No more bubble envelopes

New books are not particularly fragile. Everyone knows that. In fact, that’s one of the big reasons why paper-and-ink texts are still preferred by such a wide margin over breakable, expensive-to-replace e-books and e-readers.

So it’s a bit of a mystery why the vast majority of publishers choose to send out review copies and sample copies of books in bubble envelopes.

Here at Q&Q, we try, as much as we can, to re-use these envelopes, but there’s only so much we can do. Here’s a shot of just some of the envelopes that infest our offices:

We re-use them and give them away, but they just keep piling up. They’re like Tribbles. We’re certain the situation is the same, if not much worse, at other media outlets. The most likely result is that the majority of these envelopes – which are NOT recyclable – just end up in landfill.

And so we’re asking – pleading, really – that publishers switch to using strong paper or cardboard envelopes for review and sample copies. Most warehouses do this already. It’s the most sensible, economic, and eco-friendly thing to do.

David Leonard, the book campaigner for Markets Initiative, agrees. “Obviously, the biggest environmental footprint from the publishing industry comes from the paper that the books are printed on,” Leonard told Q&Q in an an e-mail, “but environmental action with integrity should incorporate all aspects of a company’s practices. A simple shift from non-recyclable bubble wrap envelopes to recycled and recyclable cardboard packaging is a fast and easy way for a publisher to reduce their footprint, and help reduce pressure on our forests.”

So please, if you won’t do it for your bottom line, or for the environment, do it for us. Trust us: the books won’t break.

Gun runners learn the value of reading

From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Seattle police are looking for a man who attempted to mail to Paris a box full of books packed with handgun parts and ammunition.

An alert clerk at a Wallingford UPS Store was preparing to ship the plastic-wrapped books on Jan. 31 when she noticed that one of the hardbacks rattled, according to police reports. The woman shook the book and spotted a gun part slipping through the pages.

The clerk phoned police Monday, after attempting to contact the sender. Searching the books, officers found a disassembled Beretta handgun, three loaded magazines and two boxes of 9mm ammunition hidden in hollowed copies of Richard Tarnas’ Cosmos and Psyche, Isaac Asimov’s Chronology of the World, and a communications text.

China is here

In response to all the recent talk about the 21st-century being the Chinese century, The Guardian has put together a fascinating two-part piece about the Chinese publishing industry.

The Chinese literary world is like a parallel universe, almost invisible to many in the west, complete with big hitters (Su Tong and Jia Pingwa), innovators (Xi Chuan and Che Qianzi), and bestselling superstars (Han Han and Annie Baobei), some of whom are earning more than £1m a year.

The first piece looks at the parallel worlds of state- and private-owned publishing houses; the phenomenon of the shu cheng – massive bookstores that are like small book cities; the explosion of reading among young people; cell-phone lit; and a somewhat disturbing trend away from what we would call “literary fiction.”

This rush to the market has led to a “huge explosion” in genre fiction, according to [Beijing-based translator and journalist Eric ] Abrahamsen, with martial arts, sword and sorcery, romance and crime fiction very popular. “It’s sort of a release,” he says, “as if people are saying ‘finally we can sit down and read a romantic novel in the afternoon, rather than worrying’.” He is less optimistic about the prospects for literary fiction, suggesting that authors are “writing for a population that doesn’t want to think about their lives” and would rather just get on with making money. There is a small group of “very smart, very brave” writers trying to understand what’s happening to China in a period of change so rapid that “people are living differently now to how they were even six months ago”, but it is increasingly hard for them to find an audience for their work. “Almost nobody else is interested. The government’s implicit deal is ‘Don’t ask too many questions, just do your thing’,” he explains. “There are a lot of really disheartened writers who would like to put their heart and soul into writing, but who aren’t doing it because most people aren’t reading it.”

The second part of the series can be found here.

Wonder Woman turns 66

A couple of literary-themed birthdays are being reported in the media this week.

Reuters has picked up on Wonder Woman’s 66th birthday – not much of a milestone, admittedly, but 2007 is, incredibly, the first year that the comic is being penned by a woman, one Gail Simone.

In an interview, Simone explains how Wonder Woman weathered the shifting mores of the 20th century.

A: When she was originally created by William Moulton Marston, he definitely was for strong female characters. But he did have some what we would consider bizarre ideas.

Q: For example?

A: He really thought that the magic lasso was to beguile men and women into doing what she wanted them to do with her beauty. And that’s not a feminist ideal that we really adopt so much today. We like to talk more about character and intelligence and personality and things like that, rather than just beauty.

Simone has plans for the magic lasso, as well:

[What] I’m going to show is that the magic lasso is the most dangerous weapon in the DC universe. It’s more dangerous than any of the major weapons, it makes Wolverine’s claws look like popsicle sticks.

In other news related to iconic expressions of the American spirit, Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities turns 20 this year. In a New York Times piece, Anne Barnard explains what 1987 New York had over 1977 New York.

For much of this year, the lens of New Yorkers’ nostalgia has been trained on 1977, looking back 30 years to the blackout and looting, to the Son of Sam killings, to disco. But 1987, too, was a seminal moment for New York, then torn between new heights of wealth and decadence on Wall Street and the draining of jobs and taxpayers from the rest of the city.

Barnard paints contemporary New York in rose-coloured tones, though –

New York is on track to have fewer than 500 homicides this year, down from 2,245 in 1990. The white population is no longer shrinking, and diverse immigration has made the city less black-and-white.

The crime drops that marked the Giuliani era — along with some divisive police confrontations with minorities — have continued under a Bloomberg administration that civil rights leaders credit with bringing more interracial respect.

– and updates readers on some of the characters depicted in Bonfire:

“Twenty years later, the cynicism of ‘The Bonfire of the Vanities’ is as out of style as Tom Wolfe’s wardrobe,” proclaimed the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose counterpart in the book — Reverend Bacon — warns that he controls the burgeoning “steam” of black anger.

