Cutting Edge, which recruits musicians and music for films, helps filmmakers save money on the nuts-and-bolts work of assembling a movie score.

There may be something to it – as publishers look to cut their advances for everyone except perhaps the most starry authors, more and more writers struggle to exist on their writing. I’m not only talking about creative writing, but all sorts of writing that might take more time than squeezing in an hour or two before or after work.

Already, some rock and pop singers now ask for donations via social media, and promise to include contributors’ names on the liner notes, and even pay them back when there’s a profit. It takes the pressure off the artist to search for a label (since so many more are self-releasing). And some artists are evening being inspired by sites like Facebook to create works of art.

Could the same thing happen with writers? As it’s becoming more likely that authors will be heading toward a world in which self-publishing is another option, rather than a last resort, getting backing for a project seems to make sense. It means, however, that an author has to structure his project as more than one where he waits for inspiration – he needs a plan.

Maybe a collective – perhaps funded by an angel fund that wants to offer some of its money to the arts at a time when a lot of funding, including government funding, is drying up (arts are the bane of politicians, despite the fact that arts contribute greatly to local economies – politicians loathe art as vampires fear the sunlight).

In order to attract funding, through donations or a collective, a writer needs to be able to utilize social media in a good way. We have seen the power of social media with the recent event sin Tunisia and Egypt, where Twitter has been the means of getting the word out about popular uprisings. Twitter is even the preferred method of getting in touch with airlines now for updates on cancellations.

Wouldn’t it work for proposals for donations for a project/ If you’re able to craft yor proposal in under 150 characters, it means you already have a good sense of where you’re going. Investors like that.

It means, though, that you have to be willing to be rejected. But writers are used to that. In any event, there are more and more options for getting funding – it takes a little creativity. And every writer worth his salt has that.

It really shouldn’t be the kind of question we have to ask ourselves, but publishers, like movie studios again, feel that the gift-giving season is the one chance to recoup, the big chance to get back what they spent the rest of the year on underperforming books that failed to find an audience.

It says something that the surprise hit of the holiday season is the first volume of Mark Twain‘s autobiography. The University of California Press, which published the autobiography – a century after the great author’s death, as per his wishes – didn’t realize (in all its ivory-tower naïveté) that Twain’s trenchant musings on his life, his work, his era, were just the thing to appeal to readers today, and to gift-givers at the end of the year. Why? We want what’s real. And Twain was nothing if not real.

So far, the publisher has had to go back to press a few times, and there are now something like 600,000 copies in print. What does this say about today’s readers? It says that Twain is indeed timeless – that he appeals to the contemporaries today as much as he did people of yesteryear – but it also says that good writing speaks to generations whatever the time of year.

Twain engaged with his readers. He was a man of his time and ahead of it – he published one of the first presidential memoirs (U.S. Grant’s), and started his own publishing company, and did what he could to engage his audience. He wasn’t always successful – who is? – but he was memorable

You can be too – if you listen to your audience, if you dare to make a stand, if you speak, like Twain always did – the truth.

More than the greatness of his writing, it’s the transparency of his thinking that makes Twain a man for our age. And a man for the gift-giving season. I doubt that the University of California Press thought it had such a big hit on its hands – it was probably wishful thinking that it published the book toward the end of the year and hoped for a few thousand copies to be sold. But Twain probably knew better a century ago: he wanted to be heard, but more than anything he wanted to be connected, and be honest. He probably felt it would be better to wait a hundred years, before people were ready for his brand of truth.

You don’t have to wait that long. You can connect with your audience, too. If you speak the truth. At any time of the year.

This call is being webcast by Thomson/CCBN and can be accessed at Barnes & Noble, Inc.’s corporate website at www.barnesandnobleinc.com/webcasts. The webcast of this call will be archived and available at www.earnings.com.

ABOUT BARNES & NOBLE, INC.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS – News), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 717 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 633 college bookstores serving nearly 4 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble is the nation’s top bookseller brand for the seventh year in a row, as determined by a combination of the brand’s performance on familiarity, quality, and purchase intent; the top bookseller in quality for the second year in a row and the number two retailer in trust, according to the EquiTrend® Brand Study by Harris Interactive®. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than two million titles in its eBookstore (www.bn.com/ebooks). Through Barnes & Noble’s NOOK(TM) eReading product offer
ing, customers can buy and read eBooks on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK eBook Readers, devices from partner companies, and hundreds of the most popular mobile and computing devices using free NOOK software.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company’s corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

NOOK(TM), NOOKstudy(TM), LendMe(TM), Read In Store(TM), More In Store(TM) and Lifetime Library(TM) are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. Other trademarks referenced in this release are the property of their respective owners.

