At the heart of it all, I’m a fan. A fan of books and bookstores. A fan of fiction and non-fiction. A fan of authors and publishers. And most of all I’m a fan of great conversations sparked by books. All that to say - I really need more bookshelves.
Big companies shouldn’t be allowed to own anything. Too much corruption and they’re often too big for anyone to really know what’s going on. That’s what leads to bankruptcy and the layoffs.
The money is not always the best. But I know a lot of people who work for small companies and small presses and they always seem happier and have a more stable job. I think there’s a lesson to be learned there.
Over the past couple of weeks Random House and Harper Collins have released web-based apps/widgets that are allowing folks to do some pretty cool things.
They both are offering ways for you to embed “Browse Inside” and “Search Inside” features of books into your own blog. If you’ve ever used Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature then you get the idea.
I haven’t put these new offering through their paces yet, but I have to say that I’m pretty excited.
There’s plenty of talk of “the end of the book” and all that. I don’t buy it. But folks in the book biz better get on board with these new ways to “repurpose” “realign” and deliver content in “chunks” if they want to keep their head above water. Either way, these new tools are cool!
Lulu.com has announced this year’s shortlist. Fifteen books total. Six fiction, six nonfiction and three comics titles. I didn’t know that web-comic sites were eligible. I’m going to have to pick up a copy of a Lulu book someday to see if they really are just as good as books vetted by publishing pros. Though the panel of judges this year seem to know a lot about content and power blogging.
I guess I’ve just been brainwashed, but I really do like knowing that someone has edited and thoughtfully published the book I’m considering buying and not just formatted a bunch of ramblings. But then I haven’t read one, so I could be way off base. We’ll just have to see who wins this year.
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Chip Kidd. He has the guts and vision to take cover deisgn into those off-kilter areas that really grab your attention and represent the book entirely.
Thanks to a post over at fade theory, I got to watch Kidd deliver a recent book design talk in New York. And now I pass that link on to you. Enjoy!
