Oh lordy, will it never stop?

Social media - blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. - is a tool. Tools are neutral - they are designed to help, but they can also hurt. You can build with a hammer; you can also kill a person with a hammer. Similarly, you can build with Twitter, or you can use it to kill your career.

Case in point: Alice Hoffman. A reviewer for the Boston Globe gave Hoffman’s new book a negative review. Hoffman responded with a number of rants on Twitter, publishing the reviewer’s phone number and email address (presumably so those who agreed with Hoffman could amplify her rage).

Another case: Alain de Botton. In this instance, he came across the blog of a NYTBR reviewer who had panned his book. And left a screed in the comments section of the blog that culminated thusly:

“I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make. I will be watching with interest and schadenfreude.”

Don’t. Do. This.

It might feel good for about six seconds, but God knows it’s hard enough to get published these days even if you’re an absolute angel - why would you want to complicate your career by being a jerk on top of that? Reviewers are going to say bad things. Some of THEM are, in fact, jerks. But you never EVER counter with asshole-itude. EVER. Because it will backfire. It will magnify. It will find its way to Gawker or New York Magazine, both of which are devoured by publishing people, and you will have effectively ended the authorhood stage of your life and will have to find something else to do with your remaining years.

Preferably as far away from tools as possible.

The Self-Publishing Book Expo has put together four panels for its November 7th conference - with more to come!

• “Understanding Distribution” will feature Andy Weissberg of Bowker as moderator, with discussion by Janet McDonald of Ingram, Eric Kampman of Midpoint Trade, and Brent Sampson of Outskirts Press.
• “The Rise of Ebooks” will be presented by Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords.
• “Buzz Your Book” features M.J. Rose (major get!), Doug Clegg (hi, Doug!), and Karen Mender (co-founder of the Self-Publishing Book Expo).
• Brent Sampson gives an additional session called “Three Paths to Publishing”, where he presents three different publishing scenarios for authors not sure which direction to take.

The Expo’s website has also been updated with information about authors who are exhibiting. It’s a thrilling event and I plan to be there!

While I was at BEA, I met Drew Gerber of Pitchrate. And the minute he described his service, it made complete sense to me. Through Pitchrate, experts and authors can get in touch with journalists and PR folks who are looking specifically for certain stories or expertise.

These journalists or PR people send out requests every day for experts, and then you can respond with a pitch. It’s very simple - and the Pitchrate tools seem pretty easy to work with; highly email-based (although there seems to be a web app you can use as well). Journalists rate the experts they talk with, so if you’ve achieved a high rating, chances are other journalists will be in touch!

I think these services are very useful, particularly for nonfiction writers who are steeped in certain topics and have a specific message to get out. So check it out!

I just wanted to take a little time and talk about ISBNs. Last week I held a Twitter session for an hour - #isbnsebooks - where writers, publishers, and other Bookish Tweeps and I all looked at the many ebook formats out there and examined the necessity of having one ISBN per format.

Right now, there’s no other way to publish if you want to be distributed by a third party. If all you’re doing is selling ebooks from your own website, or exclusively with Amazon, then an ISBN is not strictly necessary. But the moment you start working with distributors, who then make the ebook available to a variety of websites, an ISBN is crucial. The supply chain does not operate without them - they are the basis upon which massive databases are built.

Can you use another identifier? Again, if you’re only selling on your own site, that’s fine. Nobody will know but you. But the moment your ebook (or any other book) leaves your house, it needs a number slapped on it that everyone can recognize and work with.

The main objection to ISBNs seems to be that of cost. In other countries (except the UK), ISBNs are subsidized by the state and so appear free to publishers and authors. Here in the US, the cost of creating and maintaining the ISBN database is passed along to the users of that database. It is a cooperative sort of arrangement - but there is not enough transparency around it. Nobody seems to know exactly how much it costs to maintain the data, or why ISBN pricing is the way it is. I’ve been advocating to Bowker, the US ISBN agency, to be explicit around costs and to become more transparent; I think they will be doing so in the next few months. If publishers and authors knew how much it cost to keep the ISBN database/registration going, then perhaps we could all understand things a little bit better.

Additionally, Bowker’s bulk pricing for ISBNs has struck many smaller presses as discriminatory. If Pearson or McGraw-Hill or HarperCollins or Random House buy ISBNs, they do so in massive bulk - thousands of them. And they get deep discounts as a result. But of course these guys publish thousands of books at a time. A smaller press, perhaps one who publishes 10 or 50 books a year, will never get the benefit of that sort of discount. Thus small presses - who are frequently operating on a shoestring - are penalized financially.

I haven’t found a good way around this yet, but I am chair of BISAC’s Identifiers Committee, and these are issues we’re exploring actively. When I have something to report, I will - meanwhile, stay tuned for the next #isbnsebooks session on Twitter, and follow me at @ljndawson.

Whatever they tell you, don’t get a booth.

I know what the arguments are: it’s the biggest book industry trade show in the US. It’s a way to get exposure and connect with larger publishers to try to get your book picked up and distributed by them. It’s a way to make connections in an industry you’re trying to break into.

All true - but you don’t have to buy a booth.

Trade show booths (particularly in New York, where BEA is going to be held through 2012) are riotously expensive. There’s the cost of the space itself. There’s the cost of a table, booth-dressing, collaterals to hand out. There’s wifi, which at Javits will run you $30/day as a regular user, and if you want it for displaying anything to people it costs far more. There’s the union labor, which sets your booth up and breaks it down (no, you cannot do this yourself - union rules). And there’s the cost of coming to New York and staying in a hotel, having copies of your book on hand to give away (you cannot sell books at BEA), and eating highly priced convention-center food (bleah).

Don’t do it.

There are more effective ways of marketing your book! Simply attending BEA, making appointments, and visiting with distributors and large publishers - these are great ways to get in the door, and much wiser than buying a booth. Attending conference sessions to learn more about the industry you’re entering - also valuable, and great for networking afterwards! Walking the floor and meeting people is much more effective than manning your booth over in the Siberia of “Writers Row” and praying people come by to see you. The best way to market anything is to be where your targets are - and your targets are in their own booths!

Don’t buy a booth. It’s not just a waste of money - it’s a waste of time and effort that could be better spent doing more effective marketing off the show floor.