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Archive for June, 2009:

• Sonya Hartnett, The Silver Donkey (UK hardcover — Walker Books, 2006)
• Steven Pinker, Hotheads (Penguin, 2005)  [Designed by Smith & Gilmour; part of the gorgeous Pocket Penguin 70s series]
• Sherman Alexie, Face (Hanging Loose Press, 2009)
• Jonathan Messinger, Hiding Out (Featherproof Books, 2007)  [Cover photo by Nathan Keay (www.nathankeay.com)]
• James Tate, Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee (Wave Books, 2008) [Design by Quemadura]
• David Barringer, We Were Ugly So We Made Beautiful Things (Word Riot Press, 2003)  [Cover art, illustrations, and typefaces by Eduardo Recife (www.misprintedtype.com)]

If you find it tough to get through a long book these days, you are not alone–Anthony Zuiker, the man behind the popular CSI television series, admits he can’t get through a 400-page book, and now he’s doing something about it. Zuiker inked a deal with imprint Dutton to produce a series of three “digi-novels,” novels that come with accompanying videos.

The first of the series, Level 26: Dark Origins, is scheduled for release in September 2009. The books will be cowritten by Zuiker and writer and comic book creator Duane Swierczynski. Each digi-novel includes a book plus 20 3-minute videos (Zuiker calls them “cyber-bridges”) that readers can access online. The videos are intended to enhance the reading experience. A video will be available every 20 pages or so.

For those who fear the books themselves will be poorly written and the whole thing smelling too gimmicky, rest assured; Dutton’s Brian Tart, who is responsible for the deal with Zuiker, said in USA Today that the books must be of high quality and “have to stand on their own as books.” He added that “publishers need to experiment with new ways of engaging readers. Books were a primary form of entertainment when there were only a couple of TV channels and no Internet.”

For more information, see Swierczynski’s post about his involvement with the project.

A long time ago I saw Sherman Alexie at a reading in Spokane, Washington. Still in his twenties, Alexie arrived late. He stumbled to the podium, pretending, I think, to be drunk, and mumbled insults at the audience. As I remember, he left shortly afterward without reading a thing. Alexie was new on the scene, but his gift as a writer was already matched by a dramatic, provocative presence that got people’s attention.

I thought of this event recently when I was reading a New York Times article on BookExpo America. There was Sherman Alexie, now a famous writer, quoted about ebooks. On his plane going to the convention, he saw a woman reading a Kindle. According to article, Alexie, who thinks Kindles are elitist, “wanted to hit” the woman.

I doubt Alexie really wants to hit anyone, but like many literary people, he hates and fears digital books. For authors the fear is understandable. Ebooks are potentially threatening. But this antidigital urge seems to be part of a broader trend, another act in the man versus machine drama. An earlier scene occurred in 1987, when Wendell Berry wrote a piece in Harper’s describing his disdain for computers. Although compelling, the essay was widely criticized, especially for being sexist. Instead of using a computer, Berry said in the essay, he asked his wife to type his work.

Alexie, too, received mixed reviews from his comments. To his credit, Alexie on his website wrote about the many people who sent him e-mails supporting ebooks. Some, because of physical ailments, couldn’t read without the Kindle or similar machines. Alexie, who said he has not allowed his books to be available digitally, announced he would be meeting with “folks at Amazon and Kindle” and promised not to “beat up anybody” there.

Here, in another context, is Alexie in a provocative duel.

Everyone these days seems to be talking about the death of book publishing. Everyone, that is, except McSweeney’s. Leave it to McSweeney’s to bring a little sunshine to the darkness. There seem to be quite a few haters out there, but hey, I like McSweeney’s; I love how innovative and creative they are, and you know, they seem to be having fun. There are some things on the McSweeney’s website that make me laugh out loud.

But I digress. Recently Dave Eggers of McSweeney’s said he would send a personal e-mail to anyone who was saddened by the sorry state of publishing (i.e., that print is dead) and needed cheering up. The Gawker published the e-mail, in which Eggers discusses the survivability of both newspaper and book publishing. Following are a few excerpts:

“We’re a hand-to-mouth operation to be sure, but we haven’t had to lay anyone off. To some extent, that’s because we’re small and independent and have always insisted on staying small and independent. We take on very little risk, and we grow very cautiously. It’s our humble opinion that the world will support many more publishers of our size and focus. If you can stay small, stay independent, readers will be loyal, and you’ll be able to get by publishing work of merit.”

“To survive, the newspaper, and the physical book, needs to set itself apart from the web. Physical forms of the written word need to offer a clear and different experience. And if they do, we believe, they will survive. Again, this is a time to roar back and assert and celebrate the beauty of the printed page. Give people something to fight for, and they will fight for it. Give something to pay for, and they’ll pay for it.”

Here at Thomas Riggs & Company we are venturing into this new and somewhat unfamiliar world of literary publishing, and I find it heartening and reassuring to read Eggers’ words. Give it up for the printed word!

The conversation about the future of publishing seems to be reaching a fever pitch these days, and the talk is overwhelmingly about technology, platforms, and applications. Amid the cacophony the question of how to find, nurture, and present exceptional, compelling content is usually secondary at best. As such, it’s great to see such a brave crusader as Hannah Tinti winning the PEN/Nora Magid Award for editorial excellence.

Tinti is editor-in-chief at One Story, a literary magazine that is championing the short-story form by printing them one at a time—in all their slender and arresting self-containment. Never mind the Kindle, you hopelessly tactile readers, as One Story promises:

Each issue is artfully designed, lightweight, easy to carry, and ready to entertain on buses, in bed, in subways, in cars, in the park, in the bath, in the waiting rooms of doctors, on the couch in the afternoon or on line at the supermarket.

 

The concept is simple enough, but One Story must be doing something right, as they’ve built their subscribership from 100 to 6,000 since their founding in 2002. What’s more, of the 119 stories One Story has issued, more than 40 have been recognized as among the best of their year.

And what exactly does Tinti have to do with bringing forth such outstanding fiction? See magazine co-founder Maribeth Batcha’s recent post and the flood of comments that followed for a glimpse of the remarkable passion, discernment, and generosity Tinti devotes to the authors she works with.

Indie publishing veteran Richard Nash (formerly of Soft Skull Press), who judged the PEN/Magid Award, apparently summed it up when he called Tinti “the Princess Leia of American short fiction . . . saving the short story from the Death Star of indifference.”

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