On Saturday, I was looking for some ideas for books to engage my 10 year old twins, who have not yet developed a “bug” for reading.  From various friends on Twitter, I received several recommendations.  (Thanks go to @AnnKingman, @TooFondOfBooks, @jennsbookshelf, @AaronsBooks, @Irisheyz77).  Armed with their recommendations I trudged off this afternoon to my local independent bookstore, The Jabberwocky, in Newburyport, MA.

Once at the Jabberwocky, I was greeted by a very friendly person, who helped me pick books for most of my family.  The experience was one that gave me more Christmas spirit than any online or other shopping experience has thus far this year!

It occurred to me as I returned to the office, that I’ve probably read at least 10 best of 2009 lists in the past month. I don’t think any of the selections I made today are on any of those lists.  In the spirit of the Holiday, I thought, hmmm, maybe what we actually give as gifts is a different type of list to create!

Since I’m fairly secure in the notion that none of my kids will read this blog, I’ll list my choices below.  I hope that all of you who read this will comment and add your own choices for the benefit of everyone else with last minute shopping to do.

Happy Holidays! and Merry Christmas! from all your friends at Firebrand and NetGalley.  fpt

For my 20 year old, son (who loves history): Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen

For my 18 year old, son (who is studying economics): Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

For my 16 year old, daughter: The Garden of the Last Days by Andre Dubus III (couldn’t resist, saw him in the gym on Saturday)

For my twin 10 year old sons: The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson & the Olympians book 1 by Rick Riordan; The Merchant of Death: Pendragon Series, Book 1 by D. J. MacHale

Being a book lover does not preclude one from pursuing other passions. In fact, for some readers, books bring a whole new level of appreciation to their other favorite pass times, and vice versa.

Book bloggers David Gutowski, Josh Christie, and Vera Marie Badertscher are three such individuals. For each of them, blogging is the perfect outlet for combining their loves of literature with their loves for a little something else – music, beer, and travel respectively. Along the way, they’ve entertained and enriched the lives of countless of their readers.

Learn about each of them, and how they came to be bloggers of books and more, below:

David Gutowski of LargeHeartedBoy

David Gutowski of the blog, Largehearted Boy.
From the “about the blog” – Largehearted Boy is a music blog featuring daily free and legal music downloads as well as news from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture.

Books were my first love. Growing up, there were always books in my house of all age levels, and my parents (both voracious readers) encouraged me to read from an early age.

When the series began in 2005, I would approach publishers about specific titles I had read and enjoyed. Now I am sent a multitude of books every week by publishers, publicists and authors to choose from. I still only choose books I personally enjoy for the series, though, and often get good suggestions from bloggers, friends, and even booksellers.

Not surprisingly, publicists have come to recognize my taste (the series mostly features literary fiction and nonfiction), so the bulk of my review pile consists of good candidates for the series. Over the past couple of years authors who have already contributed to the series have been probably the most surprising source of new submissions.

I don’t accept unsolicited submissions by authors or publicists. My criteria for inclusion in the series is simple, I have to enjoy the book (and I have been known to be quite picky).

I have approached a majority of the musicians in the Note Books series directly, I try to focus that series on songwriters I greatly admire.

One of the reasons I started the Book Notes and Note Books series was that I would continually be impressed by music referenced by authors in interviews, and books named by musicians as their favorites. These series not only enlighten the blog’s readers, but also myself.

When starting the series I assumed musicians would be more receptive to writing about books than authors writing about music. I underestimated both the time available to musicians and the music love of writers.

I do. I keep two baskets of incoming mail just below my stereo in my office, music and books, and sample both throughout the day. I have always been able to multi-task, and reading while listening to music has never been a problem for me.

A friend of mine just asked me what music would pair well with Flannery O’Connor short stories, and I recommended anything by Sigur Ros. I tested the combination yesterday and found that Icelandic indie rock plus Southern Gothic fiction works remarkably well together.

I love the way authors are increasingly leveraging the internet to get direct access to their readers. Whether it is their own websites, forums, blogs, or guest essays and interviews. I am incredibly excited to see authors both approachable and humanized through their online interaction.

I worry that as a whole, people are reading less, but I never lose sleep over the quality of writing today. I am amazed almost every day by books from presses big and small.

My biggest concern is the plight of the independent bookstore in the digital age, especially with the growing use of e-books.

David Gutowski
Largehearted Boy: http://blog.largeheartedboy.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/largeheartedboy
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/DGfacebook

Josh Christie of Brews and Books

Josh Christie of the blog Brews and Books
From the “about the blog” – Brews and Books is a site for everyone’s inner Hemingway – a site about books with a healthy passion for alcohol.  Er, maybe a better example is everyone’s inner Sam Calagione, an English-major-turned-brewer.  Wait, that isn’t perfect either.  BrewsAndBooks.com is a site for everyone that loves a good book in one hand and a good beer in the other.  The blog first arose out of a desire to share reviews of well-written books and lovingly-brewed beer.  The site has evolved slightly from this original purpose, and now shares news in the brewing, publishing, bookselling and beer worlds along with reviews and editorial content.

So, why beer and books? Where did the idea come from, and have you found kindred spirits?

What’s your all time fave brew?

Fave book?

Fave blog (other than your own)?

Anything about it not to your liking?

Vera Marie Badertscher of the blog, A Traveler’s Library
From the “about the blog” -SHORT VERSION: Here at the Library, we will wander the globe, in no particular order, ignoring the Dewey Decimal system, the alphabet, continental boundaries, or any other artificial organization.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have a favorite book blog? Share it with us in the comments!

This Friday, December 18, look back at 2009 with Salon book critic Laura Miller, who will join our weekly #FollowReader conversation from 4-5pm ET to talk about her favorite books of the year, how she discovered them, and how social media and other technology has influenced the process of finding, reading, and discussing books.  Laura is also the author of The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia, published this year, so we’ll also hear about how being an author has affected her role as critic. 

Salon's Laura Miller

 Laura has been reviewing books for Salon since 1995, when she helped found the online publication. Recently, she revamped Salon’s review strategy to highlight books her readers are likely to love, and to bring more transparency to the process, so readers can see what books didn’t make the cut and why. Find out more here. 

Also worth checking out are Salon’s Best Fiction Picks for 2009, its  Best Nonfiction Picks, and its Best Books of the Decade. 

If you can’t join the discussion, watch this space next week for a recap of the highlights. 

To join the #followreader conversation on Friday, here’s what to do: 

1. Just before 4pm ET,  log in to Twitter or whatever interface you use (we recommend Tweetchat)
2. To follow the discussion, run a search for #followreader
3. I’ll start by asking Laura Miller (@magiciansbook) a few questions, before opening up the discussion to the group.
4. To post to the discussion, make sure that the hashtag #followreader is in each tweet 

NOTE: TweetChat refreshes quickly and automatically loads your hashtag when you are in the discussion. 

Please feel free to suggest topics for upcoming #followreader chats below.  

Read on for today’s delivery of a pretty little package all dressed up with a big red bow.

Today NetGalley announced a partnership with Edelweiss. (Read the release.) Edelweiss, owned by Above the Treeline, provides web-based interactive publisher catalogs used by booksellers, retailers and other professional readers to research, organize and order new titles. Starting in early spring 2010, all the reading options you use in NetGalley can be made available inside Edelweiss’s digital catalogs.

Best of all, if you are a customer of both Edelweiss and NetGalley, this additional functionality will come at no additional charge. Edelweiss users will be able to read online and download full-text digital galleys. Publishers will continue to set reading options for their galleys, which can be uploaded with or without DRM.

John Rubin, founder and CEO of Above the Treeline, and Fran Toolan, Chief Igniter of Firebrand Technologies, NetGalley’s parent, opine below about how this partnership will benefit readers and publishers alike.

John Rubin, Founder and CEO, Above the Treeline (Edelweiss’s parent):

We’re really excited about partnering with Firebrand because, really, how can it not help readers and publishers?

