Day 94 - News of the Writing World - Week Ending August 12, 2011

1) Fiction, Meet European Debt Crisis. Now is the time to Panic

NPR ran an interesting piece in their Planet Money segment about how a fictional work called The End of the Line for the Euro (like a financial thriller) affects reality. It's a European story set in 2012 where Germany withdraws from the Euro due to market volatility. It's done in such a way where you are not quite sure what is truth and what is not (similar to one of my all time favorite books Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter). Apparently in these rough times, such fiction can affect the real world. If you were watching the European debt crisis this last week, you would have noticed that much of the events involved French banks, which also happens to be one of the main themes in the novel which uses current politicians and bankers/banks real names. Due to a mix up with a British paper and what is real versus not, it seems that in large part the massive drop in a particular banks stocks was not caused by anything real, but by a piece of fiction! Go to the link to read more about it, but yes, fiction can be a powerful force!


2) Plagiarism... or Common Themes?

I've noticed a recent spate of accusations being tossed about regarding plagiarism, which in large part I believe has to do with both the digital age and e-Books. But what is plagiarism? There are some obvious answers: directly quoting without attribution, claiming an essay as your own that you copied from wikipedia, etc. There are also some gray areas, and therein lays the latest pseudo scandal to hit the book world this week... and it started in Turkey of all places.

Award winning author Elif Şafak has been accused of plagiarism by a much lesser known author, Zadie Smith, for apparent content pilfering from her (Smith's) novel White Teeth. Accusations and insults are flying between the two, but when you get down to it, I just don't see the plagiarism. As is pointed out in the article at TheMillions.com, the theme of someone looking out from an urban basement window and guessing about peoples lives by their shoes isn't anything overly unique or new. It fits with the story of urban immigrants. I might also point out that Safak's take is much better written in my view! What think you?


3) Guess which book is the top in YA category on Amazon right now?


Yup, it's Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans. How much of this is the Oprah like power of Glenn Beck and how much is based on the actual book? It's a question many asked about Stephanie Meyers and J.K Rowling. It may be both a critical argument and completely irrelevant. It sold, it will have legions of followers, and it's getting people of all ages to read. So far the reviews are very positive, with most of the negative reviews being silly, shallow, or complaints about pricing. Barnes and Noble currently has user reviews showing a perfect 5/5 rating, while Amazon has it at almost 5/5 

4) Another eBook Success Lands a Major Publisher

Louise Voss and Mark Edwards co-wrote a thriller they just couldn't get an agent to pick up. Did they give up? Nope. Mark put up their book Catch Your Death in the UK Kindle Store where it hit Number 1 in the suspense category for June, selling 50,000 copies. Pricing? Roughly US $1.95. Harper Collins took note, and now the duo have a four book six-figure publishing deal. Congratulations to them! I would note however that unless it is more than $200,000, they have probably lost out long term. They already had great sales and they kept most of their sales money. Increase their success over time and consider four novels... well, you get the idea. Now most of it will go to Harpers and Collins... Still. They can take that path in other novels, and being published by a major publisher is a nice feather to stick in their hat. The book looks interesting and I may pick it up soon.


5) A Poor Argument in Defense of Print Publishing Pricing

The final newsworthy items comes from the UK Guardian. It seems that the American author Robert Levine is publishing a book bashing the eBook world and defending higher prices for print. The argument? That the cost of materials and assembly for print is only about $3.50, but you are paying for the text itself when you pay the $15-$20. Yup, he's talking about author advances, editing, marketing, etc. The only problem? Most publishers have poor or no editors now. Author advances are dwindling. Accounting tricks abound. Marketing is pretty much up to you as the author. Same with fact checking. So I view his argument as shallow, or maybe even delusional.

I would also add that his premise that Amazon sells books cheap to drive sales for the Kindle where it makes a bundle of money is patently false. Sounds like his publisher didn't provide a fact checker. Amazon sells the Kindle at a loss. Why? Because the money is in the eBooks and they want to sell more eBooks. But you'll see these dying gasps for breath pop up here and there for a while. I thought I would point one of them out!

