From now on I am hoping that some campsite reviews will soon begin to adorn this blog. The purpose behind this exercise is simply to create a usefulguide that can be used by ourselves (and anyone else for that matter) to possibly help decide where to go camping in the future. The idea being that these entries will focus on particular details that might not be picked up by more general guides. Ideally I would like to come up with a 'final layout' or universal template to use for all reviews, but I realise that may never be quite possible as things like location, size, etc of each site might automatically require new/different categories. Anyways, the first entry will hopefully go up soon along with some useful camping links. If this works and the required dedication is achieved then this might well turn into a lifelong quest.
Oh yeah, things like festivals, B&B's and hotels will hopefully also feature (for starters I will focus specifically on UK based places).
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
The Golden Apple
Speculation is rife about the new Apple must-have invention of the year.
The islate or ipad - nobody knows its true name, function or purpose – is due to be introduced to the world this Wednesday, 27 January 2010. One thing everybody does seem to agree on is that it will, in all likelihood, be a huge success and further add credence to the widespread belief that everything Apple does turns to gold.
The most interesting aspect about all of this – for me anyways – is the potential effect this new gizmo could have on the media industry. E-book sales have been increasing, if not drastically then at least regularly. Insiders are already predicting that the ipad will revolutionise the publishing industry. Magazines, journals, books and newspapers would all come as close as possible to being carbon copies of their print originals (with all the added online content).
Will this be the tipping point of electronic publishing? Hard to say, but if anybody can pull it off then I would expect it to be Apple.
The islate or ipad - nobody knows its true name, function or purpose – is due to be introduced to the world this Wednesday, 27 January 2010. One thing everybody does seem to agree on is that it will, in all likelihood, be a huge success and further add credence to the widespread belief that everything Apple does turns to gold.
The most interesting aspect about all of this – for me anyways – is the potential effect this new gizmo could have on the media industry. E-book sales have been increasing, if not drastically then at least regularly. Insiders are already predicting that the ipad will revolutionise the publishing industry. Magazines, journals, books and newspapers would all come as close as possible to being carbon copies of their print originals (with all the added online content).
Will this be the tipping point of electronic publishing? Hard to say, but if anybody can pull it off then I would expect it to be Apple.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Last day at work etc etc
Last day at work - until next Tuesday at least. Still, feels like this is meant to be the end of something or the beginning of something altogether different! Not sure what it is but I have a slight hunch. Best way to spend your last day in the office? Listening to tunage, drinking a helluva lot of coffee to stay awake whilst perusing the paper. Bottle of wine over lunch helps some existential dilemmas but not for making the time pass quicker.
Dirty Projectors' 'Bitte Orca' album of choice to spend a wine induced afternoon haze. Type of music? Undiscrabable to my very limited musical knowledge. These guys are quite good at it though (scroll to bottom of page). For me it's feet up until 5 and straight to the pub.
Adieu!
MM
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
New name, same old story
It has been a long time since my last entry - I actually can't believe that it has been nearly four years - but I have decided to once again try and write a few entries to the cyber world.
As a first entry I would like to try and explain the new name of my blog. 'Cafe Aleph' is both a tribute to a little cafe in Panama and a short story written by one of my favourite authors, Jorge Luis Borges.
The 'Cafe Aleph', as far as I am aware, was the first of its kind in Panama - a cultural and creative hub that attracts (I am assuming it still exists) all kinds of artists. In my mind I have some sort of romanticised memory of sitting there drinking coffee and playing chess or listening to gigs. For me it was part of the cultural revolution that slowly tapped into Panama's unique cultural heritage - a blend of American and Latin influences not found anywhere else in Latin America. In my opinion Cafe Aleph dragged Panama into the 21st century and made being an artist, a hippie or anything non-conventional for that matter, cool. Being away from home (Europe), this was always as good as it got!
The connection to Borge is both straightforward and abstract. In 1949 Borges wrote a short story called 'The Aleph'. Without going into too much detail, like many of Borges' stories it deals with the author's personal conflict with time and language. The Aleph is a small point of space which contains the entire universe and everything within it is apprehended simultaneously. It is because of this that language cannot and never will be able to accurrately represent it. Borges once said of it that infinity is to time what the aleph is to space. You cannot really countenance its existence, it is beyond man's finite mind to comprehend it. I guess the Internet sort of fits that bill and I have, since I was a child, for some reason had some sort of obsession with infinity (and time).
Anyways, I will try and post regular updates on just about anything and everything. For now, though, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
MM
As a first entry I would like to try and explain the new name of my blog. 'Cafe Aleph' is both a tribute to a little cafe in Panama and a short story written by one of my favourite authors, Jorge Luis Borges.
The 'Cafe Aleph', as far as I am aware, was the first of its kind in Panama - a cultural and creative hub that attracts (I am assuming it still exists) all kinds of artists. In my mind I have some sort of romanticised memory of sitting there drinking coffee and playing chess or listening to gigs. For me it was part of the cultural revolution that slowly tapped into Panama's unique cultural heritage - a blend of American and Latin influences not found anywhere else in Latin America. In my opinion Cafe Aleph dragged Panama into the 21st century and made being an artist, a hippie or anything non-conventional for that matter, cool. Being away from home (Europe), this was always as good as it got!
The connection to Borge is both straightforward and abstract. In 1949 Borges wrote a short story called 'The Aleph'. Without going into too much detail, like many of Borges' stories it deals with the author's personal conflict with time and language. The Aleph is a small point of space which contains the entire universe and everything within it is apprehended simultaneously. It is because of this that language cannot and never will be able to accurrately represent it. Borges once said of it that infinity is to time what the aleph is to space. You cannot really countenance its existence, it is beyond man's finite mind to comprehend it. I guess the Internet sort of fits that bill and I have, since I was a child, for some reason had some sort of obsession with infinity (and time).
Anyways, I will try and post regular updates on just about anything and everything. For now, though, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
MM
Friday, September 29, 2006
The Man Booker Prize
Keeping With the Expectation of Not Keeping With Expectations
This entry is overdue but time has been in short supply lately. The Man Booker Prize is undoubtedly the biggest literary event of the year and the winner usually benefits from heavily increased sales. Not only does the book that is short-listed sell well, but perhaps more importantly, winning the Man Book Prize or even being short-listed, has the potential of shifting some backlist titles.
This year’s list is as follows:
Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss – Hamish Hamilton
Grenville, Kate The Secret River – Canongate
Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down – Canongate
Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men – Viking
St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk – Picador
Waters, Sarah The Night Watch – Virago
The only title that I am familiar with is the latest Sarah Waters novel, although I have never read any of her books. I do, however, remember the strong advertising campaign that was run for her and she has now become the favourite to win the award.
Personally I am a bit disappointed that David Mitchell’s, Black Swan Green didn’t make the shortlist, but then again that was somehow expected—at least on my behalf. David Mitchell has been short-listed three times, which is an exceptional account considering that he has only written three books prior to Black Swan Green. His last book, Cloud Atlas should have won him the most coveted award in the UK publishing industry, but he was robbed by the seemingly dull John Banville. If Mitchell would have been short-listed this time round he probably would have won just because the judges wouldn’t have known what else to do. Give him the award and people say he received it because he has been nominated three times before, or don’t give it to him and risk creating a strong biased against him that would mean he won’t be nominated again and probably never win. Conisdering that he was once again the favourite to win the award – according to the bookies – it is a shame to not even see him on the short-list. My prediction though is that his next book will win it! (Remember, you read it here first.)
In regards to this year’s list there isn’t really much more to say. I am delighted that Canongate have two titles on the short-list and I hope that they win it, although neither of their two books have really grabbed my attention. The only one that sounds distinctively interesting—to me at least—is Mother’s Milk, of which The Guardian says, “St Aubyn's novel is a sequel to his 1990s trilogy, Some Hope, which follows the fluctuating fortunes of the privileged, dysfunctional Melrose family. Fans will be familiar with his wonderfully malicious prose, which is, if anything, even more dazzling here than in the previous three books.”
The winner will be announced October 10 and I promise to be on time to deliver the winner and some useless ramblings.
This entry is overdue but time has been in short supply lately. The Man Booker Prize is undoubtedly the biggest literary event of the year and the winner usually benefits from heavily increased sales. Not only does the book that is short-listed sell well, but perhaps more importantly, winning the Man Book Prize or even being short-listed, has the potential of shifting some backlist titles.
This year’s list is as follows:
Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss – Hamish Hamilton
Grenville, Kate The Secret River – Canongate
Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down – Canongate
Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men – Viking
St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk – Picador
Waters, Sarah The Night Watch – Virago
The only title that I am familiar with is the latest Sarah Waters novel, although I have never read any of her books. I do, however, remember the strong advertising campaign that was run for her and she has now become the favourite to win the award.
