Arthur Frommer was not pleased with the Google alliance, which essentially shut him out. His name was a trademark, but Wiley Publishers held the cord that bound. Arthur who is in his 80s and his daughter Pauline, a stalwart addition to the line of Frommer’s travel series with her own line of titles, jointly have taken back the castle. Arthur has bought the rights back to his name. So the next time someone asks ‘What’s in a name?’ you can answer potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. Personally, with the Google takeover, a rose by any other name did not smell just as sweet.
Aside from Arthur Frommer being my adventuresome hero, it was a pleasure and honor to pen books under his name. When it looked as if this were to end with the last Europe book that came out in December 2012, there unquestionably was a heartsickness that permeated my soul.
Then the phoenix knocked at my door or more specifically, my e-mail mailbox. I received an e-mail from the online editor for Frommers.com. She explained that in order to build their brand name to what it once was updating the website was a necessity. Would I be interested? Would I need to be asked twice? I don’t think so. Yet, I remembered the first go around with this back in 2006. There was no reality until the contract appeared.
The contract appeared yesterday in an e-mail, which I need to sign and return. The web update will be much less rigorous than writing a book. They only want a total of 46 listings. The breakdown is 14 hotels, 12 museums, 16 restaurants, and 4 nightlife adventures. Most of this I could do in my sleep. I go to the museums regularly. We have been eating out more often recently than we have in the past and with the ruins pubs and other hotspots; it will be a piece of cake, diabetic of course. I have until November 1st to complete the work and my name will be listed.
I cannot tell you how many e-readers have told me they would never go without a paper guidebook when they travel. Amen to that!
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