Magazines

SlushPile.net » Cover Designs For Books That Don’t Exist

Some will see this as an excellent idea for generating the all-important buzz for your book project. Others will this as yet another example of just how far publishing has turned it’s head from literature towards the omnipotent product. Either way, I have to admit this is a pretty damn cool book jacket.

Jared Paul Stern, the embattled New York Post gossip writer accused of trying to extort billionaire Ron Burkle, doesn’t have a book deal. He doesn’t have an agent. And he doesn’t have any details of the book yet. But, as fishbowlNY reports, he’s got a cool Chip Kidd designed book cover.

A writer once told me about a drunken lunch he shared with a powerful magazine editor. This was back in the golden days, when magazines still bothered to publish short stories and when writers could be considered part of a “stable.” Over the course of a three-hour, booze soaked lunch (another bygone from a past age), The Editor devised a short story title. The Editor then dispatched The Writer to create a story to fit the unusual and memorable title.

So, if in the past, a title could come before the work, then maybe it makes sense in today’s visual age to have a cover before the book.

Or not.

Amazon.com: The Joys of Much Too Much : Go for the Big Life–The Great Career, The Perfect Guy, and Everything Else You’ve Ever Wanted: Books: Bonnie Fuller

A business powerhouse and mother of four who has led America’s most popular magazines — including Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Us Weekly, and Star — to record successes, Bonnie Fuller has, until now, been an immensely private person.

But in The Joys of Much Too Much, she shares an unthinkable secret: the key to happiness is not a balanced life but one that is maxed out with a career, romance, and family. Not only can you have it all, but you shouldn’t settle for anything less. In The Joys of Much Too Much she provides a blueprint for having everything you want personally and professionally — even if you’re afraid you don’t have what it takes.

For the first time, Fuller tells with astonishing candor what it was like to be an awkward, shy girl from a middle-class Jewish family who learned through hard-won successes and painful failures how to invent the over-the-top life she wanted.

Using personal anecdotes from her home and professional lives, Fuller describes the unusual coping methods that have made her happily unbalanced life work for her (hint: check your lettuce in the coatroom). In this straight-shooting, inspiring how-to, Fuller shows readers how to turn negatives into positives, squeeze the very most out of every chaotic minute, and embrace the unknown.

The Joys of Much Too Much will lead you to envision more for yourself, go for it — and then get it.

Lessons not transferable to anyone else.

Author David Brin Blesses Jim Baen’s Universe, Urges Fans to Help Save Science Fiction
Hugo Award-winning science fiction author David Brin urges fans to subscribe to new online science fiction and fantasy magazine, Jim Baen’s Universe for quality fiction and to help save science fiction.

Winston-Salem, NC (PRWEB) February 21, 2006 — Multiple Hugo and Nebula award-winning David Brin ( author of the Uplift series, The Postman, and others) has thrown his reputation behind a new SciFi magazine, Jim Baen’s Universe.

Brin says he’s been unimpressed by other SF&F e-zines, but “this time things are very different.” Brin goes on, “Imagine what such a magazine would have to be like, in order to make you hunger for it, month after month. I think you just envisioned Universe, brought to you by the legendary science fiction impresario, Jim Baen and edited by the inimitable Eric Flint.”

The editor of this commercial venture is none other than Eric Flint (1632 and others). The authors list is a who’s who of modern SF&F (Alan Dean Foster, Cory Doctorow, Catherine Asaro, L. E. Modessitt Jr., and of course, David Brin). A complete list of authors who have been signed up for this venture is at www.baensuniverse.com.

Brin goes on to say, “Certainly, I’ve decided to trust them with some of my latest, first-run stories… and a serialized novel that I’m sure you’ll find to be my funniest ever.”

All of that is great, Brin says, but best of all a major raison d’être for Universe is to provide a place for new authors to get started, and established authors to make a living (another is to revive short SF). The quality of the stories already committed is awesome, and they’re still bringing SF&F giants aboard.

Jim Baen and Eric Flint believe that they can provide an unprecedented value proposition (starting with over 150,000 words per issue, twice a standard novel size), and you only have to look at Baen’s existing DRM-free distribution and Free Library to know that these guys already have been successful at publishing without encryption.

Why is this necessary at all?

