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Around the Horn: Highlights From Other Blogs I Read

Similar to my FFL last week, Michelle L. links to another article slamming the impact of the Potter books.

If you're going to buy her book, don't buy it for half price at a
supermarket. As an example of a world gone mad, you couldn't do much
better than this: a writer whose sales have actually fulfilled a
publisher's wildest dreams is indirectly responsible for large-scale misery among independent bookstores. This is not JK Rowling's fault. It's a consequence of the deregulation of the book market.

John M. has a very thought-provoking post on what we want to do before we run out of oil? 

Three choices come to mind …

1. A great pleasure ride. We can eat and drink and drive like no one
has ever done before. I think one could consider it a sin if we had the
opportunity for so much pleasure, and didn’t take advantage of it. Oil
promises that.

2. Invent new energy sources. Could the old energy source of oil
help us to invent new energy sources that would not have otherwise been
possible?

3. Find a new planet with more oil. Use our current oil supply to
resource a fantastic project: the locating of another planet with
untapped oil, and the construction of a space ship to get there and
transport the oil here, or live there. (Of course if there is oil
there, then there must have been life there, or maybe still is. Would
we have to buy the oil? Okay, my real opinion is getting a little more
than obvious.)

Quinn D. links to a TechCrunch story about Facebook's first major acquisition – Parakey – which is a “web operating system”.  Another pretty strong indication that Facebook wants to take on the Microsofts and Googles of the world – not be acquired by them.

There's lots of other blogs I follow but those are some recent posts that stood out for me. 

Posted 24 July 2007 § Blog § Internet § List § Main Page § PopCulture ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

Why Daddy Shouldn't Buy Baby Clothes

I feel obligated to note that none of the kids in these photos are Pace…unfortunately. 

Why Daddy Shouldn’t Buy Baby Clothes

Posted 23 July 2007 § Baby § Humour § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

"The Mysterious Science of Bestselling Books"

Received this link from Chris G. with a request for any thoughts I might have on what makes a bestselling book.  Coincidentally, this weekend I also happened to read a column by Stephen King in an issue of Entertainment Weekly exploring the same issue. 

And it also makes a nice follow-up to my last FFL on the Harry Potter release, especially in relation to the stat from the article I linked to that 70% of fiction book sales were accounted for by just five authors.  (I mean, I knew it was bad but I didn't realise it was that bad!) 

Who are the magic five by the way?  The article doesn't say but I'd guess King, Steele, Grisham, Clancy and uhm, Rowling?  Wikipedia disagrees but is looking at all-time and all-world while I think the article is referring to modern American bestsellers. 

Then there's that whole crew of authors who seem to pump out new books on a monthly basis – Barbara Taylor Bradford, Sue Grafton, Mary Higgins Clark, etc. that might not make up the top five but are probably a hefty chunk of the other 30%. 

Anyhow, here are some random thoughts on what makes a bestselling book:

– the article from Chris has it right.  No publisher knows what makes a bestseller, just as no movie studio can guarantee a blockbuster and no record company can guarantee a #1 album.  There are things each can do to increase their chances of hitting the goal (engaging covers and media buzz for books, star actors and lots of explosions for movies, placement on hit TV shows and high-profile producers for records) but the pop culture landscape is littered with failed attempts, even using these techniques.

– a Canadian bestseller is commonly accepted to be 5000 copies (I think this applies for both fiction and non-fiction) but up until the last couple years, there is no standard way to measure sales like SoundScan for records. That's when the publishing and bookselling industry in Canada came together to support an initiative called BookNet which track book sales. It was just gearing up for launch in 2005 right before I went to library school and the service now appears to be active and working, even providing the Globe & Mail and Quill & Quire with their bestseller lists.  (Former co-worker Jill, you out there?  Anything else to add?)

– still with “bestseller” lists…I think the fine print for those who don't yet use BookNet data, such as the one in MacLean's even say “compiled by…” which basically means that the reporter has a few bookstores across Canada that provide estimates of their bestselling titles to him and he uses a bit of a math, a dash of intuition and probably a pinch of bias to prepare this impressionistic list. 

– On a more literal level, what makes an individual book a bestseller?  Again, no idea.  It really is a swirl of all kinds of things – a great cover, a great “hook”, media buzz, word-of-mouth (especially in the age of the Internet with recommendation services such as Amazon and LibraryThing among others.)  Sometimes authors just hit the timing right with a particular topic or issue they're covering.

So anyhow, I don't think there's any answers there but that's some random thoughts as I said. 

If you're really interested in the topic, you should note that the 2007 CLA conference in Vancouver is on the topic of “Libraries and Publishing 3.0 – Connecting Authors to Readers in the Digital Age“.  This gets right to the core of what libraries do so if you have any interest in the topic at all, I'd invite you to consider coming out to the left coast for the conference next spring! 

