We’ve notified the lucky winner of our first giveaway — a signed copy of Wildwood by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis — but if it wasn’t you, don’t despair. There’ll be other giveaways in the weeks to come, and anyone who donates by the deadline will be entered to win.

So what’s the next giveaway? Donate any amount to Wordstock through the WW Give!Guide before midnight on Black Friday (November 25, 2011 11:59PST) and be in to win a book, a baseball cap and a beer! One lucky winner will get an autographed copy of Daniel Woodrell’s latest book The Outlaw Album, a 650ML bottle of Chatoe Rogue Dirtoir Black Lager, and a Wordstock baseball cap.

Plus, anyone who gives us $35 or more before midnight on December 31 is entered to win a free night at The Ace Portland.

Thanks to generous folks like you, the Willamette Week Give!Guide’s Clear Creek Distillery giveaway on Thursday was a big success. Between 12:00:01 am and midnight on November 17, people used the website to donate over $65,000 to local nonprofits. How wonderful is that?

Get in on the giving. Click on the cute baby picture to give now!

Unfortunately, yes. But what a festival it was! The unanimous feeling here at Wordstock HQ is that the 2010 festival was our best ever. The thank you notes and emails of congratulations have been pouring in — from exhibitors, from festivalgoers, from sponsors, and especially from our featured authors, who seem to be absolutely in love with Portland. Chalk one up for books, writers, and storytelling!

We’re still cleaning up the aftermath of the festival, and should be back to normal soon. Stay tuned for news about the 2011 festival — we should be ready to announce the dates very, very soon!

One of Wordstock’s themes this year is history, and one of the ways we have decided to celebrate history at this year’s festival is by creating a collection of literary and cultural artifacts that faithfully document this moment in Portland’s culture. With the help of our friends at the Dill Pickle Club, we’re creating a Time Capsule.

The purpose of this project is to take a snapshot of Portland’s literary and cultural communities by documenting the changes happening in our city’s artistic landscape. We want to celebrate the cultural work often forgotten by “official history”: Read more »

As of today, there are 100 days until Wordstock. One hundred days!

We’re very happy to let you know that things are shaping up nicely for this year’s festival. We have already confirmed an eclectic and wide-ranging roster of authors for 2010, with many more to come over the next few months. We’re also working with several other organizations — some old friends, some new — to stage a new series of literary events throughout the week of the festival. I think it’s safe to say we’re all excited about the progress and possibilities!

Stay tuned for more updates. We’re going to be sending a lot of them over the next 100 days….

Can you believe we’ve been away so long? Sheesh — what gives? Why the radio silence?

Believe it or not, we’ve been a bit busy. First of all, we moved into a new office a few months ago, and if you’ve ever had to uproot your business and move it somewhere else, you know what a disorienting process that can be. We now share an office with the fine folks from Orlo, publishers of The Bear Deluxe, and are enjoying our new SE Portland neighborhood. All things considered, we’re settling in.

We’re also working feverishly on the plans for the 2010 festival! We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve for this year’s event, which we’ll be rolling out over the summer, so please stay tuned to this blog, our Facebook page, and our Twitter feed. In all, we think you’ll be pleased. So far, we’ve booked writers who have won the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Edgar Award, a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant, and an Oscar. And we’re just getting started!

The Photo Contest is done and the winners are below. Thanks to everyone who found one of our Red Chairs and took some photos of themselves in it. We got some creative entries. Next year we will give all you creative types a little more time to get around and take some fun shots in the Red Chair. 

Winner Numero Uno: Flavia Arsenault

The Red Chair Standout!

Winner Nombre Deux: Gailmarie West

Sail Away with a good Book!

Congratulations Flavia and Gailmarie! You have won a Night at the Benson this weekend and free admission to both days of the festival. Have a fun Wordstock filled weekend! We’ll see you there.

It’s a wide, wide jungle of books out there. So many in fact that there’s no way anyone could read them all in a single lifetime or a hundred for that matter. So how do you pick the books you want to read? A title handed to you from a friend? A suggested author? A good review that you happened upon on the internet? How about random chance in the bookstore?

Well however it happens the marketing that goes into getting you to pick up a book and actually purchase it, or check it out of the library and tell your friends about it takes a great deal of work, though moreso with some books than with others, but that’s simply a budget matter.

