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      Category : Current Affairs

      • September 28, 2008

        Here’s What’s New in Publishing

        by

        There have been a number of fascinating things going on in publishing recently. Let me catch you up to date…
         
        1. In October, Esquire Magazine will feature something that's never been done before: an animated cover. Their 75th Anniversary issue, coming in October, will use 3-mm-thick e-paper (the same material used in Amazon's Kindle), and will have images that change and turn on and off. Think of this as a simplified version of the newspapers you saw in the Harry Potter movies. The data and batteries behind all this are actually baked into the paper, but they fully expect hackers to be able to get inside and reprogram the images. Fascinating stuff ahead for the world of publishing. Covers that shift and change. (I was even told the magazines will have to be delivered in refrigerated trucks. Interesting.)
         
        2. New York Magazine says that book publishing is dead. You can read it all for yourself at www.nymag.com/news/media/50279  — it's an interesting exploration of the current economics of publishing.
         
        3. It looks more and more like Borders could be in serious trouble. They picked a bad time to re-finance, and it looks like they may have to sell the company after all. That's a bummer. Borders is a wonderful company to those of us who work with books and words. As an author, you want them to remain in business.
         
        4. Google has announced they are (finally) making their book previews and searches available to data bases everywhere. And Random House is participating (surprise!). After all the talk of lawsuits and warfare, it looks like publishers are beginning to see the potential benefit of this type of arrangement.
         
        5. One of the most important, but under-reported, publishing stories of this year has been the behavior of some publishers over Sherry Jones' novel, The Jewel of Medina. In case you don't know, it's the story of Ashia,
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