Posted 22 July 2007 § Library § Main Page § PopCulture ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: ,

Popular Book Spoiled

I just came across this image of one of the world's most popular (and longest) books where the main character's fate is being hotly debated today.  Does he die? Or does he live? Don't say I didn't warn you!   

Posted 21 July 2007 § Humour § Main Page § PopCulture ‡ Comments (6) ° Tagged:

Reconstruction Site – The Weakerthans


This song's been going through my head a lot since Pace was born:


And I'm broke, like a bad joke

Somebody's uncle told at a wedding reception in 1972

Where a little boy under a table with cake in his hair

Stared at the grown-up feet as they danced and swayed

And his father laughed and talked on the long ride home

And his mother laughed and talked on the long ride home

And he thought about how everyone dies someday

And when tomorrow gets here, where will yesterday be

And fell asleep in his brand new winter coat

Posted 21 July 2007 § Baby § Main Page § PopCulture § Travel § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Friday Fun Link – Harry Potter and the Death of Reading (July 20, 2007)

“In 1994, over 70 percent of total fiction sales were accounted for by a mere five authors.”

Just in time for the biggest book release in the history of the universe, a contrarian view from the Washington Post.

It’s out tonight at midnight but rumours of leaks have been happening for the past few days.

Harry Potter’s publisher has been going after any web site that even links to a site that distributes files purporting to be the leaked work.

They’ve even been going after sites that link to sites that are distributing the leaked work if you can believe it!

Posted 21 July 2007 § Censorship § FridayFunLink § Main Page § PopCulture ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

My Birthday By The Numbers

34 – age I turned today

25 – age someone recently told me I was really at



4 – Number of gifts Pace got from Shea today

2 – Number of gifts I got from Shea today

2 – Number of times Pace almost peed on me
1 – Number of times Pace peed in his own eye

7 – Number of people who partook in my birthday cake at work for our “birthday cake social club”
8 – Number of pieces I cut the cake into because seven would require an engineering degree

27 – Number of “birthday wish” wall posts I got on Facebook
1 – Number of wall posts I did for other Facebook friends who were born on July 18

6 – Number of people in on a conference call at noon with me
1 – Number of times I've been marked as “absent” in an earlier conference call I did attend after not saying very much for the hour

9 – Number of hours I would've gotten if I'd slept right through from the time I went to bed until the time my alarm was set for
7 – Number of times I was awakened in the night by Pace crying or squeaking or murmuring while eating or otherwise making noises.
2 – Number of diapers I changed during those nine hours

Posted 19 July 2007 § Baby § Internet § List § Main Page § Shea § Work ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Photo Update

I have absolutely nothing to say right now so instead, will point you to Flickr where Shea has uploaded a few more photos of the Pace-man.

The realisation has hit that the sole purpose of having a child is to dress them up in embarrassing outfits or photograph them in embarrassing situations. 

Here's one where he looks just plain cute…

Posted 18 July 2007 § Baby § Main Page § Photo ‡ Comments (2) °

The Open Library: Wikipedia meets Amazon?

“Imagine a library that collected all the world’s information about all
the world’s books and made it available for everyone to view and
update. We’re building that library.”

(via MetaFilter)

Jessamyn West blogged about the site on Librarian.net and suggests checking the “About the Librarianship” page which says:

“For the first time, we'll have an open, public, curated, universal
catalog of all books. But this also presents an enormous challenge: we
need to develop a schema for all that book information.
Like the MARC format, we'll want our schema to contain all the
important bibliographic information that librarians want to collect
about books. But we'll also want to take advantage of all the things
we've learned since MARC.”

Posted 17 July 2007 § Library § Main Page ‡ Comments (2) °

From Stacks To Snacks and Books to Beers – A Friday Gathering

You are invited to A Post-Work Gathering For Regina and Area Librarians

Friday, July 20, 2007 from 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm 

To be held at Cathedral Village Free House (2062 Albert Street) -- your hosts are Jason Hammond and Julie McKenna

This is a chance for any librarians in Regina and area to get together for drinks and snacks this Friday after work.

The event officially starts at 5 pm but Julie McKenna will be there at 4:30 pm to wrangle spots so feel free to come a bit early. 

Also, feel free to bring guests, colleagues and friends but please let Julie know if you plan to attend or bring others so we have a rough idea
of how many to expect. 

This invitation has also been extended on Facebook through the event at http://uregina.facebook.com/event.php?eid=2388729758RSVP there....

Also, please pass this message on to anyone we may have missed -- everyone is welcome....

Hope to see you all on Friday!

Julie McKenna and Jason Hammond

Julie McKenna
julie.mckenna@uregina.ca
Librarian, University of Regina
On administrative leave pursuing a Master of Human Resource Management until August 1, 2007
 
Julie is inviting everyone to consider sponsoring her participation in Librarians Run for the Cure -- online at http://tinyurl.com/33ysw
Posted 16 July 2007 § Library § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °