Buzz Worthy News
This week’s Buzz Worthy News includes a rating system for YA books, a marvelous book concept, awesome blogger revenge on a plagiarist, and scandal, scandal and MORE scandal! Check it out and enjoy!
Buzz Worthy News is a regular Monday feature on Cuddlebuggery aimed at keeping you informed and up-to-date on the latest book world news, blogging posts and drama.
For weekly YA releases and a spotlight on the latest cover reveals, check out Friday’s Hot New Titles feature.
Book World News
Should YA Books be Given Ratings? Andrew Losowsky delves into this vitally important issue that absolutely must be discussed at the soonest possible time.
“Should Young Adult (YA) books be given movie-style ratings?
Yes, according to Dr Sarah Coyne, an assistant professor at Brigham Young University, who is one of four authors of an academic journal article published on May 18th, detailing the prevalence of swearwords in YA books.
As for who the ratings would be designed for, Coyne explained to US News and World Report, “a content warning on the back I think would empower parents.””
Naughty words in books. Oh dear! However shall the teens navigate such heinousness?
Losowsky’s advice?
“With the benefit of hindsight, the introduction of such codes and regulations look like little more than thinly veiled paternalism and self-censorship, stirred up through melodrama and hyperbole to satisfy prudish religious figures and conservative politicians.
In an internet age, not to mention a country in which the first amendment is so highly prized, it seems doubtful that a new restrictive code either should or could ever be applied to books of any kind.”
My favourite comments:
“Rather than require a rating system for YA books, I’d prefer to require stupid people to get a license before writing articles on YA books.” -for that dastardly deviant, Rick Lipman. LIPMAN!
“This content rating system for YA is a patently ridiculous idea. Kids are coming up with profane terms we’ve never even considered.” -Fake Editor (I hear they’re a fake. IS IT TRUE?)
“Instead of parents moaning about needing a YA rating system they should just read the books w/ their kids and discuss.” -Bethany L Griffith (My goodness! Reading with your kids? What madness is this?)
Source: Huffington Post
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Something we felt we should let everyone know about:
Better World Books is doing something pretty fantabulous, be we’ll let you read it from the source.
The literacy mission at Better World Books isn’t something that’s tacked on — it’s always been part of our DNA. Starting August 15, 2011, we are making an additional commitment to a simple system: You buy, we donate – Book for BookTM.
Every time you buy a book at BetterWorldBooks.com, we donate a book to someone in need.
That’s it! No qualifications, no exceptions, no fine print. We want to make doing good as easy as possible for our outrageously passionate community. Fortunately for our hard-working shipping teams, that extra good karma doesn’t take up any extra space.
Oh! We know that old news for some, but I only just recently discovered it – and…and…ISN’T THAT FANTASTIC?!
SOURCE: Better World Books
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A map has been mad of the highest concentration of people buying or reading 50 Shades of Grey. Basically, Goodreads compiled data, making two maps of the USA. One based on which states were reading Fifty Shades of Grey, and which states rate it higher.
Fifty Shades of Grey continues to top best-seller lists after almost three months of dominance: The trilogy sold 10 million copies in six weeks, there are long wait-lists at libraries and bookstores, and even Saturday Night Live spoofed the book’s popularity in a skit! So, Goodreads took a look at the US stats behind the phenomenon. Where are the “Grey States”?
The country is pretty clearly divided. More readers in the eastern half of the US are devouring the sexual adventures of Christian and Anastasia. The states with the highest readers per capita are located primarily in the Tri-State and New England area: New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island, and New York.
If you define “Grey States” by their average rating of the book, the landscape changes. The regions with readers who give Fifty Shades of Grey the highest average ratings are the Southern and Plains states—Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.
So, basically it seems that Tri-state area are reading it a lot – but mostly for the lols. Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Nebraska – what kind of kinky shenanigans are you hiding down there!
SOURCE: Goodreads
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For all those who have been plagiarized – you may find this cathartic!
