Traditional Media Provide Second Wind

I've been thinking about this story reported in GalleyCat earlier this week.  It's about a book called Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America by Helen Thorpe.  The book was released to "sluggish" sales last September, but two months later it enjoyed "an unexpected sales bump--defying publishing expectations with her late-blooming book."

What's interesting to me is that the author attributes the book's late success to reviews in traditional print outlets.  It started with "a lovely review" in the November issue of O Magazine.  Following that, the book was named one of the best books of the year by both the Washington Post and New West.  Then came reviews in The New Yorker and the Atlantic. 

The lesson for me is that publishers shouldn't dismiss the power of those old fashioned, old media, stone age print reviews just yet.  The traditional media outlets may still have some juice left in them.

Publishing Shows a Prophet

Several big names in publishing have come out with their predictions about the future of the industry: Richard Curtis, Bob Miller, Jane Dystel, Richard Nash, and probably a lot of others too.

I couldn't wait to get in on that action: Whatever you say you come off sounding like a sage, and you can relax in the certainty that no one is ever going to check back to see if you were right.  I could do that in my sleep!

As a matter of fact, that's exactly how I did it.  In the style of Edgar Cayce, the Sleeping Prophet, I had myself put into a clinically induced R.O.M. state (Resonant Olfactory Music)--the level of sleep where snoring occurs.  It's just like R.E.M., except there's no indie band named after it.  There I experienced a prophetic trance that produced several startling predictions about what's in store for the book business.

You'll find them in their entirety on The Huffington Post.  If you don't have time to read them all, let me sum up the future of publishing in just two words:  Rodeo clowns.

A Nice Christmas Present From The Huffington Post

The good folks at The Huffington Post books page have adapted my recent piece about "The 10 Best Years That Are Books" into a snazzy slideshow, now called The 10 Best Books That Are Years (fans of SEO will understand the reasons for the title change).  A nice present for Christmas Eve!

Speaking of which:  In honor of this special day, here's the return of my guide to Lesser Known Characters From Dickens's A Christmas Carol, back from the dead like Marley's Ghost.

Good Yule, everybody!

The 10 Best What?

I'm pretty tired of the endless "10 Best Books of the Year" lists that are spilling out all over the place, so I came up with what I hope is a novel variation on the theme: A list of The 10 Best Years That Are Books, up now on The Huffington Post.

You may not realize it, but such a year is staring us all in the face right now: 2010, the coming new year, which became a book in 1982 with Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two. What a prophet that man was!


UPDATE 12/22: A nice mention of this list in the publishing enewsletter Shelf Awareness.

A Very Merry Un-Christmas to You

Scrooge. The Grinch. Satan. To the list of Christmas's greatest antagonists, you may now add the Book Flack. Just a few days into the holiday season and already it's got me PO'd. I'm steaming like a mug of hot cocoa, God help me.

I'm happy to say that I have responded by lashing out on the Huffington Post. In a piece called A Grouch's Guide to Un-Christmas Books, I've offered guidance to help you navigate the holly jolly overkill of the holidays by means of carefully selected reading material--un-Christmas books. These are books that take place at Christmastime, but in terms of tone and content are quite at odds with the season.

With an un-Christmas book, you're covered when the Christmas tree huggers in your life insist you should be merry and bright and reading a Christmas book. At the same time, it allows you to indulge your own dark Yuletide impulses...

I'm happy to say that the piece was picked up in the publishing newsletter Shelf Awareness today. It's comforting to know I'm not alone.