Author Archives: Derek S

BEA Blogger’s Conference

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I’m excited to be moderating a panel at this year’s Book Expo America (BEA) Blogger’s conference which takes place right before the BEA proper. This day-long conference used to be called the book-blogger convention but this year has been folded into the BEA–where it will continue to live on into the future.

The afternoon panel is focused on Demystifying the Book Blogger & Publisher Relationship, and I expect it will feature great perspectives from both sides of the evolving relationship. To some extent, I sit on both sides of the fence–I’ve been writing this blog for a few months and I’ve been in publishing for at least a few years… So I have some idea of the challenges involved across the board as well as serious respect for bloggers who frequently post well-written pieces (whatever the subject)–and then do a great job of promoting their blog through social media, events, and networks.

From a wider perspective, it’s great to see bloggers become part of the publishing ecosystem. Many book bloggers are dedicated readers, insightful critics, and incisive writers–and passionate about books and authors. Those that can reach and influence their readers are important in getting the word out to their communities, and publishers should treat them like professionals (as many do–creating dedicated programs to engage with book bloggers through book tours, guest blogs, author access, and review copies).

Recently, I’ve seen publishers hosting blogs on their own websites with invited guest bloggers, community experts, and influencers. It’s a nice way to recognize important external stakeholders, drive traffic to both publisher and blogger, and provide great content to a community.

There are many other great ways to create mutual benefits for both publisher and blogger while helping more people know about the books and authors we treasure. I hope our panel will help make the relationship between bloggers and publishers easier and even more productive.

See you at NYC’s Javits Center in June…

 

More about bees

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One of my regular readers recently told me that she wishes I would write more about bees. Since I’m nothing if not customer focused (!), I’m happy to do it:

Here in NJ, the spring came early, and the bees have been as busy as, well… bees. If you’ve never been watched a hive in the spring, you might not know what this means: bees coming and going constantly at the entrance of the hive; the queen laying eggs; workers building comb and feeding new bees. When bees are busy, it’s also a great time for the beekeeper—they’re so intent on going about their business, they seem to notice only a little of the beekeeper’s intrusion in the hive. And I always enjoy seeing things go well—the ecosystem thriving.

In fact, like many beekeepers this year, I have a problem with this productivity: the bees are too crowded. And when conditions are crowded in the hive, the bees start to prepare for swarming—reproduction on a colony level. This is a good thing for the bees, but not so great in a suburban neighborhood where you’d prefer to keep the girls at home.

This means I’ve been as busy as a bee myself—adding empty frames to the brood nest, shifting around other frames to make conditions feel more roomy. But in the end, I had to split the biggest hive on Tuesday–now I have three hives. (Oddly enough, on April 24 last year, I went from one hive to two.)

You’d think that would be the end of it. And, in fact, maybe I’ve averted the swarm. But now I’ve got to worry that the new split succeeds and that the old hive effectively raises a new queen–that these new ecosystems continue to thrive. But the bees don’t care. While the flowers bloom and the nectar flows, they stay busy.

In a couple of months: honey.

 

Something about Spring. Is it daffodils?

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Yesterday I was walking back from the train, passing through our local park. Along the path, in clumps here and there, daffodils bloomed. Some were planted under trees, others along a fence or down by the pond. It was a cold day but felt like Spring. Perhaps because I lived in England, daffodils are the flower that really mean springtime to me. For the literary among you, Wordsworth’s poem about Daffodils captures the feeling. I’m lucky that it’s the case in New Jersey too.

But the different thing about these particular daffodils blooming in the park, is that I planted them with my kids. Early on Autumn mornings, we went out and secretly cut back flaps of turf, hid the bulbs underneath, and folded back the grass to leave little trace of what we’d done. This guerrilla gardening especially appealed to my oldest who cooked up the idea that the gardening police would come for us if we got caught. My youngest, on the other hand, stopped every dog walker that went by–saying, “This is my dad. Can I pet your dog? We’re planting flowers. What’s your name?”

In the couple of years that we’ve been doing this, only one person has stopped and asked what we’re doing. And when we explained, she asked, “Can you do that?”

“Sure,” I said, shovel and bucket in hand.

“Maybe I will too, then,” she said, walking away.

So, now I don’t really know if I planted the daffodils I see or if someone else did, but I do know they make the walk to and from the train that much nicer–which was part of the point anyhow.

I guess I could make some connection here to business and life in general, but I’ll let you do that if you like. Enjoy Spring.

Monthly reports: why yours matter

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Monthly reports seem like a boring subject, right? Any of us who have had to write them have wondered if anyone else ever reads them with the same effort they take in writing. But here’s the thing, you can make your reports so interesting and valuable that you’ll look forward to writing them.

Here’s how: write them for yourself. Capture the stories of your accomplishments. Keep a running library of what you did, how you fought to make it happen, and how it turned out. Get the details, the numbers, and the skills you used, and keep it short. Then mail it to the person who should care the most–no, not your boss, but your home email address.

I wish I’d done this more regularly over the past few years. I’m in the midst of finding a new job and having a library of accomplishments at my fingertips would have saved me a lot of time in poring through monthly reports and annual reviews in order to pull together the stories and the backup.

Busy people are often so focused on what they need to achieve today or this week for their job, that they forget that part of their responsibilities to themselves is to keep themselves marketable. One way to do this is to keep track of achievements.

So, sure, do what you need to do for your boss. But write a report for yourself first!