Buzz Worthy News 9th September 2012

Buzz Worthy News

Wel­come to this week’s Buzz Wor­thy News! An author is busted Sockpuppeting, a judge approves the 3 publisher settlement, this year’s Hugo winners are revealed, authors unite to combat sock puppeting, EL James is deliciously hypocritical and a new photo of Emily Dickinson is revealed.  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.

 Buzz Worthy News 9th September 2012

Judge Dredd

So We May Have Been Wrong About That Settlement…

So remember last week when we were totally like, “that settlement won’t get approved!  Pfft!”

Yeah… that totally got approved.

Harper and Collins, Hachette and HarperCollins agreed to a $69 million settlement – but the settlement needed to be approved by a judge.  Despite the objections from B&N, The American Book Sellers Association and roughly 90% of 868 public comments received.

“The proposed final judgment appears reasonably calculated to restore retail price competition to the market for trade ebooks, to return prices to their competitive level, and to benefit ebooks consumers and the public generally,” she said. “Ebooks consumers should not be forced to wait until after the June 2013 trial to experience the significant anticipated benefits of the decree.” – The Guardian

Penguin, Apple and Macmillian are holding out and thus will go to trial in June where some are reporting they will face Judge Dredd. Trufax.

SOURCE

What We Wish Edward and Bella Were Really Saying.

So, you remember how the Twilight movie was insufferably painful and agonizingly horrible?  Oh, right.  You were trying to.  Sorry.  But how about replacing some of those horrible memories with something more pleasant? And in that vein we present to you Bad Lip Reading’s version of Twilight.  Enjoy.  We certainly did.

Favourite quotes:

Bella: “You know, I spit on my brother.”

Edward: “Yikes… I um-”

Bella: “Mmmhmmm, I know.  That whole, um, brother thing.  I mean…”

*

Bella: “Dude, you slapped a fish.  You punched it. Why would you hit it?”

Edward: “I wanted to make some seafood.”

*

Edward: “That cake’s my most bestest creation. Why’d you eat it?”

SOURCE

Second Photo of Emily Dickinson Possibly Discovered

Emily Dickinson, known for great poetry and being something of a reclusive shut-in.  Not known so much for having her photo taken and getting out and about.  Which is why it’s so fabulous that a possible second photo has been unearthed.

I wasn’t quite convinced on the similarities but apparently someone with a lot more education than myself knows better:

Comparing the 1859 picture with the 1847 photograph known to be of Dickinson, Professor Susan Pepin of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Centre measured eyelid and facial features of both women. “The two women have the same eye opening size with the right eye opening being slightly larger than the left. The left lower lid in both women sits lower than the right lower lid,” she wrote in a report. “Other similar facial features are evident between the women in the daguerreotypes. The right earlobe is higher on both women. The inferonasal corneal light reflex suggests corneal curvature similarity, allowing us to speculate about similar astigmatism in the two women. Both women have a central hair cowlick. Finally, both women have a more prominent left nasolabial fold.” –The Guardian

The picture was found in Massachusetts, but there are still doubts as to whether it really is Dickinson in the image.  My money is on no, but I’ve been wrong many times before!

SOURCE

2012 Hugo Award Winners Revealed

This year’s Huge Awards have been held, hosted by the fabulous John Scalzi.  The winners are below, list courtesy of GalleyCat:

BEST NOVEL: Among Others by Jo Walton (Tor)

BEST NOVELLA: “The Man Who Bridged the Mist” (complete) by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s, September/October 2011)

BEST NOVELETTE: “Six Months, Three Days” (complete) by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com)

BEST SHORT STORY: “The Paper Menagerie” (Complete PDF link) by Ken Liu  (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2011)

BEST RELATED WORK: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Third Edition edited by John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls, and Graham Sleight (Gollancz)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY: Digger by Ursula Vernon (Sofawolf Press)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM

Game of Thrones (Season 1) (HBO)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM

“The Doctor’s Wife” (Doctor Who) (BBC Wales)

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM

Sheila Williams

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM

Betsy Wollheim

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

John Picacio

BEST SEMIPROZINE

Locus, edited by Liza Groen Trombi, Kirsten Gong-Wong, et al.