Eric Flint explains: “In decades past, it was the size and health of the magazines that allowed new writers a place to be published, gave mid-list writers a place to hone their craft, and allowed very popular and well-established writers to move easily from short fiction to novels and back again as they developed their fascinating and imaginative settings. The range of magazine markets also meant that an exceptional story could still be published even if it was beyond the then-boundaries of acceptable SF.

“Today, that’s almost completely vanished. The economics of modern paper publishing and distribution have hammered the magazines badly, and the decline of short form SF has hurt the field as a whole. When once science fiction and fantasy was a cheap refuge from reality for bright teenagers, now the ticket to entry is a full-length novel — often enough, at hardcover prices.”

“If you want to stand up and be included in the movement to help save science fiction,” says publishing legend Jim Baen, “drop in, subscribe, and join the club! You know you want to!”

Jim Baen’s Universe is published as a bimonthly online magazine beginning in June of 2006, with up to 150,000 words per issue, making it far larger than a typical magazine. The magazine can be read online, or in a variety of downloadable formats, including Acrobat PDF, Mobipocket, Microsoft Reader, RTF, and others.

As with all of Baen Publishing’s electronic offerings, Jim Baen’s Universe is published completely unencrypted and without any Digital Rights Management schemes or copy protection.

This is a tremendous endorsement from one of the best science fiction writers of the 80s and 90s. It’s exciting to read that he’s going to feed his stuff into Baen’s Universe.

It is a bit disconcerting, though, that this good news has to be spun as part of a movement to help save science fiction.

Does it really need saving? Apparently so…

I was quite surprised to glance down at today’s New York Times and realize that I recognized the name, Susan Finston, mentioned as the lead “bad guy” in a big pharma expose.

On Opinion Page, a Lobby’s Hand Is Often Unseen - New York Times:WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 - Susan Finston of the Institute for Policy Innovation, a conservative research group based in Texas, is just the sort of opinion maker coveted by the drug industry.

In an opinion article in The Financial Times on Oct. 25, she called for patent protection in poor countries for drugs and biotechnology products. In an article last month in the European edition of The Wall Street Journal, she called for efforts to block developing nations from violating patents on AIDS medicines and other drugs.

Both articles identified her as a “research associate” at the institute. Neither mentioned that, as recently as August, Ms. Finston was registered as a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry’s trade group. Nor was there mention of her work this fall in creating the American Bioindustry Alliance, a group underwritten largely by drug companies.

The institute says Ms. Finston’s ties to industry should not have prevented her from writing about those issues. Nor is there a conflict, it says, in the work of Merrill Matthews Jr., who writes for major newspapers advocating policies promoted by the insurance industry even though he is a registered lobbyist for a separate group backed by it. “Lobbying is not a four-letter word,” said the institute’s president, Tom Giovanetti.

But organizations like the institute, which bills itself as an independent, nonprofit research group committed to a “smaller, less intrusive government,” are facing new and uncomfortable scrutiny

First, my position on the merits: I am no great fan of big pharma, or the current U.S. patent and copyright regimes, but it seems to me entirely reasonable that an increasingly global world should have a consistent scheme for protecting the rights created by the development of intellectual property.

Next, the personal angle: I used to know Susan Finston quite well — she was one of my good friends for several years in my twenties. Unfortunately, we had a falling out when she disinvited my wife Cheryl to her wedding on the basis of second-hand gossip and a huge misreading of Cheryl’s character. That left me in a position where it was impossible to continue the friendship. And, to be fair, it may be that I hadn’t pulled my weight either.

Despite this mixed past history, it galls me to see even a former friend given a cheap shot like this. When you read on in the article, you discover the following amazing explanations of how the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times were “suckered” into running her article.

While major newspapers and magazines usually insist that outside writers disclose conflicts of interest, editors do not routinely conduct background checks [!!], especially for authors affiliated with credible research groups.

Brian Groom, an editor at The Financial Times who handles opinion articles for the newspaper, based in London, said he did not recall being told of Ms. Finston’s ties to the drug and biotechnology industries before publishing the article.

The editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal, Paul Gigot, said in an interview that “we’re absolutely convinced” the paper was not told of Ms. Finston’s industry ties. The paper might still have run the article, he said, but with more information about her background.

This is ridiculous. The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal have never heard of Google? Even the most rudimentary search turns up some pretty big clues that Susan Finston has an industry background. And even the most credulous readers of the op-ed page assume that the authors of advocacy pieces have some sort of agenda. So what’s the story?

“FT, WSJ editors asleep at the switch.”

