Simon & Schuster Sees 2008, Gets It Wrong

Writers Get Close on Web [Wall Street Journal paywall]
Writers Get Close on Web [Google paywall detour]

With fewer authors going on extended tours and fewer bookstores around to host signing events, Simon & Schuster is betting it can build author readership, and sales, through video interviews in which its writers answer reader questions sent by email.

So, you submit a question that might be answered.

And when?

And why the hell should anyone want to see it answered in a video?

This is like Writer In A Box.

You know, like Jack In A Box.

Except instead of spinning a handle, you click on a question and a writer pops up.

Welcome to 2008, print publishing, where I said it better:

How Our Future Does Things
This Is The Future Of Book Tours
Reference: Internet Video Chat
How Our Future Does Things
I Am Internationally Persecuted!
Live jkk & Chippy!

Now catch the hell up!

In case print publishing wants to catch up to other bits of 2008 too:

Reference: Author Trading Cards
Reference: Author Trading Cards
eBook Signings: The Postcard Solution?

Forbrydelsen: Post-Mortem

Forbrydelsen is a TV series from Denmark that aired in 2007.

I forget exactly how it came to my attention this past week. Probably because I tripped across a link that said AMC-TV was doing an American version of it.