You can subscribe to newspapers.
You can subscribe to magazines.
Why can't you subscribe to books and records?
This manifesto lens is a call to action: More book publishers with consistently high-quality and focused offerings should offer subscription options.
There aren't many publishers that currently support subscriptions.
The ones that do are well worth supporting.
Hard Case Crime
More mysteries for the masses
In September 2004, former Juno CEO and Columbia University grad Charles Ardai founded Hard Case Crime, a wily imprint that aims to feature the best of old -- and new -- hardboiled crime fiction.Featuring work by Lawrence Block, Max Allan Collins, Erle Stanley Gardner, Pete Hamill and Ed McBain, as well as lesser-known authors, the company is a veritable who's who of crime fiction.
With the success of Stephen King's The Colorado King, which brought the imprint to the mainstream reading public's attention, as well as the recently released The Last Quarry by Max Allan Collins, the publisher is poised to become even more important and influential. Vinatge Crime/Black Lizard, look out!
You can currently subscribe to Hard Case Crime's releases via Dorchester Publishing.
Referenced Texts
Books worth a look
The Girl With the Long Green Heart (Hard Case Crime)
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price: $0.64
The Last Quarry (Hard Case Crime)
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price: $1.40
Top Of The Heap (Hard Case Crime)
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price: $0.79
The Guns of Heaven (Hard Case Crime)
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price: $1.37
The Gutter And the Grave (Hard Case Crime)
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price: $0.15
The Colorado Kid (Hard Case Crime)
Amazon Price: $5.99 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price: $0.01
McSweeney's
Postmodern lit for the more-than-ironic
Following the success of his memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and a pending movie option, author David Eggers has only invested his proceeds well.Funding a number of community centers, two little magazines (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern and The Believer, the DVD magazine Wholphin and a publishing imprint or two, Eggers has also embraced the subscription model.
Via the McSweeney's Book Release Club, ready readers can trust Eggers' editorial taste and sign up for a series of forthcoming books slated for publication. I'm a recent subscriber, and so far, the books I've read have been spot on.
So sign up, already.
Mentioned Texts
Books worth a look
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price: $1.06
Voyage Along the Horizon: A Novel
Amazon Price: $12.00 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price: $0.01
McSweeney's Issue 19 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern)
Amazon Price: $14.96 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price: $8.93
Believer
Amazon Price: $55.00 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price:
Wholphin - DVD
Amazon Price: $60.00 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price:
Soft Skull Press
Pure publishing poetry
I've followed scrappy political and postmodern prose, poetry, and nonfiction publisher Soft Skull Press since it was launched by Sander Hicks.Just this spring, the ever-intelligent imprint introduced a subscription model for its poetry line. For $50, subscribers will receive eight -- count 'em, eight -- poetry titles, including CAConrad's Deviant Propulsion, which I read upon receiving it, and for a limited time only, Daniel Nester's God Save My Queen.
The model is slightly flawed, as I received 4-5 of the books upon subscribing -- the benefit of the subscription model is the monthly mailing -- but it's still worth supporting.
Mentioned Texts
Books worth a look
Deviant Propulsion: Poems
Amazon Price: $13.95 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price: $6.92
God Save My Queen: A Tribute
Amazon Price: $11.70 (as of 09/05/2008)
Used Price: $1.40
Other Examples
Other publishers to consider
- RE/Search Publications
- This small imprint doesn't have a formal subscription model, but I sent publisher V. Vale $100 awhile ago, and he's been sending me every book they publish, as it's published, in a timely manner. Our understanding is that this will continue until my "tab" runs out. At which point, I shall "resubscribe." Vale does good book.
- Worldwide Mystery
- This imprint associated with the Harlequin romance novels offers frequent shipments of quality reprints (largely, if not solely) of mass-market mystery novels. You can also subscribe to Harlequin proper, but this is the only imprint I've had experience with.
- Zooba
- This isn't a publisher, but it's the most flexible subscription-based book club I've encountered to date. Rather than sign up for the Science Fiction Book Club or the Book of the Month Club, which involves response cards, this service offers a Netflix-like subscription model. You subscribe, you establish a queue of books you want sent, and they send a book a month -- for $10. Limited selection, so be "warned."
One Model Done Wrong
A case that could have, should have worked better
Worldwide, a division of Harlequin, also apparently publishes the Gold Eagle line of men's adventure novels. Including Don Pendleton's Mac Bolan: The Executioner series, as well as Mac Bolan "super novels," Stony Man books, the Able Team, Phoenix Force, Outlands, Deathlands, and similar fictions, the line is available via subscription if you send in a bind-in card included in one of the books.But not by any other manner -- and not in any other form. I once exchanged emails with someone at Gold Eagle indicating that I didn't want six books a month, I wanted two: just the Executioner novels. Nothing doing.
That said, you can subscribe, the price isn't overly prohibitive, and if you can read as fast as I can and can stomach as much testosterone-driven genre fiction as I can't, perhaps this model is for you.
A more flexible model would entice more readers, I wager.
Non-Book Precursors
Other media matter
- Hello Recording Club
- This CD subscription series curated by John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants Fame, was active between 1993-97. I only obtained one or two during its lifespan, and they were good, good, good. Small, focused labels should totally offer subscription options. Like a label-specific Columbia House.
- Sub Pop Singles Club
- Another defunct musical experiment, this failure, too, shouldn't be read as a sign that the subscription model can't work in the record biz. Basically, you'd sign up, and you'd get a ground-breaking 7-inch every month. The key to these things is keeping production and promotion costs low enough to support an empassioned, but small subscriber base. I'd sign up for something like this again in a minute. A minute!
- Unheard Music Subscription Service
- Atavistic's annual subscription series highlights seven specialty CDs largely focusing on European instrumental, improvised, and experimental jazz. When I signed up, I received almost of the releases at the same time, so it might not be a true subscription service.
