Editorial by Kaleb Nation On April 16, 2008, I started a website called TwilightGuy.com with a short introductory post and the tagline “A Guy Reads Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.” I went to bed. By the next morning, 3,000 people had already visited. So began my journey through the vast and remarkable world known as the blogosphere. When I originally started …
Saving the Earth 100 Book Reviews at a Time
By Sharon Glassman Back in the Seal and Crofts 70s, my Sunday School class tucked quarters into cardboard trees to pay for real trees in the deserts of Israel. The simple, seemingly magical idea of Me = Tree captured my Ecology-T-shirt covered heart. So, when I got a request to become a fan of Eco-Libris on Facebook and learned that …
In Praise of the Lowly Chapbook
Editorial by Bryce Milligan SAN ANTONIO: As a regional publisher whose books range from handmade chapbooks to 600-page works of fiction and history, I have been wondering what will become of the physical book in this brave new digital world. Already my paper-and-ink sales are declining as my ebook sales increase—except for, of all things, the lowly chapbook. I began …
A Cautionary Tale about POD
By Joanne Gail Johnson PORT-OF-SPAIN: In the Caribbean, we struggle, like other people around the globe, for increased media autonomy and international participation on our own terms. A long, long, long time ago, before I was a published author, when my childhood love of books was being nourished in Trinidad on the imported imaginings of Dr. Seuss rhyme and Enid …
The Strange World of Yakuza Fan Magazines
By Jake Adelstein TOKYO: The Japanese mafia, better known as the yakuza, has been the subject of fan magazines for decades. These magazines serve as de-facto trade periodicals for a world of vicious, autocratic thugs, men who are handy with swords and guns, sport full-body tattoos, deal in illegal contraband and laundered money, and rip off the general public; all …
Can Proust Really Change Your Life?
By Dennis Abrams You know you’ve been meaning to. You’re pretty sure that you’ve got a dusty copy of Swann’s Way sitting around somewhere. You’ve probably even read the book’s famous opening line, “For a long time I would go to bed early,” and thought to yourself, well, not now, maybe some other time. That time has finally come. Next …
Print-Your-Own Book May Be the Answer for Emerging Markets
By Kassia Krozser, Booksquare.com As publishing great and small struggles to see into the future—will it be ebooks? Will mobile phones or the mythical Apple Table save publishing? How are we going to put all these pieces together? Discussions of the implications of the Google Book Settlement make for intellectual fodder, but out there in the real world, people are …
Facing Off with Facebook
Editorial by Debra Ollivier If you’re a published author or soon-to-be-published author, chances are you’ll get something like the 63-page document I got from my publisher before my recent book was launched. It’s called “Internet Advice for Authors: Getting Started, Getting Online, and Getting Noticed,” and starts with the almost quaint question: “What is Online Marketing?” Every author is expected …
Analysing the Global Ranking of Publishers
By Rüdiger Wischenbart Editor’s Note: For the past three years publishing consultant Rüdiger Wischenbart has released a “Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry,” which looks at companies with revenues over $US250 million. Here is his analysis of the latest ranking, focusing on how the changing dynamics between the professional/science, education and trade sectors have have affected this year’s ranking. It …
Freedom Isn’t Easy: Writing in Prison vs. The Free World
By Wahida Clark My new book Thug Lovin’ was the first book I wrote in the free world. Prior to that I wrote six others while I was serving a ten and half year federal prison sentence for money laundering, mail and wire fraud. Was it a difficult transition to write while enjoying freedom? Of course. Was it stressful? Absolutely. …