Mediabistro's Jason Boog gets digital books promotion

Jason Boog, the blogger who's been posting up a storm at Mediabistro's Galleycat for more than a year, has been promoted to the new position of editor of Mediabistro Publishing.

Mediabistro Publishing, a new entity, will focus on offerings around digital publishing, and not -- so far, at least -- publish ebooks of its own. Instead, Boog says, the plan is to "blow out the footprint that Galleycat has in the publishing world."

Mediabistro is known for offering classes to journalists and wannabe journos, and now it will create a similar smattering of classes for publishing professionals and authors. Two things Boog mentioned to Jacket Copy are helping people learn how to get books formatted for the Kindle and a class on iPhone apps. And odds are that something marketing-ish -- say, using Facebook, Twitter or the social networking platform of the future -- will be available too.

But in the immediate future, Boog will be coordinating the company's ebook summit set for Dec. 16-18 in New York. He'll also keep doing his Mediabistro podcast. And blogging, of course. It's just too good to give up.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Jason Boog

Gregory Maguire, author of 'Wicked,' does a good deed

Gregory Maguire, author of seven books for adults and five for young readers, is probably best known for "Wicked," his retelling of "The Wizard of Oz" from the witch's point of view.

But creating stories that explore the nature of evil, or what we perceive as evil, hasn't made him bad. In fact, he's done something very good with his new book, "The Next Queen of Heaven." A comic novel set in upstate New York in late 1999, the book features a teen girl as troublesome as they come; her devout mother, who, after a bump on the head from a religious statue, either begins speaking in her own profane code or in tongues; a local semi-out choirmaster; and a surprising nun. Maguire moves easily in and out of even minor characters, so the town comes alive in many dimensions, most of them funny and slightly bonkers.

Did I mention that "The Next Queen of Heaven" is free?

That's the good part. Maguire has chosen to publish the book with the Concord Free Press, which will distribute all 2,500 copies of the novel, for free, to anyone who asks. They ask two things in return:

• That you make a donation to charity and tell them what it was.
• That you pass on the book and ask the next reader to do the same.

So far, more than $97,000 has been donated through the distribution of its books -- Maguire's, which has been out for just a couple of weeks, is the publishing house's third.

"I admire that the books as well as the publishing model raise questions about art's inherent value and the commodification of content," Maguire says in the book's press materials. "I like knowing that this book is out in the world, helping generate donations for great causes."

It's not Maguire's first good deed -- he founded a children's literacy nonprofit in New England way back in 1987.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Gregory Maguire. Credit: Chitose Suzuki / Associated Press

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Truman Capote's sexy gaze and other book ads: A Q&A with Dwight Garner

In "Read Me," Dwight Garner compiles a century of print ads for books, funny and formal, subtle and sensational. Garner is a longtime book critic at the New York Times, where he also has blogged at Paper Cuts. For his book, he went deep into the archives -- of his own paper and other venues. Isolated, in "Read Me," on pages with white or black backgrounds, the ads bear the markings of having been physical artifacts -- they reveal uneven printing, the wear of ink rubbing off paper, shadows of what was printed on the reverse, even the shadow of a fold. As Garner explains in his decade-by-decade introductions, the ads are simultaneously commerce, art and a reflection of what's buzzing in the literary culture.

Jacket Copy: You write that the first print advertisement for anything was for a book.

Dwight Garner: Yes. It was for a very odd-sounding book, called “Perfect Occurrences of Every Daie journall in Parliament, and Other Moderate Intelligence.” The book was printed in London, and it’s a very convoluted ad, but it’s the first one. It includes the world “applauded” -- it’s a very dense ad, but I think if someone were to reprint that ad today, the world “applauded” would be at the top in 18-point type, with exclamation points.

JC: What was the genesis of your book?

DG: I was doing various research over time, looking for old reviews, old articles, old pieces of criticism, to write pieces I was writing or to edit pieces. I would come across, in magazines or newspapers, these fantastic old ads for books. Some of these ads were so striking, so rich with historical information about not only the books, but how books were sold at certain periods in our culture. I started collecting them. I began to go into  more archives, some of them paper archives, some electronic, grabbing these things. I just sort of fell in love with them.

JC: I imagine you have more than made it into the book.

