The Digital Book World conference started today in NYC.  I couldn’t go, but I did get to follow along on Twitter.  I know I missed a lot, and I’m waiting for some more detailed write-ups from people who were there, but I think I got a pretty good feel for the conference.

Some highlights from Twitter (Follow along with the Twitter hashtags listed here):

LJNDawson (website) quoting Richard Nash (website) “not selling the book; you’re selling the author.” First of all, if you’re at all interested in reading, writing, or publishing, you’re on Twitter, and you aren’t following these two, you should fix that right now.  And the quote gets right to the heart of what publishing increasingly is becoming.  It used to be that an author had to have a publisher to have any sort of chance of selling a book.  That’s not true anymore.  Publishers are still very valuable, but if they don’t start rethinking the relationship they have with the book and with the author, that’s going to change.  Some of them are going to wake up one day and find that the gap between what they offer and the POD and DIY stuff is so narrow that their services are no longer worth the extra money.

Will Entrekin (website) So while pubs flail to fight pirates, golden opportunity for writers to better reach more passionate readers. Brian Napack, President of MacMillan, gave a controversial presentation on book piracy.  The basic gist was that he plans to fight pirates tooth and nail without ever looking into why people pirate books, and trying to find something they want to buy.  He seems to want to revisit all the mistakes the music industry made.  If the rest of the big publishers feel the same way, there is a huge opportunity for others who take a more pragmatic approach (and perhaps learn from the mistakes of others).

Suzi Steffen (website) Book “piracy” & music “piracy”: Offered free download of song or 2, I’m MUCH more likely to spend $$ on other work/merch/concerts. Using free downloads as advertising or promotion – it amazes me how many people refuse to believe this can ever be beneficial.  Not all downloads are a lost sale, and some lead to multiple sales in the future.  This never gets counted in the “cost of piracy” numbers.

Kelly Leonard (website) “young kids have a disdain for media companies” um no they have a disdain for spending $ Know your market.  Before you start filing lawsuits and asking for new laws against unauthorized downloads, think about whether you’re meeting the needs of your customers.  Before demonizing an entire generation, try to understand where they’re coming from, and think about whether there might be a middle ground where everyone can get what they want.

In general, it sounded really cool.  I am looking forward to tomorrow, and I am determined to make sure it makes business sense to attend the conference next year representing Manfred Macx.  I couldn’t justify the expense this year, but next . . .

How do you publicize a self-published book?  You’re already blogging and Tweeting and taking part in any online scene you can, hoping to attract the attention of people who might like your book.  But this isn’t enough.  You still want to make the jump from online to off, getting people who don’t live online interested, too.  I know I forget sometimes that not everyone spends as much time in front of a computer as I do  No matter how many people read my blog or follow me on Twitter, lots of potential customers still won’t have any idea who I am.

It’s a hard road – marketing may be the hardest part of selling a book to do on your own.  It’s easy to find a professional editor to work with, and there are plenty of print-on-demand publishers.  But marketing, getting your book out where people can see it, is still tough to do outside of traditional publishing.

Last night I had a dream.  In my dream, an author, who had signed up to publish with Manfred Macx, and I were setting up a booth on the Mall in downtown Washington, DC.  We had paper copies of his book, information about Manfred Macx, and some free stuff to give away.

I woke up thinking to myself, “That’s not a bad idea”.  I’d still have to work out some details – I’m not even sure it’s legal to do that on the Mall.  But that’s not the point.

The point is that it could be a great way to get the author’s name out there, and get some nice publicity for Manfred Macx, as well.  So, I need a local DC author in need of a self-publishing platform.  A local works best – because there aren’t travel expenses, and, more importantly, there’s a connection to the city.

I want to make this happen.  Not now, because no one wants to sit outside in a booth all day when the weather stinks.  But this spring, when the tourism season really picks up again, I’m going to be out there with someone, promoting a book on a soapbox.

But we should try. I mean, unless you know something I don’t – I assume he’s a perfectly pleasant guy. But it’s pretty much Dan Brown, then everyone else (See here via here).  Of course we’ll be at least a little annoyed at the guy who’s lapping the field.

And of course, we tell ourselves we don’t think this way, but we really do – we secretly maintain that anyone that popular can’t be any good.  If it appeals that strongly to the unwashed masses, it must be beneath us, the civilized and knowing.

The question comes down to, “Is Dan Brown’s success good or bad for other authors?”  It appears that, as his sales go up, overall sales are going down.  Dan Brown is an ever-increasing piece of a shrinking pie.  When the US economy turns around, maybe the pie will expand a bit again.  But for now, it’s his world.

Maybe I’m an optimist, but I think his success is good for authors.

He’s proving that people will buy (and perhaps more importantly, read) books if you get them excited.  Some may complain that it’s only the very biggest and most popular writers who are getting this kind of marketing and attention, and that the lesser-known authors are being ignored.  This may be true, but I choose to see that as opportunity rather than tragedy.  People are buying books.  If they aren’t buying yours, maybe you aren’t getting them excited enough.  But that means there’s something you can do.

If no one is buying any books, then authors are in trouble.  But if people are buying books, just not yours, then you have opportunity.  You can do a better job of selling your book, of promoting your book.  Maybe you even write a better book.  But you can do something.

I wish Dan Brown the best, though he doesn’t seem to need it.  And I’m excited about the opportunity to get people excited about books not by Dan Brown.

Most people aren’t quite ready to replace good, old-fashioned books with ebooks and readers.  But some of us are.  Anyone who loves books or cares about writing, publishing, or selling books has to be thinking about what the future holds, and how to be successful when it arrives.

That’s what I’d like to talk about here.  The new gadgets that will enable the revolution, the new business models that will finance it, and the innovation that will move it along.