Amazon’s e-reader Kindle is still sold out for the next two to three months, but other similar toys are rushing in to fill the void. Could the era of the e-book, long promised, finally arrived? The New York Times thinks so:

[S]tepped-up competition may represent a coming of age for the entire idea of reading longer texts on a portable digital device.

“The perception is that e-books have been around for 10 years and haven’t done anything,” said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading division. “But it’s happening now. This is really starting to take off.”

Reader resistance has always been perceived as the big bump in the road to widespread acceptance of e-books, and that appears to still be the case:

Nobody knows how much consumer habits will shift. Some of the most committed bibliophiles maintain an almost fetishistic devotion to the physical book. But the technology may have more appeal for particular kinds of people, like those who are the heaviest readers.

Me? I’d love a Kindle, but this sounds even better:

Polymer Vision, based in the Netherlands, demonstrated a device the size of a BlackBerry that has a five-inch rolled-up screen that can be unfurled for reading.

I can’t wait for the day when I can carry lots of books around in one tiny device that’s as easy to read as a paper book. I suspect that day is not far away.

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Danny Schechter, author of the Cosimo book Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal, continues his railing against “our financial system” that “is permeated with crime” and the financial crisis that “was engineered by banksters and white-collar criminals” in his latest editorial, “TARP This: Paulson Bailout Riddled With Deception.” Subtitled “How a Program To Save The Economy Ended Up Enriching Big Banks,” it details how Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his Troubled Assets Relief Program is completely failing to loosen credit markets but is lining the pockets of Paulson’s cronies in the executive suites of the financial-industry companies that have received bailouts.

Read the whole editorial here.

Read the introduction to Plunder here. (Alert: PDF.)

Plunder is available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.

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Like other bloated companies built around outmoded, pre-Internet paradigms, the big corporate publishing houses has been hit hard in the ongoing financial crisis. The online magazine Salon today posted a succinct summary of the implosion that narrows the industry’s problems down to this:

Thanks to conglomeration and corporate distribution models, some of publishing’s biggest houses were laid very low by the current stock market collapse. And scary holiday book sales figures compounded the industry’s woes, with recent news of a 20 percent drop in sales in October from last year’s book market. Even worse, Nielsen Book Scan reported a 6.6 percent drop in unit sales during early December. Not even the holiday season could bolster book sales.

…

All these factors have produced an industry slowdown that will affect all writers for years to come.

In fact, this won’t affect “all” writers at all. Corporate publishing has always been about keeping most writers away from print. Not everyone who thinks he can write and wants to be a published author is actually worth reading, of course, but as the explosion of self-publishing and independent boutique publishers like Cosimo has proven, there are plenty of writers who could never get near the traditional corporate publishers whose books are well worth reading and publishing. (J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, for example, were first published by boutique publisher Bloomsbury.)

What does Salon think will be the upshot of the shakeup?

As the corporate monoliths limp into 2009, a number of smaller, more independent houses could thrive during this recession. A few of those presses have structured themselves to avoid long-standing problems that got big publishing into this mess: high advances, long author lists and spiraling costs.

…

Who will survive publishing’s Ice Age? Undoubtedly, the companies that can command developments in the impending digital book revolution. Early next year, Amazon will release the second generation of the popular Kindle, and the Sony e-Reader currently has more than 300,000 users….

Neelan Choksi, Lexcycle’s chief operating officer, agrees that the midlist will suffer in coming years. “There’s going to be less support for smaller writers in the traditional publishing model, in the big buildings in Manhattan,” he explained. “But self-publishing and digital books haven’t been considered. This upheaval will cause many authors to look at the alternatives more seriously.”

But as former book editor and industry watcher Tom Engelhardt notes:

[M]ore than 550 years after the first Gutenberg Bible appeared, the printed book, still an unsurpassed technology for delivering information and experience, isn’t leaving the scene soon. It’s always worth remembering that, when those first printed books began to circulate in Western Europe, the previous form, the illuminated, hand-copied manuscript, did not disappear, despite what you might imagine. It lasted at least another century as a high-end collectible, which was largely what it had long been anyway.

