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Mark Gilroy January 5, 2016

Sydney Lane Inks Deal with Stephen & Ross Lawhead

PUBLICITY CONTACT: JEANE WYNN

918-283-1834 | jeane@wynnwynnmedia.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STEPHEN & ROSS LAWHEAD INK 3-BOOK DEAL WITH SYDNEY LANE PRESS

NASHVILLE—In an extraordinary start to 2016, Sydney Lane Press has inked a deal with Stephen and Ross Lawhead to publish the Hero Trilogy, a retelling of the Gospel story set in a chilling, dystopian future America.

Stephen Lawhead’s works have sold millions of copies and been compared to literary luminaries C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tokien, and George R.R. Martin.

The project was conceived through a collaboration of Stephen and Ross Lawhead with Grammy-nominated songwriter and performer, Eddie DeGarmo. DeGarmo and co-writer Bob Farrell created Hero: The Rock Opera. The live event opened with Michael Tait, Mark Stuart, and Rebecca St. James in lead roles. Hero was performed theatrically 21 times. The bestselling soundtrack won two Dove Awards.

DeGarmo turned to the Lawheads, who have garnered numerous literary awards and sold millions of books, to bring Hero to life in book form. The three books imaginatively capture the coming of the Messiah in an age controlled by a One World Government that parallels the brutal Roman World of Jesus’ life and ministry.

“We wanted to re-introduce the incredible power of the Gospel narrative by placing it in a world of danger and intrigue the modern reader will immediately relate to,” said DeGarmo. “There was no one better than the Lawheads to pull off that incredible writing feat. The storyline they created from our musical still amazes me.”

“I’ve always loved to write about real and imaginary worlds that are steeped in meaning,” said Stephen Lawhead. “To faithfully retell the Gospel in a future where truth and life is dictated by a tyrannical bureaucracy was a challenge, a delight, and a labor of love.”

“I was honored to work on Hero,” said Ross Lawhead. “Eddie originally approached me to illustrate a graphic novel, with my dad writing the script. I couldn’t help pitching my own ideas and so I became co-author. It was a thrill to then be asked to co-author the novels, which allowed us to fully expand the story’s themes, plots, and characters. The Gospel is truly the greatest story ever told—I believe we’ve managed to put an exciting spin on it in retelling it this way.”

“We are pleased and proud to publish this amazing series.”

“I was introduced to Stephen Lawhead’s writings with the Pendragon Cycle,” said Mark Gilroy, president and publisher of Sydney Lane Press. “There is a reason Stephen’s works are compared to those of literary giants like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The parallels Stephen and Ross draw to the four Gospels are brilliant. We are pleased and proud to publish this amazing work.”

City of Dreams releases in August 2016. New and existing fans of the Lawheads will be pleased to learn that Rogue Nation and World Without End will follow in four-month intervals.

Sydney Lane Press of Nashville, Tenn., is a new publishing company founded by veteran book publishing executives Mark Gilroy and Brian Henson in the fall of 2015. The Sydney Lane catalog will have twenty titles by the end of 2016. Visit www.sydneylanepress.com for more information.

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Mark Gilroy March 12, 2008

Is America Getting Dumber?

In an opinion piece for the Dallas News, Susan Jacoby argues that Americans are getting dumber, in large measure due to the triumph of video over the written word. She is quite alarmed at the continuing and accelerating declines in the reading habits of Americans:

Reading has declined not only among the poorly educated, according to a report by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1982, 82 percent of college graduates read novels or poems for pleasure; two decades later, only 67 percent did. And more than 40 percent of Americans under 44 did not read a single book – fiction or nonfiction – over the course of a year. The proportion of 17-year-olds who read nothing more than doubled between 1984 and 2004. This time period, of course, encompasses the rise of personal computers, Web surfing and video games.

Now there are all sorts of arguments on what constitutes learning and intelligence and that it is possible that an antiquated educational system imposes and over emphasizes book-based activity and testing as true indicators of intelligence.

For an argument on the efficacy of reading over video and other new media forms (and why “experts” who recommend videos for babies are crazy), visit Jacoby’s article and I’ll let her do the heavier intellectual lifting. (I’ve got to start reading more.)

