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	<title>No Spin PR</title>
	
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		<title>‘Social reading’ the next phase of e-book revolution – Canada – CBC News</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~3/oIdqS156eNA/</link>
		<comments>http://nospinpr.com/2013/02/25/social-reading-the-next-phase-of-e-book-revolution-canada-cbc-news/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:36:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ruthseeley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nospinpr.com/?p=624</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[See on Scoop.it &#8211; Avid readers Some digital pioneers think that the online sharing of books via social media &#8212; social reading &#8212; may become the dominant way of both consuming and producing stories. ruthseeley&#8216;s insight: Looking forward to hearing this documentary and waiting to be convinced. Given the number of avid readers I know [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=624&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>See on <a style='font-weight:bold;font-size:18px;' href='http://www.scoop.it/t/avid-readers/p/3997488077/social-reading-the-next-phase-of-e-book-revolution-canada-cbc-news'>Scoop.it</a> &#8211; <a href='http://www.scoop.it/t/avid-readers'>Avid readers</a><br /><a href='http://www.scoop.it/t/avid-readers/p/3997488077/social-reading-the-next-phase-of-e-book-revolution-canada-cbc-news'><img src='http://img.scoop.it/ArGHdSm1GnrVQhUBoHYawjl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBXEejxNn4ZJNZ2ss5Ku7Cxt' /></a><br />
<blockquote> Some digital pioneers think that the online sharing of books via social media &#8212; social reading &#8212; may become the dominant way of both consuming and producing stories.</p></blockquote>
<p>
<div style="background-color:#E3E3E3;background-image:url('http://www.scoop.it/resources/img/v3/white_quote.png');background-position:10px 10px;background-repeat:no-repeat;margin-top:10px;line-height:17px;word-wrap:break-word;-webkit-hyphens:auto;padding:10px 10px 10px 42px;">
<div style="margin-left:0;"><b>ruthseeley</b>&#8216;s insight:</div>
<div style="margin-left:0;">
<p style="margin-left:0;">
<p>Looking forward to hearing this documentary and waiting to be convinced. Given the number of avid readers I know and how few of them can even bring themselves to join book clubs, I&#8217;m not so sure reading IS a social activity. But I&#8217;ll keep an open mind till after I&#8217;ve listened to the documentary.</p>
</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>See on <a href='http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/02/22/f-prpick-ebook.html'>www.cbc.ca</a></p>
<br />Filed under: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/uncategorized/'>Uncategorized</a>  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/624/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/624/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=624&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~4/oIdqS156eNA" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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			<media:title type="html">ruthseeley</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>How Much Should E-Books Cost?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~3/jk4JPHxwpKg/</link>
		<comments>http://nospinpr.com/2013/01/29/how-much-should-e-books-cost/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:52:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ruthseeley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nospinpr.com/?p=622</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[See on Scoop.it &#8211; Avid readers TW Column by David Biddle It&#8217;s way too easy for us indie authors to devalue what we&#8217;re selling.&#8221; ruthseeley&#8216;s insight: Sweet spot for ebook pricing is still where I said it was ~$4-$6. See on talkingwriting.com Filed under: Uncategorized<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=622&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>See on <a style='font-weight:bold;font-size:18px;' href='http://www.scoop.it/t/avid-readers/p/3995536883/how-much-should-e-books-cost'>Scoop.it</a> &#8211; <a href='http://www.scoop.it/t/avid-readers'>Avid readers</a><br /><a href='http://www.scoop.it/t/avid-readers/p/3995536883/how-much-should-e-books-cost'><img src='http://img.scoop.it/WmgfFbTB69cKG1PxM2T50Dl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBXEejxNn4ZJNZ2ss5Ku7Cxt' /></a><br />
<blockquote> TW Column by David Biddle  <br />It&rsquo;s way too easy for us indie authors to devalue what we&rsquo;re selling.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>
<div style="background-color:#E3E3E3;background-image:url('http://www.scoop.it/resources/img/v3/white_quote.png');background-position:10px 10px;background-repeat:no-repeat;margin-top:10px;line-height:17px;word-wrap:break-word;-webkit-hyphens:auto;padding:10px 10px 10px 42px;">
<div><b>ruthseeley</b>&#8216;s insight:</div>
<div>
<p>Sweet spot for ebook pricing is still where I said it was ~$4-$6.</p>
</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>See on <a href='http://talkingwriting.com/how-much-should-e-books-cost/'>talkingwriting.com</a></p>
<br />Filed under: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/uncategorized/'>Uncategorized</a>  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/622/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/622/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=622&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~4/jk4JPHxwpKg" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Hope for democracy from the open source movement</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~3/Kss8mWBFu4c/</link>
		<comments>http://nospinpr.com/2013/01/04/hope-for-democracy-from-the-open-source-movement/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 23:47:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ruthseeley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[community and stakeholder consultations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[issues management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics in a social media era]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[public relations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Clay Shirky]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[collaboration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[democracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feudalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How the internet will (one day) transform government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[open source]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TED Talks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transparency]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nospinpr.com/?p=613</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We have collaboration tools – can we use them? asks Shirky. I think the more important question is, Will we use them to create a better, fairer world for ourselves?