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by Bill Funk
Daren Wang introduced our speaker Marc
Fitten. (A brief bio is in the last edition of our
announcement bulletin.) Mark's forthcoming book, Valeria's
Last Stand reflects ideas formed when living in
post-Soviet Hungary in the 1990s and is about a love triangle
featuring senior adults. The book is being published in nine
countries. Translated versions in French and German are coming
out in May. Daren and Marc are personal friends and journalist
colleagues. According to Daren, Marc travels lightly with his
personal belongings in a grocery bag. Daren also said that
Decatur owes Marc a debt of gratitude as he and Daren started
working on ideas for what has become the annual Decatur Book
Festival when they were returning from a similar event in
Columbia, S.C.
Mark is a new member of the North Atlanta Rotary Club and
began his presentation by giving our club a Rotary banner from
the Brazil club he attended as a GSE team member in 2008. He
expressed appreciation to Rotary for selecting him to go to
Brazil. He thinks "Service Above Self" is a motto worthy of
universal emulation.
Marc, having been trying to get his book published for
years, then proceeded to pick our brains as he is seeking new
marketing and business strategies for book publishing in this
country. He said he had wanted to be a writer since he was age
15. We know the vicissitudes of the business world these days
and publishing is no exception. Book sales are down 10 to 14
percent over the past two quarters. The three big book outlets
are Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, and Borders, and the latter
may disappear in 2010. There are also the "Mom and Pop" or
independent bookstores which sell two percent of books
published. Using as an analogy the production model of Home
Depot (for example, in commissioning a product with Black and
Decker), Marc spoke of the "spaghetti model" publishers use to
market books: publish 200 titles, and then throw them (as
spaghetti) against the wall (to the public) and see which
"stick" (are hits). Such an example is The Da Vinci
Code and its many derivatives.
The profit makers support the failures. Marc is trying to
make the publishing process more rational. He reminded us that
the publishing business is a part of the global marketplace.
Europe has a larger reading population than does the US due to
sheer size of its population (500 million). Marc has started
his own company and beginning Wednesday will take his book to
promote by visiting 100 independent booksellers for the next
12 weeks. He wants to see what these owners are doing for
their communities and how they market their stock. For
example, he will ascertain if they sell over the internet.
When Marc asked for suggestions and comments, J.
Tom Morgan explained that most of the sales of his
self-published book for teenagers (Ignorance is No
Defense) were sold through the internet. When asked if
new electronic book distribution such as electronic
downloading, Kindle 2, the Sony ebook, audio tapes, etc.,
would hurt book sales, Marc replied that perhaps for the
average cost of a book at $25, publishers and booksellers
could put together a packet including the book, a CD, and a
digital download as on Kindle. Marc also suggested another
strategy used by a friend who marketed his business book by
printing on-demand copies as they were ordered.
In honor of our speaker, a copy of his book Valeria's
Last Stand will be presented to the DeKalb Library System
upon its publication.
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