The Role of Social Media in the Workplace

Sheyna Galyan of Yotzeret Publishing insists that "you have to approach social media as a tool, not a toy." That's the best way I've heard it described so far. I've worked at companies that are convinced Facebook is just a way to "pretend" to do work—so their solution is to block workers from accessing the site. And they followed suit when Twitter became popular! It made me want to pull my hair out! Yes, Facebook and Twitter hold thousands of distractions for workers, but that doesn't mean pretending they don't exist is the right way to go.

For authors AND publishers, social media sites are invaluable as free, easy ways to get word out about yourself. You can post events on Facebook, like book signings and radio interviews. You can share reviews, display your latest blog post, and interact with readers.

And with Twitter, it's even easier to connect with thousands of people who might never have known about you otherwise. All it takes are a few well-placed hashtags. You can keep it general, with #fiction, #booknews, and #litchat, or you can go after people who might be interested in specific aspects of your book, such as #fantasy, #legalthriller, #modernart, whatever seems relevant.

From a publisher's viewpoint, the thing we've had the hardest time convincing our authors on is the importance of blogs. Blogs can be a place where reader's learn more about an author's personal interests, or maybe the author takes them through the steps of how they're writing their next book. Maybe the blog is from the viewpoint of one of the main characters, or maybe it has nothing to do with the book and instead is a place where the author can share a love of photography or traveling. Whatever the content of a blog, it serves the purpose of keeping readers thinking about the author. Blogs are also a great place to ask for reader feedback.

You don't have to use every social media site you come across, start small. You're impact can still be great. Check out Scarletta authors that have jumped into the blogosphere. You can also find many of our authors on Facebook and Twitter!

The Inside Look by Lindsay G. Arthur, Jr.

A View from the Windowseat by Penny Noyce

The Pamela Cory Blog

The Leonard Borman Blog

Looking forward to Book Expo America

Now that it's early May, I can safely say that Scarletta employees are rushing around like chickens with their heads cut off just to make sure everything is perfect for BEA. We're setting up meetings, organizing signings and book orders, booking hotel stays, and printing so many sales/marketing materials that we might just drown in the piles of shiny press releases and bookmarks. But through all that, there are some details we'd like to share in this little blog post:

BEA 2011: May 24-26 at the Jacob K. Javitz Center in New York City

Scarletta Press Booth: #4633-A

In-booth Autographings: THURSDAY MAY 26
               Pamela Cory - Hassie Calhoun - 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
               Leonard Borman - Our Jewish Robot Future - 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM

In honor of heading to BEA, dear Leonard has even made a little video inviting you to visit him:



Leonard Borman will be at BEA 2011 from Scarletta Press on Vimeo.

Book of the Year Awards

We had a wonderful surprise in our inbox today. ForeWord's Book of the Year Award finalists for 2010 have been announced! Clicking the link I discovered that Leonard Borman's Our Jewish Robot Future: A Novel About the Garden of Eden and the Cyborgian Transformation of the Human Race has been selected as a finalist in the Fiction - Science Fiction Category.

View the complete list of Science Fiction competitors here. Winners will be announced at the American Library Association (ALA) Conference, June 23-28, 2011.

Our Jewish Robot Future presents a cheeky story that visits the Garden of Eden and questions the absence of an 11th commandment: Thou shall NOT nosh thy brother. Margarita Haralson, a post-menopausal housewife determined to become pregnant in spite of her children’s refusal to give her grandchildren, narrates the story to her newborn child. This is a must read for anyone curious for an alternative, comedic take on human existence and Jewish family relations.

“A strange adventure with even stranger concepts … a highly entertaining and very highly recommended read." — The Midwest Book Review, November 2010

The Terminator Twist

If you couldn't tell by now, Scarletta Press has started traveling in new directions. With our jump into the popular fiction genre, we've published an outrageously humorous read in Our Jewish Robot Future by Leonard Borman. It's a book that is slowly, but SURELY, garnering more and more attention.

One of the most recent reviews can be found on page 15 of the Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter (November/December 2010 issue).

"Do you remember the Terminator movies? An evil cyborg from the future comes back in time with the mission to kill the woman who would become the mother of the leader of the human resistance movement. In a twist on that theme, Borman creates a Jewish robot of the future who travels back in time to tell Alex and Margarita Haralson that they must convince their adult children to start reproducing in order for their many-times-great-grandchildren to ultimately develop the robots that would travel into space and preserve Judaism..." Read the rest here.

 Don't forget to pick up your copy today!

"The future can be a very strange place..."

Another great hit for Leonard Borman's Our Jewish Robot Future. Midwest Book Review calls this futuristic novel "highly entertaining and a very highly recommended read."

Read the review in Midwest Book Review's Small Press Watch for November. This review will appear in the Cengage Learning, Gale interactive CD ROM series "Book Review Index" published 4 times yearly for academic, corporate and public library systems as well as book review databases (LexixNexis and Goliath). This review will also be posted on amazon by Midwest Book Review.

Not to mention...

Once again, we love a little spotlight on Scarletta Press. Our Jewish Robot Future recently had a nice mention in the bookshelf section of Tablet Magazine, an online Jewish community magazine. Here's a small taste of what they had to say:

"If Jewish/vampire trysts and Orthodox dragonslayers sound too old-fashioned for you, you might prefer Leonard Borman’s Our Jewish Robot Future (Scarletta, October), which comes freighted with the illustrative subtitle “A Comedic Novel about the Garden of Eden and the Cyborgian Transformation of the Human Race.” If nothing else, the novel demonstrates how irresistible it is for some authors to insert Jewishness into their wild fantasies..."  Read the rest here.

Adventures at MBA

Midwest Booksellers Association hosts the trade show every fall. This past Saturday, October 2, was the exhibit day, and Scarletta Press had a wonderful time.

Scarlett'as Amanda Fish & Author Leonard Borman

For your listening enjoyment

Recently, as in this past Tuesday, September 28, Leonard Borman, author of Our Jewish Robot Future, made a grand appearance on local radio program KFAI Write On! Radio. For your listening enjoyment and in case you missed the original stream, we've provided the audio here.

Enjoy and have a good laugh along with Leonard and Scarletta Publisher Ian Graham Leask!

Click here to play Streaming Audio

In The News

Scarletta Authors and books have had a few mentions around town.

Hometown Life: Around Birmingham mentions Our Jewish Robot Future by Leonard Borman in the lineup for the Baldwin Author Fair at the Baldwin Public Library on Sunday, September 26, from 1 PM to 4:30 PM. 

Minneapolis Star Tribune also mentions two book events with Leonard Borman: Tuesday, September 28, hear him on KFAI's Write On! Radio show from 7 to 8 PM, and Wednesday, September 29, catch him at Magers & Quinn Bookstore in Minneapolis at 7:30 PM.

PRLog posted a recent press release about Mike Ferrell, his funnel business approach, and his book Ultimate Breakthrough Planning.