Word: approaches
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...hardly a new approach - young-adult series have often been written by multiple authors under contract, ever since the Bobbsey Twins. The Maze of Bones is by Rick Riordan, a former middle school history teacher who is the author of the best-selling Percy Jackson series, and who also helped flesh out ideas for the other books in the 39 Clues series. "They were very secretive," Riordan says. "They did nondisclosure agreements. I felt like I was working for the CIA!" Riordan's involvement with Amy and Dan will end when Maze goes on sale Sept...
...there's also a disadvantage. The post-author approach gives The 39 Clues a synthetic, focus-grouped quality. It's nothing you can easily point to. It's just the absence of anything risky or anything strange. The Maze of Bones is scrupulously smooth and generic and meticulously calculated to appeal to everyone and offend no one. As the product of a corporate hivemind, it isn't stamped with the signature quirks of a single distinctive authorial sensibility. If it were a baby it wouldn't have a belly button...
...other words, while it's ostensibly a series of books, The 39 Clues arrives already encased in an exoskeleton of extraliterary material: trading cards, online game, sweepstakes, movie, merchandise. Levithan calls this approach "multi-dimensional publishing." "We are trying to create a new model for publishing and launch it in the biggest way possible," he explains. "Which for us is pretty big." The 39 Clues has been Pokemonetized...
...Part of the new approach is clearly tactical. Picking fights with the national press typically riles the Republican base. One of the McCain campaign's largest single fund-raising days came in February, the day after the New York Times raised questions about McCain's relationship with a lobbyist, a story the campaign condemned as an attack by the liberal media. Since then, the campaign has fired off public letters charging bias at news organizations as varied as Newsweek and MSNBC. During the GOP convention, the campaign canceled McCain's appearance on Larry King Live in retaliation for the supposedly...
...approach also reflects what aides describe as McCain's increasing personal frustration with the press. He is aggravated, aides say, by what he calls the mainstream media's favoritism of Barack Obama - proven, he contends, by the volume and tone of coverage that the Democratic nominee receives. McCain also feels that his inquisitors are consumed with the pursuit of frivolous "gotcha" questions. In two of his last open sessions with reporters this summer, McCain fumbled on answers about federal subsidies for Viagra and contraception, and whether he approved one of his campaign messages. Neither question sought answers to significant issues...