Experimenting with a blockbuster

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), May 23, 2000

NEW YORK (NYT) -- Mary Higgins Clark, the blockbuster mystery writer who lives in a mansion in Saddle River, N.J., and a Manhattan apartment with commanding views of Central Park, has secured what is believed to be a record-breaking contract with Simon & Schuster. At five books for a total advance of $64 million, the contract made the 72-year-old Clark her the highest-paid female author in the world, per book, according to most industry estimates.

Beyond the numbers, Clark is in some ways an intriguing experiment for Simon & Schuster. Though the publishing house, a unit of Viacom, says the author's possible appeal in the digital world was not a factor in the negotiations, the company this week will release the electronic version of Before I Say Good-Bye -- her newest best seller -- and nine of her other books in electronic versions that will be available for laptops and desktop computers, electronic reading devices and personal digital assistants.

It is not yet clear if the mass market will find e-books approachable. But Clark is a proven weapon. Her 22 hardcover books -- usually critically unacclaimed mysteries that feature heroines through whom housewives around the world can live out fears and fantasies -- have all been best sellers. Her first suspense novel, Where Are the Children? published in 1975, has gone into 70 printings and has sold too many millions of copies for her agent or publisher to estimate. By 2005, Clark will have received $160 million from Simon & Schuster.

Jack Romanos, president and chief operating officer of Simon & Schuster, said that as mass-market paperback sales atrophy across the industry, one way to reconnect with readers may be to make a mass- market author like Clark available in electronic formats. "I think, No. 1, if you ask anybody our goal in the next few years, it is going to be to intelligently guide the predominantly print-oriented consumer publishing company into the electronic, digital publishing world that's around the corner," Romanos said. "The potential for the digital future still comes back to words. The book may have just been a container. And we may now have to try to reach readers on a screen, not in a book."

Dining is the only thing

APPLETON, Wis. (AP) -- Perhaps its motto could be: Dining isn't everything. It's the only thing.

A new restaurant being developed here will carry a name very familiar to Wisconsin sports fans -- Vince Lombardi. The Paper Valley Hotel and Lombardi's son are building the Vince Lombardi Steakhouse, named for the late Green Bay Packers coach. "We get lots of requests to lend the Lombardi name to things, and we say no as much as we say yes," Vince Lombardi Jr. said. "I don't know if I would have done it if anybody else were to have brought it up."

The restaurant is to open in July. Patrick Henry, the hotel's manager, said Lombardi memorabilia on loan from Vince Jr.'s home will be part of the decor.

Lombardi, who coached the Packers to victories in Super Bowls I and II, is credited with the line: "Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing."

A rose by any other e-name

NEW YORK (NYT) -- Agilent. Naviant. Novient. Scient. Teligent. Are the new economy's neologisms starting to blur?

Yes, a certain dot-com conformity appears to be spreading in the naming and branding of technology companies. Four 26-year-old partners at a Web design firm in Chicago have put up a parody Web site that takes you, the e-client, through the process of selecting a name, logo and motto for your new business.

Nearly 50,000 different visitors have toured the site since it opened last month, the creators say.

The site, eNoricom.com, presents 18 slides that depict the steps, beginning with the "patented Nametron 3000" machine to create a "best- of-breed name that conveys the essence of your brand's soul."

After the Nametron spits out the name Similant, the word is run up the flagpole of a fictional focus group, a family of four. Dad finds that Similant evokes a "very strong customer focus." For Daughter, the name is virtually synonymous with "global."

Then, noting that "nothing says innovation and cutting edge like having a curved swoosh in your logo," the site presents more than a dozen examples -- from Ameritech, to Gore 2000, to tickets.com -- before producing a suitably swerving nameplate for Similant. For focus-group Mom, the Similant logo signifies that "anything is possible." For Son, it cries out "empowered."

Finally, the site observes the popularity of three-word taglines, like "Point. Click. Rent" for apartmentguide.com and "Beauty. Inspiration. Shopping" for gloss.com.

For Similant, the concocted tagline is "Really. Really. Different." (Mom's impression: "people focused." Daughter's: "frictionless.")

Matt Linderman, a creator of the parody site, said the point (besides getting laughs) was to convey his own firm's philosophy that good Web design helps people communicate and interact. "It upsets us when we see these big companies acting Orwellian, making up words to make themselves sound important," Linderman said. "Everyone sees logos like that all the time. But it's not until you see 30 of them together that you say, `Wow, this is kind of ridiculous.'"