7.26.2010

Mr. Rogers Crayola factory edition

Interested in seeing inside the Moleskine factory? It's no Crayola factory with Mr. Rogers, but it ain't bad either.

Also: the making of rugs! (Yes, ok, slightly unrelated)

7.19.2010

Libraries and spoofs, all the rage

In my round up last week at PMN I pointed out this video of the Old Spice guy shilling for libraries. Now I bring to you Stephen Jones, on the value of studying in the library:

I'm on a cart!

7.16.2010

Actually useful information

You may think that good writing, or hard work, or good representation sells books. You would be super wrong. You know what sells books? Metadata. And, womp womp:
"There used to be consistency throughout the retail channel," Savikas said. "Amazon and B&N and other retailers all needed the same stuff." But that was before the appearance of channels like the Apple app store: "They need completely different data," Savikas said, pointing out the impact of agency model e-book pricing. "Now there may be four or five different prices for a single book."
You might write an amazing piece of work, but no one's going to find it if Amazon can't link it up right at the bottom, and if the pricing gets effed up. And most publishers don't have the resources to make sure its right everywhere. Damn internet, ruining everything.

People who read this post also read...other posts...here...

Round up day, friends and foes

Head on over to PMN, for all the me time you could ever want.

7.15.2010

Things that I should not have to read before breakfast

Remember back when Phillip Pullman was making waves because schools wanted to do background checks on authors before they visited the kiddies? Once again humanity has failed us and children's author K.P. Bath has been convicted of possessing child pornography.

So, yea, maybe background checks are a good idea. Maybe also a hard drive search for everyone? And congratulations to the news, for icking me out before breakfast.

7.14.2010

Bad romance

I swear, I'm getting back into the swing of things soon, but in the meantime: some people I think misunderstand what "romance" means. For me, and this is just an opinion, I don't include Josef Fritzl in the "romantic" category. But some might disagree!

7.09.2010

My free time was eaten by goblins

But I still put together a round up at PMN. Go, read, conquer. Or something? Damn goblins.

7.07.2010

Hall of heroes personified

As we all know, American culture is built on a millenial world view, which sees the end of days coming at any time. And I'm not saying the zombie apocalypse is nigh, but I am saying: what could be more American than a good apocalypse?

Max Brooks, chronicler of the apocalypse, did an interview with Shelf Life. He says:
I knew I had turned a corner when I did my first zombie-protection lecture, which was at Colorado College, I believe. Two hundred people showed up and I was so panicked, flop-sweating like Albert Brooks in Broadcast News. I did my lecture for 45 sweaty minutes and I opened the floor up to questions, thinking, okay, they’ve suffered through my lecture. I thought they’d ask me questions like, “Is Will Ferrell really that funny?” or “Is Tina Fey nice?” but the questions were all, “If I cut off my arm, can I stop an infection?” “What rifle do you recommend at what range?” “Should I wear body armor?” They were all actual zombie questions, and I thought maybe I was on to something.
Oh man, be my friend, Max Brooks.

The truth speaks to me through comics

If only there was some justification for constant blog reading...except replace "novel" with "procrastination" in my case.

Thanks to Michael for sending the link along (and for being nice about my blog-slacking!).