Raincoast publicist Dan Wagstaff and I are having an on-going discussion about books and technology. Here is our question for this week:

With the more interactive nature of marketing in book publishing today, does it become more important that the individual author interact well, speak to the media, to readers? Do they need to be mediagenic?

Quote: Dan says:
When has this not been important? Charles Dickens was a performer,

The idea of “author as artist” sitting alone in a garret writing all day is just bullshit. Rightly or wrongly, it has nothing to with publishing. Grow up.

Seriously, if people want to write for the joy of writing, then I think that there are better avenues to share your work that involve less human suffering than traditional publishing (hello internet). If you want to be “published” then, yes you will have to talk to people.

More seriously, new technology and the mainstreaming of non-fiction (and the decline of fiction and poetry) have made us more aware of something that was already required: opinionated authors who can speak with authority and with charisma.

Dan is the one who doesn’t like the questions this week.

Quote:
Monique says:
Not all great authors can speak well to the media, but if they are great authors, their publishers should give them some coaching.

It’s difficult to promote a book.

You have to promote the person who wrote the book and the story behind that book. That’s what’s engaging to readers, it’s not just a book. It’s an experience.

Given MySpace pages, blogs, interactive sites, does an author need to commit more time to promoting than in the past on a more traditional book tour?

Quote: Dan says:
The music industry is rediscovering the importance of artists connecting with their audience and this is done through live performance as well as MySpace. I don’t think that blogs will kill off book tours -, they go hand in hand.

Quote: Monique says:
MySpace, Facebook, blogs, these things are all means for an author to connect to his or her readers, and yes, I think they have importance and should be used. But used effectively. There’s no point forcing an author, who doesn’t want to blog, to blog. Also if you have a good author, you don’t want his or her writing style to become a blog writing style. Writing is a habit and I’m not sure that blog writing is the best of habits (that’s my personal experience).

Publisher blogs are an interesting way to introduce authors to the online space. Interview your authors on your blog. Get them to post for a week as a guest blogger. Post an audio interview with the author. Set up a Facebook group and a MySpace chat time, like HarperCollins is doing with Clare Cameron of The Line Painter. Connect to other litbloggers and get your author a guest spot.

There are creative ways to engage with readers, ones that don’t involve just setting up a blog.

The problem with the traditional book tour is that unless you’re Michael Ondaatje, you can’t get people out in mass numbers to book events–fiction events anyway. It’s really difficult to justify the cost of a tour when you can’t get the crowds and you don’t get the book sales.

I used to work as a promotions coordinator and there’s the airline travel, the hotels, the food, the posters and in-store co-op, the expedited shipment of books to the store, the promotion of the event, the coordination of publicity and other media in each city.

It’s sad but true. Authors need to realize that as fun as book tours can be, they are not great venues for selling books and their impact on readers’ discovery of new books or unknown authors is limited. The purpose of the tour used to be to get the author “out there”, in front of people. That was the means of discovery.

Today, you can handle most of that online and can attract a more appropriate audience.

Are book tours still effective vehicles for selling books and gaining author exposure when now so much can be done online or through radio and television remote hook-ups?

Quote: Dan says:
To my mind book tours have always been about building author loyalty not just about immediate sales. Perhaps they are less of a priority, but then again many media outlets still want to interview in person and not remotely, and I think readers still want to meet authors and be inspired by them.

I mean, with the best will in the world, the Longpen is the most redundant idea ever. It does nothing for readers, All future Longpen R & D money should be donated to the One Laptop Per Child project (something that might just help child literacy and create a new generation of readers who will want to buy books -, although they will probably want them digitally damn them!

I just have a story to add.

Quote: Monique says:
When JK Rowling went to early book readings, it was her and the librarian or the bookstore staff, and maybe one or two customers who happened to get trapped near the reading unexpectedly and felt too awkward to walk out on the poor woman.

It was word of mouth and the online fan clubs that skyrocketed her to fame. I know Harry Potter is in a league of its own, but in the early days (books 1, 2, and 3), she was just a regular author with a bit of a fan club bubbling to the surface.

At the end of the day, I think we need to realize that there is no cookie cutter campaign. Publishers need to find the time to create promotions that suit the author and the nature of the book. Spending money on a Globe and Mail ad, or book tour, or blog is fine, but it needs to be money spent to the advantage of the author, readers or the book, not money spent because you’re obligated to throw some resources at the thing.

The better the book, the better the promotion.