Hornby Cover Versions — Some rather beautiful student work by Barcelona-based graphic designer Lucía Castro (although my inner-bookseller gets very twitchy at the thought of those soft off-white covers!). (via Cosa Visuales)
Full of Refusals — Tom McCarthy interviewed for More Intelligent Life:
[C]ontemporary literature has to deal with the challenges laid down by modernism. The most exhilarating and unsettling upheavals took place in the early 20th century, and to ignore them and go back to writing some kitsch version of the 19th-century novel is ostrich-like… I’m suspicious of the term ‘avant-garde’. I think it should be restricted to its strict historical designation: Futurists, Dadaists, Surrealists etc. “Tristram Shandy” and “Motherless Brooklyn” aren’t avant-garde novels; they’re novels.
C by Tom McCarthy will finally available in the US and Canada on September 7th.
A stunningly simple Malevich-like book cover design by Jason Booher and Helen Yentus for the paperback edition Inside the Stalin Archives by Jonathan Brent. First seen at the Book Cover Archive who have just posted a slew of Jason’s covers.
On the subject of the BCA, co-curator Ben Pieratt has recently updated his own design portfolio.
Agile Content — Marny Smith interviews Brian O’Leary of publishing consultants Magellan Media Partners:
[P]ublishers are competing against both established players and new entrants at the same time. The newer players often have much lower costs than we’re used to, making them potentially tough competitors… I’ve been thinking lately that publishers need to work more aggressively on creating agile content that can be discovered and easily reused or recombined. Creating content that is sold in one format just won’t be cost-effective in the future.
And finally…
The cute book trailer for OH NO! Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World written by Mac Barnett illustrated by Dan Santat:
You can find more of Dan’s awesome illustrations on his Flickr:
(via The Ward-O-Matic)