Buzz Worthy News: 3 December 2012

3 December, 2012 Buzz Worthy News 38 comments

Wel­come to this week’s Buzz Wor­thy News! The publishing world launches new online imprints in an attempt to stick it to Amazon, GoodReads creates a “Hispter Lit” reading chart, book bloggers are the devil (maybe, but probably not), Harry Potter collectors set can be yours for only $1,000 and two hilarious parodies even out the week. NaNoWriMo is over and Kat is back, which means Steph won’t be subjected to torture any longer. All this and much, much more. Read on to find out everything that’s been hap­pen­ing in the book world this week.

Buzz Wor­thy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly Mon­day news post. Bring­ing you all the most inter­est­ing, rel­e­vant and fun news from the pub­lish­ing and book blog­ging world.


Publishing News


Random House Creates 3 New Imprints

Random House is getting tech SNAZZY by creating three new digital imprints.  Alibi is a mystery/thriller line, Flirt is a Young Adult line and Hydra is a science fiction line.  Allison Dodson will be heading up the digital imprints line.  Allison, we salute you!

President of the Random House Publishing group, Gina Centrello, said that each imprint will have its own editing, marketing and publishing group.

“There are many readers out there looking for exactly what Loveswept offers—compelling characters and great stories published frequently at an affordable price,” said Centrello. “We are thrilled to expand this program.”

SOURCE


HarperCollins Goes Digital Too

I guess digital imprints are becoming the vogue thing to do because HarperCollins has got an exciting new one coming up.

“The imprint, called HarperTeen Impulse, will begin sales on Dec. 4 for short fiction in a variety of genres. Although the imprint is open to both new and established authors, it will lean heavily at first on some reliable names.

Its first titles include “Breathless” by Sophie Jordan, described as a companion novella to Ms. Jordan’s popular “Firelight” fantasy series about a dragon in human form, and “Stupid Perfect World,” a futuristic novella by Scott Westerfeld, author of the beloved “Leviathan” trilogy, which mixed alternative history with science fiction.

Impulse says it will make up to four new books available on the first Tuesday of every month through e-book retailers, at prices ranging from 99 cents to $2.99. HarperCollins will back up the Impulse books with dedicated marketing, social media outreach and cross-promotion in HarperTeen print books.”

All I know is that I like those prices!

SOURCE


Simon & Schuster Launches Self-Published Service

So much publishing news this week!  Simon & Schuster launched it’s self publishing service Archway Publishing.

“They will run the new service with help from Author Solutions, the self-publishing company acquired by Pearson for $116 million in July.

Archway Publishing will include “editorial, design, distribution and marketing services” for its authors, all these tools coming from Author Solutions. Fiction options range from $1,999 Author package to the $14,999 Publicist package. The business book options start at $2,199 and go as high as $24,999.”

Yey!  For only the deposit of a house, you too could be self published!

This decision hasn’t been without commentary from industry insiders and every single person ever born in general.

“That price tag doesn’t include any real editing, just an assessment which – according to their own website – is “not a replacement” for editorial services but “a preliminary diagnostic tool.”

But what if you need proper editing? Fear not! Simon & Schuster is here to help. For just $0.035 a word, you can have a thorough edit of your book. Which sounds cheap until you realize that a standard 80,000 word novel would cost you $2,800. So, in actual fact, the cheapest package, plus their edit, will set you back $4,799 for a standard length book.” SOURCE

There’s more over at David Gaughran’s website.

SOURCE


Best Books 2012 List is Out – Did YA Kick Ass?

Short answer: Yes.  Long answer: I haven’t read it yet, I just assumed.

So what does it say?

“YA continues to dominate in terms of output and sheer heft, but there was a noticeable uptick in the numbers of fine middle grade novels. “

What?!  Middle Grade!  Why are you trying to steal our thunder?  Oh well, I guess the little kiddies deserve good reads and it would be an evil kind of person who would begrudge them that.  Which I totally will because I am evil!  *Cue evil laugh*

Here is the list, peeps!  Check it out!

SOURCE


Hipsters Have it So Hard – But Goodreads is there to help

You know how hard it can be when you’re drinking your free trade coffee and squeezing into your skinny jeans and you need to find a book to read now that you’ve finished Infinite Jest.  Luckily Goodreads is there to help by creating a handy Hipster lit Flow Chart!