DG: Oh yeah, we cut hundreds out, and it was a brutal process. I think there’s 300 or 400 in there now, which is quite a lot, but the book could have been twice as big. I think there are more out there for people to find. It’s funny that a project like this hasn’t been done before; they’re fascinating documents. I think we’ve boiled it down to a pretty great selection just from this century.

JC: It’s interesting to me that they’ve been removed from their contexts.

DG: They were from newspaper pages, and we singled them out as individual works of art.

JC: As you were flipping through those pages, how did these particular ads jump out at you?

DG: I looked for books that I love. I was particularly interested in the way literary fiction and literary books were marketed in America during this past century. I focused on well-known books, I focused on literary books, I focused on ads that were particularly striking, that had a distinctive look and really jumped off the page in some way.

JC: Like the Truman Capote ad [pictured]?

DG: That’s one of the most famous author photographs of all time. When that book was first published, I don’t think people had seen author photographs like that. That come-hither look that Capote is giving, lying in that chair the way he is, that stare is just so gripping and so strangely sexy. I think it caught people off guard in 1948, people just weren’t ready for that kind of direct sexual gaze. I think in the end it really helped to sell the book. 

JC: As a book critic, it's your job to read new books. Did you find yourself wanting to read any of these books after reading the ads?

DG: There were a lot of books that really appealed to me. I had never read Lillian Smith's "Strange Fruit," for example -- that's a book that I now plan to read. There's this very strange travel book called "Letter of Credit" by Jerome Weidman, published in 1940, which has one of the most hilarious ads in the book. The headline on the ad is "Not from the marijuana department." The ad is all about how the reviews for this book have been so great that it sounds like the in-house publicity department had been smoking marijuana while putting the ad together. It's just hilarious. But actually you look at the reviews, and they are fairly terrific, and it does make me want to know who Jerome Weidman is, because I don't know who he is. I've never read any Jerome Weidman. There were a number of books like that.

After the jump: How not to sell Cormac McCarthy.

Mandela and Google at the Frankfurt Book Fair

The Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany is the world's largest, where much publishing business typically gets done. Now in its second day, the fair seems to be smaller than in recent years. With attendance of agents rumored to be down, there seems to be a bit less business being done; that is, unless you listen to dynamic British publisher Jamie Byng, who blogs about the excitement of telling stories all conference long.

There has been news: Today Google announced an online digital bookstore, Google Editions, set to launch mid-2010. The move to sell its own e-books is seen as a step into the territory dominated by Amazon's Kindle reader.

And before the fair had even begun, a hot property was, as they say in publishing, up for auction. Nelson Mandela's personal papers -- a private collection of journals, diaries, speeches, notebooks and letters, some written during the 27 years he was imprisoned at Robben Island -- are to be shaped into a book, tentatively titled "Conversations With Myself." Pan Macmillan secured British rights to publish the book before the fair, and on Wednesday Farrar, Straus and Giroux won American publication rights.

The book's agent, Jonny Geller of Curtis Brown, said, "What is so amazing is that he wrote virtually every day of his life and kept all his notes. He has notebooks from Robben Island which are absolutely packed with his handwriting. ... There's scraps of paper with his notes on leadership." While it's an agent's job to spin, it's hard to imagine a set of personal papers that would be more intriguing. Mandela not only suffered decades in prison, but he also emerged to shepherd a peaceful transition of power in South Africa, one of the most unjustly governed nations in the world.

Mandela's autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom," has sold 6 million copies worldwide. "Conversations With Myself" is planned to reach bookstores in 2010, when Mandela will turn 92.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Nelson Mandela at his 90th birthday celebration in March 2008. Credit: Kim Ludbrook / EPA

Even Dan Brown can't break the e-book 5% rule

When Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" was released on Sept. 15, Amazon's rankings revealed that Kindle sales outstripped sales of the hardcover. This led some ebook enthusiasts to herald the dawning of a new era. FastCompany asked, "Could Dan Brown's new book be heralding the e-book age?" CNet wrote: "The possibility that the Kindle version of 'The Lost Symbol' -- which follows Brown's wildly popular 'Da Vinci Code' and 'Angels & Demons' -- is outselling hard copies on Amazon could be a monumental moment in the e-book industry."

But it was only a moment, one that lasted less than 48 hours. By the time the week was out, with more than 2 million copies sold in the U.S., Britain and Canada -- breaking the publisher's previous one-week record set by Bill Clinton with "My Life" -- hardcover sales had easily eclipsed sales of the ebook. Of the 2 million copies sold, only 100,000, or 5%, were electronic versions.

