‘Perfume Of The Instant’ While writers talk of “color commentary,” they actually mean something not that different from what in music we might call great “colorists” among composers. And in world music, Finland’s composers are surely among those most prized for their work in creating sonic “color.” Einojuhani Rautavaara is perhaps chief among the great… Read More
Eyes Wide Open: Can Canelo Cross The Coals?
If Anybody Should Know This, It’s Publishing People Enough disrupting! Disrupting is the unthinking mantra of technology companies desperate to carve a niche. – Michael Bhaskar During the FutureBook Hack in London last June, Faber Press’ Henry Volans said to me that it’s interesting that “publishing has taken the digital disruption very hard.” As it… Read More
‘Who Decided Our Worth?’ Do Free Books Give Away Authors’ Value?
‘There’s Something Badly Wrong’ For those following the industry! the industry! in its digital melodrama, tossing books to the crowd free is not new. But the question of whether today’s plethora of free offers may devalue books and/or authors in readers’ minds is not going away as easily as some folks wish it would. Roz Morris… Read More
If Writers Don’t #CreditWriters, Who Will?
Science: Breathing Down Your Narrative One reason that writers might want to be sure to credit each other for their work — in tweets, on Facebook, in their own posts and stories — is that there are alternatives not just in the pipeline but on the pages and Web sites of some news outlets near… Read More
The Best Thing About Zuckerberg’s Reading Program: He’s A Guy
Never Say ‘Men Don’t Read’ It may be the publishing world’s most irrational lie. I mean, would you leave half the population’s money on the table? Me, either. But you’ve heard it, of course: “Men don’t read. Doesn’t matter what book you give them. They just don’t read.” Mark Zuckerberg And every time that meme is… Read More
Author Publicists Who Don’t Tweet? And Under Their Own Names? Fire Them.
Two Things Prompted This Irritating Column A clearly lame bid for authors’ hard-earned money for so-called “reader engagement” and book sales. The arrival on Twitter of a brand-new user who is also one of the highest-visibility literary agents in the country. Old scams and new social mediators. I knew it was time to get at… Read More
Music For Writers: Playful Andrew Norman
‘Every Now And Then, I Just Want To Throw A Wrench In’ Imagine the orchestra as this sort of complicated 19th-century futurist machine, all moving parts and cogs and gears, and little people. I find that sort of fascinating. But every now and then, I just want to throw a wrench in and see what… Read More
'Print books are more like decorations': A #FutureChat recap
Could ebooks and print be friends instead of enemies? Having heralded The noise and fury— where he wrote, “Booksellers are back! The print book is on the rise! The ebook is dead!” — The Bookseller editor Philip Jones then returned Friday with classic irony in Surprise, surprise: Defying what we sometimes read in the wider… Read More
#DBW15: Can eBooks Steamroll Print?
‘What Sells in Print’ – eBooks’ impact on the market Not so fast, it seems we’re hearing from several directions. Today, our colleagues Tom Tivnan and Felicity Wood at The Bookseller are writing Print and digital help the book market in 2014. Here, from that story is an “e” and “p” — ebooks and print… Read More
#DBW15: So Shall You Reap? Success and ‘Investment’
Shot Out of a Cannon I’m told that there are people who find the holidays restful. I have yet to meet one of these extraordinary creatures, but I think they would find holding the publishing industry’s first grand-slam conference of the year in the second week of January to be a dandy thing. Bright-tailed and… Read More