“Here on Goodreads, we’ve got all kinds of readers: Romance, Sci Fi, Armchair Sailors, you name it. This month we decided to focus on an interesting subset of our gigantic and diverse community—The Hipsters. After analyzing the data, and admittedly, taking some editorial liberties, we’ve determined a few things. The life of the hipster is hard. Between worrying the band you love is about to go big and wondering whether it’s finally time to wash your raw denim jeans, you don’t have a lot of time to think about what to read next. To make matters worse, now that you’ve raced through his collected essays, Both Flesh and Not, you’ve run out of David Foster Wallace books. That’s where Goodreads comes in. Behold our hipster lit flow chart! Answer a few simple questions, and we will hook you up with your next favorite book. Life should always be this easy.”

Go to Goodreads and check it out!

SOURCE


Controversy


Book Bloggers are the Hell Bringers of the Apocalypse (or something…)

Well, well, well. Here we are with yet another book critic expressing their hate and calling book bloggers the end of literature. *snort* Right. William Giraldi wrote an article last week on Rotten Reviews Redux: A Literary Companion. In it, he fully demonstrates his gift of using his thesaurus like a boss and makes a few choice remarks about book bloggers, many of them sexist and elitist. To be honest, the entire thing is tl;dr, but here are a few noteworthy points I did catch:

Literature has always had its leeches, except now the Net has given every one of them a bog to wiggle around in. This wouldn’t be any more of an issue than it is to ignore the wastrel on the corner dispensing pamphlets on anarchy, but as respectable print publications either prune their space for book commentary or else go extinct altogether, more and more criticism — like more and more of everything else — is migrating to blogs and social media sites. Young or new book readers looking for literary analysis are going to have an increasingly arduous chore of dividing the shit from the serious. Worse, the biddable and ovine will gravitate to the shit because that’s where all the buzzing is. If you’ve ever attempted to read a review on Amazon or on someone’s personal blog, you know it’s identical to seeking relationship advice on the wall of a public restroom.

Oh noz! People are doing that thing again, giving their opinions to their friends. And dammit, they’ve discovered the internet. Now all people will read it shit! Heavens forbid people start reading shit!  In my not-so-professional opinion it seems rather trivial to attempt to diminish word of mouth, which has and will always be around. People will always gravitate towards the bad, the ugly AND the awesome. Those looking for literary analysis can find it and those seeking just an average book review from someone with similar reading tastes, should be able to find that as well. (But, geez, feeling threatened by the “little people” much?)

But it’s not necessarily the foppish rage that so incenses Henderson — it’s the anonymity: “Anonymous online critics ambush unprotected writers in bursts of verbal automatic rifle fire.” We now live, according to Henderson, “in an online Wild West.” The image is apt, whether or not your business is literature. “All civility gone. Empathy, balance, decency, knowledge, out the window. Everybody a blogger. Everybody an instant critic.”

Ah. The old “you’re attacking the authors, meanies!” He later refers to the online community as “masked assassins.” CORRECTION: Only SOME of us are ninjas. The rest are pirates.

…there’s another side Henderson might be unaware of: a community of coddlers who approach literature as if it were a Sunday knitting circle. On Twitter and Facebook, on their own websites and blogs, this feel-good community praises one another in pastel colors. (For specifics, see Jacob Silverman’s “Against Enthusiasm” in Slate from last summer.) Literature to these online cabals is a social event and not an artistic endeavor; they congregate to swap recipes of cuisine no discerning person would ever care to eat.

Did he just order us back to the kitchen?

The concept of incessant community in literature is preposterous to begin with. In his Nobel speech Hemingway delivered a truism only a counterfeit could deny: “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life,” and of course he means that writing at its best must be a lonely life. All those dysphasic Tweets and Facebook posts and status updates of the status-less? They’re an easeful substitute for the hellish emotional and psychological confrontation that genuine literary work requires.

So, let me get this straight. Book bloggers are flooding the internet with their opinions, we play cops and robbers with authors on the Net (interesting idea that we must use in a future author interview), we “stitch and bitch”, swap recipes and we’re essentially “doing it wrong” since we aren’t being psychologically taxed? Huh. Well, I’m glad we got that all sorted out!

On the positive side, the article seemed to create a fun new hashtag on twitter, #graffitireviews. There’s even a Tumblr page.