Today, spokeswoman Suzanne Herz responded to an e-mail query by Jacket Copy: "Sales remain excellent for 'The Lost Symbol,' " she wrote, "and ebooks account for approximately 5% of all sales."

Ebook sales started slow and as recently as 2007 remained flat, but have been climbing steadily in the years since. The change seems to have been sparked by Amazon's Kindle, which debuted Nov. 19, 2007; the online retailer has made Kindle versions a prominent part of the book-shopping experience. Yet despite occasional dramatic increases, the number of ebooks sold is just 3% to 5% the total number of hardcover books sold. A complicating factor is that not all publishers have been reporting ebook sales, meaning the numbers are still a bit wiggly.

Fans of ebooks are always on the lookout for a magic bullet -- a killer app, a brilliant new device, a groundbreaking title -- to bring them to greater prominence. With the out-of-the-gate Kindle sales of "The Lost Symbol," it looked like they'd found their rocket.

But what it really showed is that some enthusiasts wanted "The Lost Symbol" immediately, and hurried to purchase the electronic version. But they remain just five out of every hundred book buyers.

Looks like even "The Lost Symbol" has not been able to herald the dawning of the ebook age.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images

Is giving away a bundle of Kindles brilliant, or a gimmick?

Carolyn Rubenstein, author of the new nonfiction book "Perseverance," is giving away four Kindles this week -- one each day through Friday -- to people who Tweet #perseverance. The hope is to get enough momentum behind the Kindle giveaway to secure it a spot in the top-10 coveted Trending Topics section that is visible on all standard Twitter pages. And for that momentum to transfer to the book.

Is this a brilliant marketing move, or a desperate ploy for attention?

In June and July, web publishing platform Squarespace gave away 30 iPhones in 30 days to people who tweeted #squarespace, and lo and behold, it did become a Trending Topic on Twitter. Technically, Squarespace gave away $199 Apple Gift Certificates; this caused some consternation because the prize didn't cover the cost of the required two-year contract with AT&T. Nevertheless, the promotion maintained a high level of visibility and popularity.

But can marketing magic strike Twitter the same way twice?

The four winners of Rubenstein's contest will get the $299, 6-inch Kindle, costing her about $800. That seems like a high price for a first-time, 24-year-old author to pay. Is it worth it? Is publisher Tor/Forge picking up the tab?

Oh, about the book: "Perseverance" is 20 true-life stories from young cancer survivors. So even if it's a desperate promotional move -- and I'm guilty of succumbing to a gimmick -- well, maybe it is worth it after all.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Dennis Lehane's special edition of 'Boston Noir'

This fall, when the short-story anthology "Boston Noir" hits shelves, a few people will get a limited-edition hardcover of the book, autographed by editor Dennis ("Mystic River") Lehane. Although the series is published in paperback, 100 copies of the hardcover will be printed, with a specially designed black-and-silver cover. This special edition, which costs $100, is available for pre-order now directly from publisher Akashic Books.

Akashic, a Brooklyn-based independent press, started its city noir series five years ago with the close-to-home "Brooklyn Noir." The series -- anthologies of contemporary short crime fiction with a noir sensibility -- now includes Detroit; Miami; Baltimore; New Orleans; Washington, D.C.; Las Vegas; Toronto; Rome; Paris; Dublin; Havana; Istanbul; and more. Oh and Los Angeles, of course.

As many in publishing struggle to find ways to improve on an increasingly outdated business model, independents such as Akashic -- which are more nimble and less risk-averse than major publishing houses -- are innovators to watch. In this case, they're exploring the idea that some people will value the book as an object and pay a premium for a limited-run, particularly beautiful version of that object. A book like this might be seen as a collectible, not unlike limited-edition vinyl.

Editor Dennis Lehane selected new stories by Stewart O'Nan, Patricia Powell, John Dufresne, Don Lee and others for "Boston Noir," in addition to contributing one of his own. The book is due out Nov. 9.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Image: Akashic Books

A new syndication model: Shya Scanlon's Forecast 42 Project

Could Shya Scanlon, a 33 year-old with a recent MFA from Brown, have come up with a new workable online publishing model? Not that anybody is making any money off his innovative Forecast 42 Project. But he's taken old-style novel serialization -- remembered best as the way Charles Dickens published his work -- and melded it with contemporary online reading patterns and capacities. He's arranged for his futuristic novel "Forecast" to be serialized online -- not just in one place, but across 42 different websites, including the always-interesting Kottke.org and literary journals Redivider and Monkeybicycle. The project, which launched in July and has a new section go live online every Monday and Thursday, will continue well into the fall.

