Book Collection: The Library Policeman

[vincent]

That letter is awesome, man. Interesting what he says about not reading horror. Wonder what King reads when he’s not writing best seller horrors.

Do you have "On Writing"? At the back King lists all the best books he's read. If you have a recent edition, the list goes up to 2009. If we only had the time, we could try to match that list!

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

That letter is awesome, man. Interesting what he says about not reading horror. Wonder what King reads when he’s not writing best seller horrors.

Do you have "On Writing"? At the back King lists all the best books he's read. If you have a recent edition, the list goes up to 2009. If we only had the time, we could try to match that list!

He posts all the books he is currently reading on his Twitter page. He used to post them on his EW column before he had a Twitter page.

[herbertwest]

A few years back I worked on a (unpublished) book, about Stephen King's recommendations.
He included blurbs, introductions etc, and I still keep track of what King recommends on twitter or blurbs.

I stopped working on it in 2014 after trying to find an american agent and publisher since 2011, and so far it's 257 pages + additional not sorted notes.

[vincent]

A few years back I worked on a (unpublished) book, about Stephen King's recommendations.
He included blurbs, introductions etc, and I still keep track of what King recommends on twitter or blurbs.

I stopped working on it in 2014 after trying to find an american agent and publisher since 2011, and so far it's 257 pages + additional not sorted notes.

That sounds like wonderful and valuable work and it's a shame it hasn't (yet) come to fruition!

[peripheral]

Yeah, that sounds like a great idea, Jeremy. Thought of self publishing?

[The Library Policeman]

Those Outsiders do look very cool. And that letter that mentions King is also pretty neat.
P.S I went back a few pages. Man do you have some very very cool stuff. Bravo on having such a
vast collection.

Love that Herbert letter... (I don’t know how you source this stuff!!) congrats, mate

Well thats just cool as hell.. Congrats, buddy!

That letter is awesome, man. Interesting what he says about not reading horror. Wonder what King reads when he’s not writing best seller horrors.

Thanks all. And Jeremy, that book sounds like a wonderful idea.

[herbertwest]

Yeah, that sounds like a great idea, Jeremy. Thought of self publishing?

Yes I did, but it's complicated.

I had noticed the book "1001 movies to see before you die", and thought that it could be a similarish idea and i've contacted Octopus Publishing that was behind it. If I recall correcty, they werent opened to submissions at the time.

The american book market worls with agents. I therefore registered to the Publishers Marketplace and bought a few "Guide to Literary agents", which is a yearly book. It helped me trying to reach several agents which I felt were relevant in the field or shared interests that could help with my project.
I also contacted a few publishers, directly, even though the market works with agents.

When I was getting replies, it was usually to say that given the nature of the book which reproduced blurbs and excerpts of essays, I would need to get the permissions of the publishers to be able to reproduce them. But then, let's be honnest : I couldnt get the permission of 100s of sources. And are blurbs really copyrighted?
There is a big debate out there, since it's a promotional tool and is freely reproduced online.

If I recall correctly, I was using 3 main sources :
- Blurbs, and authors websites : too many to get authorisations for each of them

- Danse Macabre : I believe that the publisher told me that it would be ok to use what I was looking for as long as I dont use more than 10% of the book and that it doesnt represend more than 10% of my book. Which was fine when I tested it. The rights would cost 8000$ per edition or format.

- Entertainment Weekly : here is the BIG issue. They told me that they would need to have an editor going through the material to make sure that I didnt edit anything or something like this, but otherwise gave me an estimated quote of 800,000$ for the rights. Which just a little bit of money.... and therefore impossible! Even as a crowdfunding project, it's not going to happen, let's be honnest.


I however contact King's office, hoping that his authorisation could help with the project.
But because of his busy schedule, he couldnt take a look at it without the interest of a publisher.


So in short : I cannot get King to look at it without someone being interested, and I cannot get anyone interested without an interest from King.
The project was therefore in a dead end.



