In this week’s Buzz Worthy News we have tales of racism in the Hunger Games community, the next J.K. Rowling, good news for the YA Genre and, of course, more scandals to report on. All this and more!
Buzz Worthy News is a weekly segment designed to provide a weekly source of Book World News tailored for Book Bloggers and Young Adult readers. For comprehensive weekly lists of new YA book releases and cover reveals, head over to our other weekly segment, Hot New Titles.
Book World News
What is going on with some Hunger Games fans?
After the shitstorm that was the racist tweets over the casting for the Character of Rue in the Hunger Games, another scandal has broken out recently when a fan campaigning for Jesse Williams to play the part of Finnick, met some very ridiculous backlash (many of the horrible, racist responses have been deleted).
“I think that Jesse Wiliams just won’t work. Finnick Odair in my eyes is Tall, young, disheveled medium long luscious Golden blonde hair, ocean blue colored eyes, he has a glowing tan, washboard abs, and wears almost no clothes, at the same times carries a trident. That is the guy i wan’t to see as Finnick. For example PERFECT GUY is Ian Somerhalder. Color him blonde and throw in some contacts and wala you have Finnick Odair!
I’m sorry but unless I read the wrong book, isn’t Finnick Caucasian? By tanned skin Collins meant his skin was darkened from the sun (swimming/fishing) not that he is of a darker skin ethnicity… Don’t get me wrong, this guy is great just completely wrong for this role.”
-Source: Jezebel
Steph’s response:
“More Hunger Games racism. Can we all just get the hell over ourselves?”
Amen.
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Big news in the book world. Twenty-Two year old Oxford student, Samantha Shannon has been signed by Bloomsbury for a three book deal – signing for a multimillion dollar deal.
The series for first book, The Bone Season, has been mapped to span seven books. The deal, at the moment, is for the first three but Editor-in-Chief, Pringle had this to say:
“The book is an utterly consuming adventure and we are committed to the seven.”
The deal has her being predicted as being the “next J.K.Rowling”.
“Following the adventures of Paige, a 19-year-old clairvoyant who escapes from life in a criminal underworld.
The Bone Season is set in 2059 where Paige is captured by the repressive government, Scion, and sent to Oxford, a town which has been kept secret, where she meets Warden, who becomes her “keeper.”"
-Source: News.com.au
“She’s predicted as being the “next J.K. Rowling”? That’s a pretty big cloak to fill.”
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Children’s and YA fans can rejoice! Our favourite industry is practically booming with recent figures showing amazing growth. Figures for February, released by the Association of American Publishers, shows nearly a 72% increase in Hardcover sales.
“Coming off strong January 2012, Children’s/YA physical book sales again demonstrated high double-digit increases over Feb 2011 and over YTD 2011; the C/YA eBooks segment again showed impressive triple-digit gains in both monthly and YTD comparisons. According to some publishers, this is primarily due to the ongoing success of several blockbuster franchises in YA and Children’s markets. Also noted was the escalating trend of Adults reading YA titles, particularly in eBook format.”
Coupled with the rise in paperback sales, the genres are up 74.6 percent. They made $153.3 million in February 2011 and have grown to $267.6 million for this January.
-Source: Galleycat
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Authors/writers/nerds, need something cool in your day? Check out the YouTube Time Machine to see videos from selected periods. The videos range from 1860-2012 and are a great way to research for your novel or get that 80′s/90′s nostalgia hit you needed.
There’s also an app version!
“the app lets you choose a year and play videos from that time period. It is a great way to find television commercial, sports videos or music videos from your childhood.”
Transformers, anyone? Huh? Huh?!
Source: Galleycat
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Scandalous Scandals
Indie Author causing drama and trouble… AGAIN.
A self-published author, known for causing drama by attacking negative reviews of her author-friend’s book, has started again.
This time by posting a screencap of a Goodreader’s shelf on her public Facebook (though she later took it down).
And then making this comment:
It should go without saying that someone in a professional position, and an author, should NOT be engaging in petty disputes with reviewers or consumers. Nor should they be publicly attacking other reviewers or Goodreads members for shelving their books.
The Dear Author reference seems to be for this.
The Holy Terror responded here, and it seems she’s been lucky to receive no hatemail this time around.
But this is a growing problem, greatly owing to the nature of the self-publishing industry. In a crowded market where it’s difficult to get your name out, this kind of notoriety only seems to benefit the authors who engage in it. It’s much easier to get your book noticed and attract readers by attacking reviewers than it is to build a reputation of respectful discourse and professional interactions.
It’s much easier to risk the ire of the reviewing community (with all the benefits attached to creating controversy) when you can successfully campaign amongst your loyal readers to downvote an Amazon review until it is deleted. It creates win-win situations for authors willing to sacrifice their reputation and the respect of their peers.
And thus, we can probably expect more behaviour like this from the aforementioned author and her author friends.
Kat Kennedy
Latest posts by Kat Kennedy (see all)
- Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey - May 17, 2013
- Cover Reveal + Giveaway: Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff - May 15, 2013
- Buzz Worthy News: 13th May 2013 - May 13, 2013
- Review+Giveaway: Nameless by Lili St. Crow - May 10, 2013