We’re both trying to get info about new books to the people who care about them.With the recent demise of Kirkus, it’s more important than ever to develop new ways to spread the word. I have a lot of respect for what Firebrand has done with NetGalley and can’t think of a better partner. At the core, I think we see the marketplace in the same way that Firebrand does and have the same type of commitment to it. We’re both interested in helping the industry grow and transform in a way that works for all parties—publishers, retailers, media, authors, etc.. We’re both about solutions that work but that don’t undermine publishers and the authors they serve.

Fran Toolan, Chief Igniter, Firebrand Technologies (NetGalley’s parent):
“From my perspective, there are three main benefits to this collaboration. The first is that we are broadening our ability to deliver secure electronic galleys outside of www.netgalley.com, the second is an ability for us to potentially reach new customers, and the last is an opportunity to work on a project of real value with John and his team.

In this collaboration, a “widget” of reading options will be embedded into the Edelweiss catalog for titles in the NetGalley system. This widget will provide a list of options for a reader to access our secured content. These options will include our QuickBrowse function as well as our ability to download PDF’s or ePub files (with or without DRM) for use on reading devices. The development of this widget essentially allows us to bring the functionality of www.netgalley.com to any online catalog, website, or blog.

One of the very interesting parts of this collaboration is that if a publisher is using Edelweiss, they don’t need to be a regular customer of NetGalley. Under our agreement, if a publisher (who is not a customer of NetGalley) wants to take advantage of the new galley feature in Edelweiss, Above the Treeline will charge that publisher a nominal fee per title which will be shared by both of our companies. In essence, this gives publishers an opportunity to experiment with the reading options piece of NetGalley before taking advantage of its full functionality.

John and I have enjoyed being industry colleagues for some time now, and have looked for ways to collaborate in the past. This particular project is one that is interesting because of its simplicity and mutual benefits. I am very excited about proving our ability to partner on services to the industry. My hope is that over the next year there will be more announcements about a tighter integration between Edelweiss and Firebrand’s Title Management system.

Heather McCormack of LJ's BookSmack!

With last week’s sad announcement that Kirkus is being shuttered, we thought it might be nice to spotlight some of the creative people and places who are doing their darnedest to provide book industry pros and general readers alike great reviews and book news. One such place — Library Journal’s fantastic online newsletter BookSmack!

For just over a year,  BookSmack!’s seasoned library-type editors have been been delivering high-impact reviews of street lit, genre fiction, graphic novels, audio, and DVDs, along with edgy RA, in-depth prepub info, and industry buzz. I recently had the pleasure of corresponding with Heather McCormack,  BookSmack’s editor (and conflicted novelist in training), who shared not only what makes BookSmack rock, but a little bit about her own love of things literary.

What prompted the creation of BookSmack!?

As I recall, a push for electronic newsletters came from on high two or three years ago in Library Journal’s parent company, Reed Business Information. My colleagues and I took what was essentially a corporate mandate and created something meaningful we’d wanted for a long time: both a supplement and a complement to the print Book Review; an avenue for reviewing more books, pop and niche, that strengthened our connection with our audience and showed our sense of humor.

That’s where I come in—I felt strongly from the start that being funny and left-of-center could be the clincher. Comedy is hard, but being boring about books in this day and age is criminal. With BookSmack! I knew we had the opportunity both to capitalize on librarians’ reputations as book authorities and to smash the tired stereotype of them as Uptight Protectors of Silence. Long story short, I hired Douglas Lord to write the Books for Dudes column—which I can only describe as an absurdist lollercoaster cum collection development tool—and encourage other contributors to inject their voices into book reviews. The effects are more often than not blog-like and just as authoritative as what you find in the print magazine. In fact, I think we might have more authority because we sound so invested and honest.

How do you choose the reviewed titles, themes (like the breast cancer theme), and features?

