What jacket helps a book sell?

My last post elicited a very interesting comment from bookseller Amber Thody. Fascinated by the idea of jackets selling books, she confided that she found the cover of the Fall catalogue she had received from Canadian publisher Talonbooks quite enchanting.

So I asked her to send along an image of the cover that had fascinated her so -- which she very kindly agreed to do, adding:



I don't know if you can really see the pic clearly - it is a misty mystery of sepia forest growing up into typewriter keys. Not keys. The arm things that fly back and forth to the ribbon when you bang the keys. Do they have a name? Stampy arm-banging things. Anyway this is the one I want to hug and kiss and stroke every day.







The other one is HB Fenn's latest, and I included it because this is what southwestern Ontario looks like right now and it's beautiful. My route to work involves a lot of countryside and I go past immense fields of pumpkins. They are hidden to me in the dark mornings, but burst forth in the startling sparkly blue afternoons every day.

I would be interested to know what others think of these two catalogue covers. I love the one with the pumpkins. They jump out of the image, and make a statement -- because of perspective, atmosphere, and color. This feeling is confirmed by a conversation I had yesterday with one of Wellington's most wellknown sons, bookseller, publisher, and bibliophile Hugh Price. When I asked him which jackets sold best, he instantly said, "The warm colors -- red, maroon, orange. Blues and greens are cool and uninviting," he added.

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7:20 PM | 0 comments

New book on maritime leadership . . .

. . . and thoughts about book jackets

Admirals: The Naval Commanders Who Made Britain Great, by Andrew Lambert has just been published by Faber & Faber in the UK.

The book examines ten admirals, from Charles, Lord Howard of Effingham (1536-1624) to Andrew Cunningham (1883-1963). The author uses these individuals to trace the evolution of naval command over four centuries.

What a great jacket! Last night, our book group discussed what it is about a book that makes it irresistible (or otherwise) to pick up, leaf through, and eventually buy. The jacket was a major reason, along with the typeface of the title and subtitle. Everyone said they were turned off by misty pictures rendered in Victorian pinks and blues. Titles in funky fonts that resemble cellphone texts or crawl-bar messages were equally off-putting.

Author Lambert must be very pleased with this effort.

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3:38 PM | 0 comments

Newspaper blogging

The ever-lively GalleyCat comments on a survey just released by the Online Journalism Blog, which reveals how deeply blogging has affected the traditional print media.

"We'd hazard a guess that at least 60 percent of all authors are doing some sort of blogging," observes editor Jason Boog, and strongly suggests that those authors should be comparing notes. How has blogging affected the style and depth of their writing? And has it provided an extra platform for telling great tales?

One respondent has already reported that he or she now thinks in hyperlinks. As an editor for the Indian news site, Instablogs, I would heartily concur with that: it is like the old days of writing academic papers, when thorough footnoting was vitally necessary, simply to protect one's scholarly reputation. URL links provide the same kind of cover-your-back credibility. I also find I think in photographs, as images give such a vivid dimension to the story.

In fact, I am seriously considering turning in my next book proposal in blog-post form, complete with links and wonderful pix.

An aspect allied to newspaper blogging I particularly enjoy is the "comments" section, where readers post their opinions of whatever has been reported or discussed, often with a blithe disregard of the proprieties. Many are ignorant, misspelled, and badly phrased, and rely far too heavily on foul language. Others, however, are wonderfully eloquent, and at times have a tongue-in-cheek humor.

A perfect example of this is the commentary to a BBC report of the drunken behavior of the graduating class of an exclusive Australian boys' school. Much of it was the usual outcry to "bring back the cane," plus a few reminiscent remarks from old boys of the school. But then there was "Sheila Outrigger of Melbourne."

"It was disgusting, these young lads were urinating in my fish pond, and kicking over my gnomes. I have never seen anything like it, I have lived here for 28 years, and my gnomes have never been attacked like this before," she exclaimed.

"They beheaded five of my gnomes and knocked over my brand-new bird bath," chimed in "Lucinda R.," also of that city. "It's a disgrace, they have no respect for others, and I blame, as always, the parents."

The entire class has been suspended from school. Undoubtedly, the gnomes are delighted.

