The Big Bad Book Blog

The Nautilus Book Awards, which recognizes “books and audio books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living, and positive social change,” has extended its deadline for entries to February 28, 2010. The award is open to all publishers and self-published authors with books published or produced in 2008 or 2009 in the English language. Check the category list to see if your book would be a good candidate for a Nautilus award. Because there may be some overlap between categories, the kind people at Nautilus will even reposition your book if the category in which it was submitted is not the most appropriate choice.

To enter, you’ll need to fill out the entry form, pay the entry fee, and have four copies sent off to Nautilus, postmarked no later than midnight, February 28, and sent via FedEx, UPS, or USPS Priority Mail with delivery confirmation. For more information, visit the Nautilus Book Awards website or email marilyn@nautilusbookawards.com. Good luck!

Many forms of entertainment have been releasing free chunks of content for promotional use for ages. The music industry has singles. The movie industry has trailers. Publishers and authors have to figure out ways to do the same thing with the written word.

The good news is there are lots of ways to do this. As authors, you should be taking advantage of all the technology available—by uploading content to websites and social networks that allow book excerpts (FiledBy, BookBuzzr, Scribd, Redroom, SlideShare), posting samples on your website, tweeting about your samples online, etc. Do not be afraid to put your content out there. Tease the readers. Leave them wanting more.

The beginning of the year is an exciting time for everyone—including authors. Along with your other resolutions, it’s important to remember that a new year represents a fabulous opportunity to establish, enhance, or even reinvent your author image. Marketing yourself is huge part of making any writer’s book a success. The Internet—and social media, more specifically—has increasingly become the most important aspect of a publicity campaign. If you have not already ventured onto online reading communities and other sites that can help authors spread their work, there is no better time than now! Here are a few to get you started:

• Red Room: A site dedicated to connecting authors and readers. As a Red Room author, you can create a very professional customized page that allows you to upload published works, reviews, interview transcripts, videos, podcasts, as well as blog entries.
• Goodreads: A book-sharing and reviewing site that allows you to sign up as a published author and get your own page, which will include a short biography and background information, separate pages for your books, a place to add links to reviews and interviews, friends and followers, a comments space, and other common features of a social networking site.
• Shelfari: An interactive bookshelf and community for readers, Shelfari allows to create your own profile with a list of favorite books, which you can then review, rate, and tag. A page is created for each author and book, which can be edited by you (or the public at large).
• Scribd: A document-sharing site—it’s been called the “YouTube for documents”—where authors can create their own pages and profiles, and easily share a variety of documents—including book excerpts, reviews, interviews, or other book-related paraphernalia for people to view.

By the beginning of 2010, you should have heard something about the multipurpose power of Twitter. Tweens can keep tabs on Miley Cyrus; huge corporations can interact with their customers; authors can get visibility with readers. But besides reaching out directly to their target audience of readers, authors can use Twitter to access communities that can be crucial to the success of their book—like booksellers. Generally passionate about their work, booksellers have a large and vocal presence on Twitter, and the Twitter-savvy author would do well to befriend them.
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John Kremer has a long list of booksellers on Twitter, and Jennifer Tribe of Highspot Inc. has compiled an amazing directory of book industry people here. In addition to booksellers, Tribe’s list also includes publishers, agents, publicist, author services, and more. As you follow people you’d like to know on Twitter, remember that it’s as useful a listening tool as it is a broadcasting tool: get to know what each specific bookseller uses Twitter for, and join the conversation respectfully, waiting for a while before you start pushing your book on anyone. Once you’ve followed and gotten to know the bookselling community on Twitter, we’re pretty sure you’ll want to stick around: they’re smart, helpful, and a lot of fun.

Last month, Fast Company did a great story on bookstore co-op deals, in which publishers pay booksellers for inclusion on front tables, end caps, face-out placements, etc. So, yes, those books out front at Barnes & Noble are there because someone paid for them to be there, not necessarily because they’re the best or most important—although, of course, bookstore buyers only allow placement for books they believe will move. (Also, the two indie booksellers we’ve asked, BookPeople and Vroman’s, say that featured “employee picks,” an upaid form of co-op, are completely at the employee and bookseller’s discretion.)

It’s an interesting negotiation, and as bookstore space shrinks and brick-and-mortar book shoppers dwindle, co-op placement for books becomes increasingly important. Adam L. Penenberg, author of Viral Loop, gives an good overview. Read it here, and have a Happy New Year!