What am I reading now? Clair-de-Lune by Cassandra Golds
BookCamp Toronto 2010, an informal unconference, brought together publishers, editors, writers, readers, book sellers and book buyers. In short, anyone and everyone who loves books. The theme for this year’s unconference was “Book Publishing Is Going Digital, Now What?” I attended five sessions: Four were insightful and one, well, not so much. Here’s my review:
What Does the Writer Want? | Nichole McGill
McGill is an author who, like all authors today, faces the challenges of writing and publishing a book in the digital age. She extrapolated at length about these challenges outlining the many steps she’s expected complete. The focus of this session veered towards the need for an author to create a social media brand.
I found that once the discussion got started ideas began to flow freely. One of the best points made during the discussion was that authors must engage their superfans. Why? So they will market for you. If you are fortunate enough to have such a loyal fanbase, use them!
The Obscure Objects of Desire | Neil Stewart and Aurelie Collings
For me, this session was a complete disappointment. I went in thinking that the presentation/discussion would revolve around why it is that we have such a deep connection to our books. However, it quickly became clear that this session was going to be a design lesson. Though both Stewart and Collings broke down the mechanics of a book successfully, they failed to impart a book’s intangible value.
The Onset of Exhaustion: Publishing in 2010 | Alana Wilcox
Everyone in publishing is exhausted! They’re tired of an insurmountable workload that seems endless. Wilcox made it clear that we have brought this on ourselves. The question now is: How do we change what has become the norm? Here are some of the ideas that were tossed around:
- Take a publishing season off
- Implement harsher manuscript evaluation
- Create bigger partnerships
- Focus on quality, relationships and value
I’ll be the first to admit that some of these ideas are more reasonable than others. However, the point that was being made, which I wholeheartedly stand behind, is that we must act as a community. Only then can we make changes that truly matter and shape a stronger industry.
A Bucket of Cold Water: The Future Is Now | Denise Bukowski
Bukowski began her session with a word to all authors: Maintain full rights of your work. She followed this statement by one hard-hitting fact after another. The aim of this session was not only to inform but also to educate. Both agents and writers in attendance were given the opportunity to fill their arsenal with invaluable weapons to safeguard themselves and their work. The most important being: be published well and know your numbers. Don’t ever forget that publishing is a business and like any business numbers matter.
Building and Sustaining a Community of Readers Online | Tan Light, Meg Mathur and Kimberly Walsh
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