SOURCE | SOURCE


Entertainment


Another Stephen King Adaptation to Haunt My Dreams in the Works

CBS is teaming up with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment to bring Stephen King’s Under the Dome to a TV near you. Does this mean I’ll being doing more hiding under my bed that usual? Probably.

“This is a great novel coming to the television screen with outstanding auspices and in-season production values to create a summer programming event,” CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler said in announcing the news. “We’re excited to transport audiences ‘under the dome’ and into the extraordinary world that Stephen King has imagined.”

In case you’re like me and just hearing about this book for the first time, here is the synopsis taken from GoodReads:

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when — or if — it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens — town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing — even murder — to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.

The series is expected to air summer of 2013.

SOURCE


 Anybody got a cool $1,000 laying around?

Get. Me. This. Quick. This is everything I’ve ever dreamed of and if my family truly loves me, they’d totally buy me one of these incredibly rare Harry Potter: Page to Screen collection. How rare? Dudes! They only created 3,000! One of those must be mine. Unfortunately, they are selling it at the insane amount of $1,000. Gah!

Harry Potter: Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey includes eight volumes, each of which is designed to resemble a book from the library shelves at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Six of the books focus on the workings of the creative departments behind the films — wardrobe, props, special effects, and the like — while the seventh is a commemorative keepsake offering an intimate look at the relationships that developed between the cast and crew over the decade it took to produce all eight films. But the best part by far is the eighth book: a scale replica of The Monster Book of Monsters.

I can just see myself now, poured over my Monster Book of Monsters… *weeps* Just look at it. It’s like magic in a book.

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKqWJtSc6eQ[/tube]


LOL


Breaking Dawn Cheating Outtakes

Kat found this sketch of “Robert” and “Kristen” filming Twilight after the cheating scandal back in July this year. Lover’s scorn in all its hilarity.


The Hobbit Parody

One of the best parody makers has to be The Hillywood Show, hands down. They’ve done Twilight, The Hunger Games and even The Vampire Diaries, all alongside various popular songs. Their newest video was released a couple of days ago and I was DYING. SO FUNNY!

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXFQFnUdh5I[/tube]

Steph Sinclair

Steph Sinclair

Co-blogger at Cuddlebuggery
I'm a bibliophile trying to make it through my never-ending To-Be-Read list, equal opportunity snarker and fangirl, YA Books Central editor and co-blogger here at Cuddlebuggery. Find me on GoodReads.
Steph Sinclair
Everything about this thread is glorious. My fav editor note was “DELETE UGH”. Lmao. https://t.co/b2EUs29k5n - 3 months ago

38 Responses to “Buzz Worthy News: 3 December 2012”

  1. Fangs4Fantasy

    Wait wait wait they’re charging HOW MUCH for self-publishing? Uh-huh I’m going to give that my suspicious face. Does the published book come gold plated and studded in diamonds? Or delivered by an oiled up Alexander Skarsgarde?
     
     
    And as to Giraldi – how can ANYONE who writes like THAT criticise any work of literature? I have pompous old windbag professors back at university, comfortably settling their rumps in the 17th century who’d raise their prodigiously bushy eyebrows at this and rumble “that’s a bit pretentious, what?”
    And you’ve got to love how he simultaneously attacks book bloggers for being feel good nicey nicey knitting circles (HOOOO coded language alert!) AND evil rapacious pirates ambushing poor, unwary authors with our terribad OPINIONS!
    So… pirates with knitting needles?
     
    “we’re essentially “doing it wrong” since we aren’t being psychologically taxed? Huh.”
    I protest, I protest most strongly! I have read Twilight! I have read the Fallen series. I have read the entire Anita Blake series, all 21 of them! I have struggled through all of Cassandra Clare’s works and read Save the Pearls. Psychologically taxed? I have been tormented on a level beyond his imagining! Torquemada would draw the line at this kind of suffering!

  2. cynicalsapphire

    RH: Flirt? *barfs* Oh pardon. *cleans up Cuddlebuggery*
     
    HarperCollins: I do not like those prices. *grumps about how ebook prequels are just ways for publishers to steal my money: If it’s good, make it an actual book!*
     
    S&S: Well someone was going to do that.
     
    Hipster lit flow chart: Wow, this is perfect. I have read one of these: Choke.
     
    HP: Who the fuck would buy that? I mean, really. Of course, I really don’t approve of the movies for the most part, so there’s that. But still. What bullshit.
     
    I need to come back for those parodies. 🙂

  3. veela_valoom
    Twitter:

    The Hipster flowchart on goodreads cracked me up. I had not read the first book so it went me away to be a non-hipster somewhere else.
     
    As far as the anti-book blogger drivel. Sounds like he lives a sad lonely solitary life and envies the fact we can have a community based around books.  He quotes Hemingway about the lonely life of the writer, without acknowledging that Hemingway was a depressed alcohol who committed suicide. (I love Hemingway by the say, he’s just tragic).  In his earlier days he was a more social writer (A Moveable Feast covers this section of his life).
     
    As far as writing socially does this man oppose Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and the Oxford circle? What about Frankenstein, the first science fictional novel, that came out of a group of writer’s all hanging out and telling ghost stories.  It’s probably weird that this is my biggest issue with the article, but someone so “knowledgeable” should at least be historically accurate.  Writers and artists have always found each other, the internet is just the new forum to do this. 
     
    Also, as a knitter, I’m offended that he can diss knitting circles without ever participating. Knitting circles can be pretty badass.

  4. rabbitsfortea

    Well well. There will always be authors who doth protest too much.
     
    Also, thanks for sharing the Twilight outtakes. 
    I think I died laughing.

  5. katlb82

    When I read the William Giraldi thing, this is what I understood:
     
    ”Blah blah blah BLAH, I love myself, BLAH blah blah, I am so important, blah blah blah blah blah *repeat to fade*
     
    Must go, time to ask my boyfriend to cook ma dinnah!

  6. Lisa FicTalk

    *yawn* I, for one, never took relationship advice from the bathroom walls. I got mine from the scribbles on the back of the bus seats. Booyah! So take that, William.
     
    I bet it took him a reaaaaally long time to write that article since he probably had to stop every 5 minutes in order to search the dictionary for a new adjective for each line. *yawn*
     
    I will give him props for using the word FOPPISH. Excellent. Not.
     
    Anywho, moving on. Steph! How could you not mention that Harperteen IMPULSE is also set to release RADIANT (Unearthly 2.5) in a couple days? Read: TOMORROW?! Bad Steph.I kid.
     
    Being a Harry Potter fan – which I am – is a verreh expensive endeavour. I’d need to save, like, for a year or something to be able to afford that. lol.
     
    Heheheh, The Cheating outtakes. Hehehehehehehehehe. I die.
     
    Most excellent post, Steph & Kat. 😀

  7. Heartless_Lyn
    Twitter:

    I never understood the hate for book bloggers.  SO many people think that bloggers are bringing around the Bookocalypse.  End of the world.  
     
    Thumbs up for the Twilight parody.  Man…..I laughed and scared my cats.  Good thing, too, because I watched the Hobbit song next.
    Oh my Gods……the Hobbit parody…..I love the internet.

  8. Reading Wolf

    I think the real reason for so much of the venom against book bloggers and causal reviewers from Giraldi stems from the 1 and 2 star reviews on the front community review page for his book, <a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9997906-busy-monsters”>Busy Monsters</a>, on goodreads. But that’s just me guessing.

  9. Jennifer @ The Bawdy Book Blog

    William Giraldi huh?  Never heard of him, but if that’s how he views his consumers who would share their opinions of his book, guess he’s another one I can mark on the Do Not Read list.  Hey STGRB!  You read that?  That’s right, I vote with my MF wallet and I don’t support dickbags.  You can even quote me on that.
     
    I just bought that Stephen King book from the library for $1….the damn thing is like a weapon, so big you could club someone with it.  Maybe someday I’ll even read it, but he is SO. WINDY.

  10. elena

    Wow, this is quite the round up! The ire against book bloggers saddens me because they’re often pretty ridiculous sounding. I would LOVE one of those HP books but gah, $1,000? 🙁

  11. Lexxie
    Twitter:

    I think it’s kind of funny that ‘real’ critics feel so threatened by us bloggers that they have to write about it. Since when is literature supposed to be so elitist? Since Charles Dickens wrote his books as series in the news-papers so that everybody could read them? Or since some authors think they’re the best ever, and noone should dare say anything negative about their books?The BD College Humour clip was really, really funny! I was laughing so hard! And it was even funnier because of the actual British accent :DThanks for writing about this week’s buzz – I can’t live without it.

