May 27, 2012

Publishing... Flipped!


Publishing... Flipped!

It is conventional wisdom  that old-fashioned ink and pulp publishing is either in its death throes ("about to slide into the sea," the linked author opined) or very, very sick. Yet this diagnosis results from seeing publishing at odds with new technology, with the internet, with the digital present.

What if, like the Khan Academy (which is "flipping" the educational model), we figured out how to "flip" the publishing model in a way that preserves what is good, adopts what is new and useful, and filters out what is harmful and useless?

I think we have found that way, and I invite you to join with us - our Tribe of Russophiles and bibliophiles - to prove it can be done.

First, some background. According to the old (and still clinging to the gangplank) publishing model, knowing editors, agents and publishers decided what was right and good for the public to read. They would work for months and years creating their products before unleashing them upon the world as the Great Thing we have all been waiting for (but which until five minutes ago we did not even know existed).

Of course, because it's pretty hard to predict in advance what people might like, this system results in lots more misses than hits. It is highly inefficient and leads to tons of unsold books being remaindered or destroyed. 

There has to be a better way that doesn't waste so many trees, so much time. What if the decades-old model were flipped?

What if, when we publishers (or authors) had a great idea, we fleshed it out, then - thanks to the new efficiencies of communication - pitched the idea to our Tribe a la the Lean Startup, asking for feedback and improvements? If one's Tribe likes the idea and you convince them, you go ahead and produce the book. If not, you start over and try something else (or take it to a different Tribe). 

There are all sorts of implications to this manner of publishing (not least of which taking on the ridiculous way books are retailed in this country), but I won't go into that right now. The main thing is that despite iPods and Tivos and Kindles, I feel people still yearn for books, for the tactile sensation of turning pages, for the smell of a new book, for the joy of cracking a binding for the first time, turning down pages, making notes in margins, falling asleep with a splayed novel on their chest. I know I do.

Books are to be cherished. And publishing can save itself if it can flip.

It's what we are doing, starting right now... 

We have an ambitious, exciting new publishing project. It's a trilogy of historical espionage novels that we think could be hugely, wildly popular. Problem is, the books are in Russian. And translating and creating a quality product of this scale is a major investment. So we're turning to you, our Tribe of Russophiles and bibliophiles, to partner with us on this.

If, based on your experience with us, you feel we create quality products, things that you find interesting and that you want to have in your home library, you can join with us on this publishing project at the front end instead of the rear.

You'll get a book (or more) out of it, and you'll get the satisfaction of being involved in a new type of publishing. Flipped.

The project is called The Silk Road Trilogy. And you can read about it here (http://kck.st/silkroadtrilogy).

Join us, won't you?

Paul Richardson
Flipped Publisher



UPDATES

On July 15, 2012, our Kickstarter project closed and we hit the goal! Thank you to all those who have believed in and crowd-funded this project. 

Translation is underway and will be completed in the spring. The first book  - The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas - will be released in the fall of 2013 (good translations take time :). 

April 15, 2013: The translation is now complete, we have a wonderful new cover and an excellent map for the book, and the final process of line editing, proofing and revising is well underway! Release date is set for September 1, 2013. Project partners will see their books this summer.

 
 
 
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Some of Our Books

Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
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A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

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The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.

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