When I asked him if he saw a potential in the multiple-website serialization model, he replied, "Wouldn't it be interesting to have a network of journals which dedicated some area of their site to some kind of ongoing novel serialization project?" Yes, wouldn't it? But I'm getting ahead of myself. First I asked about where the project came from.

Jacket Copy: Did you have an agent when you wrote "Forecast"? Did you try to find a publisher before deciding to serialize it?

Shya Scanlon: My agent, Erin Hosier, and I met while in New York before I went to grad school, but it wasn't until I'd written a few books that she offered to take me on. In fact, though she had wonderful things to say about "Forecast," she offered representation for a different book, "Uno Che," another novel from a thematic trilogy that includes "Forecast."

Though I was not yet with Erin when I completed "Forecast," I did shop it around to a handful of other agents, and while the feedback I got was usually pretty positive, they all had a similar message: "Forecast" simply isn't commercially viable. I struggled with this a bit, but before too long shelved it and moved on. In retrospect, I could certainly have tried going after independent presses more. I think I sent it to two, but there are several out there publishing work similar in tone or content to "Forecast." Anyway, three books later, it feels both astonishing a little scary to find new life and opportunity for the book. Something like a resurrection.

JC: When did you decide to try serializing the novel on the Web? Where did the idea of serializing across multiple websites come from?

SS: About three months ago, I somehow got the notion that if I didn't pull "Forecast" out of the "drawer" and do something with it, the manuscript might be lost forever (I'm prone to such dramatic thinking). At the time, I'd just launched my blog and thought that perhaps serializing it there might be worth considering. The idea went through several manifestations -- including one where Opium Magazine would serialize it on their site -- but due to lack of energy or funds, none but hosting it on my own site seemed truly doable.

And then I lost patience and put the whole thing up at once. Once it was up, I approached a few editors about running excerpts on their Web sites, and linking to my blog, in an effort to drive some traffic and downloads. People were actually really kind in agreeing to do this, and it seemed to work, but it also seemed increasingly insufficient. I'd watch my little traffic counter limp along at one or two hits per day and daydream about how I could up the ante. Ultimately, the idea for serializing it across multiple sites came from many places at once. I'd thought it but not said it out loud, perhaps because it felt, I don't know, a little arrogant somehow. But then my girlfriend, Erin Flaherty, floated the idea, and so too did Steven Seighman, the editor of Monkeybicycle. I guess it was just in the air.

When social networking sites actually work... after the jump.

One man's trash is another man's fictional treasure

Can a good story make something more valuable? What if it's entirely untrue? And what if the person telling the story -- like, say, a novelist -- is a kind of professional liar; does a professional lie give an object more value? And, hey, what if you could buy something like that on EBay?

When authors Rob Walker ("Buying In") and Joshua Glenn ("Taking Things Seriously"), each of whom is curious about the meaning and value we assign to objects, met in Boston earlier this year, they came up with the idea for the fiction-auction project Significant Objects. Well-known literary authors -- including Luc Sante and Lydia Millet -- write a short story that serves the description for a basically worthless object that is then auctioned on EBay. The first set of auctions has closed, and while the ending prices were all less than $30, Walker points out that with listing prices beginning as low as 29 cents, the final value increased by as much 4,000%.

Jacket Copy's Carolyn Kellogg e-mailed co-editor Glenn and participating author Matthew Sharpe ("Jamestown") about the project.

JC: Kurt Andersen's story about an old Christmas nutcracker is the first so far to tie one of the objects (fictionally) to a celebrity. It's also the first to get a bit dirty. Are either of those themes that you expected?

JG: Based on some classificatory work I did for my book "Taking Things Seriously," I've determined that every participant so far has employed the thingamajig we've assigned them, in their story, as either a talisman (an object with magical powers, or one that's conscious), a totem (a tutelary spirit from the natural world), a fossil (a remnant of some vanished epoch or way of life, including childhood), or evidence (the object plays a role in a crime, or an historical event). If there are other modes of relating emotionally and psychologically to an object, I don't think our authors have tried them yet. Of course, it's how an artist performs within certain constraints that's so exciting -- it's been a joy to read these strange, funny, moving stories.

