The State of the Book in the Digital Age

Thu 21 Mar 2013 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , | Posted by: Gavin

I’m delighted to say that on Friday April 26th I’m on a panel at the Massachusetts Library Association conference—although I’m gutted I’ll miss the library cart drill teams on Wednesday. The conference runs from 4/24 – 26 at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge and our (Western Mass. transplants!) panel is:

9:15 – 10:30am

The State of the Book in the Digital Age

What’s up with books these days? Books are ordered online, created on demand, and distributed in digital form to individuals and libraries. Many bookstores have closed in recent years, and publishers have had to drastically downsize, retool or go out of business. How have individuals and businesses responded to this new environment? Are books giving a last gasp or being reinvented? An author, a book artist, a publisher and a bookstore owner will give their thoughts on the changing environment for books.  Co-presented by the Western Massachusetts Library Advocates

Speakers:  Susan Stinson, Author, Writer in Residence at Forbes Library, Northampton; Daniel E. Kelm, Book Artist;  Gavin J. Grant, Publisher, Small Beer Press; Nancy Felton, Co-owner, Broadside Bookshop.


Oops, oh well, sorry, and what’s TK

Mon 18 Jul 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

I’m sorry to announce that I am cancelling the 2012 Daily Planner. I’ve talked to Consortium, our distributor, and they’ll be passing the message through the official channels, so at some point soon it will disappear from your fave indie bookstore. All pre-orders will be refunded this week.

I will post what we have as an ebook for a nominal sum (99 cents?) and maybe put it on Lulu.com as a print on demand title, but for the most part this Planner won’t be coming out from us again.

I ran into too many obstacles and ran out of time. The 2013 edition was already problematical due to travel commitments in spring 2012. I apologize to those who were looking forward to it and, given the profusion of planners available, expect that they will find a decent substitute.

Here are the 99c ebook editions of the previous editions: 2012, 2011, 2010

It’s hard to admit that I have to put a stop on this title but this might be a good time to list a few upcoming titles: I’m in the middle of adding eight more titles to Consortium’s Summer 2012 catalog—including short story collections by Kij Johnson (At the Mouth of the River of Bees) and Nancy Kress (untitled as yet, maybe Fountain of Age), a huge fantastic debut by Sofia Samatar (A Stranger in Olondria), a paperback of the just-published Lydia Millet novel, The Fires Beneath the Sea and a hardcover of the second book in the series, Shimmers in the Night, paperback editions of The Serial Garden (which, although we have a few at the office, is pretty much sold out in hardcover), Kathe Koja’s Under the Poppy, Karen Joy Fowler’s What I Didn’t See, Geoff Ryman’s Unconquered Countries, and Laurie J. Marks’s Earth Logic.

And then this weekend at Readercon we talked to a couple of authors about putting out ebook editions of their backlist as well as putting out some new work. Can’t say who as that would be silly as then it would magically not happen and I would look even sillier than I do for having to cancel the Planner.

One project I’m happy to talk about is the potential Collected Stories of Joanna Russ. Graham Sleight talked to me about it on Sunday. Over the past couple of years, working with the much missed Joanna, Graham put together an approximately 900-page manuscript which includes preferred versions of all her stories in three collections, as well as what amounts to basically a whole new collection of stories. But rather than reprint the books, since some of the stories would be ever so slightly different, I think that once we’ve talked to the estate and the agent, unless someone else steps in (which is fine with me, as long as the books come out I will be happy), then we’ll work on putting it out in two huge paperbacks. Once the book starts to look more likely, we may be asking for help with transcription as it is a huge project and I hope there are enough fans of Joanna Russ with quick and accurate fingers who can help.

Anyway, that’s the news from this morning. Readercon report may yet follow, you never know.