Posts Tagged arts
Selling to Indies ONLY
I often get emails like this from authors who want to reach our community of indie booksellers and have made the decision to only sell to indies and that should get an assist, so here it is: Here is a copy of the email I recieved and following is the press release.
from: George Spitzer, Nebbadoon Press
Storytelling at its best, hilarious and serious at the same time.
Nebbadoon Press, as policy, does not sell to Borders, BN, or Costco! Only to independent bookstores…Order direct from www.CelloStories.com or fax consignment form to 805-456-0167
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: P.O. Box 91244, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
800-500-9086 (phone); 805-456-0167 (fax)
George@NebbadoonPress.com; www.CelloStories.com
The Day I Almost Destroyed the Boston Symphony
by John Sant’Ambrogio
Memoir takes readers behind the scenes to reveal the sublime enjoyment and occasional disasters experienced while performing upwards of 10,000 concerts always thought of this noble and sublime occupation as being devoid of humor. After all, classical music is often called serious music. I should have known better.”
Cellist John Sant’Ambrogio’s career spans more than 50 years and (still counting) 10,121 concerts. He has just released The Day I Almost Destroyed the Boston Symphony and Other Stories, a memoir containing nearly 70 stories reflecting his myriad experiences as a former member of the Boston Symphony and Principal Cellist with the Casals Festival Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Ranging from the dramatic to the poignant, the utterly hilarious to the very serious, chapters include “My Musical Crime,” “On Teaching Your Own Children: Don’t! Well, Maybe,” “Is This Your Real Job?,” “Those Newcomers,” “Concertmasters I Have Known,” “Who’s the Best?,” and many more.
Replete throughout the book is the self-awareness and humor indicative of a man who knows himself well and forgives himself too. As Sant’Ambrogio notes, “Just before I left the BSO, a friend said, “John, we will have to hire two cellists to replace you: one to play for you, and one to talk for you.”
The Day I Almost Destroyed the Boston Symphony and Other is available at www.CelloStories.com and at select independent bookstores.
# # #
For more information or to contact the author for media commentary or interviews, email George@NebbadoonPress.com or visit www.CelloStories.com.
Say NO to Big Brother! But how about little brother? 5 Tracking Tools
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on March 10, 2010
Why We Love Shopping, Why We Buy, To Buy or Not to Buy, Addicted to Shopping, The Lucky Shopping Manual, Born to Spend, Shopping for Time, Not Buying It, Spent – all titles of books about consumer habits. Here are a few tools that may help you keep track of who and what your customers care about. 
http://bit.ly/ shorten, share, and track your links
There are a couple of reasons to shorten a url and using this site might offer the main reason for doing so…I think the URL shorteners showed up as a response to Twitter’s 140 character limit but this site offers another reason. We learned from Dan Zarrella at the Southern Social Networking Summit that adding a plus mark (+) to the end of any bit.ly url will show the activity for that url and it is really valuable info. See how many times it was clicked, who clicked it, and where they came from. Again, this is data that booksellers would have had to pay big bucks for in the past. And it is all here. Amazing!
http://delicious.com/ social bookmarking
Okay, again, a wealth of info but be careful not to get sucked in to the home page where the most recent bookmarks are displayed. I got sucked into some celebrity news for a minute but now I’m back. This allows you to search anything and see what items folks have bookmarked and it let’s you collect your favorite sites as well. Again, learn a lot about readers and see who is making their mark on Delicious. I’m delighted that http://www.indiebound.org/ comes up regularly in book and bookselling and bookstore references. Your customers are there.
http://digg.com/ the latest news headlines, videos, and images
Okay, don’t get sucked in. Put in your search item and see the sites that have been sited. Once your search results come up, scroll down the page, and on the left you will see Advanced Search Tips that will assist you in getting even more info on who is talking about what.
http://mashable.com/ the social media guide
This is a great site for learning about social media. Lots of nerd news here. Valuable stuff about Facebook, Twitter, eReaders, all things online; from FourSquare to Phishing. Again, it’s easy to get lost in here. So try to use the search function or follow them on Twitter or Facebook, and just check out the things that impact you and your customers.
http://bloggernetwork.org who is in your area?
Okay, this might be a waste of time. Trying to find book bloggers to invite to SIBA and many of the blogs were no longer active or had not ever been activated. Searched for over an hour and found 6 potential southern bloggers. I think booksellers should connect with local book bloggers and create a mutually beneficial relationship. Just not sure Blogger Network is where to find them.