Social Media Links:
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And what’s the name of the new video? “We titled it, How to write a great thesis EVERY TIME. Of course, we used that title because we wanted to communicate the idea that the software can be relied upon to produce great results every time you use it. Since coming up with a good thesis statement for an essay even just once has been practically impossible for most people to do, we felt they would be keenly interested if we told them straight out that they can get a terrific thesis statement every time they use the software.”

To go along with the new video, Drew’s company also announced 100 FREE trial runs or free logins to the software program, available on his company’s website (http://secretdnaofwritingessays.com/?page_id=1393). One hundred free login and password pairs are provided so that 100 users can try out the software at the same time, continuously, through the rest of this year, he said. Just use any one of the login and password combinations provided.

Drew plans on publishing a series of Secret DNA of books that use his NewView concept of writing and reading, including, The Secret DNA of Topic Sentences That Entice Readers, The Secret DNA of Writing Advertising, The Secret DNA of Analyzing Novels, The Secret DNA of Shakespeare’s Plays, The Secret DNA of Business Writing, etc.

Drew has published The Secret DNA of Analyzing Short Stories (available at Amazon.com for $6.00, and for $6.50 as a PDF e-book athttp://secretdnaofwritingessays.com/?page_id=1100 ) and The Secret DNA of Writing Essays – And Everything Else (also available at Amazon.com, for $9.50, and at his company’s website, for $12.50). NewView Essay Services, the computer program that automates the thesis-making process in the Writing Essays e-book, is available at http://bit.ly/SecretDNASoftware on a subscription basis for 3-, 6-, and 12-month terms ($15.50, $20.50, $30.50).

Drew has also authored a series of expert online magazine articles about his NewView concept and process, which can be found and accessed for free atezinearticles.com (http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=William_Drew_Jr) (the list of articles is at the very bottom of the page).

About NewView Options:

Founded in 2008, NewView Options is a Provo, UT, firm specializing in the teaching and training of writing for beginning, intermediate, and advanced writers. The company is focused on promoting its proprietary NewView approach to writing, reading, analyzing, communicating, and teaching. NewView Options provides Educational Discount Rates for school districts. Call 1-801-373-0447, visit http://secretdnaofwritingessays.com/, or e-mailbilldrew@richcontent.com for more information.

It is easy to get distracted by the technology aspect of this presentation, so don’t. Technology is only a means to a end. I want you to stay focused on the ends (not the means). Here are the three big takeaways for you to ponder

1. Understand what customers need at a base psychological level is not a trick, it is smart. Do you know what is motivating your customers?
2. Understand the power of authenticity. Be real, raw, relevant.
3. Understand the mindset of the Civic Cycle we are in and how society has shifted right under your nose.

(In a Civic Cycle (as opposed to an individualistic one), society cares more about small actions than big unobtainable dreams, so the reward/point system becomes essential to our behavioral motivations and will only get stronger as the cycle progresses over the next few decades).

What can you do about this?  How can you take advantage of this? Here are a few steps

• Look at your product, and ask the question: What are the key motivating factors at play when people buy this? Are they looking for the best in category? Are they looking for a rich experience? Are they looking to learn or improve something around them? Are they looking to enhance their relationships or self?
• Look at yourself. Are you still afraid to make a mistake in public? Are you too concerned with your image? Do you cringe whenever your product or service gets a negative review? (If so, get over it, no product is perfect and your customers already know this; and if you don’t run your negative reviews, your customers won’t trust you.) Are you embracing authenticity?  How real are you willing to get?
• Watch this following video, and understand how today is much different from yesterday, and that what worked then will not work now.

Now grab your list of answers THEN begin thinking about how you can use technology to turn up the heat on your service and brand.

We would love to hear about what you come up with. Please share. Your insights.

Throw some stuff in a bag and come to Calgary. See the swinging Pendulum in person and learn how to prepare both yourself and your business for the coming decade. It’s happening Friday, September 17^th at the Executive Royal Inn. Admission is free, just get yourself there and find a place to crash.

You’ve probably sensed how tried-and-true marketing and sales techniques aren’t working like they used to. Would you like to know why? We’ll cover what changes are taking place, why they’re happening and what you can do to adapt.

History has shown us that every 40 years there is a fundamental shift in:

• The way we interact
• The way we live
• The way we do business.

Are you able to recognize such a shift when one is taking place?

1963 – 2003

This was an era of idealism. As The Beatles and The Rolling Stones invaded America they helped pry the cultural torch from the duty-bound WWII generation to their Do-Your-Own-Thing Baby Boomer children. Marketers responded by adopting a similar kind of freedom in their advertising. Breaking loose from any rules of restraint, creativity ran amok. Everything was built on hype and pretense and unsubstantiated claims.

2003 -2043

We’re now seven years into a new era of civic-mindedness. ‘Doing your own thing’ isn’t cool anymore. Have you noticed how the marketing efforts of those paying attention are focused on making a difference? Businesses are being more transparent. Claims are better substantiated. Communication is more authentic.