“When All American Blogger Duane Lester discovered that a Missouri newspaper had allegedly plagiarized one of his blog posts, he drafted a letter and visited the newspaper with a video camera.
You can watch his entire confrontation in the video embedded above–an educational moment for all writers. Ethics Alarms called the video “the perfect and ethical way to handle a confrontation.” Follow this link to read Lester’s original article, a long piece about an audit of the Sheriff’s Office in Holt County, Missouri.”
For anyone who’s been plagiarized – I am sure watching the victim get their own back was nice.
SOURCE: Mediabistro/Galleycat
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Northstar and Kyle Jinadau are going to marry!
It really shouldn’t be any more of a big deal then any other marvel character getting married and it sucks that it has become an issue instead of just a sweet and cool event for fans of the couple.
The Daily Mail reports:
“Marvel seems to be upping the ante by announcing the planned wedding, as Northstar’s sexual orientation is not news.
Northstar revealed he was gay in the pages of ‘Alpha Flight’ No. 106 in 1992, one of Marvel Entertainment’s first characters to do so.
Ten years later, in 2002, gay characters Apollo and the Midnighter were married in the pages of ‘The Authority’ published by DC’s Wildstorm imprint.”
Lame people protest. I won’t quote them because they’re not worth the page space.
But don’t Jean-Paul and Kyle look lovely and so sweet?!
SOURCE: Daily Mail
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Scandalous Scandals
The biggest scandal to erupt this week was the week-long plagiarism project held by the known plagiarist, The Story Siren.
Cuddlebuggery Book Blog does not link to The Story Siren page so each article has been captured by Rameau so that people could read without visiting the page – an is posted below for anyone interested in the content.
There was general disbelief and outrage from many quarters of the book blogging world. The first post by Sarah Cross was posted without explanation or preamble by Kristi – causing much confusion and disappointment amongst bloggers and blog-readers.
Kristi soon posted an explanation and kicked off the week
Let’s Talk About Plagiarism With Sarah Cross
Plagiarism: A Student’s Worst Fear
Let’s Talk about Plagiarism with Sarah
Paraphrasing: Why are you so difficult?
“Never Complain, Never Explain,” Except… by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
Let’s Talk About Plagiarism with Darcy Vance
Criticisms came due to the fact that many of the posts were generally dismissive of the plagiarism performed by Kristi, defending her and making it seem as though it was a simple mistake that anyone could make. Kristi’s admission and apology was also take with heavy skepticism by the blogs she plagiarized who have STILL not received a straight-forward, honest, complete apology.
Steph says: “Oh, Irony, you think you’re funny don’t you? A plagiarist having a week long educational week about plagiarism, where Cassandra Clare, a known plagiarist, is defended. LOL, what? That’s like Chris Brown becoming the spokesperson for domestic violence, while defending Bobby Brown. *facepalm* Get me off this planet.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ranty Author and general fist-shaker, Laurell K. Hamilton is at it again.
As chronicled here, by LKH Lashout LiveJournal.
This is absolutely nothing new for Hamilton who performs her semi-annual rant-a-thon every time a book of hers comes out, the moon wanes or the winds shift.
This time is was on Twitter.
Yes. That is exactly it. We’re just angry that Anita has sex with men. Riiiight.
LKH goes on to blog about all those mean, mean haters and about… stuff.
“They will hate you. Someone, somewhere, sometime, will hate you. It is going to happen at some point in your life, probably several times. You can’t be nice enough, or good enough, or scary enough, or bully enough, to prevent them from hating you.
Why will they hate you? So many reasons, here are just a few.
They may hate you for the color of your skin, your sexual orientation, that you’re prettier than they are, that you’re uglier than they are, more popular, less popular, your religion, your lack of religion, that you’re more successful than they are, that you’re less successful than they are, that you are a better athlete than they will ever be, that you’re a worse athlete than they are now, that you dropped a ball, you caught a ball, you ran a touchdown, you fumbled a touchdown, that you write better than they ever will, that you have a happy family & they don’t, that your married & they want to be, that you’re single & they want to be, you have kids, you don’t have kids, you have a bigger house than they do, better job, no job, a lot of money, very little money, your grammar doesn’t meet their standards, you’re taller, shorter, too loud, too soft spoken, getting more sex than they are . . . The list goes on forever.
