Love Publishing

Herald Sun to Review Paywall

According to Mumbrella, The Herald Sun is set to review their paywall system. Customers are finding the subscription price to be too high, and the content to be available elsewhere for free.

In September last year, I wrote about the Herald Sun paywall. I said that “it is one thing for the New York Times to erect a limited paywall and quite another for the Herald Sun to restrict their material altogether.” So it comes as small surprise when the Herald Sun is said to be moving to metered access in the coming months. 

At a cost of $4.95 per week or $257.40 per year, the Herald Sun will be a little more expensive than The Age which is $18.00 per month or $216.00 per year. In addition to the cheaper rate, The Age will offer metered access when their paywall is activated. If the Herald Sun does not review their system this will give The Age a significant advantage when it comes to recruiting new subscribers.

The Age is also at an advantage because they can wait and see how effective the paywall system has been at The Herald Sun. The Age is able to release a competitive price point even though the Herald Sun has refused to release data on the number of subscriptions they have sold. The Australian has described the Herald Sun as the “canary in the coal mine” in an article which is blocked by yet another paywall (shown above).

The Long Tale

This month at Publishing Trendsetter, I am talking about the history of the Long Tail of publishing. It has been around for a long time, but only in 2004 were we provided with a term to describe it. It was coined by then Wired editor Chris Anderson and since then, it has developed a life of its own. 

Whether you are an author, publisher, retailer or reader you have the opportunity to ride the long tail if you know what your strengths are. 

The New York Times made an astute observation about the outcome of the Long Tail system which still holds true:  “So far, the winners in the Long Tail scenario aren’t publishers but the online booksellers and the databases that aggregate their titles, making books stranded on the dusty shelves of local used-book stores readily available to buyers around the world.”

Filmme Fatales

I received this wonderful marriage of film and feminism a few weeks ago and read it cover to cover almost immediately. The articles are thoughtful and funny and the information clear and useful.

I particularly enjoyed an article about female Iranian filmmakers. There are some really talented ladies out there including one of my favourite Iranian filmmakers/authors Marjane Satrapi.

There is so much more to explore in this area, I can’t wait for the next issue in May. You can buy the current issue at the website for $19.

Grrrl, This Book is for You

The Riot Grrrl movement has inspired a generation of young feminists through music and zine culture. The movement has always been based around sharing ideas and passing on information through paper ephemera and music. It empowered young feminists to talk about issues such as sexism and inequality in their own voices.

The preferred mediums for the Riot Grrrl movement have always been fleeting and ephemeral. It was mainly posters, flyers, zines and music. One of the only places you could see a significant collection was the Fales Library & Special Collections at New York University, which itself is only accessible if you are completing a thesis at university.

The founder of this archive, Lisa Darms, has edited a book called “The Riot Grrrl Collection” so that everyone can continue to be inspired.

The book will have about 350 pages of feminist goodness and will be available on the 14th of May 2013. 

National Grammar Day

Today is National Grammar Day!

To celebrate, here are two grammar rules.

Rule 1 - Since for because is fine. 

The Australian Government Style Guide certainly advises against this rule, but I tend to agree with this advice from Motivated Grammar.

In fact, almost no usage guides complain about this, though it’s a persistent myth among self-appointed language guardians. A surprising number of style guides (such as that of the APA) are against it, but historically and contemporaneously, English has been and remains fine with it.

Rule 2 - You CAN start a sentence with however.

This one comes from my favourite source of Grammar advice, Grammar Girl.

I know many of you revere Strunk and White, but this is one instance in which nearly all modern style guides have decided that the classic advice is unreasonable. The modern style guides don’t call starting a sentence with however an error.

Super Sad /… Thing

Gary Shteyngart’s novel Super Sad True Love Story has one of the best trailers I have seen, and it’s not just because of guest star James Franco. 

