Watch out! Anime Classics Zettai! likely to "convert newcomers"

Brian Camp and Julie Davis' Anime Classics Zettai! gets a full-length review by critic Brett Taylor in the new issue of Video Watchdog (No. 148). Discussing the enthusiastic film guide alongside Dani Cavallero's 2007 book, Anime Intersections, Taylor notes that Zettai! is special because it can be "enjoyed by the newcomer as well as the fan." In fact, he thinks that it's likely to "convert newcomers"--we totally agree, and that's a big part of why we publish books about Japanese film, animated and otherwise.

The review also appreciates that "Camp takes the time to patiently explain the different formats and styles of Japanese animation," and that Camp and Davis cover such a large selection of intoxicating animated works.

"Tale of Two Sisters" welcomes "The Uninvited"

Looking forward to the next fright flick The Uninvited? It's a remake of director Kim Jee-woon's Tale of Two Sisters. Like a lot of other Horrorwood movies these days. Check out more about Kim, Two Sisters, and other Asian fright movies in Patrick Galloway's Asia Shock: Horror and Dark Cinema from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, & Thailand.

Today the New York Times had a front-page article on the outcast "burakumin" in Japan and their changing fortunes. For more insight into buraku communities in Japan and their social problems of generational violence, see Eve Zimmerman's translation of Kenji Nakagami's The Cape and Other Stories. Powerful and insightful, these grim yet energetic stories present a little-seen view of modern Japan. We used to have more information about this book on our website, but it seems to have been replaced by a shorter listing. I'll see if we can restore the older version. Readers, this is an amazing story collection. Kawabata fans, hmm, maybe this isn't for you.

Here's the link to the Times' story. And here's a link to the Times' review of The Cape when it was first published.

You can obtain The Cape online or at booksellers worldwide.

A time to be thankful

We've got a lot to be grateful for this season, despite our economic woes and the growing preference for screens and 'zines over tomes. Americans seem to want gravitas in everything except what they read. 

But things could be worse, I suppose. McCain could have won. But he didn't, so in January there'll be one less turkey in Washington. One could tell the departing foul (sic) to get stuffed, or just flip him a bird on the way out. 

But why be mean-spirited? Let's enjoy family and friends and all the things in our lives that we like, and let's be grateful for all the people who have gone out of their way this year to give us a kind word, a pat on the back, a hot meal. 

For those who want to explore the web of their relationships with others, I encourage them to look at Gregg Krech's fascinating book about Naikan, a Japanese form of psychotherapy that explores not the self alone but the self in society. In our more crowded world and amid a growing sense of interdependence and mutual concern, it's important to understand not justwhat makes me me, but what makes me and you us. For more about naikan, visit the Todo Institute. Happy Thanksgiving!

"A good night for the English language"

So glad I dipped into James Wood's wonderful parsing of Obama's speechifying in this week's New Yorker. Since Obama's election I've watched You Tube and other postings of Obama's oratory, in particular his fabulous treatise on race in America last spring and his acceptance speech in Chicago. I"ve listened to these two speeches a couple times, yet still I get chills and now, with his victory, even teary-eyed. George never made me cry, only cry out, and Sarah made me wince. But listening to Obama, I get carried off on a near-dreamlike sea of rhetoric and meaning, and feel connected once again to my own past, my country, my civilization. 

Wood's article analyzes the magic behind the power of Obama to move. It's magic, yes, but not a trick or a fabrication. While Obama  of course, like any great orator, weaves together words, rhythms, and images, he shows himself to be more a master allusionist, an exploiter of phrases that resonate through the American subconscious. "By the people, for the people" is maybe the most obvious example. Wood also points to Obama's clever archaism of "where we are met with cynicism" echoing Lincoln's "met on a great battlefield," and his use of the word "promise" to evoke the "promised land" that MLK claimed to see on the eve of his assassination. Barack being smart, and gifted, it is no coincidence that he is drinking from the well of these two leaders, both of whom have become iconic vessels of our nation's yearning for both heroes and salvation.

It's great to see smart language in a public place. And it's great to see powerful oratory used to generate hope instead of fear. I'm basically a words-on-the-page guy, but when it comes to making sweet music out of language, Obama's got my vote.

