Buzz Worthy News
In this week’s Buzz Worthy News: The Hobbit is confirmed as a trilogy, another former fanfiction title lands a book deal, Self published titles flood the New York Times’ list and much, much more including scandalous scandals!
Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly Monday post featuring book world news and book blogging scandals. Stay up to date with our posts by subscribing via email or feed reader and remember to check back each Monday for all the latest buzz.
Book World News
The Hobbit is Happening! Again and Again and Again…
The Hobbit, unlike the six book epic tale that is The Lord of The Rings, is only 320 pages long. Yet Peter Jackson announced on his Facebook that the tale of a Hobbit-thief in the making would become a trilogy.
“We know how much of the story of Bilbo Baggins, the Wizard Gandalf, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur will remain untold if we do not take this chance. The richness of the story of The Hobbit, as well as some of the related material in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, allows us to tell the full story of the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and the part he played in the sometimes dangerous, but at all times exciting, history of Middle-earth.
“So, without further ado and on behalf of New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wingnut Films, and the entire cast and crew of The Hobbit films, I’d like to announce that two films will become three.
It has been an unexpected journey indeed, and in the words of Professor Tolkien himself, ‘a tale that grew in the telling’.
“Cheers, Peter J.”
The University of Edward Mason Got a New Name and Now a Book Deal
Gabriel’s Inferno a pull-2-publish title, originally a Twilight fanfic by the name of The University of Edward Mason, has been given a generous book deal.
The author, Sylvain Reynard, scored a seven figure deal that was brokered by Deidre Knight and Melissa Jeglinski negotiated the deal with Penguin’s imprint Berkley. Berkley is expected to print 500 trade back copies of the book.
Elizabeth Harper (Creator of Twilighted.net and Omnific Publishing President made the following statement:
“These books transcend the stereotypical romance and take readers on a deep and moving journey that will stay with them forever … We believe that romance readers, who are primarily women, are intelligent, creative, sensitive, and complex, and books like these honor these qualities in those readers.”
David Pogue Tries His Hand at Piracy
David Pogue, a New York Times columnist, wrote a piece of Scientific America about his brief experience BitTorrenting a book.
He begins the article by explaining how pirates have ruined data sharing.
“Does it take 25 for a hacker to remove the copy protection? No, of course not. Nonpaying movie buffs don’t have to strip off the copy protection; they never even see it. They use BitTorrent and get their movies for free.”
He then shares his own experience with making one of his books available DRM free.
“The results were clear: Piracy was rampant. The book was everywhere online. But weirdly, my readers were also proved right. Sales of the printed edition did not suffer; in fact, they rose slightly year over year.”
He was after a digital edition of The Bourne Legacy by Robert Ludlum.
“Eventually, I did what I’m sure thousands of frustrated Ludlum fans wind up doing: I downloaded the book from a BitTorrent site. I know this is wrong. I sure wish I could have paid for it. So I sent the publisher a check for $9.99 for the e-book.”
The decision has sparked controversy in the reading community.
Imagine Was Very Imaginative
It has not been a good year for Jonah Lehrer. First he was caught up in a scandal where he’d republished his own work. Then it surfaced that he’d forged Bob Dylan quotes for his book Imagine which resulted in his resignation from his new position with the New Yorker and with the mass recall of his book.
“The quotes in question either did not exist, were unintentional misquotations, or represented improper combinations of previously existing quotes. But I told Mr. Moynihan that they were from archival interview footage provided to me by Dylan’s representatives. This was a lie spoken in a moment of panic. When Mr. Moynihan followed up, I continued to lie, and say things I should not have said.”
Lehrer’s publisher has posted ads for people to get refunds for the book.
Michael Moynihan of the Tablet was the journalist to contact Lehrer regarding the deception.
Self Publishers Rock the NY Times Best Seller List
Colleen Hoover, R.L. Mathewson, Lyla Sinclair and Bella Andre all hit the big times when several of their books made the New York Times Best Seller list coming in at positions 8, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24.
The veritable deluge of self publishing authors cresting the hills and flooding the market caused titters of the most riotous nature. “What are those scandalous Self Published authors doing on the New York Times Best Seller’s list?” they demanded.
The answer? Pwning it apparently.
Galleycat compiles lists of the best selling Self-published authors every week.
“Author Colleen Hoover‘s book Slammed is No. 8 on the list and her title Point of Retreat hit No. 18). Author R.L. Mathewson‘s book Playing for Keeps ranked at No. 16 on the list and author Lyla Sinclair‘s book Training Tessa hit the No. 17 position and Bella Andre had three titles on the list If You Were Mine at No. 22, Can’t Help Falling in Love at No. 23, and I Only Have Eyes for You at No. 24.”
Novelist Passes Away
The world bids farewell to another novelist. Gore Vidal passed away at the age of 86.
