When I was last visiting my brother, I noticed a little table in the corner of my nephew’s bedroom. On it were a few bones of varying sizes and one small skull (likely a squirrel). These were treasures he found on hikes and camping trips over the last few months. Like many kids, he is fascinated with animals and their stages of life. Have I got something to show him…

On December 11th, Touch Press, whom we’ve previously profiled, published Skulls, their newest book app that goes inside the office of Alan Dudley and features beautiful 360-degree high-resolution rotations of over 300 animal skulls photographed by Nick Mann. The story behind this extensive collection, the zoology and significance of skulls in various cultures around the world was written by Simon Winchester, bestselling author of Krakatoa and The Professor and the Madman.

Winchester and Max Whitby are longtime friends and when Whitby started Touch Press, they sought out a project to work on together. “I was a geologist before I turned to writing; and topics like fossils, evolution and taxonomy had all intrigued me. So when this idea presented itself, it seemed (though perhaps not quite the metaphor I should use for a Skulls app) a no-brainer,” said Winchester.

Having written several books for a more traditional print audience, writing this app opened up some new arenas for Winchester. “I decided that for this audience — whom I took to be generally very intelligent and technically aware — I would write without compromise, and then hope and expect to be understood. The beauty of app creation — or at least, when working with people at Touch Press — is that the imagery and technological sorcery make the understanding of even the most arcane topics much more likely. Lovely images, clever technology and serious writing make, in my view anyway, for a heady mix.”

Bringing to life Dudley’s office with a 360-degree view of his skull collection, seeing the animals and reptiles both alive and as just skulls, seeing images from around the world of how skulls figure into the culture make this a very unique educational tool. Winchester telling Dudley’s story of how he became fascinated with skulls and how his collection has developed, which has had some legal bumps along the way, makes it interesting for even non-phrenologists.

When asked what part of his research he found most interesting, Winchester said, “I was captivated by the Mexican attitude to death — and skulls, of course; and I loved having the anamorphosis, in Holbein’s famous picture, so cleverly explained to me. Only this kind of new technology could possibly reveal the hidden mysteries of that picture, and it is accomplished here quite brilliantly.”

As writers debate the pluses and minuses of digital publishing, Winchester has plowed ahead. His advice to writers wary of the digital transition, “Fear not! This kind of device suggests only more and more avenues that will be opening up for the likes of us to tell our stories and explain our ideas. Book stores may be nervous, but I also suspect that they, and those who supply ever-lovelier books-as-works-of-art for them to sell, will eventually adapt, and survive. Retail Darwinism will triumph.”

In looking at publishing in general, “Within my skull, a small voice is reassuring me that all will be fine for writers and editors and publishers: the ancient human inclination to tell and talk and say what has been seen and heard isn’t going to vanish away: quite the reverse: this is a revolution, true, just as in Gutenberg’s day, but it is one from which the storyteller and the troubadour can only profit, and the audiences too.”

So, you think there are no more book parties in New York? Well, when you have a banner year like American writer Bradford Morrow with a lot to celebrate, there is.

After not having published a book since his 2007 children’s book, DIDN’T Didn’t Do It, this year Morrow has published:

-The Diviners Tale, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, January
-The Innevitable: Contemporary Writers Confront Death, which he edited, W.W. Norton, February
-Fall of the Birds an e-original, Open Road Media, November
-The Uninnocent, hardcover and e-book, Pegasus and Open Road Media, December

And, as if that isn’t enough, Morrow celebrated the 30th anniversary of Conjunctions, the literary magazine he founded.

So, on December 1st, bestselling writer Peter Straub and his wife Susan hosted a party in honor of the publication of The Uninnocent. The report from the party was that it was akin to an episode of “This is Your Life,” with friends and colleagues throughout Morrow’s career in attendance and a jubilant spirit throughout. In this age of literary uncertainty, it is heartening to see a writer have so many projects and such great success. Take a look at some photos from the party.

I was sitting in my office the other day when my phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hi, is this Amazon Italy?”

“Um. No.”

“Oh, is this Amazon at all?”

“No.”

“Who am I calling?”

(Reluctant to give her information.) “Just me. This is my private phone number.”

“Is this Erin at Publishing Perspectives?”

“Yes.”

“Well, when I Googled ‘Amazon Italy,’ your name came up.”

