The 3rd Annual Student Book Collecting Contest, over in Tuscaloosa, is under way. Both graduate students and undergraduate students have until March 27th to catalog and submit their entries. There is an essay to write and it turns out that 80% of the book collection, er, must be books… hmmm. Seems they are allowing some cd’s and dvd’s to be included… anyway… there are cash prizes with the 1st Place winner getting $500 and a chance to compete in Fine Books & Collections annual competition.
Awards are April 16th at Gorgas Library and might just be worth the drive from Birmingham, if the collectors show enough creativity and fun with their book collections.
I love this idea of “subscription publishing”. Beyond the fantastic economic plusses (ie impact to cash, scaled print runs, etc.) it seems a great way to build buzz and get people looking forward to a body of work, not just once, but again and again. Small indie publisher Featherproof Books (publisher of local Birmingham author Susannah Felts) is trying such a model, with the launch of a new imprint Paper Egg Books.According to Publishers Weekly:
All print runs will be determined by the number of subscribers who sign up for the program; they will pay $20 per year to receive two books — either a novella, flash-fiction or short story collection — one in the fall, the other in the spring.
You don’t have to look far to find someone crying “print is dead”. But it’s not. It’s just going through a very long overdue (and stressful) evolution. Or maybe de-evolution? It seems that most of Charles Dickens work was serialized “back in the day” and it worked out well for him. Last year, Penguin released The Glass Books of the Dream Eatersin serial form first and built quite a following in Britain. Though it didn’t work out so well here in the States.So best of luck to the crew at Featherproof, we’re all watching!
Yet another edition of Cover Revisionist History, a designer has redesigned the Harry Potter books as Penguin Classics editions. I have a confession to make: I have not read the Harry Potter books (but I have seen almost all the movies, if that counts). But from what I remember, the images chosen for the covers are iconic enough to work. What’s really fun is that the designer says”Due to multiple requests I am making these images available as prints”. So that’s cool. I wish more of what I find when trolling the interwebs could be mounted on my wall.
