A bookstore with only one book

Author opens "monobookist" store

Jason Boog of GalleyCat caught up with Andrew Kessler, who sounds like one of the most interesting blokes on this globe.

Andrew K. is a writer who lives in Brooklyn. He is also an amazing director/designer/creator of new ideas.  His work has appeared in the New York Times, and he produced a program on Mars for the Discovery Channel.  He has a degree in maths.  And he has produced a book, called Martian Summer, based on his 90-day stint as a shadow project manager for NASA.

It is subtitled, intriguingly, "Robot Arms, Cowboy Spacemen, and My 90 Days with the Phoenix Mars Mission."  Publishers Weekly called it an off-beat account by the self-professed winner of "the space-nerd lottery."

This, he says, is his first book about Mars -- or any planet, for that matter.

He also has a most innovative approach to publicizing this book, which any author or publisher should follow with riveted interest.

First, there is his most unusual and attention-seizing website, called Kessler on Mars.

Second, is his most unusual and attention-seizing link promoting the eBook.

Third, he has hired a storefront at 547 Hudson Street, and filled it with thousands of copies of just one book -- his own.

It's a temporary store, of course -- even with the salary from 90 days at NASA, he will be living a frugal lifestyle for quite a while to finance this venture, though he says he had a lot of help from his friends.  He is also renting (for money, I assume) the store out to other book-related events.

Good luck to the innovative fellow!