Don’t let the hatred get you down, or stop you from doing what you need to do, just do it, be yourself, & let them hate you. They will hate you no matter what you do, just don’t let that hatred, that envy, that jealousy, do anything, but let you know you are you, & since the only thing you can be is yourself, let them hate you. Let them eat their own hearts out with envy. Let them choke themselves on their feelings of inadequacy that they project on you. Let their jealousy blind them to their own highest truth. Let their self-loathing use you as a substitute for themselves. Let their fear narrow their world & destroy their own possibility of happiness. Know that hate breeds only bitterness & failure in the end. Do not hate them back, because then they own you. Don’t give them any power in your life. Don’t try to understand them, because if you are doing what you are most meant to do, following your greatest & best path in your life, you will have no time to hate, you will be too busy living.”
SOURCE: LKH Lashouts Livejournal
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Parajunkee, righteous badass and awesome blogger, blogged about trouble she’s been having lately with a Giveaway cheater.
“Someone took advantage of that trust. Trust that was given because most of them follow the rules. They assumed, because they follow the rules, that everyone else in the community is also following the straight and narrow path. But, just because they are a trust worthy group doesn’t mean they walk around with their eyes closed. So, when PJ got a tweet that mentioned two things “cheating” and “giveaway” it really upset her. Because most of PJs readers were following rules, doing what they were supposed to and entering the giveaway without cheating. Yet, there is always a few…and it was so easy to check.”
Parajunkee goes on to chronicle the excellent method she uses to discover cheats. We wanted to take this opportunity to comment on our own experiences.
That’s the screenshot of the cheater’s IP.
Wait a minute… that IP looks SO familiar. Where have I seen that IP before?
Oh, now I remember! I think I’ll hand this one over to Steph…
Taken from our giveaway rules:
“Also, please understand we reserve the right to disqualify any entries we find gaming the system. Cheaters never prosper!”
Kat and I work exceedingly hard on this blog with coming up with new content, hunting down authors for fun interviews, taking time out of our lives to go to author signings just to give those books away on the blog, and even paying out of pocket for books for giveaways. And if you notice, most of our giveaways are almost always international. We love our readers and we love promoting great reads. So color us surprised when we noticed last month someone had been trying to game our giveaway system. At first, we thought it was just a glitch with Rafflecopter. We drew a name for the Eve giveaway, but noticed that person had double entries. As such, that entry was disqualified. But then last week Parajunkee mentioned she also had discovered something odd. There were multiple email address and multiple facebook accounts for just one IP address. It was not coincidence. As we looked over the current entries for our Stormdancer giveaway (still going on, by the way!), we saw there were double entires yet again!
Friends, we have ourselves a cheater. Not only is this person trying to game us, but they are gaming other bloggers too. You are betraying trust. Kat and I will not stand for this. In the olden days we may have tar and feathered you, tied your body to a cart, dragged you through the streets, turned your house into a public privy.
But instead you’ll just have to stand for public mockery!
Did you really think you’d get away with this? Did you really think we wouldn’t notice? Did you not think we would be checking and double checking IP addresses? Did you think bloggers wouldn’t COMPARE NOTES? Shame, shame, shame on you!
Let this be a lesson for anyone thinking about cheating. We watch those entries like fucking hawks, ya hear? If we see multiple IPs for the same person, multiple email address, multiple twitters (one specifically for giveaways when you have another), multiple facebook accounts… anything like that, you are out and making Monday’s Buzz Worthy News. Don’t be a douche.
A final comment from Rachel: “PJ learned a lesson that day, that she should always check that her winners entered fairly in the giveaways, because if you reward a cheater it only makes them do it more if there aren’t repercussions. And this isn’t fair to all the people that enter and enter fairly each time…”
Good advice Rachel!
smiling_ina
Amazing post, girls!!!
