The story seems innocent enough. A new contest for writers. Send in a book length manuscript get chosen and receive a publishing contract. An age old, time tested marketing theme.The problem is this story is not about publishing, books or publishers this story is about a social networking site that has turned up its pr engine.These days social networking is a hot play, publishing is not. With the recent mega-payment buy outs of MySpace and YouTube the social network sector is a blaze with websites trying to follow the formula and cash out.There is a good chance Gather.com is one...
Bookselling 2.0 : The Bookseller Manifesto. Part II
In Part I one of Book Patrol’s Bookseller Manifesto we talked about the shifting landscape of bookselling and the challenges that both the new book and non-new book industry face. We also talked about the need for new definitions for the various guises of bookselling. In Part II we offer some thoughts and ideas on what needs to be done for bookselling to prosper in the 21st Century.Step 1Our first order of business is to accept the fact that independent bookselling as we know it is on its death bed. Period. The model has been severely disturbed by the changes...
Take My Library, Please
Talk about wanting to move onArtist Robin Pacific has had a tough couple of years and is doing away with her library as a way to sever herself from her past.A biblo-cleanse if you will.Pacific, a former professor of English, Canadian literature, Theatre and Women's Studies, is exorcising her library of 30 years through an exhibit/installation at the Red Head Gallery in Toronto.Details:-All the books are free-Collection of 1670 books-Includes rare, out-of-print and general books-Books are hung laundry-like from their spines on string-Each book bears the inscription: "This book is a gift for you from Robin Pacific."-Disposable cameras available to...
Free Books for the Masses
As part of Edinburgh's citywide reading campaign, One Book - One Edinburgh, 25,000 books will be given away free to its citizens!One must appreciate the Utopian seeds in such a gesture but it is also an idea laden with Orwellian overtones.Here's the deal:-"The books will be handed out free to everyone from coffee shops to schools and libraries in a bid to get as many people as possible reading the same book at the same time".-25,000 copies in three new editions of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped have been published for this event - a paperback, a new graphic novel by...
Naked Man Bookseller
Book Patrol's new entry in the YouTube Hall of Fame.Must be something in the desert.