Short & Sweet & Scary
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on February 24, 2010
Scary Excellent – Sites that have Great Reputations but Scare Me
http://drupal.com/#1 drupal helps other open source projects build their communities
http://www.joomla.org/ content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications
http://www.zoho.com/ work.online
http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBugz/ bring your projects into focus
http://www.openoffice.org/ the free and open productivity suite
https://www.dropbox.com/ secure backup, sync, and sharing made easy
What office supply product are you?
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on February 19, 2010
My son’s first tattoo was of a paper clip. Now, we are a family that loves us some office supplies. My husband’s family actually ran an office supply store for several generations in Spartanburg, SC, and we do love some stapling, scissoring, and securing with glue stick, rubber cement, and two-sided tape. But I still had to ask – “Why a paper clip? Imagining him with headphones tattooed over his knee.” He answered, “A paperclip does one thing really well, and I’m like that.”
Productivity Tools, Part II
Paper Clip Sites – These are sites that do one thing really well as does a paper clip
http://www.pitchengine.com/ social media pr press release builder
This site is free and distributes press releases to both traditional and social media outlets. I love the idea of this site and have already set up an account for SIBA but have not gotten much farther than that. And I cannot even remember what the obstacle is but that there is one. This is one I will have to visit again and see how stupid I feel to determine if I can go forward or not.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/ the simple way to create surveys
The basic plan is free and this is a quick, effective way to create surveys that you can place in email newsletters, or distro to your staff for feedback on ideas. It is a friendly piece of software, one that matches my brain.
http://merchants.ebillme.com/ secure cash payments
Gary Vee connected with this site and it looks like an easy solution for taking secure payment on-line for any e-commerce site. Security is an imperative for collecting credit card info via the internet and this site seems to understand consumer concerns.
http://www.slideshare.net/ present yourself
This site lets you share with others, You can share with everyone or a select group. You can share word docs, powerpoints, or pdfs. This is an elegant solution to sharing across the internet.
http://picasa.google.com/ free photo editing from google
This is free photo editing software. I am not much with images but I’m hoping to get better, and my experience with google products has been good. I love my google calendar. I read somewhere that young people who attend conferences have an expectation that photos from the conference will be posted withing 48 hours. It’s a goal.
http://www.wikispaces.com/ wikis for everyone
Okay, I’m not sure if I’ve tried this site or not. I thought I had but now that I just visited it, I can’t say for sure. So this is one I’m headed back to. I have tried to contribute to wikipedia with no luck and I think I’m confusing the two. This site should streamline your wiki efforts. I’ll let you know.
Please don’t make me feel stupid six ways.
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on February 17, 2010
I love to be productive and I mostly love to learn new things. But I don’t like for the learning curve to be so challenging that I feel stupid. I don’t like feeling stupid. My younger brother and I were often partners in games of Trivial Pursuit, when it was all the rage, and I remember him saying to me – “I can’t believe I spent $50 to feel this stupid.” That, in a nutshell, is how I feel about trying to use some online programs. Granted, in most cases, I’m not paying for them, but even still, please don’t make me feel stupid, even for free.
From the Links List page of this blog, I have pulled out what I term the productivity tools. I’m going to try to present them in a manageable format and hopefully, you can just use what you need, and not bother with the rest. The cool thing about all of the online tools is that it is like a brain-matching game. Finding someone who has a brain that matches mine is my goal (except their brain has the patience, intelligence, education, motivation, desire, and skill to build an on-line tool). Let the brain-matching begin.
I have divided these productivity tools into three sections. The first I will call Strategies for Getting Organized & Beyond. The second will be Paper Clip Sites – These are sites that do one thing really well as does a paper clip. And the third is called Scary Excellent – Sites that have Great Reputations but Scare Me. The second and third sections will follow in blog posts over the next few days. On to section one:
Productivity Tools
Strategies for Getting Organized & Beyond
http://www.stumbleupon.com/ discover the best of the web in less time
I checked books as my interest and did stumble upon a lot of cool sites but for the most part, I became irritated about not having any control over what come up though this could be a great site for finding content you might never see otherwise, like a phone booth that was turned into a lending library. It feels more like a time waster than a time saver.
http://www.shareaholic.com/ the better way to share across Twitter, Facebook, Email and More
I find this site somewhat overwhelming but also appealing. I will go back and take another look at it as it looks like something that would be worth the one-time investment to get it set up…Looks like a timesaver to me.
http://springpadit.com/ a free personal organizer and online notebook
It appeals to me. I don’t have an account yet but Gary Vaynerchuk likes it and I like Gary’s brain so it might be a match. It is one I will go back and spend more time with but I also have to say I am really digging my Google Calendar and it has helped me get more organized. (It reminded me I needed to get this blog post up tomorrow so I went ahead and started the draft tonight. I’m shooting for one post a week.)
http://www.evernote.com/ Remember everything.
