The Guardian is reporting that Norman Mailer will be appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival via the LongPen.Mailer, who is 84, says the "Triple As', age, asthma and arthritis" make traveling very difficult, forcing him to "cancel his trip to the "great luminous grey city" Edinburgh."Catherine Lockerbie, a spokeswoman for the festival, says Mailer's canceled visit has become "an opportunity to showcase the LongPen system."Queen LongPen Margret Atwood will be in attendance. She is scheduled to interview fellow Canadian Alice Munro and then "coordinate a trans-oceanic book signing."George over at Bookninja has his take on the story complete with...
Changing Reading Habits
"Insomniacs used to read, but now they turn on TV and there's 200 channels, with everything from the pope saying mass in Brazil to Girls Gone Wild to QVC selling cheap diamonds" - John Shaver talking about the closing of his shop, Shaver's Books in Huntsville, Alabama, after almost 20 years in business."Your heart can lie to you, but your balance sheet won't...The numbers reached out to me and said, 'John, it's time.'" says Shaver.Shaver also points out that the old mantra for retail success - location, location, location has now evolved to price, price, price and there is no...
Simon & Schuster 2.0
Simon and Schuster has been on the loose lately.In January they partner with Gather.com and Borders for a nationwide literary contest that reeked of American Idol. They framed it this way "Publisher Leverages Power of Social Media to Find America's Next Great Writer"Then they go ahead and Long Tail their standard author contract so that technically a book never goes out-of-print.and now they've launched the ambitious BookVideos.tv. A "social media video site...where you can engage with the literary community on a whole new level."All the books on the BookVideos.tv website are available for sale directly from S&S. They provide you...
The Death of the Bookend?
Furniture designer Leo Kempf was interested in designing a piece of furniture using a new technique. He came up with a "process of bending plywood to create a simple curve." He then inserted these curved plywood shelves into a red hardwood main beam to create The Gravity Bookshelf.The bookshelf "is ideal for holding books securely without the need for bookends."It works by "gravity gently press[ing] the books into the shelf, creating a very simple, clean, and unique piece of furniture"Thanks to LibraryPlanet for the lead
Hardbacks Take a Hit Limited Editions Get a Lift
guardian piece on hb