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Posts from March 9, 2010
Social Media, Garden Writing and Rotten Tomatoes
Posted by Jean Ann Van Krevelen
This past week, I was fortunate to spend time with a variety of garden writers and hort industry folks. I met a lot of amazing people, was inspired by incredible garden designs and answered lots of gardening-related questions. While on this trip, I was scheduled to speak with a group of garden authors about social media and its relationship to garden writing. And while it is always an honor to be asked to speak with my peers, I also know that the following will undoubtedly occur:
“Hello, my name is Jean Ann.”
“Yes, I know, you are speaking about social media today.”
“Exactly!”
“Well, you can’t use it to make money. It’s a waste of time.”
“Actually, you can…but you have to think of it as a marketing channel…”
And so on…believe me, this is mild. It can get a lot more contentious…like “I don’t care what you say, I will never do it!”
So here’s the deal…I am absolutely fine if, as a garden writer, you never choose to use social media…really, I am. I understand that not everyone will want to make this shift. But what I don’t understand, is why we this subject has to be so divisive. If I can be successful in this way, and you can be successful in your way, then I say good for both of us!
Do you have to learn to use social media as a garden writer? Of course not! Please, feel free to refuse! As my grandmother used to say, “if you aren’t eating your veggies, it just leaves more for me”.
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My Secret E-Book Love
Posted by Billie Brownell
A few years ago, I tested a Kindle for the publishing company I was working for at that time. We were planning to convert titles to the Kindle (and to other e-book formats), and I wanted to see it in action. I was fully prepared to dislike it to my very core (and, truthfully, I was setting it up for failure in my mind). I adore paper, I love the smell of books, I like opening books for the first time (or second or third, for good books), and I gravitate to bookstores everywhere I go. But, guess what happened?
I.Loved.It.
I loved it so much I just kept quiet and played with it until the next person to test it (we only had one; they had just come out) came looking for it. I didn’t think I would even like the Kindle, much less want one. The tactile sense that I thought I would be missing was there (albeit a little rubbery from the case), the ease of use was amazing, the speed of download was incredible, that Star Trek-like thing it has going on was really fun–it was a blast!
So, you may ask, why haven’t I bought one? I don’t know. It’s partly the monopoly that Amazon has set up with the Kindle, it’s partly the sense of being manipulated with price & delivery, it’s partly because I am cheap (I’m waiting for it to go under $100). But do I like the process–you bet I do!
I have this sense that one day soon I’ll just bite the bullet and buy an e-reader (of some kind) and the iPhone. Technology will change publishing, but I say, “Bring it on!” Because for me, anything that encourages people to read at all, if not more, is a good thing for publishing.
Posts from March 8, 2010
Do You Need a Web Site or A Blog?
Posted by Jim Bashour
One of the questions I’m most often asked as a Web site developer is, “Should I get a Web site or a blog?” My answer is, “A blog is a Web site.”
Blogs became popular in the late 1990s as a way to give “the common man” a voice in the world. It also gave people an easy way to build a Web site, or more accurately, an online journal. Blogs are just an Internet-based Web site building application with a built-in content management system. Put more simply — it’s an easy way to build a Web site and upload all of your stuff.
The real question you should ask is, “Should I build a custom Web site or use a blog application to build my Web site.” For most garden writers today the answer is, “blog.”
It used to be that using a blog meant you had to give up features that custom Web designers could provide. That’s not true anymore. Today, you can customize your design, add tons of ready-made plug-ins, and use your own domain to send people to your site.
TypePad is my current favorite recommendation for garden writers. A year ago, I hated it. But since then there have been great improvements. It’s easy to use and requires no programming. TypePad does come with a monthly fee but, even with open-source (free) WordPress, you will have a hosting fee. (Blogger is Google’s free version.)
Whatever platform you decide to use, the key is to get started. You have a voice and something to say. So, get talking.
Posts from March 5, 2010
Change is coming to Garden Publishing
Posted by Roger Waynick
The garden publishing business has changed dramatically over the last few years, but the next few months may bring more change than the last few years combined! The flight to digital has claimed several of our best publishers who have either gone out of business, sold to larger houses, or simply shuttered their garden publishing programs. This decrease in publishing alternatives for garden writers is a problem when they are shopping a new manuscript. Less competition usually means less compensation, a reality that garden writers are going to have to overcome by finding alternative sources of income.
I believe that you will see many, many new gardening applications published in the next few months. We at Cool Springs Press plan on publishing a minimum of 5 I Phone applications in the next two quarters and we have release dates set for over 20 different applications in 2011. These applications will not only run on the I Phone but on the the I Pad, Blackberry and Droid as well. While all of us at Cool Springs Press love books, we realize that to stay competitive, we simply must change with the times and embrace technology.
By, the end of spring, every Cool Springs Press title will have been converted into a digital format that will allow us to sell books in E Format. While I do not personally like reading books in an E Format, there is a growing group of consumers that certainly do, and we have to serve this market and represent our authors in this market. Again, this is a fairly complicated market and we have to have each book available in multiple formats to serve different E Retailers, but we will have accomplished this in the very near future.
Where are you in this change? Are you looking at your library of content and considering how you can position that content for the future? Should you combine 40 newspaper articles together to create an EBook? Or does it make sense to take a book that is long out of print and re-release it in print on demand format? Whatever the case, we all need to be looking at the content we have and carefully consider how we can manipulate it to serve the needs of the garden consumer. If you have ideas or need help, please contact me or anyone at Cool Springs Press and we will be glad to talk to you about it!
Posts from March 4, 2010
The Tablet & the Need to Create
Posted by Roger Waynick
I am becoming more and more convinced that the emergence of tablet devices like the new Apple IPad will serve to rejuvenate a struggling publishing industry. People still read and in fact, they are reading much more than they did in 1970. Paid subscriptions to magazines, according to the Magazine Publishers Association has risen from 174.5 million to 324.8 million in 2008! But consumers are spending less and less time with those magazines than they did in 1970 and that worries the publishers because their advertisers know it too. The time that we were spending with Time, Southern Living or Vogue is now being spent online at Facebook, on Twitter, or looking up the answer to a particular problem by simply clicking over to Google.
The emergence of the tablet will provide a wonderful convergence of the magazine, newspaper, and books. With the full screen color, web access, and enhanced with video, the tablet will provide the perfect place for long form reading, short from information seekers and the ability for community access if the consumer wants it.
For book publishers, this new portal to consumers is a bright light in a sky that has been dark for some time, but we will have to move quickly to prepare our content for this application and we will need to bring our authors along with us. If we are going to succeed, our content must be edited to appeal to those that are simply looking for answers and those that want to read entire books. But just as importantly, we will have to continue to create content at an even higher rate than we are creating it now, and that is great news for writers and garden communicators. Come on, lets hop on this ship quickly!
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