Personally I am a bit disappointed that David Mitchell’s, Black Swan Green didn’t make the shortlist, but then again that was somehow expected—at least on my behalf. David Mitchell has been short-listed three times, which is an exceptional account considering that he has only written three books prior to Black Swan Green. His last book, Cloud Atlas should have won him the most coveted award in the UK publishing industry, but he was robbed by the seemingly dull John Banville. If Mitchell would have been short-listed this time round he probably would have won just because the judges wouldn’t have known what else to do. Give him the award and people say he received it because he has been nominated three times before, or don’t give it to him and risk creating a strong biased against him that would mean he won’t be nominated again and probably never win. Conisdering that he was once again the favourite to win the award – according to the bookies – it is a shame to not even see him on the short-list. My prediction though is that his next book will win it! (Remember, you read it here first.)
In regards to this year’s list there isn’t really much more to say. I am delighted that Canongate have two titles on the short-list and I hope that they win it, although neither of their two books have really grabbed my attention. The only one that sounds distinctively interesting—to me at least—is Mother’s Milk, of which The Guardian says, “St Aubyn's novel is a sequel to his 1990s trilogy, Some Hope, which follows the fluctuating fortunes of the privileged, dysfunctional Melrose family. Fans will be familiar with his wonderfully malicious prose, which is, if anything, even more dazzling here than in the previous three books.”
The winner will be announced October 10 and I promise to be on time to deliver the winner and some useless ramblings.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Stifled Innovation—Let's Make It Work
As there has been some talk about economists, intellectual property and patents, here is another small entry on the topic.
In regards to B.C.’s comment on Stiglitz, who feels that patents stifle innovation (this is presumably the reason for which he sells the right of his inspiring ideas to the publisher willing to pay the most) here are a number of blogs from other, arguably equally renowned economists, who willingly share their ideas for free.
The first is Brad Delong, of the University of California, Berkeley. The Economist recently described his blog as featuring a morning-coffee video-cast and an afternoon-tea audiocast. His topics are wide ranging, interesting and include topics from the Treasury to Trotsky.
Another quite interesting blog is by a professor of economics at Harvard, who was also at one point a chairman of George Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. His name is Greg Mankiw and he also uses blogspot for his blog, which I hope indicates that he is personally responsible for the maintenance of the site and doesn’t let some IT buff at Harvard do it for him. The Economist says that “his site began as a group email sent to his students, with commentary on articles and new ideas. But the market for his musings grew beyond the classroom, and a blog was the solution."
It is worth looking the article up in The Economist, I am sure it could be retrieved online. Part of the article revolved around the idea that big universities such as Berkeley and Harvard will lose some of their exclusivity if some of their most popular and sought after authors make their thoughts available for free to the public. Essentially though, it argues that by exhibiting their ideas online, professors actually serve as a kind of magnet to attract potential students to those particular universities. Not only then do they serve as a kind of advertising for learning, but they get to share their ideas and create debates. That for me is globalisation working at its best; people around the globe sharing their ideas and experiences and taking full advantage of technological advances have given us.
I am not a huge critic of Stiglitz (and certainly not a big fan) but surely he can combat “stifling innovation” by making some of his ideas freely available via a blog or a podcast and maybe, just maybe, really make globalisation work.
In regards to B.C.’s comment on Stiglitz, who feels that patents stifle innovation (this is presumably the reason for which he sells the right of his inspiring ideas to the publisher willing to pay the most) here are a number of blogs from other, arguably equally renowned economists, who willingly share their ideas for free.
The first is Brad Delong, of the University of California, Berkeley. The Economist recently described his blog as featuring a morning-coffee video-cast and an afternoon-tea audiocast. His topics are wide ranging, interesting and include topics from the Treasury to Trotsky.
Another quite interesting blog is by a professor of economics at Harvard, who was also at one point a chairman of George Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. His name is Greg Mankiw and he also uses blogspot for his blog, which I hope indicates that he is personally responsible for the maintenance of the site and doesn’t let some IT buff at Harvard do it for him. The Economist says that “his site began as a group email sent to his students, with commentary on articles and new ideas. But the market for his musings grew beyond the classroom, and a blog was the solution."
It is worth looking the article up in The Economist, I am sure it could be retrieved online. Part of the article revolved around the idea that big universities such as Berkeley and Harvard will lose some of their exclusivity if some of their most popular and sought after authors make their thoughts available for free to the public. Essentially though, it argues that by exhibiting their ideas online, professors actually serve as a kind of magnet to attract potential students to those particular universities. Not only then do they serve as a kind of advertising for learning, but they get to share their ideas and create debates. That for me is globalisation working at its best; people around the globe sharing their ideas and experiences and taking full advantage of technological advances have given us.
I am not a huge critic of Stiglitz (and certainly not a big fan) but surely he can combat “stifling innovation” by making some of his ideas freely available via a blog or a podcast and maybe, just maybe, really make globalisation work.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Stiglitz Lecture - A Contribution
MM, I am honoured.
Stiglitz’ insight, comprehension and prose have left me in awe on numerous occasions. Yet I was a little disappointed by his lecture. Pen poised, I sat and awaited a riveting sentence, something that would ignite hope in me, a proposal of how globalisation could be made to work, and thus assist me in finishing my dissertation. Unfortunately he reiterated the unacceptable but not so shocking facts that the rich make money from the poor, that there are more people living in poverty than ever before and many are losing faith in the governing institutions. He argued that patents stifle innovation, that knowledge was a public good and that there was a social cost of withholding it. So why Stiglitz, did you not share more of yours? Given that the example provided for patenting was Blackberry computers rather than something a little more socially pertinent, maybe he assumed we were all economists and I actually missed the point.
The week before this, I attended a lecture that launched the UNCTAD Trade and Development Report. Here, Hiener Flassbeck announced a move away from the Washington Consensus—in which Stiglitz had his hand—recognising China and India as the new drivers of the economic world. Hiener’s discussion felt original, which is not to say it was all well received. The point is that it was apparent that more of the realities of the complexity of international development were being addressed. It is clear that neo-liberalism will always fail some. It is capitalist in essence and socially unsympathetic. It is about time social protection, education and health top the agenda.
Although Stiglitz may have made some moves away from a rigid economic line and had me almost convinced, I now believe he still represents the wrong side of an ideological battle. While he may be tweaking the methods, he appears to promote a market-led approach to development. This is one approach amongst many and this needs to be more widely acknowledged. The alternatives need to enter the mainstream development discourse, I personally would like to hear a little more of what China, India and Scandinavia have to say. It is a positive thing that Stiglitz has exposed some of the deficient actions of governing institutions and possibly engaged more people in this debate. I have not read his new book, maybe it does offer some answers, but I can’t help hoping he was on a three book deal.
BC
Stiglitz’ insight, comprehension and prose have left me in awe on numerous occasions. Yet I was a little disappointed by his lecture. Pen poised, I sat and awaited a riveting sentence, something that would ignite hope in me, a proposal of how globalisation could be made to work, and thus assist me in finishing my dissertation. Unfortunately he reiterated the unacceptable but not so shocking facts that the rich make money from the poor, that there are more people living in poverty than ever before and many are losing faith in the governing institutions. He argued that patents stifle innovation, that knowledge was a public good and that there was a social cost of withholding it. So why Stiglitz, did you not share more of yours? Given that the example provided for patenting was Blackberry computers rather than something a little more socially pertinent, maybe he assumed we were all economists and I actually missed the point.
The week before this, I attended a lecture that launched the UNCTAD Trade and Development Report. Here, Hiener Flassbeck announced a move away from the Washington Consensus—in which Stiglitz had his hand—recognising China and India as the new drivers of the economic world. Hiener’s discussion felt original, which is not to say it was all well received. The point is that it was apparent that more of the realities of the complexity of international development were being addressed. It is clear that neo-liberalism will always fail some. It is capitalist in essence and socially unsympathetic. It is about time social protection, education and health top the agenda.
Although Stiglitz may have made some moves away from a rigid economic line and had me almost convinced, I now believe he still represents the wrong side of an ideological battle. While he may be tweaking the methods, he appears to promote a market-led approach to development. This is one approach amongst many and this needs to be more widely acknowledged. The alternatives need to enter the mainstream development discourse, I personally would like to hear a little more of what China, India and Scandinavia have to say. It is a positive thing that Stiglitz has exposed some of the deficient actions of governing institutions and possibly engaged more people in this debate. I have not read his new book, maybe it does offer some answers, but I can’t help hoping he was on a three book deal.
BC
Monday, September 11, 2006
Under the Golden Arches
Here Mr. Stiglitz under the golden arches, signing away for all those hungry book lovers. I have been desperately trying to convince B.C. to write an entry on the lecture and actually discuss a bit more of the content rather than rambling about publishing injustices. However, so far I have not had any luch and will herewith abandon the idea and move on to another subject.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Globalization, Stiglitz and Penguin
It is funny how intrinsically linked these three topics are, although not surprising.
