Competitive Reading, Marketing appeal and Intrusive Publicity.

I'd like to apologise for my long absence. In my defence, I've been quite busy, but also I don't like to write useless posts, just for the sake of it! I like to be interested in what I write and at least -hopefully- contribute to the hottest debates.
So, I was attending a few very interesting sales meetings by some of the publishers we represent with the agency. I must admit I'm a sucker for conferences, I love them. I could spend my life taking notes and eating at buffets. But, yes, there's more to it than food and free tea and coffee (weirdly enough)!
What happens at these conferences is that the editors present their products and the ideas behind them. The marketing team will then explain the campaign that will be in place in order to sell, sell, sell. Hopefully. I must say that apart from a couple of big, fat marketing campaigns for big titles, the rest was pretty much confined to 'social media marketing'.
Is social media marketing still the big thing? I don't know if you could simply rely on it, fact is that you need your title to go VIRAL. This means that the more the title is out there - through a transmedia campaign -, and people talk about it, the more that title should be well-known and ultimately sell more.
Anyhow, a publisher, speaking of targeting sales, came out with a name I had read around the net a few times, but never really bothered to check out: KOBO.
You might have heard of it for its readers and apps, and the fact that it allows you to buy ebooks on any given device. But Kobo is so much more than this. For what I understood, it allows readers to check-in their books, earn badges, and keep track of their reading stats — and share all of these activities to their Facebook profiles etc. It's a proper Social Reading Device!
There are many social media communities focused on books out there. For instance I've been registered with Anobii for ages and, even though I'm not really using it anymore, I thought it was a great idea! A way to share your passion for books (physical ones at the beginning!) with other readers. Exchanging reviews and rates, and the thrill that comes with seeing your huge virtual library right in front of you, for the world to see (and for you to brag about!).
I love how it's possible to search the books you have in real life and add them to your virtual shelf. I have a lot of fun writing reviews and rating titles, discovering books I had forgotten and comics I wish I had known already.
So let's see, would you like an app on your reader, or even just an option on your Anobii profile to suggest you what to read next?
Sure, they already tell you, Amazon-style, what other people who have already gone through the book you're reading just now, moved to next - but is that enough? What do you think if they actually tracked you down, compared notes (FB, MSN, four squares, G+) and made their own profile of you and send you personalized suggestions? And what if they sent it to you via email, in your own personal space, when you're a few pages away from the end of your beloved book?
If you're like me you probably have another 50 books lined up for the next read, and you'd be terribly disturbed by the invasion of technology, but I bet a lot of people would actually pay attention to it. Maybe people who are pretty straightforward in their literary choices and preferences.
I'm definitely not that easy to read or to study, my dear tech device. I have trouble finding something I like in a book shop. I'm so bad I get desperate before going on holiday because I don't know which books I should bring with me, and consequently end up with random stuff. An example? My latest holiday in Greece randomly featured a thriller by Rick Mofina, the autobiography of a lesbian-feminist-republican writer, a fantasy tale by Neil Gaiman, and a fictional story of violence and incestuous relationships in London. (I can give you the titles if interested!).
I mean, not very common, straightforward stuff!!
But in a world where everywhere you go and wherever you buy (especially online) things get suggested to you non-stop, would book suggestions make any difference?
I probably wouldn't like it. Reading is some sort of past time for me, something I do to unwind and relax, something I do in the privacy of my bedroom or in a solitary corner, and I don't want any intruders. That's why maybe I wouldn't register to a website that tracks your reading progress. This is not a competition! I can be a terribly slow reader (it depends on the book and on how tired I am), or a tremendously fast one, but I don't need to push my limits in order to impress my peers online or in real life. Because we all know how it works. You start befriending your co-workers, your friends, and then people you don't really know but who are working in the industry and you're following on Twitter.
That's probably why I'll never have a reader. It'll happen, you'll see. You buy and download your ebooks, and they'll send you first chapters of this and that. Sure, you might discover some amazing new books you would otherwise never hear of, but it's more likely something big publishers have paid big money to publicize.
It'll be like fake suggestions in bookshops - well, in chains like Waterstone's and WhSmith - where the publishers pay quite a lot for their books to be in the front shelf, or in the suggested list.
I don't want that. I want to get lost in a book shop and being attracted by a cover, a title, a format.


