The Daily Beast To Print Books—Fast
The Daily Beast, Tina Brown’s 11-month old web magazine, is going into the books business. A new Daily Beast - Perseus Books joint venture, Beast Books, will print books written by Daily Beast staffers, according to the NYT. The niche: Uber-quick turnaround times. Authors will write up their texts in one to three months and e-book versions will come out a month later; followed by print copies. “There is a real window of interest when people want to know something,” Brown tells the NYT. “And that window slams shut pretty quickly in the media cycle.”
The NYT notes that past attempts at speeding up the book publishing cycle have not exactly been big hits—but the Daily Beast starts with some notable advantages, including a loyal user base which will already be familiar with the authors of the titles. The Daily Beast had nearly 900,000 unique visitors last month, according to Compete figures, and the site will advertise the books to them by linking to online retailers.
For now, plans are modest. Only three to five books will be printed over the next year. First up: Attack of the Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America, which is being written by CNN commentator (and Daily Beast contributor) John Avlon.
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