Looking into the night sky, one is filled with wonder. The stars, moon and planets intrigue us as they have across all time. Two authors take up this fascination in their new books. One looks forward and the other looks backward in time to advance our understanding of the history of space science. Andrew Kessler in Martian Summer is looking to the future of NASA while… [Read More]
I finally went to BookPeople—Austin’s fav indie bookstore—because Tom Angelberger was signing his boy-friendly graphic novels, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Strikes Back. As George Plunkitt so aptly stated, “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em,” by grabbing my 10-year-old, Jacob, saying, “Let’s go to the bookstore.” Angelberger’s presentation was lots of fun—juggling, inter-acting with the audience, re-telling a chapter… [Read More]
Use branding to sell books and sustain your passion Many writers do not want to engage in social media because they fear their engagement online will detract from (either time spent on or quality of) their writing. It’s a valid concern. It’s also an unnecessary one – if modeling the right approach. You see, using social media is about writing. If you are a writer, in… [Read More]
For The Love of Books: Buffalo Street Books Ithaca, NY Buffalo Street Books is one of my favorite haunts in Ithaca. Located in DeWitt Mall between Cayuga and Tioga Street, the bookstore seems designed to curve around visitors and readers like a comfortable armchair – just enough nooks and crannies to make you feel somewhat hidden, and entirely cozy. It even has a “reading room,”… [Read More]
Publishing Gone Local: Part 1 Ithaca is a town where ‘going’ local has been all the rage for decades. In fact, Ithaca has gone local, and it’s easy to feel a sense of self-reliance in this community. Whether you find it at The Piggery, or the Finger Lakes Wine Center, or the “Local Authors” series at Buffalo Street Books, appreciation abounds for all things Ithaca made…. [Read More]
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, websites, and other electronic media platforms are important to an author’s success in the book business today. Let’s face it; you can’t ignore social media anymore if you plan to publish your book. Last week on this blog, Danielle made the point that even if you have electronic platforms up and running, they are of little value unless you can provide… [Read More]
The mission opens with a good-bye and closes with a hello. The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders (First Second, 2009) opens with our protagonist leaving Paris to do a photo-reportage mission of a MSF (Médicins San Frontières, or Doctors without Borders) caravan that’s going into northeastern Afghanistan, near the city of Feyzabad. Starting with them in Peshawar, Pakistan he will cross fifteen… [Read More]
Ithaca is home to Carl Sagan, the Hubble telescope, stargazers and skywatchers. Swenson Book Development LLC collaborates with the Museum of the Earth and Buffalo Street Books to bring two authors to town with new books about space science for Columbus Day weekend. When a fiery meteor crash in 1807 lit up the dark early-morning sky in Weston, Connecticut, it did more than startle the few farmers… [Read More]
If you have been following our social media series and keeping abreast of the free advice Swenson Book Development LLC has to offer, please take note: this post trumps its predecessors. Search engine optimization, metadata, plugins, widgets, and pretty blogs all can improve web traffic and generate sales conversions. Nothing, however, is as important as the content on your website. Presentation and formatting makes a… [Read More]
A Writing Group’s Writer On August 3rd at 6pm, Buffalo Street Books hosted Leslie Daniels for a discussion of her critically acclaimed novel/fictional memoir, Cleaning Nabokov’s House. (For a review of the book on our blog, follow this link. Or, watch the book trailer here.)The discussion was open to the public, and followed suit with the bookstore’s ongoing commitment to Ithaca’s literary community with their… [Read More]
