Category: Uncategorized

Mugging the Muggles?

Posted on by CJ Verburg

“The savviest agents for the biggest authors . . . figure out in concert with the publisher finger-muggerhow many copies they think the book should sell . . . and get an advance that is equal to a startlingly high percentage of the revenue that sales level would produce.” — Mike Shatzkin, 6/26/13

Ever since the dawn of time, when I launched my publishing career as an editorial assistant at Harper & Row’s new West Coast branch, publishers have vigorously defended their habit of paying giant advances to already-successful writers.

Common sense suggested that emptying the coffers to sign the next Valley of the Dolls (or Harry Potter) would leave no advance money, and scant enthusiasm, for books in the not-soon-to-be-a-major-motion-picture class.  On the contrary! ran the mythology. It’s the little guys we truly value, and it’s our prodigious income from Jacqueline Susann (or J.K. Rowling) that enables us to publish them.

It wasn’t true then, and it isn’t true now.

The latest Shatzkin Files turns a spotlight on financial finagling between authors, agents, and editors. It seems the hardship level of the big publishers, like that of Wall Street, has been greatly exaggerated. It also seems that the rising tide has not lifted all boats — only the yachts.

“A must-read piece,” says Digital Book World, and they’re right. Check out The Shatzkin Files at The Idea Logical Company:  http://bit.ly/17FTAN3

Platforms, the Cloud, Devices & Desires

Posted on by CJ Verburg

Last night’s Transmedia meetup at YetiZen Innovation Lab here in SF was as cutting-edge wynkenblynken& multifaceted as its title:
Platforms of Tomorrow: Connecting in the Cloud, Across Devices and Desires.

Transmedia’s biggest revelation for me has been that in the 21st century, the creativity I associate with art has, to a startling degree, migrated into commerce.   The success of “Mad Men” owes less to decor nostalgia than to the 21st century’s embrace of money as a universal measure of value, with marketing as its vestal.  At the previous Transmedia meetup I attended, we learned how to use ancient mythological themes (as distilled by Joseph Campbell) to sell sneakers or Coke.

Last night’s presenters focused on the growing integration of media in commercial ventures, from movies and games to Craigslist ads. 

Launching the evening’s theme of interweaving not only multiple media but social and/or real-world experience was Paul Cheng of Phigital.  He described the “mix and match from the physical and digital worlds” his group is applying to, for instance, a Hunger Games-based game played in real time in New York City with instructions, weapons, and communications transmitted by smartphone.

Alex LeMay and Steve Harshbarger of The Shadow Gang developed Galahad to enable game- and movie-producers to build the whole apparatus which now is an obligatory sideshow for any world-creator, without having to learn the tech on either the development or the monitoring end.  A central assumption is that “technology and content exist in the same plane — when you change one, you should change the other.”

Robert Mindzak showed off Cover Page, which lets anyone create a magazine or other content delivery vehicle for multi-touch media as an app for iPhone, iPad, et al. Like Phigital and The Shadow Gang, he emphasized the integration and interdependence of content and media: among his key points was “Design content for the brain, eyes, and fingers.”

Moovweb, as Ishan Anand explained, meets a critical need in the present shift from desktop to mobile interaction with websites:  “A web developer can point the Moovweb cloud at any website and transform everything to mobile.”  It’s all in the interface; the content and functionality remain intact, but the user experience is mobile-optimized.

Ponga had a table nearby to demonstrate their beta, which lets the user annotate sections of a photograph, verbally and/or visually.  For instance, if you were selling your antique desk online, you could show potential buyers where to find the secret compartment and how to open it.

Last but not least, thanks to YetiZen, which provides free work space to innovators daily from 10 AM to 8 PM, and evening space for gatherings like this one, brilliantly organized and conducted by Beth and Maya.

Objecting to death with Edna Millay

Posted on by CJ Verburg

Dirge Without Music

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, thew wise and the lovely.  Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.trail woods
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,–but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look,
the laughter, the love,–
They are gone.  They are gone to feed the roses.
Elegant and curled
Is the blossom.  Fragrant is the blossom.  I know.  But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know.  But I do not approve.  And I am not resigned.

— Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edward Gorey House Opens Tomorrow!

Posted on by CJ Verburg

Staggered as we are by the grim irony of the Boston Marathon bombing on the 13th anniversary of Edward Gorey’s death, still we celebrate the lives that will keep that day in our memories for years to come.  vinegar works

And in the spirit of Spring, we look forward to tomorrow’s opening of the Edward Gorey House for this season with a more cheerful anniversary: the 5oth of The Vinegar Works, that memorable trilogy comprising “The Gashlycrumb Tinies,” “The West Wing,” and “The Insect God.”  Check it out at 8 Strawberry Lane, Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, or at http://www.edwardgoreyhouse.org/

even Google loves Gorey!

Posted on by CJ Verburg

A tip of my tulle-trimmed bowler to Google for their Amphigoreyesque 2/22 Google Doodle honoring the brilliantly crepuscular artist and genius Edward Gorey!

meReneeMargotSmallAnd another hat-tip to actress/author Renee Gibbons and actress/director Margot Breier for their dramatic readings at Edward’s posthumous 88th birthday party at San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum on Friday night.  Many thanks to all who attended, and especially Heather Plunkett and her squadron of interns who made it happen!  Also to photographer Michael Starkman, who kindly pitched in to help us record this festive event.

Boo du Jour*: Ohio woman irked by speechless animals

Posted on by CJ Verburg

*Boo du Jour is an occasional award for outstanding failure to cope with reality.

Animals Can’t Talk by Kathleen O’Brien Wilhelm

Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:40 pm in the Avon-AvonLakePatch
          

Signs that read “Deer Crossing” and the like are going to continue to pop up throughout our country including Avon Lake, but who are these signs for? Deer cannot read, do not obey the law and probably will cross where they wish. Although adorable companions, it is hard to remember the last time that the news reported an animal talking, thinking or providing significant input for the benefit of society. Yet, these signs cost taxpayers like so much of government.

(But wait!  There’s more! http://avon-oh.patch.com/blog_posts/animals-cant-talk)

 

 

Now in Paperback! “Edward Gorey On Stage…a Multimedia Memoir”

Posted on by CJ Verburg

Carol writes from Charlottesville, VA:   “Thanks to my old college friend Nancy Greenspan in Bethesda, where she & I & the final proof copy of “EG On Stage” linked up, this pioneering multimedia print book is out at last!
In the experimental tradition of our theater collaborations on Cape Cod, this unique mini-biography of Edward’s thespian side contains live links to music & video clips as well as websites related to his diverse dramatic enterprises — plus, of course, snapshots & drawings & reminiscences & snippets from scripts & reviews. Enjoy!”
Available at http://amzn.to/VgrDzn

And if you’re in the San Francisco Bay area, come to the Bottle Cap’s Wine & Book Tasting on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 9 (4-6 PM), discover some new vintages, and choose from half a dozen books by local authors to fill all your gift-giving needs!   http://www.bottlecapsf.com/