<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=613&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Thank you, Twitter, for bringing this amazing presentation to my attention. I&#8217;m a fan of Clay Shirky although you might not know it from <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7614793-cognitive-surplus">my not-exactly-a-rave review</a> of <em><a href="http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Cognitive-Surplus-How-Technology-Makes-Clay-Shirky/9780143119586-item.html?ikwid=cognitive+surplus&amp;ikwsec=Books" target="_blank">Cognitive Surplus</a> </em>(interesting to see the subtitle changed from &#8220;Creativity And Generosity In A Connected Age&#8221; to &#8221;How Technology Makes Consumers Into Collaborators&#8221; between the hardcover and paperback release &#8211; not sure I&#8217;ve ever seen that happen before). But after watching <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_the_internet_will_one_day_transform_government.html" target="_blank">this TED Talk </a>presentation, I understand the reason for the subtitle change, as it&#8217;s very much the theme of this talk.</p>
<p>If you care about democracy, if you&#8217;re currently a politician, and perhaps if you&#8217;re one of those people who don&#8217;t vote because you&#8217;ve been around long enough to see that those one helps elect don&#8217;t always fulfill their campaign promises  - hell &#8211; I don&#8217;t care who you are really &#8211; I think you need to watch this video. In other words, only the world&#8217;s would-be megalomaniacs should NOT watch it (and hopefully I&#8217;m flying under their radar anyway). For those who, like me, have an easier time taking in information via words on a page or a screen, there&#8217;s a very brief summary below.</p>
<div class="embed-ted"><iframe src="http://embed.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_the_internet_will_one_day_transform_government.html" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div>
<p>Sharky&#8217;s initial question is, &#8216;What happens when a new medium puts a lot of new ideas into circulation?&#8217; and he briefly looks at the three tees (telegraph, telephone, and television), all disruptive technologies for which their societies had high hopes: once we can actually get information, talk to each other easily, surely world peace will result. Erm, didn&#8217;t happen. He then goes back to the printing press, perhaps the single most disruptive technology we as a species will ever experience. Thought of initially as &#8217;a tool that would enforce Catholic hegemony,&#8217; says Shirky &#8211; but instead we got Martin Luther, the Reformation and the Thirty Years&#8217; War.</p>
<p>His explanation for why this is the human response to disruptive technology: when a lot of new ideas suddenly begin to circulate society is changed because it allows new mediums through which more people can weigh in with their points of view. This tends not to lead initially to world peace, but rather to more arguing:  &#8217;more media ALWAYS means more arguing.&#8217;</p>
<p>He then talks about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_College" target="_blank">Invisible College</a> (mid 17th C, about 150 years after the printing press was first invented) and the fact that it takes us a while to find our feet with new technologies &#8211; their initial uses may seem frivolous (think LOL cats).  &#8217;The scientific revolution wasn&#8217;t created by the printing press, it was created by scientists&#8217; who needed openness and speed for peer review – while the printing press was the right medium, books were the wrong tool, and the scientific journal and the concept of transparency and peer review were created to solve the long time to press disadvantage of books.</p>
<p>Open source developers, says Shirky, are “our invisible college &#8230; not for more arguments but for better arguments.” Proprietary software represents feudalism, says Shirky, open source software represents democracy, &#8216;because when you adopt a tool, you adopt the management philosophy embedded in that tool&#8217; (get your own, take it or leave it, this is how it is versus collaborate, use and share freely). And when you have &#8217;co-operation without co-ordination [that is, a collective and collaborative approach rather than a hierarchical one] you start to see communities form that are enormously large and complex.&#8217; And he illustrates this compellingly with two graphics: one illustrating proprietary software, which looks like an IBM org chart from the 1960s, the other detailing the interactions between people working on an open source project, which looks chaotic. The open source technique used for Ruby Rails, says Shirky, can be applied to democracies – and to the development of law, as it was during the 21st C copyright reform debate in the US, where people used open source software to experiment with the political ramifications of the proposed legislation (just after 13&#8242; in the video).</p>
<p>The collaborative method is cheap, large-scale and can be messy, but the bigger problem is power &#8211; and by this he means, I think, the reluctance of those who have power to share it, even for a few moments. I think he&#8217;s bang on here &#8211; whenever we talk about referendums in the political sense you have a group of people demanding that their voices be heard, that the issue be settled democratically. This is immediately followed by the institutional response of Old Skool politicians, who talk about how much it&#8217;s going to cost to have a referendum, etc., and fall back on, &#8216;you elected us to represent you, you get to vote every two [three, four, five] years, get out of our way and let us do the job you elected us to do and we&#8217;ll let you have your say again at election time.&#8217; If the Occupy and Idle No More movements have taught us anything, I&#8217;m hoping it&#8217;s that once every election is no longer often enough, but we&#8217;ll see how that goes, won&#8217;t we?</p>
<p>Transparency in government is now the norm, says Shirky (as a result of the disruptive technologies we&#8217;ve had at our disposal for decades now, which led to a radically changed society). But, says Shirky, &#8217;transparency is openness in only direction.&#8217; And he&#8217;s absolutely right: transparency, like mainstream media of the 20th C, is basically 1:many communication: I make the information available to you in various media; you choose to avail yourself of it if you like but that&#8217;s where it ends. But collaboration is a radical new form of two way transparency where everyone knows &#8211; and can see &#8211; what everyone else is thinking and doing.</p>
<p>We have collaboration tools – can we use them? asks Shirky. I think the more important question is, <em>Will</em> we use them to create a better, fairer world for ourselves?</p>
<p>Or will our elected representatives continue to cling to an outmoded form of or pretence at democracy that ultimately leads to revolution (bloody or merely electoral)?</p>
<br />Filed under: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/community-and-stakeholder-consultations/'>community and stakeholder consultations</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/issues-management/'>issues management</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/politics-in-a-social-media-era/'>politics in a social media era</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/public-relations/'>public relations</a> Tagged: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/clay-shirky/'>Clay Shirky</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/collaboration/'>collaboration</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/democracy/'>democracy</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/feudalism/'>feudalism</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/how-the-internet-will-one-day-transform-government/'>How the internet will (one day) transform government</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/open-source/'>open source</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/ted-talks/'>TED Talks</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/transparency/'>transparency</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/613/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/613/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=613&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~4/Kss8mWBFu4c" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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			<media:title type="html">ruthseeley</media:title>
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		<title>Media tips from Michael Ignatieff</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~3/bK-BiElPlgk/</link>
		<comments>http://nospinpr.com/2012/11/20/media-tips-from-michael-ignatieff/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:48:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ruthseeley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[key messages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[media relations]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nospinpr.com/?p=608</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An unlikely source, I know, but he sounds incredibly relaxed talking to old friend Michael Enright on The Sunday Edition. I like what he has to say about feeding the beast of the 24-hour news cycle as opposed to &#8216;laying track.&#8217; In order to &#8216;lay track&#8217; as Ignatieff calls it, you really have to take control [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=608&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>An unlikely source, I know, but he sounds incredibly relaxed talking to old friend Michael Enright on <a title="Ignatieff on media relations" href="http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/shows/2012/11/16/ignatieff-partisan-mudslinging-will-be-the-death-of-politics/">The Sunday Edition</a>. I like what he has to say about feeding the beast of the 24-hour news cycle as opposed to &#8216;laying track.&#8217;</p>
<p>In order to &#8216;lay track&#8217; as Ignatieff calls it, you really have to take control of the conversation. Bridging techniques don&#8217;t have to be subtle &#8211; they can be as blatant as saying, &#8216;Interesting question. But what I really need to talk to you and your viewers about is free trade/national security/our failing civic infrastructure.&#8217; And then you just start talking about free trade/national security/our failing civic infrastructure. And hopefully some of what you say will be interesting enough to prompt a follow-up question. At which point you&#8217;ll be in charge of the interview you&#8217;re giving.</p>
<br />Filed under: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/key-messages/'>key messages</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/media-relations/'>media relations</a>  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/608/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/608/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=608&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~4/bK-BiElPlgk" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Virtually attending a literary salon</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~3/LuviZpWwZiY/</link>
		<comments>http://nospinpr.com/2011/11/30/virtually-attending-a-literary-salon/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:51:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ruthseeley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[book marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[public relations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[working with authors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alberta Books Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Calgary literary salon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[literary salon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Susan Toy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Johnson House Literary Salons]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ruthseeley.wordpress.com/?p=583</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m thrilled to have been invited to attend the first #yycsalon via Skype tonight and will be live tweeting it since I couldn&#8217;t actually make it to Calgary. Here are the details &#8211; you can follow Susan Toy of Alberta Books Canada on Twitter, but she&#8217;s hosting, so check out the hashtag instead. And if [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=583&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m thrilled to have been invited to attend the first #yycsalon via Skype tonight and will be live tweeting it since I couldn&#8217;t actually make it to Calgary.</p>
<p>Here are the details &#8211; you can follow <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/SusanMToy">Susan Toy</a> of Alberta Books Canada on Twitter, but she&#8217;s hosting, so check out the hashtag instead. And if you&#8217;re in Calgary, get yourself on the mailing for the next one &#8211; Susan&#8217;s going to see if she can&#8217;t make the next salon in December (surprise December guest is an Alberta author who won the Bantam/Seal First Novel award who teaches in the MFA creative writing program at University of Calgary &#8211; my that&#8217;s a broad hint).</p>
<p>Alberta Books Canada is pleased to announce<br />
a new reading series<br />
The Johnson House Literary Salons<br />
in Marda Loop, Calgary<br />
Please join us for the first of these events<br />
Tuesday, November 29th<br />
7 – 9 p.m.<br />
Featuring readings by Calgary authors<br />
Betty Jane Hegerat<br />
Lori Hahnel<br />
Rosemary Griebel<br />
Bob Stallworthy<br />
Followed by a discussion with the authors<br />
Books published by these authors will be available to purchase<br />
thanks to Sue Hill of Monkeyshines Children’s Books<br />
Admission fee &#8211; $10 per person<br />
(In keeping with our belief that authors should be compensated for their participation,<br />
ALL monies collected will be paid directly to the authors)<br />
Coffee and tea will be served – please bring your own cup<br />
