Episode 87: Otto Penzler

"with the big book under my arm" [STOC]       If you've been with us for a while, you'll have heard about Otto Penzler, BSI ("The King of Bohemia") before. He was our guest on when we talked about book collecting.   Otto is back with us to talk about the genesis of , the largest anthology of stories about Sherlock Holmes to date, as well as the rest of his enterprises. We learn about what goes into selecting (and discarding) stories that make up the nine Big Book anthologies under the Vintage Crime/Black Lizard label from Random House.   As if Otto's considerable and copious editing doesn't keep him busy enough, the additional Otto Penzler Enterprises include the Mysterious Press and the Mysterious Bookshop. From a dozen books a year via the Press, an epublishing platform, and proprietary publishing just for the bookstore. What impressed is that that Otto's business acumen, timing and good fortune tend to converge across his enterprises, making him quite successful at what he does — despite any misgivings about his memory.   Otto manages to survive our "Mental Exaltations" quiz program, which he plays on behalf of a lucky listener, who will go home with a copy of The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes.     We know we're mediocre at telling you about supporting us via . Make sure you listen to the end of the show for someone who knows what he's talking about.   A special thank you to Mary Miller and Christian Mongaard for your continued extraordinary support!   Sponsors This episode includes our two longtime sponsors that deserve your attention:   The , featuring , and , where you should get  in now to secure all four issues - now accepting 2016 subscriptions.   Would you care to become a sponsor? You can find .     Notes: 1:46 Welcome and Happy New Year 5:12 The Return of Otto 5:42 Otto has a flashback 8:00 The beginning of the Big Book Series 10:58 Approaching the task of compiling a Big Book 22:55 Why wait so long before doing a Sherlock Holmes Big Book? 27:45 The Mysterious Press 29:08 MysteriousPress.com e-publishing platform 31:40 A brief interlude, with thanks to John Rabe 40:15 Proprietary publishing - books only available in The Mysterious Bookshop 48:00 Everybody comes to Otto's — The Mysterious Bookshop 52:04 Doing business in the shadow of the World Trade Center in NYC 58:21 What Otto is collecting these days 1:06:12 Sign up for Otto's email newsletter 1:09:30 Mental Exaltation 1:15:21 Old haunts in the city that influenced book buying habits    [Save As] | File size 39.4 MB, 1:24:05   Links: of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Elmore Leonard's and , an imprint of - sign up! (Amazon) Others in the Big Book Series The Big Book of Ghost Stories The Big Book of Adventure Stories The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked Room Mysteries The  page     Many more links, articles and images are available in our Flipboard and Scoop.it sites at  and , as well as on the  on Google+ (now over 2,800 members), as well as through our accounts on ,  and .     Please , ,  or  and be kind enough to leave a rating or review for the show. And please tell a friend about us, in any fashion you feel comfortable.   Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email (comment AT ihearofsherlock DOT com), call us at (774) 221-READ (7323).   --