Saturday, July 24, 2010

It’s All About the Wine

The Financial Times, of all papers, has an article about wine books. Even if you don’t want a book about wine or don’t drink wine, it’s an interesting article about publishing and self-publishing.

For instance, there’s an interesting tidbit about Allen Meadows, apparently a “burgundy guru,” whose wife helped him publish his book.
What she had to do was “put together the entire team – and cover all the costs – featuring several artists, photographers (including taking one up in a helicopter for specific aerial views), mapmakers, book designers, copy editors, printing, computer programming for shopping cart and sales, indexing, book production manager, storage facilities, all fulfilment, etc”.
Or this opinion from Benjamin Lewin, who wrote a book about Bordeaux wines:
There are two general problems to conventional publishing. One is the general incompetence of the publishers: all they really know how to do is to publish more books following exactly the same model as in the past. The second is the way the cost of the book becomes enormously inflated by their overheads.
You might want to click over to read the full article and hear what one author thinks of Lulu.

Me? All I think about is the wine.
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15 comments:

  1. I think it's all about the wine too. I like drinking it, but I don't read much about it.

    Interesting points about self-publishing.

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  2. Sounds like Meadows owes his wife big time! He better be on dish-washing duty for quite a while.

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  3. I know some love learning things like this but for me, I just want to enjoy the wine.

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  4. How terrible is it to say that I'd just be looking at the pictures?

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  5. Wow. That's ALL the wife had to do?

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  6. I'm with Mary - just pass the wine, please? Don't care to read about it, rather drink it, lol. I used to read wine mags a lot when I fancied myself a burgeoning connoisseur in my Yuppie days.

    Hey Helen, I'm planning a virtual tour for my new release in October. Care to host a stop? The trailer is up on my blog today. Contact me if you are interested - marvwilson2020atgmaildotcom.

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  7. Sounds like a lot of work! :)

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  8. Self publishing has come a long way in the past 20 years. You couldn't sell a self published book to anyone but your mother back then. Now, it's accepted, but what a hassel and expense it must be to try to sell your own books, without prior experience.

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  10. It was good to read a positive comment about Lulu, as well as a concise clarification of their business arrangement with an author. I knew that Lulu printed books, like Lightening Source, but I did not know they did some distribution, too. And they are not a vanity or subsidy printer.

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  11. No kidding! I'm especially fond of a good pinot noir, but other than that, I know very little. I probably wouldn't buy a book on the subject, whether self-published or traditionally published, especially if exorbitantly priced.

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  12. I'm tempted to self publish a cook book, but nothing as expensive as this wine guru.

    Steamy Darcy

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  13. I prefer beer.

    I have some friends who are wine enthusiasts, and I find it really funny, not to say rediculous, when they are rolling the wine around the glass, sniffing and gurgeling and complaining to the waiter about taste of cork >:)

    Cold As Heaven

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  14. I have to agree with you about the cork, Cold As Heaven. To me, cork smells like cork. I think perhaps as a Texan, I've eaten too many jalapenos. I can't taste all the subtleties of wine that others seem to be able to do.

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