I went to a talk at City University on Thursday to hear Joseph Stiglitz talk about his new book Making Globalization Work. Joseph Stiglitz was Chief Economist at the World Bank until January 2000 and won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001. He is undoubtedly one of the most famous economists in the world. His most popular books include The Roaring Nineties and Globalization and Its Discontents. This lecture was essentially a promotion for his latest book, which like the two above mentioned books, is of course also published by Penguin.
The lecture was generally quite interesting, especially because he spoke quite about the importance of Intellectual Property. Other than that I have to say that I wasn’t too taken by the lecture, as he didn’t really seem to say anything we didn’t already know. He touched on the fact that globalization was meant to decrease the discrepancy between rich and poor, which it hasn’t in most countries, particularly Africa. I can’t even remember the other examples he cited for why Globalization isn’t working, but the truth is that I can’t imagine too many people saying that Globalization is a full-out success and that generally, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
A funny example given by Stiglitz in relation to Intellectual Property revolved around one of his early books, piracy and China. He said that in the 80’s, somebody actually phoned him and asked him to write a foreword for a pirated edition of his book. Stiglitz, apparently, was quite excited and pleased about the prospect of doing this because for him it merely meant that his thoughts would be read by more people. He claimed that if one in ten people read it in China that would probably be more than the rest of the world accumulated. Needless to say, his publishers were fiercely opposed to the idea and dissuaded him from doing so.
Somehow I can’t get my head around the idea of making globalization work. Why if, for instance, if the discrepancy between rich and poor is constantly increasing, do you publish your book with Penguin, who are owned by one of the world’s largest media conglomerates, Pearson? The answer Stiglitz would give would probably be that their global presence makes it attainable to a wider group of readers. I don’t see how that is true, as even small indie publishers are in a position to license publishing rights on a global scale, especially with a brand name such as Stiglitz. The same goes for the book signing that ensued the lecture, sponsored by high-street giant Waterstone’s. Why not use Foyles or an independent? If you want to make globalization work and decrease the gap between rich and poor, conglomerates and indies, then surely you would do your part and support the weaker of the two. For me, personally, it wasn’t good enough to hear him say that through rational analysis and policies we will be able to make globalization work.
I went to a talk at City University on Thursday to hear Joseph Stiglitz talk about his new book Making Globalization Work. Joseph Stiglitz was Chief Economist at the World Bank until January 2000 and won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001. He is undoubtedly one of the most famous economists in the world. His most popular books include The Roaring Nineties and Globalization and Its Discontents. This lecture was essentially a promotion for his latest book, which like the two above mentioned books, is of course also published by Penguin.
The lecture was generally quite interesting, especially because he spoke quite about the importance of Intellectual Property. Other than that I have to say that I wasn’t too taken by the lecture, as he didn’t really seem to say anything we didn’t already know. He touched on the fact that globalization was meant to decrease the discrepancy between rich and poor, which it hasn’t in most countries, particularly Africa. I can’t even remember the other examples he cited for why Globalization isn’t working, but the truth is that I can’t imagine too many people saying that Globalization is a full-out success and that generally, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
A funny example given by Stiglitz in relation to Intellectual Property revolved around one of his early books, piracy and China. He said that in the 80’s, somebody actually phoned him and asked him to write a foreword for a pirated edition of his book. Stiglitz, apparently, was quite excited and pleased about the prospect of doing this because for him it merely meant that his thoughts would be read by more people. He claimed that if one in ten people read it in China that would probably be more than the rest of the world accumulated. Needless to say, his publishers were fiercely opposed to the idea and dissuaded him from doing so.
Somehow I can’t get my head around the idea of making globalization work. Why if, for instance, if the discrepancy between rich and poor is constantly increasing, do you publish your book with Penguin, who are owned by one of the world’s largest media conglomerates, Pearson? The answer Stiglitz would give would probably be that their global presence makes it attainable to a wider group of readers. I don’t see how that is true, as even small indie publishers are in a position to license publishing rights on a global scale, especially with a brand name such as Stiglitz. The same goes for the book signing that ensued the lecture, sponsored by high-street giant Waterstone’s. Why not use Foyles or an independent? If you want to make globalization work and decrease the gap between rich and poor, conglomerates and indies, then surely you would do your part and support the weaker of the two. For me, personally, it wasn’t good enough to hear him say that through rational analysis and policies we will be able to make globalization work.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Indie Start-ups
It seems that there have been a few interesting blog articles on starting your own publishing company around the web. Personally, there is nothing I would enjoy more than starting my own publishing company, but reading blog entries about remortgaging one's house, when I can barely pay my rent is very daunting. The idea of being a competent, independent and hopefully successful company is very enticing. What's more, working from a small office, not having a boss, not having to adhere to bureaucratic and administrative rules...what a dream!
If anybody out there is keen to start their own publishing venture and likes the sound of being independent then now is probably as good a time as ever to start. The independent publishing - and more recently independent bookselling sector - have been flourishing. Ventures such as Faber's Independent Alliance is drawing small publishers and booksellers together to try and compete with conglomerates like Penguin, HodderHeadline, RandomHouse and HarperCollins. For an interesting article and more information on the Independent Alliance read Andrew Franklin's article for The Guardian. Andrew Franklin is the founder of Profile Books, one of the most successful independents in the trade. It is an article well worth reading.
But back to the subject matter, as I have managed to get distracted. One account of a successful independent's journey to establishing itself in the trade comes from Clare Christian and her company The Friday Project. Her account is posted on Charkins blog and can be read here. Another good article also comes in the form of a blog from the small independent publishers Snowbooks, which can be read here.
Check them out and who knows, that indie start-up dream may be just on the horizon.
If anybody out there is keen to start their own publishing venture and likes the sound of being independent then now is probably as good a time as ever to start. The independent publishing - and more recently independent bookselling sector - have been flourishing. Ventures such as Faber's Independent Alliance is drawing small publishers and booksellers together to try and compete with conglomerates like Penguin, HodderHeadline, RandomHouse and HarperCollins. For an interesting article and more information on the Independent Alliance read Andrew Franklin's article for The Guardian. Andrew Franklin is the founder of Profile Books, one of the most successful independents in the trade. It is an article well worth reading.
But back to the subject matter, as I have managed to get distracted. One account of a successful independent's journey to establishing itself in the trade comes from Clare Christian and her company The Friday Project. Her account is posted on Charkins blog and can be read here. Another good article also comes in the form of a blog from the small independent publishers Snowbooks, which can be read here.
Check them out and who knows, that indie start-up dream may be just on the horizon.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Inspiration and Misjudgements
As I await inspiration to kill off my dissertation I decided to finally try and compose a 'real' blog entry, something I have failed to do for a couple of month now I believe. To be honest I am just getting back into the online world again, spending many an hour infiltrating the endless labyrinth that consitutes the web. This will only be a brief commentary on some of the changes I have made to the blog recently.
Under the heading "Great Sites" I have added a site from the Curran boys, my very special and beloved B.C.'s brothers. Their music is up and coming and although they have had to re-arrange their band set up a few times over the last couple of month, what I have heard so far sounds really good. Hard to describe but something along the lines of Neil Young meets Rolling Stones meets Stone Roses meets Bourroughesque lyrics. Very intersting! They are called Grand Carousel.
What has got me even more excited though are the additions to the blog section. First there is the Penguin blog and as far as I know it is the first blog from a major publisher. Of course Richard Charkin has his Macmillan blog, but considering his role in the publishing world I am not considering it in the same category as Penguin. Macmillan makes most of its profit from non-fiction material, especially STM journals, which are areas leading the race for combining technological advances/developments with traditional publishing. Hence the Charkin blog is different. Anyways, the Penguin blog itself is rather weak I feel but hopefully it will get better as time goes on. They seem to make a valiant effort to answer questions that get asked by people and this does indeed encourage customer interaction, which is probably the main purpose of the blog. If they can learn anything to help sell books, then I am willing to bet my life that they see their blog as a success. Check it out, it is interesting nonetheless.
The other new addition is even better. The infamous Scott Pack is soon starting his new role of Commercial Director for the Friday Project and has been writing some very interesting blogs over the last couple of weeks. I cannot recommend this blog enough. Mr. Pack comes across as a genuine book lover who is not afraid to speak his mind and unfortunately he seems to have taken a lot of stick for this from the media and the general public. His blog has got a very interesting recommended reading list, a mention of other blogs often run by meaningless individuals like myself and just generally a different and very interesting take on the publishing industry. I am glad that there is someone not afraid to express his views and take on new challenges and I would therefore like to apologise to Mr. Pack for having misjudged him in the past.
