Friday, September 3, 2010

Revenge of the Round Up

A long-awaited Friday round-up, from Laura at Combreviations:

It's been a while, friends and foes, and there's so much to share. First, things about the kiddies—they are the future, you know. And they hate paper books! Hate 'em. That's why Random House Children is putting out its first digital-only title, and HarperCollins Childrens is launching an app for the youngins. This is also why Scholastic is trying to sneak new techy advertising in with its books to school. It's too bad that kids hate books 'n shiz, because Emma Thompson is rebooting Peter Rabbit, and a 6-year-old landed a 23-book deal (that should come with the warning: be ready to feel bad about yourself). And teachers are getting in on the book action, training using literary teachers as examples. Well, as long as they don't train using vampires as examples—watch out, Dick and Jane!

Book reading can be dangerous, even without vampires running around after the kiddies. Book signings have become a tremendous spectacle—potentially scary! Your book recommendations could go terribly awry, and your historical fiction could be lying to you. Plus, Dostoevsky is in your subways, causing the youth to revolt.

There are a million more good links but, in the interest of time and convenience, I'm going to give you all of the things I've run across in list format, so you can decide what types of things you like... you know... listed. So: are you interested in this year's fantasy cover trends? In free audiobook sites? Maybe you're more into the 17 most innovative university presses, or 12 great non-book but still literary Ebay purchases. As a great academe, you are clearly (clearly!) interested in this intro to sci-fi syllabus, and also in these 10 typefaces of the decade. Perhaps you're interested in the best and worst books about the war in Iraq, or in these visions of the apocalypse. Maybe you'd like to see the highest paid authors—or maybe you'd rather see the best pigs in literature (of the non-author variety). And I know you want to read about these great posthumous works, these bad ass oral histories, and the books that made China Mieville into China Mieville. Also, hey, 5 YA books to read after Mockingjay, and 10 lesbian and bisexual poets who are awesome!

More awesomeness to come, next week, right here at Pimp My Novel.

11 comments:

  1. Feel bad about myself? Why? That 6-year-old is being taken for thousands by a vanity publisher. I feel bad about the vanity publisher's self.

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  2. Yeah -- looks like the 6-year-old author's mom is paying the publisher instead of the other way 'round. Though this is getting so much publicity that it might just turn a profit.

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  3. Google the lady, and you can see she's tried every publicity stunt in the book. She sent her self-published novel to J.K. Rowling and even provided a wikianswer to a "question" about whether J.K. Rowling had written it!

    And the Me and My Best Friend book was actually published over a year ago:

    http://www.amazon.com/Me-My-Best-Friend-Huntlands/dp/1608603334/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282998904&sr=1-9

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  4. Why do you think kids hate paper books? My kids ages 6-14 love them. I wouldn't even think about buying them ereaders. I think you are wrong. Just my opinion. A lot of adults still love books too its hard to curl up in bed with a computer.....

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  5. Isn't the 6 year old working through a vanity press that his mother owns?

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  6. No, Strategic Book Publishing belongs to Robert Fletcher, who has run various vanity publishers and the "literary agencies" that feed them.

    The Florida Attorney General's Office is suing him. From their press release:

    "The Attorney General’s Economic Crimes Division received more than 175 complaints from around the world claiming Fletcher and his associates, who claimed to act as literary agents and publishers, allegedly collected money from victims anxious to see their work published. Potential writers paid anywhere from $89 for an initial critique to over $600 for various services including editing and marketing of a manuscript to publishers. Allegedly, Fletcher also told potential writers that fees were paid from book sales when in fact all costs of publishing were paid by the authors. According to the lawsuit, few books were ever sold as a result of the efforts of Fletcher’s companies."

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