Our regular columnists Neal Wyatt, Douglas Lord, Angelina Benedetti, Vanessa Morris, and Rollie Welch are whip-smart librarians who know their audiences, so they decide what makes the cut, taking into account suggestions from their editors. I do assign what we call Short Takes for perennially popular categories like memoir, topical themes like breast cancer, and areas that I think might be building momentum or have mostly been ignored (e.g., autism-themed fiction). Our goal with the coverage is to alert librarians to great books old, recent, and forthcoming. It’s dicey-as-hell prognostication coupled with what some of our readers call “catch-up collection development,” meaning, “You might’ve missed these titles upon their original publication, but order them now.”

How is it being received by the librarian community?

BookSmack! is but a wee baby, only a year and three months old. We did our first formal readership survey last summer, and people are happy for the most part with the review coverage, tone, and look. There’s definitely room for improvement—readers want more book information, faster—but our first steps were steadier than I originally thought.

Are you proactively trying to reach out to the younger, hipper, more urban reading audience by boosting acquisition of those kinds of titles? Is that one of the hoped for outcomes of BookSmack!?

I would love it if BookSmack! became an e-bible for book fiends unconnected to librarianship, no matter their age or zip code.

But, no, I am not consciously trying to be hip with BookSmack! I think that would be a mistake. I resent the logic that librarians should have to aspire to haute coolness because most of them are already such individuals—they just get slammed with that dowdy label.

Are the titles/ other content that you cover in BookSmack aimed at any one age group?

The columns Books for Dudes and 35 Going on 13 cater to specific audiences in theory, but there is mucho crossover appeal in Doug’s and Angelina’s selections. The aim overall is to showcase damn good books for different tastes and moods. General readers can easily dip into those sections.

Books for Dudes cracks me up, but I can see how it might be filling a void. Do you think library collections seem to hold more titles that are of interest to women, then they do to men?

A library in wealthy suburban Connecticut is very different from one in inner-city Detroit and another in rural North Dakota. A good collection meets the needs of its users, so it’s not wise for me to say that most libraries are tipped toward women. That said, the “dude” demographic—twenty- to fortysomething males—is not noted for using libraries, and that’s why we created Books for Dudes. Librarians asked for guidance in attracting Gen-X, Gen-Y, and millennial males. My two cents: they read a shit-ton, but they could use pointers in getting beyond graphic novels, David Sedaris, and porn (so could a lot of women, for that matter).

What titles from 2009 have most surprised you?

If you mean “surprise” in the sense that they were surprisingly good, not many. I am a notorious jerk when it comes to books. I love them, and I hate them in the same way people can be ambivalent about friends, family, and lovers. Books mean a lot to me, but because people so frequently screw them up in terms of writing, editing, and marketing, etc., I get angry with them. I used to silk-screen my own T-shirts in high school, and I’ve often thought about busting out my squeegees to make a BOOK LOVE HURTS line.

To the point: Most fiction and nonfiction reads formulaically to me. In the bloated memoir category, however, I found a friend in Danny Evans’s eloquent and profane Rage Against the Meshugenah: Why It Takes Balls To Go Nuts and Alex Lemon’s electric Happy. Graphic novels à la David Small’s Stitches have also put me under their spell. I think they are beautifully in synch with the 21^st-century attention span, a delicate balance of just the right amount of text and image for our info-bombarded brains.

What titles are you excited about for 2010?

A few months ago, I had the great pleasure of attending the Association of American Publishers Libraries Committee Spring 2010 Book Buzz, where I first heard about Keeping Chickens with Ashley English [stop laughing at me, Kat]. This is a classic example of a how-to book I will never likely use for its stated aims. I love the idea of raising chickens in Brooklyn; of using the nicknames of The Clash (Jonesey, Simmo, etc.) to christen my flock; and collecting fresh eggs in a basket and preparing omelets for my friends. But will I do all this? Probably not. This is akin to armchair travel, except we’re talking about rearing fowl as pets.

P.S. I heart Nick Flynn, so very curious about The Ticking Is the Bomb. Anyone heard about Zadie Smith working on a new novel? I’ve always connected with her.
What kind of titles do you enjoy reading the most?