I still don't understand why other, smaller publishers don't start blogs. I know that they probably don't have much time but if Scott Pack and Richard Charkin can find the time and inspiration than surely so can Jamie Byng? I would also like to see Bookshops have blogs, but maybe they already do and I am just ignorant. I will keep searching. My goal at this point is to write at least once a week with a kind of industry update for the masses and providing links to any interesting online material.
Thank you also to those 2 individuals that commented on the questionnaire.
M.M.
Under the heading "Great Sites" I have added a site from the Curran boys, my very special and beloved B.C.'s brothers. Their music is up and coming and although they have had to re-arrange their band set up a few times over the last couple of month, what I have heard so far sounds really good. Hard to describe but something along the lines of Neil Young meets Rolling Stones meets Stone Roses meets Bourroughesque lyrics. Very intersting! They are called Grand Carousel.
What has got me even more excited though are the additions to the blog section. First there is the Penguin blog and as far as I know it is the first blog from a major publisher. Of course Richard Charkin has his Macmillan blog, but considering his role in the publishing world I am not considering it in the same category as Penguin. Macmillan makes most of its profit from non-fiction material, especially STM journals, which are areas leading the race for combining technological advances/developments with traditional publishing. Hence the Charkin blog is different. Anyways, the Penguin blog itself is rather weak I feel but hopefully it will get better as time goes on. They seem to make a valiant effort to answer questions that get asked by people and this does indeed encourage customer interaction, which is probably the main purpose of the blog. If they can learn anything to help sell books, then I am willing to bet my life that they see their blog as a success. Check it out, it is interesting nonetheless.
The other new addition is even better. The infamous Scott Pack is soon starting his new role of Commercial Director for the Friday Project and has been writing some very interesting blogs over the last couple of weeks. I cannot recommend this blog enough. Mr. Pack comes across as a genuine book lover who is not afraid to speak his mind and unfortunately he seems to have taken a lot of stick for this from the media and the general public. His blog has got a very interesting recommended reading list, a mention of other blogs often run by meaningless individuals like myself and just generally a different and very interesting take on the publishing industry. I am glad that there is someone not afraid to express his views and take on new challenges and I would therefore like to apologise to Mr. Pack for having misjudged him in the past.
I still don't understand why other, smaller publishers don't start blogs. I know that they probably don't have much time but if Scott Pack and Richard Charkin can find the time and inspiration than surely so can Jamie Byng? I would also like to see Bookshops have blogs, but maybe they already do and I am just ignorant. I will keep searching. My goal at this point is to write at least once a week with a kind of industry update for the masses and providing links to any interesting online material.
Thank you also to those 2 individuals that commented on the questionnaire.
M.M.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Demise of Net Book Agreement & Dissertation
It has been a very long time since I last blogged. There are plenty of reasons for this, but no point in getting into them. Even this blog has been created purely for practical reasons - completing my dissertation. Anybody and everybody is welcome to comment and I hope that through the link that Richard Charkin agreed to add to his blog, some people with strong opinions regarding the demise of the Net Book Agreement (NBA) will leave their comments. I want to get as wide a range of comments from all over the industry (i.e. librarians, authors, booksellers, wholesalers, publishers, etc). The wider the spectrum of opinions, the better.
I would like to thank Richard Charkin for agreeing to do this, as he has already been extremely helpful in providing me with some valuable insights and information on this topic. So there, thank you Mr. Charkin for being such a strong supporter for young and growing publishers.
Below is the questionnaire that I have sent to various industry experts, but as mentioned above, I want all the feedback I can possibly get. I don't know if anybody will actually take the time, but if they did, I would be extremely grateful.
Thanks in advance for anybody contributing comments or even taking the time to look at the questionnaire. Please realise that comments do not strictly have to be answers to the questions below, any opinions on this subject matter are welcome.
MM
* *The three arguments chosen are meant to reflect a balanced view of the seven main reasons listed as contributing to the demise of the NBA and are by no means representative of the entire judgement passed and merely reflect personal choice on behalf of the author of this questionnaire and dissertation.
In re Net Book Agreement 1957 (No.4) 1995 Nos.3 and 4 (E. & W.) Restrictive Practices Court Ch D (RPC) Ferris J., Mr. B. Colgate and Mr. J. King 1997 Jan. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31; March 13 (Sweet and Maxwell Law Report).
I would like to thank Richard Charkin for agreeing to do this, as he has already been extremely helpful in providing me with some valuable insights and information on this topic. So there, thank you Mr. Charkin for being such a strong supporter for young and growing publishers.
Below is the questionnaire that I have sent to various industry experts, but as mentioned above, I want all the feedback I can possibly get. I don't know if anybody will actually take the time, but if they did, I would be extremely grateful.
Thanks in advance for anybody contributing comments or even taking the time to look at the questionnaire. Please realise that comments do not strictly have to be answers to the questions below, any opinions on this subject matter are welcome.
MM
Effects of the demise of the Net Book Agreement on the present and future publishing industry.
This questionnaire is aimed at enabling publishers (or indeed anybody involved in the book trade) to express their views on the effects that the demise of the NBA has had on the publishing industry.
All answers will be treated in strict confidence, and the anonymity (should this be desired) of respondents will be fully respected.
Please answer as thoroughly as you can. If you need more space, please feel free to take it, as I am keen to have as much information as possible.
1) Arguments for the demise of the Net Book Agreement as presented by the Director General of Fair Trading included (amongst others):*
1) “The Net Book Agreement restricts the ability of booksellers to expand the sale of books and compete with other products, to the detriment of consumers.”
2) “Consumers are likely to benefit from lower overall prices without the Net Book Agreement.”
3) The opportunities for extending the market for books to groups of people who in the past have not been regular purchasers is thus enhanced when retailers can determine their own process.”
1a. How far do you agree with the above points?
Fully agree [ ] Partly agree [ ] Disagree [ ]
1b. Are there other more important or more prominent reasons, which in your opinion, led to the demise of the NBA?
What are the advantages and disadvantages to the publishing industry, no longer being under resale price maintenance (having a free market)?
2a. Advantages
2b. Disadvantages
3) Do you believe that there have been any trends (positive/negative) since the collapse of the NBA, such as increased exports, higher book prices, fewer bookshops, etc.)?
3a. General trends
3b. Positive trends
3c. Negative trends
4a. Do you believe that the publishing industry needs to return to restricted market conditions, similar to the NBA, in order to protect independent publishers and retailers? Please give reasons for your answer.
4b. Could the removal of printed prices on books be the solution
5) Briefly, could you discuss how you envision the future for your company and what it plans to do to ensure it remains viable?
6) What role do you think supermarkets and online retailers played in the collapse of the NBA and in preventing the industry from reverting to restricted market conditions?
7) What if anything do you believe globalisation has played in leading to the demise of the NBA and creating a free competitive market?
Thank you for taking time in answering this questionnaire. Your contribution is greatly appreciated.
This questionnaire is aimed at enabling publishers (or indeed anybody involved in the book trade) to express their views on the effects that the demise of the NBA has had on the publishing industry.
All answers will be treated in strict confidence, and the anonymity (should this be desired) of respondents will be fully respected.
Please answer as thoroughly as you can. If you need more space, please feel free to take it, as I am keen to have as much information as possible.
1) Arguments for the demise of the Net Book Agreement as presented by the Director General of Fair Trading included (amongst others):*
1) “The Net Book Agreement restricts the ability of booksellers to expand the sale of books and compete with other products, to the detriment of consumers.”
2) “Consumers are likely to benefit from lower overall prices without the Net Book Agreement.”
3) The opportunities for extending the market for books to groups of people who in the past have not been regular purchasers is thus enhanced when retailers can determine their own process.”
1a. How far do you agree with the above points?
Fully agree [ ] Partly agree [ ] Disagree [ ]
1b. Are there other more important or more prominent reasons, which in your opinion, led to the demise of the NBA?
What are the advantages and disadvantages to the publishing industry, no longer being under resale price maintenance (having a free market)?
2a. Advantages
2b. Disadvantages
3) Do you believe that there have been any trends (positive/negative) since the collapse of the NBA, such as increased exports, higher book prices, fewer bookshops, etc.)?
3a. General trends
3b. Positive trends
3c. Negative trends
4a. Do you believe that the publishing industry needs to return to restricted market conditions, similar to the NBA, in order to protect independent publishers and retailers? Please give reasons for your answer.
4b. Could the removal of printed prices on books be the solution
5) Briefly, could you discuss how you envision the future for your company and what it plans to do to ensure it remains viable?
6) What role do you think supermarkets and online retailers played in the collapse of the NBA and in preventing the industry from reverting to restricted market conditions?
7) What if anything do you believe globalisation has played in leading to the demise of the NBA and creating a free competitive market?
Thank you for taking time in answering this questionnaire. Your contribution is greatly appreciated.
