June 25, 2008
Literary Classics in Three Lines or less at McSweeney's :-)
Paradise Lost
ADAM: Paradise has arbitrary dietary restrictions?
DEVIL: They're really more like guidelines.
GOD: Incorrect.
Enthusiastically linked.
Posted by matt at 12:10 PM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2008
I can't believe I read the whole thing!
Well this is a poor excuse for breaking radio silence, but I got a huge laugh out of this Galleycat post quoting Jeff Bezos on "hand fatigue."
Yeah, that's the difficulty with reading. Snarf. I just finished Walter Isaacson's Einstein: His Life and Universe (great book btw), and boy my hands are tired - baddaboom.
Posted by matt at 3:43 PM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2007
The ad rocked, Gears of War, Gary Jules and Tears for Fears
The Gears of War TV ad was about the best video game ad I've ever seen, and the game rocked too. Here's the ad again, in this speech about how the eventual viral spread of the ad was entirely unintentional, via Chris Webb.
Microsoft Admits extremely viral Gears of War Ad was unintentional.
I never saw one mashup online, but I wanted to buy the game each time I saw the ad on TV. Frankly, to me the mashups aren't nearly as interesting as the orginal ad, but it's a great marketing story. And for such a gruesome (and fun) game I love that the hook is the simple poem at the heart of the "Mad World" lyrics. It's haunting.
The Gary Jules cover on the ad is an edited down version of the orginal lyrics, roughly:
all around me are familiar faces
worn out places, worn out faces
hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
no tomorrow, no tomorrow
and I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
the dreams in which I'm dying
are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
when people run in circles
it's a very very mad world...
The cover even hit #1 on iTunes.
Posted by matt at 9:12 AM | Comments (0)
May 9, 2007
Scott Kelby Profile in USA Today
Hey, I'm quoted in USA Today this morning as background on this nice profile of Scott Kelby.
I'm responsible for telling reporter Jeff Graham that not many people get rich writing computer books these days, but on the bright side I think what Scott Kelby has done as a Photoshop author and evangelist is inspirational and an excellent model for all sorts of authors who would benefit from thinking of ways to expand their platform and profile.
Jeff notes that I'm in New York, which is off by a fair hair ;-)
I remain the only literary agent in Hangtown, aka Placerville, aka Dry Diggins.
Posted by matt at 9:56 AM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2007
Poetry Out Loud
What a great thing, I have limited fondness for spelling bees but love the idea that kids are getting together and reciting poetry.
The Sacramento Bee has a great piece about Poetry Out Loud this morning, here's the Link.
And here's the website, Poetry Out Loud.
My favorite poem I know by heart? It's a short one, Politics, by William Butler Yeats. Close to the end of his life he decided that it should appear last in his collected poems.
What a finish.
Posted by matt at 9:50 AM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2007
Do you use your public library?
Take the poll at GalleyCat -- Linked.
I've visited mine in the last month. I consider late fees "donations" and I'm a regular customer. Libraries are great for the book business because readers can painlessly discover new genres or authors. Here are a few of the writers whose books I've first borrowed from the library, only to buy many of their books: Bernard Cornwell, Robert Jordan, Barry Eisler, Daniel Silva, and John LeCarre.
Posted by matt at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)
February 22, 2007
Links worth linking
Here's a very cool number site via Tim O'Reilly at the O'Reilly Radar, What's Special About This Number?
This site is great for number geeks. It's great for the number impaired too. Just following this I found myself lost in the Fibonacci Sequence.
Along those lines, I want to rep more math and popular science. If you have a proposal in either arena I'd love to see it.
And here are more great links from Wiley publisher Joe Wikert, who links to Michael Hyatt's recent posts on publishing relationship management.
Joe's post is here.
He'll send you to Michael's distinct posts on the qualities that make for an ideal publisher, author or agent. Quoting Joe, "If you're an author in search of a good agent or publisher, use the (high profit, low maintenance) characteristics checklists Michael provides for each. Don't forget to read the author checklist too... The whole series of posts ought to be required reading for any publishing newbie (and not-so-newbie)."