I can’t wrap my head around the idea that people actually want to put ratings on YA books. That’s ridiculous. Seriously, if you want to know exactly what your kids are reading, read it WITH them. You read stories to them when they are little, so why stop? Get involved in what they’re reading, so you can make sure they understand what they’re reading. If they have questions, at least you’d know what you’re talking about.
Seriously, I’m disgusted by people who cheat during giveaways. There are so many generous and lovely bloggers out there who pay out of there own pocket to give books and joy to others. Why do some feel the need to cheat and lie? I just don’t get it. Despicable!!!
Kat Kennedy
@smiling_ina: I can’t either.
And we’re pretty disgusted by the cheater.
Jasprit
Thanks for leaving the info about cheating on rafflecopter, I never used to check the entries properly. But now since both Rachel and Stephanie have come across it I will definitely be checking out my entries more carefully now! Thanks again for this brilliant post! It’s an awesome way to start off my Mondays! 🙂
Kat Kennedy
@Jasprit: Make sure you do! Glad we could help.
Fangs for the Fantasy
Ratings systems for YA books? yeah that’ll work – aside from anything else, it’d have to apply to ALL books not just 1 genre – or people will just change the genre label (assuming YA is even a genre rather than a category). And I’ve never read a YA book that was oh-so-shocking for teenagers – it’s paternalism (notice most YA books are aimed at girls, after all)and has a ridiculous idea about the “innocence” of children
Wait the story siren plagiarist week is including DEFENCE of plagiarism and plagiarists? Ugh, apology, you’re DOING IT WRONG!
Ah Laurell K Hamilton, competing with Ann Rice for author most likely to beat her critics with a sock full of nails. I love this constant assumption that anyone who dislikes how Anita Blake ended up is prudish. Y’know, except for the vast weretiger orgies, Anita Blake isn’t that edgy. It’s just sex. lots and lots and lots of sex. Pretty boring sex as well. It’s not prudishness, we’re not shocked and appalled by all the sex – it’s boredom. Because when a book just has sex scene after sex scene with little plot linking them it’s generally considered dull
And people probably wouldn’t complain if the EARLY BOOKS WEREN’T SO GOOD. People aren’t upset because it’s a series of poorly written porn – they’re upset because a story with a great protagonists, interesting side characters, a fascinating world and compelling stories was turned into a series of poorly written porn. People are angry because you are BETTER than this, Ms. Hamilton.
But comparing book critics disliking your work to racists and homophobes? No. Really, no, that’s out of line.
Kat Kennedy
@Fangs for the Fantasy: Anne Rice has kind of toned down a lot – especially since she abandoned Catholicism. But yeah, I totes agree with you.
Fangs for the Fantasy
@Kat Kennedy: She seems to have mellowed some, that’s certainly true 🙂
Ashleigh
Oh, LKH. Never change. You are a pretty terrible person sometimes, but you’re so unintentionally funny.
I haven’t been able to do a giveaway in a while because money eludes me, but I definitely won’t be using Google Docs for my next one. Cheaters suck!
There is a woman at the local bookstore who sells Fifty Shades of Grey to couple by saying, “I read this series about nine months ago and look where I am now.” She then rubs her eight-and-a-half months pregnant belly. Booksellers like her may by why Floridians both buy the book a lot and rate it highly.
Ashleigh recently posted..Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
Kat Kennedy
@Ashleigh: That would be a good way for some people – but that sale method would make me run for the hills.
Ashleigh
@Kat Kennedy: I would be running away too, but she apparently sells a lot of Fifty Shades books that way. In just one hour the day before Mother’s Day, she used that method to get two husbands to each buy the entire trilogy for their wives. That scares me
a little bitpretty badly.Desiree
I know close to nothing about computers so I will not be surprised if I’m wrong but what if two different people living in the same household share a computer and they both enter the giveaway. Wouldn’t that show up as two different email, twitter, facebook, accounts from the same IP address? Don’t get me wrong, I’m very glad that you and other bloggers like you are working hard to make sure that your giveaways are fair and disqualifying any cheaters you see. Is there a way to tell the difference? I know you guys know what you’re doing, this is more out of curiosity than anything else.
