LitMob.com Is Too Cool for Lit School

In August 2008, a band of friends, consisting of a magazine editor, marketing guru and graphic designer/film producer specializing in all things independent and alternative launched a new book review website--LitMob.com.

The idea was to review often-overlooked books from smaller presses that would resonate with "culturally savvy" twentysomethings and thirtysomethings (I'm pretty sure this means hipsters). The reviews would be short (300 words on average), irreverent and provide ratings on a five-star scale.

What's all this got to do with Maplewood?

Somewhere between Park Slope and Portland, OR, the marketing guru part of the LitMob equation landed in Maplewood, NJ.

That would be Doug Perkul of Schatzi Marketing. Perkul grew up in East Brunswick but came back to New Jersey after an extended and convoluted journey: After graduating from the University of Delaware with a degree in marketing and business administration, Perkul headed west to snowboard in Colorado but found it wasn't much of a career. Back in New York, he landed a job with Modern Bride as regional advertising coordinator. He hopped around from there to work a year at the Thompson Financial Services publication "American Banker." Thompson transferred him to their San Francisco office where he left to work for The New York Times as marketing director of West Coast advertising and sales. 

On a ski trip, Perkul met Diana Perkul of Vienna and then spent two years in Austria as a freelance marketing consultant until he convinced Diana, now his wife, to move to Brooklyn, then Maplewood. State-side once again, Perkul started Schatzi Marketing, a "lifestyle marketing" firm whose clients are "going after people who are cultural influencers" and include or have included New Balance, Target, Death + Taxes magazine, Izzy Soda, Sundance Channel, Newcastle Brew Ale, Zig Zag Rolling Papers and L'Oreal. 

LitMob.com is a side venture. It's "a bunch of really interesting talented people" that includes Stephen Blackwell, editor of Death + Taxes magazine, and Stefan Nadelman, graphic designer and film producer who writes LitMob.com's great "Judging by the Cover" column.

Now re-energized by new managing editor Ahmad Qari the site "relaunched" on October 12--after being dormant most of 2008--and is now churning out several reviews a week. 

Besides the book reviews, interesting features include "Artists Picks" where cultural curators like Eric Elbogen of the indie band Say Hi tell you what they are reading and why (Elbogen is reading McSweeney's Quarterly, Jonathan Franzen, John Irving and J.K. Rowling--seriously).

Nadelman's "Judging by the Cover" is, as you may have guessed, a review of book cover art. A standout is his review of the cover of the rather mainstream book by Carrie Fisher (Star Wars' Princess Leia), "Wishful Drinking." One graphic element is a real home run: As Nadelman muses, "Those two cinnamon buns are exclusive to only one pop culture character and they're branded in our psyches like the golden arches."

Another handy feature is the link to Book Life, an encyclopedic listing/linking to pretty much every website ever concocted for book lovers.

"We're getting pickups from other blogs," said Perkul. "We had a lot of site traffic even when inactive." For income, the site does traditional banner ads but is thinking outside the box. It's part of the Publishers' Weekly online advertising network. "It's a by-invitation-only collective of cultural curators," said Perkul. 

Interested in contributing? You're welcome to send some writing samples (look for the "contact us" on the site), but think of it as a resume-builder, not a wallet-filler. LitMob.com's contributors are unpaid. 

LitMob.com reviews nonfiction, fiction, graphic novels and poetry.

Full disclosure: Mary Mann wrote several reviews for LitMob.com in 2008--all unpaid.