LernerMedia Journal
Friend, colleague, and science-publishing guru K. Lee Lerner wrote today to announce the launch of his new company blog, the LernerMedia Journal. Lee and his wife, Brenda, run a publishing and media company that produces top-notch reference works among many other endeavors. I always told Lee and Brenda that they should start a blog, what with their constant globe-trotting and wide array of interesting projects. (Look at Lee’s LinkedIn profile and tell me it’s not the description for a character out of a Steve Berry novel.) Now that they’ve obliged, I’m sure their blog traffic will quickly swamp that of our humble SchlagerBlog. No matter–they deserve every bit of attention they get. If you are interested in publishing, media, and science, here’s a great new source of information for you. Congratulations, Lee and Brenda!
January 6th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
You are way too kind.
First off, I’ve been reading your blog since it started. Your posts on the publishing business are always insightful. I’m not sure where to go with my blog. I mainly see it as a chance to write something other than science and tell some funny stories from time to time. We’ll see how it develops.
Second, I must now run to the store buy a bunch of Steve’s books and make sure all his protagonists live. Whatever, its been an interesting life — but I’m now reduced to just trying to be colorful.
An “active” day now consists of work, work, and more work — followed by pushing bicycle pedals far too slowly, or trying to win a few extra euro by hustling games pétanque in Paris. Given the tough times facing publishing and media, I might need to incorporate my expected winnings into our P/L structure.
Writing for you on your RUSA award winning Science and Its Times, (gad, was that nearly 10 years ago?) showed us what good editors must do to assure quality books. To this day, I know of no one who does it better than you. At LernerMedia we are still on the learning curve compared to you. As imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I’m constantly watching the growth of your company and shadowing your every move. Accordingly:
(1) Every time you hire a very skilled assistant, I hire a child or relation– regardless of qualifications
(2) When you opened an office in a chic urban area of Dallas, I immediately had our sailboat declared a “second office.” No amount of rolling or bobbing seemed to alter my typo-to-text ratio anyway. Also, I had SIRIUS radio installed so that we could listen to the urban music channels.
(3) You win an Outstanding Academic Title award — we win one too, but I’m forced to site the seal off your site to put on ours. Actually I did that at first — but was so humiliated after a few hours and afraid you would notice that my seal had the same slight shadings that I then swiped a seal off an MIT site to replace it.
(4) As soon as our Cornerstone Theories in Science series starts, I’ll send you a poster!.
Yep, I’m hot on your heels, Neil!
Cheers,
Lee
…just kidding about the Cornerstone Documents and Theories of Science series. But when you do it and win a Pulitzer, I want seats at the award ceremony and .0000001% of the profits.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
You win an Outstanding Academic Title award — we win one too, but I’m forced to site the seal off your site to put on ours.
…SWIPE the seal off your site…
What I need to do is swipe your excellent copyeditors.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:23 am
You crack me up, Lee. Too funny. In all seriousness, though, the imitation and flattery goes both ways–and that’s the great thing about business relationships. For instance, we have a lot to learn from you when it comes to building a community of experts around a topic. I bet a lot of publishers, big and small, would love to have the kind of activity that you see on your forums every month. So I’ll continue to look in your direction too for smart ideas about building a community and growing a business.
You should definitely check out Steve Berry: he writes intelligent, well-crafted thrillers with a historical bent. His hero is Cotton Malone, a southerner and ex-military guy who ends up living in Europe as a bookstore owner–and getting involved in all sorts of interesting adventures and quests.