05/22/02
- The Most Amazing Thing A Finalist
for 18th Annual Benjamin Franklin Award
in
Recognition of Excellence in Independent
Publishing
New York, NY - May 21, 2002 (Xpress
Press) Publishers Marketing Association
(PMA) recently honored the best books
and marketing programs in 54 categories
at the annual Benjamin Franklin Awards
handed out in New York just ahead of the
annual Book Expo America conference.
Named
as one of three finalist in the Popular
Fiction category, The Most Amazing Thing
was highlighted for excellence in editorial
and design merit by a panel of book industry
experts including buyers at wholesale
and retail levels, librarians, book critics,
design experts and independent publishing
consultants.
Full
Text...
03/24/02
- "Prepare to be Amazed,"
by Faris Cassell for the Eugene Register-Guard
IT'S
BEST NOT to read Robert Grudin's new novel,
"The Most Amazing Thing," when you're
in a straight-faced, buttoned-down mood.
The
plot of this coming-of-age adventure is
plain loopy at times. The characters range
from distressingly weird to quixotic.
The hero of the tale, which is written
in the form of a journal, correctly warns
readers that parts of the book are "gross,
horrible and revolting."
It's
best to approach this literary experience
with your mind unfettered and ready for
anything, because that is what's in store
in this outrageous, wacky, freewheeling
and, ultimately, brilliant and provocative
commentary on American life.
Grudin,
a former University of Oregon English
professor, has produced a dark, scathing
satire that already has proved itself
to be astonishingly, unhappily prophetic.
Embedded in the story, written several
years ago, are metaphorical descriptions
with uncanny similarities to Enron, al-Qaeda
and the ominous increase in the power
of Colombian drug lords.
The
book also is, in equal measure, an admiring,
hopeful vision of the American spirit
that readers can hope will prove equally
prescient.
Continued...
10/23/01-
Pulitzer-nominated
Author Embraces New Business Model for
Book Publishing
Palo
Alto, CA - October 22, 2001 (Xpress
Press) - The publication of Robert
Grudin's second novel, The Most Amazing
Thing, brings to the world an epic
tale of the American spirit embodied in
the rise and fall of the world's richest,
most exuberant personality. So too it
marks the arrival of a new publishing
model and fundamental shift in the author-publisher
relationship.
Author
Robert Grudin, publisher Knowhere Press,
and artist Grace Ku have founded White
Wolf, LLC, as a means of establishing
a collaborative, venture-based publishing
model that alters the economics, ownership,
and creative process involved in book
making.
Unlike
a traditional publishing arrangement,
in which the author assigns rights in
exchange for an advance fee on future
royalties, Grudin has assigned the rights
of The Most Amazing Thing to White
Wolf in exchange for a majority ownership
in the company. "White Wolf lets the publisher
realize a profit from his investment while
leaving the author as majority shareholder
in the publishing venture. The publisher
and the author share the risk: the publisher
by bankrolling the venture, the author
by doing without an advance on royalties,"
comments Grudin. Organized around the
principle that the artist's work be managed
as a venture, each member of White Wolf
has contributed a component in exchange
for ownership in the company. Based upon
the distribution of ownership, all members
of the company share in the revenues generated
by property in all of the forms it may
take, including electronic, print, movie,
and merchandising.
Knowhere
Press, a division of the MG Taylor Corporation,
is using White Wolf as a means of applying
a patented methodology of collaboration
and co-design to the publishing process.
Since 1980, MG Taylor has been developing
and implementing an integrated system
of work processes, tool sets, and physical
environments necessary for creating and
managing complex emergent systems, or
"valuewebs," acting within a knowledge-based
economy. "A network economy does not think
in supply chain terms or in departmental
boxes. It thinks and acts as a web of
ideas, people, processes, markets, tools,
environments," remarks MG Taylor co-founder
Gail Taylor. "Co-creation replaces the
linear way of thinking and doing where
each part gets it 'right' and passes it
to the next part to get it 'right' who
passes it on and so forth. Valueweb communities
work concurrently, changing hats where
appropriate, competing, cooperating ...
constantly evolving to bring higher order
solutions, people, and opportunities into
the web."
Knowhere
Press believes this way of working, which
has been used by MG Taylor to create,
grow, and manage hundreds of business
ventures, offers tremendous potential
value to the publishing industry. "There
are ways," comments publisher Todd
Johnston, "to reduce by an order
of magnitude the time it takes to get
an idea from the author's mind into the
market and onto the reader's bookshelf."
Grudin, who has extensive experience working
with large publishing houses, agrees,
adding, "working with Knowhere Press allows
me to keep in close contact with my book
at every stage of its design, production
and marketing. These interactions have
enhanced my sense of authorship and have
taught me much about the craft of making
books." Add the Internet to the mix, as
well: an online version of The Most Amazing
Thing was serialized and published chapter
by chapter between May and September.
The
Most Amazing Thing, Robert Grudin's
sixth book, arrives in stores this December.
Twice nominated for a Pulitzer, each of
the author's five previous works has been
hailed as an important contribution to
a separate field (Renaissance studies,
philosophy of time, creativity research,
academic satire and dialogics). His previous
novel, Book, received a Pulitzer nomination
from Random House and made the New York
Times list of 100 Notable Books of the
Year in 1992. His essays and reviews have
appeared in the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal,
and the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Grudin graduated from Harvard College
and received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature
from the University of California at Berkeley.
Until 1998 he was a professor of English
at the University of Oregon.
Grace
Ku, a graduate of the Academy of Art College
in San Francisco, is a freelance multi-media
artist specializing in illustration, painting,
poetry, web design, and art direction.
In addition to numerous corporate clients
throughout Silicon Valley, her work has
been shown in galleries and competitions
in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Gilroy, and
San Jose.
Established
in 1997 to publish content related to
the work of MG Taylor Corporation, Knowhere
Press has since expanded its scope to
include materials in subject areas including
the creative process, collaboration, innovation,
knowledge work, and personal and organizational
transformation.
For
further information, visit these websites:
http://www.whitewolfllc.com
http://www.knowherepress.com
http://www.themostamazingthing.com
Contact:
Todd Johnston
Telephone: 650 906 0067
Email: todd@thoughtnotstatic.com
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