Marketing to Libraries by Bob Schatz Marketing to libraries can be a challenge for independent publishers. For starters, many make the mistake of believing there is a single library market. That is not the case. Public libraries evaluate books differently than academic libraries. Furthermore, large public libraries behave differently than small public …

      PRESIDENT’S REPORT by Carlene Sippola We’re Stronger Together: Carrying Out the Mission of IBPA Many of you know the phrase prominently placed on IBPA’s home page: “Helping each other to achieve and succeed!” As IBPA’s newest president, I want you to know that I firmly believe this is our association’s primary mission. …

      Four Secrets to Publishing a Movie Tie-in Paperback by Rudy Shur There it was. It had just been sent to us over the Internet. The first cut of a movie trailer for director Ang Lee’s next motion picture—a movie based on our book, Taking Woodstock by Elliot Tiber with Tom Monte, which …

DIRECTOR’S DESK by Terry Nathan EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Two Views of Where We’re Going and How to Get There At Publishing University this year, we had the good fortune to hear about “The Future of Publishing” from two successful independent publishers, Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks and Rudy Shur of Square One Publishers. For those of you …

Would you like a marketing brochure on steroids? Try a tips booklet. Tips booklets can be derived from full-length book manuscripts to whet readers’ appetites and guide their hunger toward your book. Each booklet presents 3,000 to 5,000 words as a sample of your book content, written as action-oriented suggestions. And people pay for the …

      Royalty Software: Picks and Pans by Linda Carlson “Seriously ugly,” “cumbersome,” and “error-prone” are words some IBPA members use to describe their systems for tracking and calculating author and illustrator royalties. “We’ve outgrown our spreadsheet method” and “Would love something that brings us into the computer age!” are among the comments from …

      IBPA ROUNDTABLE Sales Synergy: What IBPA Members Sell Besides Books, Part 3 “We love our product and service combination.” That’s one conclusion you’ll find as you read the IBPA members’ reports that follow. Although the pitch of enthusiasm isn’t always this high, publishers who responded to our “What do you sell besides …

      What I’ve Figured Out About Facebook by Maggie Anton Six months ago, when the words social networking were not yet part of my vocabulary, I was vaguely aware of Web sites like Facebook, but I considered them the province of teenagers and college students. That my daughter played Scrabble and cared for …

      Create Productive Production Schedules by Jessica Tribble For many, a production schedule seems like a frustrating list of minutiae. But although they may seem low-tech, production schedules help us be better publishers—publishers who provide a better product, communicate more effectively with their authors, and provide sturdy support for the authors in terms …

If you’re living on Planet Earth and publishing books, you probably have finite amounts of time, energy and money to devote to Help with Social Media If you’re publishing books here on Planet Earth, you probably don’t have infinite amounts of time for promoting them. How, then, should you respond to the clamor about social networking? …

DIRECTOR’S DESK by Terry Nathan EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Wisdom from a Wonderful Trio At the end of this month, Florrie Binford Kichler will step down from the IBPA board after serving for seven years—four as a director and three as your president. Simultaneously, Steve Carlson and Frank Gromling will leave the board after having served productively …

      PRESIDENT’S REPORT by Florrie Binford Kichler Of Penguins, Publishers, and Change After 35 months of doing my best to be relevant, reasonably entertaining, and somewhat educational in these columns, it’s time for the big finish—the final column that will sum up the sometimes chaotic, always rewarding, and constantly challenging experience of leading …

      SKILL SETS: COPYWRITING Bullet Points: Give Your Book Some Beach Muscle by Susan Kendrick Welcome back to the copywriting gym. Like “Copywriting Fitness: Testimonials” (March) and “Positioning Statements: Build Your Core Strength” (May), this article is designed to help you give your book the high-visibility, buy-me-now advantage. Bullet points are beach muscle …

      Leading Today and Tomorrow: Ten New Skills for an Uncertain World by Bob Johansen I study the future to learn about leadership in the present. One of my jobs as a forecaster is to help leaders—including leaders of publishing companies—learn to lead aggressively even if they feel uneasy. Given the fact that …

      IBPA ROUNDTABLE Mixing It Up: What IBPA Members Sell Besides Books, Part 2 Like the publishers whose reports appeared in “Meeting Readers’ Needs: What IBPA Members Sell Besides Books” (May), most of those represented this month profit by offering services and nonbook products along with their books. As you’ll see, a few …

      DESIGN DEPARTMENT The New Look: Honoring the Past, Embracing the Future by John R. Webster If you hadn’t already noticed the new look and feel of branding designs developed recently for IBPA, you probably did notice them on the cover of this issue, and you can see them reflected in the interior …

      My New Book Networks by Martin Shepard For the first time in 13 years, I was reluctant to go on vacation this spring because the work at Permanent Press has been so exciting. I fear I am becoming a bookaholic. This excitement is fed by many streams. Creating a Collective Early this …

DIRECTOR’S DESK by Terry Nathan EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Communication That Matters Most A friend of mine died a couple of weeks ago. He was only 46. Doug was the friendliest person I have ever known. I met him in ninth grade, and that summer I was tucked into the back of his family’s station wagon on …

      Diagnosis—Big Trouble: The Case for a Reader Creation and Development Board by David P. Leach Imagine that the world’s auto manufacturers learned that significantly fewer American teenagers were taking driver’s exams, putting the number of drivers on the road in rapid decline and jeopardizing the future of car sales. How would the …

      PRESIDENT’S REPORT by Florrie Binford Kichler Highlights from the IBPA Boardroom Your volunteer board of directors traveled to Manchester, NH, in November for the quarterly IBPA board meeting, which included presenting a day of publishing education in partnership with the Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE). Three months later, the third and …