I just started reading Jeff Gomez’s Print is Dead. It’s a strong title, but I haven’t even made it half way through the introduction and he’s already opened a paragraph with “While print is not yet dead…”.
It’s going to be hard to argue with someone who gets to have it both ways.
Epicenter Press is living the small press dream… they have stayed focused to their core material/genre and have turned out to be the only publisher with a book about the hottest topic in the US right now… McCain’s pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for VP.
Epicenter, which publishes books on the Pacific Northwest, printed 13,000 Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down, around last April.
Now, thanks to McCain’s nod, they have orders out for 40,000+ more. I bet it’s one big party over there! It’s great when things like this happen to smaller publishers. Here is a company that printed a book they believed there was a market for… a market so small that no big-house publisher would bother serving… and now they are reaping the rewards. Good for them! And it’s another example of why we’re all better off with small presses in the world!
On September 16th, at 6:30pm, The Alabama Booksmith will play host to a live simulcast with author Philip Roth. The Booksmith is one of a handful of venues that will be dialed into the event, allowing visitors to watch Philip Roth and participate in a Q&A with the reclusive author.
According to their site, the Booksmith will have copies of all 29 Roth titles available and will be serving wine (to help fortify your courage to throw out questions to Roth, on this national stage).
Roth’s new title (with a ho-hum so-so cover) drops a couple of weeks from now and is titled Indignation.
The creator of CSI and Dutton are teaming up to produce a new three-book series of “digital novels”. Let me preface this move with a quote from the CSI guy, Anthony Zuiker…
“I personally don’t have the attention economy to read a 250-page crime novel from start to finish.”
So that’s where he is coming from, on this. Zuiker goes on to say that these suspense-thillers will “reward” readers with rich media and video to enhance the reading experience. Basically, Zuiker will write an outline, then a ghost-writer will crank out 100 chapters and then Zuiker will back in and write 20 “cyber-bridges” (how lame-o is that phrase? Is this 1980? -ed.) for people to watch, before continuing on to the next chapter.
Of course, the example they give is a reading up to a crime, then log-on to watch a sex snuff film, and then go back to the book. I do have to concede this to the Hollywood folks… you’ll probably sell more books if you are including websites to watch sex videos.
To be fair, I am all for this type of convergence. It’s interesting how all these media formats merge and play off each other. I just think that this one pitch misses the mark on just about all of it. They really should have planned to do more and dig deeper.
(from Variety)