In re Net Book Agreement 1957 (No.4) 1995 Nos.3 and 4 (E. & W.) Restrictive Practices Court Ch D (RPC) Ferris J., Mr. B. Colgate and Mr. J. King 1997 Jan. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31; March 13 (Sweet and Maxwell Law Report).
Friday, May 26, 2006
Freakonomics - Q & A
I have not written in a while so here is an extremely long review of one of the books I read recently. Hopefully I will be able to establish a stricter routine soon but for now this is all I can offer. Another week comes to an end.
Freakonomics
Stephen D. Levitt &
Stephen J. Dubner
Penguin
"Freakonomics" is everywhere. No matter what you choose to do, where you choose to go or even when you want to do it. Freakonomics is everywhere, seriously. This argument is further encouraged by the fact that some of the most unexpected and perhaps unlikeliest of people to read books of any sort, have mentioned it to me recently. I was taken aback by their wealth of knowledge, of their insightful understanding of what underpins our existence. I suppose though, in retrospect, that what they had simply referred to on those rainy afternoons was that freakonomics was in fact, everywhere. The book that is. “The advertising campaign had been stunning,” commented one of those individuals. “No matter where you went, there was the book, somewhere making you want to read it,” the other one had chimed in at some point.
Now this is the book rather than that weird story.
“Freakonomics” is already a bestseller and it has been since it first came out as a hardback. The hardback cover was excellent and first drew my attention to it when working at Books Etc. As far as I can remember it was a small city, comprising of a couple of buildings, streets, cars, people, etc. In short, it was a microcosm of the world and the things we do. The book had also been subtitled as ‘A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything’. Brilliant title; it will sell many copies. The design was as though everything was constituted of tiny blocks, like lego, or like information blocks – data. Data is essentially numbers and the idea of having the world explained through them is fascinating. I suppose it served its purpose, the hardcover that is, and only through a different, more accessible and commercial cover, could the book reach a truly wide audience. It still says ‘A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything’, but somehow it doesn’t feel the same.
Anyways, the book is alright. I like this academic journalism that makes difficult and complex ideas very accessible and almost easy. Malcolm Gladwell comes to mind (and is preferred.) Levitt is an economist who graduated from Harvard. He has been hailed with prizes of all sorts, recognized as one of the leading intellectualists of his still very young life. Unlike other economists, however, Levitt is different. He says that he is “not good at math, I don’t know a lot of econometrics, and I also don’t know how to do theory.” But for Levitt, “economics is a science with excellent tools for gaining answers but a serious shortage of interesting questions.” Dubner on the other hand is a journalist, who once interviewed Levitt in order to write an article about him for the New York Times. In the end the joined their creative powers and, in terms of asking interesting questions and finding answers through numbers, this book certainly succeeds. It is only when I go back to my lifeless ambitions of a world’s microcosm that I feel quite disappointed.
Economics is about incentives. People function through incentives and a lot of their actions depend on them. Hence academics want to be as recognized as possible by fellow peers and ideally history, drug dealers want to make the most amount of money possible to, generally, escape their poor surroundings, and sumo wrestlers want to win as many matches as possible, as the best of them are treated like semi-gods in Japan. However, some incentives create negative responses from humans, cheating and success often being inseparable.
This book, and indeed what distinguishes Levitt from other, more standard stiff collared economics, is the ability to ask unlikely questions. Questions like ‘What do estate agents and the Ku Klux Klan have in common?’, ‘Why do drug dealers live with their mothers?’ and ‘How can your name affect how well you do in life?’ are at the heart of this book. By applying numbers to a set of data. One example is the sudden and inexplicable crime drop in the U.S. in the 1990’s. Nobody could explain its initial rise and even less so its sudden drop. People cited increased police numbers, new schemes, more arrests, new governors and all sorts of things as reasons. The truth was simple as abortion having been made legal 20 years earlier. All the would be criminals were thus not born and combined with other elements, such as a stabilized and improving economy, crime dropped incredibly fast.
Overall the book was interesting although it didn’t cover a lot of new territory. The analysis of the drop in crime rate, seems like old news and some of the other strange questions asked, such as ‘What do sumo wrestlers and teachers have in common?’, whilst being intriguing and fun, don’t offer anything definitive to the reader. The answer to the above question seemed merely to be that by studying numbers, it could be figured out that both sumo wrestlers and teachers cheat and that perhaps they have been offered the wrong incentives. It is useful to think that the right incentives can bring the right results, just imagine fighting things like obesity or perhaps even immigration, but all of that surely is already known for that is exactly why we have economists. “Freakonomics” is a highly entertaining and commercial books, which will help pass some dreary moments on the tube or bus and may even inspire you to try and analyze your surroundings a little bit more, but in other than asking off the wall questions, it doesn’t answer any more pressing matters concerning the world we live in.
M.M.
Freakonomics
Stephen D. Levitt &
Stephen J. Dubner
Penguin
"Freakonomics" is everywhere. No matter what you choose to do, where you choose to go or even when you want to do it. Freakonomics is everywhere, seriously. This argument is further encouraged by the fact that some of the most unexpected and perhaps unlikeliest of people to read books of any sort, have mentioned it to me recently. I was taken aback by their wealth of knowledge, of their insightful understanding of what underpins our existence. I suppose though, in retrospect, that what they had simply referred to on those rainy afternoons was that freakonomics was in fact, everywhere. The book that is. “The advertising campaign had been stunning,” commented one of those individuals. “No matter where you went, there was the book, somewhere making you want to read it,” the other one had chimed in at some point.
Now this is the book rather than that weird story.
“Freakonomics” is already a bestseller and it has been since it first came out as a hardback. The hardback cover was excellent and first drew my attention to it when working at Books Etc. As far as I can remember it was a small city, comprising of a couple of buildings, streets, cars, people, etc. In short, it was a microcosm of the world and the things we do. The book had also been subtitled as ‘A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything’. Brilliant title; it will sell many copies. The design was as though everything was constituted of tiny blocks, like lego, or like information blocks – data. Data is essentially numbers and the idea of having the world explained through them is fascinating. I suppose it served its purpose, the hardcover that is, and only through a different, more accessible and commercial cover, could the book reach a truly wide audience. It still says ‘A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything’, but somehow it doesn’t feel the same.
Anyways, the book is alright. I like this academic journalism that makes difficult and complex ideas very accessible and almost easy. Malcolm Gladwell comes to mind (and is preferred.) Levitt is an economist who graduated from Harvard. He has been hailed with prizes of all sorts, recognized as one of the leading intellectualists of his still very young life. Unlike other economists, however, Levitt is different. He says that he is “not good at math, I don’t know a lot of econometrics, and I also don’t know how to do theory.” But for Levitt, “economics is a science with excellent tools for gaining answers but a serious shortage of interesting questions.” Dubner on the other hand is a journalist, who once interviewed Levitt in order to write an article about him for the New York Times. In the end the joined their creative powers and, in terms of asking interesting questions and finding answers through numbers, this book certainly succeeds. It is only when I go back to my lifeless ambitions of a world’s microcosm that I feel quite disappointed.
Economics is about incentives. People function through incentives and a lot of their actions depend on them. Hence academics want to be as recognized as possible by fellow peers and ideally history, drug dealers want to make the most amount of money possible to, generally, escape their poor surroundings, and sumo wrestlers want to win as many matches as possible, as the best of them are treated like semi-gods in Japan. However, some incentives create negative responses from humans, cheating and success often being inseparable.
This book, and indeed what distinguishes Levitt from other, more standard stiff collared economics, is the ability to ask unlikely questions. Questions like ‘What do estate agents and the Ku Klux Klan have in common?’, ‘Why do drug dealers live with their mothers?’ and ‘How can your name affect how well you do in life?’ are at the heart of this book. By applying numbers to a set of data. One example is the sudden and inexplicable crime drop in the U.S. in the 1990’s. Nobody could explain its initial rise and even less so its sudden drop. People cited increased police numbers, new schemes, more arrests, new governors and all sorts of things as reasons. The truth was simple as abortion having been made legal 20 years earlier. All the would be criminals were thus not born and combined with other elements, such as a stabilized and improving economy, crime dropped incredibly fast.
Overall the book was interesting although it didn’t cover a lot of new territory. The analysis of the drop in crime rate, seems like old news and some of the other strange questions asked, such as ‘What do sumo wrestlers and teachers have in common?’, whilst being intriguing and fun, don’t offer anything definitive to the reader. The answer to the above question seemed merely to be that by studying numbers, it could be figured out that both sumo wrestlers and teachers cheat and that perhaps they have been offered the wrong incentives. It is useful to think that the right incentives can bring the right results, just imagine fighting things like obesity or perhaps even immigration, but all of that surely is already known for that is exactly why we have economists. “Freakonomics” is a highly entertaining and commercial books, which will help pass some dreary moments on the tube or bus and may even inspire you to try and analyze your surroundings a little bit more, but in other than asking off the wall questions, it doesn’t answer any more pressing matters concerning the world we live in.
