Posts Tagged ‘publishing’

May 12, 2008

Does Sex Sell Books? Chuck Hopes So.

Beloved writer of the edgy hipster, Chuck Palahniuk, is promoting his latest book, SNUFF, with:
“Never before seen footage of cult classic adult film star Cassie Wright, star of SNUFF by Chuck Palahniuk. Stay tuned for Chitty Chitty Gang Bang and The Twilight Bone. Stay tuned for Chitty Chitty Gang Bang and The Twilight Bone.”
You can [...]

May 1, 2008

YA Lit Leading the Way with Online Promotions

It seems like I see a new online promo of some sort for a YA (Young Adult - the publishing term for the 11-17ish reading market) title.
Here is today’s example.
Obviously, younger readers are much more likely to be influenced by these sorts of campaigns.  It also helps to build a social group around the title [...]

April 29, 2008

More Thoughts on Publishing and Pirates

TorrentFreak has a bunch of interesting comments from authors about the value of having their books “available” on bittorrent sites.
“More and more authors seem to recognize the power of BitTorrent as a means to generate more sales, and actually upload free copies onto BitTorrent themselves.
Best selling author Paulo Coelho posted several of his books on [...]

April 27, 2008

The Publishers Dilemma

Last night I was at a great birthday dinner downstairs at the “chefs table” at Blue Ribbon.  Lots of cool people there and I got into a chat with a guy who works for an eBooks publisher.
Our conversation started with the Kindle - an eReader that is promoted by Amazon and the first one to [...]

April 9, 2008

Sex Sells…Books too.

I’ve been waiting for publishers to get a bit edgier with their online promotion for books.
Although this promotion (kinda NSFW) for the NYT bestseller Beautiful Children might border on simply being the porn it is modeled on I certainly see why it might get passed around the interwebs.
Of course, the big question is whether or [...]

April 4, 2008

Book Trailer for Wake is Weak

There seems to be a growing number of publishers releasing video “trailers” for some titles, especially those in the “Young Adult” (read: teen/tween) market.  This makes perfect sense in terms of going where your customers are and pitching them in a form they like.
However, you’ve still got to make something that feels fresh and exciting.  [...]

April 4, 2008

Will Interactive Reading Catch On?

Earlier, I wrote about the fascinating “We Tell Stories” project from Penguin books, a wide-ranging experiment in the overlap between traditional writing and the internet experience.
The first project to launch is called “The 21 Steps” by Charles Cumming and it is based on the classic “The 39 Steps.”
CoolHunter snagged an interview with Cumming:
“It was written [...]

April 3, 2008

On Publishing and Pirates

ArsTech has a very thoughtful response to a pretty hyperbolic article in the London Times about the threats of digital piracy on publishers and authors.
Not surprisingly, this industry is facing very similar problems to the music and film industry largely due to the fact that the key things they’ve done is to manufacture and distribute [...]

March 23, 2008

If a Book Has No Pages…

Much like the recording industry, the publishing industry is beginning to notice that the physical book is no longer a pre-requisite when it comes to being a “published” author.  Not only is it completely possible to write and distribute a book without ever involving a piece of paper but it can be done for little [...]

March 18, 2008

Penguin Pushes the Publishing Envelope

There is some pretty intriguing news out of the UK publishing scene where Penguin is getting set to launch a pretty ambition alternative approach to some new titles that begin to make reading sound a lot more like an ARG.  From the press release:
“But somewhere on the internet is a seventh story, a mysterious tale involving [...]