From Every Source

I don’t know about you but when I read a magazine or an Internet publication, I not only read the articles. I also read the advertising.  A recent issue of Publisher’s Lunch (free if you don’t get it subscribe) included an ad which read:

Children's Publishing Market Forecast 2007

New from Simba Information ­ the insider's guide to the business of children's trade publishing.

* Objective analysis of market forces shaping sales trends through 2009
* Comprehensive profiles of 10 market leaders - frontlist/backlist sales breakdown, bestseller history,
growth projections, and Simba's assessment of market power
* Exhaustive title output trends and analysis drawn from Bowker's Books In Print
* 5-year analysis of New York Times Children's Bestseller List
* Over 50 charts, graphs and figures
* And much more

If you don’t know, Simba is a Bowker Company (the people who produce Books In Print and keep track of a lot of publishing information). I followed the link from this ad which promoted a publication with a $1,995 price tag (electronic or print).  Below the price, I noticed the link to view the executive summary. You can see this executive summary—but only if you fill out your contact information. I did it—just to see what I would Bowker was doing to “lure” readers to purchase the forecast guide. If you fill it out, you will receive a three-page summary. From my view the summary holds little unique information.  You would have to be ignoring the children’s market not to understand the dominance of Harry Potter in this area. While I don’t follow the children’s market as much as I have in the past, I was interested to see this summary.

Yesterday, it happened—the inevitable sales call from Simba Information to see if I had received and read this executive summary. Also the call was to ask the next question: would I like to purchase the Market Forecast 2007. It gave me a chance to tell the sales guy that I had read the summary—and looked at the table of contents and their methodology—and I questioned the value. It was a short call.

Because I looked at this ad, I learned about the free webinars from Bowker. Depending on what you are writing, it might be another resource for you. As for me, I want to learn from each source so I’m constantly looking for new information and insight.

Today (November 1st) is National Author Day and National Family Literary Day. I began my day early with a radio interview (more about this later with the link) but what are you doing to celebrate? Here’s some ideas: 1) take some proactive steps to become an author. Learn about the publishing world and book proposals. 2) make some plans to attend a writer’s conference in the near future to begin some relationships with various editors and literary agents. 3) Take a few minutes to support your author friends—even if you haven’t become one yet. Write a few words of review into a book page on Amazon.com or tell some friends about a book which has touched your life in a meaningful way.

Each of us can make a difference—but only if you actively take some steps.