    • Stephanie Sinclair
      Twitter:

      @Lexxie I don’t understand why they are so bothered by book bloggers. I mean, MTV and other media outlets like EW are just as to blame for promoting “shit.” But let’s face it, that’s entirely subjective. Even books considered masterpieces (Ahem. Anna Karenina has a 3.9 rating compared to Fifty Shade’s 3.6) can be panned by the public. Just because it’s a literary masterpiece doesn’t mean it’s going to be accepted by the masses.

  12. Sarah saz101

    OK, this is driving me NUTS.
    But the Harper Impulse logo. The strapline read ‘be iNpulsive.’
     
    WHAT IS INPULSIVE?
    I’M being serious. Is this a play on words? It seems a bit too obvious to have been missed but… wait. No. I checked the website. It reads correctly.
     
    *snickers*

  13. Sarah saz101

    OK, this is driving me NUTS.
    But the Harper Impulse logo. The strapline read ‘be iNpulsive.’
     
    WHAT IS INPULSIVE?
    I’M being serious. Is this a play on words? It seems a bit too obvious to have been missed but… wait. No. I checked the website. It reads correctly.
     
    *snickers*

  14. The Hipster Owl's Bookshelf

    Steph, you’re reviews are some of the best I read online! Love them!!  :)))Also, I too want the Harry Potter collector’s item!! And I haven’t even read all the books (GASP!! I know, I know…) .
     
    I am loving the extra help that goodreads is giving to hipsters. hehe :)))

  15. The Hipster Owl's Bookshelf

    Steph, your reviews are some of the best I read online! Love them!!  :)))Also, I too want the Harry Potter collector’s item!! And I haven’t even read all the books (GASP!! I know, I know…) .
     
    I am loving the extra help that goodreads is giving to hipsters. hehe :)))

  16. Stephanie Sinclair
    Twitter:

    @Jennifer @ The Bawdy Book Blog “That’s right, I vote with my MF wallet and I don’t support dickbags.”
    HA! Have I told you how much I adored you today? 
     
    I’ve only read one Stephen King book (Insomnia) and he is VERY long-winded. UGH.

  17. Stephanie Sinclair
    Twitter:

    @veela_valoom I suppose I need to check out Infinite Jest, but I hear it is a difficult read.  
     
    And jeez, doesn’t he sound depressed and all around miserable? It’s only lonely if you don’t venture out. And with the reading community that’s not hard to do if you are all sharing such an intense passion for literature. I’m not sure why he wants to discourage that.
     
    Also, knitting rocks. I love knitting and it totally is badass.

  18. Stephanie Sinclair
    Twitter:

    @cynicalsapphire RH: *hands mop and bucket*
     
    HP: Rich people. I mean, I wouldn’t mind owning a set like that, but I could never justify spending that much money on something like that. I could see around $100, but $1000? NO. Though, currently it is on sale for $600. Still no. lol.

    • cynicalsapphire

      @Stephanie Sinclair RH: Oops. Did I miss a spot? SORRY!
       
      HP: I mean, I guess I just never had any interest on those book to film books and I kind of hate the movies, so no wonder I can’t fathom this. Still, $600 seems like a lot to charge, considering that the people who read those sorts of things at the library were like 13.

  19. Stephanie Sinclair
    Twitter:

    @Fangs4Fantasy Right?! Who can afford that?
     
    When I was reading that article, my eyes glazed over a few times. It just felt like he was chasing the plot around the entire article like they were playing this sick game of duck, duck, goose. And I suspect pirates with knitting needles are very dangerous bandits of death. I mean, needle IN MY EYE! 
     
    Oh, I completely understand. Fifty Shades, House of Night, Nightshade, Save the Pearls, Starcrossed, AHHHH!!  My brain!

  20. nrlymrtl
    Twitter:

    That article about how naughty book bloggers are was fascinating. I don’t get paid for my time in reading, reviewing, and being professional about it, so I guess this just makes me a less-than-elite bookish-recipe swapping graffiti reviewer. snort. I think someone needs to justify his position in this world and tearing down a whole group of book lovers was the simplest way he could find to do so. Poor dude.

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