I agree. Here's my own high profit, low maintenance mantra -- If you want to succeed in this business (and make friends and influence people) you need to be a great partner, do great work, be dependable, be easy to work with, learn to resolve conflicts peaceably, and communicate!
Posted by matt at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2006
Comments are back on!
We had some problems configuring the server with the last spam blockers we installed, but it looks like we have something that works now.
Feel free to post your comments!
It took longer than planned to fix this and I have to thank Chad Smith at Spaceout Media for helping me out. Thanks, Chad!
Posted by matt at 1:29 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2006
Scam _Pet_ Agents?
Avoid fee-charging agents!
Plenty of sites warn writers against fee-charging agents, it turns out that pet owners are furious about an alleged fee-charging pet talent agency, Hollywood Paws.
I love their mangled advertising copy: call for your free copy of "How to train your pet act like a movie star!" (yeah, drink this, take that, let me tell you this about the cat conspiracy.)
Apparently the firm delivered on the training but few of the pets were ever booked for actual shows. I'm not sure if the pet owners are in the right here but if they believed this was their doggie's ticket to fame they should have thought a little harder.
You can find the article at the L.A. Times.
Per Fark, your dog is ready for his close-up.
Posted by matt at 1:55 PM | Comments (0)
What the heck???
Van Wolverton's Running MS-DOS 6.22 is in the top 1000 at Amazon today, currently #22 on the Computer books list between Tufte's Beautiful Evidence and David Busch's Nikon D200 guide.
How the heck did that happen? The book is 12 years old, published in August 1994 and it's not even available at Amazon.
Must be a ghost in the machine. Shows you how useful those Amazon rankings are...
Posted by matt at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)
October 6, 2006
No comments for now
I've been busier with the baby than I've been with the blog over the last month but it's been an increasing headache to deal with blog spam in the comments, so I'm turning off the comments for now until I upgrade and/or add (hopefully non-buggy) captcha to the blog. If there's anything you'd like to comment on or ask, I'm happy to post a response, so please feel free to email me at matt at fresh-books.com. Thanks.
Posted by matt at 1:56 PM | Comments (0)
October 4, 2006
Too Funny, "The Schwarzenegger IMs"
Just a random post but this is too funny in the midst of our election cycle here and the current flap over congressman Mark Foley, The Schwarzenegger IMs via the California Insider.
Posted by matt at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)
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)
August 3, 2006
Ubik, It's everywhere you want to be *
I can't wait to see this.
We've seen so many of the people and places inside his head: finally, a pic about the man himself, Bill Pullman as Philip K. Dick, at Boing Boing.
*alternate title: The future is Philip K. Dick's world, we just live in it.
Posted by matt at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2006
Weird Web 2.0 Take on the Memoir, Dandelife
Via c|net, this is kind of cool if you're an exhibitionist and no-one has picked up your memoir yet, though I'm not sure if it will ever work.
Dandelife is a web 2.0 style timeline generator, but what's most interesting is that according to the article on TechCrunch, "Users will be able to make their stories available for branding by corporate sponsors bidding for content."
I'm sort of with the TechCrunch author, Marshall Kirkpatrick, who says "yes we all have a right to monetize our writing and media content online - but renting out chunks of my life story for corporate branding is not something I’m comfortable with."
But hey, it's another way to be "famous" and connect your Blog, YouTube and Flickr streams, create your own "reality show," write and distribute your own memoir, and maybe find corporate backing to boot.
Posted by matt at 7:58 AM | Comments (0)
June 9, 2006
Pardon me, my gravitas is showing
Andersen Cooper says ""In the TV news business, gray equals gravitas. In fact, in just about any line of work being prematurely gray is an advantage."
I'm ready for my close-up ;-)
Posted by matt at 7:47 AM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2006
Electronic Soul Mates?
via Publisher's Lunch, I like this quote from a recent Jeff Bezos speech in Seattle, this via the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Linked.
