INDEX // mb Ideas on Publishing Books in Canada (and other attempts to write good)

Archive for April 2008

Lakai Shoes — For Dummies Homage?

Dummies parodies are all over the place. Normally they are mocking. The tone of Lakai’s spring catalog is straight-up. Lakai is so cool and the Dummies brand is so not — Lakai doesn’t have to rib. I would be happy if Lakai, the hottest of the hot, associated with my brand at all. We’ll see [...]

What if You Crowd Sourced Category Management?

In its first phase adding “social” elements to book production has failed, but I am liking how round two and round three are shaping up.
Round One — The Wiki Trend. RIP.

Wiki-novels and wiki books are really interesting experiments. They are failed experiments but good ones. Kevin Kelly made the astute observation that maybe, just [...]

Sell the Idea, not the Book; the Passion, not the Author.

Don’t sell the book, sell the idea. Don’t sell the author, sell the passion.
Ehren Cheung wrote a post last week about changing the nature of marketing and publicity in book publishing. He noted that running on catalog cycles is stupid. I have been thinking about the end game of digital for book publishers. One of [...]

Suzuki Titan 500II — Another Year Goes By

Spring is here and the Titan is still no closer to being on the road. I did discover this vid on youtube however. It is an immaculate ‘69 Titan — just like mine (minus the immaculate part). That sweet sound. Damn.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85hkrpPKqfY

Give Me the Why-to-Buy on the Back Cover

Colin Brush over at the Penguin Blog talks about new copy for 1984 and Animal Farm. It made me think of my frustration when I was nine or ten looking for something to read. The book jacket wouldn’t say what the book was about. It would instead tell me how good it was. I hated [...]

Cultural Police Don’t Need No Stink’in Badges

It is no secret that the process of getting published isn’t very transparent. This article at Time Out New York (via Maud Newton) about the cultural gatekeepers in publishing got me thinking about how to turn the process inside out.
In movies you gather the best creative team you can muster. The movie gets made. The [...]

Did I Just Pimp a Kanye Vid?

Jason Kottke is irrationally happy about this video. I agree — video candy. SFW.
Incredible! from kwest on Vimeo.

Blockbuster to Sell Books?

Jim Keyes, the new CEO of Blockbuster, talks to KCRW about rescuing the franchise. His answer to Blockbuster’s woes — expand the product offering to books, magazines, and consumer electronics. Really? He is on an island and the tide has come in. Doesn’t he realize it? Interesting.
(link)
image from business week

Why I don’t Want to See ‘The Wire’ Season 5

It all started with a dead guy named Snot Boogie. I am a little late to the scene but I just tore through the first four seasons of HBO’s ‘The Wire’. What can I possibly say about this show that hasn’t been said? Nothing. Even Leah McLaren has spilled some ink on the matter. Christ. [...]

There Will be Blood

This would have been so much better as a single-serving site.

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