They do such a great job of capturing the humour and intelligence of the novel itself without actually acting out the plot. It also gives you an idea of who the author is without having a stilted interview about the writing process, or exaggerated recommendations from other authors such as “Devastating”. In fact, the trailer makes fun of the ‘interview’ format which produces some really funny lines from the actors. James Franco insists that what Shteyngart ”really wants do do is cash in on the whole Hollywood vampire thing.” While author Jeffery Eugenides says that Shteyngart is able to “escape the anxiety of influence by the sheer fact that he has never read a word.”

Despite these quips, they don’t really mess around too much when it comes to describing the novel. Within the first minute, author Edmund White says “Super Sad… thing, is a dystopian novel about the near future. And the scary thing is that it is already happening. He’s our greatest satirist, but he can also write about real feelings like love.”

This is a successful example of a book trailer which is funny, hits the right notes and gives you a good idea of what the book is about without being too literal.

Underground Digital Library

An ebook seller (and phone provider) has joined with Bucharest Metro Station to install an advertisement in the form of a 2D library.

They have covered the walls in posters from top to bottom which show bookshelves filled with books. Each book has a QR code which, when scanned by a smartphone, takes the user to the ebook store.

Users have access to a few free ebooks when they access the site through a QR code. This is a great idea for commuters who are waiting for a train to play around with. Then, when they are riding the train to work, they can read the free ebooks. The visual impact of the advertisement is also very compelling.

Penguin Capitalises on Classics

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Penguin has released a range of 26 hardback classics - one for each letter of the alphabet. A smart way to capitalise on their ‘classics’ range.

The designs were a collaboration between Penguin US art director and designer Jessica Hische.

According to Bookseller+Publisher, Elda Rotor, associate publisher and editorial director of Penguin Classics US, said the series is

‘inspired by typography—its beauty and its power of expression’. ‘With Penguin Drop Caps, we are inspired by the timeless tradition and craft of letters and their endless capacity to communicate.’

Big Words

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Did you know that the book with the highest density of vocabulary isn’t a thesaurus? It is Decline and Fall of the Roman Emplire vol 1-6 by Edward Gibbon.

In 2000, a software engineering student called Zachary Booth Simpson analysed the vocabulary density of all the books in Project Gutenberg. “‘Vocabulary Density’ is a measurement of vocabulary usage in comparison to the length of the book,” he says on his website.

The results reveal a lot about the content of the books. Books with the most dense vocabularies include The CIA World Fact Book, Moby Dick and Les Miserables. The least dense vocabularies can be found in books such as The Book of Mormon, The King James Bible, On the Origin of Species and Emma.

The most interesting part of his study comes at the end where he compares the most frequent and least frequent words in particular books.

“For example, among Moby Dick’s most anomalous words are: whale, sperm, and harpooneer… Just as interesting is what the book is NOT about. Among Moby Dick’s most infrequently used words (i.e. words which are common in other books, but not in this one) are: miss, government, happiness, smiled, and machine.”

- Zachary Booth Simpson

Manly Library Asserts Dominance

                                 

(Image: @Dane_Murray)

It has been reported around the world that the Manly Library Service has moved all books about Lance Armstrong to the fiction section. A spokesperson from the library has directed all blame to a casual librarian who was working on the weekend. Apparently libraries can’t be funny. This is a shame because other companies would kill for the viral speed at which their name is spreading. In an environment where libraries are trying to stay relevant in a digital age, they should show us that they are in on the joke.

The Lance Armstrong doping scandal has left many fans feeling cheated. This sign is a humorous attempt to express the incredible speed at which something or someone can stripped of legitimacy.

Libraries hold the power to categorise books as they see fit which can influence the way the public sees certain information. For example, whether or not to categorise Judy Blume books as ‘Young Adult’ and where to shelve the book by O.J Simpson “If I Did It” after the trial.

The Dewey Decimal system has also encountered the problem of where to sort religious and scientific books. The decisions about which can convey legitimacy and acceptance or even disdain.