BEST FANZINE: SF Signal, edited by John DeNardo

BEST FAN WRITER

Jim C. Hines

BEST FAN ARTIST

Maurine Starkey

BEST FANCAST

SF Squeecast, Lynne M. Thomas, Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, and Catherynne M. Valente

SOURCE

The Society of Authors UNITE!

After all the upset of sock puppetry and fake reviews, and authors like John Locke, RJ Ellory and Stephen Leather admitting or being busted in sockpuppetry scandals, The Society of Authors has been created on Nosockpuppets.wordpress.com.

“These days more and more books are bought, sold, and recommended on-line, and the health of this exciting new ecosystem depends entirely on free and honest conversation among readers. But some writers are misusing these new channels in ways that are fraudulent and damaging to publishing at large. British author Stephen Leather recently admitted that he used fake identities online to promote his work. The American bestseller John Locke has revealed he has paid for reviews of his books. The British author RJ Ellory has now confessed to posting flattering reviews of his own work and to using assumed names to attack other authors perceived to be his rivals.”

You can sign up your name to to agree to not sock puppet, write fake reviews of your own book or books of other authors.

18 Year Old YA Author Get Books Deal

According to Sky News, an 18 year old author, Abigail Gibbs, has landed a six figure book deal with Harper Collins after serially posting her novel, The Dark Heroine on Wattpad.

Gibbs began when she was 15 and gained 17 million readers before her agent discovered her and helped broker a deal with the publishing giant.

“Violet finds her new world to be a timeless place of vast elegance and immeasurable wealth – of beautiful mansions and lavish parties – where a decadent group of friends live for pleasure alone.

But it is also a place from where there is no escape, no matter how hard she tries.

Nevertheless, Violet ends up in a love triangle with Kaspar Varn, the vampire prince and heir to the vampire throne, and Fabian, Kaspar’s best friend.”

Gibbs apparently juggles writing between her studies, and families and admits to drinking 7 cups of coffee a day to keep up.

“Publisher Kate Elton told The Sunday Times: “The fact that she’s writing something that feels British – within a genre that’s traditionally been American – gives it an individual feel.”” – Sky News

SOURCE (Credit to TRYXKITTIE for posting it on OhNoTheyDidn’t)

“They’re doing what with my book?”

The Most Hilarious Hypocrisy Ever

So Tina Winters has been hosting lingerie/bondage parties using Fifty Shades of Grey as a theme.

This week she was contacted and ordered to stop her parties and remove the book as a theme.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Tina, 45, of Whitmore Park, Coventry. “This book has gone all round the world. Everyone has been using the book title to sell lingerie, fashion, catwalk shows, you name it.-The Coventry Telegraph

“EL James’ agent Valerie Hoskins said the legal letter was not personal, adding: “You can’t just hijack something someone else owns.”” –Mirror.co.uk

We’ll get back to you when we stop laughing.

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Goodreaders Troll Listopia

On the 5th of September, A(nnabeth) Hole, a new profile made this month with no ratings or reviews, created a list for Authors Who Have Unfairly Been Attacked by Reviewers, despite claiming to not actually know anything really about these poor authors.

Usually, we would ignore this and be vaguely insulted that we’re supposed to be this stupid.  BUT, something rather hilarious happened.  And it happened in the form of Goodreaders flocking to the list and adding books by authors who have been targeted for sticking up for reviewers.  Then they just started adding regular old authors.  Any author who’s had a negative review counts – pushing down the names and titles of authors who might have otherwise liked to have been at the top of the list.

The most voted for authors include Stacia Kane, J.K. Rowling, George R.R. Martin, Meljean Brook, Jennifer Armintrout, John Scalzi, Ann Sommerville and Stephanie Meyer.