Book Releases
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
Released on: April 24 2012
Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott
Released on: April 24 2012
Social Suicide by Gemma Halliday
Released on: April 24 2012
The Story of Us by Deb Caletti
Released on: April 24 2012
Released on: April 24 2012
Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf
Released on: April 24 2023
Released on: April 24 2012
Released on: April 24 2012
Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin
Released on: April 24 2012
Released on: April 24 2012
*This list was compiled, as usual, with the help of Stories and Sweeties. Once again, they’ve failed to contact me with a cease and desist, so I’m going to assume that they enthusiastically endorse my flagrant industry snooping and worship me from afar.
Book World News
Holly Black and Cassandra Clare are teaming up to write a Middle Grade series together.
Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, has acquired North American rights to a five-book middle grade fantasy series by bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare; the first full-length collaboration between the authors. The first book in the series, The Iron Trial, is planned for release in 2014. The deal was negotiated by Barry Goldblatt from Barry Goldblatt Literary (for Holly Black), Russell Galen from Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency, Inc. (for Cassandra Clare), and David Levithan, VP/Publisher and Editorial Director at Scholastic.
In this exciting new series, twelve-year-old Callum Hunt has grown up knowing three rules by heart. Never trust a magician. Never pass a test a magician gives you. And never let a magician take you to the Magisterium. Callum is about to break all the rules. And when he does, his life will change in ways he can’t possibly imagine.
This story was STOLEN from OhNoTheyDidn’t! which was posted there by SQUIRRELS_OH_NO and YES I’M LURKING! I know all, see all, LURK ALL!
Today is World Book Night…day, not to be confused with World Book Day… day, according to at least 25 of my Twitter friends and one hipster.
In 2012 World Book Night will be celebrated in the UK, Ireland, Germany and USA on April 23.
In the UK, 20,000 passionate readers will gift 24 copies of one of their favourite books to encourage those who don’t regularly read to fall in love with reading. In addition World Book Night will be giving a further 620,000 books over the course of the year directly to the hardest to reach readers through prisons, care homes, hospitals, sheltered housing, homeless shelters, libraries and through other partner charities.
It is the annual celebration in which the ghost of Dahl past comes to shimmy down the metaphorical chimney in order to gift a book to the unenlightened slobs who don’t usually read. Good, regular readers get nothing but the joy of knowing that non-readers are being publicly humiliated and called out as the plebians that we all assume they must be.
*Angry Robot Publishing is having another Open Door this year.
Following a successful Open Door period in 2011 (we signed 5 debut authors from it!), we’ve decided to do it again! This time around, we’re looking for classic fantasy (for Angry Robot) and all sf/fantasy flavours of YA (for Strange Chemistry).
If you have completed a novel, and are unagented, between April 16th and 30th this year, we’ll happily read it for possible publication. If you are agented, this isn’t for you – submit via the usual route.
Cover Reveals
Zom-B by Darren Shan
Revealed on: Mr Ripley’s Enchanted BooksExpected Release Date: September 27 2012
Zom-B is a radical new series about a zombie apocalypse, told in the first person by one of its victims. The series combines classic Shan action with a fiendishly twisting plot and hard-hitting and thought-provoking moral questions dealing with racism, abuse of power and more. This is challenging material, which will captivate existing Shan fans and bring in many new ones. As Darren says, “It’s a big, sprawling, vicious tale…a grisly piece of escapism, and a barbed look at the world in which we live. Each book in the series is short, fast-paced and bloody. A high body-count is guaranteed!”
Scandalous Scandals
An uproar erupted over a piece in the Huffington Post over YA book covers. Indie Author Mary Pauline Lowry wrote the post in which she decries the book cover trends dominating the YA world and discusses Book Blogger’s and their relation to the trend.
As I mentioned, I also learned about YA bloggers’ fetishistic love of book covers. Now I grew up reading books for what was inside them and never gave much thought to their covers. To quote Annie Dillard, I knew that “Some books were bombs that exploded in your head, and others duds,” but like Dillard, I could never tell just by looking at a book if it would be a life-changing bomb or a boring dud. But 21st century readers are much more steeped in visual culture. They also have a lot more competition for their time and attention, so they want books that are not only meaningful reads, but also visually satisfying. And they see the book’s cover art as inextricably linked with its contents.
