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The Casual Optimist Posts

Published November 14, 2008

Something for the Weekend

After a week of feeling gloomy about publishing, here are a few links to some less apocalyptic book-related stories that I’ve been reading:

“Your…fucking…book” : Author Michael Lewis, who just happened to chronicle Wall Street’s excess in the 80’s in his book Liar’s Poker, tries to figure out what the hell just happened for Portfolio magazine (via kottke):

“This was what they had been waiting for: total collapse… Lehman Brothers had vanished, Merrill had surrendered, and Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were just a week away from ceasing to be investment banks. The investment banks were not just fucked; they were extinct.”

Did someone just say ‘Schadenfreude’? Well, I guess it is reassuring that there’s an industry more fucked than publishing… Anyway, Lewis is apparently writing a book about the whole financial crisis…

Contempt for the beautiful losers: Slate‘s Ron Rosenbaum goes to town on BuzzMachine’s Jeff Jarvis (author of the forthcoming book What Would Google Do?) taking in journalism, new media, publishing, the Frankfurt Book Fair, and “New Age boilerplate mysticism” of Paulo Coelho on the way:

“If Jarvis values books (and I can’t help think that despite all the digital bluster, he’s an intelligent guy who likes reading), do we just listen to the market and focus-group what we should print and give away, which is likely to result in all Coelho, all the time, with maybe a little bit of Jarvis thrown in?”

Inevitably you can already read Jarvis’ response on his blog. Despite all the overblown cattiness, it’s actually an interesting argument. (via fimoculous)

More Information Than You Require: Former literary agent turned author John Hodgman, best known for playing PC in those increasingly misfiring Apple commercials, interviewed by The Book Bench blog:

“I believe that by releasing ‘passing interest/low keepsake-value literature’ from the burden of physicality, you are actually releasing the words from their worst liability: the price and inconvenience of actual bookness.”

“Lord Death Man”: PowellsBooks.Blog previews  Chip Kidd’s latest pet project Bat-Manga! (pictured).

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Published November 13, 2008

Not Quite A Crisis

According Carolyn Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, a worse publishing environment may be on the way, reports Publishers Weekly:

Reidy said she hesitated to use the word “crisis” but “there is no question that we are currently dealing with a set of problems that will test us to our limits.” Critical issues facing publishers included: significant decrease in retail traffic, less consumer purchasing, a gloomy economic forecast, declining backlist sales, brand name authors continuing to sell but “everything else is far off normal levels,” and retail partners who demand more favorable terms and concessions “as if we are the answer to their problems,” she said. Other pre-existing problems she enumerated include retailers competing with publishers, low barriers to self-publishing, and the economics of digital publishing that appear to bring in less revenue.”

Tough times indeed, but it is not quite the end of the world apparently. Although publishers must adapt to new realities, and change business practices, the current situation is an opportunity rather than a threat:

“now we have the chance to actually find the reader where they are spending their time—in front of a screen—and cement a relationship with them through e-mail newsletters, viral marketing, mobile delivery and other tools.” Publishing survives, she noted, because readers have a fundamental need for information, inspiration, and entertainment, “and they get that in a book, directly from an author, in an unfiltered way that they cannot get from any other medium.”

Notably, Reidy urges publishers to make entire catalogues available as e-books and to create adopt print-on-demand when a title’s  sales begin to slow.

Link

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Published November 11, 2008

Bracing for the Worst

“[E]veryone in publishing is bracing for a difficult holiday season while trying to remain optimistic about the enduring allure of books.”

Motoko Rich looks at the recent spate of publishing lay-offs, and what holiday season holds for the book industry, in today’s New York Times:

“I think that people have not been reading for the past year because they’ve been checking political blogs every 20 minutes,” said Larry Weissman, a literary agent. “At some point I think people are going to say, ‘You know what, this is not nourishing.’ I think and I hope — and maybe it’s just blind hope — I think there is a yearning for authenticity out there, and people are going to go back to the things that really matter, and one of those things, I hope, will be reading books.”

Link

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Published November 10, 2008

Monday Miscellany, Nov 10th, 2008

Think, study, then post: David D. Perlmutter, author of Blogwars, discusses slow blogging on the Oxford University Press blog:

“many of the bloggers I interviewed talked about the need to feed the blog that is, if you don’t put up 2 to 3 new posts a day you lose your audience. But fast anything, unless you’re competing in the Olympics, is not necessarily the road either to author or audience fulfillment.”

