Swim With People Who Love Books

Earlier this year, I met syndicated newspaper columnist and bestselling author Harvey MacKay who wrote the classic business book, Swim With The Sharks. If you haven't heard the statistics about the book business lately, here's a bit of reality check for you--it's in steady decline. If you want more detail, then I recommend you read and follow the links in Mike Hyatt's entry from July 20th about The Current Bookselling Environment.

If you love and respect books like I do, then be prepared for a bit of a downer. But it doesn't have to be that way. Some books continue to move and people are still purchasing books. You have to figure out how to relate to those particular people. My recommendation with this entry is that you try some of the networking websites that Publishers Weekly recently highlighted.

Before you groan and say I'm pushing you toward something that will completely waste your time. It doesn't have to affect you in this way. For example, a friend told me about Shelfari which is one of the networking sites highlighted in the Publishers Weekly article. In a matter of minutes, I registered, added a short biography (which I have from other places) and a photo. I selected a few of the books that are on my shelf and current reading stack and created my profile.

Is there more to do here? Absolutely. Will I be doing more? I don’t know but at least I have a small presence on this particular networking site. It doesn't have to absorb loads of time and effort. I want to be visible wherever people love books and this resource is something else to think about.