“Gore Vidal is the author of twenty-four novels, five plays, many screenplays, more than two hundred essays, and the critically lauded memoir, Palimpsest. Vidal’s United States (Essays 1952-92) won the 1993 National Book Award.”
Nightshade with an Erotic Twist
Andrea Cremer, author of the New York Times Bestselling series, Nightshade, has signed a new deal with Penguin for an adult erotica trilogy. With more and more fan fiction writers capitalizing on their favorite YA titles and turing them into erotica, we could very well see more YA authors giving their books an erotic twist.
“YA author Andrea Cremer has landed a book deal with Penguin Group (USA)’s Dutton imprint to write an erotica trilogy for adults. The not-yet-titled first book will be available in October 2013.
Cremer established her career as a YA author with the Nightshade trilogy, a fantasy series starring teen werewolves. The new adult books will be set in this Nightshade universe.
According to Publisher’s Weekly, Dutton publisher Brian Tart negotiated the deal with InkWell Management literary agents Richard Pine and Charlie Olsen. Associate editor Jessica Horvath will edit the books.”
Babies Make Better Books?
Novelist, Amanda Craig, claims Maeve Binchy would have been a better novelist if she’d had kids in an essay for the Telegraph. Apparently, having children gives you a greater insight into the world, enabling you to see the deeper meanings of life. Oh noz! Childless novelist having been doing it wrong, wrong, wrong.
“No matter what your experience of adult love, there is nothing as strong as the bond between a mother and a child… Putting yourself last is one of the best things that can happen to a writer. I make no moral claims for motherhood - which can bring out the worst in a person, in the form of vicarious rivalry, bitchiness, envy and even mental illness – but going through the ring of fire does change you and bring about a deeper understanding of human nature.”
Never mind the fact that some of the greatest stories have been written by childless women. Because obviously they, or men for that matter, could possibly understand life as well as a woman who has raised children. Sounds legit.
Scandalous Scandals
GoodReads Releases Review Guidelines
Yesterday GoodReads finally released their long overdue Review Guidelines and Author Guidelines. With their release Patrick, GoodReads’ Community Manager, made sure to point out that they were not new, however, it appears the system they are using to now enforce these guidelines are. The reaction to the guidelines are mixed with some extremely disappointed and others now happy with the transparency.
For the most part, things at GoodReads will remain the same as it ever was, though, this particular line did give us pause (bold is ours):
“Our job is to show members those reviews, and not show reviews that we deem to not be appropriate or a high enough level of quality.“
Of course, the biggest controversy in all this mess is the legitimacy of reviews that shed light on the author’s behavior, also known as the “see comments” reviews. In the guidelines it mentions:
“Reviews of the author. Mentioning the author in the context of a review is always acceptable, but reviews that are predominantly about an author’s behavior and not about the book may receive a lower priority.”
Kara, GoodReads’ Customer Service Manager, chimes in to say members will be able to see if their review did not pass GoodReads’ guidelines, but the feature hasn’t been released yet. She also mentioned that an actual notification can be discussed.
Patrick later clarifies:
“With regards empty reviews where there are comments about the author…If a conversation starts about why you shelved a book a certain way, that shouldn’t have any bearing on the review’s status at all. If your post is just a “see comments” where you are essentially trying to get around the review filter, that’s different. In the end, all of these are going to be looked at on a case-by-case basis by our team, so I can’t say definitively that it will always be one way or the other.”
Steph says:
Whatever the case may be, it’s clear that GoodReads my very well have their hands full with overzealous flaggers. I’d hate to be the person wading through that queue.
Fangs4Fantasy
Oh that goodreads policy sounds like it’ll be a pain. Can you imagine? A bad review and the Usual Suspects will be on their blogs and twitters “come my flying monkeys! FLAG THIS REVIEW! FLAG IT!”
Fangs4Fantasy
Also I’m not happy with the timing. This is too soon after the Stop the GR bullies fiasco – it looks too much like they’re caving to the worst possible behaviour.
Coranne
One thing I kinda wish GR could get rid of…. people rating books when they haven’t actually READ them, like 2 years in advance. I know there is no way they can, but I get irritated wading through “reviews” of what people hope will be in the book…
Liza
I’m not sure what I think about the erotic trilogy set in the Nightshade universe. I’m happy for Andrea if she’s happy, but it’s also leaves me with a lot of questions. I think it would be weird to have read about X character in Nightshade and read the new series and see the character having wild, hanging from the chandeliers, monkey sex. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if it involved a character I read from a YA novel, I wouldn’t want to read it.
The idea that YA authors feel they might have to write an erotic tale to compete with fanfiction spin offs of their work is sad. While, I haven’t read the Nightshade series there are some book universes that I never want to see its erotic counterparts and they include Twilight, Mortal Instruments, Fallen, etc. Even if those characters never graced the erotic counterpart it would still be odd. If it had been an erotic trilogy set in a brand new universe I don’t think I would have even given it a second thought.
