Principal
CurrentBlue Ear Books is a vehicle for publishing and disseminating selected new and reprinted nonfiction books of particular global topical or cultural interest.It is the culmination of the decision its founder, author Ethan Casey, made to take control of the publication and promotion of his own books, rather than remain subject to the whims of a perpetually and radically changing publishing industry. Blue Ear Books now also publishes a select list of books by other authors and works with them to plan and implement effective programs of promotion and public speaking.Blue Ear Books recalls the ethos of Blue Ear (1999-2005), a pioneering online periodical co-founded by Ethan Casey and Steve Lanier and praised at the time by James Fallows as “ambitious” and “innovative.” Blue Ear’s aspiration was to explore the then-novel potential of the Internet as a publishing medium capable of reaching readers instantly worldwide with minimal distribution costs, while maintaining a high level of intelligence and taste through editorial moderation.Blue Ear’s ultimate expression as a global community of writers and readers meeting online was the book 09/11 8:48 a.m.: Documenting America’s Greatest Tragedy. On September 17, 2001, the startup printer BookSurge approached Casey to edit a collection of writings about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, with the ambitious goal of publishing it by the end of the month.Sitting at a dining table in a suburb of London, with collaboration from Jay Rosen and his colleagues and students in the Department of Journalism at New York University, Casey read hundreds of spontaneous and solicited writings submitted by email and edited an 80,000-word manuscript in ten days.Not every book can – or should – be published in such a way or under such conditions. But modern printing technology and other changes make it both possible and necessary to write, publish, and promote books in new ways. This is what Blue Ear Books is doing.
