After
reading and writing about the popularity of the Jaipur
Literary Festival in India last February I've become increasingly
aware of hugely successful Book and Literary Festivals in locations
that I may not have considered conducive to such celebrations. I've
traveled to the Chicago
Printer's Row Book Fair/Lit Fest a number of times and found an
energy level that confirmed the Windy City's reputation as a hub for
book authorship, publishing and printing much like London's
Grub Street in the 16th
century.
But
a few Sundays ago the local paper covered a wildly successful
Brooklyn
Book Festival which began its annual gala in 2006 after the
Manhattan “New York is Book Country” Festival was discontinued. I
suspect more than a little hyperbole when Brooklyn is said to be
experiencing “a golden age of a literary community, comparable to
postwar Greenwich Village or Paris in the 1920s,” but the point is
taken.
Another
article on that page was about the upcoming Texas
Book Festival in Austin from October 27 – 28 which is expecting
to draw 40,000 visitors. The event traces its roots back to 1996 when
it was founded by gubernatorial First Lady Laura Bush who remains
active in its production.
Locally,
Ann Arbor has a June Book
Festival, a September
Kerrytown Book Festival and a spring time (May 19, 2013)
Antiquarian Book Fair.
Local authors, publishers, printers, and dealers keep their affairs
focused on the area's historic and still evolving literary heritage.
I'm
curious if you have attended Book Fairs of merit in your area or
while traveling. Much like attending the BEA, it's a refreshing day
spent with people who share your passion for books. Please email
information to me about Book Fairs that you've attended that offer
enrichment and entertainment. I'll put your recommendations together
for the January Newsletter when we all have blank calendars hanging
over our desks.
The
Business of eBooks
While
four
out five publishers are producing eBooks, 36% of them report
“double digit annual eBook revenues.”Further, 68% make their
books available on Amazon, 58% through the Apple iBookstore.
 |
| Amazon Warehouse |
In
what can only be described as a financial epiphany, someone at
WalMart realized that Amazon was a major competitor and a much less
important supplier, causing WalMart to
discontinue sales of all Kindle products.
“Fake”
Reviews Doom Book
When
activists disagreed with some facts in Daniel Halperin's book
Tinderbox they
flooded
Amazon's customer reviews with one star ratings and successfully
slashed sales.
Amazon
Pays Sales Tax
Amazon
has a
goal of same day delivery for many of its products and so needs
to build many more warehouses across the country. While previously
known for its strong
arm tactics to evade paying state sales taxes, Amazon has
reversed course and will
pay said taxes for items shipped in state from its expanding
supply chain. Amazon's California warehouses were deluged
with orders as the tax deadline approached.
Art
History Without Art
Students
at Ontario College of Art and Design feel ripped off by Pearson
Learning Solutions after purchasing a required Art History textbook
that had blank spaces where the artwork would have been represented.
The
students were told to study the artwork online. A college
spokesperson blamed print permission costs of copyrighted material
for the blanks and argued that the book would have cost $800 instead
of $180 if the artwork had been included.
Unreadable
Rowling
Anxious
eBook readers who ordered J.K. Rowlings first adult title The
Casual Vacancy were
upset that the
text displayed was unreadably tiny, or, as in the Kindle edition,
you could adjust it to be extremely large. Fixes commenced
immediately. Remember last month's piece (Too
Quick to Press) about rushing manuscripts for online
availability?
First
CoursePacks, Now eReserve
A
decision in a four year old lawsuit will be appealed. The court ruled
against
three scholarly presses, AAP and the Copyright Clearance Center,
finding that Georgia State University did nothing wrong by directing
faculty to use the library's eReserve system to make resources
available in lieu of the more traditional course packs. GSU's
eReserve system uses “Physical copies of books, audio CDs, or
videos. (Library owned or personal copies may be submitted).”
Open
Source Textbooks
The
State of California will finance production of 50
lower level open source college textbooks which can be freely
edited for the 2013 school year.
27
Things to Consider Before Going to Press
I'm
not sure I
agree with all 27 points, but as a small press publisher I can
see how they deserve consideration before
production planning has begun.
One
Story, Two Editions
Harper
Collins has simultaneously published Eric LeGrand's story Believe
in two editions; the adult trade edition subtitled "My
Faith and the Tackle That Changed My Life," and
a Young Adult edition subtitled "The Victorious Story of Eric
LeGrand."
The
Ig Noble Prize for Literature Goes to...
...John
Perry from Stanford University for his treatise "How
to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done," Other winners
presented here.
If
you'll be in the Chicago area next week, the annual printers trade
show Graph Expo will be happening
at McCormick Place. While generally a printer centric event, seminar
R-3 on Sunday morning is entitled E-Profit
101: A Publisher's Guide to E-Book Production. Register here.
Recommended
Book Blog
A
Word Press Editor's
Pick for September by a fellow
bibliophile.
Last
Words
My
purpose is to entertain myself first and other people secondly.
John
D. MacDonald
Past
GrubStreetPrinting.com newsletters can be found at
http://grubstreetnews.blogspot.com/
