Every year, literary agents and marketers from around the world gather in a hotel conference room on the edge of the airport corridor. This is thanks to a New Jersey magazine, which has recently undergone a complete redesign
BookCAMP magazine is a niche publication for (independent) authors, self-publishers, hybrid publishers and the publishing professionals who work with them. Unlike many writing magazines that caters to all comers, BookCAMP focuses on the practicalities of books: content development, book design, metadata, distribution, etc. The magazine is published 5 times a year by Printed Word Reviews, and features articles and interviews with publishing professionals and independent writers.
The man behind many of these efforts is Ted Olczak, who balances his time between publishing/marketing executives and organizing book related events in New Jersey. This is an important qualification for someone in the book publishing world, since too often, the people running magazines and other media outlets have little direct experience in the industry. In fact, the ability to straddle both worlds is what makes many of these magazines so successful. This is the same quality that makes BookCAMP stand out from other similar magazines.
The most notable of these is the IPA’s BookCAMP & Literary Book Fair, an annual conference that takes place at DoubleTree by Hilton hotel chain near Newark Airport. It is common for conferences of this sort to be held in centers of gravity, places that are desirable for people to meet at. In this case, the organizers have taken advantage of the fact that New Jersey is a convenient middle ground between the East and West coasts and a great place to meet for international visitors: flights to and from the area are easy on both time and money for people arriving from either direction. In other words, New Jersey is the perfect compromise for people who want to meet in person but find it hard to get together due to the sheer distance involved.
Meanwhile, the conferences themselves are all about facilitating meetings between agents and publishers who might not have met otherwise. Talks by marketing experts provide valuable perspective on what actually works and doesn’t work, while still focusing on the basics of business development. This is a unique mix that manages to avoid the traps of both the purely inspirational and the purely transactional conference environments. The combination is a winning one that leaves attendees with both business contacts and the knowledge of how to engage with the publishing world (or, for many, to get their work noticed in the first place). I’ve been to many conferences, and this is probably the most useful one I’ve ever seen.
Meanwhile, the magazine itself has also seen a major redesign. This is also a good sign, one that suggests momentum and energy in the organization. The new edition promises to bring in some notable voices, such as Brian O’Leary, Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group. O’Leary is well regarded for his writings on the future of publishing, and his column provides much needed perspective on the forces shaping the industry. In addition, the new edition also features a serialized work of fiction, the For Racial Healing by J. Chester Johnson. It is always refreshing to see book magazines that are willing to go above and beyond in promoting literature, and serializing a full-length work of fiction goes far beyond what other magazines typically offer. Finally, it should also be noted that in addition to the redesign, the magazine will also be featuring a more extensive free webinar series while also updating the awards platform as part of the larger Independent Press Award network. This means the magazine continues to evolve and serve the needs of the independent publishing community. And that’s really what this all is about, isn’t it?
The independent publishing world has always been somewhat diffuse enterprise that required people to get serious about doing things their own way. Ted Olczak and his colleagues are providing much needed infrastructure for the emerging independent publishing world. It is unlikely to replace traditional publishing and its powerful vertical integration anytime soon, but what it does is provide a sort of professional home for independent writers, helping them connect with others in both the online and physical worlds. It is hard to overstate how important such a service is, which is why I think New Jersey’s role in facilitating this particular segment of the economy is noteworthy. Not only do we have the physical space for conferences to happen, but we also have the critical mass of infrastructure that allows businesses to grow and thrive.