Day 87 - News of the Writing World - Week Ending August 5, 2011

Welcome back to another edition of News of the Writing World! Formerly the Writing World Review and Writer's Weekly World Review. The title seems to be in flux, but the concept is the same: every Friday I gather the top five news items related to writing, publishing, and selling books and stories. I go through dozens (and sometimes more) stories to bring you what I believe are the most relevent, and give you a summary of each.

Today, we see the death of an e-Book innovation, copyright lawsuits from hell, Illuminated books for the new age, THE YA book series to keep an eye on this year, and the relationship of bloggers and novelists.

And yes, the podcast version is still planned, just be patient. It's been a big learning process!


1) Push-Pop Acquired by Facebook - Be sure  to click on "page 2" for the majority of the article.

Push-Pop was a promising new e-Book innovator. In some ways, it reminded of David Farland's dreams for eBooks, but it was a tool for everyday authors. And now they've sold out to Facebook which, as the article rightly points out, will probably mean that the tech will be used or glorified photo albums rather than innovation in the literary world. A shame indeed. To see a great article on Push-Pop before this travesty, see the Wired.com coverage, which is excellent.





2) When the newspapers are stuggling to survive, bloggers get the knife

Thinking of posting our or five lines of a news article to your blog? Think again. There are some news groups that have climbed in bed with firms whose whole purpose is to sue bloggers and others for violation of the fair use laws for copyrighted material. The Editor and Publisher reports on this here. Think you're too small to be noticed? Wrong. Try no warning letter and $75,000+ demands. And it's legal. So make sure you brush up on copyright law, and when extensive quoting is needed, be sure you know the policies of the site it is coming from. You may need to get a release letter to do so.


3) Illuminated Books are Back... Sort of

While some publishers and start-ups are taking the Push-Pop approach to e-Books, the publishing company of Melville House has created a "hybrid" that they are placing under the auspicious title of Melville House Illuminations. If you don't know what an illuminated text is, I highly recommend you read about them at wikipedia and even do a google image search (okay, so I provided links... I am nice that way!). They are, to put it simply, the height of art in the written word and I have loved them since I was a child. The sum of these new hybrid illuminated books is that all editions have QR codes, including the print, where a reader can access a wealth o extra info on the book, such as essays on dueling, rules of games long gone, and historical or literary analysis. In some cases they will be longer than the story itself, but in the end they intend to "illuminate" the story.An interesting idea, as it can bridge the digital divide and help some make the transition to eBooks easier.


4) The Next Big YA Series? Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans... brought to you by the obscure and new coming publishing company Mercury Ink

Richard Paul Evans, author of the Christmas Box, international and New York Times (17 times in a row...) best seller, etc. etc. etc. (he has a lot going on for him) is set to release the first YA novel in a new series which has a rather awesome title: Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25. Aside from the mysterious and nifty pre-launch website that makes me want to go get the book right now, there is also a trailer with high production value. The bar has been set high or this book. Why am I announcing a book release though? It's because it is the first novel to be released by Mercury Ink, the new publishing branch of Glenn Beck's company Mercury Radio Arts in partnership with Simon and Schuster which I previously reported on. For a new company to have an instant best seller on its hands is nearly unheard of in publishing, and this will be big. I believe it will be a New York Times best seller in less than a week. Watch the extended trailer and get the interesting background to the story here (including the connection to Evan's Tourette's Syndrome).



5) To Blog or Not to Blog?

Finally, GalleyCat has an interesting bit on "Why Novelists Shouldn't Blog." The argument can be summed up as it's just not the best value for your time as a novelist, though for non-fiction writers it can be great. I'm a novelist. And a heavy blogger. Food to ponder, but hey, I am never one to fall in line with what makes the most sense! I do this because I love it, the same reason why I write.