+ 
= ????
Right now, it takes about two years to turn a book from a glimmer in an author or publisher’s eye into a tangible object in a reader’s grubby little hands. The Daily Beast and Perseus Books are teaming up to launch Beast Books, whose goal will be to shrink that time down to a mere three months.
As Ezra Klein at the Washington Post points out, they aren’t just shrinking the time it takes to manufacture and market the book. They’re also shrinking the time it takes to write the book, an efficiency made possible thanks to the wonders of the internet.
I’m not so sure this is a great idea. It seems to combine all the weaknesses of blogging (necessarily thin reporting, a focus more on being quick than deep, etc.) with all the weaknesses of a physical book (costs money, have to carry it around with you, can cause paper cuts etc.) It might make more sense- maybe even great sense- to forget about the physical books and just stick with ebooks.
-Norm De Plume
It’s the book reviewers this one’s really gonna hurt, you mark my words!
Maybe someone will introduce a Book Reviews in 3 Minutes program to match the accelerated pace.