The first Empire State Book Festival was a success. People talked about panic and excitement over the changing environment in publishing. Interesting design and illustration examples were shown. Writers talked about their work process and experiences in the industry. New technology was discussed. Many authors (approx. 150!) were available for meet-and-greet and book signing. Blackwood & Brouwer Booksellers filled a room with books available for purchase. Sixteen booths held various exhibitors. Michael Albert, the collage artist, was available all day showing his work and giving Cereal Box Collage Workshops. I learned much and the festival is free so consider attending next year.
Albany turned out to be so much more interesting than I expected. One of the buildings in the Plaza and Convention Center complex is called The Egg and you have to see it to believe it. Click here to get a glimpse and find out more about it.
Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, gave the keynote to a standing-room-only audience. He showed images of his childhood attempts at story writing and illustrating. His talent and humor were evident early. He quoted Roger Scruton, “The consolation of imaginary things is not imaginary consolation.”
Choosing between the 45 excellent options in the program guide was difficult. Here is a summary of the sessions I attended:
Judging a Book by Its Cover, moderated by Jessica Loy. Speakers Christopher Brand, Julie Metz, and Ben Wiseman. The designers showed strong visual and conceptual examples. Click on their names to see examples of their work.
High Stakes – Writing for Adolescent Readers I moderated this session. The three engaging and enthusiastic authors Eric Luper, Peter Marino, and Coleen Murtagh Paratore worked so well together and didn’t need me to do much more than introduce them and keep them on time. Coleen suggested we tap into emotional truth. She told how she was working on picture books when her editor at Simon and Schuster told her she had a 12-year-old voice. Her editor wanted her to write for an older audience and simply gave her the title The Wedding Planner’s Daughter. Coleen didn’t know what she was going to write but on her way home she asked herself, “What does the protagonist want?” She tapped into herself at 12-years-old and in a flash of emotion pulled off the road and wrote, filling sheets of paper. Eric writes what he wishes someone would have put in his hands at that age. He talked about teens being wired differently – they take risks. They are in a transition time. Peter writes books that have an element of hope. He suggests we write the book that needs to be written. Someone in the audience suggested inkpop.com for browsing teen authored works in order to survey the interests and voice of contemporary teens. The question of agents came up and Coleen said that her editor told her she needed an agent after her third book. Eric had used a contract lawyer previously but when he had a new contract in hand he called the agent that he wanted to work with.
Worth a Thousand Words? was moderated by Matt McElligott. The illustrators/authors on the panel were Michael Garland, Jeff Mack, Daniel J. Mahoney, Steven James Petruccio, Dave Ross, and Iza Trapani. They talked about their working process and changes in technology. Click here to see a video (from a sales meeting at Penguin) that Matt McElligott showed clips from. It may shake-up your idea about e-readers. Matt said that it blurred the line between what is a book and what is a video game. Matt talked about how working with the Cintiq changed everything for him. He also mentioned SketchUp, free software you can download from Google. He mentioned that Aristotle was the first to talk about the camera obscura, talked about the speculation that Vermeer used it, showed examples of Norman Rockwell’s use of photo reference, and talked about the use of Photoshop. It was agreed that the use of embedded color in Photoshop has made things easier for illustrators. Social media was discussed, including a site I had not been familiar with: Jacket Flap. Michael Garland mentioned that he had developed an iPhone app picture book called Icarus Swinebuckle. Petruccio mentioned that his son will read on a Kindle but not a regular book.
Debbie Allen of Black Dome Press moderated the session titled, Insider’s Guide to Getting Published – Meet the Publishers! Bruce McPherson of McPherson & Co. and James Peltz, Associate Director of SUNY Press, discussed “submissions, agents, editing, design, production & marketing.”
Children’s & YA Books of History – Fact and Fiction Joseph Bruchac started out the session with his hauntingly beautiful Native American flute music. He and Julie Cummins, Zetta Elliot, Lyn Miller-Lachmann, and Ryan Smithson, discussed their writing and read excerpts from their books. Tears flowed when Ryan read from his Ghosts of War. It was powerful.
Don Linn moderated The Future of the Book. Andrew Albanese, Ron Hogan, and Guy LeCharles Gonzales were the listed panel members. Guy mentioned that his job title is Chief Executive Optimist for Digital Book World. He is also a slam poet performer. Jennifer Gilmore also joined them. I filled two full pages of notes, scribbled so tiny I can hardly read them now. Below are some of my jottings of what was said.
Don talked about the shift from independent booksellers to the big chains to Amazon. In the shift from print to digital, he mentioned that there are 23 dedicated e-reader devices and everybody is excited about the iPad. So, they asked, “What’s a reader to do?” Guy said there’s lots to read, it is just a question of format. Your pile to read is getting bigger and bigger and the vehicles to read on are growing. The romance genre has completely embraced the e-format. The publisher’s problem has become: how do we get YOU the book in the format YOU want when YOU want it?
Ron mentioned that publishers used to have their main relationship with booksellers. It was the bookseller’s job to get the books to the readers. Now the challenge is to go directly to consumers. The challenge is to create brand identity. Will prestige still be gained from being published by certain publishers? Will it matter to reviewers how a work was published? Publishers/authors will need to understand search engine optimization. They will need to go to the places where people are online.
Jennifer was head of publicity for Harcourt. She now teaches at The New School. She said there is a misconception that it is harder to sell books now. Publishers are scrambling to fill lists. Editors have been laid off but there are a ton more agents, she said. Authors benefit. Many books are coming out first in paperback. Paperback originals are now OK to review. Books have more of a chance in the world. Publishers are using authors more for publicity. It is a DIY world now. But, you can’t just tweet, “My book is out tomorrow.” It needs to be authentic. Authors need to be on Facebook. But, you have to be careful since we all see people that we shut down on since they simply throw out marketing pitches. You create goodwill when it is genuine. In the old way you had galleys sent out and then you sat and waited for reviews and there might be a story in your hometown paper. Now you have to generate content for blogs. There is now one person at a paper doing the work of ten. Authors can make their own book trailers. With so much noise out there, you need to be authentic and genuine. Authors need to take more responsibility than they have in the past.
Don questioned the role of the publisher. More self-publishing is being done. Authors are asking, “Why don’t I just disintermediate that?” Amazon helps. Big names like Stephen King –do they really need a publisher? Especially considering print-on-demand. Ron said there has been a lot of panic. Is publishing dead? Reading is not dead. Publishing is not dead.
Guy mentioned the music industry – CD sales still make up 69% of sales. What broke music was the ability to buy one single. People are not going to buy just one chapter. One problem is that people are not getting as much money for e-rights. Jennifer mentioned that digital books are selling for $9.99. Contracts will be changed. Royalty rates are lower. Ron said the tipping point will come when e-readers are very affordable. Tower Records is gone, Virgin is gone. Where do we discover good music? The books that will succeed are the ones that are easiest to discover. Independent booksellers need to get involved. If we are to sustain an ecology we need one diverse ecosystem to discover and buy digital books. Don added, “…and get to librarians.”
Ron suggested that authors build themselves into a resource, to become a place people go to for info. He mentioned Richard Nash and his start-up called Cursor.
Someone mentioned Akashic Books. Jennifer said that small presses are able to do more because of digital publishing. Graywolf Press was mentioned and also Milkweed Editions.
DRM Digital Rights Management was brought up along with the issue of an industry standard. IDPF International Digital Publishing Forum is working on developing a standard for the industry.
At the end of the session, Don said the take-away was: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
B the Adventuress 