An Irish language version of the song “Cups.” What fun!
Never forget, our art can become International.
Steve
Fun Fridays – July 19, 2013
This is a fun cover of a popular song. The unfortunate thing is that the chorus is one of those that sticks in your head...all day. But to make it worse the lyrics of the chorus could be the anthem song for either publishers or bookstores. Listen yourself to see if you agree (you can skip the part where the arranger begins talking at the end):
News You Can Use – July 16, 2013
Yesterday I posted on the issue of “Foreign Rights.” Talk about a clunker of a topic! One quarter of the normal readership thought it worthwhile to click through and read. Fascinating analytics. So let me ask those who read this “News” section, what topics would you like to see addressed in the future?
JK Rowling Snookered a Lot of Editors – She submitted her latest novel under a pen name. This …
Fun Fridays – July 12, 2013
Watch this 4 minute video and then save it. You may need to show it to someone in 20 years who is unsure.
"How to Read a Book" - a delightful reminder of why we work so hard to do what we do in this business.
This video is the work of Hilary Commer, and she made it for her Intro to Visual Media class at Abilene Christian University.
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News You Can Use – July 9, 2013
Does Your Title Pass the "Radio Test" - This means, if your book title or web site address is read out loud on the radio, will the listener know how to spell it when they go to find it? For example, my last name is spelled Laube and pronounced Lobby. That does not pass the "radio test." So I now own stevelobby.com and point it to www.stevelaube.com just in case someone misspells my name.
The …
Summerside Press Shuts Down
by Steve Laube
“Another one bites the dust.” This past week Guideposts announced they were discontinuing all new acquisitions of titles for both their Summerside Press (fiction) and Guideposts Books (non-fiction) trade lines. To have a complete picture of what this means we first have to understand that there are FIVE different book publishing programs under Guideposts. Two of them are …
Fun Fridays – July 5, 2013
What begins as a fun take on Star Wars is ultimately a very clever book trailer.
Enjoy!
News You Can Use – July 2, 2013
Penguin and Random House have officially merged into one entity known as Penguin Random House - Not, as I had thought, "Random Penguin" or "Penguin House." Here’s the scary stats. They employ 10,000 people worldwide (that is where the earnings from your books go) and will publish 15,000 new books each year. That is nearly two books per hour, all year long. That is a big publisher.
Judge Rules …
ICRS 2013 – Observations
by Steve Laube
This year was my 32nd consecutive annual bookseller’s convention now known as ICRS (International Christian Retail Show) held this year in St. Louis. As always it is a time of conversations, meetings, and business opportunities.
I arrived on Saturday afternoon, despite every attempt by the transportation industry to delay me…with 15 minutes to spare before giving an hour …
News You Can Use – June 25, 2013
Elevator Pitches: If You Build it, They Will Come. - Excellent post from Susan Spann! Do the exercise on your own pitch.
Christian Stores See 8.5% Overall Gain in 2012 - Looks like the growth came from non-book items. That is good news in that it means traffic in the stores has increased and reversed recent trends.
101 Things to Do to Build Your Writing Platform - My advice? Don't try all …