We're really just a small little press doing our jobs. But sometimes I find our jobs are a bit more complicated than I might think.
Several years ago, before this terrible war we're in against the concept of terrorism began, we had a manuscript submitted by a well known local congressman who didn't actually represent our district, but whom, through his positions on various congressional committees, had a great affect on the university. And who, it should also be noted, lived just a few miles from where that third plane crashed on 9/11 in Shanksville, PA. The congressman I'm referring to is John Murtha.
The book was submitted to our editorial committee and was approved, not because of the congressman's importance to the university, but because like the several hundred books we've published on political science, it advanced our knowledge of the workings of that discipline, and in an eloquent and first-hand way.
If you don't know or remember who congressman Murtha is, I urge you to read these chapters from the book we eventually published by him. As I watched the opinion of congressman Murtha change, we also documented that change as it occurred, in the subsequent editions of his book. He's a very conservative democrat who before this war was a hawk, but during this war changed his mind, and was brave enough to say so.
We had to decide, at the time his opinion changed, what chapters of his book we would offer for free in our chapter preview program.
His book is about his entire career and his work on various causes, most military and foreign policy oriented, though his work on breast cancer research shouldn't be overlooked. And while most of the chapters in our "just a taste" sample chapter program come from the introductions to our books, or the first chapters, in this case we decided to post the last chapter of this book. Primarily because we thought it was the most important.
The last chapter in the edition leading to the war shows a man who wants to support the military, but who wonders if the current administration's march to war really makes sense, even after 9/11. The epilogue to the next edition, after the war began, documents his realization of the terrible mistake we've made and indites not just the decision, but also the execution of this effort. From the massacre in Haditha, to the fate of a single soldier in his district, the congressman risked his career questioning this effort.
So why am I blabbering about this now? Because now, like then, I had a hard decision to make. Here we had this book with really only one chapter with wide appeal. One chapter worth promoting and using to sell the book. But we decided that rather than trying to persuade people to buy the book by withholding that chapter, and making folks pay to read it, we would instead sacrifice any sales dependent on access to "the good stuff" to the more important part of our mission, dissemination.
Now, we have a book of essays about the fight for desegregation in Delaware in the pipeline.
So?
For you youngsters who don't remember Brown v. Board of Education, most of the fight to desegregate American schools began in Delaware. And much of it was witnessed and fought for by the current senetor from Delaware, Joe Biden. Joe Biden wrote the foreword to this book. When he was just a failed presidential candidate, the book was enthusiastically endorsed for publication by our editorial committee. Not because of any political bias, hell Fox News commentator Juan Williams has a chapter, but because it is great scholarship.
If you want to know what vice presidential candidate Joe Biden remembers about racism from that era, and how far we've come since then, I urge you to read this free chapter. It's one of the best parts of this book, and we're giving it to you for free.
So yeah, we hold the copyright on this material. And if we wanted to, we could make the access to this material contingent on purchasing the book. But when we have to make these decisions, and they are tough ones, we still need to meet payroll at the end of the day, I'd like to think we've done the right thing rather than the rights thing.
Friday, September 5, 2008
How not to get one of our books
Chuck Palahniuk teaches us how to shoplift at the Borders store in Ann Arbor:
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Misspelling
Time Magazine has an article this week questioning whether we should accept misspelled words as correct when they are words that many people typically misspell - words such as twelfth (twelth) and truly (truely). Most of the words in question have silent letters that are left in or taken out for no apparent reason. Is it a question of people being lazy? Or is the English language just too complicated? Between homonyms and synonyms and words that just aren’t spelled like they sound, they may have a point. I had a friend who was frustrated because he couldn’t find out how to spell “gesture” by looking in the dictionary because he didn’t know how to spell it! Who knew it didn’t start with the letter “j”?
The article talks about how people are punished for spelling errors, especially in resumes and job applications. I will admit that when I have had to vet applications for administrative positions in the past, the applicant was unlikely to get a second look if the cover letter had spelling or grammatical errors.
From an editing point of view, I guess we could just let the authors have at it, trust that the spell-checkers will catch the big mistakes and don’t worry about the rest. I don’t think my heart could take it.
The article talks about how people are punished for spelling errors, especially in resumes and job applications. I will admit that when I have had to vet applications for administrative positions in the past, the applicant was unlikely to get a second look if the cover letter had spelling or grammatical errors.