Publishing companies have tapped into book bloggers’ adoration of book covers by having a “cover reveal” before a new book’s release. Bloggers then post the image of the book cover along with commentary about it. The cover reveal has become an incredibly effective marketing tool.
Some took issue with this as evidence by Bookalicious’ blog post Mary Pauline Lowry Thinks Bloggers are Part of The Problem.
What about all the covers that don’t have models and the books are selling amazingly? Twilight, The Hunger Games, Legend, Beautiful Creatures, City of Bones since the article brought up Cassandra Clare. Tell me how YA bloggers are anti feminist agenda when we have loved those covers too.
I think that loving a cover is a deeper connection that simply seeing a hot chick or a rake on the cover. I think it has to do with the typography, the colors chosen, is the mood right for the contents, are there embellishments, foil, raised lettering? Do those fit nicely?
This next story is one of those situations that is not entirely an issue but could have been. The author tweeted:
As usual, we always advise authors NOT to tweet about negative reviews, for many reasons. Firstly, it often encourages fans and people who care about that author to go and attack the reviewer. Some reviewers have undergone months of continued harassment from fans due to reviews being tweeted and blogged about. Luckily, this tweet is vague but we were still able to narrow down who the likely reviewer was, and so can fans. Or, they may go after several reviewers who seemingly fit the bill.
Reviewers could be anyone. From thirteen year olds to eighty year olds. But we encourage authors to always behave professionally. Reviews and book discussion is important and can easily be stifled by author attacks for those who lack confidence. Some have suggested that people shouldn’t write negative reviews if they lack confidence to be able to deal with an angry author – this is, of course, problematic. Authors have attacked three star reviews just as they have attacked one and two star reviews. Similarly, many authors claim they were personally attacked first – something that may not be considered so by others.
Secondly, the comparison is not apt or fair. Drinking a coke, which is fairly inexpensive, and complaining about a restaurant afterwards is not synonymous with paying for a book, not finishing it and being frustrated at spending the money. A restaurant is capable of refunding for faulty goods. Many book stores won’t take back a book based on personal dislike. At least not here. A review is the only way a reader has of expression their disappointment.
Luckily, so far, the reviewer in question hasn’t received any negative comments from these tweets and thus why this is really a non drama. But, as happens more often than not, this was a very positive outcome. But there is one aspect which is a shame.
This author usually has a generally positive attitude to reviews and the realities that they entail, even if her tweets about negative reviewers has been growing a little in frequency.
This seems to merely be a case of an otherwise sensible person having a bad day – but it is a cautionary tale because it could have ended up much worse.
Another author took a stab at the book world drama today:
Just a reminder. Reviewers are not a homogeneous group of like minded individuals in agreement on a review policy. Many habitual bloggers and reviewers have their own personal review code – one that will differ widely from the next. Each with their own varying philosophy on the nature of the book blogger and author relationships. This ranges from people who review several times a week to those who review once and are completely unaware that there is any drama in existence. From teenagers to the elderly.
The last piece of news for today is… massive. Huge. We couldn’t post this today WITHOUT mentioning it. But it is also sad. All the screen shots and excerpts are taken from Grit and Glamour, by the way – they took them and kept them and I’m merely using them for explanatory purposes.
Grit and Glamour posted a blog entry back on the 31st of January 2012. It’s regarding the content of their blog being plagiarized. The Plagiarist initially denied the plagiarizing of their content and the content from other blogs.
“In all honestly, I have never been to your blog or any of the blogs mentioned in this email until tonight when I cross referenced the posts that you had listed. I rarely if ever read blogs beyond the book blog community. But I could not agree more with your assessments of the posts. And I am sorry to say that I have no viable explanation. I even searched my web history to see if perhaps I had read the posts and had recalled them as I was writing my own.”
