The trouble with publishing books is, of course, that books are static, whereas the subject of books—the real world—keeps insisting on changing. When it comes to pop culture, and particularly when it comes to television, this presents a certain set of challenges. In particular: How do you create a book that feels as current and up-to-date as possible when the plot advances every week?

One answer is you wait for the inevitable hiatus to nail down the content, and hope not too much has changed by the time the book comes out a few months later. We timed our books on The Vampire Diaries and Glee so that the final essays wouldn’t be due until after the season finales and gave them pub dates of …

» Continue Reading “The perils of publishing pop culture (or, one reason Glee is so good)”

The Emmys have come and gone and you just know a company devoted to pop culture commentary has some thoughts on who won and who didn’t. (Also on who wore what, but those particular thoughts might be best saved for a different time.)

So, drumroll…

Some Nice Emmy Moments:

• While I love Glee and can (and often do!) vouch for its awesomeness, seeing Modern Family take a few of the writing awards — and, of course, the best comedy prize — was pretty great as I think it’s one of the best-written shows on tv right now. In fact, I can’t remember laughing as hard or as often as I do at any sitcom since the first few seasons of The Office. (Although Archer

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» Continue Reading “Some Emmy Thoughts!”

Thanks for all your sharing your great entries to our “Share Your Glee” contest. Reading your stories about how Glee‘s characters and music have touched your life was (much like Glee itself) even more affecting than I expected.

You’ll get to read a few of them yourselves this fall. Specifically, submissions from:

Debbie Duncan
Suzan Hyssen
S.R. Johannes
Caitlin Marceau
Maria Mora
Jacob Sanchez

Congratulations to all of you!

» Continue Reading ““Share Your Glee” winners”

We’ve been so pleased with A Taste of True Blood‘s fan page on Facebook (are you a fan? you should be!), we couldn’t resist creating one for our Glee anthology, as well. If you’re as excited about Filled with Glee as we are, become a fan for book updates, insider show news, and lots more info.

Come be a fan of Filled with Glee!

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Just a few more days to enter Smart Pop’s Share your Glee contest, for a chance to have your very own Glee-inspired story published in Filled with Glee (due out this fall). Don’t stall, enter now!…

» Continue Reading “Filled with Glee on Facebook”

There are two things I was really looking forward to, when we started this blog last fall: getting more direct feedback from readers, and getting to share a little more about what goes on behind the scenes at Smart Pop.

The couple of cover polls we’ve done have been a great opportunity for the former. But our most recent cover poll, for Filled With Glee, also struck me as a great opportunity to do the latter: talk a little bit more about how we (and, I suspect but cannot guarantee, other publishers) evaluate covers.

Great Covers

At the very strong risk of oversimplifying, a great cover does two things:

1. It accurately reflects the book’s content.

This part is (mostly) straightforward. If a …

» Continue Reading “Judging books by their covers (or, what makes a book cover “great”)”

Our A Taste of True Blood poll went so well, we wanted to do it again—this time for our upcoming book on Glee.

Part of me feels like this is a no-brainer. But I would have picked the cover that lost (by a lot) last time around . . . so that shows how much I know, right? Let us know what you think!

» Continue Reading “Filled with Glee: Cover Poll”

If you’ve glanced a few inches upwards here at Smartpopbooks.com, you may have noticed a banner change: from our black Dollhouse contest banner to a (fittingly bright!) green banner calling attention to our upcoming Smart Pop on Glee—and your chance to be a part of it.

We’re asking Glee fans to share your Glee: to tell us how Glee has impacted your life, from the silly to the sublime. We’ll publish your stories alongside the book’s essays and special reference sections. (The book’s scheduled for release this fall; more details to come!)

We have another month to wait before we get more Glee; have to use that time for something, right?…

» Continue Reading “Share Your Glee”

Finished with your holiday shopping yet? Yeah, me neither.

The internet has brought us many wonderful things, but one of my favorites is easy access to an explosion of television-related merchandise. Below we’ve put together a few last-minute gifts for the TV addict in your life—none of which requires braving a mall.

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For the True Blood fan . . .
A 4-Pack of TruBlood or a Merlotte’s t-shirt

HBO is clearly at the forefront of the tv-related-merchandise game (check out the rest of their store here), but their True Blood stuff is the best. Their TruBlood is gorgeously packaged, and apparently pretty tasty. Their Merlotte’s shirt is a great, subtle bit of fanware (compare, for example, to shirts with the actors’ faces on …

» Continue Reading “Holiday Gifts for the TV Lover”