Another lawyer whose doppelgänger appears in the book is Edward W. Hayes. “Today, there’s not enough crime to become a criminal lawyer,” lamented Mr. Hayes, a longtime friend of Mr. Wolfe’s who was the model for the dapper, street-smart defense lawyer who takes up Sherman’s case. “Nobody goes around and sticks up supermarkets anymore, or armored cars.”

Reportedly, Wolfe’s new novel will be about immigration, but no pub date has been set.

Poetic justice?

The folks at Véhicule Press have posted a story from Wednesday’s Montreal Gazette on their web page, about a high-speed car chase that took place on the highway between Longueuil and Montreal and involved police and an Oldsmobile Cutlass. Though it’s not apparent from the story why Véhicule would want to post it, their reasons become clearer in the follow-up commentary:

While poet Asa Boxer was in Toronto on a Signal reading tour, his 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass was being pursued by police across the Champlain Bridge. It did not end well, and our hearts go out to Asa, who as of today will be using public transportation.

Apparently, some dude stole Boxer’s car, and the chase ended after the thief collided with an SQ Cruiser. The perp was arrested and charged for fleeing police and car theft.

All we could think after hearing this was: poets can afford cars?

Thoroughly unnecessary “quotes”

Bethany Keeley, a doctoral student at the University of Georgia, has spent the last few years becoming a bit of an expert on wayward quotation marks. Her excellent website, The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks, features snapshots – taken by her or by one of her many correspondents – of the most flagrant public misuses. Today’s posting, for instance, features a notice from an office worker asking coworkers to put “dirty” dishes in the dishwasher, and telling them that the dishwasher will be “turned on” at 5 p.m.

Other highlights: a restaurant advertising a “hot ham” sandwich; a country fair promoting “fresh” cashews; and a sign welcoming “President” Bush to town.

God goes green

The U.S. publisher Thomas Nelson will be publishing the world’s first eco-friendly Bible later this month, according to The Book Standard.

The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Daily Bible will be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and production will flow from a FSC-certified forest through a paper manufacturer and printer that have FSC chain-of-custody certification. “Our team is excited to be taking some important steps forward in protecting the resources God has given us,” said Michael S. Hyatt, president and CEO of Thomas Nelson.

The story goes on to point out that the Bible is the most widely circulated book on the planet, which is true, of course, but it’s not like this is the only version of it floating around. We’re not sure who this Charles F. Stanley dude is, but he probably doesn’t have as deep market penetration as, say, King James. Still, it’s a good start.

Disgruntled writer offers literary agents a raise

The Guardian‘s weekend edition features an opinion piece by writer and filmmaker Martin Wagner, who is obviously still stinging from the rejection letters he received from agents as a young novelist. The crux of the piece is his argument that in the relationship between writers, agents, and publishers, it is the writer – the “lifeblood”of the industry – who most consistently gets screwed.

The piece also serves as a platform for Wagner to promote his play The Agent, which satirizes the industry and is currently being adapted into a feature film. However, given his evident distaste for agents – whom he describes as “vultures” – his suggestion for improving the situation is a little surprising.

Maybe one of the problems is that agents simply don’t get paid enough? While a 15 per cent commission is plenty if you’re representing a J.K. Rowling, what about 15 per cent of an author who could reasonably call himself a success if he got an advance of £2,000 for his first novel – a mere £300 for his agent?

Which raises the question of what a “reasonably” successful author is supposed to do with a (less than) £1,700 advance per novel – but we’ll put that aside for now. In the meantime, Quillblog welcomes any other suggestions to improve author-agent relations.

Book chat with Glenn Danzig

Remember Glenn Danzig, the perpetually shirtless goth rocker from the Misfits? Remember how your semi-goth girlfriends in high school had pictures of him in their lockers and insisted that he was not only hunky, but deep, too? Well, it seems they were right and you were wrong.

Just take a look at this old video that has popped up on YouTube, in which Danzig sits down in front of his bookshelf and talks up some of his favorite titles, most of which involve werewolves, nazis, or other apparitions of evil. And though the guy’s enthusiasms are morbid, it’s clear he’s just a big ol’ softy at heart. Look at the smile that lights up his face at the end. So cute!

Thanks to The New York Times‘ Papercuts blog for drawing the video to our attention.

Everybody loves Jane Austen … again

We all know that fashion is both cyclical and cannibalistic, so it’s only a matter of time before the nineties became the hot “retro” decade. While hipsters are still semi-ironically digging the clothes and music of the eighties, at least one grunge-era fad has resurfaced: Austenmania.

Remember when Pride and Prejudice was a book club champion? Remember when every other hit movie was a tart-yet-frothy romantic comedy? It’s all back.

Witness:

National Post:

Jane Austen lived and wrote 200 years ago, but readers continue to delight in her six novels — and creative types keep basing movies, TV productions and spinoff novels on her books to feed an audience hungry for more.

The Sydney Morning Herald:

Girls, lace up your bodices and brush up on your swooning techniques because a glut of Jane Austen movies and TV productions is coming as Regency mania sweeps the state.

Austen fans are flocking to Pride And Prejudice-themed balls and 18th-century dance classes as interest in the author and her era soars.

Eight versions of Austen’s life and works have been released or are hitting big and small screens in Australia, including Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway as the young writer. There is also a version of Mansfield Park, starring former Dr Who sidekick Billie Piper.

BBC News:

The number of people visiting a stately home in Berkshire has increased since the property was used for the filming of Pride and Prejudice, figures show.

A report by film and tourism bodies found coach tours at Basildon Park went up by 76% after it featured in the 2005 adaptation of the Jane Austen novel.