The Vook Blog Vook: Read it, Watch it.

We stopped in at the B&N on 86^th tonight to watch some of our favorite publishing world people—Bob Miller (worked with us on the Crush It! Vook), Arielle Eckstut (co-founder of Little MissMatched, a store featured in our Ideavirus Vook), Larry Kirshbaum (a great agent we’d love to work with) and David Henry Sterry (who we don’t know personally but whose personality we admire)—judge Pitchapoolaza, an event where “writers—chosen randomly from the audience—have one minute to pitch their book idea and get-on-the-spot professional feedback from industry experts.” Though it sounds like a potentially queasy mash up of a poetry slam and America’s Got Talent, it turned out to be impressive and surprisingly moving evening, with pitches ranging from a Puerto Rican thriller about an attempted assassination of Truman (“A Latin take on Day of the Jackal!”) to a sharp advice book for girls with a fresh, deal worthy angle. This Pitchapoolaza promoted the new edition of The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published (Workman, 480 pages), which looks as if it could deliver exactly what it says on the cover. Check it out here.

All of this reminded us why we love New York—the top names in the publishing industry are willing to put themselves so close to potential authors the provided microphone’s essentially a stage prop. The results? A few pitches seemed like sure wins, and the judge’s pick—we shouldn’t reveal his true life story to the world prematurely—had the kind of material it seems literary agents would fight over. We know we bumped into one of them (camera toting James Levine was apparently the night’s de facto paparazzi) rushing to give the winner our card.

Related posts:

1. Bridging the Gap: Authors and Apps
2. Making a Vook has never been easier
3. Vook really just wants to say THANKS
4. Vook Beefs up Acquisitions team, more to come!