And there was the answer. This writer was looking to contact someone at Amazon Italy about her e-book sales, tried to find a way to contact them via the website (a particularly circuitous rabbit-hole), and finally resorted to Googling “Amazon Italy.” When she did, she landed on our news site and went to our contact page. Because my role has to do with the sales and marketing of the site, I must have seemed the likeliest person to help her.

Because we tag all of our stories with keywords for easy searching and to optimize for search engines (SEO), our site came up when she put those keywords into Google. Obviously, I was not going to be able to get her the sales figures for her book and I explained that to her, but it did make me think of the numerous searches I’ve done that have lead me astray and how to make search engine optimization more precise. Or, is that the point? That by using general terms you get a wider swath of searching.

What’s the best usage? Tell us what you think.

Today, the Los Angeles Times is releasing their first e-book, A Nightmare Made Real, based on a series of articles by staff writer Christopher Goffard. The e-book is an expanded version of Goffard’s two-part series this summer on Louis Gonzalez III, a Las Vegas banker accused of kidnapping, torture and sexual assault.

Available today for Kindle, Nook and iBooks for 99 cents, A Nightmare Made Real is said to be the first in a series of eight to ten e-books that The Los Angeles Times intends to publish. “As a content company, we are enthusiastic about harnessing new mediums and business models that expand the reach of our unique storytelling,” said Times President Kathy Thomson. “The immediacy of e-book publishing allows us to easily adapt Times coverage to a convenient reader experience that’s being heavily embraced.”

It’s the latest in a trend that is seeing newspapers, from the Guardian to La Vanguardia, publishing e-books.

Many nonfiction bestsellers published by book publishers tend to start with original reporting in newspapers and magazines around the country and the world. With newspapers entering the realm of book publishing and cutting traditional book publishers out of the middle, how will this impact a book publisher’s list?

After this post about book trailers, I was inundated with emails and comments about various book trailers that were coming, already came out, and asking some advice on what makes a good book trailer (for that, check out our ten tips for producing book trailers). But, one of the most attention-grabbing videos was from Shelf Awareness: the “Bitchin’ Video of the Day.” Check it out below. I’d love to hear what some of my former colleagues who are featured in the video say about their new post-Snooki transformations:

In the last few years, the world of print has begun using book trailers as a way to grab the digital audience. Some trailers turn the plot of the book into a short film, some play on the theme of the book, and some make you fall in love with the author. Though we’ve asked it before, do you think this marketing tool sells more books? Or, what do you think the publisher/author is aiming at by creating these trailers? 

Here are links to some of my recent favorites that have come through in the last few months. To kick it off, here is a bonus short film set in Paris’ famous Shakespeare & Co bookstore by Spike Jonze (director of Where the Wild Things Are) called Mourir Auprès de Toi (To Die by Your Side).

Next up is the book trailer for The Black Prism by Brent Weeks — because of its high production quality, this could be mistaken for a film trailer.

Two films that will make you fall in love with the writers by Shalom Auslander and Julie Klam (or their publisher who is eating cashews in Julie’s film).

And, the truly behind-the-scenes trailer that walks you through the true story behind the novel with Rebecca Chace.

Which kind of book trailer do you prefer?

If you haven’t seen my video yet, one of my favorite adventures in Hall 8 of the Frankfurt Book Fair this year was making postcards in the Moleskine booth. Anyone who knows me, knows I love my Moleskine notebooks (I have about 25), so each year I find myself circling the booth. This year, artists Gilles and Cecilie were there with their custom-made stamps for attendees to make their own postcards.

Photo courtesty of Gilles and Cecilie

When Australian illustrator and Oscar winner Shaun Tan (The Arrival, The Lost Thing, Tales of Outer Suburbia) won this year’s Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, it represented a high water mark for Australian children’s publishing—a sector of the industry that has grown and matured significantly over the past 30 years.

Australian children’s books consistently outsell adult fiction in the global rights market, according to trade magazine Bookseller+Publisher’s annual survey of Australian rights managers, “The Rights Stuff.” Within the category, picture book rights are the most often sold, followed by junior fiction and young adult.