From an editing point of view, I guess we could just let the authors have at it, trust that the spell-checkers will catch the big mistakes and don’t worry about the rest. I don’t think my heart could take it.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Comics with Spines
A few weeks ago I made light of students who asked if we published graphic novels. After reading this, I wonder if we should.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Textbooks
I am an adult learner newly returned to the world of the classroom and the sticker-shock of required textbooks. My son is also a student with a full class load with the requisite list of books, several of which include CDs, expanding the price considerably. One of his professors has listed four required books totaling over $200 – and that’s for used books!
The cost of textbooks is unbelievable to me. I am taking an intermediate algebra class this term and the cost of the used book is $112. If the bookstore will buy it back at the end of the term, I will be lucky to get half of what I paid and it will likely end up back on the shelf with a $112 price tag. Again.
Recently, I received a note from a teacher that had taught a class that I took last year. Apparently, the University is requiring him to use the newest edition of the textbook at the new and improved cost (without the benefit/availability of used copies). He has taken the time to compare this edition with the previous and is assigning his readings giving chapters and pages from both. He then contacted his previous students to see if we would be willing to sell our older editions to his current students, knowing that the bookstore would be unwilling to buy our books back since they were now “useless.” A win-win situation for everyone involved (unless you count the publisher of the newest edition who may not sell very many to this teacher’s students.) Kudos to him for taking the time and making the effort to do this for his students.
The Washington Post has a very interesting article confirming the insanity of textbook costs and how difficult the publishers make it for students who are struggling to pay for books on top of the ever-increasing tuition costs (not to mention the myriad fees that the colleges and universities heap on the students every semester.) It appears that we will catch a break sometime in 2010. I can’t wait. Really.
The cost of textbooks is unbelievable to me. I am taking an intermediate algebra class this term and the cost of the used book is $112. If the bookstore will buy it back at the end of the term, I will be lucky to get half of what I paid and it will likely end up back on the shelf with a $112 price tag. Again.
Recently, I received a note from a teacher that had taught a class that I took last year. Apparently, the University is requiring him to use the newest edition of the textbook at the new and improved cost (without the benefit/availability of used copies). He has taken the time to compare this edition with the previous and is assigning his readings giving chapters and pages from both. He then contacted his previous students to see if we would be willing to sell our older editions to his current students, knowing that the bookstore would be unwilling to buy our books back since they were now “useless.” A win-win situation for everyone involved (unless you count the publisher of the newest edition who may not sell very many to this teacher’s students.) Kudos to him for taking the time and making the effort to do this for his students.
The Washington Post has a very interesting article confirming the insanity of textbook costs and how difficult the publishers make it for students who are struggling to pay for books on top of the ever-increasing tuition costs (not to mention the myriad fees that the colleges and universities heap on the students every semester.) It appears that we will catch a break sometime in 2010. I can’t wait. Really.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Buy Local, Unless There's Money in It for Me
Chelsea Green, a pretty crunchy eco-publisher, has raised the hackles of both B&N and the US indie bookstore community by deciding to initially release its new book titled Obama’s Challenge exclusively through Amazon.com. According to this Times article the decision was made to engage the folks attending the upcoming Democratic National Convention. Katherine Walton (not listed on Chelsea Green's staff page for some reason) told the Times that they felt the book was too important to wait for all sales channels to receive the book. Putting it in Amazon's POD program would allow folks immediate access to the book. This decision has apparently cost them a 10,000 copy order from B&N, not to mention quite a few orders from independents. The Times article also reports that the President of Chelsea Green, Margo Baldwin, posted a letter on the their Web site imploring booksellers to not cancel their orders as "If all of you cancel your orders it will mean that a really good and important book on Obama will be effectively boycotted." That letter appears to have been removed from their site, as have all comments on their blog posting about the book.
The blog post itself has some rather questionable rhetoric about how they came to this decision.
“We had initially decided to pre-write the book, wait to see who won, and then either publish in January or have a big bonfire,” says Kuttner. “But Margo Baldwin at Chelsea Green decided to take an even bigger risk: to get the book out by Labor Day on the assumption that Obama will be the next president. Talk about the audacity of hope!”
Baldwin adds, “Once we aimed for Labor Day, we then wondered what it would take to get it out by the Democratic convention and into the hands of the fifteen to twenty thousand convention-goers who are the book’s natural audience. Printing a special pre-publication edition through BookSurge, Amazon’s print-on-demand division, seemed like the natural solution.
“This election is too important to wait around for traditional publishing lead times. The book needs to come out now if it’s to have a major impact. The technology is available to have books on the day the book files are sent off to the printer. And that’s what we’re doing and Amazon has been an amazing partner in this effort.”