The cover of a book says a great deal about the book. Whether the marketers really understood what they were selling, whether it fits a certain demographic that is more than likely to pick it up, and most importantly catching your attention. In this great jungle of books which book covers catch your eye? I know what I like and what I look for. But sometimes a book I might like get’s passed over quickly as I move from cover to cover. Covers can lure you in so the book can make the sale.

But as technology has changed the way people can get their books–though there is still nothing quite like wandering the aisles at a large book store…wink, wink–the cover of a book just doesn’t do as much as it used to. It can still do so, but the world of online advertising is a big chaotic mess as book publishers attempt to figure out the most effective ways to advertise.

One of the ways publishers have tried to build buzz around books is to creat “Book Trailers.” Actual movie-like trailers that speak to some sense of what a reader will find in a book. Are they effective? Some. But the majority of the industry hasn’t seen great response from the trailers for such practices to become the norm. And whether you enjoy them or find them silly, you have to admit, it’s an exciting time to be a Book Nerd. The industry is evolving out of necessity and change can be a thrill ride.

Are Book Trailers Effective for you? Try some of these better videos. Though I realize that these are a set of the creepier ones.

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned -by Wells Tower

The Strain – (Warning: Creepy. Roy Dotrice Rules!)

Await your Reply – by Dan Chaon (who will be at Wordstock) – Good Atmosphere in this one.

When I was a kid I watched my fair share of TV and many of the shows I watched resided on the venerable PBS. Ghostwriter, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego and of course The Reading Rainbow. I had certainly been reading books for some time up to that point and I had read a few exciting books, mostly enjoying the time spent wandering the aisles of the library , but it truly was Levar Burton that taught me that every book was an adventure, something new to learn, something exciting.

I don’t remember any of the books they featured on that show, but what I do remember was the feeling I got that books were this wonderfully exciting world, that the act of reading was enjoyable and fun. It is certainly important to be literate and have the ability to read, but I think children’s television has lost a great boon in educating children that books are a pleasure too.

The Show description still on the OPB website reads, “Reading Rainbow, hosted by LeVar Burton, builds lasting friendships between children and books.” It certainly did at that. Who will build these friendships in the future? They are as important now as they ever were.

And now as announced last Friday Aug. 28th, the show is ending after 26 years. I for one feel like an old friend with whom I hadn’t kept in good contact is gone away.

You can read the full story from OPB Here: Reading Rainbow Reaches Its Final Chapter

We here at Wordstock will miss our good friend Levar Burton and the way he made us love books, but we will do our best to get people excited about books.

Are you a Young Adult fiction author that has what it takes to compete against other authors and create the best piece of YA fiction this side of Narnia? Well, reink those pens, flex those fingers and warm-up the keyboard, because your competition is on its way. We’ve received word from Harper Collins that they are putting together a new contest that will test the meddle of fiction writers everywhere. Are you the next Scott Westerfeld?

Here’s the info we’ve got:

“HARPER COLLINS WRITING PROJECT”

Here at Wordstock we obviously love books. A lot. So we enjoy books in most formats as long as they can immerse us in a world not our own, teach us something new, or entertain us. The Digital world is moving faster and faster and since the creation of the Kindle the ereader/ebook world has grown almost exponentially. Sales of ebooks have doubled quarter to quarter and while they are still a tiny percent of the overall book market people are starting to notice.

Just today Sony has really put it’s back in the work of competing in the Ereader device market. Only a few weeks ago they unveiled two new devices into their ereading family and as many predicted their Press Conference in New York showed the world their newest device. A Touch Screen Ereader with 3G Wireless capabilities. Now you can shop for books on the go! Though it still doesn’t replace the wonderful experience of wandering the aisles of Powell’s just perusing through your favorite genres, feeling the spines of books as you pass.

Our good friends at Powell’s have been in on the Ebook market for a while, but with Sony using the new Epub Digital book standard it opens up everyone to still buy from their friendly store on the device of their choice. So if you happen to pickup a Sony Ereader you will still be able to buy your books from yourfavorite local Book Store – Powell’s.

Any way you slice it, Sony’s announcement is good for books and bookstores and readers. Whether you get a Sony or some other ereading device, reading books will be just as easy as it ever was, but with shiny new toys to read them on.