Exploring Kyoto called “the ideal travel guide”

Midwest Book Review’s “Wisconsin Bookwatch” gives Judith Clancy’s updated guidebook Exploring Kyoto high praise, calling it “a superbly written and thoroughly ‘user friendly‘ guide to what this beautiful city and its surrounding countryside have to offer,” and declaring it “the ideal travel guide.“

Now I know that since Yohan’s demise it has been hard finding this book in Japan, but I’m told that you can get it at Junkudo Kyoto, Kyoto Handicraft Center, Shin Miyako Hotel, Book First Kyoto, with more shops to come. Anyone heading to Japan this fall or in the coming months will absolutely love this book, and it will open the city up to you in ways no other guidebook can. (Japan bookstores: Get your act together already!! Readers — and publishers— are getting impatient!!)

Big Interview with Fred Schodt in Electric Ant!

SAME HAT! SAME HAT! This “weekly manga commentary, featuring horror, gag & erotic-grotesque nonsense” reports that the new zine Electric Ant http://electricantzine.com/ features a long interview with Fred Schodt, author of Manga! Manga, Dreamland Japan! , and The Astro Boy Essays (among other fine works about Japan and Japanese culture). Look for Electric Ant on your local newsstand or wherever fine ‘zines are sold!

Oprah Romances Kindle and Kills Off Beauty

Linda the Designer (no relation to Joe the Plumber) was bemoaning how Oprah came out last week and announced her love for the artless cold aesthetic of the Kindle. The woman who singlehandedly made books relevant to the lives of millions of daytime TV watchers and generated untold millions of dollars for big US book publishers has told her audience to stop, don't buy a book, think of the trees you'll be saving instead by downloading everything you need onto a little plastic and silicon brick.

You get one font, but in lots of sizes! Text can be justified or not, your choice! That whole notion of giving life to the text by allowing room to breathe on the page, or suggesting an elegant argument with a classic typeface? Well, fuggadeboutit. The only thing a "designer" has to "design" now is how to deliver a pdf to the kindlemaker.

Am I unhappy? Not entirely. It'll be good to save the cost of fuel, not to mention the occasional tree. No more happy UPS delivery screwups!

But I'll miss the look and feel of the book, and the unique personality given it by its designer. With fewer aesthetic qualities to interfere with the message, maybe language will become more about content and less about the vehicle of transmission.

I suppose that could apply to human interactions as well. We say that we judge people on their deeds and their words, but that's not entirely true. We need to see and touch other humans to take their measure, to see if they're a good fit, believable, appealing, whatever. It'll be a while before a human kindle stirs Oprah into a froth of ecstasy, but I bet that day is not too far off.

It's Sunday, thinking about wisdom and leadership

Okay, students, this question comes from this year's SAT: visual pattern recognition.

Of the three figures shown in the photo, which one does not belong with the other two?

(Quiz courtesy of Stone Bridge Press, your source for crazy wisdom.)

Ideas for authors to boost their visibility and power

I don’t usually do this, but I want to advise all authors (in particular Stone Bridge authors) that they click on the headline link or here to read a very succinct summary by Stephanie Chandler of things you can do to increase your online visibility and, ultimately, your sales and earnings. Very good stuff, and a fine “meta-ironic” example of an online article doing exactly what it is recommending to others. (Published on the Publishing Basics site.)

And it has also occurred to me . . . Why is it not enough to have just a book these days? Just a book! The market does demand it, but isn’t it a bit tiresome to keep drilling down and through the internet blogs and discussion groups and featured websites until there is nothing left to learn? Knowledge is an addiction; once you “like“ something it’s hard to stop pursuing it. Beyond a certain point, the whole viral marketing/blogosphere/webcentric hoohah may be just a non-nutritive excercise in feeding the brain’s sweet tooth.

Murakami at Berkeley this weekend; lecture + symposium

This past spring we published A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World. This book was compiled and edited by The Japan Foundation and contains an introduction by Jay Rubin as well as essays by Richard Powers, Shozo Fujii, Roland Kelts, and others, as well as a special essay on translation by Haruki Murakami. We're happy to announce that the book has been very well received, and we are now about to reprint it. (Copies may be in short supply, but should still be available on Amazon and in the bookshops that were farsighted enough to order them in the first place!)

And now, if you live in or near Berkeley, California, you can experience the Murakami phenomenon first hand!

