What I Learned At BlogWorld 2012

That was the tweet I sent as I entered BlogWorld and New Media Expo 2012 last Tuesday. I admit that I did not start the conference with a lot of enthusiasm over the prospect of spending three days sealed away with no windows. While the distance I traveled was much less than those who came on planes and trains and crossed oceans to get there, I am a very typical New Yorker in that I wince when trying to figure out the path of least resistance to get to that most inconvenient of locations that is the Jacob Javits Center. So, yes, I was a little cranky upon  start and yes....feeling a bit jaded.

I am no longer a newbie blogger. I can navigate social media better than most people I know. And now being a self-published author, the lure that my BlogWorld ticket was also giving me  access to the floor of Book Expo, was just not as appealing. And so I wondered, why was I here and  what was I going to learn?

Sounds strange to be coming from me, the person who advocates that every step we take is a learning experience, but I already admitted I was not having a good morning. I reminded myself what I have always done since early in my work life. If I learned even one new thing the next few days, met one new promising contact or got  even one new idea,  it would be worth it.  I entered Room 1A12 and it all started to change.

Jonathan Fields reminded me that  to be a writer today one must be willing to be an entrepreneur. It's an advantage I have that I tend to forget.

John Falchetto, in a thought provoking session on Tribes asked those questions that made me go Mmm. How do you know when you are in the wrong tribe? And what do you do about it?

There was that moment of synchronicity when on line met off line and I discovered the woman sitting next to me was Nina Amir, whose guest post I had just read on Jane Friedman's blog that morning!

I learned that just because a conference is all about New Media, does not mean cutting edge technology is going to include a consistent WIFI connection.

I seemed to be fed that constant reminder, that with all this fabulous new technology people still want to deal with people. Integrity still counts, maybe more than ever. If you put yourself out there, people will be able to sniff out, sooner or later if you are anything less than authentic.

And perfection. It was a resounding chorus of not trying to be perfect. Things are moving too fast right now to worry about it all being perfect. It reminded me of that old sales adage: you snooze, you loose. Failing is not a problem with this group. Not trying is.

Everywhere I turned I remembered why going to conferences is important. They are incubators for thinking new stuff. Even when you know the information, someone will say something that gets your creative juices flowing and suddenly you have a new idea that hits the passion button.

Take podcasting. The word has been on the periphery of my thoughts a lot. It's been suggested I should podcast chapters of my books. And of course every time I start to shake at the thought of doing videos, I think how much easier it would be to stay in my yoga pants, not worry about putting on lipgloss and podcast instead.

It was the lively Women in Podcasting Panel led by Katie Davis that got me thinking. The time to start podcasting was now. It hadn't occurred to me until then that podcasting was really just radio for the entrepreneur. Another opportunity to mix what I know from my past work experience and do something new with it. I was here to learn something I didn't before and I had found it. Like a sponge, I spent the rest of the Expo soaking up everything I could on the how tos and benefits from podcasting pros like Dan Lyons.

I met many new friends, like Laura Rubinstein of the SocialBuzzClub and got to spend quality time with my dear friend and fellow blogger, Suzi Banks Baum of Laundry Line Divine fame.

But the big moment of learning was when I ventured upstairs to the BEA floor. That room I had aspired to be a part of for so long. The event I had imagined I would first attend as an author published by a Big Six legacy publisher. There was a marked difference in the energy. The enthusiasm and willingness to connect, no matter who you were, that I felt downstairs at BlogWorld was missing. It had been replaced with an air of aloofness and inaccessibility and denial that the publishing world, like so much else, is changing.

It really hit me that my career as a writer is unfolding as it should. My intention when I left the corporate world was also to leave that tribe's way of thinking. The one that is too caught up in the way things are to move to the ways things can be. The one that pokes holes in what is new because they are too afraid it might affect their market share. The one that is slow to move because they are too caught up in meetings and red tape to effect real change. I had coveted a tribe that ultimately was not going to serve who I am. Maybe one day that will change. But for now, my tribes are elsewhere.

The 80/20 Rule In Cyberspace

I attended the BEA this week virtually, via Twitter feeds. One of the tidbits I picked up was a tweet that quickly made the rounds.  7% of books generate 87% of book sales and 93% of all published books sell less than 1000 copies each. I found it interesting the speed in which this was retweeted.  I can only assume that people found this information astounding.

I didn't. And I am still a virgin to book publishing.

I come from the world of sales where I learned early on that no matter what you are selling, 80% of your business will come from 20% of your account list. I was taught that most of your attention needed to be on that 20%. I also learned not to ignore the other 80%. The smaller numbers add up and you just never know when an account from the  80% might break from the pack and move into the 20% group.

The idea is not new. It is called Pareto's Principle after the man who first noticed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the people. In simple terms a few are vital, many are trivial.

Pareto's idea is more than 100 years old. What I am curious about  is how those numbers might shift as we push further into the new frontier of cyberspace.

The publishing houses support the 80/20  rule. If you are Dan Brown you can expect a lot more promotional support than if you are me, first time novelist with no track record. I already expect a limited budget from the editor who takes a risk on me. And I haven't been offered a deal yet. But that is OK. Because I have a sales background. I know how to market. I understand it is not enough to just be a good writer anymore, you need to be an authorpreneur. You need to be a social marketer.  And we now live in a world when even the "trivial" masses can use the power of cyberspace to be influential.

While I admit to a fantasy of having a stellar New York Times Book Review,  I also understand we live in a world where just about anyone with a blog can review your book. While any review can go viral, the weight a good or bad review from a big name newspaper  once had will never be as influential as it once was.

Moving from books to movies, if I had paid any attention to the reviews coming out on
Sex and the City2 I might not have gotten up early Thursday morning to attend a 9:30AM showing. If I had listened to all the panning that was going on I might have denied myself the two hours and twenty seven minutes of being in the company of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte, who to me, are like hanging out with my best girlfriends.

I wasn't sure about the whole Abu Dhabi thing. But after seeing the movie I saw it's purpose. The direct contrast from the world I live in where anyone (including the 80%) can express an opinion and dress and walk as they please to one in which I would be required (by the 20%) to wear a burka and keep my opinions silent  makes perfect sense for a story line that has been from the beginning about women breaking out of the traditional mold and being heard.

Cyberspace gives us all more equal footing to be heard. Whether we are in the 80% or the 20%.  As  Carrie would say, I just can't help wondering, will the lines dividing us  start to blur?