Books at the Block Party: The Economics and Outcomes of a Local Literary Economy

Stephanie Anderson is the Head of Readers’ Advisory at the Darien Library and has been in the book industry for over ten years, most recently as the manager of WORD, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn. She also blogs as Bookavore, reviews children’s books for Shelf Awareness, and runs the country’s only nerd basketball league.

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Dan Blank is the founder of WeGrowMedia.com where he has worked with hundreds of writers, helping them build an audience for their books, and ensures their work has an impact with readers that builds a lasting legacy. He teaches online courses in author platform development, digital content strategy and marketing, as well as runs in-person workshops and provides consulting services for both writers and publishers.

Dan has worked with both traditionally published bestselling authors as well as first-time writers self-publishing their work. He has worked for companies such as Workman Publishing, Perseus Books Group, The Kenyon Review, Writers House, F&W Media, Writers Digest, Library Journal, Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, Mediabistro and others. He speaks regularly at writing and publishing conferences including BookExpo America, Writer’s Digest Conference, AWP, Thrillerfest, Digital Book World, SCBWI, NYU Center for Publishing, James River Writers, Grub Street’s The Muse & Marketplace, and many others.

You can find Dan via his blog at http://WeGrowMedia.com, on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DanBlank, and on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/danblank2).

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Rachel Fershleiser works on Tumblr’s strategic outreach team, specializing in publishing, nonprofit, and cultural organizations. Previously she was the Community Manager at Bookish and the Director of Public Programs at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. She is also the co-creator of Six-Word Memoirs and co-editor of the New York Times Bestseller Not Quite What I Was Planning, and three other books. Her writing has appeared in the anthology My Parents Were Awesome and in The Village Voice, New York Press, Print, Los Angeles Times, National Post, Salon.com, Fray Quarterly and several amazing print and online publications you’ve never heard of.

She is passionate about drawing connections between online and IRL literary community.

Kassia Krozser, publisher of Booksquare.com, covers the intersection of technology and publishing. She serves on advisory boards for several publishing start-ups, presents at conferences such as Tools of Change for Publishing, Digital Book World, and South by Southwest, has appeared on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and contributes to various industry publications.

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Called “A publishing visionary” by The Huffington Post and Mashable, Kevin Smokler is the author of forthcoming essay collection “Practical Classics: 50 Reasons the Reread 50 Books you Haven’t Touched Since High School” (Prometheus Books, Feb. 2013) and the editor of “Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times,” A San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book of 2005. His work has appeared in the LA Times, Fast Company, Paid Content, The San Francisco Chronicle, Publishers Weekly and National Public Radio.

Kevin Smokler sits on the advisory boards of SXSW Interactive, Salon97 and Symbolia Magazine and speaks on the future of media and culture at companies (AOL), conferences (SXSW, The Idea Festival) and universities (M.I.T, Stanford, University of Michigan) throughout North America.

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