M.M.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Standardisation - A Week and a Half
The week is over, finally. A hectic one it was too and since I started writing this another week is halfway through as well. Having completed my by far most difficult exams, Publishing as a Business and Publishing Law, I am now only two steps away from the finishing line (there is that minor and annoying hurdle of a dissertation left - but that is not on my mind right now). The third exam has also been done although that was probably the biggest struggle so far, as a cold and headache and a freezing room didn't make two hours of BS any easier. However, the champagne is on ice and the puppies in the oven. Along with exams there is nothing like a cold to keep you from sleeping, a flat tyre (the second in 5 times riding a brand new bike), and the hassle as class represantative (how I regret having volunteered for that) of having to discuss various 'issues' with our lecturer, firstly in a form of a letter. A letter which I wrote and feared was too harsh and hence enabling me to lose some sleep over that as well. On the plus side I ate lots of fruit and have had a sober mind for what is probably been way too long now.
Enough rambling (although that is all this ever amounts to, I know). WTC Dowling blessed this blog with another one of those invaluable, unknown words, which I already tried using, only to be met my some of the ugliest most unbelieving eyes ever. (Yes, eyes can be ugly.) Below I have also posted the link to one of my latest reviews for Subba-Cultcha, which is about M.Craft. Never heard of him? Same here. The music though is quite good so it might be worth giving him a go. Most of the reviews of unknown bands/aritists have to be generous, but this one is actually quite honest. There is also another review of a gig I went to from a band called Four Day Hombre, who actually had some good moments but resembled Coldplay too much for my liking (however you would never have guessed that from my review..) Check them out if you can be bothered. Other than that there has just been a lot of sneezing, worrying, spitting, shitting, eating, drinking, lying, watching, hoping, despairing, panicking, elation, surpising, drinking, laughing, cooking, swearing, punching, walking, sitting, etc, etc.
That's it for now but no doubt there will be more unintersting stuff to follow eventually. Just another quick note, anybody reading this who is interested in publishing and has been following the Charkin blog, check out the Review section of The Observer and look for the Robert McCrum (literary editor) whose column "World of the Book" appears every two weeks. Likewise, check out Joel Rickett's column in The Guardian on Saturday's called "The Bookseller", which appears on a weekly basis. They are two of the most insightful and quick ways to get updated on the publishing world. (You can even do so through the Internet, no payments required.)
That's all folks.
M. Craft Review:
http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article.php?id=1989
Four Day Hombre live gig review:
http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article.php?id=1951
M.M.
Enough rambling (although that is all this ever amounts to, I know). WTC Dowling blessed this blog with another one of those invaluable, unknown words, which I already tried using, only to be met my some of the ugliest most unbelieving eyes ever. (Yes, eyes can be ugly.) Below I have also posted the link to one of my latest reviews for Subba-Cultcha, which is about M.Craft. Never heard of him? Same here. The music though is quite good so it might be worth giving him a go. Most of the reviews of unknown bands/aritists have to be generous, but this one is actually quite honest. There is also another review of a gig I went to from a band called Four Day Hombre, who actually had some good moments but resembled Coldplay too much for my liking (however you would never have guessed that from my review..) Check them out if you can be bothered. Other than that there has just been a lot of sneezing, worrying, spitting, shitting, eating, drinking, lying, watching, hoping, despairing, panicking, elation, surpising, drinking, laughing, cooking, swearing, punching, walking, sitting, etc, etc.
That's it for now but no doubt there will be more unintersting stuff to follow eventually. Just another quick note, anybody reading this who is interested in publishing and has been following the Charkin blog, check out the Review section of The Observer and look for the Robert McCrum (literary editor) whose column "World of the Book" appears every two weeks. Likewise, check out Joel Rickett's column in The Guardian on Saturday's called "The Bookseller", which appears on a weekly basis. They are two of the most insightful and quick ways to get updated on the publishing world. (You can even do so through the Internet, no payments required.)
That's all folks.
M. Craft Review:
http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article.php?id=1989
Four Day Hombre live gig review:
http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article.php?id=1951
M.M.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Bloggy Hell: Transmogrify
Weird Word of the Week: TRANSMOGRIFY
OED definition: "transform in a surprising or magical manner"
How to use it:
This puppy is especially weird. This word apparently believes in magic. Try throwing it in at the end of a wild night out, just on the transitional cusp of high to low as the party peaks and boredom sets in. For example: "Wow, what a party!" (slight pause) "Sigh. What the shit's going on? This night's transmogrified into some kind of living hell. I'm going home. And I'm taking these nachos with me."
But that's a bit limited. Where's the magic? I suppose the traditional usage of this peculiar verb would be the old 'princess-frog-kiss-prince' chestnut. Let's try it out:
Princess Fladgella kissed the warty frog on the lips. Kazam! A strange but predictable transformation had taken place - the tailless amphibian had transmogrified into a foppish, effeminate prince, complete with blonde-highlighted mullet and fashionable women's jeans. "Release me, you sow!" squealed the prince, slapping Princess Fladgella hard across the face.
You can also use this word in religious renditions of Jesus abusing his Godly powers to get his companions shit-faced. For example:
And, lo, Jesus went to the wedding reception and saw that there was not enough wine to go around. He decided to transmogrify the water. He held His hand out, feeling the power of the Force flow through His quivering fingertips. The wedding guests gasped as they tasted the water Jesus had transmogrified with his phantasmagorical Jedi powers.
"This is not water," said David of Sidcup, "This is Cherry Lambrini. It is a miracle. Praise the Lord. Woo. Go Creationism. Blah blah blah."
And, yay, then the Son of God did turn to the fish-fingers. He held out His magical and perceivably unethical hand...
Ok, that's it for this week. Or month. Take care.
Rethpec
OED definition: "transform in a surprising or magical manner"
How to use it:
This puppy is especially weird. This word apparently believes in magic. Try throwing it in at the end of a wild night out, just on the transitional cusp of high to low as the party peaks and boredom sets in. For example: "Wow, what a party!" (slight pause) "Sigh. What the shit's going on? This night's transmogrified into some kind of living hell. I'm going home. And I'm taking these nachos with me."
But that's a bit limited. Where's the magic? I suppose the traditional usage of this peculiar verb would be the old 'princess-frog-kiss-prince' chestnut. Let's try it out:
Princess Fladgella kissed the warty frog on the lips. Kazam! A strange but predictable transformation had taken place - the tailless amphibian had transmogrified into a foppish, effeminate prince, complete with blonde-highlighted mullet and fashionable women's jeans. "Release me, you sow!" squealed the prince, slapping Princess Fladgella hard across the face.
You can also use this word in religious renditions of Jesus abusing his Godly powers to get his companions shit-faced. For example:
And, lo, Jesus went to the wedding reception and saw that there was not enough wine to go around. He decided to transmogrify the water. He held His hand out, feeling the power of the Force flow through His quivering fingertips. The wedding guests gasped as they tasted the water Jesus had transmogrified with his phantasmagorical Jedi powers.
"This is not water," said David of Sidcup, "This is Cherry Lambrini. It is a miracle. Praise the Lord. Woo. Go Creationism. Blah blah blah."
And, yay, then the Son of God did turn to the fish-fingers. He held out His magical and perceivably unethical hand...
Ok, that's it for this week. Or month. Take care.
Rethpec
Monday, May 08, 2006
Construction Finished - For Now
With the help of my esteemed friend Dr. Z, I have finally been able to get this blog working properly again. The problem with this webpage XTML language or whatever it is called is that sometimes the whole thing doesn't seem to work because you missed some tiny quotation mark or other annoying symbol like <>. Either way, it is pretty much where it should be now and closely resembles what it was before.
The only new bit really is the "Indie Publishers", which of course stands for Independent Publishers. In my opinion they are definitely amongst the best, but some other good ones, unfortunately don't have a homepage that is working properly (like Atlantic and Serpent's Tail). Why exactly that is the case I don't know because I can't think of much better, cheaper and effective advertising than that. But there are many people that know a lot better than me.
New to the list are Faber & Faber who are by far the culturally and historically richest out of the entire list, with the only possible exception of Granta perhaps. One of Faber's first editors was T.S. Eliot who helped them establish their amazing poetry portfolio, which is still one of their strengths today. The amount of quality books they have published is impossible to list but they include 2004 Booker Prize winner D.B.C. Pierre, another Booker Prize winner and multiple nominee Kazuo Ishiguro and one of my all-time favourites Paul Auster. Those are just some of the contemporary ones, for a general overview check out their homepage.
