Welcome to where I am, where my kitchen's always messy, a pot's (or a poet) always about to boil over, a dog is always begging to be fed. Drafts of poems on the counter. Windows filled with leaves. Wind. Clouds moving over the mountains. If you like poetry, books, and music--especially dog howls when a siren unwinds down the hill-- you'll like it here.


MY NEW AUTHOR'S SITE, KATHRYNSTRIPLINGBYER.COM, THAT I MYSELF SET UP THROUGH WEEBLY.COM, IS NOW UP. I HAD FUN CREATING THIS SITE AND WOULD RECOMMEND WEEBLY.COM TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN SETTING UP A WEBSITE. I INVITE YOU TO VISIT MY NEW SITE TO KEEP UP WITH EVENTS RELATED TO MY NEW BOOK.


MY NC POET LAUREATE BLOG, MY LAUREATE'S LASSO, WILL REMAIN UP AS AN ARCHIVE OF NC POETS, GRADES K-INFINITY! I INVITE YOU TO VISIT WHEN YOU FEEL THE NEED TO READ SOME GOOD POEMS.

VISIT MY NEW BLOG, MOUNTAIN WOMAN, WHERE YOU WILL FIND UPDATES ON WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MY KITCHEN, IN THE ENVIRONMENT, IN MY IMAGINATION, IN MY GARDEN, AND AMONG MY MOUNTAIN WOMEN FRIENDS.




Sunday, November 30, 2008

Books, Books, and more Books





Take a look at this. What do you think? It's from this morning's New York Times.


How to Publish Without Perishing
By JAMES GLEICK
Even in the digital age, books have a chance for new life:
as a physical object, and as an idea, and as a set of
literary forms.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/opinion/30gleick.html?th&emc=th

(Here's the conclusion)

In bookstores, the trend for a decade or more has been toward shorter shelf life. Books have had to sell fast or move aside. Now even modest titles have been granted a gift of unlimited longevity.

What should an old-fashioned book publisher do with this gift? Forget about cost-cutting and the mass market. Don’t aim for instant blockbuster successes. You won’t win on quick distribution, and you won’t win on price. Cyberspace has that covered.

Go back to an old-fashioned idea: that a book, printed in ink on durable paper, acid-free for longevity, is a thing of beauty. Make it as well as you can. People want to cherish it.


James Gleick, the author, most recently, of “Isaac Newton,” is on the board of the Authors Guild.

2 comments:

Vicki Lane said...

Wouldn't that be an interesting concept?

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

This stack of books on my sideboard has now been re-arranged and set up to look like a real shelf of books, with some pretty gee-gaws and such alongside. I'm so proud of myself. Usually I live among at least half a dozen stacks of books on the floor, dining table, and beside my bed. Stacks of dogs, too.
Cookbooks---that's another matter. I'm working on them. Photos to follow. K