Salon and Engelhardt miss the middle ground between books published under the old-fashioned corporate model and electronic-only e-books: print-on-demand, as Cosimo publishes. Digital publishing includes POD, which eliminates the need to print books in advance — requiring a huge investment in both the books as well as the space needed to store them — without eliminating the visceral pleasure of reading a physical book.

We at Cosimo have always thought that POD represented the future of book publishing, and it seems the marketplace is bearing us out.

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The Cosimo book Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal, by Danny Schechter, has earned another great review, this one by Norm Goldman at BookPleasures. A brief excerpt:

Quite interesting, Schechter demonstrates how few media outlets investigated the predatory behavior of many lenders that deliberately and intentionally seduced people into taking loans they couldn’t afford. In fact, when more people became aware of the “subprime” debacle, very few in the media or on The Street suspected that there might have been more to it than just market mistakes. It was only when the banks began writing down billions of dollars in liens and no real assets backing them that the media began to wake up, however, by then it was too late, the damage had been done and the bubble burst.  Schechter even compares the disastrous California fires to the economic catastrophe where, “when you scratch the scorched surface of the newsy inferno you get deeper causes, a lack of planning and monitoring, not to mention the inattention by government. Sound familiar?”

Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal is an impassioned wake-up call that is very accessible to the layperson with its clear-headed prose, although it is one that will probably move and shock as well as it informs. Some of us may have a smattering of knowledge of what is going on through our daily news, however, what Schechter does with this book is to delve into the details, delivering informative insights that will help us understand the fear, panic and uncertainty that has engulfed our economy as well as those around the world.

The entire review is available at BookPleasures.

Read the introduction to Plunder here. (Alert: PDF.)

Plunder is available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.

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It’s 9 days till Christmas, and still plenty of time to order books as gifts. Cosimo’s selection of unusual and hard-to-find classics make excellent — and unexpected — presents for the book lovers on your list… or as a treat for yourself. Today: books for Jane Austen-ophiles.

As interest in 19th-century English literature by women has been reinvigorated by a resurgence in popularity of Austen’s works, readers are rediscovering a writer whose fiction, once widely beloved, fell by the wayside. British novelist Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865) — whose books were sometimes initially credited to, simply, “Mrs. Gaskell” — is now recognized as having created some of the most complex and progressive depictions of women in the literature of the age, and is today justly celebrated for her precocious use of the regional dialect and slang of England’s industrial North.

Cranford, Gaskell’s second novel and recently adapted for TV by the BBC in an acclaimed production starring Judi Dench, was originally serialized from 1851 to 1853 in the periodical Household Words, edited by Gaskell’s friend Charles Dickens. Based upon Gaskell’s own experiences growing up in the small Cheshire town of Knutsford, this is the charming tale of two elderly spinster sisters and their young charge, a thinly disguised version of Gaskell herself. It offers a lovely depiction of village life in the mid 19th century.

Gaskell’s fourth novel, North and South, which also saw an instantly beloved BBC adaptation, draws on Gaskell’s own life as the wife of a progressive preacher in Manchester for its tale of the tumultuous romance between a minister’s daughter and a wealthy mill owner. Another work first serialized, in 1854 and 1855, in Household Words, it highlights the plight of the poor as well as the class divisions of the era, and helped establish the author’s reputation as a champion of the working class.

Newcomers to Gaskell will also love Ruth, first published in 1853, and notable as one of the rare instances in the fiction of the era of a positive portrayal of unwed motherhood and for its thematic condemnation of the social stigma of illegitimacy. The tale of a young woman seduced and abandoned by her lover, then taken in and protected by a kindly minister and his sister, it is remarkably progressive for the period.

This delightful replica volumes are an excellent opportunity for 21st-century fans of British literature to embrace one of its most unjustly forgotten authors.

For the Victorian version of snappy celebrity biography, the two-volume The Queens of Society is a treat any fan of aristocratic lives and modern fabulosity. Authors Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton — actually a pseudonym for one writer, British author Katherine Byerley Thomson (1797-1862) — define a “queen of society” as a woman who, by force of her reputation, good management, abilities, manners, and even her rank and fortune commands a circle of persons of eminence, of fashion, and of celebrity. In this charming collection of biographies, first published in 1861, we meet some of the most marvelous women of their day.

