It's Here . . . Digitized Nonfiction

Zinio, which has been offering digital magazine subscriptions delivered to the iPhone, is now offering a series of about 90 cookbooks by Harvard Common Press. (The image here is a cover of one of Zinio's offerings.)

If you're keeping track of the digital publishing trend, this is big news and it's probably making the e-reader folks stand up and take notice. Sometimes you just want a book right now but your local store doesn't have it. Now you don't have to wait.

Are you strapped in yet?

Lunchtime Concert Series in Allentown

This summer, listen to local musicians during a FREE lunchtime concert series called Summer in the City. The series will be held at the PPL Plaza (9th and Hamilton Streets) every Tuesday from 11:45 am to 12:15 pm. (In the event of rain, go to the Holiday Inn, Allentown Center City).

Here's the line-up, a well-rounded mix of swing, Celtic, jazz, and more:

June 30 - Doug Hawk Proposition

July 7 - Donovan Roberts

July 14 - Sal Ritz & Joe Mixon

July 21 - Marlene Gilley Swingtet

July 28 - Grey Sky Turn

August 4 - Sarah Ayers Band

August 11 - Todd Wolfe

August 18 - Steve Brosky & Jimmy Meyer

August 25 - Christy Jefferson & Vogon Poetry

September 1 - Dan DeChellis Trio

September 8 - BC & Company

September 15 - Large Flowerheads

September 22 - Fusion Jazz Trio

September 29 - Emerald City

I remember suggesting just such a concept in 1992 to the management at Dun & Bradstreet when that company was in the Martin Towers, Bethlehem. It only took more than 15 years for some other company to pull it off.

If you work in or near Downtown Allentown, attending this series is a great way to support local talent.

Local Event - Lehigh Valley - July 10

On July 10, 2009 the Downtown Bethlehem Association (DBA) will present a screening of the 1942 Warner Brothers classic film Casablanca at the Sun Inn Courtyard. The screening will begin shortly after sunset (approximately 9:30 p.m.). Film fans are encouraged to bring a blanket or lawn chair and to arrive early as several surprises will be presented by the DBA.

A donation of $5 is suggested (kids free). Proceeds will go to the production of the events and programs of the DBA. Several Downtown merchants will be present with themed entertainment, and refreshments will be available.

The Sun Inn Courtyard is located behind the 1758 Sun Inn, 556 Main Street in Historic Downtown Bethlehem.

April '09 Book Sales: Up and Down

If you're in publishing or want to get published, you might find the following sales information interesting, like I did.

In today's Shelf Awareness newsletter, net sales statistics were reported for April 2009. Now, keep in mind that these are sales figures for only one month, and it is not stipulated what they are compared to (the month prior? same time last year?), but the bottom line is that overall book sales rose in April by more than 3%, though the year to date is down by more than 4%. Still, when you look at how many millions of dollars any rise translates into, it's a reassuring sign to see an increase anywhere.

But let's look at where sales are falling, and where they're rising. Knowing these trends might help writers market their projects to agents and editors--or at least it'll give you some clue as to what still sells in a downturn. In a nutshell, books geared to children/young adults/students was on the rise, while the adult market slipped. (This corroborates what I've heard in the employment sector--when the economy is down and people are losing jobs, many people go back to school or stay in school longer than originally planned.) There were great gains in e-book sales and a sizeable drop in audio books.

Here are some specifics:

Higher education jumped 312.4% to $33.5 million
E-books climbed 228.3% to $12.1 million
Children's/YA hardcover rose 13.6% to $44.6 million
Professional and scholarly inched up 1.1% to $46.3 million
Children's/YA paperback was up 0.9% to $39.9 million

Adult paperback slipped 0.8% to $114.8 million
Adult mass market dropped 4% to $51 million
University press hardcover fell 6.3% to $5 million
Religious books fell 7.1% to $38.7 million
Adult hardcover fell 11% to $95.7 million
University press paperback dropped 12.5% to $2.3 million
Audiobooks fell 32.9% to $9.5 million

Take 3 . . . with Patricia Volonakis Davis

Patricia Volonakis Davis has built a little empire inspired by salsa puttanesca, or "harlot's sauce," a hastily prepared tomato sauce developed by some enterprising women in Naples, Italy. She has written a food memoir (available in paperback and Kindle version), has a blog, and developed online podcastings based on Italian and Greek cultures, and the foods and characters that come from both. (She also devotes quite a bit of podcasting to the publishing industry.)

