Adobe Slim-Fast

Posted by trav in Media      No comments

Aug
31

There’s a neat topic posted over on Osprey Design’s Foreword blog about using PhotoShop to doctor photos of people. The instance under review is the Katie Couric image that ran in a CBS magazine.

Old is new again

Posted by trav in Book Talk, News      No comments

Aug
30

Starting this morning, Google Books is offering downloads of “entire works”, for free. For the past two years Google has been working with university liabraries from California, Michigan, England and a few in between. They have digitized anything and everything. Today, Google posted all of their copies of “public domain” books.

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Harkening back?

Posted by trav in Book Talk      No comments

Aug
29

The folks over at the Penguin blog are dropping hints that Viking may start up a new novel … in serial series style. That’d be cool if they can deliver a compelling story to keep you coming back.

It’ll be interesting to see what they do and who they get to do it!

Skipping out on booksellers

Posted by trav in Bookstores      1 comment

Aug
28

Publishers Weekly is reporting a new Penguin’s new campaign to directly sell its titles to customers. According to the article you can buy all their titles at 25% off from their website until Labor Day. But the Penguin site doesn’t reflect this sale yet, that I can find.
I wonder how booksellers feel about being under cut by their supplier?

Need a date?

Posted by trav in Upcoming Titles      No comments

Aug
28

I just read in the Guardian Unlimited that Bill Bryson’s new book The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid (published by Broadway Books, an imprint of Random House) will hit store shelves on September 12th, but Amazon still has it listed as October 17th.

The paperback is slated for release in May 2007.

Don’t forget…

Posted by trav in Book Talk, On the TV      No comments

Aug
25

to check out the Book TV schedule for the weekend.

And if you have the means, mark your calendar for September 30th in Washington DC. That’s the day of the National Book Festival. So far 70+ authors have committed to appear. That list is here, but no schedule yet, of which ones will be signing. If you make it up there let me know. I’d love to post pics and hear about it. I can’t make it, but I’ll get to make up there one of these years.

Vote now!

Posted by trav in Book Talk, Media      No comments

Aug
24

The Quills list has been released. This book award show is televised and sponsored/supported by all the major media conglomerates.

Basically everybody gets to vote on their favorite books and the books with the most votes wins. You can vote for your faves here. The polls close on September 30th.
The site also shows videos from last year’s award show. Here’s a list of the 2005 Quills winners.

The 2006 Quills will be shown on NBC, October 10th from New York City.

Author arrested

Posted by trav in Authors, News      No comments

Aug
24

Like many in Birmingham I went to the Joshilyn Jackson signing Between, Georgia, at the Alabama Booksmith, back in July. This was about three weeks before Jackson was ARRESTED on August 10th!!!

Was Jackson a criminal mastermind? Was Jackson really a raving madperson posing as a sunday school teaching soccer mom that writes books on the side to help ends meet?
Nope. Jackson’s crime was that her “papers were not in order”.

Sounds like something from a Hogan’s Heroes episode doesn’t it?

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Six degrees of…

Posted by trav in Book Talk, On the Web      No comments

Aug
21

There’s a new online tool for tracking down authors similar to those near and dear to your heart. Just type in your fave scribe into the The Literature Map and it will form a breathing author cloud around that person. By measuring proximity, you can judge who this program things you’ll enjoy most.

Thanks to Book, Inq. and Books, Words, and Writing for letting everyone know about this.

Book Break-Beats

Posted by trav in Authors, Book Talk      No comments

Aug
21

Apparently, some big name authors are tossing in soundtracks with their books now?!?!? Somehow I’ve missed this trend, but GalleyCat pulls it all together from WSJ articles and blogs.

Folks like James Patterson, Michael Connelly,Lemony Snicket and Bret Easton Ellis are tossing in the tunes with their books. Most of the cd’s are just collections of songs we’ve all heard but may be “inspired by” the book? Some of the authors offer “listening lists” on their sites too.
I’m betting we’ll see more of this cross-media manipulation as behemoth companies gobble up all the music and book companies under one roof. It’d be a boon if they could use their books to sell cd’s and cd’s to sell their books.

We’ll just have to wait and see if this trend will succeedor flop.