At Business Week, Sarah Lacy writes about a topic “near and dear” to her: how publishing can adapt and “stay everywhere” in the wake of changing social media and Web 2.0 applications: “A way to do that is to ensure that publishing learns how to exploit the full benefits of the social media tools now taking hold of the Web. Newspapers dragged their heels and look what’s happening to them. As great as the Kindle is, publishing has a long way to go.” Her five lessons for the industry include looking to Yelp, Digg and Twitter for ways to “make […]
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Craigslist Ad Solicits Fake Author Autographs
A recent ad on Craigslist is soliciting people to sign copies of a newly released book on behalf of two authors who wish to remain anonymous. These “ghost signings” might net up to 14 lucky people $25 per 200 books signed, which has Gawker wondering: “with all the celebrity titles in circulation, this surely can’t be a brand-new phenomenon, but has anyone ever been quite so cheap and brazen about it?” Gawker
Amazon Exclusive on Obama Book Brings Repercussions
Chelsea Green’s plan to offer Robert Kuttner’s OABAMA’S CHALLENGE exclusively through Amazon for the first two weeks of publication, further driven by coupons for a 25-percent discount to be distributed at the Democratic convention, has backfired in a big way. Following expressions of concern and anger from independent booksellers–a group Chelsea Green has cultivated carefully in the past through such programs as their green partner stores–Barnes & Noble has substantially cut their order for the book. BN noted in a statement that “Chelsea Green Publishing has taken an unprecedented action to restrict the availability of Robert Kuttner’s ‘Obama’s Challenge’ by […]
Book Review Woes Extend to Canada
Readers of the Saturday edition of the Globe and Mail were surprised to discover the books pages were missing. The day before, the paper had run a note explaining that section was “on hiatus” for two weeks because its editors, Martin Levin and H.J. Kirchoff, are in need of a vacation. But coming on the heels of the Toronto Star cutting its books pages in half (from four pages to two) and the recent cuts to seven arts-granting programs by the Conservative government, some are beginning to wonder if the Globe’s move isn’t a trial run for more permanent cuts […]
ZYZZYVA'S Improbable Success Story
A page one story in yesterday’s LA Times featured San Francisco literary magazine ZYZZYVA and its founder Howard Junker, who will retire as editor of the magazine at the end of 2009. Junker began the magazine in 1985 as “a redemptive gesture, something that I thought I could do and that I could admire. It was like a midlife crisis.” And even Junker is amazed at how the magazine has stayed afloat when the print run (2,500 copies) remained the same: “People give money to pay me. “They are kind enough and courageous enough and silly enough to say, ‘We […]
Fox's "Watchmen" Lawsuit Carries On
A judge has denied a Warner Bros. motion to dismiss 20th Century Fox’s lawsuit over Warners’ right to make a film based on the graphic novel “Watchmen” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The ruling keeps alive the possibility Fox may share in the profits for the film, slated for release in March 2009, though the studio really wants the project to be cancelled outright. “When you have copyright infringement, there are some damages you never recover,” a source close to the litigation told Variety. At the heart of Fox’s suit, filed in February, is the contention that it never […]