As part of the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Center for Japanese Studies, Haruki Murakami will present a reading and lecture in Japanese and English, to be followed by a conversation with Roland Kelts. The presentation will take place on Saturday, October 11, 2008, at Zellerbach Hall on the Berkeley campus.

From the event description: "The author's numerous works, which have been translated into 36 languages, lead the reader along the interstices between the mundane and the sublime. His work has been described as easily accessible, yet profoundly complex. Murakami's reading and lecture in Japanese and English will be followed by a conversation with Roland Kelts (Tokyo University lecturer and author of Japanamerica) and a question and answer period with the audience."

The next day, Sunday, October 12, at The Alumni House on the Cal Campus, there will be a special program examining Murakami's works in translation.

This event is free and open to the public.

Japanese Literature on the Global Stage
The Murakami Symposium
Sunday, October 12
10:00 AM-1:00 PM
Alumni House

Panel:

"Crazed Translator Gives Japanese Author Excedrin Headache"
Jay Rubin (Harvard Univ.)

"Lost in Translation? Murakami Haruki and the Japanization of the English Language"
Rebecca Suter (Univ. of Sydney)

"A Spatial Odyssey or, It‚s All Greek to Me: East Meets West in Murakami Haruki's Kafka On the Shore"
Matthew Strecher (Winona State Univ.)

"Are There Any More Like You at Home? Cloning Murakami Haruki for the US Market"
Stephen Snyder (Middlebury College)

Moderated by H. Mack Horton (UC Berkeley) and Alan Tansman (UC Berkeley)

We need your kanji photos!

Hey readers and kanji fans . . . we’re still looking for photos to add to our nearly completed book Crazy for Kanji by the amazing Eve Kushner. We’ve already got a bunch of photos, but we need more! If you have a photo of kanji in daily use, or kanji weird, funny, perverse, or distinctive, please send it to kanji@stonebridge.com.

If we use your kanji image, we’ll send you a copy of Eve’s book for free!

Here are the rules:

• tif or jpeg
• 300 dpi and up to 4 inches wide.
• black and white or color
• include your last name in the file name
• give your name as you want it to appear in the photo credit; or indicate "anonymous"
• provide a caption or a brief description of what's in the photo (assuming you know!), plus your preferred email contact address
  

IMPORTANT!! You must have permission to let us use the image. It can't belong to someone else and be submitted without that owner's permission.

The publisher decides which photos will be used and retains nonexclusive rights covering all usage, media, reprints, etc.

Don’t forget to check out Eve’s blog about kanji.

Thanks!

Why I Like Amazon's Kindle

Heres a very different take on what I wrote about last time.

*****

I've had a Kindle since June. Critics complain that it's not "Apple-like" enough. But Steve Jobs has famously said that readers don't want ebooks in the first place, so I suppose if the Kindle were truly Apple-like it would never have got off the drawing board (where Steve's hockey-puck mouse should have stayed; Apple's design sense is not unerring, you know).

The Kindle is the closest thing so far to the Holy Grail of e-publishing: a device that is portable, readable, simple to operate, and melts into the background. It's what you do with the Kindle that is important, and not the Kindle itself. At some point, you don't notice the Kindle, but you realize you can't live or work without it.

Well, I'm not there yet. But I'm liking my Kindle more and more. And it's not because the Kindle is a superior reading device. I like instead how easy it is to buy a book, no matter where you are. Two months ago we were driving through rural Oregon, listening to some political talk show. A book was mentioned. I turned on Kindle's wireless and was able to find and download a sample chapter of that book within 2 minutes. We were traveling 80 mph and probably a good 50 miles from the nearest bookstore. That Bezos et al. were able to graft the 1-click experience of instant gratification onto a whole new piece of hardware and get it right on the very first try is simply amazing.

Something else I like: I have to read a lot of manuscripts. They're heavy, and expensive to print out. I used to carry them in a bag on overnight or longer trips, and they always made me wonder why I didn't become a styrofoam cup salesman. With Kindle, I can send text documents to myself at my own Kindle address, and Amazon converts them back into Kindle-readable format and sends them direct to my Kindle. So I can carry dozens of mss without adding weight to my luggage.

And what's not to like about the savings in downed trees and fuel charges? As a publisher, I've seen the cost of shipping books to stores go through the roof, while at the same time consumers still resist paying more than $20 for a paperback. With a Kindle, there's no fuel, and no printing or storage charges for that matter. Skinflint readers can buy most Kindle books for less than $10.

