Harvard Book Store gets Espresso Book Machine
What forward-thinking authors and publishers are after is a means of leveraging the “long tail” principle, which holds that declining distribution and inventory costs have made it possible to profit by selling tiny quantities of many different products rather than—as was formerly the rule—immense quantities of only a few products. By bridging the still-pronounced divide between electronic and “tangible” publishing, advances like the Espresso Book Machine could represent the realization of this model in the familiar space of the bookstore. “Even with conservative assumptions about demand, we will profit from this service,” Heather Gain, marketing manager of the Harvard Book Store, told Bookselling This Week.
See Poets & Writers article here. Heads up, Andrew–although you have probably already seen this article.
Dead Theory
Did anyone happen to catch the feature in The Atlantic about The Grateful Dead? Apparently management theorists and academics are using the band as a sociological case-study for business strategy and brand identity:
[The] musicians who constituted the Dead were anything but naive about their business. They incorporated early on, and established a board of directors (with a rotating CEO position) consisting of the band, road crew, and other members of the Dead organization. They founded a profitable merchandising division and, peace and love notwithstanding, did not hesitate to sue those who violated their copyrights. But they weren’t greedy, and they adapted well. They famously permitted fans to tape their shows, ceding a major revenue source in potential record sales. According to Barnes, the decision was not entirely selfless: it reflected a shrewd assessment that tape sharing would widen their audience, a ban would be unenforceable, and anyone inclined to tape a show would probably spend money elsewhere, such as on merchandise or tickets. The Dead became one of the most profitable bands of all time.
Most enjoyable.
this unique 18-minute genre has its own requirements
From a Wired article on how to ace a TED Talk:
“I’m surprised to see that half the people here know my career in some detail and the other half don’t know who I am,” he says.
Science is fine, but not when it messes with our illusions.
If she had included solar power and African child warriors, it would have been so perfect a TED talk that there would have been no need for others.
Wolfram wraps his talk by saying that when it comes to trying to boil down the universe to a simple algorithm, “it’s almost embarrassing not to at least try.”
“Just because someone has an ego,” he says, citing a writer whose name I can’t read from my scribbled notes, “doesn’t mean he’s wrong.”
‘I don’t recommend those old stories to anyone.’
The stories in question have been mentioned here before.
It’s lonely in the modern world.
Even in your company, I feel so alone. (Dwell, September 2009.)
Unhappy Hipsters. (Thanks, Kate.)
reinventing content
Apple’s goal is to offer a new platform for content creators to reinvent books, magazines and online content — in addition to offering a new avenue for content producers to make money. That platform will likely be far broader than just a tablet device, and will extend to every device or computer that iTunes touches.
Mo’forum in Paris this weekend
I have a habit of wandering into rooms and buildings on my walks around a city and while in Paris last November I wandered into this huge drawing/zine expo by the Canal St. Martin. I took one of these flyers announcing what looks like the same arrangement again, happening this weekend, so if you’re in Paris you might want to have a look in.
Heavy Metal magazine, January 1978
January elimae
is now posted for your viewing enjoyment.
Happy new year to you all!
A tablet/e-reader demo
Done by Sports Illustrated, oddly enough. Makes me almost want to read a magazine. Almost.
via a ton of folks
December elimae
is now posted. I hope you will find something to enjoy.
Kim Chinquee
On November 30, Kim Chinquee — writer, teacher and co-editor with Doug Martin of the upcoming Online Writing: the Best of the First Ten Years — will become editor for fiction and creative nonfiction at elimae. (I will continue editing poetry, literary essays and reviews, and interviews.) I am preparing the December issue right now, and Kim’s hand will first be seen in the January 2010 issue. I am quite pleased to begin this new partnership.
McSweeney’s Newspaper
It really looks gorgeous.