These days, I have such a short, fragmented bus-subway commute that I can only handle comics or graphic novels. Besides being fun to ingest, they’ve given me great ideas about how to approach finishing my novel and what to write in the future.

I’m a big multiple-reads person. I like to mix up fiction, nonfiction, and glossy/semiglossy magazine. On my bedside table (that is, the floor), I have Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (about a quarter through); Alan Moore’s Watchmen (its new smell gives me migraines, so can’t get past page 15; someone please lend me an older copy!); and several back issues of Yoga Journal.
What is your favorite part about working in the book biz?

My job has steeped me in the world of librarianship, home to some of the smartest, funniest, and most bizarre people I’ve ever met. They have taught me about great music and literature, helped me through personal trials, and inspired me to take a stand on important ideas. I’m a better reader, editor, and person because of my interaction with them. Really, really glad I never got that copyediting gig at Glamour.

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If you aren’t already a subscriber, go sign up for BookSmack! right away. It’s a fantastic resource and a fun read – plus, this Thursday’s issue includes BookSmack!’s second-annual gift guide featuring books and multimedia. Follow Heather on Twitter at @hmccormack and @LJBookReview.

Last Friday’s #FollowReader chat was a real treat. Our guest was Open Road Integrated Media’s CEO and co-founder, Jane Friedman. Much of the discussion centered around the innovative publishing model that Open Road is embarking upon, and Jane generously shared information about everything from the formats that ORIM will be publishing in, to author compensation, to their plans for marketing. You can read the transcript from Friday’s chat by clicking on this link.

Below we’ve included a few insights offered by Jane during last Friday’s chat:

On the traditional role of the publisher, and how Open Road differs from the traditional model:

The publisher has traditionally discovered that author, most of the time through agents, and paid the author an advance against royalties. The author worked with an editor and when the manuscript was ready to be published the marketing and publicity and sales staffs geared up to introduce the book to the public. Open Road Media is based on a profit share model. We do not pay advances. We are only dealing with electronic formats with a p-o-d component when possible. The author supplies the content; Open Road Media does the marketing.

On Open Road’s approach to marketing:

• The marketing platform is based on 3 principles: scale, reach and ease of use. It’s goal is to connect readers to authors in communities where readers currently live.

• Our marketing will be a combination of traditional heavily weighted to the digital/emerging channels.
• Lead time: our marketing begins on signing of contract versus close to the on-sale date.

On reaching communities where readers already live:

It’s not just aboutFacebook and Twitter. Readers live on crowd-sourced content sites, social networks, opinion sites, media sites, etc. They also live where their passions are. Cooking sites, craft and art sites, parenting sites. These are our readers as well.

We will expand to reach new audiences. There is a big world out there of people who read and do not fall into traditional.

To be clear, we will go to large sites but MAIN driver is to find right niche communities to partner with and supply content to.

On author profit share:

Authors like profit-sharing, particularly as advances are moving in the wrong direction.

On author branding versus publisher branding:

Absolutely. The author is the brand. Open Road Media as a consumer brand is not part of our thinking. We recognize that consumers will find content on our site, but the brands we are promoting are the authors and their works.

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Our gratitude to Jane for taking the time to join us. Be sure to follow Open Road Integrated Media on Twitter: www.twitter.com/openroadmedia and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/openroadmedia. And,  for the complete transcript of Friday’s chat with Jane Friedman, just click here.

Be sure to join us for this Friday’s #FollowReader at 4pm ET.

Jason Boog

What’s new in the ebook world? Well, a lot. Ebooks are everywhere and they’re making big news. In an effort to help publishers and readers alike keep track of all that is new in ebook news, MediaBistro recently unveiled the eBOOKNEWSER – an e-centric companion blog to their popular GalleyCat blog, AND this week MediaBistro is launching a conference completely devoted to ebooks -  the eBook Summit.

That’s a lot of e!

Wanting to know more about these E-vents, I cornered Jason Boog, editor of GalleyCat, and managing editor for the eBookNewser, to find out find out what’s behind MediaBistro’s interest in the world of ebooks.

