Publishing World Pulses with News

Feels to me like the publishing industry, like businesses everywhere, is looking for new ways to stay vital and grow in the economic downturn. Of note this week:

*A month after shutting an entire division, on Thursday HarperCollins rolled out a new imprint. It Books will publish 21 hardcover and paperback titles this year. The first one? Twitter Wit.

*On Wednesday, Thomas Nelson announced a new program called NelsonFree, which bundles together the e-book and audio versions of a title with the physical book. One of the first titles in the program is Collapse of Distinction by our client Scott McKain. The publisher plans on releasing ten additional titles in this format by the end of the year.

*Amazon launched the new version of the Kindle to mostly positive reviews, with the New York Times calling it lighter, brighter, and chattier. I haven't ordered one yet, although after taking a look from the briefcase of my friend Tom Hayes, a former New York Times writer who reads the newspaper of record on his, along with several pithy books, I am tempted.

*Random House bought Ten Speed Press, an independent house in Berkeley that has long been known for its cookbooks, business books and spiritual titles. The Moosewood Cookbook and the million copy bestseller What Color is Your Parachute? are on Ten Speed's list. We imagine that career guides are selling steadily as more and more Americans are forced to look for work.

*The first ever Christian Book Expo will make its debut this month, with a March show in Dallas. Looks like they are anticipating a crowd.

Big Week for Harry Dent and THE GREAT DEPRESSION AHEAD

It was a big week for author and economist Harry S. Dent and his new book THE GREAT DEPRESSION AHEAD. He was all over the FOX and FOX Business channels with interviews on The Glenn Beck Show, America's Newsroom and Cavuto. While his belief that America is headed into an even further economic slump isn't the news anyone wants to hear, the media is picking up on the clear and concise way he delivers the message and on the sound advice he provides.

And the bestseller lists show that people are listening, and buying. The book is #9 on the February 1 New York Times' Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous bestseller list, #9 on the January 23 Wall Street Journal's Business bestseller list, #4 on USA Today's January 25th Money bestseller list.

Congratulations, Harry!

Hefty tomes lose their appeal

Like millions of others, I'm headed for the beach next week. My favorite part of the ritual, other than packing a suitcase full of shorts and flip flops, is finding the perfect books to accompany me on the flight and at the water's edge. This year, my traveling companion is pushing hard for the work of Ayn Rand. My reaction to the lovely gifts of The Fountainhead (720 pages) and Atlas Shrugged (1088 pages) was an indignant cry, "They're so LONG!"

I was, frankly, shocked at myself, and wondering what happened to the youngster who read all seven of the Narnia books.

It appears I am not alone.

Yesterday's New York Times features a piece by Motoko Rich (registration required) which discusses how America's teens are loathe to tackle books, but instead spend long hours reading or texting sound-bite like snippets on Facebook. Lest we attack only the young, Nicholas Carr's cover story in the July/August Atlantic Monthly says readers of all ages, including him, are similarly shunning long format text.

"Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy," writes Carr. "My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I'd spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That's rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I'm always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle."

Wow. I admit that half of me felt better to be in the same camp with Nicholas Carr, but the other half got mighty nervous for the publishing world at large. Carr's piece cites research, ranging from a U.K. educational consortium to a psychologist at Tufts, that says both how and what we read is fast changing.

Maybe it's not all bad news. Maybe it means the epic novel will go the way of the encyclopedia -- published online in digestible pieces. Maybe the next Charles Dickens will pen his masterpiece via Twitter. As for me, Rand is in my suitcase but that doesn't mean I won't be sneaking into the airport bookstore for a copy of Runner's World or People for a somewhat shorter bit of escapist reading while I'm gone.