Stephanie Sinclair
@Desiree:
Yes, and in that case we would have no choice but to trust that it is in fact two different people or add a disclaimer asking for one person’s entry per household. In the case above, it was the same twitter account for both emails and Facebook accounts. The person also entered for the “leave a comment” twice with both accounts and never left a comment. We check out our winners pretty good before we would even think of disqualifying them. There isn’t a way to know 100% everytime, but we try to be thorough.
Tellulah Darling
I don’t believe in a formal rating system, but I don’t mind the idea of content advisories on YA books. Not because of parental control or not allowing teens to read certain books, but because tonally and content-wise, there is a wide range between the stories that are geared to younger readers to those for older ones. And sometimes, as a YA reader, I’d like to specifically read something geared to older teens and this way, I’d know what that is. I can’t always tell from the book description. So, you know, for selfish and lazy reasons… 🙂
Kat Kennedy
@Tellulah Darling: I have to admit that I like grittier, darker YA – probably closer to NA, really. But I think adults don’t give children enough credit – and I have kids so I know what it’s like to want to protect them.
Tellulah Darling
@Kat Kennedy: Yeah, Kat, all kidding aside, I do agree absolutely with what you are saying.
Malinda Yoakum
I live in South Carolina and I try to warn people against 50 Shades of Grey. I warn them it is about Sadomasochism and of the gory details. I don’t know how seriously people take me cause most are fans of Nora Roberts/Danielle Steele.
Natalie @ Mindful Musings
I am a shameless Better World Books promoter. I LOVE them so much! Free shipping, cheap books, AND donations to charity? Does it get any better? Lol.
Kat Kennedy
@Natalie @ Mindful Musings: I don’t think so, no!
Julie@my5monkeys
ratings on YA books I don’t think so and totally subjective to the reader.
The story siren week ..UGH I thought the big ironic things that she was the candor team leader and wasn’t being honest when the crap hit the fan.
Cheaters never win and I do moderate the links through rafflecopter to make sure that its not the same person.
Georgette
Several random thoughts:
#50ShadesofShit study- INTERESTING. I love data studies like this. No joke.
Plagarizing Revenge- AWESOME.
Cheating at Giveaways- DISHEARTENING. We made sure it wasn’t the Plagarism Siren, right? (Just kidding…although..I’m not. lol).
LKH- Well, I’ve read her books- I quit Anita Blake after #5, I think(it’s been a wild, my memory’s rusty) her comparing book critics to racists? WHAT? The very word critic(it really does NOT sound like a welcoming word to begin with. I mean, really- say it…CRITIC..it truly does not bring about a vision of wine and roses.) means you’re going to hear good or bad. If she can’t take the heat, take that menu of books to someone else’s kitchen. I thought writers had a natural born capacity to weather those stormy seas….the critics, like book bloggers, booksellers, etc…have a job to do. Such as Ms. Hamilton has her job to do writing these books, we also have a job to sell them, critique them, or love them up if they’re awesome. The language in that post sounds a bit selfish, to me. Again, I could well be insane.
Thanks for the great update, Kat.
Kat Kennedy
@Georgette: I’m honestly not sure LKH is all there, to be honest.
Georgette
@Kat Kennedy: Oh I believe you are right on that observation.
I forgot about the “ratings” on the YA books. I think that’s a waste of time. Who decides the rating? The publisher? What if bloggers and readers don’t agree? It seems like kind of a real weird idea.
AnimeJune
I would not want a ratings system on YA books. Like, at all. That’s actually one of the things I love most about books – that there aren’t any rating or restrictions, because the fact of the matter is, if the people doing the ratings system are biased, teenagers’ll end up with a very skewed view of what’s right and what’s wrong.
