quippe | Entries tagged with publishing/writing

The Blurb On The Back:

We can never read the words in a book or on a web page without being influenced by their design. Typography, the visual design of written language, can make communication more accessible, more significant, or more attractive. We engage with typography not only as readers, but whenever we make decisions about fonts or layout as we write on computers, tablets and phones.

Paul Luna traces the history behind our modern-day letters, discussing type design, layout, legibility, and picture language. He also explores the differences between design for print and screen, the relationship between art and typography, and the reasons why key typographic decisions are made.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Paul Luna is Emeritus Professor of Typography & Graphic Communication at Reading University and former Head of Corporate Design at Oxford University Press. In this interesting, although quite technical book, whic, ironically, is hampered by a small typeface that makes it difficult to read, he sets out ideas about the development of typography, how to organise typographic material and the differences between printed and electronic typography.

Review copy from Amazon.

The Blurb On The Back:

Welcome to Comic-Con: where the future of pop culture comes to life

Every summer, more than 130,000 comic fans, gamers, cosplay enthusiasts, and nerds of all stripes descend on San Diego to mingle with the top entertainment celebrities and creative industry professionals in an unprecedented celebration of popular culture in all its forms. From humble beginnings, Comic-Con has mutated into an electrifying, exhausting galaxy of movies, TV, video games, art, fashion, toys, merchandise, and buzz. It’s where the future of entertainment unspools in real time, and everyone wants to be there.

In Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, author Rob Salkowitz, a recognised expert in digital media and the global digital generation (and unabashed comics enthusiast), explores how the humble art form of comics ended up at the center of the 21st-century media universe. From Comic-Con’s massive exhibit hall and panels to its exclusive parties and business suites, Salkowitz peels back the layers to show how comics culture is influencing communications, entertainment, digital technology, marketing, education, and storytelling.

What can the world’s most approachable and adaptable art form tell us about the importance of individual talent and personal engagement in the era of the new global audience, the iPad, and the quarter-billion-dollar summer blockbuster? Here are some of the issues Salkowitz explores:

- How do you succeed in the transmedia maelstrom? Comics have hopscotched across the media landscape for decades. What can we learn from their successes and failures as we careen toward a converged digital future?

- Have comics cracked the digital code? Everyone is scrambling to deal with the business disruptions of digital distribution. Does the recent success of comics on tablets demonstrate a new model for other industries, or do dangers lie ahead?

- What’s next for “peak geek”? Will the ascendant nerd culture of the early 2010s keep its new audience engaged or burn out from overexposure?

Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture combines the insights business leaders need with the details fans crave about the future of the world’s most dynamic industry. Even if you can’t be in San Diego in July, this book brings the excitement into focus … no costumes required!

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

In this book, business analyst and comic book fan Rob Salkowtiz looks at the impact the humble comic has had on mainstream Hollywood culture and the lessons that other media markets can learn from the comic book industry and its increasing cross-media dominance. The strongest sections are those where Salkowitz uses his reports of a number of comic panels to explain how the wider industry works but the actual analysis was less convincing for me, with Salkowitz hedging his bets too much while subsequent events has already made some possibilities obsolete. Ultimately, it’s a useful read for anyone unfamiliar with the industry but I don’t think the author succeeds with all his aims.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

These are turbulent times in the world of book publishing. For nearly five centuries the methods and practices of book publishing remained largely unchanged, but at the dawn of the twenty-first century the industry finds itself faced with perhaps the greatest challenges since Gutenberg. A combination of economic pressures and technological change is forcing publishers to alter their practices and think hard about the future of books in the digital age.

In this book – the first major study of trade publishing for more than thirty years – Thompson situates the current challenges facing the industry in a historical context, analysing the transformation of trade publishing in the United States and Britain since the 1960s. He gives a detailed account of how the world of trade publishing really works, dissecting the roles of publishers, agents and booksellers and showing how their practices are shaped by a field that has a distinctive structure and dynamic. By reconstructing this dynamic he is able to shed fresh light on how bestsellers are made and on why many thousands of books and authors find themselves marooned in an industry increasingly focused on short-term growth and profitability. Against this backcloth Thompson analyses the impact of the digital revolution on book publishing and examines the pressures – both economic and technological – that are re-shaping the field of trade publishing today.

The outcome of nearly five years of research, this major new book will establish itself as an exemplary work in the study of contemporary culture and will be essential reading for anyone interested in books and their future.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

A must-read for anyone interested in books and the publishing industry, this is an easy-to-understand, fascinating account of the history of the publishing industry in the UK and US and a coherent explanation for the current pressures facing the main players. The only weakness for me lies in the lack of any significant analysis of the potential impact of digital devices such as the iPad and Kindle, although this is understandable given that the industry itself is still trying to get to grips with it. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating book and one that I would heartily recommend.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.