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would you watch author interviews online?
A recent article in the New York Times describes an author interview program that you will be able to watch online. Here’s the story:
New Literary Program to Make Its Home Online
By MOTOKO RICH
“Daniel Menaker, who left his post as executive editor in chief of the Random House Publishing Group in June, is moving online in March to be the host of a new Web-based book show.
The show, to be called “Titlepage,” will feature a round-table discussion between Mr. Menaker, 66, a former fiction editor at The New Yorker, and a group of four authors. The first episode will be streamed online at titlepage.tv on March 3. The idea is to take advantage of the fact that it’s much easier to post video online than to get a show on television.
“Titlepage” will combine elements of “Apostrophes,” a popular French literary program; “The Charlie Rose Show” on public television; and “Dinner for Five,” in which a group of actors discussed their craft, on the Independent Film Channel.
The show is the brainchild of Odile Isralson and Lina Matta, documentary filmmakers. “It’s not really a brilliant idea in the sense that I grew up with it,” Ms. Isralson, 46, said. “I’m originally from Belgium and I grew up watching ‘Apostrophes.’ I moved to New York in 1983 and always wondered why it didn’t exist.”
Ms. Isralson and Ms. Matta, who is now head of programming for an English-language television channel in Dubai, approached Mr. Menaker last summer with the offer to be the host and to act as editorial producer.
Mr. Menaker said the idea appealed to him immediately because he had always been frustrated that he didn’t have enough opportunities, either as a publisher or an author, to speak directly to readers.
“We’re hoping to let people listen in on the kind of conversation they might like to have themselves if there were a group of three or four people in a room,” said Mr. Menaker, who is married to Katherine Bouton, deputy editor of The New York Times Magazine, and has written a book of humor with Charles McGrath, a writer at large at The Times.
The first episode will feature Richard Price, who wrote “Clockers” and the coming “Lush Life”; Susan Choi, author of “A Person of Interest”; and Charles Bock, whose debut novel, “Beautiful Children,” went on sale last week.
The second, which is to be posted online two weeks after the premiere episode, is to feature all first-time authors: Sloane Crosley and Julie Klam, memoirists, and Ceridwen Dovey and Keith Gessen, novelists.
Ms. Isralson said that initially the program would be financed by private backers, but that it was seeking corporate sponsorship, though probably not, Mr. Menaker said, from publishers, so that the content could be kept independent.”
With the ascendance of online viewing all over the internet on YouTube and every other sort of tube is this new author interview format something that you would consider watching? We are bombarded my media of every type and stripe already.
I’m just wondering. I would probably watch it just to see if it was worth watching. What do you think? Would this sort of program interest you?
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: confessions of a galley slave

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Comments
By DrBlowfly
February 1, 2008 9:55 AM | Link to this
I would watch depending on the author. I periodically watch Book TV on CSPAN. I’m not sure I’m down with the whole Dinner for Five aspect. I mean, what’s next? Salmon Rushdie, Ann Coulter, Al Franken, and Jackie Collins playing texas hold em live on the internet? Actually, I think I would watch that.By DrBlowfly
February 1, 2008 9:55 AM | Link to this
I would watch depending on the author. I periodically watch Book TV on CSPAN. I’m not sure I’m down with the whole Dinner for Five aspect. I mean, what’s next? Salmon Rushdie, Ann Coulter, Al Franken, and Jackie Collins playing texas hold em live on the internet? Actually, I think I would watch that.By Mark from St Paul
January 31, 2008 10:00 PM | Link to this
I’m always forgetting to turn on PBS for Bill Moyers Journal, but when I do think about it I just go to his website and play any interview I want to watch. The internet is about controlling your viewing habits like you control your reading habits. TV is such a wasteland but on the internet the availability of content is limited only by your curiosity. And, like with TIVO, it’s nice to be able to stop and replay something.By Riverdale Ghost
January 31, 2008 7:42 PM | Link to this
At this point in time, I think it is more for people like you to report. The medium of the internet is still used primarily by certain types of people, e.g., technicians and teachers who HAVE to know something about it. Try dealing with some government offices by email (I can’t say all because I haven’t tried them all).By Barbara Delaney
January 31, 2008 7:16 AM | Link to this
That’s a tough one. Sometimes I think artists communicate better through their chosen medium than they do in interviews. I suppose it would depend on who the author was and the skill of the interviewer.By lmj
January 30, 2008 11:43 PM | Link to this
It would definitely interest me. I already subscribe to podcasts. I don’t have enough time to watch all of those which interest me. But, it does sound interesting, though.