presented were often just as meaningless, last-minute trinkets given with little thought or care.

Not so this year. This year I do what I should have done years ago. This is The Year of the Gift Book—whereby every person on my gift list will receive at least one book catered specifically to their interests, needs, wants, beliefs or loves. (Lest I should worry anyone, other gifts will be given as well. But the truly special one will be the book.)

It seems painfully obvious that I should give books. I work at a publishing company. I endeavor to write professionally. Reading and writing are my favorite pastimes. I love books. (As one of my close friends is quick to remind me, our friendship began with her present to me of a Borders gift card, which I used to purchase the complete Chronicles of Narnia.) And as a reader of this blog, I can only surmise that you feel the same, at least to an extent.

Nor can we forget that times are still difficult for many of us, and casual expenses from holidays years ago are less feasible now. But I promised myself that I would never feel guilty for spending money on a book, and besides, they are not expensive gifts. It is in fact one of the least expensive purchases you can make, and—when chosen with insight and care—can be one of the most richly rewarding.

One needn’t forget too that the publishing industry (and the retail world at large) has high hopes for this holiday season, and it represents a prime opportunity to support local bookstores. Not only that, but the booksellers who work in these shops are more than happy to offer suggestions of books in a variety of genres and styles—my favourite local shop, BookPeople, has dozens upon dozens of recommendations coloring its shelves that can leave you browsing for hours— and that is how I intend to pick many of my gifts.

Looking for resources to pick one book or a dozen? Here’s a few links for a good start:

• Penguin Group asked several of its authors to recommend What to Give & What to Get (in books, that is).
• Hawes Publications provides a complete list of past New York Times Bestsellers.
• What Should I Read Next? is an innovative site that allows you to choose your next book based on what you’re reading now.
• Have a writer in your life? Try the top ten recommendations for freelance writers at The Freelance Writing Jobs Network.
• The Young Adult Library Services Association has a grand series of Young Adult book recommendations by year.

Happy Holidays to you all, and see you after Thanksgiving!

What Books Drove You to Do Something?

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A few weeks ago we noticed a story in the news about an 11-year-old boy here in Austin who was inspired to leave home after reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.  The boy filled a backpack with oranges and left his house in search of independence and adventure.  My Side of the Mountain, published in 1959, is set in upstate New York, where a young boy goes out into the Catskills and survives the wilderness on his own.  This got us thinking, what books have we read that inspired us to do or change something?  Here are a few of those books.

“I first read On the Road by Jack Kerouac when I was 16 and reread it every year for the next five years. That book spoke to the wanderer in me, as cheesy as that sounds now. I read all of the writings of Kerouac’s Beat colleagues and wrote letters to many of them while I was in high school. To this day, one of my most prized possessions is a handwritten postcard response from Allen Ginsberg.  I had grand plans for a cross-country road trip, and while I got around to buying the VW Bus to make the trip in my college years, I never found the time or finances to set off. I think I’m manifesting the road trip cravings with frequent house moves. I still dream of buying another VW Bus and making the trip . . . maybe once my kids’ college is paid for!”

—Tanya, Business Development Manager

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“When I was a little girl I was totally obsessed with The Babysitter’s Club series by Ann M. Martin.  Every gift I got for several years running was the next few books in the collection.  I had an entire bookshelf dedicated to them in my bedroom.  I got together with the girlfriends I had on my street and we formed our own neighborhood babysitters club, complete with flyers that we peddled around to mailboxes on every block and weekly club meetings and yes, even a babysitting job or two!  It didn’t last very long; little girls have short attention spans, after all.  I did end up being the go-to girl in the neighborhood for sitting services into my teens, though, so I guess the resume building babysitter’s club start-up paid off in the end.”

—Kristen, Distribution Manager

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“Just after college, I picked up Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984 in a bookstore. I’d always felt a secret frisson of excitement when I mentioned a band no one else had ever heard of, but this book helped me grow out of immature name-dropping into a more comprehensive knowledge of an amazing period in popular music—and made me buy way more music than I could afford at the time. Reading about the charismatic, flamboyant, creative, and sometimes mentally unstable figures of post-punk, synth pop, and New Romanticism also prompted an ill-fated electronic keyboard purchase, but even after I sold that a couple of years later, the spirit and insight of this book stuck with me.”

—Aaron, Distribution Associate

You likely have excess, old, returned, or slightly damaged books idly sitting somewhere like a warehouse or your own garage. You don’t want to throw them away, but you don’t know what else to do with them. One great way to make sure your books don’t go to waste is to donate them. Better to get them in the hands of readers rather than letting them gather dust or end up in the trash. There are plenty of organizations out there that accept books as donations, and we’ve listed a few here. Click on the following links for more information about the programs and their donation procedures.

• Soldiers’ Angels
• Got Books?
• Kids In Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S.)
• Reader to Reader
• Pages for Children
• International Book Bank
• Books for Asia

This week Jonathan Fields of the Huffington Post posted an e-mail exchange he had with a publicist from a major house who was pitching a new self-help book. The publicist not only sent the same cookie-cutter release twice, but then engaged in an argument with Fields—the person he wants to be on his side—about why his outdated methods work for everyone else. Fields uses this almost unbelievable exchange as the starting point for an insightful commentary on book publicity as it should be today. You may have heard the basics of how publicity has changed already (broadcasting to old media doesn’t work anymore, social media requires joining the conversation, etc), but the post is a graphic demonstration of what we hear all the time.

Fields, who wrote and promoted his own book, Career Renegade, also points out a truth that held for both himself and 4-Hour Workweek author Timothy Ferriss: mentions on top-notch blogs and other social media can do a lot more for book sales than advertising in national newspapers and magazines or even appearing on national television.

As further evidence of the power of conversation, some great points are made in the comments section of Fields’s post, so check that out as well. HuffPost blogger Lisa Earle McLeod chimes in with a piece of wisdom we’ve given you already: it’s critical for authors to understand how media and publicity work today. Depending on your publisher and/or publicist to do it all for you is a sure formula for weak sales.