Here’s a little treat for you just before the holiday–something to think about. (It’s an extra post because I screwed up and posted yesterday instead of today–got my days mixed up with Jury Duty and the holiday and all.)
What would you think if you bought a book that you had to read in two months or the ink inside would just disappear? That’s right. You’d be left with a blank book. Great as a notebook or journal, but nothing left there for you to read.
Well, Argentine publishing house Eterna Cadencia created El Libro Que No Puede Esperar — translated, it means The Book That Can’t Wait. According to Eterna Cadencia, the concept was created to promote its up-and-coming writers who can’t wait two months or two years to be read. They need to be read now. Why? Because if buyers don’t read an author’s first book, they won’t know if they like that author’s work, which means they won’t read (or purchase) his next one either. And the sales of current books often determine if an author lands a contract for a next book.
The publishing house believes you are more likely to read a book you bought that’s going to lose its print within just a couple of months than to let it just sit with the other books stacked on your night stand. That disappearing ink lends a sense of urgency.
Draftcb, an ad agency, won a gold medal award at the Cannes PR Lions for the idea of a book that completely goes blank two months after you open it and expose it to sunlight and air. Eterna Cadencia‘s El Libro Que No Puede Esperar is an anthology of its new authors.
The question remains, would you pay all that money for a book that ends up blank? Would you want your book printed with disappearing ink?
No disappearing ink for my books. They’ve left a trail, purchased or gifted, sold at yard sales, ended up on Amazon by high-power sellers. I’ve read a favorite books several times. I expect it to be there, ready to read, when I choose to lift it from the bookshelf again this fall.
I’m with you, Violet!