Wow. What a terrible mistake. Or perhaps more accurately, what a terrible series of mistakes.
I can not understand how they could have so misread the reaction to this move. Nothing screams hypocrite quite like a sustainable publisher thumbing its nose at the nation's mom and pops claiming the issue was just too important to wait for local distribution. If they really felt that what was important here was getting this book's message out, perhaps again they could have learned a little something from university presses. Offer it open access. If they were really prepared to "bonfire" the book in January, they could have survived the decrease in sales online access might have caused. I'll bet it would have been less than the 10,000 copy order B&N canceled. The fact that they only offer a two page preview seems to me that what is most important to them is sales. A shame it backfired so terribly. They really are a much better press than this.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
A piece of s...
Quite a kerfuffle has surrounded the publishing of a new book by Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D., which purports to be about Senator Obama's secret Islamic sympathies and his current drug use. Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D. is the same guy who wrote Unfit for Command which, combined with the Swift Boat ads he also played a part in creating, is frequently pointed to as a major factor in Senator Kerry's defeat in the 2004 presidential election. According to this New York Times piece, Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D., plans to work on a related series of attack ads to supplement this book as well.My favorite part of the piece is this quote from Mary Matalin, (yes, the married-to-James-Carvel Mary Matalin) the book's publisher: "Ms. Matalin said in an interview that the book “was not designed to be, and does not set out to be, a political book,” calling it, rather, “a piece of scholarship, and a good one at that.”
The Web site Media Matters has this rather thorough review of the some of the research Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D. has done for the book.
Ms. Matalin, I know scholarship. I have spent my entire career helping good scholarship find its way to the folks who can use it to further advance human knowledge. What you have published is not scholarship. If you would like to see what scholarship really looks like, drop me a line and I'd be glad to send you an example. What you have published is quite something else indeed.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Rejection
Now this is a topic I know something about, both personally and professionally. (I won’t bore you with the personal details.) But how does a publicist not take this kind of rejection personally?
“No, I’m sorry, your book has not been reviewed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TLS, NYRB, Publisher’s Weekly, London Review of Books, The Washington Post, The Nation, The New Republic, or The Atlantic Monthly. It’s outrageously inexplicable.”
“No, we won’t be nominating your book for the Pulitzer Prize. Getting it published is reward enough.”
“No, we can’t send you on a national author tour. We can’t even send you on a Small Town, Anywhere author tour. The gas reimbursement alone would bankrupt us.”
“No, as much as we would love to, we won’t be attending that conference in tropical paradise, when it’s popsicle-land here in January. But send us a postcard.”
“No, Stewart and Colbert weren’t interested. Ditto. Outrageously inexplicable.”
“No, we can’t afford that exorbitant space ad. We need that money to pay our salaries.”
“And no, we have not received a call from Oprah’s book club. Our VoIP phone system could have been on the fritz that day.”
How does one accept this kind of rejection, let alone respond to it? I’m going to need serious therapy…and more t-shirts. Perhaps SRT (Serious Retail Therapy) is in order.
“No, I’m sorry, your book has not been reviewed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TLS, NYRB, Publisher’s Weekly, London Review of Books, The Washington Post, The Nation, The New Republic, or The Atlantic Monthly. It’s outrageously inexplicable.”
“No, we won’t be nominating your book for the Pulitzer Prize. Getting it published is reward enough.”
“No, we can’t send you on a national author tour. We can’t even send you on a Small Town, Anywhere author tour. The gas reimbursement alone would bankrupt us.”
“No, as much as we would love to, we won’t be attending that conference in tropical paradise, when it’s popsicle-land here in January. But send us a postcard.”
“No, Stewart and Colbert weren’t interested. Ditto. Outrageously inexplicable.”
“No, we can’t afford that exorbitant space ad. We need that money to pay our salaries.”
“And no, we have not received a call from Oprah’s book club. Our VoIP phone system could have been on the fritz that day.”
How does one accept this kind of rejection, let alone respond to it? I’m going to need serious therapy…and more t-shirts. Perhaps SRT (Serious Retail Therapy) is in order.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
An Author Signing
Diane Jackson has asked me to post her report on her book signing Tuesday. Diane is the author of Down and Dirty: A Practical Guide to Traditional and Alternative Home Laundering.--John
As I drove from Mixo-Lydia to Shingletown Tuesday afternoon, all kinds of thoughts were running through my head. This was my first ever book signing, and I had no idea what to expect. Would there be anybody there? Would I be so nervous I'd forget how to write my name? Would it be such a huge success that I’d find myself on Oprah before I knew it? Anything was possible!