One thing that we didn't expect is a certain amount of competition among some of the participants. Andersen, whose story strongly hints that a novelty nutcracker (which I purchased at a yard sale, two blocks from my house in Boston, for $2) is probably worth thousands of dollars because James Dean was rumored to have used it in a particularly naughty way, is really playing to win! Rob and I loved seeing that. Alas for Kurt, so far, bidders have only offered $5 for the nutcracker. However, a cow-shaped creamer that a lesser celebrity, Norman Rockwell, left behind in a psychiatric hospital where he was being treated for depression, at least according to a story by Lucinda Rosenfeld, is going for a whopping $28.

JC: While the actual provenance of an object affects its worth, here you're inventing fictional provenances. Are you aware of any prior fictional provenances that have affected an object's value?

JG: I've heard stories about forgeries and fakes that -- once exposed as such -- became even more highly prized as collectibles than the originals. Edmé Samson's reproductions of fine china, for example.  Speaking only for myself, I'd have to say that I regard all provenances as fictional to some degree. I'm skeptical about authenticity claims, whether in the realm of artifacts or that of Being. So ... the more obviously fictional and unserious a provenance is, the more charming I tend to find it.

JC: Do the authors get a share of the sale price? Are they paid at all?

JG: The authors get all the money, after shipping costs, that EBay pays out -- we're not even going to subtract the dollar or two we spent to buy the object in the first place. It's our treat!

JC [to Matthew Sharpe]: After you agreed to do it, did you have any trepidations?

MS: Just the usual seller's anxiety.

JC: After you received the object you were to write about (a mule figurine), did you have any second thoughts?

MS: I was actually given a choice among five objects and chose the mule. It spoke to me. Then I took my medication. Then I had second thoughts.

JC: Your story seems to take on the shape of an EBay listing, in language, tone and, well, oddness. Was that important to you? And how familiar were you with EBay listings prior to this?

MS: Several years ago I saw an EBay listing offering a service for sale, rather than an object, and the service was a beating, to wit: "If you win this auction, I will personally come to your house and beat you up." That gem has subtended not just my Significant Objects piece but much of the writing I've done since discovering it.

More from Josh Glenn on objects, value, and what you get when you win one of these auctions ... after the jump.

Chinese writers pen Michael Jackson book in 48 hours

Two Chinese writers locked themselves up with coffee and cigarettes, no cellphones and no sleep for 48 hours -- and emerged with a finished Michael Jackson biography. "Moonwalk in Paradise" hit shelves this weekend, fewer than 10 days after the pop star's death. The newspaper China Daily reported:

The 130,000-word book, titled "Moonwalk in Paradise -- the Michael Jackson biography," written by Jiang Xiaoyu and Xing Han, and published by Chinese publishing house Xiandai was available for pre-order sales online on Friday and on bookshelves Saturday. ...

A report in China Youth Daily said the writers never met or interviewed Jackson and simply wrote the story from their "accumulated knowledge about the king of pop."...

[co-author Jiang Xiaoyu said] "I am not only a music critic but also a fan of the King of Pop, so I understand what fans really need.... fans cannot wait for months." 

Jiang Zengpei, a Chinese publisher, expressed concern about "instant books" like this one, which have begin making regular appearances in China. "Many instant books have been fabricated with information from other books or the Internet. Publishing, an important part of the culture industry, should be creative work."

Although U.S. publishers may be trying to rush Jackson products to shelves, domestic efforts are hardly instant. The earliest Jackson books will include an updated version of J. Randy Taraborrelli's 1991 biography "Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness," coming out as "Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story: 1958-2009" on Aug. 5 from Hachette, and "Life Commemorative: Michael Jackson" due Aug. 18. 

Here in L.A., Jacksonmania continues: Over the weekend, 1.6 million people signed up for a lottery for the memorial to be held at the Staples Center, and the winners queued up this morning -- radios blaring Jackson music, of course -- to pick up their tickets.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Michael Jackson with mime Marcel Marceau in rehearsal in 1995 for an unaired HBO television special "Michael Jackson: One Night Only." Credit: Kathy Willens / Associated Press