The Tree Frog Blog

I'll Have Half a Pound of Provolone, Sliced Thin, and a Paperback Copy of The Inferno, Please.

Perhaps the best quote ever in an article about the publishing business:

Mr. Greco says he must factor in at least one expense that bookstores don’t: “When you deal with salami and mozzarella, it’s a little greasy. So we keep the books in plastic bags.”

The publishing industry has stumbled upon a recipe that works -- pairing a book's content with a matching context. 

Psychologically, this makes a lot of sense. Why else did I find myself almost buying a $25 leather-bound bartender's book from Restoration Hardware last night?  The psychological and emotional stage that's set by a retail experience can put you in the right mindset to buy something you might otherwise pass up at a bookstore.

Obviously the New York Times journalist agrees with me. The parting consumer quote in this article:

“You walk into Restoration Hardware and you want the couch and the vase and the nightstand, and then you want the two books that are on the nightstand,” Ms. Rosen said. “The books complete the story."

Overpromise... and Deliver

I'm back, and will resume posting soon. In the meantime, here's an article in PW about an author who promised to talk to any book club who emailed him.  It paid off big time, and now other authors and publishers are coming to him for advice.

The Stolen Child: Update

The campaign for Keith Donohue's book, The Stolen Child, must be doing something right -- it's #39 on Amazon as of this writing.  Of course, it doesn't hurt that the novel is beautifully written with nary a false beat.  Look back to this page for a review, hopefully later this week.

Memoirists on MySpace

According to PW, grown-ups (erudite, introspective ones, at that) have officially populated the realm of teenagers.  In the TFB's opinion, this bodes poorly for MySpace.  The arrival of poets and essayists over 40 is like a knitting circle crashing a keg party. The teens will take themselves and their disposable income someplace a little more private, where moms, teachers and (gulp) admissions officers can't find them.

Here's a direct link to the MySpace profile, if you care to add the memoirists collective as a friend.

Of Lit and Lipgloss

Product placement in books: inevitable?  Sure. But the funny thing about this article is how this young adult chick-lit campaign draws the line at tampons.  That's just pushing the fun too far.

The Stolen Child's Winning Campaign

Keith Donahue's The Stolen Child seems to be doing everything right. He's got a blog on Amazon... Amazon sent galleys to their top 100 reviewers... and NPR covered the unique new approach.

Bases covered. But can any author do this?

Another Day...

... another article about how frightened the publishing industry is of technological advances.  My feeling is you can have the best of both worlds: print editions alongside digital ones. Just take a cue from McSweeney's and add value to the print. Make the books feel like something beautiful, heavy, special, important -- something someone would pay a little extra to own in physical form.

It could be that digital media is creating an opportunity for Book Arts to make a comeback.  Think about it: nostalgia and rarity are powerful motivators for consumers.  Everyone wants to own something unique.  Mass-produced paperbacks are known for their hideous cover art.  But now that mass-produced books are making a move toward greater distribution in e-Book and audio format, doesn't that create a great, P.R.-friendly opportunity for a niche publisher dedicated to the Glory of the Printed Page, as a work of art in and of itself?

I think I smell a contrarian article on my horizon...

BusinessWeek Book Roundup

Here's an encouraging BusinessWeek article about the success of small niche presses. So inspiring, it's enough to make a Frog want to run out and start her own publishing company.

(The Frog's niche? Poetry, long short-stories averaging 6,000 words, and the literary ghost story.)

And here's another BusinessWeek article, about bloggers getting book deals... a trend we thought was passe.

"Pulse" Moving Forward by Feed (Not Flagella)

Publishing is quickly catching on to the possibilities of distribution in the digital era. Robert Frenay's non-fiction book, Pulse, is being distributed by RSS.  Readers can subscribe to the feed and get a section of the book -- "the coming age of systems and machines inspired by living things" -- every day.

A bold experiment -- it will be interesting to see its impact on sales and publicity.

Be sure to read this Timeline of RSS Publishing too. 

HarperComics

HarperCollins is entering the manga business. This is a pretty exciting direction for a major American publisher to take. But what does it say about young American readers? If manga becomes the norm here (the way it apparently is in Japan), will this books-with-pictures preference inhibit children's ability to use their imaginations?