I love this idea, I’m just not very good at it or, perhaps, just a bit too good judging by the number of posts in my ‘drafts’ folder! Must try harder… (via the excellent ReadySteadyBlog by the way)

The business elite still love print according to a Folio magazine survey:

“Top American business executives spend a lot of time worrying about the volatile economic climate—and a lot of time consuming media, with a vast majority of them clinging to print.”

Ghosts in the House! Written and illustrated by Kazuno Kohara.
Ghosts in the House! Written and illustrated by Kazuno Kohara.

The Best Illustrated Children’s Books 2008:  a slide show of the New York Times picks (pictured).  The NYT‘s Children’s Books Special Issue is here.

A bitter-sweet love: writer Ellen Jordan discusses her coffee addiction in a essay in The Age:

“I wonder whether I’m afraid to write without coffee, afraid that every good sentence I’ve ever written came out of some mysterious alchemy of coffee and my mind. If I write with nothing, or with some pallid juice or herbal tea or decaf, will I discover that alone I have no talent?”

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Published November 10, 2008

Print Isn’t Quite Dead Yet Apparently

Even though the internet played an unprecedented part in the US presidential election campaign (at least according to Adrianna Huffington), Barak Obama’s historic victory sparked a run on the old-fashioned newspaper the following day. Papers increased their print-runs, but newsstands still sold out, and copies of the New York Times sold on sale ebay at inflated prices. Sam Martin at Design Mind has an facinating take at what this means for print:

“If print is dead – a rumor that has been going around for quite a few years now – why are so many people still interested in it?

It would be folly to say print is relevant because of a single day of big sales. To me it’s more of a testament to the quality, longevity, and emotion that’s still attached to print… True, you can keep a PDF on your computer or bookmark an article to remember later. But nothing compares to the long term impact of something you can hold in your hands.”

Link (via DesignNotes)

(Photograph of Barak Obama seen at The Big Picture)

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Published November 6, 2008

Media’s Last Die Hard?

The full transcript of Victoria Barnsley’s speech ‘Media’s Last Die Hard?’ (mentioned yesterday) is now available on The Bookseller website:

“the pivotal question for publishers, as we confront the opportunities and threats of digitisation, isn’t a reductive one – it isn’t about asking if the physical book is dead.  It’s about asking, what we’re going to be doing, in the next 10 years, to engage with an increasing number of digital natives – writers and readers alike, while at the same time, building rich temples of content, in all their printed or electronic glory.”

Essential reading.

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Published November 5, 2008

Midweek Miscellany, Nov 5, 2008

Konigi has posted a ‘small’ sampling of international front page newspaper coverage of the US Presidential Election (pictured) .   The US Sources are here. It’s hard not to be swept up in the excitement today. Breathtaking. (via SwissMiss)

“Publishing: Media’s Last Diehard?”: James Bridle (apt/booktwo)  has posts his v. interesting notes from a talk at the London School of Economics given by HarperCollins CEO Victoria Barnsley. More at The Bookseller.

“Seven hundred friends, and I was drinking alone”: Toronto author Hal Niedzviecki discovers the fickleness of Facebook friends in the New York Times (via DesignNotes).

Doubleday Dismissals Were Self-Inflicted: The New York Observer examines the recent lay-offs at Random House’s DoubleDay division and looks at the career of their publisher Steve Rubin (via Sarah Weinman).

Science Fiction and Fantasy editor Lou Anders interviewed on the Amazon blog Omnivoracious. What’s the hardest part of his job?

“Saying no to a piece of sheer brilliance because I know that the audience for it is about 200 people. I don’t for a minute believe that commercial and literary concerns are mutually exclusive … But not every worthy work has commercial potential. Trying to find books that fire on all cylinders means saying no to a lot of competent fiction that only fires on one or two. Being determined not to compromise on quality while still being commercially viable means that I am hunting in a very narrow bandwidth and have to read hundreds upon hundreds of submissions to find a very few prizes. I worry that a lifetime of saying no is bad for my karma, and have to remind myself that its the yes that the readers see and they are who I am serving.”

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Published November 3, 2008

Monday Miscellany, Nov 3rd, 2008

The extraordinarily cool binding for Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (Ubu the King), a collaboration between bookbinder Mary Reynolds and Marcel Duchamp, as seen at blog.rightreading (pictured).

Editor Chuck Adams interviewed in the November Poets & Writers Magazine. A very interesting–albeit very commercial–perspective:

“For too long, in New York, we’ve been in this culture of publishing what we like and not what readers want. Hopefully, we’ll come around to trying to understand what people really want to read so we can interest them in reading in the first place.

