Welcome to Buzz Worthy News where the stories are awesome. Need your book industry news? Never fear, Kate Copeseeley is here to give it to you straight.
In this week’s Buzz Worthy News: New trailers for Sherlock and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. The Dark Tower stills have been released, Man Booker prize is lacking some diversity and creepy author is creepy. All this and more!
Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly news post bringing you all the best information about the book and blogging world, particularly for the venn diagram of people who overlap between the two.
Season 4 of Sherlock Has a Trailer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj6c_nXsxW8
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
So two BBC trailers this week. Whoohoo! This looks GREAT I can’t wait to watch it. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_d1kIpHbz4
Photos From Production of The Dark Tower
I’m pretty sure that The Dark Tower was one of the many Stephen King books I have tried to read and couldn’t finish. Sacrilege, I know. But anything with Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba in it has my attention.
Can’t wait for the trailer, but in the meantime, have some awesome pics.
Roland Deschain (Idris Elba) and Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) in Columbia Pictures’ THE DARK TOWER.
Roland Deschain (Idris Elba) in Columbia Pictures’ THE DARK TOWER.
Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) inside Dutch Hill in Columbia Pictures’ THE DARK TOWER.
Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) in his room in Columbia Pictures’ THE DARK TOWER.
Roland Deschain (Idris Elba) and Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) in Columbia Pictures’ THE DARK TOWER.
Walter (Matthew McConaughey) in Columbia Pictures’ THE DARK TOWER.
“Gunslinger Roland Deschain roams an Old West-like landscape in search of the dark tower, in the hopes that reaching it will preserve his dying world.”
The film will also star Fran Kranz, Jackie Earle Haley, Abbey Lee, and Kathryn Wiggins.
Directed by Nikolaj Arcel and produced by Akiva Goldman, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Erica Hughes, The Dark Tower will be released on February 17th, 2017.
More Details on Black Panther
San Diego Comic Con has been so good to us, I swear. Today’s deets come to us from Lupita Nyong’o and it gives us another dimension on the plot to come.
Nyong’o and The Walking Dead star Danai Gurira are set toplay members of the Dora Milaje, Black Panther’s elite, all-female bodyguard group. Some of those bodyguards made a very brief appearance in Civil War, though not Nyong’o and Gurira.
Then, there are the two united foes for T’Challa. One of them is confirmed to be Black Panther’s longtime comic book nemesis Erik Killmonger, who’ll be played by Creed star Michael B. Jordan. The second may be another returning antagonist from the Black Panther comics, Ulysses Klaw(Andy Serkis). Klaw makes a brief appearance in Age of Ultron, where it’s revealed that he’s a notorious smuggler of the fictitious metal vibranium — the precious, rare material that comprises Captain America’s shield, and can only be found in Wakanda.
Anna Faris to Write Memoir
I think Anna Faris and Chris Pratt are such a cute couple. And I’m glad that he’s going to contribute to her memoir, but um… she’s like 39? Isn’t that a bit young to do a memoir? Anyways, here are the facts:
Anna Faris has signed a deal with the Penguin Random House imprint, Dutton, for a memoir entitled Unqualified. She has become well-known as a Hollywood actress who has taken on roles in The House Bunny, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and The Dictator.
The book will be inspired by Faris’ advice podcast, “Anna Faris is Unqualified.” Chris Pratt, the star of two Guardians of the Galaxy movies and Faris’ husband, has agreed to write the book’s foreword. Jill Schwartzman, an executive editor, negotiated the deal with Marc Gerald of the United Talent Agency.
Faris gave this statement in the press release: “After years of telling people I don’t know what I’m talking about concerning a whole host of topics, it is deeply gratifying to learn that Dutton whole-heartedly agrees. I could not be more excited to get my stories – on love, relationships and courtship – to the people who not only buy books, but then actually read those books. Namaste.”
Man Booker Prize Shows Disappointing Lack of Diversity
Sad trombone music after news that of the 13 person long list for the Man Booker prize has only three writers of color included. Though the Man Booker Prize is open to both England and North America, all three of the writers: Madeleine Thien, Paul Beatty, and Ottessa Moshfegh are all from North America.
The fact that all three of them are based in North America is a further disappointment, confirming the fears of many that allowing entries from the US would sideline BAME writers from the UK.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise – the Booker has never been a champion of diversity. But after four of the six writers of colour on last year’s longlist made it through to the shortlist and one of them – Marlon James – was the eventual winner, people might have expected more. In fact, 2015 now feels like an anomaly. Since its inception in 1969, only eight writers of colour have won the Booker. Of those eight, only two were black writers, Marlon James for A Brief History of Seven Killings and Ben Okri for The Famished Road. A black woman has yet to win the Booker. A Guardian study found that between 1969-2012, 99% of the judges for the Man Booker were white.
An award like the Booker offers a writer sales, name recognition and a platform. And if publishers aren’t putting Britain’s multicultural talent forward for major prizes, then they’re doing these writers a huge disservice.
Raid at Hong Kong Book Fair
This probably won’t come as any surprise, but China really likes to keep tabs on the type of books that people in their country are reading.
