The Webworker
a blog for the committed and casual webworkers among us
Building Reader Communities: A Q&A with Follow the Reader
Recently I sat down to do an e-interview with Charlotte Abbott—of Follow the Reader fame—about how authors and book publishers can build communities of readers online—and why it works. It was a blast to do, and thanks to Charlotte’s clout and well-earned reputation in the industry, the interview was picked up by the Shelf Awareness daily newsletter as a top article. Charlotte has posted part one of the article on Follow the Reader. Part Two is waiting in the wings with a nervous belly and unbearable stage fright. Let’s start...
read moreBoost Your Site's Productivity with 3 Easy Updates
I realized the other day that I’ve now spent over ten years working with small business web sites. Has the internet even been around 10 years?! Was it really 13 years ago that I was ducking class and hiding in the school’s computer lab so I could “email” the fellow geek sitting at the computer next to me? (Apparently yes, it has been over ten years.) Over the last decade, I’ve built, rebuilt, optimized, launched, tracked, and torn down some pretty great (and pretty bad) sites. And I’ve learned a thing or two...
read moreThe Slow Marketing Movement: A Social Media Presentation
Last week, Kat Meyer and I had the privilege and opportunity to lead a workshop at O’Reilly Media’s Tools of Change Conference in Times Square. Kat titled it wonderfully: The Slow Marketing Movement: A Social Media Workshop for the Bookish. The benefits for book publishers and other companies that participate in the world of social media are well known at this point: community, word-of-mouth promotion, instant market research, etc. So we didn’t want to simply rehash the tired “Pie in the Sky” hullabaloo about...
read moreFollow the Reader: A Twitter Interview
For all the time I’ve spent on Twitter, I had never done a Twitter interview until Friday when I participated in Charlotte Abbott’s & Kat Meyer‘s Follow the Reader weekly #followreader chat. Every week these two book mavens ask other industry folks to sign on to Twitter and drink from a fire hose of 140-character questions. It was a thrilling experience and, despite the furious pace, amazingly info-rich. Here’s my quick summary breakdown. The pace: furious. The line of questioning: non-linear. The character limit:...
read moreCory Doctorow and the Corporate Destruction of Books
A tall, well-armed Scotsman once told me that people with Scottish blood in their veins only feel two emotions, “Weepin’ and Anger.” I see evidence of this all throughout my family. I am part of a hot-blooded and emotional tribe, and therefore I am prone to hyperbole—both dishing it out (OMG! These pizza Hot Pockets are the best thing ever!) and being taken in by it (Plaid pajamas are the cruelest injustice of our time! AAARGH!). My reaction to such statements is usually to grab my broadsword, paint my face, and charge off...
read moreApple's iSlate: The Kindle Killer
When it comes to the launch of new and exciting techno-gadgets, I—and perhaps, we all—have been spoiled by Apple. Yes, they’ve gotten it wrong on occasion, but so often, they get it so right. They’ve repeatedly raised the bar, and our expectations. Perhaps that’s why, when I first saw the unauthorized, leaked images of Amazon’s first Kindle on the web all those years ago, I thought surely they were the creation of an internet ne’er-do-well. I laughed, because I thought I got the joke. “Yeah!” I...
read moreThe Official Pronunciation of "Scribd"
Scribd provides an awesome service for sharing and displaying documents. They’ve been hailed as the “YouTube of Documents.” And, for the sake of the good folks who run Scribd, I hope that’s right. I often speak with folks in the publishing industry about Scribd, and the conversation usually begin something like this: “Have you heard of ‘Scriiiibed‘ or ‘Scrib-dee‘ or however they pronounce that…?” I tell them that yes, I had and that I had not a clue how to pronounce it either....
read moreTen Tweetable Twitter Tips for Book Publishers
Book Business Magazine recently asked me if I would provide them with a few Twitter tips for book publishers. I was flattered, of course, and happily obliged. I put together the first five tips in the following list for them—which they’ve published here along with other great tips from other Twitter mavens. But I realized after sending off the list, that I had a few more I wish I had included. So I’ve put together this new list of Twitter tips for book publishers, made each tip tweetable, and posted here for all the (publishing)...
read moreJeff Rutherford's Book Marketing Podcast: The Value in Social Media
Jeff Rutherford, from the popular Reading And Writing Podcast, has launched a new podcast series dedicated to book marketing. He was kind enough to invite me to speak with him in his second show. We spoke about the current and future role of social media in book marketing, some specific examples of strategies that work, and some places where there’s room for growth. Here’s an excerpt: JR: In what you’re seeing—not only with what you’ve been doing personally—but also with what other publishers have been doing with...
read moreThree Reasons Book Publishers are Perfect for Social Media
Yes. I admit that I may be biased. My life-long interest in book publishing, my background in the industry, and my general love for books, may make me an unsuitable person to declare a particular industry most-suited to participate in the world of social media. I’ll make my quick points and leave it up to you to determine whether or not I’m out of my gourd. And so I humbly present the following list: Jesse (WHIZZ BANG) McDougall’s Three ¡Wicked! Reasons Why ***Book Publishers*** are the Most-Perfectly-Suited Businesses to...
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