Ever seen the film “This Film Is Not Yet Rated”? Part of the reason American society is so tolerant of violence and yet disgusted by female sexuality is because the persnickety folks at the MPAA give PG13 ratings to bullet-riddled action films but threaten to slap a film with an NC17 rating because a female character’s orgasm “went on too long.”
There cannot be a rating system because a ratings system cannot be objective, because people cannot be objective.
As for giveaway cheaters – yikes. Although I don’t think I’ve reached that level yet. I hosted my first giveaway on my blog and got only one entry. Not a lot of cheating there. :S
Kat Kennedy
@AnimeJune: I absolutely agree. If anything, female sexuality has become increasingly more monitored by the MPAA in recent years. They’re getting more prudish.
Lexie B.
Regarding the rating system for YA, that’s . . . ridiculous. I think anything related to book censorship is preposterous, but this is particularly laughable because they wish to rate them by curse words. As if curse words make something dark, or dirty, or unreadable. I could write a happy, pleasant children’s book where “fuck” was every other word. I could write a dark, deeply disturbing novel without the use of one swear word. Curse words don’t inherently make a novel “mature,” or “dirty.” How could you rate novels based off of something as silly as that?
As for the scandals, the Story Siren thing . . . bothers me, as it does many people. I don’t think it would have bothered me nearly so much if a few things were different: if her explanation had gone up BEFORE the Sarah Cross post; if she would actually admit, in simple words, that what she did was intentional and wrong; and if she would legitimately apologize to those she plagiarized from. Since none of that has happened, I think it’s troubling and insensitive.
And finally, the giveaway cheater . . . bothers me. As you mentioned, we do these giveaways as a thank you, a kindness to our readers. Oftentimes, bloggers put their own money into it. While I understand how badly you may want to win a certain prize, gaming the system is just a huge insult to those who made this giveaway in the first place. I’ll be sure to look for that IP in the future.
Lexie B.
@Lexie B.: I just realized, a day later, that two of my opening sentences include: . . . bothers me. I’m just a very bothered person, it would seem.
Kat Kennedy
@Lexie B.: I completely agree with EVERYTHING you said. But this is nothing new.
Kate- Midnight Book Girl
Seriously, there is so much here to comment on that my brain stopped working! Okay, it could be because it’s almost midnight and I am up way too late when I should be getting sleep before work tomorrow… but I can’t just go to bed without ranting about a rating system for YA books! What the hell, America? I get it, kids have fragile minds that too often leads to bad decision making. It’s called puberty, and we’ve all been there. But putting rating on books just makes helicopter parents and their need to protect their precious offspring from the reality that is life all that much easier. Who would decide the ratings? Tipper Gore? Just set the YA book down, and step away or I swear I’ll send Fifty Shades of Grey to every kid in America.
And the Story Siren, sigh. Still missing the damn point. But whatever, I didn’t follow her before and I’m sure she’s not suffering from lack of sycophants. I will say that I wouldn’t have known about the Cassandra Clare plagerism if it weren’t for TSS, and I just don’t know what to do with that info. I can’t unread the books I’ve read (the first 3 Immortal Instruments), and while I always meant to continue with the series, now I don’t know.
As for the Anita Blake series, I used to read it but I am a bit prudish and I didn’t like the character having multiple partners, that’s just not a turn on for me. I know, I promised to send out copies of Fifty Shades of Grey, but I guess I’m okay with spanking and bondage as long as it’s monogamous. That said, I fully support LKH writing about orgies with supernatural creatures and all the readers out there who want to read about it. Maybe I’ll send out A Lick of Frost to the every uptight douchebag that tries to get a YA rating system in place. Because how much longer after that would it be before we see rating systems on all books, and then we’ll have our reading habits followed by the government and they’ll decide I reached my Smut Quota and force me to read War and Peace.
I’m rambling, so off to bed!