KM: What prompted MediaBistro’s interest in the ebook space?

JB: We’ve been reporting on eBooks all year, and GalleyCat has really grown as we focused on digital issues. Watching eBook readership expand, mediabistro.com wanted to tap into this timely issue and foster conversation about the future–so our events and teaching teams built this amazing conference.

KM:What’s the deal with the eBook Summit?

JB: The summit is a two-day conference about the future of digital publishing–I helped choose speakers and develop some of the content. In my new job, I’ll have a chance to work even more closely with the events and teaching teams for the conference.

The summit will talk about all the digital issues facing publishing–from Google Books, to different e-reading devices, to social networking and publicity to reading demographics to the agent’s role in the future.

Here’s the complete program:
http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooksummit/program.asp

Here’s the complete list of speakers and moderators, it’s kind of amazing how many people are coming out:
http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooksummit/speakers.asp

The idea is to make the summit a mediabistro tradition, and continue to interact with the digital community the summit will create. I’m hoping to start holding semi-regular parties where publishing types, writers, and readers can get together and talk about these issues.
Here’s the first party, if everything goes well, we should have more of these in the future:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/ebooks/be_not_efraid_143873.asp

KM: What differentiates the eBook Summit from TOC and Digibookworld? What is the angle is MediaBistro taking with this conference?

JB: Mediabistro’s audience spans the media industry. eBooks are turning the publishing industry into a multimedia business. The eBook Summit brings together people from all facets of media who are interested in electronic publishing to brainstorm how they can work together to produce the next phase of content.

We put the most creative and influential leaders in the field together–from literary journals to Google to publishing executives–and we will let them have a conversation. And, as always, mediabistro.com events feature plenty of quality networking time. For two days attendees can mingle with the eBook leaders and become a part of the eBook conversation.

KM: What has response to the conference been like?

JB: The response has been phenomenal. We’re expecting 300 people, a remarkable number for a first-time conference in the middle of a recession.

KM: What topics will MediaBistro’s eBOOKNEWSER cover?

JB: We’ll put a GalleyCat stamp on eBook news–the same warm tone, focused, and frequent reporting that senior editor Ron Hogan developed over the last four years. We’ll bring all the digital news our traditional publishing audience expects, but we are hoping to broaden the GalleyCat audience as well. We’re looking to reach the sea of underrepresented writers in digital space, from eBook writers to eBook pioneers at small presses. Socially-networked writing sites like Protagonize, Fictionaut, Scribd, and fan fiction hubs are booming–but nobody has covered these fascinating communities. We’ll be there every day.

Check out the eBOOKNEWSER here. They’ve already got a lot of great posts up, including today’s very interesting: “An Agent Weighs In on Random House’s Claim to Backlist eBook Rights.”

We interrupt this public service blog to bring you an update about its sponsor: NetGalley. As you may have heard through twitter or my e-newsletter (not signed up?), we’re in the middle of a special theme week at NetGalley!

Welcome Harlequin Week!

We’re so excited to announce that Harlequin Books has joined the list of publishers using NetGalley to provide digital galleys to reviewers and professional readers.

NetGalley members are now able to request a digital review copy of dozens of great Harlequin books, including romance, women’s fiction, paranormal, erotica, YA and non-fiction titles. These galleys can be downloaded as PDFs to your computer, or read on your Kindle or Sony Reader. Browse all Harlequin titles here.

Coincidentally, we also launched our Facebook Page this week – complete with an event for Welcome Harlequin Week, of course!

In preparation for this special week, I asked some of our favorite romance reviewers using NetGalley what they thought about Harlequin coming on board.

Here are some highlights:

Harlequin on NetGalley is a meeting of digital brilliance in one location – it’s like chocolate, seasalt and caramel. Warm, dryer-fresh socks and a book. Flannel jammies and hot cocoa. Perfect merge. Excuse me, I have to go indulge! There is no better audience for digital books and the instant enjoyment of digital reading than romance readers. Women buy more electronics, buy more fiction, and now, with the convenience of ebooks and portable devices, can read more – any time, any place. We are the digital readers that publishers are looking for – and we’re not that hard to find, thanks to NetGalley.

