Now that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has agreed to be a front to sell Amazon published books (which will be given the imprint name of New Harvest), I think it’s really going to be hard for the rep to get numbers changed on the order.

Rep: “So you didn’t order any of this book by Timothy Ferris. I know that it’s published by Amazon, and they’ve been doing everything possible to put you out of business, but do you think you can at least give it a shot?”

Rep: “I see that that quantity for the Penny Marshall memoir is zero. Now, I know they won’t let your website sell the e-book version, but they’ll be doing a ton of publicity, and she’s scheduled to sing a duet with Jeff Bezos on Jimmy Fallon’s show…are you sure I can’t put you down for a carton?”

Rep: “Wow, I can’t believe that you missed the new book by James Franco. Now I know that Amazon publishes it, but they will be marketing the crap out of it, and will most likely undercut your pricing of it, heck, they’ll probably sell it to their customers for less than what they’ll sell it to you for… can I change this to a twelve and maybe you can do a face out of it?”

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I just returned from three days of the ABA’s Winter Institute (which wrapped up on Friday, in New Orleans), and my takeaway from it boils down to: e-books are beginning to be felt in areas besides fiction, most bookstores had an amazing holiday season (thanks Borders), World Book Night sounds awesome, and Ann Patchett is simply a gift from heaven who should give speeches wherever booksellers assemble.

Seriously, her speech on Wednesday could convince you that you can walk on the surface of the sun. Between her speech and meeting with booksellers in a more intimate setting than you get at Book Expo, WI7  went a long way to help recharge your commitment to books and readers.

However, while booksellers benefited this holiday from a combination of Borders’ demise, blowback from Amazon shenanigans, and goodwill generated by local first awareness, they will continue to face challenges as ebooks become  even more commonplace and Amazon finds new ways to increase their footprint.

Fortunately, for the first time in quite a while, the conversations I had with booksellers over the weekend lead me to believe that the industry is ready for the challenge. The timidity usually at play has been replaced with a bold sense of purpose, a more pragmatic approach towards the business side of things and an overall optimism for the future.

The trick will be holding on to all of this as we head into the slow months of our business. If we can maintain this vigor in April, I think we’ll see 2012 as a year of serious turnaround for bookselling and readers.

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Australian director Bazz Luhrmann has been taking a beating in some circles on his decision to make his upcoming adaptation of The Great Gatsby in 3-D.

Since he is a fairly bombastic filmmaker, it stands to reason that folks are worried he’ll be throwing in a million musical numbers, flinging a plethora of objects to the foreground in an endless effort to remind you that you paid an extra five bucks to see a 3-D film.

Luhrmann responds to critics in Monday’s New York Times, saying that filming in 3-D isn’t a gimmick as much as it is an attempt, in the article’s words, to “create a new intimacy”.

I have to say that reading the interview has changed my opinion about what this adaptation has to offer.

In discussions I’ve had with folks who understand film on a more heightened (ie. they went to film school) way back up Luhrmann’s theory. They describe the idea that if filmmakers are willing to hold on to shots longer and cut less frequently, that it will force filmmakers to create both elaborate framing of shots and demand more from actors, as they will not be able rely on cutaways to reaction shots or close-ups.

At any rate, I’ll refrain from poo-pooing this picture…at least until I see the trailers.

(photo credit: Warner Brothers)

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I’m on my way to New Orleans and the ABA’s Winter Institute, and I don’t know what I’m looking forward to more: the event or just the fact that I will be in a city where I can roam the streets with an open container of alcohol.

Sorry authors, publishers and fellow booksellers; there are sober children in China, and somebody has to drink this Hurricane.

But, as I await my connecting flight in Denver, there are some things that have caught my attention.

First off, the New York Times recently featured a piece on zombie poetry. Can we please stop this? I mean seriously, is the next step the creation of a National Talk Like A Zombie Day?

On Monday, Oregon Public Broadcasting interviewed bookseller-turned-novelist Alexis M. Smith about her debut Glaciers (Tin House PB 9781935639206 $10.95). It’s a great read, and hearing her discuss the book’s origins is just as much fun (and I’m not just saying that because she’s a friend).

While you’re there, check out the accompanying video (and I’m not just saying that because I had a hand in its creation).

And McDonald’s in the UK will be giving away books with their Happy Meals. I can see the upselling from here: would you like a Proust with that for just a dollar more?

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Actor/writer/producer James Franco recently added director to his CV by…acting, producing, writing and directing a biopic of the poet Hart Crane called The Broken Tower.

It doesn’t look like it ever received a theatrical release, but it is currently available via various on-demmand outlets and iTunes.

While the trailer makes me a little skeptical of the film being able to knock it out of the park, I’ll check it out (it is only a fiver to rent it online, after all…and it will probably show up in Netflix very soon). My only worry is might cross the line between low-budget labor of love and low-budget vanity project.

(via Jacket Copy)

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Portland, Oregon is featuring Heidi W. Durrow’s novel The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (Algonquin PB 9781616200152 $13.95) as its Everybody Reads book for 2012.

Durrow, a Portland native (well she moved there in 1980, a lot earlier than many of the city’s current residents) will return to the city on March 6th, to discuss her novel as part of Portland’s Literary Arts lectures.

While I generally abhor the idea of paying for book readings, the tickets for this event are fairly inexpensive ($10-$25), and the hometown crowd should make for a very interesting event.

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For anybody who may not know, Machiko Kakutani is the famously acerbic lead book reviewer for the New York Times, and while she has decimated many fine books over the years, it seems that her biggest crime is the abuse of the word limm.

Recently, somebody hijacked her persona and created the Twitter account @CriticMichiko, dedicated to “just hanging out, limming about books”.

This person has taken Kakutani’s piquant approach to interpreting everything from sunsets:

Tonight’s sunset, a predictable array of orange and red, offered nothing that hasn’t been done a hundred times before by other sunsets)

to smoothies:

This peach-banana smoothie contains instances of ruinous tension and overwhelming virtuosity, but in the end must be deemed a failure.

Not one to be outdone, it’s quite possible that the real Kakutani (@actualNYTMK) is attempting to take back her name by setting up her own account and tweeting “@CriticMichiko Please stop impersonating me. I am me.”

It appears that @CriticMichiko is open to negotiating with @actualNYTMK, proposing to cease impersonating her if she promises not to use the word ‘limm’ for a year.

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The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association has just announced their 2012 Book Award Winners, and what a fantastic crop of winners.

Patrick deWitt for The Sisters Brothers (Ecco)

Jonathan Evison for West of Here (Algonquin)

Thor Hansen for Feathers (Basic)

Ismet Prcic for Shards (Black Cat/Grove)

Craig Thompson for Habibi (Pantheon)

Lidia Yuknavitch for The Chronology of Water (Hawthorne)

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You’re in luck, because the author has posted a sample chapter from the tentatively titled Winds of Winter on his website.

He also promises an additional sneak peak when A Dance with Dragons is published in paperback this summer.

Of course, as EW’s Shelf Life blog points out, “that’s not to say that we’re holding our breath for book 6’s (it being the sixth book in the Song of Fire and Ice series) speedy publication.”

Given the typically glacial nature of Martin’s output, I would still read this as a good sign. And, it’s really great that he’s putting this out there, even in such small doses, to keep his readership engaged.

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