Kat Kennedy
@Kate- Midnight Book Girl: Yeah, I have nothing wrong with her sex partners. I thought Micah and Nathaniel and her made a very sweet threesome. But the complete lack of plot and the fact that her sex was so non-consensual really bothered me.
Christina (A Reader of Fictions)
LOL. Your gifs always make my morning. That is fantastic. Wow. That person had SO MANY ENTRIES. I would have been SO TEMPTED to call them out, but definitely best that you didn’t.
So much scandal up in the book world. It’s cray-cray.
Also, I’m still gobsmacked by Kristi’s event. It makes no damn sense.
Kat Kennedy
@Christina (A Reader of Fictions): No damn sense at all.
Well, we called her out a little here – but we knew she didn’t read our blog so we felt pretty safe about it.
Bookluvrs Haven
In Regards to Giveaway cheater post:
Thank you so much for this post. Erin and I are new bloggers so this was very educational to us, as we just ended our very first giveaway on our site. It’s great to keep in touch with the blogger community for this reason; to be exposed to certain things that as a new blogger, we may not have encountered and figured out yet. We will definitely take the advice and check those IPs going forward to ensure that we do our best to have a fair giveaway!!
THANK YOU
Lily & Erin
Bookluvrs Haven
Kat Kennedy
@Bookluvrs Haven: I’m glad we were able to help!
Maggie Flynn
So much fun stuff here! I was watching all the LKH drama unfold and all I could was “She’s at it again!” and then laugh because as loopy as she is, she provides quite a bit of entertainment.
I cannot believe that someone’s actually defending Cassandra Clare. I write fanfiction, and when writing it, you acknowledge and understand that the characters and worlds you’re working with aren’t your own. That is not comparable to copy and pasting huge chunks of other people’s prose and attempting to pass it off as your own dialogue and way of using language. I can’t believe that they’re trying to paint her in a sympathetic light on that issue.
And yeah, the YA ratings thing? Parents, if you are that concerned, read the damn books with your kids. It’s what my parents did, and trust me, it is actually a worthwhile to spend time. The parents who seem to want ratings for the YA books seem to want to enforce rules without actually involving themselves in what their kids are reading. It sounds lazy to me.
Kat Kennedy
@Maggie Flynn:
It was very disappointing – just how much defending those articles did of Kristi. I was tres sad.
Christina (A Reader of Fictions)
Guys, guys! I just chose winners for one of my giveaways, and I’ve clearly made it to the big times, because I found that IP too! She didn’t win anyway, but I know her name now, so she won’t be winning anything unless she changes her cheating ways.
LOL.
Kat Kennedy
@Christina (A Reader of Fictions): Good job!
Parajunkee
I’m falling all over myself — you guys rock as usual. The YA rating thing is just two steps towards total stupidity. Only holding them back because they at least have some kind of good intentions no matter how misguided it is. Well I hope their intentions go towards protecting those “innocent” teens and not just about more restrictions and censorship.
I’m clapping all over the place about the X-Men wedding – how fun is that? But, they have always been cool with the social issues, I still can’t figure out why this is a big deal…but that is just me.
Then the video of the Newspaper that plagiarized was awesome. Maybe everyone at BEA should follow a certain Scandalous blogger around and ask her for a real apology. But, I think she might have nailed her coffin with this badly implemented plagiarism week. Talk about two steps from total stupidity. I think if she would have just kept a low-profile for a few months she might have rebounded, this again, was a testament of how NOT to handle your blog after being accused of plagiarism. And why people have PR people and don’t listen to dumb ideas that their “friends” come up with. *sigh*
The LKH thing is just ridiculous. I stopped following her on twitter after this fiasco. Mental. And she should get a PR person also, at least she can afford one.
Thank you so much for the shout-out too…the chick hasn’t entered my latest giveaways, that makes me suspect she did see the post. We’ll have to see. XOX)
Kat Kennedy
@Parajunkee: She hasn’t seen our post cause she’s still tweeting one of our giveaways! Thank you for bringing it up so that we could highlight it!