The Friday Project was on my links before. They are one of the newest and most exciting commercial publishing ventures out there at the moment. Run primarily by a former newspaper correspondant Paul Carr and multiple conglomerate experienced publisher Clare Christian. Recent developments have revealed that Scott Pack, who had been voted by The Observer as the single most influential individual in the publishing industry, will be joining their venture and will inevitably lend some publishing expertise to their developing list. Pack is equally hated and loved in the industry, more hated I would say, as he single handedly seems to decide what books Waterstone's stock, promote, support, despise, etc. Just what he can do to the Friday Project remains to be seen.
Constable & Robinso publish mostly non-fiction such as The Corporation by Joel Bakal, which I recommend to anyone who gives a dirt about this rotten place called world and other political, current affairs and history titles. Having said that, their new Editor seems to have pinched Monica Ali from previous publisher Random House so her future books (not the one coming out this summer) should be published by Constable.
Finally there is Granta. They have a long standing reputation of attracting and finding young authors, some of whom have become household names for many people. Ian McEwan is just one such example. In their magazines they publish unheard of authors and a lot of short stories and also have multiple awards and competitions on a regular basis. If someone gets published in their magazine, you can be sure they will publish a book soon afterwards. Also, David Graham, who was M.D. Director of Canongate and played a big rule in their recent resurgence as one of the strongest Indies, has joined Granta in the same position to develop and improve their fiction list.
There you have it for Indie Publishers. A lot of things happening all the time and I will try to rotate them as much as possible or just keep adding to them.
Good sites features some friends whose art everybody should support, quite frankly because it is damn good. Subba-Cultcha is an online magazine where I write a few reviews, more or less on a weekly basis ranging from DVD to CDs and Computer Games. On the links below you can see my few first ones, one on the Velvet Underground another on some crap computer game and one on Jim Moray. Its a strong Indie site so support it when you can.
I should really be studying for exams that start tomorrow and can't be faced going through the blogs which are more or less self explanatory. If you are into publishing, I can say that regularly checking the Charkin Blog can be very rewarding. He is one of the most outspoken, eccentric and some even say charismatic publishing individuals. He oversees Macmillan UK and is undoubtedly one of the most respected and powerful men in the industry. More on the rest some other time.
For the computer game:
http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article.php?id=1793
For the Velvet Underground:
http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article.php?id=1843
For the Jim Moray:
http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article.php?id=1871
M.M.
The only new bit really is the "Indie Publishers", which of course stands for Independent Publishers. In my opinion they are definitely amongst the best, but some other good ones, unfortunately don't have a homepage that is working properly (like Atlantic and Serpent's Tail). Why exactly that is the case I don't know because I can't think of much better, cheaper and effective advertising than that. But there are many people that know a lot better than me.
New to the list are Faber & Faber who are by far the culturally and historically richest out of the entire list, with the only possible exception of Granta perhaps. One of Faber's first editors was T.S. Eliot who helped them establish their amazing poetry portfolio, which is still one of their strengths today. The amount of quality books they have published is impossible to list but they include 2004 Booker Prize winner D.B.C. Pierre, another Booker Prize winner and multiple nominee Kazuo Ishiguro and one of my all-time favourites Paul Auster. Those are just some of the contemporary ones, for a general overview check out their homepage.
The Friday Project was on my links before. They are one of the newest and most exciting commercial publishing ventures out there at the moment. Run primarily by a former newspaper correspondant Paul Carr and multiple conglomerate experienced publisher Clare Christian. Recent developments have revealed that Scott Pack, who had been voted by The Observer as the single most influential individual in the publishing industry, will be joining their venture and will inevitably lend some publishing expertise to their developing list. Pack is equally hated and loved in the industry, more hated I would say, as he single handedly seems to decide what books Waterstone's stock, promote, support, despise, etc. Just what he can do to the Friday Project remains to be seen.
Constable & Robinso publish mostly non-fiction such as The Corporation by Joel Bakal, which I recommend to anyone who gives a dirt about this rotten place called world and other political, current affairs and history titles. Having said that, their new Editor seems to have pinched Monica Ali from previous publisher Random House so her future books (not the one coming out this summer) should be published by Constable.
Finally there is Granta. They have a long standing reputation of attracting and finding young authors, some of whom have become household names for many people. Ian McEwan is just one such example. In their magazines they publish unheard of authors and a lot of short stories and also have multiple awards and competitions on a regular basis. If someone gets published in their magazine, you can be sure they will publish a book soon afterwards. Also, David Graham, who was M.D. Director of Canongate and played a big rule in their recent resurgence as one of the strongest Indies, has joined Granta in the same position to develop and improve their fiction list.
There you have it for Indie Publishers. A lot of things happening all the time and I will try to rotate them as much as possible or just keep adding to them.
Good sites features some friends whose art everybody should support, quite frankly because it is damn good. Subba-Cultcha is an online magazine where I write a few reviews, more or less on a weekly basis ranging from DVD to CDs and Computer Games. On the links below you can see my few first ones, one on the Velvet Underground another on some crap computer game and one on Jim Moray. Its a strong Indie site so support it when you can.
I should really be studying for exams that start tomorrow and can't be faced going through the blogs which are more or less self explanatory. If you are into publishing, I can say that regularly checking the Charkin Blog can be very rewarding. He is one of the most outspoken, eccentric and some even say charismatic publishing individuals. He oversees Macmillan UK and is undoubtedly one of the most respected and powerful men in the industry. More on the rest some other time.
For the computer game:
http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article.php?id=1793
For the Velvet Underground:
http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article.php?id=1843
For the Jim Moray:
http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article.php?id=1871
M.M.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Final Week: Final Day
A normal start to the day really. With a tinge of indifference I begin the day by writing what will eventually become my blog entry of the previous day. I usually do this on my ‘Ebury Complimentary Slip.’ The irony just feels fitting somehow. After that I completed the mailout for “Iran Awakening”, once again allowing myself ample amounts of time to do so. I have heard office stress and panic is not a very nice feeling, so I want to avoid this at all costs. When I did finally finish, Carolina gave me a completely new assignment to do, reinforcing my theory that good things come too late and mere last a short time (at least in terms of work). The assignment required for me to do research on an author whose latest book spontaneously managed to sell 7,000 copies in one week alone. That’s a hell of a lot of copies for someone that doesn’t enjoy celebrity status and is published by a tiny company in the middle of nowhere, in a tiny country called Wales (the publisher is called Crown House Publishing and the link for them is below). This is one of the benefits of Amazon.com I suppose; it provides a platform and market opportunity that even the smallest publishers can benefit from. Although the negatives of Amazon probably outweigh the positives, this is one valuable aspect that has to be recognized by even the greatest cynics.
Anyways, this author has got another similar book coming out so I was meant to look at potential publicity angles, provide a general author biography and take a closer look at her previous book, all of which will be taken into account during next weeks acquisition meeting. (The book has been offered to Ebury but presumably also a whole of other publishers. At the meeting the publicity, marketing and sales departments will pitch their ideas on why she should choose them over another company. Generally what authors seem to consider most important is the initial fee that they will get paid as an advance, the royalties they will earn afterwards and if the he/she can get along with the publishing company in general.)
I wrote a two page report and was told by Caroline that we would discuss it after lunch. Apparently she will tell me then how she would approach it in terms of whom to do mail outs to (radio, tv, newspapers, magazines, etc.) I will have to wait and see if that happens though, as right now I am writing this during what has become an almost two and a half hour long lunch break. The rest of the afternoon was really only spend doing mailouts for books that I can’t remember at a very slow pace. Caroline did eventually come and talk to me and basically said that the report was good and then we chatted for a while about general publishing stuff. It was a good last day I suppose and I was even given a bottle of champagne and two bags full of books I could choose. Not bad but now exams await.
http://www.crownhouse.co.uk
Anyways, this author has got another similar book coming out so I was meant to look at potential publicity angles, provide a general author biography and take a closer look at her previous book, all of which will be taken into account during next weeks acquisition meeting. (The book has been offered to Ebury but presumably also a whole of other publishers. At the meeting the publicity, marketing and sales departments will pitch their ideas on why she should choose them over another company. Generally what authors seem to consider most important is the initial fee that they will get paid as an advance, the royalties they will earn afterwards and if the he/she can get along with the publishing company in general.)
I wrote a two page report and was told by Caroline that we would discuss it after lunch. Apparently she will tell me then how she would approach it in terms of whom to do mail outs to (radio, tv, newspapers, magazines, etc.) I will have to wait and see if that happens though, as right now I am writing this during what has become an almost two and a half hour long lunch break. The rest of the afternoon was really only spend doing mailouts for books that I can’t remember at a very slow pace. Caroline did eventually come and talk to me and basically said that the report was good and then we chatted for a while about general publishing stuff. It was a good last day I suppose and I was even given a bottle of champagne and two bags full of books I could choose. Not bad but now exams await.
http://www.crownhouse.co.uk
Final Week: Day 4
I can’t really remember how it started. All I know is that today Iain Stephenson will come and visit the placement to find out how the placement has been going.
