In “The Man in the Empty Boat,” Salzman Confronts a Challenging Year With A Sense of Humor And Hope For Personal Peace
(New York, NY – February 13th , 2012) Open Road Integrated Media (www.openroadmedia.com), a digital publisher and multimedia content company, announced today that it is digitally publishing an E-riginal from award-winning and best-selling writer Mark Salzman. In the memoir The Man in the Empty Boat, a book of love and family, loss and enlightenment, Salzman confronts a year of catastrophe in which he suffers from acute anxiety and debilitating panic attacks all compounded by the sudden loss of his sister. With a sense of humor and inspiration, he eventually finds the ability to move on, to write and to let go. The ebook goes on sale February 14th and will also be available in Print on Demand.
This new memoir was inspired by Salzman’s live performance “An Atheist in Freefall.” Open Road co-founder and award winning filmmaker Jeffrey Sharp, saw a performance and along with co-founder and CEO Jane Friedman began talking about turning the story into a book which eventually became The Man in the Empty Boat. Sharp is also developing out film and television rights for the E-riginal.
Sharp said: “Mark’s monologue was an incredibly poignant and funny experience and seemed like the perfect base for a book and other multi-media platforms. It is exciting to go from idea to publication in under a year and I am eager to continue working with Mark on exploring other development opportunities for his story.”
Friedman said: “Jeff was so moved by Mark’s performance that we went to see it together at The New York Public Library and knew instantly that it should be a book. Open Road’s E-riginals program has been steadily building since our launch and we are proud that Mark Salzman’s new book will be born digital. The Man in the Empty Boat is both heartbreaking and inspiring and we look forward to utilizing the latest digital marketing tools to bring Mark’s memoir to readers across the country.”
Salzman said: “The decision to allow Open Road to publish The Man in the Empty Boat as an ebook was an easy one. The piece began not as a book but as notes for a monologue that I performed at the Sun Valley Writer’s Conference in 2010. Jeffrey Sharp, president of Open Road, happened to be in the audience that day. He’s a dad like me and the story seemed to hit him dead center. His enthusiasm for the piece really lifted my spirits, and convinced me to try writing a longer version of it for publication. Follow the enthusiasm, that’s my motto.”
Open Road will digitally market Salzman’s book. The company will produce marketing videos about Salzman and his work which will be distributed online and syndicated to Open Road’s content partners.
The Man in the Empty Boat is the latest title from Open Road’s E-riginals publishing program which publishes books that are born digital. Other titles include Jonathan King’s Midnight Guardians and Mary Glickman’s One More River, which climbed to #3 on Amazon Kindle’s bestseller list earlier this month.
