Book Tours and Beyond: An Interview with Kevin Smokler

The connection between the web and books is as old (or as young) as the web. Actually it predates it. I remember surfing local dial-up bulleting board systems (BBS) back in the 80's, when one of the main attractions was the availability on-line of eclectic and obscure text files of books and articles you could not get anywhere else. Of course today you can get anything on Amazon, and that is only one way the web transformed the world of books.

Kevin Smokler is the co-founder of BookTour.com (http://www.booktour.com) a San-Francisco based literary 2.0 start-up that wants to change the world of books in yet another way. By becoming the web's largest 100% free directory of author events, it hopes to use the social enabling aspects of the web to facilitate better interaction between authors and readers.

In a nutshell, authors can sign up to the website and list their up-coming events. Readers can then easily keep tabs on which authors are in town, or where their favorite authors are touring at the moment.

Smokler is also an author, a speaker, a prolific blogger, and a one man think tank about the future of publishing.

So what is a book tour anyway?

A book tour is a promotional jumping from place to place for authors with a book newly published. Usually it involves doing readings at bookstores and related venues as well as media appearances on radio, newspapers, TV and such. That is if the nation cares about your book which sometimes they don't.

Same really as when musicians go on tour to promote an album. Except a lot fewer groupies.

The acts of writing and reading are mostly done private on their own. There is no inherent element of performance like in a music concert. Why then is a meeting of the author and the reader desirable?

The realities of publishing today are such that authors that don't promote themselves do so at their peril. There simply aren't enough resources to go around for everyone to receive a Da Vinci Codian marketing budget. From the reader's point of view, we now live in a culture that values transparency, instead of secrecy, when discussing the creative process, be it DVD commentaries, Inside the Actor's Studio or Project Runway. It's an information-rich world. When you read a good book, you want to know more, not less, about who birthed it.

How did the idea for BookTour.com come about? How did the team gather?

Chris Anderson, our CEO went on tour in 2006 to promote his first book "THE LONG TAIL" which sold brilliantly. Still he remained convinced that the glorious experience he was having on book tour was the exception rather than the rule. Put simpler, he'd heard too many stories of authors being flown, at great expense to their publishers to say, a Barnes & Noble in Fort Lee, NJ to give a reading to a clutch of empty chairs. He also knew that there were countless cases of a favorite author coming to town but the appearance not mentioned by local media outlets, namely because the author spoke at say, a church rather than a Borders. The asymmetry of interested readers and touring authors not able to locate one another was the first spark of the idea.

Chris approached me in November of 2006 after reading about the Virtual Book Tour, a project I used to head up that matched up authors promoting a book and blogs that might be interested in that book. Our CTO Adam Goldstein came to us that spring through Paul Graham's Y Combinator program for young entrepreneurs.

To promote your own book you conducted a “virtual book tour”, while on BookTour.com you promote the old school version. What's the advantages of each? Looking at your BookTour.com itinerary you now travel quite a bit. What kind of tour do you prefer personally?

I'm one of those rare authors who constantly feels as though they're in the wrong profession because I love to talk in front of a crowd. So if your own enthusiasm for your projects is contagious, I recommend you get out there and infect others. That assumes of course your lifestyle allows for it. If you write better than you talk, play to your strengths and tour virtually. But a virtual tour involves leaning on long standing relationships developed over years of having an on-line presence. And most others don't have that either.

Upshot: Author should assume that promotion of their books is their responsibility and should begin building networks, both on-line and off, sooner rather than later.

What's the feedback BookTour.com gets from authors, readers and bookstores?

I would 95% has been positive, glad-this-is-here, why-has-no-one-done-this-yet sort of feedback. Which we're very grateful for. The concerns expressed thus far have been mostly around it being too labor extensive to add events to our database (a fair point we're very close to fixing) and that we can't use our database to preference those in the book world who need the attention (small presses, mid-list authors, independent bookstores if that's ). Much as we'd like to, our first commitments are to fairness for everyone who uses our service and integrity of the information that is our cells and molecules.


Who is using BookTour.com most so far? Readers, authors or bookstores? Is there a specific genre that is more popular?

Visitors tend towards readers and interested audience members. Sign-ups lean toward authors, which makes sense. Bookstores are one of our primary sources of event data.

Recently once again articles or comments from the like of Steve Jobs, talk about the decline in readership. This is an analysis you opposed in the collection of essays “Bookmark Now” which you edited in 2005. Do you think it is more of the same, or is there something new at play here?

