Word Signs Book Deal with Crown Publishers

Posted on March 22, 1999

Zap Corp., the Internet subsidiary of Zapata Corp., has announced that Word, an online publication, announced today that Crown Publishers will publish Gig: Real-life People Talking about their Jobs, a collection of Word's weekly "Work" columns.

The Work columns are published every Monday on Word. Each one is an interview that explores the highlights, drawbacks, and weird moments of a real-life job through the eyes of the worker: a commercial fisherman in Alaska, a lobbyist in Washington, a shaman in Mexico City, a pop star in London. Inspired by Studs Turkel's 1974 classic, Working, Word's interviewers ask their subjects how the jobs they chose have shaped their lives. The GIG interviews present an array of attitudes about work and self-fulfillment through work -- from happy exterminators to miserable clergymen to best-selling novelists who just want to be left alone.

"We're extremely excited by the opportunity to work with Word," said Doug Pepper, Vice President and Senior Editor of Crown Publishers. "These interviews are a tremendously successful part of a website we've all admired for some time. This first-hand view of our working world at the turn of the millennium will appeal to anybody who's ever held a job."

Word Editor-in-Chief Marisa Bowe commented, "We're thrilled to be working with Crown on a project we believe in so strongly. This is the first of many spin-offs from the multimedia content engine that is Word."