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2:41 PM | 0 comments

VIACOM up for sale?

Well-informed speculation by Peter Lauria in the New York Post has it that mega-media-mogul Sumner Redstone, 85, may be forced to sell Viacom.

Viacom, no less, home of MTV, Nickelodeon, and Paramount Studios.

Another option is to sell off bits of CBS, such as a few radio stations, or publisher Simon & Schuster.

It's the credit crisis, of course. "Sumner needs more money," confided one of Lauria's sources. Apparently this simple statement is a textbook example of gross understatement -- according to a second source, Sumner Redstone is so deeply into hock with the banks that hold his collateral that sale of bits of the two huge empires may not solve the problem. Worst case scenario is to sell off all of CBS and/or Viacom.

However, it is not a sure thing, Redstone being a shrewd and seasoned negotiator.

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2:45 PM | 0 comments

Is the Associated Press becoming an unaffordable luxury?

One hundred and sixty-two years ago, a bunch of US newspapers banded together to create a wire service, called The Associated Press, which would provide breaking news and instant headlines to the group, for a fee. It worked outstandingly well, and has been an integral feature -- an inner cog -- of American journalism ever since.

However, it seems that the cog might have fallen out of synch with the machine. The Media section in today's New York Times features a startling story by Richard Pérez-Peña, headed:
Some Papers in Financial Trouble Are Leaving the A.P. to Cut Costs

The latest defector is the Columbus Dispatch, which says it can no longer afford the $800,000 annual fee. Last week one of the country's largest chains, the Tribune company, announced it would drop out, saying that in an era where advertising revenue is dropping by 25%, it is forced to cut costs.

Other factors could be that the AP is competing with online editions of newspapers on the internet, or that the AP has moved away from its traditional role of providing breaking news into featuring oped-type discussions, which have been the province of the newspapers up until now.

It is yet to be seen whether this rebellion will extend to the thousands of foreign papers which also use the service.

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1:00 AM | 0 comments

Wellington misses out on City of Literature standing

In this morning's Dominion Post, Ruth Hill contributes the sad news that Wellington's bid for Unesco City of Literature status has been written off by the economic climate.

The campaign, which would have set Wellington alongside Melbourne and Edinburgh, promised a bonanza of millions of dollars, but was stymied by the projected cost of several hundred thousand.

The letter announcing the withdrawal of a previous application was signed by Wellington City Libraries' strategic marketing manager Duncan McLachlan. The plans had been scrapped, he said, "because of the global financial crisis and the council's need to focus on core services."

Wellington matched most criteria. Many of the country's leading literary lights live here, and it is also home to Victoria University's world-rated International Institute of Modern Letters. The National Library of New Zealand is here, as are the Alexander Turnbull and Beaglehole research libraries. There are several excellent bookstores, including quality independents, and stages both a literary festival and an international festival of the arts. There is also a quirky and popular Writers' Walk on the waterfront.

However, money talks, and finding sponsorship for anything at all, no matter how worthy, is getting harder all the time.

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3:11 PM | 0 comments

The words you use

This is not even about the written word, but the spoken word instead.

However, I found this story, written by Jessica Wapner for the science section of the New York Times, so intriguing I couldn't resist posting a summary.

In short, James W. Pennebaker, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, has discovered interesting things about people's choice of words in speech. It's called text analysis, and it consists of counting the different kinds of words a person says.

Excessive use of first person pronouns (I, me, mine) indicates insecurity and a sense of being threatened. When you are sick or hurt, you use first person words more often (I want water, please help me). As you get better, you gradually drop this use of egocentric terms. Liars, on the other hand, avoid first person pronouns -- undoubtedly because they want to keep the focus away from themselves -- and use negative words (hurt, ugly, nasty) instead.

There are more fascinating conclusions drawn. Those who are mentally alert are more likely to use causal words (because, since, therefore). Men use more articles (a, the, that, this) while women use more second and third person pronouns (he, she, they), probably because men are more concrete thinkers, and women are more empathetic.

The world of diplomacy and espionage is interested. Dr. Pennebaker has received a grant from the Army Research Institute to study how foreign leaders use language.

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1:45 PM | 0 comments