Category Archives: Publishers

Book Talk, Publishers

Palin Profile Pays Off

Leave a comment

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!

Authors, Book Talk, Media, Publishers, Upcoming Titles

Merging Media

Leave a comment

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)

Book Talk, On the Web, Publishers

Twitterati Literati

Leave a comment

yale logoI just started following Yale Univeristy Press on Twitter. Are there other cool publishers that I’m missing? Please pass along if you know of any.

It’s interesting to follow publishers as they move into new areas. It seems most are hesitant to explore things like Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, etc. So I’m glad to see some trying it out and doing a good job at it. And by good job, I mean sending stuff out other than “get 20% off book x this week”.

Press releases are ok, but if I’m following a publishers feed or engaging them via social media it’s because I’m interested in them on a topical level. So far Yale University Press‘ feed is doing that.

Book Talk, Media, New Releases, On the Web, Publishers

Why the Blook indeed

Leave a comment

The uber-popular blog DailyCandy has a new book out. The kick-off party spawned this post, about the blog-to-book movement, from CNET’s Caroline McCarthy. Nothing earth shattering in the post, but through the article and comments you can glean some titles of some recent blook hits and misses, if you’re following those kinds of things.

It all just seems to be marketing driven to me. You tell a sales/marketing person, in any industry, “here’s a group of engaged like-minded folks”, then they are going to try and sell them something. I haven’t found a blog-to-book I liked yet, but there are a few more that I’m willing to give a shot.

{via Joe Wikert} (note: Wikert’s blog is a good read and highly recommended to folks trying to keep up with the evolving book industry.)