Now that bookstores are demanding free freight from publishers, along with their unlimited returns privileges, anything we can do to go direct to readers is going to be better for us and better for our customers. Bookstores thus "disintermediated" will have to make do with selling journals, calendars, bargain books, and chai I suppose, or will have to do what they should have done years ago: accept that the publishing world is changing and that digital publishing in the form of Print on Demand and ebooks is going to be a big part of the mix in the years to come. (Why bookstores continually miss out on obvious trends is a mystery to me. I'll write more about this later.)

Kindle 2.0 no doubt will have a slicker design, less clunky navigation tools, a lower price, better response time, a workable internet browser. But for a first try, I rate it a great success. I like the world that it represents. It expands the reach and influence of publishers and writers at just the time when it is getting harder to find readers and much more costly economically and environmentally to get the content they want into their hands. Who needs hands when you've got screens?

*****

Yes, we mourn the loss of the bound book. But I wonder if that's not just blind attachment to tradition. In 2-3 generations, who will care, and what is it exactly that will really be lost? I'd be curious to know what you all think about that.

Birthing the Book, Against All Odds

I've just spent the last two days battling the likes of the US Post Office, DHL, ATT, and a bunch of other vendors of goods and services. I'm sure you all know the routine. Call, get placed on hold, lose the connection, redial, wait, talk to someone in Bombay with a silver tongue who knows less than you do. It's frustrating.

How disturbing and humbling it is, then, to find out that some customers and colleagues are just as frustrated with me. In the same two days, Stone Bridge has had an irate retail shop complain about what they perceived as poor service, and I've had more than one author express frustration at my, um, lack of promptness at communicating. I always tell people it's OK to prod me, and by now I guess I'm so used to being nagged that I rely on it as a form of triage to determine which crises I will attend to first.

So, in the midst of ongoing incompetence and carelessness, not a small amount of it of my own making, it's a wonder that our books ever get out the door and make it to the correct shelf of your average neighborhood bookstore (thanks to DHL, sometimes they just don't). It strikes me that over the years the process of publishing books has evolved to guard against quintessentially human failures. The author writes, and writes well, but the editors edit and edit and edit again. Then there are the fact checkers and the proofreaders, the peer reviewers, the publicists, the designers, all of whom poke and tweak and meticulously chase down what we in the trade call "infelicities."

In the end we have what we hope is bullet-proof, a good read and a solid production. The world around it may be going to hell, but, dammit, this little book is going to be birthed without typos, grammatical errors, or clashing text and display fonts.

Maybe that's one reason we value books. They are one little corner of existence treated as if being right or not counts for something. One aspect of civilization that goes down better when produced slowly, like a pig buried in a pit of coals and covered over for a day or two or three to let the goodness cook through. Books are the antithesis of our instant blog culture, which is why they will endure or, for that matter, die out.

Chinese Business Etiquette readies for new release

Now that the Olympics are over, it’s back to business! Dreaming of selling every person in China 1 widget and a thingie? Learn the ropes, and fast, with our just-launching Chinese Business Etiquette: The Practical Pocket Guide by business expert Stefan H. Verstappen. This short handbook covers everything from travel tips to negotiating strategies, with insight into culture and demeanor to help you figure out what’s going on and what you need to do to succeed. Competition is fierce. Personal connections count like nowhere else. Are you prepared? Preorder today!

Here’s what Stefan has to say about how to deal with one very popular technique for making you vulnerable during your business trip:

Attrition
Chinese negotiators have been known to wear down foreign negotiators by various diversions and extended discussions. Taking clients out for a dinner, karaoke, and drinking games into the early hours of the morning before important meetings is a favorite tactic.

Countermove
By preparing yourself and insuring due diligence ahead of your trip, you will be better able to deal with unexpected developments and make smart decisions despite suffering from lack of sleep and a possible hangover. Treat your trip to China like a marathon race. Pace yourself accordingly. Follow the Confucian model of moderation in all things to help you stay sharp and unfrazzled during what is ordinarily an exhilarating but taxing experience.

Any questions?

From Peter Goodman, Publisher

Thanks to ace publicist and communications master Ari Messer, who has left SBP and will be pursuing a writing career. The only people who make less than publishers are writers! But Ari knows what he's doing and I'm sure will be using his deft sentences and great intelligence to entertain and inform us in some fashion or another for years to come. 