If you are interested in attending please send an email to susanmtoy@gmail.com with the subject line: Johnson House Salon<br />
You will receive confirmation and the exact address in a return email. Only a limited number of tickets will be available, so please send your request soon.<br />
We look forward to welcoming you to our first Johnson House Salon!</p>
<br />Filed under: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/book-marketing/'>book marketing</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/marketing/'>marketing</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/public-relations/'>public relations</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/working-with-authors/'>working with authors</a> Tagged: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/alberta-books-canada/'>Alberta Books Canada</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/calgary-literary-salon/'>Calgary literary salon</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/literary-salon/'>literary salon</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/susan-toy/'>Susan Toy</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/the-johnson-house-literary-salons/'>The Johnson House Literary Salons</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/583/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/583/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=583&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~4/LuviZpWwZiY" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Revisionist journalism in a social media age</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~3/eNebcEMkVvw/</link>
		<comments>http://nospinpr.com/2011/10/06/revisionist-journalism-in-a-social-media-age/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:05:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ruthseeley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nospinpr.com/?p=561</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I feel compelled to blog about an experience I recently had with the online (self-described) blog of a local radio station. I, am however, going to blog about it without naming names, because I hope to inspire a bit of a discussion rather than point the finger at one mainstream media outlet that employs several [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=561&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I feel compelled to blog about an experience I recently had with the online (self-described) blog of a local radio station. I, am however, going to blog about it without naming names, because I hope to inspire a bit of a discussion rather than point the finger at one mainstream media outlet that employs several practises I consider misguided, uninformed, and downright egregious (or at one reporter). I&#8217;d prefer to see what other journalists and consumers of news think about the points I&#8217;m raising.</p>
<p>A local radio station reported on a city council meeting in which there&#8217;d been significant discussion about the role of council vs administration in determining property tax increases. Since many current members of council campaigned on no-property-tax-increase platforms, it&#8217;s an important issue, and the fact that council seemed unsure of whether it could actually push back (administration was requesting a property tax increase higher than the inflation rate) and say, no increases or lower increases adds yet another wrinkle to the discussion.</p>
<p>A former mayoral candidate – someone who almost won the election – tweeted a comment, which was incorporated in the story posted on the radio station&#8217;s blog by the reporter attending the city council meeting. The station – or the reporter, it isn&#8217;t clear who manages the radio station&#8217;s feed, which is an issue I&#8217;ll discuss later – then tweeted the article using two local hashtags, one for the city itself (although not the shorter, more recently adopted airport code for the city locals have adopted), the other hashtag commonly used to report on council meetings, activities, and issues. The article was retweeted several times using all three hashtags commonly in use for the city and for council meetings. Unfortunately, the article referred to the mayoral candidate as a former aldermanic candidate.</p>
<p>I immediately posted – or rather submitted &#8211; a comment correcting the misinformation, saying that in fact the candidate had run for mayor and came a very close second in the race, not for alderman. I was required to provide my email address when leaving the comment (although I was assured it wouldn&#8217;t be published).</p>
<p>I checked the article the next day, and was surprised to discover that not only was my comment not posted on the article, but it had silently been corrected with the information I&#8217;d provided and using exactly my wording.</p>
<p>So I tracked down the reporter and fired off a somewhat – but not too – intemperate email about the issue. I suggested that if the reporter was not aware of what was happening to comments on the radio station&#8217;s web site, she needed to take it up with the powers that be.</p>
<p>The next day I got an email from the station&#8217;s news director, informing me of how well qualified the journalist was (Master&#8217;s degree, not a mere Bachelor of Journalism), of how hard she works and how tight her deadlines are, and informing me that the reporter had realized her own mistake prior to seeing my comment, had in fact covered the municipal election and had interviewed the candidate, had corrected her article, and that the correct information had been used when the story aired on the 4PM news.</p>
<p>My comment hadn&#8217;t been posted because it would have embarrassed me and confused other readers, since the story had been silently corrected. I was also informed that comments on the blog were supposed to further a discussion, not to correct facts or misinformation.</p>
<p>So let&#8217;s talk about the many many different ways in which this may not be the way to go with social media as a broadcast outlet and/or member of mainstream media.</p>
<ol>
<li>You&#8217;re using Twitter and you&#8217;re hiding behind a corporate presence without indicating who&#8217;s doing the tweeting. @cbcbooks does a great job of not doing this by naming the four people who tweet from their account in their bio and ending the tweets with the initials of the person who&#8217;s written them. It&#8217;s not rocket science, and it&#8217;s nice to know who you&#8217;re talking to.Your reporters are using Twitter and consider tweets fair game as &#8216;quotable quotes&#8217; when writing stories (the comment was not made in person to the reporter or during the course of a telephone interview – see points 6 and 9).</li>
<li>You have what you refer to as a blog on your radio station&#8217;s web site. But you don&#8217;t follow general social media and blog convention rules, which are that when a correction is made, strikeover mode is used.&#8217;You are about to write a Comment on this blog entry&#8217; is the wording on the site when one attempts to comment on a story.
