Far From The Madding Crowd

Here is a story that could be of extreme inspiration for Indians seeking to save a lost part of their heritage. It is the story of Jose Freeman, descendant of the Salinan tribe of California who made it his mission to track and record for posterity the lost languages of the North American continent.

The first time Jose Freeman heard his tribe’s lost language through the crackle of a 70-year-old recording, he cried.

“My ancestors were speaking to me,” said Freeman of the sounds captured when American Indians still inhabited California’s Salinas Valley. “It was like coming home.”

While the last native speaker of Salinan died almost half a century ago, more and more indigenous people are finding their extinct or endangered tongues, one word or song at a time, thanks to a late linguist and some University of California, Davis scholars who are working to transcribe his life’s obsession.

Driven to record the native languages he saw disappearing all around him, John Peabody Harrington spent four decades gathering more than 1 million pages of phonetic notations on languages spoken by tribes from Alaska to South America. When the technology became available, he supplemented his written record with audio recordings - first using wax cylinders, then aluminum discs.

This article by T K Kenyon introduces authors of fiction to some avenues they can pursue, primarily on the Internet, in order to market their book. Like Mr. Kenyon says, “writing, especially fiction writing, is a tough business to get into and a tougher one to stay in”.

This article might make the staying easier.

We have launched The Publisher’s Post, a place for news about the book publishing and book selling business. We hope you will find The Post informative and also find it worth your while to contribute to it. We will, nonetheless, continue to blog here, albeit sporadically.

More of these here

The US will be the focal theme of the 33rd Kolkata Book Fair beginning in Kolkata from January 30, 2008. The fair is scheduled to go on until February 10,2008.

Scotland will be the guest of honour country during the 12-day event, arguably the world’s largest such fair. The annual fair is orgainsed by the Publishers and Booksellers Guild.

We look forward to hearing from you - about events that concern books and authors. These could include book launches, book signings, book reviews, etc.. Also, if you have written a book and would like to write about it, do let us know. We can be reached at contact[at]dogearsetc[dot]com.

Hillsborough resident Cameron Kelly, 27, used a book he wrote to propose to his girlfriend, Angie Kreimer. The title: “50 Reasons Why You Should Marry Me … And 51 Reasons Why I Should Marry You.”

While a tea-stall owner is making the news for writing novels, the Indian Postal Service is planning to utilise its network to sell books. According to a news report in the Hindustan Times, such an arrangement will afford publishers access to markets in the hinterland.

Having dealt with the business development section of IndiaPost, I read this article with skepticism. There is no denying the good intentions and business acumen of the people who develop schemes such as these. But the arrogance and ineptness of the postal workers (on who the implementation of these schemes actually depends) has to be seen to be believed. With the “my way or the high way” attitude that they possess, well-meaning initiatives such as these usually come to naught.

• When the long-awaited fourth film in the Indiana Jones franchise is released on May 22, 2008, Scholastic and DK—both long-time partners of Lucas Licensing on Star Wars—will release a range of children’s books appropriate for a PG-13 movie. In addition, Penguin is on board for Mad Libs, and Lucas is in talks with other publishers for formats such as tween activity books, according to Carol Roeder, director of publishing
• Sales of audiobook publishers increased 6% in 2006, to $923 million, according to the latest industry sales survey conducted by the Audio Publishers Association. The survey found that consumers continue to migrate to the CD and downloadable formats while leaving cassettes behind. CD sales accounted for 77% of sales ($710 million) in 2006, up from 74% in the prior year, while digital downloads accounted for 14% of sales compared to 9% in 2005. Cassette sales represented only 7% of sales, down from 16%.
• The Penguin Group has launched the VP Book Club, an online reading resource featuring titles from Viking Press and Penguin Group. The site is aimed at reading groups and will feature the regular presentation of new Viking hardcovers, Penguin paperbacks and Penguin Classics. The new site offers a monthly newsletter, an archive collecting the books featured on the site, excerpts and author info, book tour updates, contests and giveaways. Visitors to the site can personalize it and in the coming months Penguin will launch a VP Book Club blog

An interesting article chronicling the revival of interest in poetry.

I know I keep coming back to this but perhaps poets could test the market for poetry using the print-on-demand model. Now available in India, this model will allow poets to write their poetry and put their books up for sale, without having to print a single copy. The books are printed only when the order is placed. After gauging the demand for the book, they can always then go and have their books published by a publishing house having a national reach.