I'm inclined to believe that cultural calls for alarm are best dealt with at head and tail instead of belly. Let's say that reading is in decline. Well, then its the job of the people who make things we read to change how they do business instead of complaining. Basic principal of capitalism. The tail: if we think reading is inherently valuable as a society, do we provide an environment in families and households where it can thrive? Or do we accept as given that everyone should work 60 hours a week, commute an hour in each direction and be suspect of any entertainment that isn't loud and diversionary? Put simply, when we say culture is "in decline" we should begin with those who stand to benefit most from the panic and those who raised it in the first place. One of those is almost always ourselves.

In the case Mr. Jobs comments, he was citing the NEA's follow up to its 2004 Reading at Risk study in response to a question of whether Apple would release an e-reader to compete with Amazon's Kindle. His remarks have largely been dismissed as MacWorld-related bluster which is where I stand. Timothy Egan in the New York Times did the best dissection I've seen so far which cites that even though one-quarter of American didn't read a book last year, 27 percent read 15 or more books. We're comfortable enough with that number to build our business around putting in touch with the authors they love.

What's planned for BookTour.com? Any new features coming up?

Oh yes indeed. Keep your ear to the ground. We've got a big announcement coming up!

And so we shall! Check out BookTour.com online at http://www.booktour.com

Eylon Israely

eylon_A&T_ ecolibris.net

Eco-Libris: Plant a Tree for Every Book you Read!

Go easy on the meat this month!

Did we mention we're fans of Do The Green Thing? Yes, we are! And like we do every month in the last couple of months, we're happy to bring you their green message for March: go easy on the meat!

No, they don't preach you to go veggie. They just want you to eat a little bit less meat this month. If you ask yourself why, they're happy to explain:

Now, meat may be tasty – in fact, it’s downright delicious, especially in pie format. But unfortunately it’s also responsible for massive emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

The way cows, pigs, sheep and even chickens are reared (no sniggering) uses lots of fossil fuels, creating lots of CO2. Farm animals also have a nasty habit of producing vast quantities of methane, as you’ll know if you’ve ever picnicked downwind of a cowherd.

A recent UN report found that meat production was among the top 3 creators of greenhouse gases (including methane which is 23 times more harmful than CO2). It’s responsible for 18% of global emissions, more than the entire world transportation industry.

To produce just 1kg of beef, enough for a spag bol for you and 5 friends, creates a whopping 34.6kg of CO2. It’s enough to make you choke on your chops.

Livestock agriculture is also a major cause of deforestation and soil erosion, as well as being a huge drain on our water supplies. To produce that kilo of beef for your spag bol takes an eye-popping 15,000 litres of water, much more than you need to produce a kilo of cereals. Added to all that is the fact that farm animals, particularly cows, are a windy bunch. They’re responsible for 37% of global methane emissions, which is even more than Michael Winner.

So this month, do your bit for the planet by going Easy On The Meat. You don’t have to go complete veggie – chopping out a couple of portions a week would be a fine effort.Every time you turn down a turkey or bat back a bacon buttie, let us know you’ve DONE IT so we can add up all the CO2 saved by heroic Green Thing members.

As always the message comes with funny videos (and also audio files), such as this one:




Enjoy the green thing!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

Green Options - Eco Book Review: The Power of Unreasonable People

Eco-Libris is a proud content partner of Green Options. Today we bring you a review of MC Milker of a new book from the Harvard Business School Press that is exploring social and eco entrepreneurs. The post was originally published on Thursday, February 28.

Business books by and about eco-entrepreneurs are all the rage these days. Biographies of newly famous entrepreneurs vie with “How to” books on greening your business to get your attention.

The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan, takes a slightly different tack and explores how altruistically minded people operate a bit differently in the business arena than typical entrepreneurs.

Published by Harvard Business Press, this book reminded me a bit of, Blink and The Tipping Point, both by Malcolm Gladwell as the authors discuss how a small movement can gain momentum until reaching critical mass. Filled with case studies from around the world, ranging from Whole Foods to Band Aid, Elkington and Hartigan demonstrate how compassionate entrepreneurs use market based solutions to tackle problems and opportunities in a variety of situations.

Monday's green books series: The 100-Mile Diet

Today we have the pleasure to bring you a guest review written by John Miemeda, who writes the excellent blog Slow Reading. John generously allowed us to reprint his review of The 100-Mile Diet to our Monday's green books series. The review was originally published on Slow Reading on Dec 12, 2007.

Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon (2007). The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating. Vintage.

It was the kind of meal that, when the plates were clean, led some to dark corners to sleep with the hushing of the wind, and others to drink mulled wine until our voices had climbed an octave and finally deepened, in the small hours, into whispers. (pg. 3)

The 100-Mile Diet begins in a cottage with no light, fridge, car or hot water; the kind of place I dream of when too immersed in the hectic daily business of life. Most of us would starve out there, or so we believe. After an inspired meal gathered only from the wild, Alisa and James launched a year-long diet of food only found within 100 miles of their home. They found themselves returning from their cottage not starving, but with armfuls more food than they arrived with.

Why would anyone limit themselves to eating locally? How does that help anyone? Doesn’t it deprive third-world farmers and truckers of their livelihoods? There are a number of persuasive reasons. Local foods have fewer pesticides and more nutrition. Seasonal variety is good for developing immunity. Unprocessed foods represent a real solution to the obesity problem. Distant foods are only affordable through cheap oil, arguably enforced politically.

Sparing the miles reduces the carbon emissions that cause global warming. And about those third-world farmers: when the 1994 free trade agreement was signed, subsidized corn from America overwhelmed Mexico’s two million small farmers and their 5000 varieties of corn. The collapse of a local industry due to economic deals (or a train derailment spilling ten thousand gallons of caustic soda into the river and killing half a million fish) is merely one disaster in a global economy in which we can always go elsewhere. In a local economy, we are reminded that such events are a catastrophe.

Works for me. But how does one go about eating locally? And can it be done without a “depression style diet of beets, cabbage and potatoes” (pg. 24)? Alisa and James started simply, eating seasonally from the farmer’s markets. It is not tough to find these in your area, e.g., Ontario. They sensibly used up supplies like salt that were already in their cupboards, but when they ran out they improvised, e.g., refining salt from the ocean. They used honey instead of sugar; I have got to get me some of that pumpkin honey.

The great revelation from local eating is the immense variety of tastes that can be found. It reminds me of my half-dozen batches of home-brewing I did a couple years ago. I started with simple recipes but then discovered real flavour by adding freshly rolled grains and hops.

I went grocery shopping when I was reading their book. I read the source of each product on its label. Local apple juice replaced California grapefruit juice, and blueberries replaced my sultan raisins from Iran. I had no idea that carbonated water came all the way from Italy or Germany; dropped that. I have not replaced coffee yet but I am thinking about herbal tea. I am sure olive oil can be exchanged for a healthy local vegetable oil. And local vegetables frozen when fresh are always a good choice.

Turning over a local leaf can get quite philosophical. Their diet was not vegetarian, and this raised the question of whether the animals had been fed locally. They lived near the US border; should they break the law by taking local foods across it? Inevitably, you have to ask yourself if you are doing this because you believe the world is falling apart. When Alisa and James were shucking corn in their apartment they felt like part of some apocalyptic cult. While it is hard not to wonder at times if our fast global culture can sustain itself, I have to count myself with them among the non-believers.

Instead, I see progress as something that is not always linear; sometimes we have to take a few steps back to pick up something we missed. A few weeks ago I read an objection to slow food on the grounds that women would likely have to do most of the work (see comments in this Metafilter post). Both Alisa and James worked hard, but James did most of the cooking. Perhaps we had to step away from slow food for awhile to advance women’s rights, but now may be a time to return to it for our health and that of the planet.

Alisa and James are journalists by trade but they sure know how to have fun with language; they “scuffed over to the farmer’s stand” (pg. 53) and ate strawberries “superlatively sun-sweetened to the brink of sweet booziness” (pg. 54). The edge in their relationship was of no more interest to me than it appeared to be to James as they alternated narration by chapter; I wondered if Alisa was simply missing some nutrient in her diet. I much preferred the drama of their quest for wheat: the disappointment at the ruined bag, the discovery that wheat had been grown locally in 1890, and Alisa’s delight when she declared, “I found a wheat farmer” (pg. 184). With a little effort, everything was possible.

Website: 100 Mile Diet: Local Eating for Global Change

Serendipity:
Book Reviews: Non-Fiction
100-Mile Stories: A Year of Reading Locally
Fast/Slow Food/Information, Part I

Thank you John for a wonderful review of this great book! Enjoy the book, and if you're looking for other interesting green books, you are invited to check out our green books page on our website's green resources section.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

Eco-Libris blog is awarded and awarding the Excellent Blog Award

Last month the Publishing Curve blog was awarded with the Excellent Blog Award by the Publishing Careers blog. By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, you have to award it to 10 more people whose blogs you find worthy of it. The Publishing Curve chose ten blogs to award them and this blog was honored to be one of them!

Thank you very much to the Publishing Curve. That's really a great honor, and we're very happy about it. We would like to continue the tradition and give 10 of our favorite blogs with the Excellent Blogger Award.

The following list includes both Raz and Eylon favorite blogs:

1. Chekhov's Mistress - This is a damn good Litblog by Budd Parr.

2. Post Punk Kitchen - Spicy vegan blog. Recipes, rants and disruption.

3. Mudd Up! - My favorite music blog. A truly humbling experience in the coolest way possible for anyone who considers himself eclectic and knowledgeable in the ways of music.

4. Two Steps Forward - This is one of the best blogs on green business. Here you will learn all you need to know on green biz from one of the most knowledgeable people in this area.

5. Treehugger - The most popular green blog and the place where you can read the most interesting and updated stories on green life style.

6. Victoria-E - The blog of Victoria-E (Victoria Everman) is one of my favorite soruces for interesting information on green, crafty, and DIY living.

7. No Impact Man - I follows this blog written by Colin Beavan since he strated with his unique urban experience. In one word: fascinating!

8. Library Stuff - This is a library weblog, where you can find interesting stories and news on books and of course on libraries.

9. Conscience of a Liberal - The blog of Paul Krugman, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times and someone who I always learn from when it comes to policy and economics.

10. Transition Culture - This interesting blog, written by Rob Hopkins, is about the transition phase we're currently going through with regards to the tackling peak oil and climate change challenges we're facing.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book your read!

'Big Green Purse' is now on sale! Come and meet the author

The book 'Big Green Purse' went on sale today. Greetings to the author Diane MacEachern - this is a great book, and I hope many women and also men will read it and use it to green up their lives.

'Big Green Purs: Use Your Spending Power To Create a Cleaner, Greener World' is a call-to-action for women to use their power as buyers to make a difference. MacEachern's message is simple but revolutionary: if women harness the "power of their purse" and intentionally shift their spending money to commodities that have the greatest environmental benefit, they can create a cleaner, greener world. You are welcome to check our coverage of the book, as well as the interview I made with Diane MacEachern and learn more about the book.

If you would like to meet Diane MacEachern and get her to sign your new copy of the book, here's the list of her signing events this month:

March 4 – Big Blue Marble bookstore, Philadelphia – 7 p.m.
March 5 – Border’s Book Store (Bailey’s Crossroads), Washington, D.C., Metro Area – 7 p.m.
March 6 – Olsson’s Book Store (Dupont Circle), Washington, D.C., Metro Area – 7 p.m.
March 10 – McNally Bookstores (Manhattan), NYC - 7 p.m.
March 18 – Stacey’s Bookstore (Market St.), San Francisco – 12:30 p.m.
March 18 – Great Good Place for Books, San Francisco – 7:00 p.m.
March 19 – Books Inc. , Palo Alto (evening)
March 20 – Starbuck’s Headquarters, Seattle
March 20 – Third Place Books, Seattle
March 21 – Columbia Tower Club, Seattle
March 25 – Nau Clothing Store, Chicago
March 26 – Borders Bookstore March 28 – Crazy Wisdome Bookstore, Ann Arbor
March 29 – Black Madonna Bookstore, Detroit – 12:30 p.m.

You can also listen to her on March 10 on Martha Stewart Living Radio (8 a.m. ET live in NYC) and see her on March 12 on WUSA TV (Washington DC).

For a full list of the signing events and appearances, please check the 'Big Green Purse Book' page on her website.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

New Yorkers - Recycling Magazines is Excellent!

I was in New York today, and I saw in one of the subway stations a big ad for a recycling initiative for magazines and catalogs that was recently launched in New York by Mayor Bloomberg. It is called: ReMix- Recycling Magazines is Excellent.

ReMix is a national public education campaign aimed at increasing residential recycling of magazines and catalogs. The campaign conducted pilot programs in Boston, Milwaukee, and Portland. Now the campaign is bringing the need to recycle magazines and catalogs to the attention of the New Yorkers with promotions on buses, taxis, subc\ways, in movie theatres, on cable television, on billboards and in full-page public service advertisements in consumer magazines. The total budget of the campaign in NY is above $3 million.

According to the Environment News Service (ENN), The ReMix campaign began when a study by Time Inc. and Verso Paper found that while 95 percent of all unsold newsstand magazines are recycled by newsstands and publishers, only about 17 percent of sold magazines are recycled. Just for comparison - Verso CEO, Mike Jackson mentioned on the ENN report that today, 53.4 percent - of all paper consumed in the United States is recovered for reuse.

ENN points out correctly that the there's no problem nowadays to recycle glossy paper used from magazines and catalogs. Currently, all community recycling programs accept magazines and catalogs for recycling.

This is great initiative and I hope it will motivate people to take action and significantly increase the magazines and catalogs they recycle. It's relatively easy and it's doing good twice, by keeping this paper out of landfills and by letting companies resuse it instead of virgin paper to make new paper products.

Here's the 2008 ReMix TV spot (from YouTube):



This is also a good opportunity to remind you on a (relatively) new initiative to eliminate in advance the unwanted catalogs you receive on your mail - Catalog Choice, which I wrote about here in the past (and it's a free service!)

Enjoy recycling!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!