Soft Skull News

John Fox makes an absolutely critical observation here:

I'm afraid to give a book.

Because when you give someone a book, it's not giving someone a DVD or movie tickets, which requires two hours of time, two hours that requires virtually no mentally energy. No, you're requiring five to ten hours of their time. And especially if the book is dense or difficult, you're requiring a thick chunk of concentrating brain matter.

Now, if this is an issue just giving a book away, what does it mean to try to sell it?! (Se of you have heard me say it before...) I think I know the answer.

1. Charge almost nothing for it.
2. Charge an arm and a leg for it.

The publishers who figure out how to effectively execute 1. and 2. will be in business in 2018. The others...well, they might still be in business, but only if they've a big fat backlist. Cause it's not as if we'll stop reading Steinbeck. But who, in 2018, will license their intellectual property to a publisher who can't find readers through either of the two remaining ways. Unlike in the music business, where it was the consumer who stuck the dagger in the heart of the labels, in publishing it'll be the writers...

Posted by Richard Eoin Nash at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The November 3rd club re-offers an excerpt in response to be finally managing to actually publish Coming of Age at the End of History, after two cover changes, a title and subtitle change, and three re-catalogings. It is a remarkable book, very successful in France and in Germany, and it's immensely frustrating to me I've been unable to give it a proper life in the US. But, at least this time, I actually published it. Here's an excerpt of the except the Nov 3rd crew picked, and the author will be on Michael Silverblatt's Bookworm next week.

The idea that open markets are the only alternative to open war has worked its way into almost every cell and capillary of our daily lives. It streams invisibly through our bodies like a virus, subtly influencing everything we do. Its secret hold on our minds is such that it is hard to believe that any of our thoughts go uncolored by the memory of the war. After all, this is the pretext for the whole deal — today’s economic system is literally built on the rubble of WWII. The horror of the past has been distilled into a concentrated liquor. It runs continually from our pores like a nervous sweat, and sweating guilt for the war’s unspeakable barbarities, our bodies are engulfed by its reeking vapors.

(It is well, if not entirely uncritically, reviewed by Andrew Bast in the Village Voice—it is the rare political book that truly has answers.)

Posted by Richard Eoin Nash at 06:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sarah Weinman is in the process of delineating the landscape of American corporate publishing with remarkable clarity. A few days ago, Macmillan; today Simon & Schuster. I'm rather looking forward to the rest, though I have to confess, despite being on the other side of the corporate/indie fence, I do not derive any satisfaction from the paralysis we're witnessing in the Big Six—theirs are not carcasses-to-be on which we indies can ultimately feast—to continue the nasty metaphor the stink from their carcasses could finally drive away all our customers. In less gruesome terms, the ecosystem collapses without the commercial publishers.

Anyhow, Sarah and I agree on the one useful observation that I can make—that they can obtain the advantage of branding by using their imprints more wisely. (See inter alia Love Letter to Our Corporate Brethren, as Inspired by GalleyCat.)

Posted by Richard Eoin Nash at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Although I owe y'all a summary of what I got up to over at Jeff's place, I didn't want to let me delay in doing so interfere with the responsibility to draw your attention to Dennis Cooper's glorious summary of what he's been up to at "Johnny's place", viz announcing the two most recent titles* in the Little House on the Bowery series that Akashic will have hosted for ten books, as of Spring of 2009. Dennis explains all, and offers a superb manifesto from a guy who like our Lynne Tillman has seen the evolution of the processes whereby boundary-testing fiction is disseminated...

*One of those titles being Derek McCormack's, a truly gifted young writer of nasty luscious micronovels, one of which, The Haunted Hillbilly, we had the honor of publishing.

Posted by Richard Eoin Nash at 01:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So the wordcount here this week will be skinny, since I'm guestblogging for Jeff VanderMeer. Cross-posting feels a wee bit tacky, plus it's worth most folks time check out his site (and all the other guest bloggers he's had this summer), so I'll post here a little summary of what I've yapped about over there.

First post is business-ish, on how we should be trying to engage with readers, not just rely on the retailers to reach them/you.

Posted by Richard Eoin Nash at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

OK, so this isn't quite crowd-sourcing, and I know it's late Friday afternoon in late August, but y'all've got the weekend to give me your thoughts on the below. I'm not giving any context since, of course, there's no one whispering over your shoulder giving you context as you browse the bookstore...

Here's the front:

And here's the full spread:

Sorry, I wish comments were working, but I can't get them to work, can you email me what you think? Thanks!

Posted by Richard Eoin Nash at 04:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So Miriam Toews's glorious The Flying Troutmans is the fifth pick by Powells for its brilliant, needs-to-be-emulated-across-the-industry subscription program, Indiespensible.

Here's what you get, quoth Powells:

An exclusive signed and numbered first edition, weeks before the standard copy goes on sale. Plus, the Indiespensable edition includes:

• Custom slipcase wrapped in mahogany paper with a linen embossment
• Book's title and author's name stamped in silver foil on the slipcase spine; matching foil stamp of the author's signature on the front panel

Dare I suggest: the right way for an indie publisher to go about an online exclusive?

Posted by Richard Eoin Nash at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I don't know what it says that BusinessWeek just generated one of the best summaries of what trade book publishing can be doing. Notwithstanding that a $50K advance is not nearly low enough to properly exploit the Gawker model, the piece pretty much covers the bases.

1. While reading is solitary, talking about books is social. But since time is the biggest impediment to reading, not money, make it easier for readers to talk to other readers through social media.
2. Bookstore events don't work, so have authors connect with fans (see item #1) and jointly brainstorm how to connect face-to-face. {Nota bene for booksellers, the smart ones will use item #1 and #2 to try to make bookstores back into better venues for this interaction}
3. Chasing big books results in overpaying, instead find writers who know their little audience, writers willing be social/find effective ways to substitute for for lack of sociability.
4. Use Word to copy-edit, Acrobat to proofread.
5. Give readers to option to easily buy from your website, and create widgets so as to populate the web with that one-clickability.

All I would add (well, OK, there's lots more to add, really, but the significant thing to add) is 6. Share the love generated by the above amongst all your writers, and ultimately convert it into subscriptions.

Posted by Richard Eoin Nash at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'd actually heard of this on Saturday, due to having a Google News Alert in place on "Bill Hicks," but didn't realize it was a news scoop til the British papers went mad for it. Hicks has always been more famous in the UK—the UK publisher sold over 100,000 copies of Love All the People: The Essential Bill Hicks, whereas we've done only about 15,000). So yesterday I got about another 25 more news alerts , giving me to realize I'd've almost made the blog a semi-genuine news source had I posted about it right away.

Instead, I'll just exploit others, like a true publisher, and just quote New York magazine.

In what will surely make Bill Hicks's zombie corpse rise up from hell in black-hearted rage, Russell Crowe has revealed that he has a "project based on the life of [the late] comedian Bill Hicks, which is going from treatment to draft stage with Kiwi writer Mark Staufer." True, Hicks and Crowe both seem to have had an affinity for alcohol and picking fights with strangers, but Hicks might agree that a commercial biopic comes pretty close to "suckin' Satan's pecker." [SMH via Comingsoon]

And the requisite YouTube embed, a publisher's favorite:

Posted by Richard Eoin Nash at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore calling out the "limited" visions of queer activism...on Swedish TV no less. [About a minute into the 15 minute segment...]

Posted by Richard Eoin Nash at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)