Author's and Their Websites

Forget the act of writing, the pressure to create a web presence is becoming almost as intense for many authors. Jeff Barr, of Book Design blog fame, has launched a new website, Books Written By, which features authors and their websites. Each entry provides a screenshot of the author's homepage with a link to their site.

The gallery gives us a glimpse into the wild west of website design and authors and seems poised to become a valuable resource for what to and what not to do when developing one's literary website. They make "no attempt to rate the quality of the sites" and hope that "authors and designers can use this gallery to gain inspiration for their own sites. And everyone just might discover some interesting writers."

Jean Jullien

London based artist Jean Jullien has created some fantastic book themed posters. Above is one for the London night club Cliche, and below one of two new posters about the Fables of La Fontaine.

Also, don't miss Jullien's compelling visual essay about social apathy and the culture of protestation." The piece is titled "don't protest." Jullien places colored flags with printed text in various settings around the house and around town. The flags are also collected in book form.

Thanks to manystuff for the lead and also congratulations to manystuff, the blog has entered the print world with the release of the first issue of their magazine Manystuff #0.

Jullien has an illustration in the premier issue.

Tables of Contents

from Content, by Rem Koolhaas

The gang at Design Observer have started a Flickr set showcasing the Table of Contents page. The set is meant as a visual archive of TOC and as an accompaniment to their 2007 book The Next Page: Thirty Tables of Contents which was published to coincide with AIGA's Biennial National Design Conference in Denver, the theme of which was "Next."

"Often overlooked by serious bibliophiles, the humble TOC is our portal into a world of knowledge. In the realm of the printed word, it heralds what comes next, a verbal proscenium with its own peculiar prose and typographic conventions."

One is encouraged to scan and upload contents pages from your own library and add them to the group's photo pool.

DQ : The Ultimate in Online 'Books'

from Beneath a steel sky

We have ebooks and book social networks. We have book trailers and internet book tv but the folks at DQ Books (nothing to do with Dairy Queen) have come up with what just might be the perfect marriage of technology and the book form.

DQ Books brings together artists, illustrators and photographers and places their visuals within the context of the book form using Flash technology. Each thematic issue is accompanied by a soundscape created by French composer Avril.

The first 4 issues are:

Invasion - 7 days of graphic improvisition by Festo and Telemolindo

Seasons - 16 illustrators, artists and photographers invent a life of a woman according to seasons

Where's the Party - Brazilian, Italian and French artists for a narcotic party, carried out with a blue Bic pen

Beneath a steel sky - From Brooklyn to Central Park beneath a steel sky, analog photography by Festo

These are the wordless novels of the 21st Century.


Thanks to Brian Cassidy for the lead

Zechariah Reading

Michelangelo. The Prophet Zechariah. Fresco. Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, 1508-1512

The Dark Side of the Bush Presidential Library

In a speech last week President George W. Bush touted the plan for his new Presidential Library at Southern Methodist University calling it "a place where we get the thinkers from around the world to come and write about and articulate the transformative power of freedom, abroad and at home."

Bush expects to raise $500 million for the library making it the costliest Presidential Library to date. The half-a-billion dollars is twice the total amount Bush spent on his entire 2004 Presidential campaign! Just think if public libraries had that kind of kind of support while he was in office.

Among the contributors to the Presidential Library are:

A sheik from the United Arab Emirates, who contributed at least $1 million.
The state of Kuwait.
The Bandar bin Sultan family.
The Sultanate of Oman.
King Hassan II of Morocco.
The amir of Qatar.
The former Korean prime minister.

China also gave tens of thousands of dollars to the library. In addition, funds were received from the late Kenneth Lay, the former head of Enron, and Dick Cheney, the current Vice President.

I received a press release the other day from Rev. Andrew J. Weaver, an outspoken critic of Bush's plan to house the library at SMU. Weaver points out that in a recent vote among members of the United Methodist Church members voted 844-20 on a petition calling for the rejection of the Bush project! How's that for an approval rating.

Apparently, this opposition is not enough. Bishop Scott J. Jones of Kansas, a staunch supporter of the library, called the petition merely procedural and that the decision rests in hands of the church's South Central Jurisdiction (SCJ).

Weaver goes on to say:

I urge Bishop Jones to reconsider and support the democratic and transparent processes of our church. I fear our communion will suffer a lingering and unnecessary wound of distrust, hurt, and anger if there is not fairness on this issue. Thousands of United Methodists...believe that honoring and “celebrating” a glaringly unrepentant UMC member, President George W. Bush, with a partisan think tank, will damage our credibility as followers of Jesus Christ and bring lasting shame upon the our church and a fine university

Article at Media Transparency Dubya's Tower of Babel

Protest SMU.org

Weaver's June 2007 piece, Southern Halliburton University

Previous Book Patrol post : And the Envelope Please: Designs for the George W. Bush Presidential Library

In Defence of Amazon : Their New POD Strategy as Opportunity.

Much has been written about Amazon's new strategy of offering print on demand titles sold on their website exclusively through their POD company, Book Surge. Cries of monopoly and unfair business practices have permeated the discourse but there are I believe, potential opportunities for publishers and authors within this new paradigm.

Just as the arrival of Amazon changed the bookselling landscape forever their new POD strategy is sure to alter the publishing landscape in similar ways and how the publishers respond will ultimately determine their chance of survival. Will we lose as many publishers as we have book stores?

I see nothing wrong with Amazon's surge into POD. They are, after all, a business and are obligated to develop the most cost effective ways to succeed. By printing needed titles on demand to include or "marry" with other items will save them zillions of dollars in shipping charges and in shipping supplies. Just think of how many fewer boxes they will need or packing tape, or related labor expenses in being able to cut down on the amount of shipments without a decline in the number of items sold.

So where is the opportunity?

Publishers and authors can still produce books that will differ from the Amazon edition and be desired in the marketplace. The Amazon POD editions will be the mass market paperbacks of the new publishing era. There will remain a healthy market for other editions. The publishers can capitalize on this by offering their own editions that might include extra material much like the movie studios do with their DVD releases. An extra short story, an extra poem, interviews with the author, signed copies, manuscript pages etc.; the possibilities are endless. Not everyone wants their book the next day nor do they want a cheaply produced version. Quality still counts and many will still pay for it.

This is not a wake up call as some of said this is more of a last call. The rules of bookselling and publishing have changed drastically and the publishers that can respond in new innovative ways will be the ones that prosper.

Previous Book Patrol posts on the Amazon sales tax issue:

ABA Misguided In Their Support For An Internet Sales Tax

New York Booksellers Ask Spitzer to Reconsider Online Sales Tax