ADVANCE PROMOTION IS DEAD Your anticipatory hype is forgotten in the endless tsunami of new data. It makes no sense to build anticipation, it just dissipates. Now you pounce when the story is hot. Radiohead started it, Beyonce improved upon it and now Michael Lewis is taking it to the book business. The new watchword […]

BOOKSTORES There was a front page story in the “New York Times” on the dearth of bookstores in Manhattan. I’m sick and tired of all the baby boomers lamenting the loss of yesterday. Sure, rents are high, sure Manhattan is quick becoming an artist free world, but that’s because of income inequality, the loss of […]

I read it with my iPhone. No, I don’t read it ON my iPhone, (oh wait, that’s not true, I do, the night before, when I can’t wait for tomorrow’s news), but with my handheld wireless device by my side, in my pocket, ready to look up anybody who says something provocative or intimate…I want […]

Would Bob Dylan have made it without Albert Grossman? I just read a new music industry book entitled “Cowboys and Indies,” which will be published in June. I doubt it will be a runaway success, unlike “Hit Men,” it contains no bombshells. But it does add a deeper layer of insider knowledge to the stories […]