Web Presence for Publishers . . . What Works?

BAIPA (the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association) is a friendly group of self-publishing authors who meet every month to share tips and insights. The last time I spoke there, I described the unexpected opportunities I've enjoyed through publishing five books in the last five years. I called the talk Your Book Is Just the Beginning: Growing a Publishing Business the Holistic Way.

Holistic could be spelled "whole-istic"; it means the whole is greater than the parts. Writing and promoting books enabled me to explore and combine so many interests — interviewing, graphic design, audio production, music composition, video, live performance, conference speaking — and all of them have parallels or enhancements online.

One of my favorite examples, which I used in the last BAIPA talk, was when the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) contacted me after reading a ten-word link I'd left about one of my books on Wikipedia. The book is a retelling of "Jack and the Beanstalk" in Japanese kamishibai (paper theater) format. In a happy coincidence, last year was the 200th anniversary of the first publication of "Jack," and the BBC was producing a radio special on the global impact of the tale.

Citing my audio background, I offered to record an interview with my wife Hazuki about the Japanese impression of the story. The BBC ran the resulting show on New Year's Day 2008 and again at the end of the year. Here's an excerpt of the half-hour program:

BBC Interview Excerpt

All that just from ten words I typed one afternoon. That's what delights me about the Web: It's always out there working for you, and you never know when a connection will bubble up.

What are some of your success stories? How do you discover — or help others connect with — books online? Please leave a comment or link below; I'll add them to the workshop and then report back on the new ideas they generate. In the meantime, I'll be checking out O'Reilly's extensive Social Media for Publishers webcast.