The Open Road Blog

In his 1933 novel Lost Horizon, British author James Hilton introduces readers to an exotic place called Shangri-La, a peaceful lamasery hidden in the Himalayas. Hilton’s inspirations for this mystical, imaginary place were the National Geographic articles about China and Tibet written by explorer Joseph Rock, and books Hilton found in the British Library that detailed faraway lands. During a time of great American exploration abroad, Hilton’s notions of the Far East captured the imaginations of millions of readers. The dazzling sights he described still inspire travelers to seek out this extraordinary region:

It was, indeed, a strange and half-incredible ...

Gertrude Chandler Warner is best known as the author of children’s book series The Boxcar Children. But before she became famous for her writing, Warner was beloved in her community as an elementary school teacher. Two of her former first-grade students, Loise Pempek and Sandra Cutler Ames, now teachers in their own right, share their memories of the inspiring teacher they had in first grade.

It is often said of the best teachers, “It is not what they taught you that you remember, but how they ...

In 1996, the Academy of American Poets dubbed April National Poetry Month, creating what it calls “the largest literary celebration in the world, [uniting] publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets in a celebration of poetry and its vital place in American culture.”

In honor of National Poetry Month, Open Road Media asked authors about the significance of poetry in their writings and lives—and received a range of enthusiastic, thoughtful responses.

Some writers, like Alice Walker, are themselves published poets and teachers of poetry (Once, Revolutionary Petunias, Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful), ...

“This planet has limits, and we must not abuse them,” says author Jean Craighead George. Through her children’s books, which often describe wildlife and the natural world, she hopes to inspire a deep respect for animals and the environment. In this, she’s carrying on a family tradition. Her parents and siblings were all avid naturalists and her father once worked with Silent Spring author Rachel Carson.

Likewise, James Gleick, author of Chaos: Making a New Science, speaks to the need for humans to appreciate nature. “The wilderness has a beauty of its own. We don’t need ...

For today's Science Fiction Spotlight, we feature Peter Lerangis, a bestselling author of middle-grade and young adult fiction whose novels have sold more than four million copies worldwide. His first series, Watchers, deals with unexplained phenomena: parallel worlds, time travel, cloning, androids, and soul-upload.

Watch how Lerangis explains how he relates to “outsiders” and then read an excerpt from Last Stop, the first title in the Watchers series. 

On April 15, 1912, the R.M.S. Titanic sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. The disaster claimed more than 1,500 lives, and the tales of valor, tragedy, and despair told by survivors and rescuers shocked the world. One hundred years, many books and plays (and one giant blockbuster movie) later, the story of Titanic still haunts us. In remembrance of the Titanic’s 100^th anniversary, we’re featuring our young adult and nonfiction titles on the subject. Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember and The Night Lives On are painstakingly researched chronicles of the accident, while ...

According to LitWorld.org, at least 793 million people worldwide are illiterate. To take action for global literacy, LitWorld is sponsoring the third annual World Read Aloud Day on Wednesday, March 7, 2012.

World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words, especially shared from one person to another. It creates a community of readers advocating for every child’s right to a safe education and access to books and technology. To celebrate and promote reading, read-aloud events have been scheduled in schools, stores, and libraries around the world. Open Road Media’s very own Dori ...

Last week Open Road celebrated Cyber Monday by launching GiftofE.com, a holiday-themed website featuring gift recommendations, author commentary, and how-to videos for giving ebooks through five online retailers. On Cyber Monday, GiftofE.com was dedicated to our catalog-wide markdown sale. Yes, really—we discounted every single Open Road ebook for a one-day Cyber Monday sale.

Pickup for the promotion was terrific in all the standard marketing channels—publicity outreach, advertising, retailers, social media—but we were especially excited to see bloggers incorporating elements of the campaign in their own promotions. Our Gift of E campaign spotlights the ways that ebooks make great gifts, so ...

Fans of fantasy far and wide can appreciate Adam Gopnik's New Yorker piece entitled "The Dragon's Egg: High fantasy for young adults." J.R.R. Tolkien, an apparently "boring" professor at Oxford in the 1940s, had a bit more to say than his briefs on Beowulf. Little did his students at school know what magic he had up his sleeve that was pouring onto paper at home. Tolkien's fantasy empire began an entire revolution of fantasy fiction, enjoyed by young adults and adults alike. Gopnik's article traces the evolution of fantasy across the decades, marrying its importance with our understanding of ...

Today only, every single ebook from Open Road Media is up to 60% off across all major retailers, including Amazon.com, Apple iBookstore, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo Books, and the Sony Reader Store. Iconic ebooks, science reads, epic dramas and romances, mysteries and thrillers—whatever gets your heart pumping and your mind humming—it is all on sale, with some bestselling books priced as low as 89 cents! If you haven't yet flipped through the pants-wettingly funny Go the Fuck to Sleep on their iPads, discovered the beautiful prose of Stanley Elkin on your Kindles or NOOK, sunk into the ...

Open Road Integrated Media and Kids Can Press are pleased to announce the release of the ebook edition of Franklin’s Christmas Gift, from the bestselling children’s series about Franklin the Turtle.

Mike Shatzkin, Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company and a widely-acknowledged thought leader about digital change in the book publishing industry, paid Open Road Media a visit last week. Soon after, he took a look at our marketing and business model in a blog post (read the entire piece over at The Shatzkin Files). In case you missed it, here’s an excerpt of Shatzkin had to say about Open Road Media:

We got a call from Open Road Integrated Media asking us to come down to their shop and learn a bit about what they’re doing. ...

Mike Shatzkin's November 17 piece, "Publishers adding value on the marketing side" takes a look at "investment marketing" via Macmillan's impressive name-gathering efforts under Fritz Foy, their SVP for Digital Publishing and Strategic Technology, and a peek under the hood right here at the Open Road Media offices.—Laura

I was thrilled to discover a fantastic featured blog on Grantland.com's podcast network called "Men in Blazers." It's a fantastically entertaining and relevant podcast (and regular SiriusXM Satellite Radio program) about the world of soccer/football and its development in the US, delivered by hosts Michael Davies and Roger Bennett. ...

Google supports Veteran's Day with their new Google for Veterans and Families project. Former Army Ranger and now Google staff member Mike Reeves serves as the face of "Vet Connect," sharing his post-Iraq and Afghanistan tour experiences through a series of videos that can be found through Google. The goal is to help veterans feel like they have a support group, and that they can connect more easily with other veterans and their families. Reeves also sees it as a way to speak out about what he and other soldiers have been through, which he finds therapeutic, and hopefully helpful ...

For the first time ever as ebooks, Open Road Integrated Media is releasing Julie of the Wolves, the classic story of a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl who is protected by a wolf pack while lost on the Alaskan tundra, along with eleven other Jean Craighead George titles. The books, originally published between 1948 and 1985, will now enjoy new lives as ebooks finding a fresh audience among the next generation of young readers.

The new digital collection includes How to Talk to Your Animals, an introduction to animal communications for both adults and young adults.

This selection of ...