#FollowReader May 7: Heather McCormack from Library Journal

On today’s #FollowReader Twittersation, we’ll be joined by Heather McCormack (@HMcCormack), Book Review Editor of Library Journal. Heather’s article (“Patrons Are Consumers, and Consumers Are Patrons; or, How Publishers Can Learn To Stop Worrying and Love Libraries Again”) on the Tools of Change blog has become a jumping off point for a larger discussion about [...]

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The Marketing, or lack thereof, of Graphic Novels

Graphic novels have been consistently increasing in popularity for years. Break out successes such as Persepolis, Watchmen, and Stitches have continued to put the graphic novel in front of mainstream audiences (in other words, they’re not just for comic stores anymore). But, publishers don’t seem to have caught on to this. And, that’s what this post is about. Yes, this post originated due to a panel on the subject of Graphic Novels at Wi5, but the subject itself goes beyond Wi5 to a bigger issue of the need for publishers to work with their valued intermediaries (such as indie book sellers, librarians, etc) to help get the right books to the right readers.

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#FollowReader: New Year’s Day Open House

In honor of the occasion of a brand new year, #FollowReader tomorrow will be a very casual Twitter Open House. I’ll be hosting, and you can find me on Twitter from 4 pm to 5pm ET. (Truth be told, I’ll probably be there long before and long after, as well).

While there’s no official topic, our good friend and reviewer (as well as well-respected industry observer), Sarah Weinman (@SarahW) spurred a possible discussion thread: How can book blogs best help fill the void left by the loss of KIRKUS?

Hopefully, Sarah will be able to join us – and hopefully many of us will be around to chat in a casual and optimistic conversation about the year ahead for books!

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Come Chat with Salon’s Laura Miller

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 [...]

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Making Book Ads Work: A Conversation with Verso Advertising – Part One

As publishers and authors strive to connect with their audiences through more channels than ever, what can the latest trends in book advertising teach us about how readers are engaging with books on the web and beyond? That was just one of the questions that prompted this interview with Verso Advertising’s President, Denise Berthiaume, and V-P, Group Director, Tom Thompson. Over [...]

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How to Elevate Women Writers? A #FollowReader #FemBook Recap

The long-simmering question of how to elevate the status of women writers when it comes to major review coverage and awards drew scores of smart comments and many new faces in a rousing discussion on November 13, 2009, with the #followreader and #fembook hashtags on Twitter. Intially prompted by the sidelining of important books by women from various year-end “best books” [...]

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This Friday, #FollowReader Stands Up for Women Writers

Last Monday’s news that Publishers Weekly had excluded women from its Top Ten Best Books of 2009, and included only 29 women in its list of top 100 books of the year, met with incredulity, groans and outrage. On Twitter, the conversation quickly morphed into the #fembook hashtag, where participants suggested ways to challenge what some called a pervasive bias against women when it comes to major reviews [...]

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Book Reviewing in a Digital World: #FollowReader Recap

How do major book reviewers select books, and how much has social media and other technology changed the way they discover new titles?  Do print galleys, pre-pub reviews and trade shows matter any more, as digital tools expand and print review outlets continue to shrink?  Those were some of the questions we explored with Lev [...]

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Giving Readers What They Want: Susan Danziger

Delivering books to readers in new, more accessible ways is the book industry’s new challenge. Yet few publishing insiders can claim to have pioneered new delivery systems the way Susan Danziger has with DailyLit, which offers subscriptions to regular book installments that can be read in 5 minutes or less via email or RSS.  Fewer still have devoted themselves to introducing [...]

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Kingman and Kindness on Reaching the New Book Consumer (#FollowReader Recap)

OK, it’s now officially #followreader catch up week, with the third of three recaps from our weekly Twitter discussions. This discussion took place July 30, after we posted a dialogue with Random House sales reps and bloggers Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness, and then invited the two of them to join our friends on Twitter in a [...]

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