Am I just an old, grumpy elitist?

How to Read and Handle a Book

Sunday was a relative slow, relaxing day.
I spent most of the morning reading the big tome on my bedside table, Beyond Black, by talented Hilary Mantel. 

Synopsis and review HERE

A quite entertaining book, which I'm reading extremely slowly, savouring every word and page...why, between proofreading and various evening events, I'm always so busy! 
I also took the chance to dive into my new Lonely Planet guide to Greece, since the man and I have decided to spend 12 wonderful days in Santorini, in August. Since I'm definitely not your conventional tourist, I need to know well in advance where and when I want to go once I'm there.
Don't expect me to lay on the beach all day long. I won't. I need to run around, exploring, visiting museums, and tasting local food...and, ahem, wine.


Anyway, all this long introduction to write about something that really fascinates me: how people read and handle books.
Sometimes I think I have a very peculiar way to read and treat my books. I use them, mistreat them, rape them. Whenever I start a book, especially if it's brand new and, you know, rigid, I tend to open it up to the maximum, so much so that the spine creases in a million tiny wrinkles. Hard back, paperback, doesn't matter, I'm going to f*ck it up for good. That's why nobody borrows my books, ever.
I want to be able to spread each and every page. I hate words that disappear near the binding.
So after the first minute into the handling, my book is impossibly ruined. I tend to do the same with second-hand books. I cannot believe the state of some of these volumes! It almost scares me that some people handle their books with gloves, making sure they look like new. Brrr.

Another of my guilty pleasures when it comes to books, is the folding of the upper part of the page to keep track of my reading, or stuff that I'm interested into, like quotes and interesting locations. At the end of each reading session there are so many folded pages that I wouldn't have a clue about what's going on, where I am and why I made that mess. Dog-ears different in size, everywhere in the page. On the side, at the top and at the bottom. Just to make sure I remember what I wanted to. It never works, but I'm proud of actually using my books! They shouldn't be treated like the good tea set you're afraid of breaking and therefore never use.

I found this lovely poem by an unknown author, it's called The Folded Page and it goes like this:

"Up in an old attic,

as the raindrops patter down,

I sat paging through an old schoolbook --

Dusty, tattered, and brown.

"I came to a page that was folded down.

And across it was written in a childish hand:

"The teacher says to leave this for now,

'Tis hard to understand."

I unfolded the page and read.

Then I nodded my head and said,

'The teacher was right; now I understand.'

'There are lots of pages in the book of life

That are hard to understand.

All we can do is fold them down and write:

"There are lots of pages in the book of life

that are hard to understand.

All we can do is fold them down and write:

'The teacher says to leave this for now,

'Tis hard to understand."

"Then someday -- maybe only in heaven --

We will unfold the pages again,

Read them, and say,

"The teacher was right; now I understand.'"

When it comes to the death of a loved one --

Though complicated and less than perfect,

About all we can do is fold down the page and write,

"The teacher says to leave this for now,

'Tis hard to understand."

This could easily open a debate about digital products and their likeness to take over the publishing world. I won't go on and say that digital is the devil and we should all call an exorcist and stick to the holy printed page, especially because I'm a gadget freak. But there are some things that a digital product doesn't allow you to do. You can't fold a kindle, you can spread it wide open and smell it - although some people came out with this hilarious scents for your Kindle!
You can't stain its pages with the food you're eating, and when you go back remember how good that chocolate cake went with that specific chapter! 
I think that books still are the best and most enhanced publishing products, just because the reader fills them up with their memories, scents, stains, references. There's nothing more personal than that! 


Finally, I'm going to reveal my worst habit, ever. I tend to abandon books, indiscriminately, at 5 pages or so from the end. Usually the plot ends in the final chapter, and more likely in the first few pages of it. I have no interest for epilogues. The same thing applies to films I'm watching and songs I'm listening. I think that at that point I know what I need to know in order to find closure, and I also suspect that most authors are so tired of working on their book that they just write down whatever they feel like without revising it. I know I would. And I also noticed that very often the ending is disappointing and nowhere near the interesting style experienced throughout the book. 


But that's just me. I'm crazy.