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September 21, 2006
Arranging Books By Color
Michael Nolan's post at the Peachpit Commons this morning, On Arranging Books By Color, reminded me of this cool project a few years ago at San Francisco's Adobe Bookshop. Artist Chris Cobb re-arranged the entire bookstore stock by color. It looked awesome (from the photos, alas I only saw photos). The project is linked from Michael's post, and here's an article on the project at Silverfish, Linked.
Posted by matt at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2006
Convenience and Quality: Peter Osnos
Found via Mediabistro, this short post, Convenience and Quality, from noted publisher Peter Osnos.
The Caravan Project is simultaneously releasing books in multiple formats. Peter writes
"About two dozen books will be released simultaneously in the traditional printed version in hardcover or paperback supplemented, if necessary to keep the book in ready supply, by the latest version of print-on-demand technology. At the same time, the book will be available in digital formats for reading on computers (desk, lap, and hand) either in full or in parts. An audio version will be read by its author or a professional reader and downloadable on to your favored listening device. Finally (at least so far) the books will be rendered in a large-type format."
That's really cool and a great experiment, though it's odd to think that it's groundbreaking. I know there's a strong economic incentive to release in hardcover first, and that makes sense, but what's so revolutionary about releasing multiple formats?
What's funny to me is that the book industry (including its bloggers and reporters) seems oblivious to that fact that the tech market has been way out front with alternative publishing strategies, from ebook subscriptions services such as Safari or Books24X7 to publishers asking that books be delivered in XML format and therefore ready for all sorts of electronic slicing and dicing from the get-go. Not to mention that for obvious reasons the tech book market is probably the best environment to explore ebooks (note too O'Reilly's Rough Cuts or Pragmatic Programmer's Beta Books. You'd also want to look at companies like Wiley, which is a leader in the electronic journals market.
Of course in the reference world there's more incentive to get information fast and to stay on top of the newest technologies.
Osnos says "Books, particularly the serious nonfiction and specialized works in the Caravan demonstration, have always been limited in distribution. As the technology enables them to be always available in so many different ways, it is fair to predict they will be more widely used."
Yep. That's true. Interestingly, that's also a big selling point for Google's Book Search.
The biggest challenge with multiple formats, and one not solved in the tech market, is piracy. With increasing frequency, books that are available in electronic form are available for download for free on warez sites throughout the world. The hope is always that downloaders will convert to purchasers, but that hasn't happened yet.
Posted by matt at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2006
Miss Snark on The Sobol Prize
Being out, I missed a few things, but I'm happy to see that Miss Snark did the Sobol numbers Friday in her post The Sobol Prize is More than a Crock of Shit.
Yeah, save your money.
Posted by matt at 1:36 PM | Comments (0)
Prize for undiscovered, unpublished, unagented novelists?
On the face of it this is kind of an interesting idea, for an $85 entry fee you can apply for the Sobol Award, a $100,000 cash prize for a novel basically selected from the slush pile and then "represented" by the prize giving agency.
Neat idea, huh?
The Sobol Agency is committed to helping "top-ranking" writers find publishers. I didn't know writers were ranked, but if they were, don't you think they'd be published? The creators of the prize don't acknowledge that the entire publishing world is always on the hunt for that unique, brilliant, unpublished novelist.
I'm sure there are books that sneak through the cracks, but there is not a clique of editors and agents who are trying to keep you from publishing your novel because they're conspiring against you. They just don't think what you've written is marketable.
I tend to agree with the critics cited in this article, which likens this contest to a lottery.
Maybe I'm wrong and they find the next Confederacy of Dunces, but I'm not optimistic. In the meantime, if I were an aspiring novelist I would be writing, reading the best, and working on my craft. And when I was ready I would query reputable, established agencies far and wide for the price of one postage stamp per query.
Posted by matt at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2006
Announcing our newest, highest maintenance client
I'll just go ahead and put this in client news. In theory we control all rights, literary, dramatic and otherwise for 18 years, but I have a feeling that assumption will be put to the test.
Camille Frances Wagner was born Wednesday night -- 6 lbs. 14 ounces of brand new baby girl. Mom and baby are happy and healthy and doing fine. I'm just plain pleased as punch, and punchy to boot.
I'll be back in the office early next week.
Posted by matt at 10:46 AM | Comments (6)
September 7, 2006
Client News and Notes
August was the slowest month (as always) and I took a similar hiatus from blogging, but I'm glad to be back to report more client news.
Congratulations to Christopher Matthew Spencer on the publication of The eBay Entrepreneur: The Definitive Guide to Starting Your Own eBay Trading Assistant Business, published by Kaplan Publishing.
Congratulations to Harold Davis on the Polish language publication of his Digital Photography Digital Field Guide, and the Chinese language publication of his Google Advertising Tools.
And congratulations to Chef Marie-Annick Courtier on completing her portion of The St. Tropez Diet to be published this Fall by Hatherleigh Press.
Thanks for working with me. More news soon!
Posted by matt at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)