The WORDS blog is the most neglected part of this site and I thought it would be one of the most utilized. it soon will be. I think. I hope.
We’re in the final stages of the final stages of finishing up the book deal. When that’s signed I’ll post an official announcement here about who I signed with, why and when the book is coming out.
And soon after that, with the publisher’s permission, I’ll post excerpts from the book as they’re edited by the pros.
Then, in time, I’ll post “from the road” type stuff as I do my first book tour and learn about the book business.
So, my apologies. Good stuff - or some kind of stuff - is coming. Soon.
In the meantime I have three books I need to post reviews of. I’ll get on that next week.
Anne Lamott writes and speaks about subjects that begin with capital letters: Alcoholism, Motherhood, Jesus. But armed with self-effacing humor – she is laugh out-loud funny – and ruthless honesty, Lamott converts her subjects into enchantment. Actually, she writes about what most of us don’t like to think about. She wrote her first novel for her father, the writer Kenneth Lamott, when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. She has said that the book was “a present to someone I loved who was going to die.” In all her novels, Anne Lamott writes about loss – loss of loved ones and loss of personal control. She doesn’t try to sugar-coat the sadness, frustration and disappointment, but tells her stories with honesty, compassion and a pureness of voice. Anne Lamott says, “I have a lot of hope and a lot of faith and I struggle to communicate that.” Anne Lamott does communicate her faith; in her books and in person, she lifts, comforts, and inspires, all the while keeping us laughing.
Anne Lamott is the author of six novels including, Hard Laughter, Rosie, Joe Jones, All New People, and Crooked Little Heart (the sequel to Rosie), as well as four best-selling books of non-fiction, Operating Instructions, an account of life as a single mother during her son’s first year and Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, a guide to writing and the challenges of a writer’s life, Traveling Mercies, a collection of autobiographical essays on faith, and Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. Anne Lamott has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, and has taught at U.C. Davis, as well as at writing conferences across the country. Lamott’s biweekly Salon Magazine “online diary” Word by Word was voted The Best of the Web by Time magazine. Filmmaker Freida Mock (who won an Academy Award for her documentary on Maya Lin) has made a documentary on Anne Lamott, “Bird by Bird with Annie” (1999). Anne Lamott’s next essay collection, titled Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith (March 2007). (Taken from her agent’s website.)
Seth Godin has a new book coming out called The Dip. The books site is here. It’s simple. It’s easy to link to. It’s easy to spread the content on it to the rest of the web.
Then there’s this book’s site. Beautiful, and, I think, a waste of pixels and cash. The videos aren’t spreadable. The samples aren’t easily spread either. People come to learn about the book but leave with nothing in their hands, nothing to pass on. Numerous flash pages, none with their own url I can link to. Why?
I’m realizing that books sell, like music, in large part due to marketing that allows word to spread. So what I need in a marketing team isn’t beauty. Isn’t cool. It’s effectiveness.
One of these sites works - for me - and the other doesn’t. Do you feel the same way?
If I could go back in time, to 2000, and meet with my former label for the first time all over again there are so many questions I would ask knowing what I know today about how the music business really works. The music business, you see, has very little to do with music. it has everything to do with strategic relationship, distribution deals, radio relationships, retail budgets, and marketing. Definitely marketing. And more marketing. And, of course, money. All of this involves money and lots of it.
Having a label whose employees cheer for you, love you, hype you is meaningless without marketing genius and the money to make it a reality.
Is that how the book business works? I’m about to find out. Or try to.
I’ve asked for a meeting with my possible future publisher - a meeting with their marketing department. I want to know where their boundaries are. What are their limitations? Financial limits. Creative limits. I want to know their strengths and weaknesses. I want to know how they like the word “free” because I like it a great deal. I want to know how they feel about input, about Seth Godin, about permission marketing, and Web 2.0 and why they have nothing on the best-sellers lists I’m been watching. Why?
To me, signing a contract with a corporation is a marriage. And before we jump in bed together I want to know what she looks like with her make-up off. What’s behind the pitch? What is this team really like?
I know there a couple or three authors lurking about this blog from time to time. I’m hoping you guys (and gals) can give me some guidance on what questions to ask and how to ask them. What do I need to know? What questions will I wish I asked seven years from now?
Seth Godin says you should write an ebook. And after reading about how he did it and how successful he was at it, I’m kinda wondering if I should too. Read his riff.
Why would anyone with an idea to spread not consider writing an ebook?