With wider publication comes international recognition: for example, in addition to Tan’s tremendous success, Australian writers and illustrators featured on this year’s International Youth Library White Ravens list include Carole Wilkinson, Brownyn Bancroft, Sonya Hartnett (the 2008 Astrid Lindgren winner), Belinda Jeffrey and Kate McCaffrey. Veteran author/illustrator Bob Graham was also shortlisted for the 2011 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal, an award won by Australian Freya Blackwood last year.

While Australia remains very much an cosmopolitan book market (over 50% of the books sold there are of overseas origin), local children’s book publishing has been helped by a well-funded school and public library system and an active Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA), a grass roots organization which runs the prestigious Children’s Book of the Year Awards—one of the few Australian literary awards that strongly influence book sales. This year’s CBCA winners were Sonya Hartnett’s young adult novel The Midnight Zoo (Penguin), Isabelle Carmody’s junior novel The Red Wind (Penguin) and Jan Ormerod and Freya Blackwood’s early childhood book Maudie and the Bear (Little Hare). The Picture Book of the Year Award this year was split between Jeannie Baker’s collage-driven Mirror (Walker Books Australia) and Nicki Greenberg’s graphic novel of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Allen & Unwin).

A look at the titles listed above will show that there’s a lot more to Australian children’s books than kangaroos and koalas (although these remain a staple of local children’s publishing). For all its wide open spaces and Anglo-centric origins, Australia is actually a highly multicultural and urbanised society and its children’s publishing reflects this. An Australian young adult novel is as likely to portray the life of a young Australian Muslim girl as it is a historical or fantasy tale.
       
Series are an increased feature of local publishing, especially for mid-age readers. John Flanagan’s “Ranger’s Apprentice” series and Emily Rodda’s “Deltora Quest” have already gone global.

The sector is not without its challenges. A soft retail sector, reduced retail shelf space (Australia’s largest retail chain, Angus and Robertson/Borders, collapsed this year with 130 stores closing) and the rise of discount stores is reducing options at the quality end of the market, while the strong Australian dollar is making locally-produced books look increasingly expensive to local consumers (although the Aussie dollar, currently at parity with the US dollar, may have peaked). There have been casualties: leading independent kids publisher, Black Dog Books, was snapped up by Walker Books Australia earlier this year and anecdotally, lists are being trimmed. As with many other countries, library funding for book purchases is also in decline. Investment is being made in digital editions (such as Ice Water Press’s “Will you Mishme” project, pictured), but the Australian e-books market has yet to take off as yet.

Notwithstanding this, there are plenty of Australian children’s books to see at Frankfurt this year. Kids publishers at Frankfurt this week include Allen & Unwin, Brolly Books, Hardie Grant, HarperCollins Australia, Hinkler Books, Ice Water Press, Little Hare/Australian Licensing Corporation, Penguin Australia, Random House Australia, Scholastic Australia, The Five Mile Press and my own Wilkins Farago.

Pick up a copy of Think Australian magazine from the Australian Publishers Association stand (8.0 B958) for more information.

Business Opportunities for Academic Publishers in the MENA Region

With governments strategically investing in higher education, the opportunities for academic and professional publishers are tremendously growing in the Gulf Region. Learn more about the opportunities available to your company and on how to gain access to this market at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. 

When: TODAY, 12 October, 14.30 – 15.30
Venue: SPARKS Stage, Hall 4.2 B408, Frankfurt Book Fair

On October 11, DC Entertainment’s Vertigo imprint announced they will work with the estate of Stieg Larsson and Hedlund Literary Agency to adapt the bestselling “Millennium Trilogy” into graphic novels. With more than 60 million books sold worldwide and two film adaptations, including the forthcoming US version due out on December 21st, a graphic novel offers another potentially lucrative extension for the franchise.

“The intricate characters and stories Larsson created in the Millennium Trilogy are a perfect match for the graphic novel format, where we can bring Lisbeth Salander to life in entirely new, visually compelling ways,” stated Dan DiDio, co-publisher of DC Entertainment. “It’s a distinct honor to work on a story that is already so popular with millions of readers around the world.”

Each graphic novel will be published in two volumes and available in both print and digital formats. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo volumes will be released in 2012, with volumes for The Girl Who Played with Fire following in 2013, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest wrapping up the graphic novel series in 2014.

DC Entertainment is the worldwide leader in producing best-selling graphic novels and comic books, including best-selling Vertigo titles Sandman, Fables, 100 Bullets and Road to Perdition.