Blog

How come there aren’t any theme parks dedicated to books and publishing? I think it is a billion-dollar idea waiting to be acted upon. I am sure one day we’ll see billboards or Groupons for AmazonWorld – or maybe Barnes & Noble Land. Wouldn’t you bring your family and friends to a place that celebrates ideas and creativity, that honors the written word and free speech, and that makes reading fun?

This past week I had the pleasure of taking my wife and two young kids to several theme parks in Orlando.

My Daughter at Disney World With Princess

My eight-year-old son at Universal Studios.

My eight-year-old son at Universal Studios.

Never mind that the parks only cater to people who can afford to drop $100 per person per day, who pay for the right to then purchase overpriced food and licensed products that further promote their properties. I also had to pay the tourist tax (speeding ticket) for trying to turn a 180-mile trek to Boynton Beach from the parks into a quicker excursion. We had a great time and know we’ll be back again – -albeit with a lighter wallet.

The theme parks have the right idea – they hype their existing content and repackage it in a way that makes it appealing to all ages. If movie studios can do this, why not publishers or those in the book industry?

Books connect to everything because they are written about everything – real and imagined, past, present, and future. A theme park can show what a book looks like in different languages. It can show us how books are treated globally or culturally. It can show us how books entertain, educate, enlighten, or inspire. Books, like the Bible, can be powerful, or they can be merely thrill-seeking, like Fifty Shades of Grey. The park can reflect a diversity of thought, significance, creativity, and commercialism.

Maybe bookstores should be turned into theme parks. Then they’d become entertaining destinations and people would want to be where books are.

Publishing has a lot to play with. It has tradition. It has so many facets to explore – the legal side, the cultural side, literacy, how books influence people and societies, and how our history is preserved in books. There are millions of words in millions of books and not one theme park is dedicated to them.

We have grand museums, mainly dedicated to art, history, and science. We have immense zoos and circuses to highlight nature and animals. Every industry has a hall of fame. Businesses have conventions. There are county fares, championship sporting events, and theme parks, and amusement parks and huge concert arenas. But no publishing theme parks.

Can’t we muster together a little bit of Trump extravagance and apply it to books and come up with a place that exceeds what is offered at the biggest palaces of fun in the world?

The parks could be divided into so many unique sections that highlight interesting aspects of the book industry, such as:

· Ranking the best-sellers of all time

· Examining historically-significant books

· The evolution of publishing technology

· The history of the printed word

· The future of books and all formats

· Books turned into audiobooks, TV shows, movies, plays, etc.

· How books are written

· How they are acquired, edited, packaged, sold, promoted

· Self-publishing

· E-book mania

· Era-specific books such as 18th century romantic poets or 1950’s Sci-fi

· Region-specific books such as those by or about the south

· Book-specific such as Catcher in the Rye or Chicken Soup for the Soul

· Author-specific such as the works of John Grisham or Janet Evanovich

· Genre-specific such as what’s new in erotic vampire thrillers or diet and fitness

Think of what can be sold:

· Food

· Games/Toys

· DVDs

· CDs

· Clothes

· Stuffed animals of book characters

· Replicas of things referenced in the books

· …and BOOKS!

There can be displays that include:

· Book showcases

· Videos

· Rides

· Games

· Lectures

· Readings

· Reenactments

· Workshops

· Concerts

· Tricia contests

· Historic manuscripts, printing presses, e-book devices

Maybe there’d be a university on site, a special academy that is a school for writers and those who want to work in the book publishing industry.

There could be sections for adults and children. There could be sections of books highlighting industries such as automotive, gardening, or sales. There could be a hobby section, a fantasy section, a children’s section – really, you could put anything in the park as long as it relates to books. And everything connects to books.

Of course,, some might say the best way to honor books is to buy and read them, share them, and live them. But imagine a place where bibliophiles can call home, a place that is part library, bookstore, e-reader, Web site, Disney, Vegas, Indy 500, Miss America Pageant, Mall of the Americas, Mardi Gras, and Time Square?

Take me to BookWorld – or write a book about such a place. BookWorld should exist and needs to. Books are still popular but they also are under many threats. It is not government censorship or Communism or war that threatens us. It is cultural laziness, a degraded education system, economics, and entertainment competition that puts books in danger. BookWorld could be a great boost not only for the publishing industry, but it can be fun for the whole family.