But when further evidence is unveiled using IP tracking software (detailed here in B’s Guide), she later returns with this statement:
This was all posted on January 31st 2012. Why only coming to light now? The Grit and Glamour are a fashion blog, so not directly related to the book blogging world – but their accused plagiarist is.
This blogger is a HUGE deal in the book blogging world.
This was the content Grit and Glamour claimed to be lifted.
I want to be clear here. To be honest, I don’t know if I would personally have chosen to report this if it wasn’t already out of the bag and making its way through the Twitterverse. This blogger runs an impressive blog that she has spent years building. It’s disheartening to think of that legacy tainted. Many of us have learned a lot from this blogger – but it also seems we’ve learned a lot from Grit and Glamour inadvertently – and what has happened to them deserves to be recognized as well.
I’m incredibly conflicted about this – but I’ve made the choice to add this story to today’s BWN – maybe against my better judgment, I don’t know. I’m incredibly saddened by this. My thoughts are with the bloggers who have undergone this ordeal, the community who will be rocked by it and, also, the blogger in question.
*We here at Cuddlebuggery haven’t examined the evidence enough to firmly come to a decision for ourselves. This is only a reporting of the facts as presented by Grit and Glamour.
Sarah @ Smitten over Books
I know of that post by Grit and Glamour and was really shocked big time. I know the blogger and I know that she was a really big thing in our community I wouldn’t say more but it really blew my mind. Anyway, love this post again! Great job. 🙂
Nat
I read this article this morning and was shocked. This is a blogger that many book bloggers look up to which makes this all the more disappointing. This blogger has done really great things for the book world and as you said, it stinks to see that legacy tainted.
Nicola
Whoa… I’m sort of in shock right now! Just wow… would never have expected that in a million years.
And The Earthquake Machine ordeal! I didn’t like the original cover because it was ugly and looked nothing like a YA book, not because it didn’t have a pretty white girl on it. :p
Rachel Hartman
Kids, your old Auntie Rachel has some curmudgeonly advice: any time you lie, and plagiarism is a species of lying, there is a chance you will be caught out. Recognize that risk, and weigh it against the benefits before proceeding. When you are caught out (and the odds are good you will be), the ONLY recourse you have is to admit to yourself that the gig is up, own what you did, and apologize. If you lie to cover the original lie, that second lie has an even greater chance of being caught out, ad infinitum. The longer you carry on, the less inclined anyone will be to forgive you.
I think that’s what breaks my heart the most about that last story, the way she denied it and then wanted it kept quiet. Not that plagiarism is anything to wink at, but when you fuck up, you’ve got to own it.
(Gee, that news even got ME all serious. That’s some heavy news, there)
Rachel Hartman
(And forgive me if that was actually “assvice” and none of you need it, but I was quite the liar in my youth, and that’s what it taught me. Also: that if you feel compelled to make shit up, fiction writing is a really good way to go.)
Cassi Haggard
@Rachel Hartman: Auntie Rachel advice is my favorite.
As for this situation it kinda makes me want to crawl under my desk. Why can’t people just use basic ethics? I want to be taken seriously and when other people do this we all lose credibility.
Thanks for reporting Kat.
KB/KT Grant
Authors lashing out at reviewers and unfortunately bloggers plagiarizing has become the norm for 2012. 🙁
Rose
Kat, thank you for reporting this. I didn’t follow the plagiarizing blog really, but I knew how much of a driving force the blogger was behind the YA blogging community, and I know many bloggers that respected her. I think the fact she’s tried (trying?) to hide it makes the matter even worse.
Natalie @ Mindful Musings
Like you guys, I haven’t been able come to my own conclusion about the plagiarism reports. I have to admit that the evidence looks pretty damning, but at the same time…a lot of us DO write about the same topics and read a lot of other posts that are talking about similar content. I want to make it clear that I’m not supporting or defending either party, but I do want to bring this question up for discussion: do you think it was possible that it really was an unfortunate action, like the blogger in question originally claimed? Could she have visited the other blog in the past, read their posts, and simply not remembered it? Personally, I read TONS of blogs, and I know I don’t always remember what I read where even a day or two later. Then again, that IS a lot of “ifs” to be taken into consideration. Still, I feel like I should bring it up, mainly because I have yet to form my own opinion on the subject. What do you guys think?
