Publishers should not be too quick to write off physical products and should encourage competition between a number of digital players to avoid the mistakes the record industry made, the director general of the Entertainment Retailers Association has said.
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By: Anastasia Goodstein,
on 4/16/2010
4/16 is Foursquare Day (and fans are celebrating in self-organized "swarms." Mashable wonders if all the festivities can bring the service up to one million members. And did the Boy Scouts take a cue with this new digital badge for "geocaching")... Read the rest of this post
By: Jessica Stockton,
on 4/21/2008
I was at the New York Comic Con on Friday (hence my lack of posting), to appear on a panel on "Helping Bookstores Buy and Shelve Comics for KIDS". Since it was industry-only hours, there were about as many folks on the panel as in the audience, and I probably learned more from my fellow panelists than I really contributed. Still, it was a good conversation... and it meant I got a nice speaker badge so I could wander the floor of Comic Con for free. It was still a bit too early for the Storm Troopers and Power Girls to be strutting their stuff, so I had a much milder experience than last year. But still, I:
-got an awesome slap bracelet from Ari at Del Rey Manga
-caught up with the incomparable Gina Gagliano at First Second
-talked with the Oni Press guys about the trade edition of Local by Brian Wood
-picked up a catalog with action figures from The Warriors
-got some cool buttons from the DC Comics booth
-experience a little bit of sensory overload -- practice for BEA!
- did not see con coordinator extraordinaire Lance Fensterman -- luckily he posed on his blog...
Despite the always grueling walk to and from the Javitz Center, it was a good day.
Being there also reminded me of another cool day coming up: Free Comic Book Day! Saturday, May 3, at a comic shop near you, they'll be handing out grab bags of free issues, so you can read more of your favorites and discover something new. As I mentioned two years ago -- I think bookstores should do this too. What about Galley Giveaway Day?
Ann Kingman over at Books on the Nightstand has another idea for bookstores taken from another industry. Friday the 19th, I've just learned, was also Record Store Day: a collective day of celebration and consciousness-raising for independent record stores, with performances, sales, signings, and other promos. The New York Times had an article on the phenomenon -- see if any of this sounds familiar:
“Record stores as we know them are dying,” said Josh Madell of Other Music. “On the other hand, there is still a space in the culture for what a record store does, being a hub of the music community and a place to find out about new music.”...
[Regina] Spektor, who started off selling homemade CDs and is now signed to a major label, Sire, said that independent stores had been the first to carry her music, and that their support helped her career take off. And though she said she now feels contrite that for years her music collection was made up mainly of items copied from friends — “I just had no money” — she is supporting the stores out of gratitude.“I’m the record label-slash-store nightmare,” Ms. Spektor said. “Everything I had was a mixtape or a burned CD. But I don’t like the idea of all the record stores where people actually know what they’re talking about going out of business. They have their own art form.”...
Although many have been shuttered, more than 2,400 independent shops still exist around the country.... Products that aren’t fundamentally made up of ones and zeros — vinyl records, for instance, which have a habit of turning casual fans into collectors — have proved a salvation for many retailers."
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By: Pamela Ross,
on 11/23/2007
It's official. The sled and Santa and ho-ho-ho commercials have begun. The tinsel and lights are strung on my neighbors' homes. Early Bird People are shopping at 4 AM for...what-evvvvah. (I swear I didn't always talk with a Long Island accent.)
And I'm out. November 23rd and I'm ready to go into hermit mode. See you, Mega-Mall, in January. Wake me up when it's over.
I know what you're thinking. Who me, the Grinch? No. (Green does nothing for me, unless it's something I can peel out of my wallet.) ;> I love the holidays. Just not the feeling of being left out. Chanukah doesn't exactly get the masses' adrenaline rush going. A menorah, a dreidel, a chocolate coin? Why compete? (Just Say No to Chanukah Gelt, er Guilt!)
If it's The Day after Thanksgiving, it might as well be Christmas. Not my holiday but who am I to turn down any excuse to celebrate the sweeter side of life?
It's so Ellen Degeneres of me, but there's only true way to kick off the holiday season: Dance with me, partner! (Need a refresher course? Here's what you need to know:)
If that's too technical for you, sit down and take lessons from the Goddess of the Dance Floor, Master Elaine Benes. You go girl!
So...go on. You know you want to. Dance like no one is watching. Even if we really are. {}
This is the only time of year I miss having a real job. I miss those spectacular office parties.
We're short on illicit affairs, shot glasses, and DJs here at Maison de WriterRoss.
Then again, a Party of One has its perks. (Er...er...No lines for the ladies' room?)
-Pamela (once sent home in a cab for safekeeping by my Very Important Boss after a Putnam/Berkley holiday party; it's not my fault I thought I was a better dancer than the body double for Jennifer Beals in FLASHDANCE)
She's a maniac, maniac on the floor...
(and no where else, thank you very much) :}
Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be writers. It's so... impractical...
... but I wouldn't have it any other way.
By: Paula Pertile,
on 10/11/2007
My Shmoopie. (yes, its from Seinfeld. Her brother was Bosco.)
This is too fun and silly. But only if you like cats. Otherwise you'll think its stupid and hate it.
Cats in Sinks.
An item of note is that my trip to my local record store on Saturday resulted in the purchase of vinyl. I have been a fully digital girl for a few years now, but I really miss the "experience" of the album -- cover art, liner notes, lyrics. CDs do not provide this experience, in my opinon, the way that vinyl does. Of particular interest, though, is that many of the Vinyl offerings included a code for a free digital download of the album. For me, that's the best of both worlds -- the record store gets the sale, I get the vinyl to enjoy at home, and the digital for my ipod, without having to buy the same album multiple times. I can see this working for books as well -- I would love to have my favorite cookbooks on an e-reader to take to the grocery store, but of course I want the physical book at home.
I was at Comic Con,too,with my sister who was one of the exhibitors. Her first collection of comic strips,A List of Grievances,debuted at the Free Lunch Comics booth.
It was great,being there-I got to see Stan Lee(at a panel promoting his new superhero line from Virgin Comics)and the leading men of the CBS vampire show Moonlight,plus see Frank Miller talk about his film version of The Spirit.
Also attended a panel for a short story anthology coming out this summer called Who Can Save Us Now? It was a good talk,and I'm really looking forward to the book.
Did you know some artists are still recording on vinyl? Heard one on NPR recently. Unfortunately, his name has already escaped me.
For me, part of the timeless magic of books is that they are human-readable: no exterior power source necessary!