Two Publisher Sites I Surfed

Hello, all. It's me, your friendly local infohellion, with the skinny on the websites for two of my favorite publishing companies. The two sites I chose were Black Lizard and Penguin Classics.

My biggest concerns with a website are access and user control -- how much access a site grants to related materials on and outside its borders, and the ease with which you can navigate through the site to find what you want. In both of these departments, Black Lizard's site is well done but boring, while Penguin is a model of what a publisher's site should be.

Black Lizard publishes crime and mystery fiction, from old masters such as Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith to such new kids on the block as P.D. James and Peter Straub. It's site is neat and tidy, with a well-organized navigation bar guiding you through the site and well-placed links to chapter excepts, reviews, and the like. And... that's it. Like the bland, workmanlike prose of most contemporary mystery writers, the site does what it sets out to do, but with little imagination or flavor. Writer's blogs and buying information might be nice, or maybe a user comments section (they could use the help, believe me). What you get instead is almost indistinguishable from any other publisher's site, save maybe for the cool, film noir-y background colors.

If you've ever had to read "The Scarlet Letter" for an English Lit class, odds are the copy you bought was by Penguin Classics; they deal in the cornerstone authors of Western literature (and dull, overrated crap like "The Scarlet Letter"). First off, it looks as classy as their catalogue, with elegant spacing and refined yet readable typeface. It provides access to all you need - company info, authors, etc - but then it goes the extra mile: it has an excellent variety of links to outside information such as literature guides and company speakers, links to locations worldwide, and even a run-down of their subsidiary rights. Black Lizard isn't the only company that could learn a thing or two from Penguin.

That's all for now, but I'll be back. Cheers!