By the way, sorry for the ridiculously long comment. I might end up turning this into a discussion post later! Lol. Thanks for the news post though! I always find them very informative. 🙂
Stephanie Sinclair
@Natalie @ Mindful Musings:
They have IP address showing her visits to their site and particularly the copied page. Multiple times. Then her post went up around the date of the IP address’ visits. The evidence is pretty tight. It’s very unfortunate.
Natalie @ Mindful Musings
@Stephanie Sinclair: Thanks for letting me know! I glanced over the evidence briefly, but haven’t had enough time to look at it as in-depth as I’ve wanted to. The whole thing is just sad, for everyone.
Stephanie Sinclair
@Natalie @ Mindful Musings:
Yeah, now that I’ve had time to sit down and look over everything it’s pretty obvious. I remember those pages and have been wondering where they were and why she changed the link’s title. I guess that answers my question.
Maggie
I’m with Rachel… it’s the denying of having “never been to your blog” but asking to keep it quiet that kills me. I’m glad you guys linked to the story. I’ve seen some tweets saying this story is about “bullying” Kristi? No. It’s about making a mistake, hiding it, then getting caught. And that’s the oldest story there is.
Kate C.
I’m not a jury or a judge, but the evidence seems pretty clear to me. It’s so weird that this would be the person that did it. She’s probably the MOST popular YA book blogger out there. She was the very first book blogger I discovered. She led me to all my favorite book bloggers that I now follow or am friends with. Wow. What a crazy world.
Nice to see AH on the list of books that are coming out. 🙂 Although, if you want to get technical, it’s a re-release.
Lisa @ Fic Talk
Wow… so did not see that coming. :/
However, very informative post as per usual, Kat.
KB/KT Grant
Kat, you and I were mentioned on ONTD http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/68438578.html
avisannschild
@KB/KT Grant: I’m weirded out that the ONTD article is actually cut and pasted from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books (even though they do link back to the source)…
Lexie B.
Wow. That’s . . . unexpected, I guess. Disappointing and unexpected. It would be a shock regardless of who was caught stealing, but when it’s the most prominent YA book blogger it’s . . . a big deal. I’m just hoping she gets on soon and is able to speak for herself; I’m interested to see what she has to say.
Julie@my5monkeys
that author in question I reviewed her book and I didn’t like but I did see her twitter stream that I said interesting and thats how I knew it was my thoughts from goodreads.
today has been interesting in the blogging world 🙁
Heidi
Whar a troubling issue to have to report on this news. When setting up my blog .i went to this person’s blog and followed much of her advice, now I am wondering how much of it was her and how much was someone else’s ideas. Just goes to show you that when you do the wrong thing Karma comes back and bites your ass hard and it is a bitch. I will be removing this person’s blog button from my blog tomorrow, wishing I could add your lovely button but you still don’t have one for me. I never ever participated in her meme it always rubbed me the wrong way, now I am curious to see how other bloggers will react. I feell bad for her but she made her bed and now I just can’t support someone who ripped off other’s ideas and then tried to deny it. Thanke as always for the heads up ladies.
Kat Kennedy
@Heidi: Ah! Heidi, we have a button! It is on the main page! But it’s only one that I made so it isn’t very nice.
Heidi
@Kat Kennedy: Comment
Great will get in the blog tomorrow the site comes up different when I am on my ipad so I didn’t see the button.
Adam Pring
And the moral of the story?
Plagiarism sucks ass. Don’t do it.
Donna @ Bites
I’m still trying to process this. I’m not angry . . . just ridiculously disappointed. Her actions have far greater repercussions than just making her look like an ass. If the pillar of our book blogging community resorts to plagiarism, how does that make the rest of us look? She screwed herself but she also inadvertently screwed the rest of us simply because of who she is. She isn’t some newbie book blogger or an unknown. She was the standard. And now she’s fallen.