Lisa FicTalk
GOOD GOD!! I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT OF FALLEN EROTIC FANFIC! KILL IT WITH FIYAH!
Experiment BL626
I like the new news format. 🙂
@The University of Edward Mason Got a New Name and Now a Book Deal
The Twilight and its demonspawns are here to stay. *goes to cry in a dark corner*
@Self Publishers Rock the NY Times Best Seller List
Nice to see they’re doing well. Hope this means traditionally published author will up their game ’cause the quality in the genres I read have been seriously lacking.
@GoodReads Releases Review Guidelines
I wish GR didn’t “deprioritize” reviews because of perceived “appropriateness” or “quality” whatever the fuck that means. It’s condescending.
KD
1.This proves Twitlight is a virus disguised as a book. Don’t read it, you might get infected, and start spouting fanfic.
2. “digital edition of The Bourne Legacy by Robert Ludlum” That is AMAZING. The Bourne Legacy I seen is by Eric Van Lustbader. I wonder how they contacted Mr. Ludlum to write it since he’s been dead 11 years?
3. ”
“What are those scandalous Self Published authors doing on the New York Times Best Seller’s list?” they demanded.
The answer? Pwning it apparently.”
LMFAO
4. Looks like Goodreads is going to go the way of amazon reviews. Too bad.
Midnghtbookgirl
Okay, okay, okay. I had to take a deep breath and a down a glass of wine after reading the Maeve Binchy story. Binchy is one of my all time favorite authors, and her books and character depth is amazing so that Amanda Craig can shove it up her hoo-ha. In fact, I had to look up Amanda Craig as I have never heard of her. Possibly she is jealous over Binchy’s literary legacy and the success of her novels. I don’t know. But to completely write someone off because they choose not to have children (or possibly couldn’t, not everyone can get pregnant Ms.Craig) and can’t know the depths of love is a bunch of hog poop. Ugh I need more wine!
And now I’m going to have to read the Nightshade books so that I’ll understand the Nightshade world for when the erotica novels come out!
Georgette
Many things come to mind in this week’s update:
I will never publish a book, for I am childless. I’ll love to tell Ms. Craig where to shove that opinion. And what a great time to make this statement, as the author has just passed away. Classless. How about a tribute for an impressive body of work, not a
The Nightshade books are intriguing me. I will have to give them a shot.
The fan fic being published- 50 Shades has ruined even butter for me….so I’m leery about the actual finished product being anything I would enjoy reading. I do, however, read fan fiction, so i consider myself hypocritical making that statement, but it’s how I feel.
I am not pleased at all with the GR revision of reviewing guidelines. I expect most of mine are going to get censored, b/c I don’t screw around with my thoughts, bluntless, and profanity if a book pisses me off( 50 Shades, etc). Ugh.
Holly
Wow; what a nasty essay from Amanda Craig, both jumping all over someone who just died and anyone who doesn’t want or can’t have children. I don’t think I’ll be reading any of her books after seeing that.
Honestly, I don’t think I can tell from anyone’s writing whether s/he has kids or not. I’ve read plenty of books by people whose bios clearly mention children, but their characters still seem lacking or incomprehensible, so maybe the author got some extra insight into human nature from parenthood, but sadly, they could still use some more. And other people who definitely don’t have kids have shown me brilliant insights into human nature via their stories. If my own characters have cloudy motives or seem to lack depth, I sincerely doubt it’s due to my lack of children.
shelley1
So if something is well written I’ll own to liking it even if it’s fanfic, though I rarely know until after I’ve read it or have been told. That being said, Gabriel’s Inferno? Really? It was awful in so many ways. I’m not even going into all of the ways because I’ve reviewed it once and wish not to bother wasting time repeating. I’m flabbergasted at what is getting published. No wonder selfpublishers are doing so well. You can’t count on big time publishers releasing quality anymore. It’s one thing to come across a book I don’t like. That happens, and I don’t fault the publishers for it. It’s quite another to publish poorly written crap. Do they use editors anymore or simply run spellcheck?
Adam A.
So wait, if I write my book as a Twilight fanfiction, I’ll get published?
I guess I’m never going to get that book deal. :/
Kayto
I’m not really upset about Gabriel’s Inferno, because, well, 50 Shades set the precedent and publisher’s want to make money. And really, I’m hoping/wondering if this means that fanfic authors of *goodfic* might benefit. Not by repackaging, but just because there might be more exposure of either readers looking for new material and hearing that X book started out this way, or people looking at fic for the writer’s ability.
Between and and the self-publishing news, though, it really makes me think (or realize, rather) that now is a changing time. Is the rise in popular self-published fiction because they’re good and publishers didn’t want to take the chance, or because they’re not that good but just fun/easy and people want to read them? Honestly, I kinda think it’s the reality of social networking finally catching up to books, which in turn means that blogs and such are going to be even more relevant playing the role that professional reviews/the NYT lists/etc played before.