Bit-O-Lit

Shannon MacDonald, publisher of Bit-O-Lit contacted me and asked me to blog about her venture. After a few back and forth emails I thought it make more sense to give her the floor and let her do the blogging. I love this idea! - MJR

Bit o’ Lit is a booklet-sized magazine that is handed out for free to commuters in Washington, DC as they board the bus or train on Monday evenings. The booklet’s primary contents are fiction and non-fiction book excerpts, in addition to regular features.

Bit o’ Lit grew out of a several weeks of crankiness and a general boredom with Sudoku and crossword puzzles. And probably, though I don’t remember clearly, some very poor library choices during those weeks. Needless to say, I started complaining to my friends that it was absolutely ridiculous that no one properly advertised books on the Metro. There were posters advertising books on the Metro, but they really didn’t tell you anything about the book—just a grand bunch of fluff. If there was ever a time that a person would read anything, it was on the Metro. Excerpts. Publishers should include book excerpts on the Metro. That was my solution, and I yammered on about it for some years afterward.

Then, about two years later, I accosted a nice editor from Random House in his living room over the subject. I wanted to know if he thought publishers would be interested. He thought publishers would be too cheap.  Well, in February 2007, I decided to find out. I began researching and planning Bit o’ Lit.

One of the most striking articles that influenced me was a report conducted by the Author’s Guild. The report had attempted to identify whether the number of books being published by midlist authors were increasing or decreasing. What they did find to their surprise was that major publishers were publishing more books—but marketing them less and less. These books by midlist authors were called “mid-list” books: good books that rarely left the shelves.

But based upon the statistics, why should publishers put more money into marketing these books? Out of eight books six would flop, one would break even, and the final of the eight might break big, making enough money to finance the rest of the titles.

The problem at its core was word-of-mouth. A good portion of the population only buys new books based upon referrals from friends. They do not read book reviews. They do not look at book websites, yet they make up a major portion of the market. (I fall into this market.) Thus, word of mouth is what sells mid-list books, and publishers seemingly had no control over it.

Another factor that surprised me was how little book publicity had to do with the actual book. Irony upon itself, we do not have a common language to talk about written language. A restaurant can sell food on menu because all humans have the same basic salty, sweet, sour, bitter palate. There is no such thing as a reading palate. What people like about a writing style depends on their reading speed, reading comprehension, interests, and life experiences—to start the list. A good book review might convey to readers that a book has promise, but readers have little way of knowing if the reviewer’s taste aligns with theirs.

I believed that Bit o’ Lit could overcome these challenges by:

 

1. Reaching the public en masse

2. Putting the writing first, in the form of an excerpt

3. Creating a local marketing campaign for books with author events

Bit o’ Lit is not intended to replace book reviews, author tours, or any of the awesome digital marketing that has arrived on the scene in the past few years. The point of Bit o’ Lit is to introduce books at the right time and in the proper space. I have little doubt that word of mouth will continue to reign supreme as the ephemeral and fickle determinant, but I would also like to think that Bit o’ Lit will provide some new introductions to the court of literature.

Shannon MacDonald
Publisher

Comments

[Steve]

Bit o' Lit sounds like a great idea! I'm a first-time author with a cat book out on Sterling (The World Is Your Litter Box), and quite frankly, the publisher's efforts to promote the book have been, in my view, next to non-existent. I understand this is pretty standard, so I've done most of the PR myself. What's the current status of Bit 'o Lit, and how can I get an excerpt included?

Steve

[Renee Thompson]

Shannon, as a former resident of Northern Virginia and a daily Metro rider, I think Bit O' Lit is a terrific idea. I know it's early in the game, but do you have plans to expand to the West Coast? BART, in San Fran, is the Metro equivalent, and surely it would work there too. I live in Folsom, a suburb of Sacramento, and our public transportation system is woefully lacking, but gobs of people stop here to gas up before heading to Tahoe -- what about placing BOL in gas stations? It's not glamorous, but people of all caliber need gas (meaning readers and non-readers alike), so perhaps this is worth pursing? At any rate, I'm delighted you're making the effort.

[Shannon MacDonald]

Thanks for the comments!

Steve - To submit you can send me an email at [email protected]. Our next issue is due out 7/14. The only books we can't consider right now are self-published (ideally in the future we'll develop a good system for this...).

We are certainly thinking about expanding. The gas station idea is cool. I think free sampler CDs filled with audio clips of books-on-tape might be cheaper and go farther at gas stations than print material because then you could just pop them in your CD player and drive. There are also of course hospitals, airplanes, and trains as major possibilities.

To plug for Bit o' Lit - You can learn more about cost, submissions, and all that or just go to www.bit-o-lit.com.

Best,

Shannon

[Elizabeth]

Hi Shannon, I just picked up Bit o' Lit today and loved it! I got it from a stand outside the Rosslyn Metro Station. What are the other Metro stations where Bit o' Lit is available? Anywhere in Maryland? I don't want to miss the next issue, and I prefer the printed version versus reading on line! Thanks!

[J.S. Peyton]

Elizabeth, they seem to be available all over. I know for sure that there's one outside of the Metro Center station as well as outside of the McPherson Square station. I've seen them other places as well, though of course, I can't remember exactly where.

[Karyn]

Where are you now? I haven't seen the little Bit O'Lit box in months and months and miss it.

[dave1001]

I still haven;t seen bit o lit but how can you possible gte bored with sudoku?

dave WEBPRES
how to solve sudoku

[dave1001]

I still haven;t seen bit o lit but how can you possible gte bored with sudoku?

dave WEBPRES
http://solvesudoku.net