Okay, I dig this. I love the clipping notion. Again, I will need to set up an account and get back to you but I will visit this again.
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ online to-do list and task manager
It looks like it will do everything one would need as a task management tool but it seems a little too advanced for me. I can’t really explain why it makes me feel that way but I’d probably visit the seemingly easier options.
http://gtdiq.com/ test your getting things done IQ
I am a huge David Allen fan and relate to his brain and love his strategies.
15 Links to Twitter Success
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on January 24, 2010
I hope you have gotten a Twitter account. It is so simple to set up and use…and one day, having a microblogging account will be as expected of a business as having a telephone, or a website. Don’t underestimate the power of this tool. It’s email on steroids
And even if you are unwilling to set up a Twitter account for your store, be willing to search twitter and listen in on what customers are saying about your store. This kind of marketing feedback would have cost thousands of dollars less then ten years ago. The following Twitter tools are great for searching:
http://monitter.com/ monitor twitter
http://search.twitter.com/ see what’s happening right now
http://topsy.com/ a search engine powered by tweets
With an account, there are tons of tools to make posting to your Twitter account easy and effective. A book jacket would be considered a picture. I use tvider.com from my telephone and I am astonished how easy it is to update from the blackberry. To share video or pictures, try one of these:
http://tvider.com easily tweet photos, videos, & audio
http://twitpic.com/ share photos on twitter
http://yfrog.com/ your images & video on twitter
http://twitgoo.com/ share pictures or video
Twitter can also be a great tool for locating content to share with your customers via your blog or newsletter or in store. Here are a few links that will gather twitter content for you and help you manage your own Twitter account:
http://tweetmeme.com/ hottest links on twitter
http://www.tweetdeck.com/ your personal browser
http://hootsuite.com the professional twitter client
And finally, a few for the bookseller that is sold on Twitter and looking for ways to enhance their efforts. These tools allow you to explore twitter aps, find like-minded twitterers, get your twitter ranking, tweet from your phone, and search twitter panels on topics of interest to you and your customers.
http://oneforty.com/ find, rate, collect, share twitter apps
http://twitter.grader.com get your twitter ranking
http://blastfollow.com/ follow people on twitter via #hashtag
http://www.tweetie.com/ tweet panels
http://ubertwitter.com/ twitter for mobile platforms
Vimeo, CrushIt! & GaryVee — all excellent resources
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on January 12, 2010
Crush It! with Gary Vaynerchuk from Nicki Leone on Vimeo.
Hear Gary Vaynerchuk on indies, silliness, social media, Web2.0, & more.
Southern Social Networking Summit a HIT!
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on January 8, 2010
I’m back from the Southern Social Networking Summit in Greenville, SC. It was an exhausting & exhilarating two days. I want you to know that I am busy compiling the results of everyone’s efforts. I have nearly 40 oversized pages of notes taken by the break-out groups that I am organizing and will be posting over the next week in this blog. So many people have written blog posts, posted videos & photos, twittered and facebooked, and I want to take the time to thank everyone. And I want to share these links with you. The video clips include testimonials and a word from Gary Vaynerchuk.
Video Clips (posted by Trey Pennington)
Photos (taken by Curtis Rogers from the SC State Library)
Calling All Activists, Artists, Booksellers, Bloggers, Chefs, Crafters, Dancers, Designers, Educators, Festival Organizers, Government Workers, Human Resources, Internet Engineers, Jugglers, Librarians, Marketers, Non-Profit Executives, Publishers, Retailers, Singers, Social Networkers, Twitterholics, Videographers, Writers, Wine Guys, & Zookeepers…
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on November 23, 2009
to the first ever
Southern Social Networking Summit (#ssns)
Meeting on the application of on-line social networking to the arts, humanities & business
Dates:
Wed., Jan. 6, 2010 (starting at 10am) & Thu., Jan. 7 (ending by 3pm)
Location:
Hyatt Regency Greenville, 220 North Main Street, Greenville, South Carolina, USA 29601
Tel: +1 864 235 1234 Fax: +1 864 232 7584
Mention code: SSNS when making reservation
Hotel Reservations Online
Thorny Details:
Registrants should have a working knowledge of the Internet and already be making some social networking efforts. Minimally, you should have a Twitter account and Facebook account set up, and have either a blog or website or both that is maintained somewhat regularly. Meals will be provided except dinner which will be dutch treat.
