Grub Street Printing Newsletter #10 April/May 2009

Is There Hope for Borders?

After just a few months on the job, Borders CEO Ron Marshall said, “We are really focused on re-engaging our customers in a way Borders hasn’t been for a while…the serious bookseller for the serious book lover.” As a fan and customer of the first Borders Books in Ann Arbor many years ago, I wish him all the luck.

The Museum of Printing

I know printing isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I just found out there’s a Museum of Printing in North Andover, MA displaying 500 years of graphic arts technology. For additional information, and hours of operation go to http://www.museumofprinting.org/index.html

Quebecor Emerges

Despite posting a 4^th quarter loss in excess of $654 million, Quebecor (North America’s second largest book printer) has said its restructuring is complete and it hopes to emerge from bankruptcy this July

Libel Tourism

While the states of Illinois and New York passed bills to protect their authors from damages in libel cases adjudicated overseas, the US Senate let S. 2799 die without a vote last year. Please watch this short video www.thelibeltourist.com that illustrates the importance of this bill.

E Hubris

Russell Wilcox, CEO of E Ink, the company whose technology makes possible the Kindle and Sony reader screens said, “We’re not only going to save publishing, we’re also going to save civilization.”

It Just Gets Better

Perseus Books Group announced that some of its titles will be available for reading on your cell phone.

At last.

Closing

Courier Corp. has announced that it closed its subsidiary short run book manufacturer Book-Mart Press of North Bergen NJ. Courier’s largest division is Dover Publications.

140 Character Maximum

Forbes Silicon Valley editor Lee Gomes observes that Twitter may have stifled complex discourse with its 140 character “tweets”. He writes in the March 30 edition, “Since Plato, people have been complaining about shrinking attention spans. But the recent acceleration of the decline is breathtaking.”

I thought that digerati were forbidden to do anything but gush?

eAdvance Readers?

Random House, Simon Schuster and others have agreed to occasionally offer free, downloadable copies of their new titles from www.Scribd.com as books or excerpts. They are hoping to generate some internet buzz.