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Archive for October, 2008
October 28th, 2008
Doubleday Publishing has laid off
10% of its workforce.
The group, which is owned by Bertelsmann, the German media group, laid off people from its editorial, publicity, advertising, marketing and administrative staffs.
“It’s not a awesome year,” said David Drake, a Doubleday spokesman. “We’ve had a lot of best sellers, but does that translate into the numbers that we need and that everyone is looking for? Obviously not.”
Mr. Drake said the decision was not related to the delay in the delivery of the next novel by Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code, the blockbuster best seller published in 2003.
Back in 2004, Doubleday said the target release date for the next book was 2005, but Mr. Brown has yet to deliver a manuscript. Sales from even a single title - if it is as significant as The Da Vinci Code - can make a substantial difference to a publisher’s sales.
Nevertheless, “the changes we’ve made are quite separate from anything to do with Dan Brown,” Mr. Drake said.
And speaking of Dan Brown, we’ve heard rumors that The Solomon Key is nearing completion. Angels and Demons will come out as a feature film in May, 2009 — we’re thinking that would be a logical release date.
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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog
October 27th, 2008
Rupert Murdoch is reportedly quite unhappy
with the first draft of Michael Wolff’s new book about him. Murdoch, perhaps unwisely, allowed Wolff access to him and his life. Now the book’s revelations have Murdoch hopping mad.
Now, with about six weeks to go before publication, Mr. Murdoch has raised objections with Mr. Wolff and his publisher about portions of the book, titled The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch, that suggest that Mr. Murdoch is at times embarrassed by Fox News, which he owns, and its chief executive, Roger Ailes, and that he often shares “the general liberal apoplexy,” as Mr. Wolff writes in the book, toward Fox News and its perceived conservative slant.
In early October Mr. Murdoch obtained an early draft of the book, despite a tight embargo on the manuscript, and has raised objections with Doubleday, a division of Random House, about what he said were inaccuracies in the way Mr. Wolff describes relations between Mr. Murdoch and two of his top executives - Mr. Ailes and Peter Chernin, the president of News Corporation.
“I’m obviously annoyed that they’re looking at an early version of the book, and a purloined one at that,” Mr. Wolff said in an interview. “In essence News Corp. is holding stolen goods.”
Wolff says he has all the interviews on tape and that it’s all true. These guys never learn. When a Bob Woodward or Michael Wolff say they want to do a book on you, so can they have access to your life, you say “thanks, but no thanks.” Because those guys always find out what you’re hiding. And that’s what makes their books so much fun to read.
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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog
October 26th, 2008
  Thomas Dunne Books © 2007, 256 pages
Eating his bowl of Count Chocula one morning, author Eric Nuzum was struck by the ubiquity of vampire references in modern culture. He set himself the tinquire of exploring the popularity of vampires, a quest which led to his book The Dead Travel Fast and to the graphic scene with which it begins: Nuzum watching blood drip down his bathroom mirror after an experiment in auto-hematophagy that went badly wrong. No, Nuzum’s not a crazy person, but his investigation into vampirism did prompt him to do some wacky things. In addition to trying to drink his own blood, Nuzum watched 216 vampire films–apparently they get beautiful bad after the first dozen or so–traveled to Romania on a bus tour with celebrity host Butch Patrick (a.k.a. Eddie Munster), took in a vampire-themed topless show in Vegas, and attempted to turn himself into a vampire in six easy steps. This last project necessitated his ending a meeting early so he could chant over a raw chicken liver. (Nuzum also watched all seven seasons–108 hours’ worth–of Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, developing an appropriate regard for it in the process. But that’s a sign of good taste rather than wacky obsession!)
Nuzum’s account of his modern-day exploration into things vampire is punctuated by the results of more traditional research. Nuzum writes about vampire mythology in antiquity, for example, and the connection between vampirism and disease; he discusses the curious legal history of the 1922 film Nosferatu, the masher note Bram Stoker wrote to Walt Whitman, and the sorts of things Vlad the Impaler got up to to deserve his epithet. Nuzum leads readers to suggest that he’s not one to spend his time reading old books in dark libraries, but he’s clearly done his homework. The book is also very well put together, Nuzum’s more historical discussions woven seamlessly into his present-day narrative. Informative and well-written and, topping it off, quite funny in parts: Nuzum’s book is definitely recommended.
Original post by Debra Hamel
October 24th, 2008
 Doubleday Business © 2008, 256 pages
In his book Buyology, Martin Lindstrom discusses the conclusions he reached after conducting a three-year neuromarketing study. Marketers have traditionally used two tools to determine the efficacy of advertising campaigns–observation of the real-life buying decisions of people and feedback in the form of polls and questionnaires. These are inexact tools, particularly the latter, as people are very often not conscious of the factors that lead them to make buying decisions, and thus are poor reporters of their motivations. Lindstrom and his team of scientists, by contrast, used brain-scanning instruments (magnetic resonance imaging and steady-state typography) on more than 2000 volunteers to track their subjects’ responses to advertisements and brands in genuine time. The scientific equipment allowed Lindstrom and his team to observe their volunteers’ physical responses to various stimuli, which were very often at odds with the subjects’ self-reported responses.
In Buyology, Lindstrom discusses the results of his study, touching on myriad topics related to marketing–subliminal advertising, the relationship between brands and rituals, the influence of our non-visual senses on buying decisions, the curious allure of unboxing videos, and so on. Lindstrom grounds his discussions in real-world examples, which makes for interesting reading. He discusses, for example, the success enjoyed (or not) by the sponsors of American Idol, the ritual of eating an Oreo cookie or pouring a Guinness, the unfulfilled promise of the Segway.
Lindstrom promises that his findings will “transform the way you think about how and why you buy.” While some of the results were unexpected–for example, that warning labels on cigarette packs actually encourage smokers to light up because they activate an area of the brain associated with cravings*–I didn’t find myself particularly surprised by any of the material presented. But certainly what Lindstrom has to say is interesting, and his book may make readers more aware of the ways in which they are being manipulated by advertisers. (Readers may, like me, imagine that they are above many of the tricks advertisers use. The various tactics of high-end clothing stores are surely lost on someone like myself, for example, who is rarely attiruddy in anything more stylish than Russell Athletics sweatpants, and who would run screaming from a pair of Manolo Blahniks. But none of is completely immune to the siren song of artfully presented merchandise: I’m as apt as anyone to swoon over the latest Apple gadget.)
Buyology, then, is relevant to almost everyone. It’s also highly readable. Indeed, Lindstrom presents his information in laudably clear prose, and he is adept at tossing out teasers to keep his audience interested. The book should appeal to anyone who enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, which likewise packages thought-provoking discussion of how we make decisions in accessible prose.
* Likewise, graphic anti-smoking ads encourage smokers to smoke. But Lindstrom doesn’t discuss whether the ads and warning labels are effective in deterring non-smokers from picking up the habit.
Original post by Debra Hamel
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