When I had ambition for the project, I contacted directly a few publishers :
- Amazon Publishing : because at the time they launched 47North, an imprint about Fantasy/Horror and I thought that would else would benefit more from this book? If some readers want to discover more about a book/movie/music recommended by Stephen King, they would likely turn to the website to order it.
Therefore, direct sales from the book + indirect sales!
I even tried sending a pitch to Jeff Bezos, but I doubt that he got the email ahah!
- Octopus Publishing, because of their "1001 xxxx before you die"
- Becker & Mayer : who released Bev's The Illustrated Stephen King Companion
- Fall River Press (Sterling Publishing, owned by Barnes & Nobles)
- Bookspan / Direct Brands : which according to my notes was dealing with the Doubleday Book Club, as well as Doubleday, as well as the BotMC & The Stephen King Horror Library
- Crown Publishing (Random House)
- Dark Horse
- Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster)
- Gollancz
- Hachette Group
- Hard Case Crime
- HarperCollins : since they were supposedly launching "Infinitum Nihil" a new imprimt by Johnny Depp which seems to me to be fitting even if I dont remember why
- NAL / Penguin Random House, which released Bev's The Dark Tower Companion
- Scribner
- Simon & schuster (group)
- Taschen : http://www.taschen.com/pages/fr/cata...ture/index.htm
- Titan Books
- Touchstone (Simon & Schuster)
- Tor Books
etc etc


So I have a couple of copies on my shelves, and files on my laptop. The whole experience was time consuming but it was nonetheless interesting to see how the book market works.

I doubt that anything would ever happen to it, and accepted that idea. But if maybe someone with knowledge and contacts in the book industry want to take a look at it and see if anything can be done. Even by reworking the entire idea, sure.
Maybe Bev would be interested?

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

If you do publish and Stephen King then recommends your book, you'd have to put his recommendation of your recommendations in the 2nd printing.

[herbertwest]

Ahah !

[The Library Policeman]

That was an interesting read, Jeremy. Looks like you would need the patience of a saint (and plenty of cash) to get published!

[herbertwest]

Or a project that doesn't involve copyrighted content?

[peripheral]

That was an interesting read, Jeremy. Looks like you would need the patience of a saint (and plenty of cash) to get published!

Was about to say the same thing as Alan. Plus, seems you've had an exhaustive, methodical process. I have hope for you, I think the idea is great... Surely there's some movers and shakers here that can have a lead? Hmmmm... CD or PS maybe?

[herbertwest]

I did contact CD about it in the past. Both Richard & Brian I believe. But I do not remember if I did not hear back, or simply they werent interested

[The Library Policeman]

Was looking through my promo items and remembered this little gem. It was one of the last things I bought before I became seriously ill back in 2016.

Fire Starter Futura Promo Matchbook:







This was a promotional item from Australia I believe. For the Futura paperback version of the book.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

Nice! Never saw that before.

I hope you're not still ill!

[MikeDuke]

Those are pretty cool. And I hope you are feeling better.

[HONKYTONKSMASH]

Ah man.. that matchbook is cool as hell

[vincent]

wow that matchbook is indeed magnificent! I never cared for the Futura paperbacks, but I guess I care a little more for them now

[Brian861]

That's cool (or hot), Alan!

[Father Cody]

Awesome. Love promo stuff that plays off the story like that.

[Hunchback Jack]

That's incredibly neat!

(And silly me, I wondered, "Why would they use a matchbook as a promotional item for a book?". I'm such a dummy.)

HBJ

[Stockerlone]

Supercool Alan, first time i see this Firestarter matchbook.
I only know the German STCB promo matches...

[Brian861]

Those are pretty cool also, Frank.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

Those strike me as being matchless.

[The Library Policeman]

Nice! Never saw that before.

I hope you're not still ill!

Those are pretty cool. And I hope you are feeling better.

Ah man.. that matchbook is cool as hell

wow that matchbook is indeed magnificent! I never cared for the Futura paperbacks, but I guess I care a little more for them now

That's cool (or hot), Alan!

Awesome. Love promo stuff that plays off the story like that.

That's incredibly neat!

(And silly me, I wondered, "Why would they use a matchbook as a promotional item for a book?". I'm such a dummy.)

HBJ

Supercool Alan, first time i see this Firestarter matchbook.
I only know the German STCB promo matches...

Those are pretty cool also, Frank.

Those strike me as being matchless.

Thank you all.