"We have even looked at doing things like electronic soul mate where we say here is the person at Amazon who has the closest history to you in terms of purchasing, and by the way here are the five things that they have bought that you haven't."
That sounds very cool, but also kind of, I dunno, icky?
I like to think I'm unique, you know, just like everyone else is.
Of course I'm a voyeur when it comes to other people's purchase histories and I'm a huge fan of "Customers who bought this item also bought." And if I see you walking around the bookstore I can't help but check out your books.
For those with plenty of time on their hands, here's an MP3 of Jeff's speech, Linked.
Posted by matt at 11:22 AM | Comments (1)
February 24, 2006
If your comments didn't post --
I just performed major housekeeping of my comment spam box and found a few valid comments that never made it past the gate.
I'll check this more often in the future and will be sure to "un-junk" any valid posts.
Posted by matt at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2006
Cool, and Not Cool
We use a white board in the kitchen to practice spelling words, equations and to remind our boys about the house rules. You can probably tell we're California parents when you see behaviors listed as either "cool" or "not cool."
Helping is cool, hitting is decidedly not cool, as in
"Hey, that's not cool!"
Asking is cool. Throwing fits is not so cool.
Listening is very cool, and highly underrated, arguing (at least for the sake of argument), is not.
"Uncool" means something entirely different and our kids aren't big enough to know that we're uncool yet.
These are also good tips for getting along with your editor. Taunting, hitting or throwing fits is not cool.
Posted by matt at 8:48 AM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2005
Footprints in time
Publishing of a sort, footprints on an ancient lakebed -- I love this stuff.
"We see children running between the tracks of their parents; the children running in meandering circles as their parents travel in direct lines,"
"It's a most extraordinary snapshot of a moment or several moments in the life of Aboriginal people living on the edge of the lake in western New South Wales 20,000 years ago."
Australian State Environment Minister Bob Debus, quoted on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Posted by matt at 6:34 PM | Comments (0)
October 31, 2005
Happy Halloween
For me, Halloween (and the time change) really marks the change of seasons.
It's time to go to bed early, boys! Time for the Kings to start an epic season. Time to pre-order that next generation game console, and time to order our time sink for those long cold winter nights.
NBA Live 2006 360 is next.
Posted by matt at 8:48 AM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2005
Banned Book Week
Want to exert your first amendment rights?
Read a banned book this week. I'd suggest Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye or the Harry Potter series.
From the titles on this list, it appears that the book banners are most afraid of Judy Blume, sex, homosexuality, and witchcraft, with racial politics close behind.
Posted by matt at 9:13 AM | Comments (0)
August 9, 2005
An Agent and his dog
These being the dog days of summer and somewhat slow here -- what with the kids out of school and many editors on vacation -- I figured I'd introduce myself to those of you who've never met me.
And since we're on the internet, I should confirm that I'm the human.
The Dog is Monty. He's the same brute I wrote about in February. He's doing quite well with cats now, though we still keep him under tight leash indoors as he's pretty goofy and prone to sliding out of control across the floors.
Posted by matt at 8:37 AM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2005
Fresh Books by Satellite
Well, it's really cool to see this satellite view of the Fresh Books World Headquarters, but it's slightly askew and we're actually about one inch below and to the left of the pointer.
For contrast's sake here's Random House, and John Wiley & Sons.
Yeah, it's late Friday afternoon here :-)
Posted by matt at 12:15 PM | Comments (3)
May 16, 2005
I'm playing with Flickr
Convinced by a client that tagging is the way to go, I'm playing with Flickr this afternoon. This is a photo from Gabe and Jonah's first T-Ball uniform session. They're playing for the mighty MuckDogs. Now I'm not sure what I'll use Flicker for, maybe taking pictures of clients' books as they come in, or maybe writer's conferences and Expos, but at least I'll know how to post them.
Posted by matt at 1:30 PM | Comments (2)