Introducing "The Three Percent Problem" [Update on Kindle Apps]

In a variety of podcasts and other posts, I’ve made reference to a “best of Three Percent” book that we were putting together. One that would sell for $2.99 with all the proceeds going to benefit translators . . .

Well, at long last, after forcing Taylor McCabe (Intern #1) to read and sort some thousands of blog posts, and giving Nate a migraine converting all these pieces into an ebook, The Three Percent Problem: Rants and Responses on Publishing, Translation, and the Future of Reading is now available.

Initially, I thought we could throw this together in a week or two and just make a book featuring the funnier posts that have appeared here, along with a few reviews, long pieces, etc.

Once we starting going through all of these though, it made a lot more sense to piece these articles together into a more coherent overview of the current publishing scene. Obviously, the book focuses mostly on international literature, but also includes articles about the economics of publishing, the future of bookstores, etc. (There are also a lot of rants, including the one about the two versions of The Golden Calf, and how to make an archnemesis . . . We’re here to entertain.)

In other words, this is meant to be an intro to the world of literary publishing, and hopefully will appeal to anyone interested in the field. It’s sort of in the vein of Jason Epstein’s Book Business and Andre Schiffrin’s The Business of Books, although not as smart, a lot more fragmented, and way more obscene.

For practical purposes, we’re only offering this as an ebook for the time being, at the very low price of $2.99. And as mentioned above, all of the proceeds from the sales of this book will go to paying our translators. . . . So you should buy two copies.

Actually, what I’d like for all of you to do is to buy a copy on Friday, September 16th at noon. Yes, I want to game Amazon’s ranking system and see if we can spawn some extra sales simply by inflating our position on the best-seller list. So, if you’re interested in supporting translators, or want something fun to read, or just want to see what happens when there’s a mad rush for a particular ebook, buy a copy for yourself and tell all your friends to do the same.

As linked to above, this is listed on Amazon, and for all the nook users out there, it’s also available via BN.com Still working on getting it into the iBookstore and Google, but I’ll post those links as soon as possible.

And please forgive me in advance, but I’m going to post and repost about this all week, leading up to the September 16th “buy date.” And in exchange, I’ll share with you all the sales info, etc., etc.

Thanks for your continued support in helping Three Percent and Open Letter expand the number of international voices available to American readers. It’s thanks to all of you (and the University of Rochester, natch) that we’re able to do all of these projects . . .

UPDATE: A few people have emailed me about how they want to participate in this, but don’t own an ereader. Not to fret! Aside from Kindle apps for the iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, and Windows Phone, you can also read/buy Kindle books via the Kindle for PC app, Kindle for Mac app, and the Kindle Cloud Reader. So there you are . . .