In Volume I we are introduced to: Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough; Madame Roland; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu; Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire; Letitia Elizabeth Landon; Madame de Sévigné; Sydney Lady Morgan; and Jane, Duchess of Gordon. In Volume II, we are graced by the literary presences of Madame Récamier; Lady Hervey; Madame de Staël; Mrs. Thrale-Piozzi; Lady Caroline Lamb; Anne Seymour Damer; La Marquise du Deffand; Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu; Mary, Countess of Pembroke; La Marquise de Maintenon.

These reproductions of the 1980 second edition include all of the beautiful original illustrations.

Cosimo book are also available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers. Order through Amazon, and get it in time with FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25 placed through December 17. (See the complete holiday shipping guide at Amazon.)

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At the National Arts Club event on November 20 for Cosimo book Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal, entries were collected for a drawing of a first-edition copy of the book signed by author Danny Schechter.

A winner has now been chosen:

Robert Galinsky, Founder & Principal, New York Reality TV School

Galinsky will also receive a $25.00 email gift certificate for Amazon.

Cosimo congratulates Galinsky on his win.

Read the introduction to Plunder here. (Alert: PDF.)

Plunder is available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.

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It’s 10 days till Christmas, and still plenty of time to order books as gifts. Cosimo’s selection of unusual and hard-to-find classics make excellent — and unexpected — presents for the book lovers on your list… or as a treat for yourself. Today: books for presidential buffs and readers of American history.

Barack Obama isn’t the first incoming American president to have been a published author before taking the Oval Office. Before he served as the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921, and before he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919, Thomas Woodrow Wilson was a lawyer and an academic: a university professor of history and politics, and president of Princeton University. It was during his tenure at Princeton that he penned the classic five-volume History of the Ameican People. The volumes include:

Vol. I: The Swarming of the English
Wilson sets the stage for the European settlement of North America, as the Elizabethan age of discovery gives way to a new era of commerce and organization. [hardcover] [paperback]

Vol. II: Colonies and Nation
Wilson tells the story of the British settlers in America in the 18th century, from common endeavors in trade and commerce by turns unified and divided the disparate colonies through to the Revolution. [hardcover] [paperback]

Vol. III: The Founding of the Government
Wilson delves into the expansion of the United States in the early 19th century in the western frontiers, and tells the story of the founding and development of the federal government in the first quarter century of its existenc. [hardcover] [paperback]

Vol. IV: Critical Changes and Civil War
Wilson discusses the “Democratic revolution” of the 1820s and 1830s and delves deep into the tumultuous years of the Civil War. [hardcover] [paperback]

Vol. V: Reunion and Nationalization
Wilson brings the story of the nation up to the moment of its 1902 publication. [hardcover] [paperback]

This beautiful replica of the 1902 first edition features all the original halftone illustrations. Students of Wilson and of the ever-changing lens through which history is told and retold will find this an enlightening and illuminating work.

If you’re looking for a stocking stuffer for the American-history buff, look no further than George Washington’s Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior. Before he was an American Founding Father and the new nation’s first president, George Washington was an excruciatingly correct child with a passion for propriety. At the age of 14, he copied out 110 rules for elegant deportment from a work created by Jesuits in the 16th century as a guide for young gentleman of quality, and through these rules, which he took greatly to heart, we can see the beginnings of the man Washington would become taking shape. Though many of the rules deal with matters of etiquette — such as whom should rise for whom in mixed company — many others concern far deeper matters that touch on personal philosophies about judgment, honor, success, and conscience. As a peek into the manners of a bygone age, this is an intriguing work. As a peek into a great man in his formative years, this is an extraordinary one.

(And by the way, though they’re not Cosimo books, Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope, Dreams from My Father, and Change We Can Believe In make great gifts, too!)

Cosimo book are also available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers. Order through Amazon, and get it in time with FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25 placed through December 17. (See the complete holiday shipping guide at Amazon.)

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The Cosimo book Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal, by Danny Schechter, has made legendary consumer advocate Ralph Nader’s 2008 holiday reading list.

