Designer Peter Mendelsund explains the cover design for Ben Marcus’s The Flame Alphabet.

Matt Mullin announcing the winners of the 2012 Publishing Innovation Awards.

Ken Wohlrob of the Random House Publishing Group accepting the award for the Jay-Z/Decoded app, which won the transmedia category.

Ryan Chapman (looking very campaign-trailish), introducing the 7X20X21 speakers at Digital Book World 2012. Speakers included Rachel Fershleiser, Tumblr’s Literary Community Organizer; Ruth Liebmann, Director of Account Marketing at Random House; Emily Gould and Ruth Curry, Founders of Emily Books; and Ronny Golan, Founder and CEO of Bookpulse.

Rachel Fershleiser talks up Tumblr and books as part of the 7X20X21 series.

Ruth Liebmann, Director of Account Marketing at Random House, talks up independent bookstores and booksellers as part of the 7X20X21 series.

Writer Ben Marcus reads from his novel The Flame Alphabet at Bookcourt in Brooklyn, NY, on Jan. 19, 2012.

In this Writers on Writing video, author Charles C. Mann encourages writers to write in such a way that readers feel they are engaged in a conversation when they are reading the work. Mann says, “When you write a book, if you’re lucky, your voice — it’s like you’re having a conversation with the reader. The reader feels like they’re having a talk with you. I know when I read a really good book, it’s like the writer’s voice is in my head, and I have this sense of this sort of friendly presence. And that’s, I think, what you want if you’re trying to talk about ideas, is to write in such a way that the person feels like ‘I’m on your side, I’m not trying to talk down to you, I’m not trying to drag you into terrain that you don’t want to go, I’m not this authority who’s lecturing you, I’m more like a guy who’s worked hard and learned some cool things that he wants to talk about.’ And I think that’s really important when you write.”

This video is part of Knopf Doubleday’s Writers on Writing series.

Picture of the hardcover of The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus, coming out on 1/17/11. That great cover was designed by the super-talented designer Peter Mendelsund. Be sure to check out the book’s awesome trailer, which does a very cool thing with the book jacket image at the very end.

This is an amazing short film/book trailer for Ben Marcus’s new novel The Flame Alphabet. It was created by Erin Cosgrove. Amazing colors and animation and darkness of story. One of the better book trailers, for sure. In fact, I’d rather not call it a book trailer at all. Short film is much more appropriate.

The short film and the book are getting some very nice attention, as they should be.

This is a really great trailer for the book A Monster Calls written by Patrick Ness and illustrated by Jim Kay. Tells a story, without giving too much away. Makes you want to know more about the book. Original art. Good sound quality — even edging the music with the sound of a needle on a record. The only thing I would do differently is get rid of the blurb at the end. Blurbs are over-used and I wish the publishing industry as a whole would stop relying on them. Stop pushing manufactured praise, and do a better job of encouraging engagement. In place of the blurb, I would have showcased a twitter hashtag, or the url to the facebook page of the author.

But that’s a minor quibble. Less about this great video and more about my issue with blurbs. Overall, fantastic trailer.

(Found via Laughing Squid.)

Please consider backing Kevin Sampsell’s Future Tense Books! Kevin has doing amazing things with his small press for years, and most importantly, he’s helped out and supported countless writers. Let’s make sure Future Tense is here for the long term!

I’m personally very excited to be getting “THE CHELSEA MARTIN EVERYTHING AND WHATEVER PACKAGE.” There are lots of great reward packages at different sponsorship levels, so review carefully, but act quickly!

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Comes out on October 25, 2011.