<li>Your comment &#8216;policy&#8217; consists of a single line: &#8216;Your Comment (No HTML or coarse/ hateful language).&#8217; My comment didn&#8217;t contain either but it didn&#8217;t survive to posting stage. You allow reporters to post directly to your blog without anyone referring the content prior to posting. As a former proofreader, copy editor, and fact checker, this strikes me as a very dangerous precedent.</li>
<li>Your reporter him/herself reviews comments and decides whether to post them or not. And your reporter does this silently, rather than emailing the commenter to say, &#8216;hey, thanks for your comment – I realized my error and had already corrected the story before I read your comment – glad to see someone&#8217;s on the ball – there I go, writing too fast again! Is it ok if I don&#8217;t post your comment?&#8217; To which I of course would have graciously replied, &#8216;Absolutely – no point in posting it.&#8217; Instead I&#8217;m shaking my head and wondering what the heck they&#8217;re teaching in Masters of Journalism programs these days.</li>
<li>You tweet stories that have not been proofread, fact checked or copy edited (I suspect using some form of auto tweet system that auto posts when the blog is updated).</li>
<li>You have no social media policy posted on your web site for your reporters or the general public, nor is it possible to track one down when searching for your radio station or the parent company of your station.</li>
<li>You have a different comment policy from the one that is posted on your site. If you don&#8217;t permit people to correct errors of fact and only want comments that expand the discussion, say so.</li>
<li>You&#8217;ve made it look as if errors you make on your blog don&#8217;t matter; only what&#8217;s said on air matters.</li>
<li>You don&#8217;t seem to understand that Twitter and the internet count too. What you &#8211; as a blogger or as a reporter or as a news outlet &#8211; post and tweet is you reporting the news – it&#8217;s not all about the 4PM radio broadcast when you make information public prior to air time. I didn&#8217;t bother to take a screen shot of the story with the misinformation – but now I wish I had.</li>
<p>So – anything I&#8217;ve missed here? Think I&#8217;m being over-sensitive?</p>
<br />Filed under: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/uncategorized/'>Uncategorized</a>  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/561/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/561/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=561&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~4/eNebcEMkVvw" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Program enhancement via live blogging and live tweeting</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~3/yKYg7oKeClg/</link>
		<comments>http://nospinpr.com/2011/08/28/program-enhancement-via-live-blogging-and-live-tweeting/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 27 Aug 2011 19:50:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ruthseeley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[media relations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[public relations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[science communications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Banff Science Communications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[live blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[live tweeting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media strategy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nospinpr.com/?p=540</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you cast your net widely for volunteer live tweeters, you'll be amazed at the coverage you get and the goodwill you create. People will be banging down your doors for the opportunity to participate, not just spectate. <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=540&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This week I was reminded by <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/croakeyblog">Melissa Sweet</a> that the <a href="http://www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=1139">Banff Science Communications 2011</a> program was in progress. I had noticed it a few weeks ago, but had forgotten about it. Using the hashtag #banffscience, Melissa has almost single-handedly collated and curated information from talks, classes, and blog posts about this program for two weeks. The only reason I discovered she was doing so was because I follow enough scientists and science journalists on Twitter to see retweets and start following her and the hashtag, occasionally contributing an article or two I&#8217;d discovered (testimony that Canadian scientists are being muzzled by the Privy Council Office in Ottawa was something I thought these science communications people might want to discuss, for instance, so I contributed breaking news on the silencing of Department of Fisheries and Oceans&#8217; Dr. Kristi Miller &#8211; here&#8217;s a <a href="http://ow.ly/6dZ1B">roundup</a> of that coverage). When you&#8217;re attending a program as intensive as this one, you&#8217;re not always able to follow the news.</p>
<p>Oddly, a Twitter account for the <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/BanffScience">program</a> was created &#8211; and as of today, has tweeted exactly once, on August 18. The general <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebanffcentre/">Banff Centre Twitter</a> account has provided some information, but has failed to recognize the #banffscience hashtag.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t want to be all judge-y and prescriptive here. But people have been live tweeting conferences and events for years now, and this is the second major failure to take advantage of an opportunity for some almost-free public relations I&#8217;ve seen this week.</p>
<p>The Banff Centre programs aren&#8217;t cheap (in excess of C$5k)  and there aren&#8217;t a lot of scholarships available for them. Everyone I know who&#8217;s attended any kind of course or workshop put on by the Banff Centre has raved about the experience, and the instructors in this program are top notch. The programs have grown, morphed, and expanded over the course of the last twenty years, getting bigger and better and more varied. In this particular program, the enthusiasm of both the participants and the instructors is palpable (see this tweet from John Rennie, one of the instructors, and <a href="t.co/65QU0AE">this post</a> from one of the scholarship winner attendees).</p>
<p><a href="http://ruthseeley.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/wdc_bor.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-549" title="wdc_bor" src="http://ruthseeley.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/wdc_bor.jpeg?w=300&#038;h=45" alt="" width="300" height="45" /></a></p>