Books make great holiday gifts… and in this particular holiday season of financial upheaval, Plunder is the perfect gift for the civic-minded, politically curious reader.

Read the introduction to Plunder here. (Alert: PDF.)

Plunder is available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.

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Cecil Helman, author of The Body of Frankenstein’s Monster: Essays in Myth and Medicine, from Cosimo imprint Paraview Special Editions, has been presented with the George Abercrombie Award by the Royal College of General Practitioners, one of the highest awards given by the College, and for “the person who has made an outstanding contribution to the literature of general practice.”

Dr. Helman, a Senior Lecturer in the Research Department of Primary Care & Population Health at University College London, is an international expert on medical anthropology, the crosscultural study of health, illness, and medical care. Says UCL in its announcement of the award:

[Helman] is particularly interested in the humanistic side of medicine – especially the role of stories and narratives in medical care, and what they may reveal about the inner worlds of both doctor and patient. Among his other interests are the role of metaphors and symbols in our understanding of the human body, in both illness and health, and what the Western industrialised world can learn from the healing systems of more traditional societies, when dealing with different aspects of human suffering.

This is amply represented in The Body of Frankenstein’s Monster, which explores imaginary monsters such as werewolves, vampires, and the titular creature as powerful symbols of the body: the body can be thought of as a machine made up of parts like Frankenstein’s monster, or as a creature ruled by animalistic urges, or as an entity that’s vulnerable to infection from a diseased fiend. In this fascinating collection of essays, Helman expands our view of our bodies by exploring its cultural and artistic representations. Drawing on images from literature, art, history, myth, television, and film, Helman provides lyrical new insights into our physical selves, reconnecting the body to myth, art, and imagination.

The Body of Frankenstein’s Monster: Essays in Myth and Medicine is available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.

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Small publishers, that is. Everybody loves big books.

Kassia Krozser at the blog Booksquare looks at the publishing industry through the lens of the ongoing financial crisis, and determines that the big corporate publishers have no idea what to do in order to save their businesses, and what they are doing isn’t keeping readers in mind:

At Random House, it was clear that saving the imprints was key. Markus Dohle talked about aligning “existing strengths and publishing affinities” and how this imprint or that will be better, stronger, safer. As if that matters. Who really cares if Crown or Knopf or Ballantine or Bantam Dell survives? I’m serious. Who. Cares.

No really, who cares if these groups are retaining editorial independence while combining strengths? Is that really going to change the business dynamic, or is it just focusing on the wrong problem?

Imprints are just boxes on an org chart. To most of the buying public, they mean nothing. To some of your acquisitions editors, they mean nothing. To the bottom line, they mean nothing. You can have a hit book from any possible label, to borrow from another business’s lingo. It ain’t the logo on the spine, it’s that magic combination of book and audience and right time/right place.

If the corporate publishers are setting themselves up for a fall, whom does Krozser thing will fill their void?

This is where I believe we are going to see an incredible rise of independents, publishers who get that small is beautiful, that there is profitability and then there’s profitability. You can’t meet debt obligations if you don’t bring in big numbers. There is an inherent clash of cultures in big publishing. It can be balanced, but I worry that a business that focuses on maintaining labels doesn’t really see this.

…

Focusing on imprints is focusing on the wrong problem. For each big publisher (and some small), it’s important to understand today’s market and tomorrow’s. Those that really get the importance of balancing these sometimes conflicting needs will emerge strong and successful — on terms that make sense to that publisher — those that don’t, won’t.

Cosimo, of course, is just that kind of small-is-beautiful publisher, one that understands the strange new world the book industry has entered in the 21st century (and we understood it before the current economic crisis broke). From the cutting-edge print-on-demand technology we use to ensure that warehouses full of books — which come with up-front printing and well as storage costs — don’t weigh on our bottom line and that books can get to readers as soon as they want them, to our use of the Internet to bring books to the attention of readers who are on the cutting edge, too, Cosimo is primed to flourish even during the ongoing crisis in ways that the big corporate publishers haven’t even begun to consider.

Yeah, we’re tooting our own horn a little here. But we’ve got reason to be proud. We love books, and we’re dedicated to making sure that readers who love them aren’t left wanting.

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