Chekhov’s Mistess

Book Expo Panel on Book Industry Bloggers

Hey this is what blogging is all about: I’m sitting in a wi-fi area at the Javits convention center where BookExpo is being held with Ed “Return of the Reluctant” Champion:

We just attended the panel on Book Industry Bloggers:

Title: Book Industry Bloggers: Change Agents or Perpetual Blue-skyers?


Description: As blogging went mainstream in 2004, disparate industry participants joined the blogging ranks, bringing with them, a unique perspective on industry practice. Industry colleagues, who have been curious enough to follow the threads, know the result of their blogging has been nothing less than instructive. In this session, bloggers will move beyond the whine, rant and rave focus to dissect the kinds of changes and attitudes they encounter and what kind of changes this new media and personality journaling and journalism can effect.

Speaker(s): Michael Cader – Publisher, Publisher’s MarketPlace [Speaker]

Mad Max Perkins – Editor & anonymous blogger, Bookangst 101 [Speaker]

Robert Gray – Writer, Bookseller & Blogger, Fresh Eyes [Speaker]

MJ Rose – Author & Blogger, Buzz, Balls & Hype [Speaker]

Mad Max Perkins took everyone by surprise by showing up in a witch’s costume to hide his identity (photo at 11). My guess is that he wants to hide his identity from the public at large and not his colleagues because he used his own voice (after a while) and he said to one questioner that he was protecting himself more from massive submissions (he’s a publisher at a major house) than from professional risks. Still, the costume, in my eyes, just underscored the fun and adventurous aspects of blogging. Because he hosts his blog at blogger.com, his identity can’t be so easily revealed either, as the Foetry guy was, through a whois lookup.

In some ways it didn’t dawn on me until well into the panel that it was specifically about bloggers within the publishing industry. The emphasis here is on business; how blogs impact the industry in book sales, but what I think came out of the panel was a recognition that the potential lies in more indirect ways. Most importantly, the lines of communication that are coming out of blogs within the industry and between authors and their readers.

Robert Gray says that since starting his blog nine months ago, he’s had conversations with publishers that he’s never had before, and M.J. Rose talked about writers connecting with readers and one another through blogs – these are realistic aims. But several of the audience members were p.r. types clearly wanting to figure out the potential of blogs to push books. I chimed in with a statement that if publicists want bloggers to see their books, they should read the blogs so that they can be targeted to a particular readership. M.J. Rose brought that home, saying that if one wants to push a cookbook, go to a cooking blog, not to a lit-blog.

Michael Cader talked about how slow the publishing industry is to emerge from its insulation, and my impression today that he is right. There still seems, based on the comments from the panelists, who are well involved in the phenomenon and the audience, many of whom are aware, but only in a curious way, the question of what do we do with these things??? This question remains and this panel didn’t further that too much, except for the fact that the questions are being asked. There were maybe 50-60 people in the room, so I’m not sure how much the industry recognizes blogs as being important. It’s difficult to talk about the impact of blogs when not everyone understands what they are. Most of the panels here seem to skip that basic element. While the description of the panel says “as blogging went mainstream,” but it seems clear to me from this panel and other observations that it is still far, despite its buzz-factor, from in the mainstream.

(I may revise this later today with more comments and photos)

Also see Ed’s comments on the panel and a photo of a very hard working blogger making this very entry.

See the comments for a clarification of my Foetry comment above.

comments

Hello—came across your blog through an RSS feed.  Nice to find you.  I just wanted to let you know that my “outing” wasn’t as simple as a whois lookup.  I paid a company by the name of Domains by Proxy to protect my anonymity, and because of a letter from an attorney, they released my private information to whois without contacting me first.  I want everyone to know that DBP cannot be trusted.  For more details, see http://foetry.com/newbb/viewtopic.php?t=87 Thanks for mentioning foetry!  Take care.

    – The Foetry Guy (06/02  at  04:44 PM)

Hi Bud.

Wow! The Foetry Guy came to see you--very cool!

I was going to blog about this but it’s just too humiliating: two weeks ago, I spoke on a panel @ my school’s faculty technology day. Afterwards, a prof. approached me. She told me she is doing a sociological study of the publishing interview and I seemed knowledgable, could she interview me. She did. The result: she was amazed at how little I knew. The takeaway (as they say): the worlds of money publishing and small-time (i.e. my) blogging, don’t yet know each other very well. Cheers!

    – Anne (06/02  at  10:00 PM)

So that’s what you look like. You know how we all form images of how people look who we only know from the page? Well, I thought you’d look more like Chekhov. You do look as intense, actually.

Did anyone on the panel bring up the topic of what it will be like when publishing houses begin offering incentives to high-profile bloggers?

    – Stuart Greenhouse (06/03  at  10:18 AM)

Bud, I’ve been enjoying your BEA coverage although I’m tinged with envy. Good to see you hard at work.

David

    – David Thayer (06/03  at  12:36 PM)

Stuart, you must think I’m the sorcerer! To be sure, the photo at the top is Ed and my photo is at Ed’s site. The panel really focused on bloggers that are already in the industry.

The publishing houses do give some bloggers books for the possibility of review or mention, although I don’t think I would consider that an incentive. What is clear from all this in my mind that it’s an open question as to what to make of the blogging world, but my expectation is that if money and litblogging meet, it will take a different form than we see now, and frankly, (Anne), small-time blogging is where the really interesting conversations are at and where my attention is focused.

- Thanks David: This is mostly an exploration for me, but I’ve met a lot of people and mostly wander in awe of seeing such a massive mechanism working. I think your trading floor analogy (in your post at PM) is apt.

    – Bud Parr (06/03  at  10:43 PM)

Ah, I see-much more sedate, and fit to your voice! (The photo on Ed’s site, not the wizard!)

Review copies certainly aren’t incentive to review the book or not--though that you get them is a good argument for ^becoming^ a litblogger. I was thinking of some time in the future, when ‘Armstrong Williams’ money might start floating around. Like those people who are hired to go to bars and talk up certain products, to make them cool among a certain demographic.

    – Stuart Greenhouse (06/04  at  02:52 PM)

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About this Post

• Posted by: Bud Parr
• Date: June 02, 2005
• Filed Under:
  Litbloggers & Blog Floggers

• Comments:6
• Links to this Post: Technorati

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