It’s come back to me now. I started the day by completing the mail out for the Judy Marks books. Whilst doing this I was just reading music reviews from the weekend papers and magazines, as I need to learn the ‘music review lingo’ for some reviews I started doing for an online magazine. (The link is pasted below for now, but once I complete my internship diaries I will change some of the links on this site and it will be up.) Once I finished the mail out Ed asked me to get rid of some old newspapers. This took me a while. I can’t remember what I did after that. I may have done some filing but somehow I made it to lunch.
After lunch there was nothing for me to do so I quite literally sat around for a while. After that I did some filing for nearly an hour and then Stephenson arrived. To make a short story even ever shorter, it was extremely disappointing. He had originally said that he would talk to me and Caroline separately for 15 minutes each, before then having a conversation all three of us together. Instead he spoke to both of us together for no more than 15 minutes. This meant that if I wanted to be honest I would be ‘burning my bridges’ and probably offend the company. So I basically lied and said I really enjoyed absolutely every aspect of the internship and learned huge amounts. My ‘mentor’ Caroline summed the dialogue up adequately by saying “That was short and sweet.” (She seemed a bit nervous during the talk, as if what I chose to say would have a huge impact on her future.) The rest of the day I basically spend doing another mail out for “Iran Awakening” and left a bit early to go to University and get my exam schedule. Boring..
http://www.thefridayproject.co.uk/
It’s come back to me now. I started the day by completing the mail out for the Judy Marks books. Whilst doing this I was just reading music reviews from the weekend papers and magazines, as I need to learn the ‘music review lingo’ for some reviews I started doing for an online magazine. (The link is pasted below for now, but once I complete my internship diaries I will change some of the links on this site and it will be up.) Once I finished the mail out Ed asked me to get rid of some old newspapers. This took me a while. I can’t remember what I did after that. I may have done some filing but somehow I made it to lunch.
After lunch there was nothing for me to do so I quite literally sat around for a while. After that I did some filing for nearly an hour and then Stephenson arrived. To make a short story even ever shorter, it was extremely disappointing. He had originally said that he would talk to me and Caroline separately for 15 minutes each, before then having a conversation all three of us together. Instead he spoke to both of us together for no more than 15 minutes. This meant that if I wanted to be honest I would be ‘burning my bridges’ and probably offend the company. So I basically lied and said I really enjoyed absolutely every aspect of the internship and learned huge amounts. My ‘mentor’ Caroline summed the dialogue up adequately by saying “That was short and sweet.” (She seemed a bit nervous during the talk, as if what I chose to say would have a huge impact on her future.) The rest of the day I basically spend doing another mail out for “Iran Awakening” and left a bit early to go to University and get my exam schedule. Boring..
http://www.thefridayproject.co.uk/
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Final Week: Day 3
The third day seems ok, if nothing else, it marks the halfway point. I started the day by making a couple of more showcards. This time it was meant to contain the jackets from all three of the author’s previous books and of course the one being published now. I took some blurry and generally crap pictures so I may try to post them. I more or less managed to spend three hours doing them at a very lazy pace.
After lunch I had to write another press release. It seems that the first and last week have been the most interesting and challenging. I find that strange but probably that is just me. The press release didn’t really take me too long but I don’t think that Emma has looked at it for corrections yet. She will probably do it on her own time to exercise control over me.
Having done the press release I did a bit of filing until the Mac was free and then went to work on my flyers. I finally got the specific information, so it was just a matter of playing with the jacket picture and title to make sure the right information is legible and jumps out. I showed them to Sara who recommended some additional information that should go on the flyers because the book jacket is not very indicative of the fact that this is actually a book. Additional information such as: Published by Ebury July 6th 2006, £10.99 Available at all good bookshops should be enough. This gave me some more time to play around (and stay away from filing.) Because it was decided that they should be send to professional printers we wanted them to be perfect.
The author this was being done for is Mark Thomas. He is meant to be hilarious and is very politically controversial. Having had some meaningful things to do today, I was more than happy to start a mail out for “Mr. Nice & Mrs. Marks: Adventures with Howard”. That leaves me two days from the end, a visit from my professor to see how the placement went but I am not quite sure how honest I should be with him. This remains to be seen.
Check out Mark Thomas’ homepage on the link below. A lot of it has been censored I think due to the nature of the content. But I think it would be worth trying to catch one of his shows or read the book.
http://www.mtcp.co.uk/
After lunch I had to write another press release. It seems that the first and last week have been the most interesting and challenging. I find that strange but probably that is just me. The press release didn’t really take me too long but I don’t think that Emma has looked at it for corrections yet. She will probably do it on her own time to exercise control over me.
Having done the press release I did a bit of filing until the Mac was free and then went to work on my flyers. I finally got the specific information, so it was just a matter of playing with the jacket picture and title to make sure the right information is legible and jumps out. I showed them to Sara who recommended some additional information that should go on the flyers because the book jacket is not very indicative of the fact that this is actually a book. Additional information such as: Published by Ebury July 6th 2006, £10.99 Available at all good bookshops should be enough. This gave me some more time to play around (and stay away from filing.) Because it was decided that they should be send to professional printers we wanted them to be perfect.
The author this was being done for is Mark Thomas. He is meant to be hilarious and is very politically controversial. Having had some meaningful things to do today, I was more than happy to start a mail out for “Mr. Nice & Mrs. Marks: Adventures with Howard”. That leaves me two days from the end, a visit from my professor to see how the placement went but I am not quite sure how honest I should be with him. This remains to be seen.
Check out Mark Thomas’ homepage on the link below. A lot of it has been censored I think due to the nature of the content. But I think it would be worth trying to catch one of his shows or read the book.
http://www.mtcp.co.uk/
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Final Week: Day 2
Another good day, or at least so it seemed. I used a free computer to finish my Press Release for the Time Out “Weekend Walks Near London”. When I finished I gave it to Emma to check but she didn’t have time to do so immediately. I then asked her if she had anything else for me to do, at which point she invited me to file some press cuttings. This is by far the worst job I have had to do up to this point. There are literally thousands of press cuttings lying around, probably waiting for interns like me to file away. Depressing. (Press cuttings are anything published in magazines, newspapers, etc. regarding a book or author published, in this case, by Ebury.) I don’t need to say that after about 30 minutes when Ed asked me to help him check some stock I was elated and helped him immediately.
I was even happier when I found out that the remaining order of “Salvation Creek” had come and that I could complete the mail out I had started last Friday. I never though it would reach that level. After that I got to make corrections to the Press Release that Emma managed to check and half the day seemed to have passed in a hurry.
After lunch I approached Ed concerning those flyers he had wanted me to make on Quark. He actually had time so we sat down together on the Mac. I am not too familiar with Macs yet, but I have used them once in University in a Quark crash course we had to take. Quark is an amazing program really. The kind of things you can do, combined with the overall functions of a Mac are nearly endless. The flyer concerned a book called “As Used on Nelson Mandela” by Mark Thomas and is one of those popular politics books that seem to dominate part of the consumer market nowadays. Pop-politics. It required making an attractive design and putting specific information (in this case for a special offer on it). Since we didn’t have all the info yet I just really played around with it and will hopefully get to finish it tomorrow.
Afterwards I was happy to do another mailout for Ed for a book entitled “Straight Up and Dirty”, which is in keeping with what seems to be the hottest genre in publishing. Ever since Belle de Hour: The Diary of a Call Girl was published, everybody has been more or less copying the idea. Following from that it is now becoming common to take popular blogs of women’s ‘sexual confessions and adventure stories’ and making them into books. Not much value in them other than money.
I was even happier when I found out that the remaining order of “Salvation Creek” had come and that I could complete the mail out I had started last Friday. I never though it would reach that level. After that I got to make corrections to the Press Release that Emma managed to check and half the day seemed to have passed in a hurry.
After lunch I approached Ed concerning those flyers he had wanted me to make on Quark. He actually had time so we sat down together on the Mac. I am not too familiar with Macs yet, but I have used them once in University in a Quark crash course we had to take. Quark is an amazing program really. The kind of things you can do, combined with the overall functions of a Mac are nearly endless. The flyer concerned a book called “As Used on Nelson Mandela” by Mark Thomas and is one of those popular politics books that seem to dominate part of the consumer market nowadays. Pop-politics. It required making an attractive design and putting specific information (in this case for a special offer on it). Since we didn’t have all the info yet I just really played around with it and will hopefully get to finish it tomorrow.
Afterwards I was happy to do another mailout for Ed for a book entitled “Straight Up and Dirty”, which is in keeping with what seems to be the hottest genre in publishing. Ever since Belle de Hour: The Diary of a Call Girl was published, everybody has been more or less copying the idea. Following from that it is now becoming common to take popular blogs of women’s ‘sexual confessions and adventure stories’ and making them into books. Not much value in them other than money.
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