- By Brian Feinblum, Media Connect’s SVP and chief marketing officer, originally posted this on his blog, http://www.BookMarketingBuzzBlog.blogspot.com © 2013

Katharine Weymouth, the publisher of The Washington Post is re-inventing the way they cover news. “It is no longer a morning paper,” she said in her talk at the American News Women’s Club this week.  “It is a 24/7 operation,” she says.  The first meeting of the day is held at 6:00AM.

Katharine Weymouth and Phil Trupp

The first thing she did as a new publisher was to merge print and online. There was such a small amount of trust between them that Pulitzer Prize winning reporters were reluctant to share what they were working on until the very last minute. Today print and online are working together as a team.

One morning at Starbucks, “the guy who reviews books for NPR” came up to her and starting yelling and cursing at her for “killing” the Book World supplement. It is now in the Outlook section. She said it just couldn’t support itself. But it is doing well in its new location.

She’s learned that she doesn’t have to be the smartest one in the room. It’s her style to surround herself with the smartest people and she listens.
Katharine is determined to keep the hard copy issue of the Post ongoing and even says that the demo includes younger people.

What is one of her favorite magazines?  She is a proud reader of PEOPLE.

By Sandy Trupp/  Partner/ Finn Partners Media Connect DC

I have never been to a book launch party at a pizzeria, but the release of Sinatra & Me by Franz Douskey is unlike any other book I’ve promoted.  So when I joined two colleagues to take a two-hour train from Grand Central Station in Manhattan to Sally’s Apizza in New Haven, Connecticut, I knew we were in for a treat.

Photo by Mike Campbell

The book, an intimate look at Frank Sinatra and the life of an iconic singer and actor, was based on dozens of hours of interviews with Tony Consiglio, the man who was closest to Frank Sinatra and who spent three decades on the road with him.  Consiglio died in 2008 but Douskey, a writer whose last book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, was able to capture Consiglio’s account of his friendship with Ol’ Blue Eyes by piecing together dozens of taped interviews they had conducted in the 2000’s.

Photo by Mike Campbell

Sinatra & Me is the first non-fiction print book for Tantor, one of the nation’s top three audiobook publishers.  Tantor, based in Connecticut, has launched a line of books that will be released simultaneously as print, e-book, and audiobook.

The party was held at the famous dining establishment that used to be owned by the Consiglios.  The wood panel walls are decorated with raving reviews, articles about the history associated with the place where Sinatra used to frequent, photos of famous visitors and letters from fans of the scrumptious thin-crust pies such as one from Hillary Clinton (who graduated from nearby Yale University).

The pizza lived up to its well-earned reputation.  I grew up in Brooklyn, where pizza practically originated, but the pizza at Sally’s is like candy. It was more like an English Muffin with melted cheese and fresh, sweet tomato sauce on top.  You could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Though one would think there’s nothing left to say about the incredible career of Sinatra, this book offers plenty of new insight into Sinatra the man and not just the legend.  Consiglio was practically married to him, spending 30 years with Sinatra, wherever he performed, taking care of anything and everything for Sinatra. He was a loyal friend, confidant, and protector.  He was with him on visits to the White House, at JFK’s funeral, with Marilyn Monroe (who was walking around naked), with the infamous Rat Pack, on movie sets, at concerts and helping Sinatra with errands that could have included whatever deeds Sinatra could not entrust another with.

Photo by Mike Campbell

Sinatra and Me, which features dozens of never-before-published photos of Sinatra, Consiglio, and many bold-faced names, details a period of time that spans from the 1930’s into the 1970’s. It is an inside account of the prime years of one of America’s greatest icons. The legendary entertainer is best known for a six-decade career in music, film, television and radio. This book takes an up-close and personal look into the exciting world of a man who was adored by the American public but who fiercely valued privacy.

I felt Sinatra come alive at Sally’s, listening to the Consiglio family members and the author talk about him. I happened to sit at the booth Sinatra called his own and where his portrait hangs from. Though I never met Consiglio or Sinatra, I certainly have enjoyed getting to know them with this book. And eating the best pizza north of New York City added to the experience.

Photo by Mike Campbell

Recently, Finn Partners welcomed John Tierney, New York Times Science columnist and co-author of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength to the office for a talk, Q&A and book signing with the FP team. Over 35 FP staffers attended the powerful talk, and while Willpower is key, none of the staffers resisted the Insomnia Cookies that were served during the presentation. Tierney is a one time Media Connect client, who told David Hahn that he stills remembers the Morning Drive Radio Tour he did for a previous book. Below are several photos from the discussion!