According to a press release posted at the Hong Kong government website, the OFNAA (which enforces “the standards of taste and decency accepted by the community” and provides “an efficient service for film censorship, publication monitoring and local newspaper registration”) has confiscated more than 1,400 copies of over 300 different titles on sale at the fair. The materials in question were suspected of violating the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance (COIAO). According to a spokesman for the OFNAA, the materials will be presented to a tribunal for further review and classification, and if they are found to qualify as “obscene articles,” the publishers may be assessed a fine of up to $1,000,000HK and may face imprisonment for up to twelve months.
Hmm… I wonder what qualifies as obscene to the OFNAA.
At the moment, it is unclear exactly which titles have been confiscated, or if there is any political motivation behind the seizures. The press release cites “three public complaints against a photo album” which had been previously categorized as Class I (neither indecent nor obscene) and against which no further punitive action will be taken.
The press release offers no information on the other titles that the OFNAA black-bagged for classification, other than the fact that the operation was a “self-initiated inspection,” and that exhibitors at the fair had been notified of the terms of the COIAO months in advance and were responsible for ensuring their compliance with the ordinance.
It’s hard to be prepared for a raid when you have no idea what the government could deem indecent when next they happen upon you.
According to statistics released by the Hong Kong government, the COIOA tribunals have, from January to May of 2016, “scrutinized” nearly 116,000 “articles,” performed 26,180 “inspections,” registered 264 complaints, conducted eighty-seven “operations” (it being unclear what exactly constitutes an operation: forced seizure of assets? Deposed testimony? Heated discussion?), seized twenty articles, and made twenty-four convictions. One public complaint was also lodged against a comic book, and several public complaints had been lodged in advance of the fair against a controversial series of books investigating illegal activity on the internet, titled Deep Web File and Deep Web 2.0 File.
How Not To Get Published, Like EVER
I’m no expert on getting published. Sure I’ve read the articles and done the research, but all advice I’ve read points to understanding that you’re going to get rejected a freaking ton of times and to just let it go already. In fact, I read somewhere that Beth Revis was rejected a thousand times before she finally got published, which just makes me want to hide under my covers with a bottle of wine. In any case, I guess some authors don’t read the same expert blogs as I do, because one author, by the name of David Benjamin, has devoted a whole handful of posts to the agents who have rejected him.
The writer behind “In The Inbox” was the one who broke the story:
I’m providing this because I want you to know that people like this exist. Agents frequently have to protect themselves from this kind of abuse. The industry is small and agents pass this kind of thing on to each other. Note that this is not his first bitter post about an agent who rejected him.
I’ve provided the 3 screen-caps of his short blog post and 3 screen caps of the 6 comments, taken at 11am, July 27, 2016.
This is only one of the screencaps. As of right now, the author has taken down his website, but I really wish I had taken a screenshot of some of his other posts. BECAUSE THEY ARE BAD. LIKE ACTUALLY SERIOUSLY BADNESS.
There is one post where he describes himself as a dog and I just couldn’t even believe it. *kicks self for not screencapping it*
Anyway, if there is a lesson to be learned here, it is DON’T TRY TO GET PUBLISHED IF YOU CAN’T TAKE THE REJECTION!!!
Interesting Links
A Letter To the Unfinished Book
Briana @ Pages Unbound
I think you can write a memoir at any age, provided you have interesting material to work with. I’ve had to read some memoir manuscripts at literary agency internships I’ve had, and one of the most common issues people had with their memoirs was believing they had to write a comprehensive autobiography that started at birth. The fact is: most memoirs are better with a focus. If you’re famous for X, focus on X. If you’re an actor and didn’t start acting until 20, start your memoir then. Most readers want to hear about that, not about how you received a bike for Christmas when you were eight. Even if you have something “relevant” to talk about, like the time you were a tree in the school play in kindergarten, hence beginning your acting career, the event might not be as pertinent or fascinating to readers as you think.
Kate Copeseeley
Thank you for that fascinating bit of info. I had no idea! 🙂
Carina Olsen
Yay for more awesome news 😀 Thank you for sharing about it all Kate. <3 Hugs. I don't watch Sherlock yet.. but one day, I hope 😀 It do seem awesome. And ahh, I am SO excited about Black Panther 😀 I loved him the most in the Captain America movie. Cannot wait for this one 🙂
Kate Copeseeley
Thank you, Carina! I am with you on The Black Panther. Super excited to see what they do with the story!!
La Coccinelle @ The Ladybug Reads...
From what I understand, a memoir is different than an autobiography. A memoir focuses on a particular time/experience in a person’s life, while an autobiography encompasses the whole thing. So yes, it would be weird to write an autobiography at 39… but a memoir could potentially be written at any age.
Kate Copeseeley
Ah, thank you for the explanation. I think I WAS thinking more of an autobiography. I look forward to seeing what she focuses on!
Beth W
Black Panther AND the Dark Tower, on top of American Gods AND Dirk Gently AND Sherlock season 4?! You are too, too good to me. 😀