—Sarah of Smart Bitches Trashy Books, @SmartBitches

Harlequin joining NetGalley is exciting news. I think the first romance I read was a Harlequin, probably Harlequin Presents because I remember the white cover and the circle with the hero and heroine pictured in it. Harlequin Presents is still one of my favorite romance lines, but I’m also a fan of their Luna books line (which is for fans of fantasy with romantic elements). They just started a Harlequin Teen line which looks promising. If I see a few of my favorite lines from Harlequin at NetGalley, I will be a happy reviewer. From what I’ve seen Harlequin has been embracing digital technology – they have a reader panel called Tell Harlequin which is all online, all their new titles come in ebook format, and for their 60th anniversary celebration they have harlequincelebrates.com where 16 ebooks are available free to download…Romance is a popular genre, it will be popular in the physical form and in the digital form.

—Janice of janicu’s book blog, @janicu

I was very excited when I learned Harlequin would be offering its galleys digitally through NetGalley.  Harlequin continues to impress me with its whole hearted embrace of digital books and digital media.  Clearly Harlequin is working hard to fulfill its goal of getting a romance in every woman’s hands. With the Harlequin galleys available digitally, it will reduce the negative impact on the environment and increase efficiencies for reviewing teams.  Many review blogs are comprised of individuals located all over the US and often, even international locales.  Digital galleys allow the review blogs to divert their time and attention to actually reading the books instead of focusing on the ministerial aspect of allocation of books. It’s a win all the way around and I laud Harlequin for taking the opportunities that NetGalley is providing.

—Jane Litte of Dear Author, @dearauthor

Good stuff! I hope you’ll join the growing list of readers who are getting an early peek at some great Harlequin titles. And as always, don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions or feedback.

Happy Reading!

All best,

Lindsey (your friendly Digital Concierge at NetGalley)

Follow us on Twitter (@NetGalley)
Become a Fan of NetGalley on our Facebook Page

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Not signed up with NetGalley? Anyone who reads and recommends books professionally (reviewers, media, bloggers, journalists, librarians, booksellers and educators) can use it for free! Visit us to learn more and register: http://www.netgalley.com/

Last Friday’s wide-ranging #followreader chat about the smartest book advertising strategies, with guests Denise Berthiaume and Tom Thompson of Verso Advertising, touched on topics like how readers are discovering books and how the avid readers who participate in our #followreader chats respond to book ads. (Some of these questions were also covered in last week’s two-part interview with these two publishing veterans – in case you missed them, here’s Part One  and here’s Part Two.)

Check out the complete transcript here – our guests have lots of pithy insights on how to manage your marketing dollars and there’s plenty of passionate feedback from book bloggers, authors, publishers and others about what kind of book ads appeal most.

Some highlights:

How do the readers here feel about book ads – has anyone bought a book recently based on an ad? #followreader

I don’t think I’ve ever bought a book based on an ad #followreader Posted by myfriendamy

I think ads less effective than authors who’re active on Twitter. #followreader Posted by maggiedana

Amazon gets me occasionally on a recommendation. That’s about it for me. #followreader Posted by DavidRozansky

I have bought a book from an ad if I already know the author; when ad alerts me to new book by him or her #followreader Posted by BethFishReads

We have found ads work best for authors with large fan base or books that are long awaited. #followreader Posted by DavidRozansky

I have bought a book based solely on an ad – not because it was an author I knew. #followreader Posted by ReadingItAll

I’m more likely to go with a book that has received MANY great reviews. I NEVER trust one paper or reviewer #followreader Posted by danish_novelist

Especially in USA I don’t trust ads. Country is so big that you can always find 3 idiots who called book a “masterpiece”:-) #followreader Posted by danish_novelist

Best way to buy book is via browsing. Ability to read page to see if you like author’s style, voice. #followreader Posted by maggiedana

Rich media ads can convey a browsing experience. It’s been hard to do w/our budgets but costs coming down… #followreader Posted by TomThompson

Yes, all our ads (both print and online) offer access to browse by sending to appropriate author/pub site #followreader Posted by DBerthiaume

Ads work best w/ all forms of marketing/publicity, not in a void; best to keep this in mind. #followreader Posted by DBerthiaume

Is it worthwhile to work with sites like Goodreads, Shelfari, and ReadingSocial in terms of advertising and engagement?