Louise
A ratings system for books? That’s just ridiculous. Also redundant. Bookshops and libraries pretty much already tell parents what’s age-appropriate and what’s not by splitting up the children/teen book sections by age band.
Mind you peoople saying parents should vet every book their kid reads are being just as ridiculous (and I realise no one here is saying that but I’ve seen it said in plenty of other places and it pisses me off just as much as the ‘books should be rated’ nonsense). No way could my mother have found the time to keep up with either my big sister or my reading habits, let alone both of ours together. And we wouldn’t have wanted her to, especially once we hit ‘YA’ age-range; it would have been creepy and controlling.
Tellulah Darling
@Louise: Growing up, I was encouraged to read. There was no distinction or direction based on age or content. It was, ultimately, left up to me to figure out what was appropriate for myself. I did not become a sex addict or serial killer because I was exposed to certain books. Too much micro-managing and not enough trust for individuals to be exposed to the world and figure out their own stance in it. Regardless of age. Personally, I’ve always thought it was the sheltering from ideas that was the dangerous way to go.
Louise
@Tellulah Darling: Pretty much the same story here and I’m not a serial killer or emotionally traumatised either!
Also I think that sort of micromanaging actually discourages kids from reading if you don’t let them discover books for themselves. One of the main reasons my little sister refused to read for so many years was because me, my big sister, and my parents were always trying to ‘help’ and make her read books we liked at her age or discuss what she was reading with her. Add in the books teacher’s made her read for school and I can’t blame her for saying she never wanted to read a book for fun.
Kat Kennedy
@Louise: I think it would be nice for parents to read some books that their kids are reading just to see what’s going on with them and what they care about. Like reading some of their favourite books to talk about with them.
Louise
@Kat Kennedy: I can agree with that – though I realise I didn’t come off that way. I would never say parents shouldn’t read anything with their kids. I think it’s very important that they do. I always loved discussing books with my parents and ‘read aloud time’ with dad (mum was crap at voices). Quite often I would actually force them to read my favourite books (Harry Potter) just to talk about them – in fact I still force dad to read weird books I think he’ll like.
It’s just when people (like a few particularly prattish friends of mine on another site – no one here) go ‘well of course I would read every book my child wants to before letting them, just to make sure it’s suitable – I can’t understand what parent wouldn’t!’ that I get irritated, and I always see it rearing its head a bit whenever there’s a ‘YA/Childrens books are too adult/violent’ scare. It’s just as overprotective and extreme as the ‘books should have ratings’ crowd.
Bunny Cates
I’m probably going to catch a lot of hate for this, but I would like to see some kind of rating on YA. Or at a minimum, start seeing YA broken into sub-categories.
I have a 5th grader who reads on an 8th-9th grade level. While most of her friends are picking up middlegrade, Monk is going for YA now.
Some YA does have some pretty “grown up” activities going on. It would be nice if everyone upset about this topic would not just assume that if they are reading YA they are 16+. My girl is only 11. It is so hard finding age appropriate reading material for her that is ALSO on her reading level. Something like a ratings system or sub-genres would help me – the parent – in finding appropriate stuff for her to read. Me wanting this has nothing to do with trying to control a YA Authors freedom of speech, or “judge” or anything like that. I would just like someway to know, as a parent, if a book is appropriate without having to sit down and read the thing myself first.
ETA: I do read some YA, don’t think I am saying I shouldn’t have to read YA… but my DD and myself are NOT into the same type books and I would like to not have to read “her kind” to see if its appropriate. haha…
Fangs for the Fantasy
Another note on YA books rating systems
Look, we already know that YA is highly erased when it comes to GBLT characters. This won’t help. Censorship and ratings bodies across the world routinely consider any GBLT content, no matter how mild, to be obscene (or more obscene that straight equivalents).
Just check how many netguards and the like block gay websites – no matter what their content. Or how often the words “gay” and “lesbian” are censored in safe searches. Just check the innumerable number of people who complain every time there is a kiss between 2 people of the same gender on television before watershed.
A ratings system will hit GBLT books