This event is free to the participants who stay overnight at the Hyatt Regency Greenville. The room rate is $99. If you do not stay at the Hyatt, the cost is $135. There will be no refunds. You will be required to forward your reservation confirmation for the Hyatt Regency Greenville to wanda@sibaweb.com to receive a special discount coupon and avoid the $135 summit registration fee.
You must pre-register by Jan. 1, 2010, Limited to the first 150 people. Every participant is invited to bring promotional materials, products, brochures, or other materials that they would like to share with other participants. Take this opportunity to increase your visibility across the south. We are all in this together.
Motivation and strategy:
The arts & humanities have made strides in applying insights from their field to social networking, particularly those involving reaching their direct constituents. So far, however, it has had a minimal impact on what may be the most significant challenge: reaching the masses. This meeting brings together those from varied domains to brainstorm about policies and programs aimed at invigorating our social networking efforts. The main thrust of the meeting will be to brainstorm about practical solutions to specific problems that are impeding progress in dealing with the ever changing explosive opportunities in social networking. There will be four sessions (see below), each focusing on a different broad topic area. Each begin with a briefing by a domain expert who will provide background information about the topic and propose some concrete problems for the group to address. Brainstorming will then take the form of breakout group meetings followed by larger group presentations. The four topic areas are:
- How to make time for all the social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, Glue, Google, Delicious, Wet Paint, Net Galley, Author Buzz, Library Thing, Squidoo, FourSquare, CloudProfile and so many more…
- What’s on-line that will feed my work? What’s free and how do I get it? Marketing Partnerships and how to make them work?
- What does the research tell us? What trends are coming down the pipe? And how do we manage it all with small staffs and smaller budgets?
- Increasing the effectiveness of our combined efforts. How do we move the conversation from insiders to outsiders?
Schedule (subject to adjustments)
Day 1, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
- 9:00-10:00 Breakfast (please come and meet the other participants)
- 10:00–11:00 Welcome and Presentation on Motivation & Strategy for Successful Social Networking with business guru and wine guy Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Crush It! http://garyvaynerchuk.com/
- 11:00-11:30 Break & Book Signing with Gary Vaynerchuk & David Allen
- 11:30-12:30 Introduction and questions for brainstorming: How to make time for all the social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, Glue, Google, Delicious, Wet Paint, Net Galley, Author Buzz, Library Thing, Squidoo, and so many more with the world’s leading authority on personal and organizational productivity David Allen, author of Making It All Work, Getting Things Done, and Ready for Anything. http://www.davidco.com/
- 12:30-1:00 Break & Booksigning with David Allen
- 1:00 -2:00 Breakout group brainstorming (over lunch)
- 2:00 -2:30 Breakout group reports
- 2:30-3:00 Break
- 3:00-4:00 Introduction and questions for brainstorming: What’s on-line that will feed my work? What’s free and how do I get it? Marketing Partnerships and how to make them work with social media marketing & viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella, author of The Social Media Marketing Book. http://danzarrella.com/
- 4:00-4:30 Break & Book Signing with Dan Zarrella
- 4:30-5:30 Breakout group brainstorming
- 5:30-6:30 Breakout group reports
- Dinner 7:00 Table 301 Family of Restaurants (Dutch Treat with a 20% discount to all)
Day 2, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010
- 8:00-9:00 Breakfast
- 9:00-10:00 Introduction and questions for brainstorming: What does the research tell us? What trends are coming down the pipe? And how do we manage it all with small staffs and smaller budgets? Expert to be named soon.
- 10:00-11:00 Breakout group brainstorming
- 11:00-12:00 Breakout group reports
- 12:00-1:10 Lunch to include SIBA presentation
- 1:10-2:10 Introduction and discussion: Increasing the effectiveness of our combined efforts. How do we move the conversation from insiders to outsiders? Expert to be named soon.
- 2:10-3:00 Group discussion and closing reflections
Twitter Summary:
Southern Social Networking Summit #ssns: Greenville, SC Jan w/Gary Vaynerchuk, David Allen, Dan Zarrella- http://www.sibaweb.com/ssns
Lady Banks Bookshelf
