Crowdsourcing in publishing as popular Letters of Note blog aims for coffee-table glory

 

Letters of Note is bound for coffee table glory as a beautiful cloth-bound 416 pp, 4-colour coffee table bookfeaturing a collection of 400 entertaining and inspiring letters.

I included reference to a Tolkein letter that appeared on Letters of Note a few months ago. I have been a dedicated reader ever since, and have a printout of one of the letters that was the subject of that day's entry pinned on my office wall as a reminder of an organisation and its staff rising above a crisis, hoping it will inspire me on the tougher days, not to mention keep things in perspective.

That letter is a memo to Parkland Memorial Hospital staff from the administrator of the Dallas County Hospital District regarding their professionalism in the face of the assassination of President Kennedy when their charity hospital became a temporary seat of government of both the US and Texas and the site of the death of the president, and his assassin, among many other extraordinary events in that 48 hour period.

But back to Letters of Note and the real subject of this blog, crowd sourcing...

A new trend, particularly in the world of publishing, film and other creative industries, to tap into their fan base for funding at a time when changes in various industries are finding it harder to attract the financial support to get a project off the ground.

Letters of Note will make a wonderful book, the sort that publishers like Phaidon and Chronicle would do well with. But instead of taking the traditional publishing route, they are going with Unbound who crowd-source finance. I wish the author well in this endeavour, and may even contribute something myself as a worthy experiment in a new area of publishing. Go to Unbound for the Letters of Note pitch, and take a look around at other interesting projects.

Launched on 18 Oct, Shaun Usher (the talent behind the blog) has another 80 days left, and has already raised nearly 40% of the funds required just 9 days in to his campaign.

What do you get? All supporters get their name printed in every edition of the book. All levels include the e-book and immediate access to the author's shed. Supporters of books that don't reach their target receive a FULL refund.

View more about Unbound here:

Stop-Motion Bookstore Love Story from the creative genius of Spike Jonze

Check out this gorgeous little film by Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Where the Wild Things Are, and that pre-flashmob Fatboy Slim video clip) and handbag designer Olympia Le-Tan.Among Le-Tan’s handbag designs are a series of felt book-clutches based on the famous covers of literary classics.

The story goes that Le-Tan met Jonze in Paris, and he asked for a Catcher in the Rye embroidery. In return, Le-Tan asked for a film.

The result is lots of literary references to relish, and Parisian literary site-seeing, and some very charming stop animation to inspire. Unfortunately I cannot embed into my blog, so visit the above link to the film on Vimeo.

Bonus feature, here is a Making Of:

Erin Morgenstern’s debut The Night Circus enchants

This is exceptional! After a run of vin ordinaire and failed reads, this was the magic I was looking for: something clever, entertaining and atmospheric, something to anticipate between reading sessions.

Erin Morgenstern is weaving (as I am still reading it) a story that brings to mind authors like Suzanna Clarke, Neil Gaiman and Angela Carter. Many, many, many other comparisons being bandied about, but I will repeat no more here in case I over-hype, a habit we overly enthusiastic readers have that ruins a good book for the next person.

[And this is demonstrated by the enthusiastic reviews coming out of the US where it was first released, followed by lacklustre ones in the UK whose expectations were very high by the time it hit their shores -- so I am not linking to any reviews today.]

Plot teaser: The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.

Watch an enchanting trailer here on the authors website at erinmorgenstern.com/

FYI: Intriguingly, Erin is also the artist behind the enchanting Phantomwise Tarot (www.phantomwise.com.au), its artistry influenced by Egyptian mythology, Victoriana, carnival/circus chic and the works of Lewis Carroll.