Poland and Promotion

There’s promotion and then there’s PROMOTION …

I just got back yesterday from a promo trip to Europe.

Poland was an amazing experience.

My publisher there is a small one (Philip Wilson), but not only did the publisher’s promo people do the best job I have ever experienced, but also the owners, editors and their friends and spouses all went to bat for me personally, calling every friend and acquaintance they had at television, radio and print outlets, at book stores (The largest being Empik) and government.

It was apparent to me that everyone _believed_ in my books … not just believed in a marketing sense, but at a very gut level, in their hearts.

I’m truly amazed and honored. No publisher can do that for every book, but when you experience something like this it is a lifetime memory.

There are some photos below:

• Press Conference and book signing
• Receiving an award

Book sales get a lift from Google scan plan -- but some pubs still clueless

"FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Publishers are starting to report an uptick in sales from Google Inc.'s online program that lets readers peek inside books, two years after the launch of its controversial plan to digitally scan everything in print.

"Google has been enlisting publishers to voluntarily submit their books so that Web searchers can more easily find titles related to their interests, but some fear the project could lead to piracy or exploitation of their copyrighted content.

"Google Book Search has helped us turn searchers into consumers," said Colleen Scollans, the director of online sales for Oxford University Press. She declined to provide specific figures, but said that sales growth has been "significant." Scollans estimated that 1 million customers have viewed 12,000 Oxford titles using the Google program.

The rest of the story is here.

Most telling, however, are those clueless publishers who are spending heavily to buoild their own online repositories. Can you say, "doomed?" SUUUURE you can!

People are NOT going to stumble around a collection of individual publisher sites. This is yet more money down the drain ... publishers and technology don't play well together.