Speed Writing

You need serious speed writing skills for this kind of sensation publishing...

If you thought Nora Roberts and James Patterson were productive writers (they both publish over four new books every year (granted, Patterson doesn’t really write them himself, but still)), think again. Following two events last weekend that grabbed the world’s attention — the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton (now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) on Friday, and the assassination of Osama bin Laden by the US military on Sunday — books related to these events are now being published in record time.

The book about the SEAL unit that killed bin Laden is actually more of a lucky opportunity for the author and publisher than a planned commercial tactic. The book, SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper, by Howard E. Wasdin, was scheduled for publication at the end of may. Following the death of Osama bin Laden, Publishers Weekly announced on Monday that the book’s publication would be rushed and should be widely available in the US by the middle of next week. Of course, the book won’t deal directly with the assassination that has spurred such interest in the special counter-terrorism unit, but it should give an interesting insight to those who are interested about life as a SEAL Team Six sailor. The media attention that focused on Bin Laden’s assassination was not always of very good taste, but it was a godsend for the publishers of this memoir. I don’t think many of us realized what “SEAL Team Six” was before we read about it Monday morning. According to The Guardian, the book moved up to 29th place on Amazon’s sales chart on Tuesday, from bellow 4,000 before bin Laden’s death was announced.

The cover for SEAL Team Six employs the bright, block-lettered patriotism common to books on the US military.

Royal wedding enthusiasts have had an even shorter wait for a book about Will & Kate tying the knot. In fact, there was a book published about the wedding in record time: 72 hours after the event. The man behind it is Andrew Morton, also Diana’s biographer, who, according to The Guardian, “picked the photograph for the jacket 100 minutes after the couple kissed, completing the text for the book’s final chapter on the day of the wedding.” Copies of the book, printed in Italy, were delivered to Waterstone’s Charing Cross on Monday afternoon. Obviously, over three quarters of the book was already written before Friday. The only thing the author had to add some details about the wedding day itself, as well as some photographs. The book will therefore only be repeating stuff we saw over the news and online all weekend. Michael O’Mara, the publisher of William and Kate: Their Lives, Their Wedding, has applied to the Guinness World Records for an official record.

On sale only 72 hours after the royal wedding. The first book to come out, but certainly not the last.

This kind of commercial, rapid-publishing phenomenon has been seen before. Shortly after Michael Jackson’s death, in 2009, several writers and publishers had tried to cash-in on the icon’s death, resulting in a tsunami of Jackson biographies, which ranged from the well-researched to the merely gossipy. The phenomenon is bound to get only worse. The growing popularity of e-books and the easy access to live information on web-based platforms means that if a subject is hot, a book can reach the readership hours after the writer has punched in the final period, because publishers can skip the lengthy operation of getting the thing printed and shipped. Naturally, when it comes to making books, rushing it always means botching it. But then, in the market for celebrity bios and sensationalism, no one really cares about quality. The only thing that matters is timeliness.

Time is of the essence — the quicker you get the books on the shelves, the more you'll sell it before the subject is out of fashion.

Accessories for Bookworms

Quotation mark earrings, the ultimate bookworm accessory? Not quite...

The New Yorker’s Book Bench has recently linked to an article on Flavorwire called “Design Porn: Accessories for Bookworms”, which showcases such amazing stuff as a gold and black typewriter necklace and quotation mark earrings. Guess what G. will be getting for her birthday…

My love for books has always been a little bit over the top, and extends very much beyond books themselves into anything that looks like, is inspired by, or uses books in its design. For instance, I might be prone to fall in love with a girl wearing the “reading is sexy” T-shirt worn by Rory in Gilmore Girls, or the Lolita clutch, designed by Olympia Le-Tan, which Natalie Portman “clutched” with such literary attitude for the New York premier of Black Swan last year. The clutch in question — a clutch, I am told, is not the same thing as a purse — also comes in other titles, like The Catcher in the Rye, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Dracula, and A Streetcar Named Desire. There’s another fine gift for G., if my budget every reaches 1,250$.

Nothing spruces up an outfit like a book-shaped purse. I mean clutch.

A great website to find more affordable book-inspired miscellanea is The Literary Gift Company, which sells everything from book ends to cufflinks. A favourite of mine is their Literary Map of England, which is made up of 181 names of famous writers. I also love the whole array of Penguin design stuff they sell. The people at Penguin have been really good in strengthening their image in the last few years, and have been using their distinctive backlog of covers as a marketing tool. They’ve been slapping those simple, beige-band-on-bright-background paperback covers on things like mugs, ties, pencils, and wrapping paper. The results are surprisingly attractive. I drink my coffee in a Dubliner’s mug every morning and, let me tell you, it’s a great way to get the inspiration juices flowing early.

Who wouldnt want to drink their coffee in a mug with the retro cover of a well-loved book on it?

I also recently discovered a series of posters called “Required Reading”, sold on the website of Gallery 1988. They are beautiful images inspired by classic novels like Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick, and Siddhartha. Although none of them are actual book covers, I think they all deserve to be by their sheer originality and stunning aesthetics.

Because books appeal to so many of us in so many ways, clever designers can create an infinite number of objects book lovers will want to have to live in a book-inspired world whenever they aren’t reading. Take, for instance, the “In the Library” perfume, which smells like, well, books. It’s described as “a warm blend of English Novel, Russian & Moroccan Leather Bindings, Worn Cloth and a hint of Wood Polish”. The idea, I must admit, intrigues me. However, my favourite book design accessory, which I have to restrain myself from buying every time I visit the website, is the BookBook: a case for your macbook in the shape of), you guessed it, a book. It protects your computer between two hard, genuine leather covers, and clever little corner elastics means they stay on when you prop up the screen, while the zippers have leather pulls meant to look like bookmarks. Lo and behold, you’ve turned your computer into an elegant, leather-bound volume. When closed, it looks inexpensive and dated — a dissimulative thief protection. Best of all, BookBooks are handmade, and no two are alike!

Amazing, non? I know it sounds like I’ve been paid to say this, but I swear I haven’t. I just really want my family and friends to take the hint and get me a BookBook next year!

If you thought MacBooks were sexy, wait till you see one wrapped up to look like an actual book!