<p>So far I haven&#8217;t seen any mainstream media coverage of this particular program. Instead, there was a <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/banff-centre-ceo-alberta-is-the-new-arts-hub/article2137720/">Globe and Mail article</a> this week about the Banff Centre, in which the claim that it makes Alberta Canada&#8217;s new arts hub is made. There&#8217;s no mention of the Science Communications program at all.</p>
<p>So here are some suggestions (and a prescription or two):</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>If you&#8217;re marketing something</strong> (and the Banff Centre most definitely is marketing its programs, courses and workshops),<strong> make a commitment to do so and follow through on it.</strong></li>
<li><strong>If you&#8217;ve established a social media presence, don&#8217;t neglect it.</strong> Use the power of crowd sourcing in particular and social media in general to tap into prospective volunteers. Inviting bloggers and live tweeters to attend and participate and comping them in to events is probably the cheapest marketing and public relations in which you&#8217;ll ever invest.</li>
<li><strong>Seize the day by getting out in front of the hashtag.</strong> #banffscience is a great hashtag. It&#8217;s a shame the Banff Centre doesn&#8217;t seem to have to twigged to the fact that it&#8217;s being used. But if a co-ordinated social media strategy was in place, the Centre itself would have created &#8211; and used &#8211; the hashtag.</li>
</ul>
<p>Good corporate public relations drives employee retention and attraction. It also drives program participation. Wouldn&#8217;t it be nice if some of the Science Communications participants returned to the Banff Centre to take the adventure photography course? Or if some of the folks from the creative non-fiction course took the science communications course? Unique programming only goes so far. Right now, according to the Banff Centre&#8217;s stats, 75% of program participants are Canadian. But given the strength of the Canadian dollar and the meltdown in the US economy, plus the fact that many of the program&#8217;s instructors are Americans, wouldn&#8217;t it be nice to ensure there isn&#8217;t a 25% drop off in attendance?</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t mean to single out the Banff Centre or its Science Communications course. An international literary festival this week also demonstrated that it doesn&#8217;t quite get the value or scope of social media either &#8211; despite a Twitter feed and two mainstream journalists in attendance, with only three events running simultaneously they were unable to provide coverage of all three events on Twitter. That&#8217;s a shame, as well as a huge opportunity missed. It&#8217;s really not all that different from the case study/customer success story tactic, in which the client pays to have a case study developed and the client&#8217;s customer reaps the benefits of participating in the case study by getting public relations it hasn&#8217;t paid for.</p>
<p>Live tweeting and live blogging events may not drive attendance for your current programming. But it has the potential to drive future attendance in 2012, 2013,  2014, and beyond, at a time when your local, homegrown audience may well be vanishing. Don&#8217;t discount the &#8216;been there, done that&#8217; factor or the fact that the &#8216;staycation&#8217; may not be here to stay. You may well find volunteers among your existing staff who are willing to live blog or live tweet events. You&#8217;re paying them anyway. Their enthusiasm for promoting, organizing, and administering the events you put on will only increase if you allow them to participate by turning them into brand ambassadors and allowing them to showcase some of the skills you may not currently be paying them to use. It could be the cheapest professional development you ever offer them. And if you cast your net more widely for volunteer live tweeters, you&#8217;ll be amazed at the coverage you get and the goodwill you create. People will be banging down your doors for the opportunity to participate, not just spectate. Increasingly bloggers are transitioning to paid online and mainstream news organizations. You could be making a media friend for life. Why wouldn&#8217;t you want to do that?</p>
<br />Filed under: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/marketing/'>marketing</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/media-relations/'>media relations</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/public-relations/'>public relations</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/science-communications/'>science communications</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/social-media/'>Social media</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/twitter/'>Twitter</a> Tagged: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/banff-science-communications/'>Banff Science Communications</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/live-blogging/'>live blogging</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/live-tweeting/'>live tweeting</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/social-media-strategy/'>social media strategy</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/540/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/540/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=540&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~4/yKYg7oKeClg" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Bevolution</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~3/C2awBED67YY/</link>
		<comments>http://nospinpr.com/2011/08/08/bevolution/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:01:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ruthseeley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[book marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[working with authors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bevolution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bookselling]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nospinpr.com/?p=529</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It took almost four billion years for humans to evolve into anything like their current form. The unknown scribbler to best-selling author and household word is also a process.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=529&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://ruthseeley.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/221761.png"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-532" title="22176" src="http://ruthseeley.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/221761.png?w=300&#038;h=111" alt="" width="300" height="111" /></a></p>
<p>After a great meeting with Susan Toy of <a href="http://www.susanmtoy.com/home/alberta-books-canada">Alberta Books Canada</a> this weekend, which built on a conversation I&#8217;d had with an indie publisher a few weeks ago, I thought I&#8217;d do a quick post on what I&#8217;m calling &#8216;bevolution.&#8217; Bevolution is short for &#8216;book evolution.&#8217;</p>
<p>Susan said to me, there are actually five (or six) sales involved in getting a book from author to consumer. Here they are &#8211; followed by an additional four steps involved in the consumer purchase decision when the customer is actually in the store with the book in front of them:</p>
