Publishing Insider

I spy with my 2 eyes..and monitor..and flipcam

Many booksellers are blogging, which is great, but the visual is next. Get a Flip camera and record staff picks!! Someone in your stores can be THE next online expert in….pick the category! (Or checkout Vroman’s staff video or Green Apple’s fun videos!!)

hope for books

I have a theory that people who have written or want to read a book actually read more than the average person. Whaddya think?

get your eggs heeyah!

From the Shelf, so to speak: The first Narwhal Awards, created this week by George Braziller "to recognize booksellers, agents, publishers, and other industry folk who are doing something unique during these allegedly difficult times," goes to Readers' Books, Sonoma, Calif., for making "an unusual addition to its shelves--organic eggs." The store has been selling eggs from the owners' family farm and will add vegetables and preserves this fall (Shelf Awareness, February 11, 2009).

the real Rush

Do not miss Tom Rush, THE dean of the Boston folk scene of yore, on tour....AND  he's still got it and then some. His voice has that same timbre, and he can play the hell out of a guitar. AND...his Remember song got 3 million hits on youtube!

MIssissippi revival

Pass Christian Books, Pass Christian, Miss., re-opened April 1 near its former location, which was leveled by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Bookselling This Week reported that during the intervening years, co-owners Rich Daley and Scott Naugle "operated online and out of their homes, then moved to a temporary storefront on the outskirts of town." A grand reopening is planned for the late spring. Thanks to Bookselling This Week and Shelf Awareness for the heads up on this great news.

it's a wrap

From our friends at Shelf Awareness: The Guardian reported that a "librarian at Oxford's Bodleian Library has unearthed the earliest-known book dust jacket. Dating from 1830, the jacket wrapped a silk-covered gift book, Friendship's Offering."

the best band of our time...not kidding

Everyone has their favorite band or two, discovered at a certain point in their lives so there is a special connection. I thought that's what the Subdudes were for me, just my discovery. But I've seen them 5x now, and it's the closest thing to musical ecstasy I know..AND it's not just me. Their audiences are all in rapture, each in their own space. Go see them on tour...and stay til the end. If you don't cry and feel a little closer to a universal spirit after their unique encore, you never will. I am not a joiner nor especially spiritual, but the Subdudes let you feel your own way at the same time as a bunch of strangers, and it's just good music.

the coolest thing ever..shelftalker art

At Green Apple Books in SF, via Shelf Awareness. So fun.

have your reading group voice counted!

Carol Fitzgerald, the high-energy amazement behind the million subscriber ReadingGroups.com, is conducting an important national survey. Please participate.

Pratchett town

From Shelf Awareness:

Just turn left at Treacle Mine Road. Asking for directions at the Kingwell Rise housing development in Wincanton took on an added fictional element when the Somerset town unveiled road and street names taken from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

The Guardian reported that Pratchett was on hand Sunday to celebrate the unveiling, "and was greeted by hundreds of fans--many dressed in costume."

"I think it's a lovely idea, even though it makes my head spin to think of the books becoming a little closer to reality," he said. "And they are nice names, even though I say it myself. Personally, I'd pay good money to live somewhere called Treacle Mine Road."