How Much Pull Have You Got?

As reported in yesterday’s Publishers Lunch, Seth Godin is selling the galleys of his* upcoming book, The Big Moo:

“The galley is the very expensive pre-publication not-quite-paperback version of a hardcover book. The galley is created to give reviewers a chance to read the book before everyone else. I persuaded my publisher to print 10,000 galleys, a huge number. And we’re selling them at cost. Here’s the catch:…I only want to sell the 50 pack of galleys ($2 a copy) to people who will turn around and give galleys to people in organizations with the will and the ability to pre-order a hundred or more copies of the final hardcover.”

Of course, business is one of the few categories, if not the only one, in which such a model could conceivably have the desired effect. (Self-help or health, maybe, but it would have to be a hell of a book…) Still, if it works out, that just means more money for the charities that will be receiving 100% of the author royalties on Big Moo sales. Charities that seek to improve children’s lives by building schools, creating sustainable housing, and fighting diabetes. Now, I freely admit that my sphere of influence is essentially limited to struggling writers and underpaid publishing industry professionals, but if you’re reading this and you happen to have the juice to make it work, why not give it a whirl?

*…and 32 coauthors who include just about every big name in business book publishing, collectively called “The Group of 33.”

16 August 2005 | uncategorized |

We Almost Get to Run a Blind Item

I visited Poppy Z. Brite’s blog last night, and caught the tail end of a story that started about two weeks ago, when a hotshot (and self-styled “controversial”) filmmaker demanded her involvement in his proposed adaptation of her decade-old Exquisite Corpse. “I wrote back and said I had no interest in any involvement with the project beyond possibly reading/commenting on a script draft or two and mentioning it on my website,” she reported, especially since (as she explained the next day) “I just feel no emotional connection with that novel anymore.”

Still, once the production company agreed it didn’t absolutely need her for interviews and photo shoots, Brite was prepared to take the option money and pay her bills. But now, it turns out, “apparently the Most Extreme Director of Our Time read my post about the Exquisite Corpse movie and stomped off in a huff,” leaving her to wonder: “Does it ever seem to you that the people striving the hardest to offend are often the most easily offended themselves?” Now since she never named the director, I’d sort of assumed that she was referring to a certain enfant terrible who’s been known to wish cancer on critics who pan his flicks, but in rereading the posts, she did mention the production company by name (Frightflix), which makes it a virtual lock she’s talking about Nick Palumbo, the auteur behind modern classics like Murder-Set-Pieces and Nutbag.

16 August 2005 | uncategorized |