<p>1. Author must sell manuscript to agent or acquisitions editor at publishing company (this is two steps if you have or are seeking an agent &#8211; you have to sell your book to an agent, who will then sell it to an acquisitions editor at a publishing company).<br />
2. Acquisitions editor must sell book to marketing department.<br />
3. Marketing department must sell book to sales department.<br />
4. Sales department must sell book to retailers and etailers.<br />
5. Retailers and etailers must sell book to consumers.</p>
<p>Once the book is in the store or on the book etailing site, Kate Sullivan of <a href="http://www.candlemarkandgleam.com/">Candlemark &amp; Gleam</a> outlined four more steps in the decision-to-buy process:</p>
<p>6. Front cover.<br />
7. Back cover (including marketing synopsis and blurbs from other authors/reviews).<br />
8. First sentence/paragraph.<br />
9. Random sentence/paragraph from the approximate middle of the book.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s a lot of bases to cover. It took almost four billion years for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_evolution">human beings to evolve</a> in anything like their current form. Does that put your career trajectory from unknown scribbler to &#8216;best-selling author who&#8217;s a household word&#8217; into perspective a bit?</p>
<br />Filed under: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/book-marketing/'>book marketing</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/marketing/'>marketing</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/working-with-authors/'>working with authors</a> Tagged: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/bevolution/'>bevolution</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/book-marketing/'>book marketing</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/tag/bookselling/'>bookselling</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/529/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/529/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=529&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~4/C2awBED67YY" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>100 Marketing Stats for 2011 (with some charts and graphs thrown in for good measure)</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~3/UwZNLKk000Q/</link>
		<comments>http://nospinpr.com/2011/05/20/100-marketing-stats-for-2011-with-some-charts-and-graphs-thrown-in-for-good-measure/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 May 2011 23:01:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ruthseeley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nospinpr.com/?p=522</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[HubSpot&#8217;s latest 100 [Awesome] Marketing Stats, Charts and Graphs &#8211; some good stuff in here &#8211; always nice to have a fact or two at one&#8217;s fingertips. The focus on &#8216;earned media&#8217; as a descriptor for marketers makes me uneasy as a PR person. But check out the 2/3 of the US of A that&#8217;s [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=522&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>HubSpot&#8217;s latest 100 [Awesome] Marketing Stats, Charts and Graphs &#8211; some good stuff in here &#8211; always nice to have a fact or two at one&#8217;s fingertips.</p>
<iframe src='http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/3779686' width='461' height='378'></iframe>
<p>The focus on &#8216;earned media&#8217; as a descriptor for marketers makes me uneasy as a PR person. But check out the 2/3 of the US of A that&#8217;s on the &#8216;do not call&#8217; list, and the percentage of direct mail that never even gets open. But amount of money spent on blogging doubling in what, two years? That&#8217;s got to be good news for corporate communicators. Such as myself. Ahem&#8230;.</p>
<br />Filed under: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/uncategorized/'>Uncategorized</a>  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/522/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/522/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=522&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~4/UwZNLKk000Q" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Author/Publisher Checklist for Online Bookselling and Promotion</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~3/LvtI-4ceVjU/</link>
		<comments>http://nospinpr.com/2011/04/16/authorpublisher-checklist-for-online-bookselling-and-promotion/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2011 22:39:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ruthseeley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[book marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media for authors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[working with authors]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nospinpr.com/?p=515</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The online book buying and recommendation process is not the same as the in-store buying experience, and while it's got some advantages (instant gratification when you're buying an ebook, for instance; no trek to the store or waiting for a special order to come in the case of pbooks), it's also got some disadvantages.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=515&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve been threatening to create this checklist for a while, but there&#8217;s no time like the present, so here goes.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m amazed at how often I have to remind authors and publishers (well ok I don&#8217;t have to remind them all but when it&#8217;s a book I&#8217;m involved in promoting or even just one I want to see do well, I can&#8217;t help myself) to cover off the basics.</p>
<p>The online book buying and recommendation process is not the same as the in-store buying experience, and while it&#8217;s got some advantages (instant gratification when you&#8217;re buying an ebook, for instance; no trek to the store or waiting for a special order to come in the case of pbooks), it&#8217;s also got some disadvantages. The inability to browse the entire book tops the list for me – while I&#8217;m a fairly conventional in-store browser easily hooked or turned off by the first page and I certainly never look at the last page of a book when considering buying it, I do flip through the book and my eye is often caught by a phrase or a paragraph that influences my decision to buy. Cover, paper colour, quality and show-through as well as typography influence me. I rarely buy books I think are ugly. When buying online though, I&#8217;ll let content override style if content&#8217;s available. If not, you&#8217;ve probably lost the sale.</p>
