Thursday, January 25, 2007

Bloggers in Print

For bloggers who yearn to see their words printed offline, Adam Bellow, a 20-year book publishing veteran (and son of novelist Saul Bellow), is now giving them the chance. Bellow's new project, the New Pamphleteer (TNP), aspires to be the publisher of choice for online pundits. The company doesn't intend to simply recycle old blog posts, but will also commission new work from popular bloggers that is not available online. For now, the print runs are small, in the hundreds, but Bellow hopes it's only the beginning.

Bellow and his business partner, David Bernstein, also an experienced publishing hand, are betting that these bite-sized books are the perfect way to capture the best voices of the blogosphere in an easy-to-read format. Says Bellow: "Pamphlets are the ideal form for the needs of the intelligent reader in our fast-paced, media-saturated, ADD culture." The average TNP pamphlet averages 40 to 80 pages. Small enough to cart around easily (4x6 inches), they run $4 apiece on TNP's website.

But who will read them? "The community of people who blog and read blogs, in specific areas of interest ranging from politics to food and from fashion to philosophy," says Bellow. "Beyond that, I have in mind the much larger audience of people who know that blogs exist but lack the time or inclination to sift through the enormous flow of verbiage to find the best that has been thought and said online."

Source: Bloggers in Print -- Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007 -- Page 1 -- TIME

Technorati tags: , , ,

No comments: