Book trailers go arty

(Ed. We're lovin' that it's "de rigeur" now! 15 years and the world has cauight up!)

With all the doom and gloom hovering over publishing, it's easy to miss the bright spots on the horizon. One of the more promising trends of recent years has been book trailers. If you're rereading that sentence and scratching your head, you're not alone; but while the earliest of these were basically bad PowerPoint presentations, the medium has come a long way. Unlike their older cousins — movie previews — book trailers often avoid plot in favor of a creative response to the release they're promoting; the best ones are more like standalone digital shorts than standard PR ammo. In our feature, Sabrina Jaszi delves into this young wing of the publishing industry that plays by the rules of social media. Of course, we wouldn't leave you without some coverage of honest-to-goodness printed matter, too. This week, we review Mary Gaitskill's latest collection of stories; a nonfiction account of obsession over a lost Amazonian city; and an envelope-pushing memoir about the paradoxes of memory.

- Toby Warner, Managing Editor, Flavourpill

For the whole story, visit http://tinyurl.com/d34czn