Shingletown is a pretty little village tucked into the woods just south of State College. There’s a cozy old restaurant that's only open for lunch. A store where you can buy a sarsaparilla or a piece of homemade fudge--or, if you like, a fresh bag of worms. And the Hoopoe's Nest, a wonderful little bookstore that used to be a flour mill, where you can browse through a selection of new and used books, or sit in a nook and gaze out the window at the creek rushing by. Tom and Lucy, the owners, greeted me warmly, telling me how much they had enjoyed my book. They said that the copies for me to sign hadn't arrived yet, but not to worry, they should show up any minute. So of course I did worry. But then, right on cue, over the mountain came a bicyclist, pedaling furiously, with a box of books strapped to the back of his bike. It was Tony from Penn State Press. He'd come straight from the office--six miles, he said--just for me! While Tony went off to change clothes and get his breath, Tom and Lucy set me up at a little table with the books in front of me, a nice felt tip pen, and a delicious bran muffin, and we sat and chatted while we waited for the rush of eager fans.
Well, there wasn't really a rush of fans, of course, but some very nice folks did stop by. One gentleman said he'd been about ready to throw away his favorite shirt because of a nasty stain, but after a little scrubbing with a solution that I gave the recipe for, the stain just about disappeared. He'd brought it so I could sign the shirttail! And there was a woman who presented me with an old box of soap flakes that she’d found in her grandmother’s laundry room. I told her she should hold onto something as precious as that, but she insisted. And I was glad to meet some young people too--I couldn't help thinking that when I was their age, the only time I thought about laundry was when took it home so my mom could wash it.
All in all, it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon. I sold a few copies, had some good conversations, got to pet the store cat, and for a couple of hours I felt like a real, live author. So thanks to Tom and Lucy at the Hoopoe's Nest, and to everyone at Penn State Press--Sandy, Cali, Tony, John, and the whole gang. You've all been terrific.
Now look out, Oprah!
Diane
Video Killed the Publishing Star
The buzz at the last AAUP, according to my colleagues who attended, was the use of multimedia in book promotion. It first came to my attention when our director asked if we might do a little film about one of our authors like this film he'd recently been sent.
Well, we could do one, but English might be a better language to use. And I think I might keep the camera at a more comfortable distance from the subject. As one of my colleagues noted, you can practically smell the snails and garlic he had for lunch.
So should we do one of these little videos for our authors? Well, we don't currently have anything but true monographs in the pipeline, so I don't see an urgent need to set up a studio in our warehouse, but thinking about it got me looking at what some of our colleagues at other presses are doing.
Illinois worked with the production branch of their local public TV station and produced this handsome promotional video to celebrate the press's 90th anniversary. Chicago did this trailer for their book about deep water aquatic wildlife. California has a very clever trailer hidden on this page for their book on insomnia. (the link is just below the red text) Princeton also has started including video interviews with their authors. MIT, Yale, and Harvard are also Podcasting author interviews pretty regularly. A bunch of them are using the same production company to produce them, which probably helps.
But some of the most interesting pieces I've found have been videos created by the Big Trade houses. Random House has its own channel on YouTube. The one where Elmo interviews his puppeteer is a little meta-creepy. Especially at the end when the author crawls under the table and Elmo complains about his cold hand. Knopf also has their own channel. As does Bantam, and Barnes and Noble. Even the Amazon Kindle has it's own channel. Here's a company you can hire to do book videos for you.
One of the most interesting developments I've seen recently has been Stephen King's decision to pre-release a video of one of his stories. N. can be watched here, before you can actually read it. Gives a whole new meaning to "straight to video."
Well, we could do one, but English might be a better language to use. And I think I might keep the camera at a more comfortable distance from the subject. As one of my colleagues noted, you can practically smell the snails and garlic he had for lunch.
So should we do one of these little videos for our authors? Well, we don't currently have anything but true monographs in the pipeline, so I don't see an urgent need to set up a studio in our warehouse, but thinking about it got me looking at what some of our colleagues at other presses are doing.
Illinois worked with the production branch of their local public TV station and produced this handsome promotional video to celebrate the press's 90th anniversary. Chicago did this trailer for their book about deep water aquatic wildlife. California has a very clever trailer hidden on this page for their book on insomnia. (the link is just below the red text) Princeton also has started including video interviews with their authors. MIT, Yale, and Harvard are also Podcasting author interviews pretty regularly. A bunch of them are using the same production company to produce them, which probably helps.