He also makes a very telling point about the problem of homogeneity of publishing:

“We don’t encourage a diversity of people in the business. We don’t. We just want more of the same because they’re the ones who can afford to work in it.”

I couldn’t agree more…

Not content with Bastards With Bookshops , Bastards With Bookshops 2,  and Yet More Bastards With Bookshops , Bookride has gleefully provided guidelines to help aspiring bastard-booksellers achieve their dream. Like they need the help… My personal favourite:

“Greet the customer with a glower, a scowl or a look of deep mistrust. If you are feeling generous a frosty ‘Good Morning! will suffice.”

Following Chapters-Indigo in Canada, Barnes and Noble have launched a social networking site ‘My B&N’ in the US.

Agent Kate Lee interviewed at HarperStudio’s 26th Story:

“I think the building or seeding of buzz online is important–as with film, music or TV, word of mouth is invaluable.  That buzz can come through building relationships with bloggers, writing posts that you then try to get linked to, starting up a social network or “fan” group, and/or creating original online content.  The main thing is just to be out there–be writing, be posting, be Twittering, be engaging in conversation with other people in the blogosphere.”

A fascinating half-hour interview with novelist John Le Carre from BBC Radio 4’s Front Row.

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Published October 31, 2008

El Anden Thrillers

Perhaps TWO posts about beautiful book jackets in one day is too much, but I just adore these gorgeous covers by Cristóbal Schmal:

El Anden Thriller

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Published October 31, 2008

Obsessive Cover Design

I normally have an aversion to white, grime-attracting covers (it’s the ex-bookseller in me), but I love, love, love this cover for Obsession: A History by Lennard J. Davis, designed by Isaac Tobin (as seen at  The Book Design Blog):

It’s another great cover that doesn’t entirely rely on photoshop wizardry – the lettering was apparently created by illustrator Lauren Nassef, using pinpricks through heavy cardstock.

There are more great covers designed by Isaac at his website. Lauren’s work is also  lovely.

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Published October 27, 2008

Monday Miscellany, Oct 27th, 2008

A day at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto and I’m running a wee bit behind, but–better late than never–here’s an evening edition of Monday Miscellany…

Ex-Penguin designer David Pearson  hopes to “reaffirm traditional methods of book production” with his new venture White Books according the Creative Review:

“Working on the premise that the ‘classics’ are usually the books that are treasured most, we’re aiming to create a package that stands a chance of ageing as gracefully as the writing within. Owing to the arrival of eBooks, many have prophesied the death of the printed word but we see this simply as an opportunity to turn the spotlight back on the traditional methods and to luxuriate in the craft and tactility of the physical book and the printed page.”

More on White Books at The Bookseller.

David Ulin sees a silver lining in the economic downturn (when am I allowed to start calling it a recession?) in the LA Times:

No more will publishers or writers have time or money for ephemera. During the Great Depression, even popular literature got serious: The 1930s saw the birth of noir. As the money dries up, so too, one hopes, does the gadabout nature of literary culture, the breathless gossip, all the endless hue and cry… [W]ith hard times upon us, it doesn’t seem too much to ask that this signal the start of a more stripped down, less self-absorbed period, in which we set aside the sound and fury and focus on the writing rather than the noise.

But this was the money quote for me:

“Don’t get me wrong: I’m all in favor of new technology, new delivery systems, new venues where the conversation about literature might take place. But the unrelenting insistence on newness has led down any number of blind alleys, perhaps most distressingly the ridiculous (and ongoing) print-versus-Web non-controversy, which has been promulgated almost exclusively by the least insightful people on both sides.”

Yes. Yes indeed.

Agent and former publisher Larry Kirshbaum at the HarperStudio’s The 26th Story:

“I would like to see publishers doing more marginal titles electronically — with creative Internet promotion —  as their test market, then go to print if there’s a sufficient response. This is not just a matter of ecology (e.g. avoiding waste), it’s promoting the idea that every book that is published physically will get significant attention by the publisher, the retailer and hopefully the consumer.”

Writer Al Alvarez’s awesome looking chair (pictured).

Author and controversial critic James Wood talks about his recent book How Fiction Works on KCRW’s Bookworm:

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Published October 23, 2008

My Internet (or the importance of contact information)

Ben Terrett’s My Internet (redesigned and posted by Michael at DesignNotes):

My internet also includes clearly accessible contact details from the word go. It’s amazing how often we (marketing monkeys, publishers, media types) get this wrong. My internet doesn’t include contact forms either. I would like to email a person please.

And don’t even get me started on Flash…

Link

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