When Big Publishers Want to Get Something Out Fast . . .

There's nothing to it but to do it. Talk about print on demand! Publishers Weekly reports that Collins has gotten a new Sarah Palin book finished in less than a month.
The 96 page: Terminatrix: The Sarah Palin Chronicles (Collins) will join 101 Things You—And John McCain—Didn’t Know About Sarah Palin as the latest humor book on the vice presidential candidate.

This all started on September 8th and went to the printer by September 15th, with 20,000 copies to be in stores on October 14th.

"The book is a satire written by “the editors of the Wasilla Iron Dog Gazette,” although, in the spirit of satire, two HarperCollins editors, Bruce Nichols and Adam Bellow, are “speaking on behalf of the authors.” It features digitally altered photographs of Palin and her family, annotated in “the Governor’s own hand,” which provide “a fascinating running commentary on her life.”

Publishers Weekly

ForeWord Publishing Insider: Why aren't there more nonfiction graphic novels?

“Graphic novel” is a weak name. For one thing, it sounds like smut. (“Man, that novel was so…so graphic!”) Besides, it implies that a book-length comic book must be fiction.

And that’s a rotten shame, because nonfiction graphic novels have a huge potential readership. The Zogby polling group just released a new survey on books and reading. It found that the most popular genres after general fiction are nonfiction: history, current events / politics / international affairs, biographies, and religion / philosophy. Library Journal’s 2008 book-buying survey says that the books with the highest circulation are in the medicine/health category. An Associated Press / Ipsos poll says that the most-read books in 2007 were the Bible and other religious works; history and biography were popular, too. Nonfiction sells.

So why does nonfiction account for only two percent of all graphic novels?"

Continued: Why aren't there more nonfiction graphic novels?

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Posted by: David Seidman

ForeWord Publishing Insider
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