But some of the most interesting pieces I've found have been videos created by the Big Trade houses. Random House has its own channel on YouTube. The one where Elmo interviews his puppeteer is a little meta-creepy. Especially at the end when the author crawls under the table and Elmo complains about his cold hand. Knopf also has their own channel. As does Bantam, and Barnes and Noble. Even the Amazon Kindle has it's own channel. Here's a company you can hire to do book videos for you.
One of the most interesting developments I've seen recently has been Stephen King's decision to pre-release a video of one of his stories. N. can be watched here, before you can actually read it. Gives a whole new meaning to "straight to video."
Monday, August 11, 2008
Are Y'all Loving Permissions Today?
We can only hope you are. We are. For some amusing and useful tips on the publishing vernacular, check out Rachel Toor's piece here in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education. Buried way down the list, under "P" is the term guaranteed to raise the blood pressure of not only authors, but art history editors and editorial assistants everywhere. Yep, yep, Permissions. Toor, a paragon of understatement, says:
"Permissions: The biggest pain in the butt for any author. Any piece of proprietary work (song lines, poetry, artwork, chunks of other people's intellectual property) must have permission cleared by whoever wants to use it from whoever owns the rights. Often there's a fee involved."
Indeed.
"Permissions: The biggest pain in the butt for any author. Any piece of proprietary work (song lines, poetry, artwork, chunks of other people's intellectual property) must have permission cleared by whoever wants to use it from whoever owns the rights. Often there's a fee involved."
Indeed.
Summer Games
I am a sports fan, but I have such mixed feelings about the Olympics. I never ever watch the opening ceremonies (or the Macy’s day parade), however every two years I end up watching far more than I intend and discover things I didn’t know that I love (curling). But these summer games make me feel especially dirty for watching. First off, I’m disgusted that I get sucked in to the freak show that is gymnastics. No sport should ever be qualitative and the coaches seem so slimy. Then there’s the pharmacological miracles that are the world’s great swimmers and runners.
And this year there’s the politics. Sure Bush is over there imploring them to let the people pray (after all slave labor is just fine if you’ve found Jesus), and I don’t expect NBC to interrupt the heartwarming story of a kinder, gentler acrobatics academy to show this. The Olympic spirit couldn’t save Sarajevo, and it can’t reform china either, but we also shouldn’t forget that this is a country that after Tiananmen Square made a Faustian bargain with itself. It traded in its socialist ideals and its aspirations for political freedom to become a totalitarian economic miracle, and it’s that bargain that put them on this stage.
I don't really need another t-shirt.
And this year there’s the politics. Sure Bush is over there imploring them to let the people pray (after all slave labor is just fine if you’ve found Jesus), and I don’t expect NBC to interrupt the heartwarming story of a kinder, gentler acrobatics academy to show this. The Olympic spirit couldn’t save Sarajevo, and it can’t reform china either, but we also shouldn’t forget that this is a country that after Tiananmen Square made a Faustian bargain with itself. It traded in its socialist ideals and its aspirations for political freedom to become a totalitarian economic miracle, and it’s that bargain that put them on this stage.
I don't really need another t-shirt.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
On Delinquency
To my knowledge, the Tenured Radical is not on our payroll, but she sure deserves an honorium for her latest blog post. If only I needed a reviewer for a 2oth c American history project, I'd know who to call...
Friday, August 8, 2008
Words
I have always loved the dictionary. When I go to look up a word, I am almost always distracted by more interesting words and definitions that pop out at me. So not surprising, I subscribe to Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day. Today’s word is vexillology: the study of flags. It is a fairly uncommon word, not one that I have ever used or even seen. The spell-check on this version of Word does not even recognize it (perhaps I meant lexicology? or etiology?) But now that I know about it, I might even try to use it.
The New York Times did a review of Reading the OED by Ammon Shea who spent a year “plowing through the entire Oxford English Dictionary” and wrote a book about his experience. It made me wish I had that kind of time, and the kind of talent and imagination that would allow me to put what I learned from all of those words into my own words. I don’t, but I will certainly pick up his book to see how he did it.
Then maybe I’ll open up our ancient set of Funk & Wagnalls and see what I can learn. Don’t expect a book.
The New York Times did a review of Reading the OED by Ammon Shea who spent a year “plowing through the entire Oxford English Dictionary” and wrote a book about his experience. It made me wish I had that kind of time, and the kind of talent and imagination that would allow me to put what I learned from all of those words into my own words. I don’t, but I will certainly pick up his book to see how he did it.
