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...
The Devil’s [Publishing] Dictionary
The Devil's Dictionary was Ambrose Bierce's comic take on Noah Webster's Dictionary. It was originally published as the Cynic's Word Book by Doubleday, Page and Company in 1906. The title was later changed when Bierce was editing his collected works in 1911. Since it's publication the concept has spurned hundreds of imitations.The latest versions to hit the blogwaves deal with the book and publishing industry.Here are some highlights:Cover Art - the design of the book jacket, generally produced in-house by the publisher's art department, all of whom are near-sighted psychotics who never actually read the book and routinely forget to...
Book Watch
Historically, the relationship between our eyes and books was a simple one. Our eyes scanned printed pages producing symbols for our brain to work with. We read.Somewhere along the line book design added another visual component to the mix through cover art and dust jacket design. This change was so profound that today most people who are browsing in a bookstore for something to read rate the cover art as the most important factor when purchasing a book.Now we are at the next visual intersection.Videos and books.Lets start with this one from YouTube. A video by lestyoubejudged showing off books...
Books and Boycotts
Here is one for spreading the love this holiday season.Some groups are calling for a boycott of the Chapters and Indigo bookstores in Canada. Seems like the majority owners support a charity for soldiers in the Israeli Army called Heseg the Foundation for Lone SoldiersIsn't a portion of the proceeds from the current government bestseller by the Iraq Study Group going to a charity to help our soldiers families? So if I am against the war and all its collateral damage should I not buy the report?and while we are taking some leaps- since the conservative Rupert Murdoch owns the...