Has your communication with your audience undergone a similar transformation? Do you understand how they look at life has changed? Are you adapting to those changes or are you becoming irrelevant? Come to Calgary and find out. We’ll decipher the new Rosetta stone together. You’ll leave knowing exactly what to do to achieve your goals and enjoy life more.

• Women’s Wear Daily estimated that people spent $225,000,000 on clothing for infants and children in 1939.  By 1944 that amount almost doubled to $420,000,000. In 1946 it reached $700,000,000; and in 1947 it climbed even higher.
• The Chicago Sun-Times reported that annual sales of prepared baby food rose from 400,000 cases in 1934 to 2,700,000 cases in 1941 to 15,000,000 cases in 1947.
• The sale of recordings for children rose from 2,000,000 in 1941 to over 30,000,000. Some half-dozen new companies entered the children’s-record field in the first six months of 1947 alone.
• Despite a shortage of raw materials, the number of toy companies doubled between 1942 and 1947.
• Production of juvenile furniture in 1947 was 54% above 1946, which in turn was 39% above 1944.
• Production of children’s books also swelled. The three major magazines for the very young—Child Life, Jack and Jill, and Children’s Activities—had combined circulations of 1,300,000 in 1947.

From the day boomers were born they became the apple of every marketer’s eye. That trend would continue for the next 60 years.

By 1953 companies were beginning to sense a shift in society. The civic-minded attitude of the veteran-laden G.I. generation was being replaced by a much more self-absorbed one. General Motors responded by releasing the Corvette, a sexy new sports car with only two seats. Two years later Warner Brothers produced Rebel Without a Cause about a troubled youth who bucks authority and marches to the beat of his own drum. Do your own thing, baby. Right on.

As Boomers came of age over the next three decades, reflections of their idealistic and even pretentious nature were everywhere:

• 1969: Dr. Thomas Harris releases I’m OK – You’re OK, a self-help book designed to solve one’s problems through “Transactional Analysis.”
• 1978: The Village People release their second album, Macho Man, which includes the title song, along with “I Am What I Am,” “Just a Gigolo” and “I Ain’t Got Nobody.”
• 1983: Dashingly smooth solo spy James Bond stars in Octopussy, which raked in $187 million at the box office.

Products, and the marketing that went into them, revolved around hype and pretense. As marketing guru Roy. H. Williams stated in his June 7, 2004 Monday Morning Memo:

“Most branding campaigns are costumes worn by advertisers to the Media Masquerade Ball. They were the hot ticket during the pretentious Baby Boomer years when blue ribbons went to those wearing the best costumes…”

“…in the past, advertisers had only to claim to stand for some misty-eyed claptrap and idealistic Boomers would choose the product -  “Coke wants to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, and furnish it with love, grow apple trees and honeybees and snow-white turtledoves… I believe in world peace, too, so I’ll buy Coke instead of Pepsi.”

Time to Get Real

Today’s civic-minded generation regurgitates the ideal-driven pretense gobbled up by Boomers. Market yourself as “amazing, astounding and spectacular!” and they hear “blah, blah, blah.” If you want to stay relevant with the 72 million in the Millennial generation:

1.     Pull them towards you with true perspectives and values rather than pushing your products and services with hype.

2.     Identify potential challenges to your message and address them directly. Be transparent.

3.     Start a conversation: create a blog.

While I’m not certain this is true, I do believe that December 12, 2012, will mark the end of the publishing world as we know it.

I’ve been a maverick in the book industry for more then a decade. I make people uncomfortable. I speak the truth. Hearing about change (and making change) is always tough, especially in an industry that, let’s face it, hasn’t changed much since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440.

Last summer, I proclaimed “Book Publishing 2.0 Is Now.”

At Book Expo America in 2009 and 2010 I spent some time ranting at publishers, predicting what the future of publishing would look like, and suggesting what I would do if I were a publisher today looking to preserve both reputation and business. Few listened.

But this time, unlike my attempts to reform the industry in years past, publishers actually flocked to me like flies to honey. But they didn’t like what I had to say.

Even today many of my friends among big and midsized New York-based publishers listen to me — but they aren’t willing to accept my news.

Here’s the headline: Traditional Book Publishing is DEAD.

I’m not the only one who’s been telling this story over the last couple of years.

