The Book Publicity Blog has moved

to http://yodiwan.wordpress.com. (That feed actually works.)

Roundup

Shelf Awareness reports that the Strand will now be streaming their author events at Strand TV.

Jerome Weeks at BookDaddy writes about Narrative, a five year-old literary journal that now has 40,000 registered users. They do interviews and profiles among other things. Contact information on their website is scant, so you'll have to do your own digging.

Update your database

Rolling Stone has just launched a new page called “Top 10” which will feature non-fiction and fiction picks each issue, so make sure to keep them in mind for non-music books too.

The world is not ending

Tina from Viking/Penguin Books sent on this story from Ars Technica about how people have an attachment to books that they don't really have with other forms of media like newspapers and blogs. Blueberry (my Blackberry) might have to disagree, but it is encouraging for us book publicists to hear this.

What you should know about pitching blogs

Speaking of blogs, I should point out I've changed the name of the blog (not that you didn't already notice, I'm sure). Very basic and uncreative, I know, but descriptive.

Kassia Kroszer, who blogs at Booksquare, posted an entertaining and informative piece about pitching bloggers. I encourage you to click through to the post to read her frank but fair opinions about the matter.

Here are a few things I'd like to add/elaborate on:

1. Know the blog: The key here is an RSS reader like Bloglines or Google Reader. (My friend Sharon at Bantam said Bloglines allows you to organize sites better than Google Reader. I've never tried the latter myself.) Without a reader you can't possibly hold down a full-time job and follow the dozens of major literary and publishing blogs out there. Setting up a reader may seem overwhelming, but once you've done so, it takes only a few clicks, scrolls and minutes to keeps tabs on pretty much anything important going on in publishing (blogs and more), whether it's an article by Motoko, a post by Ron or Terry's latest interview. This site's blog roll provides a good starting point for building a robust RSS reader. I haven't had the time to add a lot of other blogs, so feel free to suggest your favorite literary/publishing sites.

2. Know how important the blog is: There are millions of blogs out there. Use sites like Technorati or Alexa to see how authoritative a blog is. Check the blog roll (the list of blogs, usually on the right side of the page) to see how frequently a blog is linked to. Popular blogs will appear on dozens (or hundreds, in the case of a site like Gawker) of blog rolls.

3. Use the "Comments" section: Bloggers like to know people are reading what they write. Although the big literary/publishing bloggers don't need you or I to pat them on the back, they'll still appreciate another reader and a thoughtful or entertaining comment.

4. Don't blast email (most) blogs: Realistically, it's not feasible to never pitch with a mass email. That said, limit its use. As Kassia points out, most blogs don't do the "standard" interview or review, so your standard pitch won't work. In fact, many bloggers don't list email addresses on their sites, preferring instead that readers use their Contact page. Use it. Some sites like Boing Boing have said they will not accept pitches not submitted on their site.

A more efficient way to get your press material approved

Last week U.S. News interviewed Clay Shirky about his new book, Here Comes Everybody. Shirky talked about the benefits of wikis (like Google Docs) versus email -- Google Docs allows multiple users to edit a document at one time, whereas sending out an email will result in receiving multiple opinions that need to be incorporated into that one document.

To put it more concretely for us book publicists, let's say you've written a press release and need to give it to your director, the editor and the author for approval. If they either hand write changes or email them to you, you have three sets of changes to incorporate, which means not only entering the changes, but also double checking them to make sure you haven't made any mistakes. Using Google Docs, everyone can make their changes online and you simply export the final product.

Many publishing folk have yet to utilize even the "Track Changes" function in Microsoft Word, though, so I think editing in Google Docs may be a little ways off ...

Spreading the word online about author events

Mashable posted a piece yesterday about Library Thing's new service, LibraryThing Local , that helps readers find events with a certain author or in a certain area. Eventful has a similar service (although it doesn't focus exclusively on author events), as does BookWire and Booktour.com.

For the reader, I think they're all equally helpful in terms of digging up authors and events. For the book publicist, though, Booktour.com wins. *Hands down.* Why? LibraryThing Local, BookWire and Eventful require you to add events individually on their websites -- that's fine if you're an individual or organization holding a one-time event. For a book publicist juggling dozens of events, having to add events individually is -- to say what we're all thinking -- more trouble than it's worth. (And no -- giving the information to your assistant / intern to enter is not the answer. They already have plenty of stuff to do and you know that.) Booktour.com provides a pretty simple Excel grid in which to upload events. Plus, those of you using Publicity Assistant can export the information directly from PA and copy and paste it into Booktour.com's handy grid. The other day I sent over a couple dozen events to Booktour.com for three authors, all in one document. Easy.

Update your database (Dallas)

Courtney from Penguin Books noticed that Jerome Weeks, formerly BRE at the Dallas Morning-News and blogger at BookDaddy, has taken on the position of arts producer/reporter at KERA. (Yes, that's the NPR affiliate in Dallas). You can read more about it here and you can check out their blog here.

Update your database (Atlanta)

From Russ Marshalek at Wordsmiths Books (the largest independent bookstore in GA): Wordsmiths will close on March 25th and re-open March 28th in the new location (545 North McDonough Street). Marshalek adds: until March 24th, all events take place at 141 E Trinity Place, Decatur. As of March 29th, all events take place at 545 N McDonough. This is a move of less than a block, but places Wordsmiths Books firmly on the Historic Decatur Square. Space/capacity remains the same as the current location, with same dedicated event space.

For more information, check their website and don't forget to check out Russ' blog.

A new interview show for novelists in NYC

Good news for those of us who publicize novels. Titlepage.tv, the new web show hosted by Dan Menaker, debuts today. The premiere webisode features Charles Bock, Susan Choi, Colin Harrison and Richard Price. The 60-minute show is filmed at a studio in East Harlem over the course of three hours in the afternoon, so authors (novelists all, for now, it appears) need to be in New York City on a week day with a chunk of free time.

Their list of producers is here. Click here to contact them. Titlepage.tv also has a blog.

Should an author blog?

These days, a lot of authors ask about blogging and a lot of publishing houses ask authors to blog. Blogging is free, doesn't take much time and can get quite a bit of attention -- a lot of bang for no buck. But what exactly does it entail? A few days ago, Booksquare had this very informative post about blogging.

Reviewers of literature in translation

Last night I attended a literature in translation panel at the Mercantile Library. Although I dozed through the first third -- through no fault of the thoughtful and articulate panelists, I must admit -- I did pick up a few handy tips. As we've all discovered, there aren’t a ton of venues out there focused on (or even interested in) works in translation; these were the ones featured: The Believer, Three Percent , Words Without Borders.

This morning I looked up a few others as well: Mid-American Review, New Renaissance, Prism International, World Literature Today.

Let me know if you know of other publications / websites / radio shows that cover literature in translation.