Which explains my I'm taking over the blogging, at least for a while. So as long as I've got the opportunity, let me do a publishing shout-out (absent a proper colophon) to Nina, Reiko, Chris, and Jaime. Hope you guys are all doing well.

It's been a wild year, to say the least. Yohan in Japan went bankrupt, and here in the US so did Cody's Books. We had family connections to both companies, and while we're not a part of either our future plans have certainly been affected. It's been hard knowing that a lot of good publishing people have lost their jobs and that an encyclopedic amount of bookselling intelligence and experience is gone or at best lies dormant.

     I've been reading a lot of gleeful grave-dancing slaps at Yohan. Good riddance to the greedy bastards, I think is the thrust of public opinion. Well, as a one-time member of the Yohan family I can tell you that these were all good people who loved books, not a bunch of rapacious merchants. The Japan market had special costs that probably many of you are unaware of. For example, because many of the bookstores had no expertise in English, the Yohan salespeople had to constantly visit store after store, trimming up the shelves and counting stock. Every book imported had to be removed from its shipping carton and have an inventory tag hand-inserted in it because that's what the retailers insisted on, even though by all accounts it is in practical terms unnecessary, thanks to computers and barcodes. Return rates were high. And as you know, Amazon was pushing big discounts, and fuel charges were soaring (and are you aware that most Yohan stock was flown in from New York so that materials reached Japan soon after publication in the US?).

Look, I'm no apologist for Yohan. Obviously, they did a lot of things wrong. But you need to look at the bookselling industry as a whole and how it's changing. And also look at how consumers demand cheaper and cheaper. Everyone says they're in favor of independent booksellers and independent publishers, but in the end many of us shop at Amazon, Walmart, or wherever we think we can get the best deal. With gasoline in the US topping $4 a gallon (yes, I know that's cheap to you folks who live in Belgium), you can't blame people for stretching their dollars and trying their best to survive. Yohan, and Cody's, are in some respects just another Darwinian casualty.

       Well, as long as I'm blogging here for a while, if anyone has any questions for me about publishing, Stone Bridge, or what's up, just leave a comment here. 

     And I'm always interested in the next big thing. Any trends out there you think we should know about?

China Today

Larry and Qin Herzberg, authors of China Survival Guide, the first humorous guide to travel in China, are featured on the Calvin College website today, and the news story includes a clip from their forthcoming educational video about China.

Read the article and watch the video:


China Today: Chapters 1-3 & 22 from Calvin College on Vimeo.


Be sure to grab a copy of the China Survival Guide if you're heading overseas (or if you're already there). And if you're watching the Olympics and marveling at the lauded and shrouded architecture in Beijing, it might be time to pick up Frank S. Fang's China Fever, which details the economic and political history of growth and land use in China.

The Astro Boy Essays on Animated Views

Over at Animated Views, Raz Greenberg reviews Frederik L. Schodt's The Astro Boy Essays, writing that Schodt's story of Osamu Tezuka and his best-known creation, Astro Boy, is "wonderful...[the] first comprehensive study in English about one of the most important people in the history of both comics and animation." (read more...)

Another reminder to read the book on the plane to London for the Tezuka retrospective in September!

Wear Your Crazy Wisdom: Smiling Budd(n)a now at Cafe Press

If you have been enjoying Wes "Scoop" Nisker's new book, Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again!, then you were likely as mesmerized as we were by the cover design.

Now that same Buddha-in-DNA is available in countless different shapes and sizes, from coffee mugs to t-shirts, at Cafe Press.


And while we're at it, Obama Kana and Anime Classics Zettai! designs are still available!

McCarthy to curate major Tezuka retrospective

We're excited to announce that Anime Encyclopedia co-author Helen McCarthy will be curating the first major retrospective in the West of Osamu Tezuka, Japan's "God of Manga." The film festival will take place at the Barbican in London, September 18-24.

The full lineup is yet to be confirmed, but McCarthy told us that many of the films will be screening in the UK for the first time, and there have been some sneak peaks popping up around the Web...

The Astro Boy Essays, Frederik L. Schodt's remarkable book about Astro Boy, the manga/anime industry, Tezuka, and Schodt's personal relationship with the master artist, is available now. Take a copy with you on the plane, and we'll see you in London!