But it took a certain amount of living and heartache for her to climb to where she is. Originally a Sicilian kid from Long Island, New York, Patricia lived in Greece with husband Gregori before moving back to the States. These days she calls the San Francisco Bay Area home. Patricia briefly interrupted her book tour to answer some questions about her journey:

1. Was there a single moment of inspiration when you knew you needed to write a memoir, and did you know that it would have to include food?

PVD: The idea for Harlot's Sauce developed and morphed over time, but when I did decide on this project, I knew it had to include food, for sure. It's such a big part of the two cultures featured in the story.

2. You're of Italian descent, and you married a Greek man. In what ways are Italian and Greek cultures the same?

PVD: See above (LOL) Apart from an intense relationship with food, there is also the sometimes cloying (to me, anyway) family 'closeness' which can sometimes feel like unwanted interference, there are the mannerisms and the physical features. Besides those, I find that the more I inveistigate and learn, the two cultures are actually quite different in many ways.

3. What did writing your memoir "do" for you--was it a celebration, a lamentation, or something else entirely?

PVD: My memoir was an attempt to right several misconceptions, both personal and historical. It was also meant as a lesson to women on self-actualization. I am a former teacher, after all!

Book Expo and the Digital Age

I attended Book Expo this year--I was a first-timer--and could feel the digital buzz throughout the Javits Center in New York. Of course, people were texting and yakking on their cell phones and taking their laptops into sessions, and people heaving heavy bags of book galleys and giveaways were wishing for downloadable freebies.

While I'm still a bit old school in liking the feel of a printed and bound book, and wondering what technology will do to the pastime of getting books autographed, I also know that electronic copyediting, for instance, saves an immense amount of paper and makes page proofs so much cleaner (fewer errors). Book Expo's panel discussion, "Jumping Off the Cliff," explored the lessons that book publishing has learned from the music industry in terms of embracing technology instead of fighting against it. The moral of the session was this:

The buying public--not manufacturers--will ultimately decide. If people want the immediacy of reading a book on a Kindle or Sony Reader, the industry had better get on board--or else risk getting left behind.

Coincidentally, I returned home to work on Total Recall by Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell (Dutton, Fall 2009), which outlines the ways in which our society is being digitized. More important, it also predicts that by 2020 our whole lives will be digitized, in terabytes. It's scary and wildly exciting at the same time.

For instance, the Nike + iPod Sport Kit records your activity, and wirelessly transmits the information from your sneakers to your iPod. Think of the implications if all your health records were similarly transmitted from doctors' offices to your centralized databank. Think of the implications if your work processes, your schedule, your entire family history were similarly digitized.

It's mind-boggling, but Total Recall explains it in a way that makes you feel more in control of your life, and eager for the coming technology as your memory fails you.

Postscript / Benefits for Writers: I'll share just a couple: There are a lot of unpublished writers out there who are convinced that a publisher is going to "steal" their ideas. In Total Recall, your creations get a time and date stamp, so you could prove in a court of law that you had the idea first. And for those true-crime writers who keep a vault of old notes? In Total Recall, all your research material is saved on a thumb drive, not in scads of boxes in your attic or basement.

Thought of the Day

In the most successful organizations, emotions of belonging, teamwork, trust, generosity, and gratitude bring out far higher performance than can the threat of sanctions or the promise of awards.

--Charles Wohlford, "Alaska’s Generational Passage," Alaska at 50