Then maybe I’ll open up our ancient set of Funk & Wagnalls and see what I can learn. Don’t expect a book.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Art by the Numbers
My own indignant rage aside, what do you suppose the Drs. Janson would have to say about this:
The economist David Galenson is convinced that the type of economic analysis that explains the $4-plus gas at the pump can also explain the greatest artists of the past 100 years or so.
Brief excerpts: "[Galenson's] statistical approach has led to what he says is a radically new interpretation of 20th-century art, one he is certain art historians will hate. It is based in part on how frequently an illustration of a work appears in textbooks."
"To Mr. Galenson markets are what make the 20th century completely different from other eras for art. In earlier periods artists created works for rich patrons generally in the court or the church, which functioned as a monopoly. Only in the 20th century did art enter the marketplace and become a commodity, like a stick of butter or an Hermès bag. In this system, he said, breaking the rules became the most valued attribute. The greatest rewards went to conceptual innovators who frequently changed styles and invented genres. For the first time the idea behind the work of art became more important than the physical object itself."
"'Important artists are innovators whose work changes the practices of their successors,' Mr. Galenson declares in his book. 'The greater the changes, the greater the artist.'"
"'Demoiselles' came in at No. 1 with 28 illustrations. Vladimir Tatlin’s 'Monument to the Third International' (1919-20), a plan for a celebratory tower, came in second with 25 illustrations. 'Spiral Jetty,' a gigantic earthwork coil that Robert Smithson planted in the Great Salt Lake in Utah 1970, came in third with 23, followed by Richard Hamilton’s 'Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?,' a 1956 collage widely considered to be the first Pop Art, with 22. Umberto Boccioni’s 1913 bronze sculpture 'Unique Forms of Continuity in Space' tied Picasso’s 'Guernica' (1937) with 21. Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 'Fountain' — a white urinal — was seventh with 18 illustrations, and his 1912 painting 'Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2' was eighth with 16."
A misunderstanding
Sometimes, unfortunately, there's a disconnect between the Press and our readers. We've been getting a number of returns of one of our titles lately. Customers are complaining that the pages are smudged and stained; that "it looks like somebody made a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich and wiped the knife with my copy of the book." Well, it happens that this book, Down and Dirty: A Practical Guide to Traditional and Alternative Home Laundering, by Diane Fermor Jackson, was among those that the Press submitted to the AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show this year, and though it was not one of our award-winners, the judges had some very kind words for its innovative design. The pages in those returned copies look exactly the way they're supposed to--smudges, stains, and all. That is to say, natural dyes and inks, including the juice of actual vine-ripened Pennsylvania raspberries, have been integrated into the layout of the page and the texture of the paper in a way that subtly emphasizes and comments on the meaning of the text without distracting from it. Surely anyone could see that. Or so we would have thought. But evidently we need to do a better job of educating our readers.
To anyone who's purchased one of our books, then: if you notice that the pages have been inserted into the binding backwards and upside-down; or that there are gaps or repeats in the page numbering; or that the title on the cover isn't the same as the title inside; or that the author photo looks like a Cairn terrier smoking a meerschaum; or that the punctuation seems to use more guillemets and interrobangs than it really needs; or that the publisher's name appears as Pennsylvania Steve University Press--please don't jump to conclusions and assume that we don’t know what we’re doing. Stop and think that maybe there's a good reason for the apparent mistake, that we're working hard to give you value that you won’t get from an ordinary trade publisher.
By the way, Diane Fermor Jackson, the author of Down and Dirty, will be doing a book signing at the Hoopooe's Nest in Shingletown, Pa., this coming Thursday, August 7. Please stop by if you're in the area and let her know that you, for one, "get it."
Friday, August 1, 2008
Bub bye Cali
We lose one of our favorite editorial assistants and co-bloggers today. Ms. Cali Buckley is off to study the history of art, or the art of history, or some such thing that is highly unlikely to ever result in gainful employment. In honor of her many years of service here we accomplished very little today and instead took her to lunch and then played wiffle ball.
What a poser....
Go Patty!
Oh, and we gave her one of these shirts, modeled by Heather, who can now leave me alone about the getting her a t-shirt for blogging.
For the visually challenged it says Are You Loving Publishing Today? and has the url for this very blog.
What a poser....
Go Patty!
Oh, and we gave her one of these shirts, modeled by Heather, who can now leave me alone about the getting her a t-shirt for blogging.
For the visually challenged it says Are You Loving Publishing Today? and has the url for this very blog.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Vulgar
So the comic below got a few laughs and apparently raised a few eyebrows. I wasn't specifically trying to equate Institutional Repositories with a bunch of illiterate thugs, but if that connection was made, what can you do? And while I wouldn't typically include that kind of language on our site, it seemed fine for a blog. And heck, if the Associate Director/Editor-in-Chief/Co-Director of our Office of Digital Scholarly Publishing can use the B word...
Speaking of raised eyebrows, I got an announcement from one of our colleagues at Mcgill-Queens. They're publishing the North American edition of a new book with a very attention demanding title. I know if this book had cleared our editorial committee, it certainly would have generated a pack of meetings. Even if that is the appropriate word for the subject studied in this book, couldn't it be part of the subtitle instead? Works well as unique Google search term, though, I'll give it that.
So I guess being vulgar isn't that taboo in the university press community. Heck, we've even published a few rather vulgar titles ourselves, like this book on Vulgar Latin. Of course in that case vulgar refers to Latin not considered part of the standard grammar. Not, you know, dirty. We've also published some rather racy Medieval history including The Ladies of Zamora, described by the copy as "a saga of copulation, cross-dressing, and general mayhem." Oh my, those thirteenth-century Spanish nuns seem to have gotten themselves into quite a pickle with the Bishop. Then there's Barbara Newman's brilliant translation of Frauenlob's Song of Songs, which like its biblical namesake is an erotic poetic allegory which praises God with profanity. But rather than a young shepard's pick-up lines, this is written from the perspective of the Virgin Mary as she sings of her erotic love for God, even at one point apparently imagining an incestuous three-way with, you know, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
From part II, verse 11:
"He lay in me and left me without labor.
Most certainly
I slept with Three—
till I grew pregnant with God's goodness,
pierced by sweetness upon sweetness.
My ancient lover kissed me,
let this be said:
I gazed at him and made him young —
then all the heavenly hosts were glad.
(The proud Maid's praises must be sung—
let none take it ill!)
He said my breasts were sweeter than wine
and drank his fill—
my Beloved is mine."
Ewwww. Not very modest, this so-called maid. And think of the age difference between her and the "Father."
Well alright, enough about vulgar books. How about a bit of vulgar biking.
On my way to work this morning I noticed they recently repainted the bicyclist icon on one of the bike lanes through town, but what caught my attention was the edit.
Did you spot it? Notice, by the way, how well the bike paths are maintained around here. That tire sized gap on the right runs along about eight blocks of this particular path, effectively reducing its width by about a third.
This picture better highlights the edit:
The re-painted biker no longer wears a helmet. Now I have two theories about this. Either this change is somehow related to the Commonwealth's idiotic decision to no longer require that riders wear helmets, or someone complained that the icon made cyclists look like a bunch of dick heads. I'm sorry, I mean penis heads.
One final bit of vulgarity that I want to share and this concerns censorship at libraries. I read this fantastic response to a patron's request for the removal of a controversial book from her local library. The librarian's letter in response reminded me just what it is about this country I love, after eight years of some rather troubling questions about it. I urge you to read this and share it.
Uncle Bobby's Wedding
It reminds me that your vulgar isn't necessarily mine.
Speaking of raised eyebrows, I got an announcement from one of our colleagues at Mcgill-Queens. They're publishing the North American edition of a new book with a very attention demanding title. I know if this book had cleared our editorial committee, it certainly would have generated a pack of meetings. Even if that is the appropriate word for the subject studied in this book, couldn't it be part of the subtitle instead? Works well as unique Google search term, though, I'll give it that.
So I guess being vulgar isn't that taboo in the university press community. Heck, we've even published a few rather vulgar titles ourselves, like this book on Vulgar Latin. Of course in that case vulgar refers to Latin not considered part of the standard grammar. Not, you know, dirty. We've also published some rather racy Medieval history including The Ladies of Zamora, described by the copy as "a saga of copulation, cross-dressing, and general mayhem." Oh my, those thirteenth-century Spanish nuns seem to have gotten themselves into quite a pickle with the Bishop. Then there's Barbara Newman's brilliant translation of Frauenlob's Song of Songs, which like its biblical namesake is an erotic poetic allegory which praises God with profanity. But rather than a young shepard's pick-up lines, this is written from the perspective of the Virgin Mary as she sings of her erotic love for God, even at one point apparently imagining an incestuous three-way with, you know, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
From part II, verse 11:
"He lay in me and left me without labor.
Most certainly
I slept with Three—
till I grew pregnant with God's goodness,
pierced by sweetness upon sweetness.
My ancient lover kissed me,
let this be said:
I gazed at him and made him young —
then all the heavenly hosts were glad.
(The proud Maid's praises must be sung—
let none take it ill!)
He said my breasts were sweeter than wine
and drank his fill—
my Beloved is mine."
Ewwww. Not very modest, this so-called maid. And think of the age difference between her and the "Father."
Well alright, enough about vulgar books. How about a bit of vulgar biking.
On my way to work this morning I noticed they recently repainted the bicyclist icon on one of the bike lanes through town, but what caught my attention was the edit.
Did you spot it? Notice, by the way, how well the bike paths are maintained around here. That tire sized gap on the right runs along about eight blocks of this particular path, effectively reducing its width by about a third.
This picture better highlights the edit:
The re-painted biker no longer wears a helmet. Now I have two theories about this. Either this change is somehow related to the Commonwealth's idiotic decision to no longer require that riders wear helmets, or someone complained that the icon made cyclists look like a bunch of dick heads. I'm sorry, I mean penis heads.
One final bit of vulgarity that I want to share and this concerns censorship at libraries. I read this fantastic response to a patron's request for the removal of a controversial book from her local library. The librarian's letter in response reminded me just what it is about this country I love, after eight years of some rather troubling questions about it. I urge you to read this and share it.
Uncle Bobby's Wedding
It reminds me that your vulgar isn't necessarily mine.
Passion for shoes?
I’m supposed to be writing about author tours as product placement, or some such thing, that some big trade houses have instituted in order to keep their titles visible in the absence of book reviews and shrinking shelf space. But you can read about that here.
Instead, I would like to talk about shoes. Yep, shoes. Not Manolo Blahnik’s or Jimmy Choo’s either. Just the average Joe kind sittin’ on the side of the road. Sometimes, it’s just one, maybe two. Usually a work boot or tennis sneaker. And they may or may not match. Besides the obvious tractor-trailer load of orphaned shoe misfits cruising down the highway, I’ve been unable to think of a single reason why somebody would throw a shoe out the window. Did it suddenly become dislodged from somebody’s appendage? Seriously, what is up with that? I have a theory. I think the owners were abducted by aliens. The proof is on the pavement. (Just to clarify, if I did see Manolos or Jimmy Choos on the side of the road, I would cross six lanes of traffic, backwards, to retrieve them so I could sell them on eBay.)
I’m probably a bit more sensitive to the plight of shoes. Perhaps it was the continuous taunting by sales staff when I was a youngen. They would promise me the moon and stars they had my size, only to emerge from the back room empty-handed. Maybe it’s because I have spent a small fortune on shoes for my genetically deficient feet–enough to purchase my own island or small country. Never would I toss them willy-nilly out the window. I would find another home for them. They need good homes. And I have adopted many in my day. Zappos is my new best friend. (Who knew ‘willy-nilly’ was in spell-checker?)
Now, where is my t-shirt? Maybe the aliens abducted it too.
Instead, I would like to talk about shoes. Yep, shoes. Not Manolo Blahnik’s or Jimmy Choo’s either. Just the average Joe kind sittin’ on the side of the road. Sometimes, it’s just one, maybe two. Usually a work boot or tennis sneaker. And they may or may not match. Besides the obvious tractor-trailer load of orphaned shoe misfits cruising down the highway, I’ve been unable to think of a single reason why somebody would throw a shoe out the window. Did it suddenly become dislodged from somebody’s appendage? Seriously, what is up with that? I have a theory. I think the owners were abducted by aliens. The proof is on the pavement. (Just to clarify, if I did see Manolos or Jimmy Choos on the side of the road, I would cross six lanes of traffic, backwards, to retrieve them so I could sell them on eBay.)
I’m probably a bit more sensitive to the plight of shoes. Perhaps it was the continuous taunting by sales staff when I was a youngen. They would promise me the moon and stars they had my size, only to emerge from the back room empty-handed. Maybe it’s because I have spent a small fortune on shoes for my genetically deficient feet–enough to purchase my own island or small country. Never would I toss them willy-nilly out the window. I would find another home for them. They need good homes. And I have adopted many in my day. Zappos is my new best friend. (Who knew ‘willy-nilly’ was in spell-checker?)
Now, where is my t-shirt? Maybe the aliens abducted it too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