<p>Far too often though I notice publishers (whether traditional or self publishers) haven&#8217;t taken advantage of the &#8216;look inside&#8217; feature on Amazon&#8217;s various sites. Borders offers a Google preview feature. At Barnes and Noble it&#8217;s &#8216;see inside.&#8217; Chapters Indigo and Waterstones don&#8217;t offer this feature, and I can only hope they&#8217;ve got something in the works. And then there&#8217;s the matter of coverless books on Goodreads, Shelfari, and LibraryThing. So – here&#8217;s the pre-release checklist. If anyone can think of anything I&#8217;ve forgotten, please chime in in the comment section and I&#8217;ll update the list.</p>
<p>Authors: even though it may not seem like your job, you need to be engaged with your own product. If you notice your book is listed but the listing isn&#8217;t complete, get on the phone to your publisher, sic your agent on your publisher – just make it happen.</p>
<p><strong>Pre-release checklist for authors and publishers</strong></p>
<p><strong>Publishers</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>As soon as the book you&#8217;re about to release is finalized, get the cover up on online booksellers&#8217; sites.</li>
<li>Apply immediately to activate the &#8216;look inside&#8217; (or whatever it&#8217;s called) feature everywhere you possibly can. People need to be able to browse online and without this feature, they&#8217;re dependent on reviews and on previous experiences with the author. If it&#8217;s a first novel they haven&#8217;t got the latter. And not all reviews are good. It can take a few days for this feature to &#8216;propagate&#8217; &#8211; or whatever the heck it&#8217;s called in the online tech world. Don&#8217;t delay &#8211; and don&#8217;t start publicizing the release until it&#8217;s up and running. Some people may find it anyway, but you don&#8217;t have to make matters worse by promoting a book people can&#8217;t begin to judge for themselves.</li>
<li>Get the book listed on the three major book social networking sites, Goodreads, LibraryThing and Shelfari. Make sure a cover image is uploaded for each edition (hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback) and for each geographic region (people may not recognize the book if only the UK or only the US or only the Australian cover is posted).</li>
<li>Make sure you add both 10-digit and 13-digit ISBN numbers (having a copy of the book in front of you is helpful for this).</li>
<li>If you&#8217;ve invested in a trailer for the book you&#8217;re releasing, create a YouTube channel either for your publishing company or for the book and get content up there. You may want to put comment moderation on YouTube – it&#8217;s not your grandma&#8217;s social networking playground and it&#8217;s better to never let comments appear than it is let them get up there and then delete them.</li>
<li>Organize giveways on the book social networking sites for at least some of your titles. Don&#8217;t be stingy, especially with first books by unknown authors. In order for word of mouth to work, you&#8217;ve got to get mouths moving.</li>
<li>ASK people to add reviews to online book selling and book networking sites. They may do it if you don&#8217;t ask but they&#8217;re more likely to do it if you remind them to. This is one area in which the online book selling sites have an amazing advantage over bricks and mortar stores – take advantage of it, because it&#8217;s the one real advantages you&#8217;ve got over the three dimensional in store buying experience.</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Authors</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Get a decent photo of yourself taken and experiment with converting it to black and white if it&#8217;s a colour photo. Choose one you can live with for a while. While it would be nice to have an official photo shoot done, you may not be able to afford this. If you can take a decent self portrait, do it (you&#8217;d be amazed how much more interest self portraits generate on flickr than portraits do – presentation of self is fascinating to many). Make a deal with a decent photographer – amateur or pro – to ensure you don&#8217;t show up as an egg on Twitter or a big blank on Amazon and Goodreads. It matters. I know Julian Barnes is never going to propose to me. But I buy or read all his books and it isn&#8217;t just because he&#8217;s an amazing author. It&#8217;s also because, based on his photo, he&#8217;s someone I&#8217;d love to have a conversation with.</li>
<li>While your book&#8217;s being edited, make sure you&#8217;ve created author profiles on every online site that will be selling your book. That means multiple Amazon profiles – you&#8217;ll have to create them for .co, .com, .ca, .au. Don&#8217;t reinvent the wheel: use the same profile. This may make the process seem less onerous.</li>
<li>Repeat step 2 for Goodreads, LibraryThing and Shelfari.</li>
<li>Claim your books on the book social networking sites listed in step 3.</li>
<li>If you&#8217;ve got a blog or a web site, add the blog feed to the book social networking sites listed in step 3 and push your blog content to these sites.</li>
<li>Add your blog feed to your Facebook page as well and do status updates with new posts as well.</li>
<li>Get someone to take photos of the launch if you&#8217;re having one. The photos shouldn&#8217;t all be of you – get photos taken of people enjoying themselves at your reading/launch. Video works here too. Then post the photos to your Facebook page, tweet a few of them, blog about the experience (Were you terrified? Did you have fun? Were you artfully keeping your legs crossed so no one would see the run in your pantyhose? How many times did you check to see if your fly was open? Did someone ask a question that startled you, or made you think about the book you wrote or a character you created in a different light?)</li>
<li>Post news about your book &#8211; dates it will be available, translation rights sold, foreign rights sold, upcoming interviews, great reviews, interviews that have appeared or that you&#8217;re about to do, readings, signings, festivals you&#8217;re attending on Facebook and Twitter and the book social networking sites.</li>
<li>Create events when you&#8217;re making appearances on Goodreads and LibraryThing – or nag your publisher or publicist or your spouse if s/he&#8217;s willing to help &#8211; to do so.</li>
</ol>
<p>What have I missed? Let me know in the comments and I&#8217;ll update the post.</p>
<br />Filed under: <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/book-marketing/'>book marketing</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/social-media/'>Social media</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/social-media-for-authors/'>social media for authors</a>, <a href='http://nospinpr.com/category/working-with-authors/'>working with authors</a>  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/515/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/ruthseeley.wordpress.com/515/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=nospinpr.com&#038;blog=766846&#038;post=515&#038;subd=ruthseeley&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NoSpinPr/~4/LvtI-4ceVjU" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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