JM Stim, the author of Here Is Berlin , and Tim Mohr, who wrote the introduction and translated the English edition, are in the midst of an experiment in pushing the boundaries of new publishing models β is it possible to launch a book internationally, in three languages with grassroots marketing and a pan-European book tour?
Read about more about the project and or follow the tour as Stim reports here on Publishing Perspectives. A four-lane autobahn β with a few short no-speed-limit stretches β connects it to Berlin, and as we set off in a borrowed VW Golf, the pine tree-lined highway has Mohr and the tour photographer, Johnny Perez , in serious Kraftwerk-mode.
Well, Kraftwerk punctuated by bursts of Wham see video. Cottbus is dark. Real dark. We park German style β on the sidewalk β right in front of the address where the reading is to take place.
We knock on the glass and a guy in a white t-shirt, skinny jeans, and black woolie cap eventually opens the door. Upstairs, bottles of beer and Club Mate energy tonic are popped open as a few of the residents smoke hash at a kitchen table.
This place is like a little corner of s Berlin tucked up against the Polish border. Eventually the audience is shepherded up to the event space. The MC for the event is a gorgeous young woman with bright dyed-orange hair who works for the local radio station. She introduces us and we give our presentation for the first time in Europe β to a crowd that seems sympathetic. As we learn afterwards down at the bar, it consists mostly of young people who were born and bred in Cottbus but go to Berlin on a regular basis to work or just to hang out in the big city.