Product Review Policies

1. Please send a copy of your current catalog to the following address:

W. Frederick Zimmerman
Editor & Publisher
wfzimmerman.com
2006 Medford Ste C127
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

and make sure that I am on the mailing lists that you use to announce forthcoming products.

2. I am happy to receive advance or review copies of noteworthy new books, music, magazines, DVDs, hardware, and software. Indeed, as a general rule, I request that you automatically send me advance or review copies of all products that will receive significant promotional exposure or nationalnews coverage. Since my site has a high Google PageRank (5/10), keyword searches on items reviewed usually show up very high in Google search results. It is great if I have a copy of a title on hand the moment that it becomes newsworthy.

3. Please drop me a note with an e-mail address that I can use to request additional information or to notify you of the release of reviews of your products.

4. I cannot guarantee that any particular product received will be reviewed. However, if I request it, there is usually a good likelihood that I need it, appreciate it, and will (eventually) review it.

5. My first commitment is to my readers.

6. I honor embargo dates for release of reviews. However, I do encourage publishers to provide early access to forthcoming products and, all other things being equal, I would prefer to release reviews shortly before the products are in the stores. I believe this will generally be mutually advantageous because the Internet is an excellent place to generate prerelease word-of-mouth “buzz.”

7. This site’s progenitor, The Internet Book Information Center, went live on March 30, 1994, when there were fewer than 100 web sites on the Internet. Until early 1999, serverspace was provided by Metalab at the University of North Carolina which (under its former name of Sunsite) was a pioneer in public Web hosting.

8. IBIC’s Commonplace Book was chosen as an Infi.Net Cool Site of the Day, and I-Way magazine picked IBIC as one of the top 25 Web sites in Arts and Entertainment (number 2 among book-related sites). Major Internet switchboards such as the WWW Virtual Library (maintained by the founders of the Web at the MIT/CERN W3 Consortium), the America Online/GNN Whole Internet Catalog, and the University of Michigan Clearinghouse of Subject-Oriented Internet Resources all have pointed to IBIC as their primary guide to literature and book-related resources on the Net. According to Google, more than 1000 sitesworldwide link to wfzimmerman.com.

Product Review Policies

1. Please send a copy of your current catalog to the following address:

W. Frederick Zimmerman
Editor & Publisher
wfzimmerman.com
2006 Medford Ste C127
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

and make sure that I am on the mailing lists that you use to announce forthcoming products.

2. I am happy to receive advance or review copies of noteworthy new books, music, magazines, DVDs, hardware, and software. Indeed, as a general rule, I request that you automatically send me advance or review copies of all products that will receive significant promotional exposure or nationalnews coverage. Since my site has a high Google PageRank (5/10), keyword searches on items reviewed usually show up very high in Google search results. It is great if I have a copy of a title on hand the moment that it becomes newsworthy.

3. Please drop me a note with an e-mail address that I can use to request additional information or to notify you of the release of reviews of your products.

4. I cannot guarantee that any particular product received will be reviewed. However, if I request it, there is usually a good likelihood that I need it, appreciate it, and will (eventually) review it.

5. My first commitment is to my readers.

6. I honor embargo dates for release of reviews. However, I do encourage publishers to provide early access to forthcoming products and, all other things being equal, I would prefer to release reviews shortly before the products are in the stores. I believe this will generally be mutually advantageous because the Internet is an excellent place to generate prerelease word-of-mouth “buzz.”

7. This site’s progenitor, The Internet Book Information Center, went live on March 30, 1994, when there were fewer than 100 web sites on the Internet. Until early 1999, serverspace was provided by Metalab at the University of North Carolina which (under its former name of Sunsite) was a pioneer in public Web hosting.

8. IBIC’s Commonplace Book was chosen as an Infi.Net Cool Site of the Day, and I-Way magazine picked IBIC as one of the top 25 Web sites in Arts and Entertainment (number 2 among book-related sites). Major Internet switchboards such as the WWW Virtual Library (maintained by the founders of the Web at the MIT/CERN W3 Consortium), the America Online/GNN Whole Internet Catalog, and the University of Michigan Clearinghouse of Subject-Oriented Internet Resources all have pointed to IBIC as their primary guide to literature and book-related resources on the Net. According to Google, more than 1000 sitesworldwide link to wfzimmerman.com.

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Posted by wfzimmerman to What’s New for Book-Lovers at 10/08/2005 08:06:00 AM