On the death of newspapers
Whatever I may say in the rant that follows, I do not believe the decline of newspapers has been the result solely of computer technology or the Internet. The forces working against the newspaper are probably as varied and forgone as the Model-T Ford and the birth control pill. We like to say that the invention of the internal-combustion engine changed us, changed the way we live. In truth, we built the Model-T Ford because we had changed; we wanted to remake the world to accommodate our restlessness. We might now say: Newspapers will be lost because technology will force us to acquire information in new ways. In that case, who will tell us what it means to live as citizens of Seattle or Denver or Ann Arbor? The truth is we no longer want to live in Seattle or Denver or Ann Arbor. Our inclination has led us to invent a digital cosmopolitanism that begins and ends with “I.” Careening down Geary Boulevard on the 38 bus, I can talk to my dear Auntie in Delhi or I can view snapshots of my cousin’s wedding in Recife or I can listen to girl punk from Glasgow. The cost of my cyber-urban experience is disconnection from body, from presence, from city.
Richard Rodriguez in this month’s Harper’s Magazine [subscription required]
Marge Simpson poses for Playboy
outside magazine asks photographers about their toughest shots
I took this picture the moment we realized we were sinking. It was 1999 and I was in the hold of a 25-foot handmade sailboat with 44 Haitian immigrants. Water started pouring in and David, the man looking at the camera, said, “Chris, you’d better start taking pictures, because we only have an hour to live.” I was 29, trying to capture a journey of immigrants who risk everything to reach America. That I could die here hadn’t registered until this moment. All I could do was take photographs as a reflex, a way to deal with my fear, even though I assumed the pictures were going to die with me. We were saved by a Coast Guard cutter that happened upon us. It made me understand that taking photographs is as much about explaining the world to myself as it is about explaining it to other people.
(via Ainsley Drew at kottke)
the purpose of Apple’s tablet computer
Some I’ve talked to believe the initial content will be mere translations of text to tablet form. But while the idea of print on the Tablet is enticing, it’s nothing the Kindle or any E-Ink device couldn’t do. The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video, interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static. And with release dates for Microsoft’s Courier set to be quite far away and Kindle stuck with relatively static e-ink, it appears that Apple is moving towards a pole position in distribution of this next-generation print content. First, it’ll get its feet wet with more basic repurposing of the stuff found on dead trees today.
The August issue of elimae
is now posted.
Beginning with this issue, I will aim toward a beginning of the month publication.
Larger and Mightier than Ever
The August 2009 issue of Twin Cities METRO magazine features a cover story (These People Are Killing Us) devoted to “six local comedians who are redefining what’s funny now”. Largest and mightiest of the six is Brian Beatty. Former ‘flocker. elimae contributor. Dude with a beard.
Next Sleepingfish Exit
I’m reading now for the next issue of Sleepingfish, issue 8, co-edited with Gary Lutz. All clusterflockers welcome, especially if goats & vampires are involved.
Hefner’s Novella
The one he bought, that is: Nabakov’s The Original of Laura.
Hugh Hefner’s Playboy has acquired the first serial rights to The Original of Laura, the final, unfinished novella of the late Vladmir Nabokov.
For years, Nabokov’s son Dmitri indicated that, per his father’s dying wishes, Laura would never see the light of day. Then last spring he had a change of heart and entrusted the super-agent Andrew Wylie to find a publisher. Knopf secured the rights for an undisclosed sum, and a publication date was set for this coming fall. When Amy Grace Loyd, Playboy’s literary editor since 2005, heard the news, she began an intense courtship process. “I did it with orchids, mostly,” Ms. Loyd said.
The Merits of Print
The favorite part of my Saturday and Sunday afternoons is fighting for parts of the NYT at my local café:
Contrary to what internet networkers say, print is a social tool too. It just requires physical proximity. Fighting over the front section is a healthy morning ritual, and dividing and conquering a paper is a fundamental weekend activity. In public, a newspaper makes for a great shield. Broadsheets are particularly good for avoiding people you recognise on the train. Hiding behind a laptop is difficult. Forget the blackberry.
Update: The link is fixed.
from a Vanity Fair article on Sarah Palin
A flamboyant divorce lawyer who drives a big red Hummer with the vanity license plate WAR, Ross is a good old boy of pithy expression and considerable charm.
The new elimae
is now posted. Enjoy!
Lit. Journal Auction
Whoa. The complete set of Lish’s The Quarterly is up for auction at Ebay, along with issues 4-8 of NOON, 3rd Bed, and more. Worth taking a look here.