Archive for July, 2010

I already wrote a bit about the book in an earlier post.  Author James Kaelon and videographer Miles Kittredge are mid-tour, by bicycle, promoting Kaelon’s “We’re Getting On.” They just left San Francisco this morning and are heading north.  Abandonment of technology is a central theme of Kaelon’s stories, and now he and Kittredge are living the dream.  The tour and the book are 100% carbon neutral.

The novel has garnered exceptional reviews and landed Kaelon on the cover of Poets & Writers.  I got to see Kaelon read at Green Apple Books on Friday and was not disappointed.  If you have the opportunity to see these guys somewhere along their journey, seize it!

Individual Book Titles Published in the U.S., by Year

2009 totals: 288,355 books traditionally published, 764,448 books self-published.  (Statistics from Bowker.  Download full stats here).

Matt Stewart’s novel The French Revolution debuts in print on July 14, 2010 (that’s Bastille Day, for you non francophiles).  But it’s already out there for free, on the internet airwaves, for anyone with a Twitter account.

Frustrated by a chain of publisher refusals, Stewart decided to “tweet” the whole thing, gratis, 140 characters at a time.  The feat earned him world wide publicity, a cult following, and–the coup de grace–a coveted publishing deal with Soft Skull Press.

It’s hard to say whether this stunt could work twice, but Stewart gets high marks for enterprise and cojones, winning in the long term by giving it all away in the short term.

The tweets are available under @thefrenchrev.  The Book’s website is here.  The revolution in book marketing and self-publishing is underway.