Yes, that’s where highly engaged readers are. you can really measure viral impact there as well (shelf adds, etc.) #followreader Posted by TomThompson

You can also use book social nets in tandem w/ facebook by advertising on their fb apps. Allows some crossover to fb newsfeed. #followreader Posted by TomThompson

What I like about fb apps such as Visual Bkshlf is you target engaged readers & word gets out to their broader friendfeed. #followreader Posted by TomThompson

Also, you can run rich media on the fb apps that you can’t on straight fb ads. But fb is rolling out new ad products every day #followreader Posted by TomThompson

I find the friend of a fan and niche ads really promising on FB #followreader Posted by ReadingItAll

What trends are you seeing on your ad networks about how readers discover books?

We’ve found that people trust their favorite sites, so are inclined to feel enthusiastic about a book appearing there. #followreader Posted by DBerthiaume

By fave sites, we mean enthusiast sites, like WWII/military history, cooking, parenting sites, etc. #followreader Posted by DBerthiaume

Along the medium to long tail in the web there are lots of sites that have specific knowledge, not just general news sites. #followreader Posted by TomThompson

Most sites like relevant book ads more than general products b/c they better serve their audience #followreader Posted by TomThompson

Join us for the next #FollowReader chat with Jane Friedman of Open Road Media, this coming Friday (December 11, 2009, from 4-5pm Eastern).  More details here!

Jane Friedman of Open Road Integrated Media

Our stellar guest appearances for #FollowReader chats continue this Friday, when we’ll be joined by  Jane Friedman, CEO and Co-Founder of Open Road Integrated Media.

Conceived as  a content marketing company that places the e-book in the center of a multi-platform universe, Open Road Integrated Media is taking a bold approach to the business of books as well as to their format.  ORIM is doing away with author advances, instead offering authors a higher-than-normal royalty, coupled with aggressive marketing.

And, what exactly will ORIM be marketing, you may ask? Good question, and ORIM has a good answer:

• e-versions of popular backlist titles (among the first ORIM e-rights to be acquired were titles by Dame Iris Murdoch, Pat Conroy and William Styron),
• Studio “e-riginals” – titles developed for digital format, and
• ORIM also plans to launch a premium self-publishing program which will be called Discovery.

We’re excited to talk with Jane about Open Road, and about the quickly changing landscape of publishing in general. Some of the topics we’ll be discussing on Friday include:

• What is the traditional role of publishers, and how is this changing?
• What about agents?If advances seem to be going the way of the dodo, is it time to re-evaluate how agents are compensated?
• What should authors and agents make of MacMillan’s boilerplate contract (20% net for digital sales); what about RH + others who are a bit higher, but still at net?
• How much should authors be asked to do in regards of marketing and promoting their books? Should authors be compensated for the marketing efforts they are asked to undertake?
• As the barriers to actually publishing a book erode, does the role of the publisher become more or less important to the reading public?

And, as always with #FollowReader, the conversation will no doubt be fun and interesting.

Please join us – this Friday, December 11th at 4pm ET.

New to #FollowReader chats? It’s easy:

1. Just before 4pm ET,  log in to Twitter or whatever interface you use (e.g. Tweetchat.com, Tweetdeck, Twitterific, etc.)
2. To follow the discussion, run a search for #followreader
3. To post to the discussion, type #followreader in each tweet

NOTE: You might want to experiment with TweetChat, which refreshes quickly and automatically loads your hashtag when you are in the discussion.

And if you can’t make it, don’t feel too bad. We will post a recap of the highlights, along with a summary on the blog.