80. Staying out of harm’s way

This little old blog about book publishing has caused me more death, fear, and loss than I ever imagined possible.  I’m trying to take deep breaths, stay focused, and get back to the joy of my professional.

So in that spirit, I accepted the invitation of 192 Books (at 192 Tenth Avenue in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood) to speak at its one-day conference for hopeful book authors.

The conference was held in a large meeting room at the Highline Hotel next door to 192 Books. 

(The Highline Hotel was once a monastery, so it just feels right in every way to be there. Like something insightful, promising, and enduring might happen.)

I lectured about writing books that purposely appeal to those who work in the book biz.  After all, the very best book buzz is the buzz that starts within the industry.  Thus, my old boss’s Stuart Harris’ brilliant marketing of Love Story (the first free galleys ever at an ABA convention). 

I talked about the power of a Macmillan rep showing up at a bookstore in the morning to sell her list yet being most excited about a new book coming from Harper.  Then the Hachette rep shows up after lunch talking about the same book.  Then the Random House rep shows up the next morning and—well, you get the idea.  That’s one hot book! 

I talked about how I did a children’s book about a cute bat who works in a library.  If you can get thousands of public and school librarians to talk about, buy, and recommend your book, wow! 

Also, buzz in a school library leaks into a classroom, and buzz in a classroom leaks into the home, and that leaks its way to a “buy” click on Amazon.  I also put that cute bat’s library in Europe, to help with foreign rights deals, distribution, and income. 

And I mentioned my picture book about two mice who are buddies.  I purposely put them in a grade school so that teachers might get a kick out of that.  That also makes the book appealing for the school book fair market.

So I advised the audience to think of writing a book that’s about the book industry, including not just publishing houses but also librarians, reviewers, and booksellers.  If you’ve got a story set in a law firm, consider setting it inside Random House.  Got a romantic lead who works in a hardware store?  Get him over to a bookstore, library, or publishing house.   Got a character who travels around selling goods of some sort?  Make her a book rep calling on bookstores (feel free to steal material from this blog – see:  Road Trip!

The hopeful authors listened carefully, especially one young man wearing a flowered visor who wrote notes as quickly as I talked and nodded in agreement with everything I said.  My type of guy!  I should have gotten his name.  So that three years from now when he hits the bestseller list I can buy myself a congratulatory martini.

Tomorrow:  The WORST thing about being in book publishing