oldpub warehouse

Oldpub Cope

A viral tweet that made the rounds over the weekend caused quite a stir in oldpub circles. Family festivities kept me from covering the story yesterday, so we'll dive in now. The background is that two of the big New York publishers are embroiled in antitrust litigation. An oldpub author…
September 6, 20225 Comments
book ban

Outsourcing Censorship

Among the most frustrating aspects of being involved in dissident politics these days is the pushback that often comes from one's nominal allies. Perhaps the most common form of this internecine resistance is the refusal of many older Conservatives and Libertarians to acknowledge that their own side is being censored…
August 2, 20225 Comments
The Last Fanatics

The Last Fanatics

Author J.D. Cowan returns with a new volume that gives readers the autopsy report on what - or who - killed the pulps. Once upon a time, there was a tradition of storytelling that went back into the Gothic romances all the way through the fairy tales into the classics. It…
July 7, 20225 Comments
Airplaine! Soviet Newscaster

Moral Extortion

The Mafia remains a fixture of American movies and television, long after the peak of its power. That's because for a span of 50 years in the early-to-late 20th century, the mob exerted tremendous influence - not just on the street - but in unions, legitimate businesses, and even government.…
June 17, 202215 Comments
Sanderson's Neopatronage Masterclass

Sanderson’s Neopatronage Masterclass

Back in March, this blog reported on rock star author Brandon Sanderson's all-time number one Kickstarter campaign. At the time of that writing, Sanderson's crowdfunder had amassed over $35 million, an unprecedented sum not only for a book project, but for the crowdfunding site itself. But in a recent update…
June 14, 20225 Comments
Nepatron Brandon

Neopatron Brandon

Longtime readers of this blog will know that a core theme here is charting the death of oldpub and trying to envision what comes next. I predicted oldpub's demise years ago, not that it takes a prophet to foresee that a business locked into expanding its share of a contracting…
March 28, 202210 Comments
Bravalanche

The Bravalanche

A concept introduced on this blog that's gained some traction in newpub is the neopatronage model. Though still developing, this is the proposition that societal changes will cause a shift away from the old entertainment business model. Instead of artists selling their rights to corporations in exchange for access to…
March 3, 202216 Comments
patrons

Neopatronage Revisited

In light of Amazon's latest shenanigans, this time involving Dragon Award-winning mega best seller Nick Cole, author Benjamin Cheah revisits my concept of neopatronage. During the Renaissance, the wealthy supported up-and-coming artists through a patronage system. The artist was able to earn a living and create masterworks. The wealthy in…
January 19, 20229 Comments
eBook Zombie Memes Won’t Die

eBook Zombie Memes Won’t Die

If recent events have taught us anything, it's that we can't trust experts or establishment media. Independent journalists and internal whistleblowers caught Google manipulating search results around the 2016 election. More than one online consumer revolt disclosed that journalists maintain secret email lists to collude on disinfo ops.All of which…
April 12, 202110 Comments
No Seuss for You

No Seuss for You

Conservatives catch a lot of flak for their failure to conserve pretty much anything. Now we can add Dr. Seuss books to the rapidly lengthening list.Predictably, the mainstream media are rushing to the book burning with jugs of kerosene and bags of marshmallows. Just as typically, their Conservative media camp…
March 3, 202126 Comments