Publishing Insider

Just us girls

Like many others, I love fast-talkin', smart TV. First came Mash, then Wil & Grace and West Wing. We loved the patter of the short-lived Sports Night with Felicity Huffman, later of those housewives and now Transamerica. But I write this the morning after watching Gilmore Girls Season 3 Disc 1,  featuring one of the best single hours of television writing. Yes, the Gilmore Girls, of the WB, soon to be CW or something. My daughter and I love it for its wit, pop references, and mature, real-life, non-OC themes. Get it on DVD.

Is it warm out there, or is it just me?

Just back from the bookseller meeting in Long Beach - great vibe and idea-sharing. We pub types got to plug a few books, too, and the one I picked up from another house for the plane ride back was Weather Changers, by Tim Flannery, coming in March from Atlantic. Eric Price of Grove/Atlantic gave a passionate plea for it, and I was hooked..and ripped through half it on the plane back. He lays out all the global changes going on and the repurcussions. It is urgent and a must-read for every concerned citizen.

Bookseller buzz

I’m off on a trip to meet with booksellers and fellow marketing folk at a 2 day meeting in southern California sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the most active and innovative retail trade association in the country. In days past I would’ve lugged the laptop, but now I am lucky/unlucky enough to be in possession of the ubiquitous berry du black. I’ll get your comments as posted but no new blog entries 'til Sunday. I do expect to come back with new ideas and just the energy hit of being with booksellers. And possibly with a hangover.

PG-13

Along with watching Napoleon Dynamite 28 times, my daughter and I fell madly in love with Mad Hot Ballroom.  It’s like Spellbound, but about dancing vs. spelling bees.  It’s also sweeter and deeper, and the kids are endearing and not, well, obsessed. Anyone have other movie suggestions for a mature 14 year old..but with not too much, you know, too much?

XL

I love the fact that the upcoming Super Bowl is the first one with the preceding subtractable X...and that to 50 million beer guzzlers, it's going to look like X-tra Large. Too funny. And next year...'Hey Bud, is XL1 a new size?"

Bookstore theme displays

Just like those theme sets radio stations used to play (sun! blue!), I love bookstore themed book displays, as you may remember from my previous foot fetish blog item. Micawber's in Princeton once had a window filled with books with all predominantly yellow covers. Watermark in Anacortes, WA had one with snow on all the book jackets. Boulder Books just put up a shelf of books with dates as the title: 1491, 1776, 1421, and so on. My all-time favorite was a table in Barbara's in Chicago of books by long-dead authors; the sign read "Read 'em before you meet 'em." I love this sort of thing! Please, be you bookseller or booklover, tell me your ideas for such book display themes.

The Other Morrissey

I got to work on Bill Morrissey’s novel, Edson, when I was at Knopf. It’s a moody, heartfelt novel about a singer going through a rough time in a New England winter. And I got to see Bill a few times on the road and dip into all his albums, most of which are on Rounder. Good news: He’s back out with a new album, and on tour. See you there! (P.S. One of his songs, Birches, is so heartbreakingly beautiful that there is a blog just about this song at Bill's site.)

Quiz of the Week

Got XM radio on in the office after a long week. Usually have XM Cafe or the folk channel on, but hit Top Tracks and the Beatles' Get Back came on. Who is the non-Beatle singing at the end of the song on the longer version? A prize. Well, anything in my office. Spinal Tap lunchbox? Nope. Picture of my kid. Nah. One of the 45's on my wall, or a tape gun. Sure.

Author's tip of the hat

I just don't like Acknowledgments at the beginning of books. I want to get to the book itself soonest, and I just feel it's something that should be done at the end. Take your bows and blow kisses after the play, please. (And in the case of a great book, acknowledgments ease the post-partum letdown, soften the return to earth.)

Rough times

Finally, a clear explanation of the origin of that wonder of book design elements: rough front or rough edge paper. I love this touch, even if a month didn’t go by in my bookstore days with a customer thinking the book was defective. Check out this site for a longer bit about book production and then the fore-edge/rough edge explanation.