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Palin Profile Pays Off September 3rd, 2008

Epicenter Press is living the small press dream… they have stayed focused to their core material/genre and have turned out to be the only publisher with a book about the hottest topic in the US right now… McCain’s pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for VP.

Epicenter, which publishes books on the Pacific Northwest, printed 13,000 Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down, around last April.

Now, thanks to McCain’s nod, they have orders out for 40,000+ more. I bet it’s one big party over there! It’s great when things like this happen to smaller publishers. Here is a company that printed a book they believed there was a market for… a market so small that no big-house publisher would bother serving… and now they are reaping the rewards. Good for them! And it’s another example of why we’re all better off with small presses in the world!


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Erase your Over-due Fines September 2nd, 2008

If you are a card-carrying member of the JCLC system, you can have $1 erased from your over-due fines for every canned food item you bring in. The limit is $10 knocked-off your record. The deal runs until the end of September, when all donated goods will be given to local Birmingham-area food banks.

September is also the JCLC system’s annual card-swap month. Meaning… the library will replace (waiving the $3 charge) your ratty falling apart over-used library card… but we don’t know anyone who has one of those…


Philip Roth Live Simulcast September 2nd, 2008

On September 16th, at 6:30pm, The Alabama Booksmith will play host to a live simulcast with author Philip Roth. The Booksmith is one of a handful of venues that will be dialed into the event, allowing visitors to watch Philip Roth and participate in a Q&A with the reclusive author.

According to their site, the Booksmith will have copies of all 29 Roth titles available and will be serving wine (to help fortify your courage to throw out questions to Roth, on this national stage).

Roth’s new title (with a ho-hum so-so cover) drops a couple of weeks from now and is titled Indignation.


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Merging Media August 28th, 2008

The creator of CSI and Dutton are teaming up to produce a new three-book series of “digital novels”. Let me preface this move with a quote from the CSI guy, Anthony Zuiker…

“I personally don’t have the attention economy to read a 250-page crime novel from start to finish.”

So that’s where he is coming from, on this. Zuiker goes on to say that these suspense-thillers will “reward” readers with rich media and video to enhance the reading experience. Basically, Zuiker will write an outline, then a ghost-writer will crank out 100 chapters and then Zuiker will back in and write 20 “cyber-bridges” (how lame-o is that phrase? Is this 1980? -ed.) for people to watch, before continuing on to the next chapter.

Of course, the example they give is a reading up to a crime, then log-on to watch a sex snuff film, and then go back to the book. I do have to concede this to the Hollywood folks… you’ll probably sell more books if you are including websites to watch sex videos.

To be fair, I am all for this type of convergence. It’s interesting how all these media formats merge and play off each other. I just think that this one pitch misses the mark on just about all of it. They really should have planned to do more and dig deeper.

(from Variety)


2008 Bulwer-Lytton winner August 17th, 2008

This is the 26th year of the Bulwer-Lytton contest, aimed at finding the best of the worst opening lines to imaginary novels. The winner is pretty good, but I enjoyed the “Spy Fiction” Winner and Runner-Up better. So I copied them below as well. I mean the Spy Novel winner is baaaaaad and the Runner-Up is just to punny to pass up.

Read the rest of this entry »


Homewood Library Booksale August 15th, 2008

The sale runs this weekend August 15-18.

For first pick through this year’s books, show up at the library at 6:30pm, on Friday, Aug. 15th and pay $2. That gets you in to bag the books and includes wine and snacks.

There is no cover charge for the rest of the sale (though you do miss out on the choicest picks)…

Saturday, August 16 the books will be on sale from 9 a.m.– 5:30 p.m.
Sunday, August 17 the books will be on sale from 2 p.m.– 5:30 p.m.
Monday, August 18 the books will be on sale from 9 a.m.– 8:30 p.m.

Happy hunting!


Font Conference August 13th, 2008

Co-worker passed along this video, hosted over on CollegeHumor.com, that’s pretty darn funny except for the senseless inclusion of Comic Sans. But the production meetings are more fun now that people have started talking in wingdings!


A new edition… er, addition August 7th, 2008

She’s finally here! And wonderful… there’s nothing like reading a book with a newborn asleep on your chest… looking forward to many such afternoons…

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What if e-books were first? August 6th, 2008

Mac Slocum over on the O-Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing  blog offers up a neat twist to the debate of e-books vs. paper books… what if we had all been using e-books for the past few hundred years and paper books were just coming on the market? Would we all laugh at the paperback, or as the new kid on the block, would it capture our attention and spark a movement?

He lists out the benfits of the new unplugged book model: no need to buy batteries, lasts a loooooong time, ultra portable, ultra cheap, etc. All these things almost put the old e-book model to shame, huh?

Slocum calls it the flip test and it sure seems a good way to look at both sides of an equation.


Birmingham By the Book August 6th, 2008

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Thanks to Carla Jean Whitley for the mention in the August issue of Birmingham Magazine. Very cool! So everyone go out and buy a copy so you can tell all your friends “hey, I read that book blog”… but seriously she put together a great list of what the article calls “The Essentials… must-visit websites that will guide you through the city”.

The piece is populated by local online heavy-hitters, including al.com, bhamterminal.com, wadeonbirmingham.com, bhamwiki.com, etc. (you know all the guys that must have invented the interwebs).

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks. It’s fun keeping this site going and even more so when you know folks are reading. Plus, she got every last punctuation mark correct in {head}:sub/head. Why is that important to me? I dunno. It just is… and you have to appreciate someone that pays attention to detail like that.


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