I’ll simply cite an inspirational morsel of wisdom from a friend and one of my favorite people in the world, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones:

You are the same today as you’re going to be in five years except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read.

He shifts the discussion beyond the realm of intelligence to encompass personal change and growth — including an active thought life through books. (He also makes a great case that if you want to be bright and intelligent, you need to start hanging out with bright and intelligent people — and avoiding those with the opposite characteristics. Again, that’s another day and another blog!)

One of the most enduring complaints in life is that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Unfortunately, that really does seem to be the case in regard to the most precious commodity in today’s global intelligence society; intellectual capital.

Not a single book in the past year? Not even one? I’m sure that some individuals who fall in that category really are alert and aware — but how many? And I’m positive that some of us who read a lot of books might still fall into the numbed (and dumbed), dazed, and preoccupied category of the mentally saturated who are decently infotained — but not really engaged in the issues of our day with the thoughtfulness and introspection that can only come when you actually know a few things that you can bring to the conversation.

Whatever import you wish to put on actual books — I learn in other ways — I’ll simply agree and say “fine, have at it; whatever works for you.” But for the person who thinks he or she has arrived and doesn’t need a plan for lifelong learning, I’ll quote the great educator and philosopher John Dewey:

The aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education …

Or how about the words of Thomas Jefferson:

I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to inform them by education.

The proliferatin of the written word made Jefferson’s admonition easily accessible to all of us — with or without help from government.

Is America getting dumber and does it matter? I’m not sure but I think there’s a special on E! that answers that question that I’ll try to catch tonight.

Mark Gilroy July 19, 2011

A World Without Borders

I remember back in the late 90s and early 2000s when Borders outperformed Barnes & Nobel (B&N) on sales per square foot on a per store basis. B&N is doing fine. Borders is tottering on the edge of bankruptcy. What in the world happened over the past decade?

Borders canceled today’s auction to keep a smaller but still significant retail concern going. (It’s hard to have an auction when there are no bidders.) That means the 399 stores on the “short list” for a leaner and meaner Borders will be liquidated. Landlords and other creditors first protested plans to save the company but are now protesting the plan to close the company’s doors, so there may be some death throes – but sadly, it looks like the end is here.

Company President Mike Edwards said “We were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now.”

If B&N is doing great – or at least holding their own in the same turbulent conditions – what happened to Borders?

A few quick and far from authoritative conjectures on my part include:

1. inventory management – every retailer has to carefully management open-to-buy dollars and inventory turns (how often a particular item sells out and has to be re-ordered) but from the publisher side of the table I thought Borders got too tight on order policies and left money on the table. A lot of people who are smarter than me will disagree with this. But I’m simple-minded enough to believe that if your business is book sales, you better make sure you have books on hand. Manage, yes. But don’t squeeze the life out of your product.

2. too much emphasis on “new” – publishers and book retailers have to (and love to) create new titles, but the most successful companies don’t forget about previous successes and find new ways to promote and re-introduce perennial sellers. This is the biggest advantage Amazon has – a catalog of 8 million titles, many nearly forgotten. B&N has had a much more robust in-house publishing program built around classics – and carried both more front and backlist titles per store. Even signage has indicated Border’s over emphasis on the new. I once spent a couple hours studying the signs the chain had placed in it’s “power corridor” in the front of their stores. Of 22 signs, 18 had the word “new” on it. I know “new” is a powerful word and I’m all for new titles. I LOVE new titles. I’m simply stating that in my opinion Borders didn’t emphasize backlist enough.

3. the electronic revolution – Amazon introduced the Kindle, Apple the iPad, and Barnes & Nobel the Nook. Borders did a great job with email specials and coupons (there’s that emphasis primarily on what’s new again) – but never established itself as a destination for online sales of physical books or electronic books.

4. coffee – I think Borders coffee is fine but their cafes have never seemed to pack the punch of the “Starbucks branding” that B&N built their cafes around. Many people still don’t know that the Barnes & Nobel Cafe is not a Starbucks!

It’s easy for me to throw out ideas while good friends and a valuable publishing partner has fought for its life. Anything I’ve noted is not intended to be a casting of the “first stone.” Retail in all categories is a tough and tumultuous world. Who knows what the future holds for Barnes & Nobel.

And bottom line, I feel rather sad about a world without Borders …