Uh oh. Thirteen people in Turkey were arrested for plotting to kill Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk (My Name is Red).

What a surprise! Oprah's latest Book Club pick is Eckhart Tolle's self-help tome A New Earth. Congratulations, Eckhart -- please enjoy being the spiritual teacher for this entire nation.

Just...ew. From Publisher's Lunch Weekly: Bestselling authors Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin's SKINNY BITCH JOURNAL, for publication in early 2009, and a book adapting the Skinny Bitch message for guys, for publication in fall 2009, again to Jennifer Kasius at Running Press, by Talia Cohen of Laura Dail Literary Agency (world).

1/31/2008 11:24:03 AM by Sharon | Comments [0] |  

In the spirit of politics and exhaustion, today's Publisher's Lunch newsletter threw another hissy over this brief New York Times piece on Barack Obama's "surprise best seller," entitled The Audacity of Hope.

Says the Times:

"But its rapid rise to the No. 1 spot on the New York Times nonfiction list next Sunday, placing the author, the freshman Democratic senator from Illinois, ahead of heavyweight authors like John Grisham, Bill O’Reilly and even Bob Woodward, is something of a publishing stunner."

Pub Lunch retorts:

"More Cutting-Edge NYT Journalism: Obama a 'Surprise Best Seller'; 'A Stunner'
Barack Obama's previous book was a NYT bestseller for over 40 weeks (including 4 consecutive weeks at No. 1) in 2004 and 2005. After his election to the Senate, Crown and Random House Children's made a $1.9 million deal with him. Three weeks ago he was adored on Oprah, featured on the covers of major magazines, and booksellers across the country were selling thousands of tickets to signings and turning away customers (breaking records set by Bill Clinton). Now, finally, the NYT takes notice. But that's not enough. They conjure it as 'a surprise best seller' and 'something of a publishing stunner' (And they credit reviews from likes of their own Michiko as having 'certainly helped drive sales.')

And they wonder why newspapers are in trouble."

Pub Lunch, you're usually so perky and upbeat. What's with all the NYT haterade?

Also, thanks to the Bookslut blog, we've only just discovered The Guardian's Digested Read feature. It's hilarious. Here's a stunning excerpt from the latest, concerning Victoria Beckham's new book, That Extra Half an Inch. Posh, we had no idea you were such a cad!

Quoth The Guardian:

"I have no qualifications to write this book; that's why I've got someone else to do it for me. But let me share my insights anyway. First I'd like to knock something on the head. The idea that, once you have a bit of money, you start wearing couture and stilettos all day and live on caviar and champagne is just nonsense. They've both got far too many calories."

And what sound advice! We heart bargain shopping, too!

"I'm a great fan of vintage T-shirts. A word about vintage, though: it's easy to get confused about the difference between vintage and second-hand and that's because they're basically the same. If you want to be safe, look for something that's ridiculously overpriced. Blouses and halter-necks don't really do it for me, though you can wear them if you want to look like you shop at Primark, but nobody should be without a £1,000 Chanel cardigan. Have a look in charity shops if you can't afford a new one."

Now, if only we had your motivation when it comes to not eating and looking like a living corpse and befriending Katie Holmes for NO APPARENT REASON except to suck her into your creepy fembot cult. Oh, we're just jealous? Well, maybe we are, Mrs. Becks. But just remember how you used to roll:

Enough said, yeah?

 

11/9/2006 1:07:57 PM by Sharon | Comments [0] |  

The Guardian's Michelle Pauli (aka TeaAndOranges Snookums) reports:

"The first time I meet Penguin's digital publisher, Jeremy Ettinghausen, I crash land at his feet. Admirably unperturbed, he shows me his house, we have a chat about Penguin's latest digital initiative, then fly to a library before he teleports me into the future."

Penguin worked with the London-based virtual world design agency Rivers Run Red to create an in-world version of Neal Stephenson's Snow Craft. Second Lifers can read excerpts of the text, listen to an audio clip, and follow a link which clicks through to a dedicated Second Life page on the Penguin website. The publisher is also developing a Second Life virtual bookshelf of other Penguin titles.

So what does this mean for you, toiling away on your first novel/screenplay/poetry collection/avant-guarde stream-of-consciousness memoir?

"This 'ground-up' approach to publishing within Second Life is interesting a publisher at the other end of the commercial spectrum. Neal Hoskins (avatar name Fernando Proctor) is the publisher-founder of Winged Chariot, a real-world small press specialising in children's literature in translation. He is a relatively newcomer to Second Life but, when we meet for a (virtual) cuppa by a (virtual) roaring fire in a (virtual) log cabin, he is keen to talk about the opportunities for developing literature within the world rather than bringing it in from outside.

In the virtual world there are benefits to being a small publisher, says Hoskins. You can move more quickly to experiment with new ideas, and there is less competition from the 'big guys'.

'I'd like to look for talent in here," he muses, 'I envisage starting small with something like a poetry or secrets wall where residents can leave notes about their Second Life experiences, and then publishing the best of them, like Paul Auster's True Tales of American Life. The book could even be brought back into the real world. We could open a fiction imprint list in Second Life, something that's really difficult for an independent publisher in real life.'"

This could be the new-wave of blogger book deals, so get on that before Simon Spotlight Entertainment forgets to offer you a package with a $L 5k advance. Chop chop!

ELSWHERE:
Read more about Second Life in Camille Dodero's (aka Lily Pixie) Does your life suck?

10/24/2006 1:17:08 PM by Sharon | Comments [0] |  

 

How'd we miss this? On Wednesday The Guardian UK ran Lionel Shriver's infuriating diatribe on "vapid" computer-generated book covers. While we're not familiar with the author's work, we've decided to pre-judge and say that we pretty much hate her already. Especially for lines such as these:

"Few companies would lavish such care on finding just the right image for a single book, and I admire their perfectionism. Yet these hard-working and skilful designers have consistently turned a deaf ear to the author's entreaties that someone, please, sit down and draft some original art. You would think I was suggesting that they hop aboard the next Nasa shuttle and go collect moon rocks."

Oh BULLY for you. What the fug kind of a girl's name is Lionel, anyway?

As luck would have it, there's a heated argument going on in the comments section of this article. One made us very happy:

"The thing that makes a book designers life a living hell is authors thinking they can do our job for us. Most times you will find that the author and publisher have in fact not briefed the designer properly. They will not have passed on the message that the author feels strongly about having an 'illustrated' cover."

Preach!

When we worked in publishing, the in-house designers at our company slaved nights, weekends, and many over-time hours to please authors who, upon suddenly growing massive, canyon-sized egos due to the fact that they were about to become "published," thought it appropriate to dictate to a professional how a marketable book should look. Sometimes, like old lady Shriver here, they'd even draw their own covers and submit them for approval. NO. No, no, no.

MEMORANDUM: To any author (seasoned, newbie, or otherwise) about to enter the marketing/publicity process: Kindly trash your romantic notions about delicate, Henri Rousseau-inspired watercolor paintings as dust jackets--along with your dreams of having Oprah shout in your ear about your overpowering narrative skill on Book Club Day. People don't want to buy novels with covers that closely resemble the ugly-ass free art calendar their grandmother gave them for Christmas. We don't, at any rate. Happy Friday!

Love and other indoor sports,
Word Up

 

 

 

8/4/2006 5:09:49 PM by Sharon | Comments [0] |