For example:

• On what became known as publishing’s Black Tuesday, in December 2008 Random House completely reorganized and Simon & Schuster laid off a large part of its staff.
• Last year, Steven Covey and his Go digital publishing company made an exclusive deal with Amazon.com to have Amazon sell two of his bestsellers – “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and “Principle-Centered Leadership” — solely in digital form.
• Recently, best-selling author Seth Godin announced he’s “Moving On” and will no longer publishing with traditional publishers following the publication of “Linchpin.” (Also read his follow-up interview on Galley Cat.)
• And Mitch Joel is correct when he says, “This is a lot bigger then Seth Godin…”  It’s about transparency and talking directly with consumers.
• It used to be that 20,000 to 30,000 books were published a year. In 2009, there were 760,000 new books published. That’s more than a two thousand percent increase. Staggering, isn’t it? (Download Bowker’s 2009 Book Industry Essential Facts)
• Yet amid this torrent of product, B&N is losing money and even this titan of brick-and-mortar bookselling sees the writing on the wall regarding the future of traditional publishing (and book-buying)
• And of course you’ve heard of big losses at Borders, major executive turnover there and job losses at both the corporate level and at individual stores

I could go on and on with the doom-and-gloom of an industry whose only good news is digital publishing. Which, of course, scares traditional publishers to death.

So let me tell you what I’ve been telling publishers for the last two years, that they, and you, need to WAKE UP and hear.

By the end of 2012 the dynamics in publishing and the economy will have shifted so much that traditional publishers will either be acquiring emerging publishing technology and evolving — or going out of business.

• By the end of 2012, 50% or more of all books will be sold in a digital or electronic format.
• By the end of 2015, 80% or more of all books will be sold in digital or electronic format
• By the end of 2015, “new” digital books will be sold at an average of $0.99 or less

Publishers need to realize that they are on the same path the music industry has been on for a decade. They need to avoid making the same mistakes record companies made and instead focus on a more “open” source form of publishing the recognizes the money isn’t in the book content but what that content leads to.

We should look to Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress.com and WordPress.org, and to a younger generation for the future of our business and publishing models. It is rumored that Matt turned down a $200 million offer to buy WordPress. At the recent Engage Today 2010 conference in Calgary, Canada, Matt neither confirmed nor denied this, but he did say that had he turned down an offer of $200 million, it would have been because he was concerned the buyer might take his open-source publishing model and turn it into a closed-source publishing model.

The future of publishing is open source, free content leading into premium content.

I know I’ve come across as a doomsayer, but trust me when I say that I really believe that these are exciting times. Because once again, content is what counts. For so long book publishing was all about marketing: those with the money were those who succeeded. Good content was the exception, not the rule.

The Internet, the iPad, the Kindle, the smartphone and other such devices have leveled the playing field.

Online content is king, as we have already begun to see with e-books and digital books. Digital books will be judged by their content, rightfully so, and the long-tail effect will result in more content actually being read and consumed then is currently done with traditionally bound books.

Again, I am thrilled to be part of this exciting age for books and for content. If publishers would stop flogging their dead horse and really identify what they had to offer (and how to offer it), they too would be excited.

I’m looking forward to December 12, 2012, the Death of the Print Book Industry. Who’d like to participate in a funeral to celebrate this great industry’s death, and to proclaim the birth of a new one?

We know that Apple has sold several million iPads in just a few months, and that as a result of that popularity (part of it stemming from its stylishness, and the way it allows readers to peruse e-books in color), Amazon has reduced the price of its Kindle to $139, and Barnes & Noble is stepping up efforts to increase sales of its Nook. Amazon has sold about two million Kindles, and Barnes & Noble about 600,000 Nooks.

Old-fashioned analog books still sell more copies overall than e-copies of books, but that’s likely to change as more and more people move on to digital media devices. The paper-and-cardboard book won’t disappear, though: it will become yet another option for our niche-centered world, and consumers will have the choice of downloading a title, ordering it online or even going into a brick-and-mortar store to buy it.

I was out of the country for a few months and what struck me when I first rode the subway again in my hometown of New York was how many people were reading something on either their iPad or their Kindle. Now, New Yorkers read on the subway – it’s one of those refreshing thing about this hyperactive town that people use their travel time to soak up literature or business or whatever. But it wasn’t until I got back home from Europe that I saw so many people reading on those sleek electronic tablets. People read on the metro in Paris, too, but mostly old-style books or magazines. Rarely e-readers. The e-reader, in whatever form, has taken hold here.

And American publishers, usually so slow to respond to market trends (other than signing up another author to write a vampire series), are releasing “amplified” versions of novels, featuring scenes from movie adaptations, for example, and “enhanced” e-books, featuring videos and photographs and up-to-date interviews. These new versions are designed right now for the iPad – the Kindle remains a rather clunky device, and it doesn’t handle video at all.

But this embedding of video text within books is only the first step in what is surely going to be a continuing refinement of e-books. It will change the nature of reading, making it that much more actually interactive. Remember when you had to put your book down and link to a website to find out more about your author, on his or her stodgy old web page?

I think this is a great trend, and shows not only the primacy of the printed word – in whatever form – but also how books ( in whatever form) remain a starting point to begin a conversation, to engage the public beyond the book itself. To grow business.