Buzz Worthy News
Welcome to this week’s Buzz Worthy News! The Department of Justice hits out at the retailers, J.K. Rowling will be heading, briefly, to America, Finnick Odair has been cast in the next Hunger Games movies, Weird Tales magazine makes a statement 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. For Young Adult cover reveals and new releases, check out our weekly Friday post, Hot New Titles.
Buzz Worthy News
27th August 2012
DOJ Comes Out Swinging
After Apple’s statement last week, claiming it will go to trial rather than settle, the Department of Justice has hit out in response and has requested that the court force settlement without going to trial.
“[Apple] is not entitled to preclude the United States and Apple’s co-defendants from obtaining the immediate benefits of their settlements, as it is well established that the United States ‘need not prove its underlying allegations in a Tunney Act proceeding.’”
“Railroads, publishers, lawyers, construction engineers, health care providers, and oil companies are just some of the voices that have raised cries against ‘ruinous competition’ over the decades.”
The DOJ has also responded to Penguin, Macmillian, Barnes and Noble and ABA.
Blink and You’ll Miss J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling will be doing one and ONLY one publicity tour for her new book The Casual Vacancy.
The Synopsis:
When Barry Fairweather dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.
Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?
Details for the event:
Tickets go on sale on Monday September 10th and cost $37, if you buy them in the theater box office, $43 if you buy them online, and $44 if you buy them over the phone. Tickets include a copy of the book. – Galleycat
Flaming Jizz Balls! I thought the price would be closer to my first born child!
You Can Take the Girl Out of Self Publishing But- Oh No, Wait. You Can’t.
Self-Published tycoon, Ruth Cardello, claims to have turned down a seven figure book deal in favour of continuing to be a badass self-publishing force of nature.
“She was just a kindergarten teacher barely making ends meet months ago and now she is an indie published New York Times bestselling author who recently turned down a 7-figure book publishing deal to continue on her path, definining her own destiny.” writes Jeff Rivera.
“Even though one of the offers was seven figures, I haven’t accepted any of them yet. So far self-publishing is the route that makes the most sense for me to continue on.” Cardello claims.
Cardello gives some advice for her phenomenal success. Interestingly enough, she discusses the amazing impact making her first book free did for her career. Maid for the Billionaire is still free for download.
Finnick Odair Has Been Cast!
The character of Finnick Odair for the second Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire, has been cast!
I, personally, had rather hoped the role would go to Jesse Williams- but I guess the odds weren’t ever in his favour or mine on that one. There had been a lot of contention over the role of Finnick Odair. Especially with many fans campaigning for Ian Sommerholder to take the role (he gets nominated to play EVERYTHING. WHY!? Someone explain it to me.)
The role has, instead, gone to Sam Claflin. If you’re unfamiliar with the name then you may remember him from Snow White and the Huntsman, AND that Pirates of the Caribbean movie that nobody talks about.
Catching Fire is going to be directed by Francis Lawrence and is expected to open in theaters November 22. 2013.
Let the countdown begin!
Because this isn’t racist at all…
Weird Tales Publisher Takes a Moment to Be Awesome
After Marvin Kaye wrote a post defending Save The Pearls – Defending Eden, and made the decision to reprint the first chapter in Weird Magazine’s next issue.
This story is a compelling view of a world that didn’t listen to the warnings of ecologists, and a world that has developed a reverse racism: blacks dominating and detesting not just whites, but latinos and albinos, the few that still survive of the latter are hunted down and slaughtered… Racism is an atrocity, and that is the backbone of this book. That is very clear to anyone with an appreciation for irony who reads it.
Ann Vandermeer, former editor-in-chief resigned over philosophical differences with the magazine.
The response to the blog post was, unsurprisingly, negative with some authors stating they didn’t want to be associated with the magazine anymore, prompting the publisher to step in and do some of the best back tracking we’ve ever seen.
John Harlacher made the following statement:
I have not read the novel, but have gone over its online presence today. I have no need to read it. I saw the blackface video and read the excerpts the author and publisher chose to make available. I must conclude that the use of the powerful symbols of white people forced to wear blackface to escape the sun, white women lusting after black “beast men,” the “pearls” and “coals,” etc., is goddamned ridiculous and offensive. It seems like the work of someone who does not understand the power of what she is playing with. Marvin says if you read the whole book, she explains her use of this imagery, and it ends up as a plea for tolerance. I say, so what. And that is the position of Weird Tales — and upon reviewing the video and other materials, Marvin is in full agreement. I deeply apologize to all who were offended by our association with this book. I am offended by it. I fully respect those who have been writing negative things about us today. You are correct.
It’s yet to be seen if this measure will restore some of the Magazine’s venerable status.
Scientists Love to Freak Us Out
For the first time a book has been successfully stored in DNA. The book, which has a file size of 0.7 megabytes (the human genome represents approximately 800 megabytes of data). The team was led by George Church from Harvard Medical School, who claims that DNA storage could be most advantageous over other storage methods like flash media and quantum holography. Well, except for all the time and energy it currently takes to code DNA.
But, obstacles today – overcome tomorrow as I always say since ten seconds ago!
The book they coded was Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves – which was co-written by Church. This could be the best publicity stunt to get your otherwise largely ignored academic volume bought!
The team copied the book 70 Billion times. So I guess if you ever need to borrow it – you know who to ask.
Lazy Authors Buy Fake Reviews Instead of Sockpuppeting and Writing Their Own Like They Did in My Day!
The New York Times cleverly brought us an article about that thing we all know happens but hope it’s not as bad as we think it is: fake reviews.
The article chronicles the rise and fall of Rutherford, a reviewer for hire who made significant amounts of money writing and commissioning fake reviews for authors.
“In the fall of 2010, Mr. Rutherford started a Web site, GettingBookReviews.com. At first, he advertised that he would review a book for $99. But some clients wanted a chorus proclaiming their excellence. So, for $499, Mr. Rutherford would do 20 online reviews. A few people needed a whole orchestra. For $999, he would do 50.”
Rutherford, who wrote or commissioned fake reviews between 2010-2011 produced 4,531 reviews in that brief window of time!
The article goes on to explore the dynamic between reviewers, their role in sales and the scarcity of those who do them.
All this has inspired us at Cuddlebuggery. I think we should start accepting money for our reviews. Specifically to take down our bad reviews! What do you say, people? $50 per review to be taken down?
Amazon Reviewer Gets Threatening Phone Calls After Altercation with Author
After one of Giffin’s books received a less than positive review, her husband decided to take matters into his own hands. Calling the reviewer a pscyho and attacking her on her review. Giffins posted on her Facebook to encourage fans to help defend her honour against the Amazon review.
Giffin’s assistant went on to attack a secondary review after the reviewer changed their rating of the book and discussed Giffin’s antics. Shortly after that Giffin’s husband apologized for the attack, claiming ignorance on his wife’s behalf for her actions.
Corey Ann blogged about her experience and about receiving calls telling her to kill herself here.
“Around 11:00PM I received 3 different calls, all blocked, with one leaving a “delete your review!” voicemail and the second stating that I should just kill myself for being such a miserable person for attacking poor Emily. REALLY? And yes, I’m talking with the cops about this already. I mean that’s Misery kind of fan territory. Not long after I heard a loud bang on my deck and I was legitimately scared that it was a gunshot. Far fetched maybe but this was quickly sinking into WTF territory.”
We’re sad to say goodbye to another Book Blogger this week.
Hippies, Beauty and Books Oh My wrote its finale post and packed up shop this week.
“For the past several weeks we have been bombarded with rude, vile and offensive comments being left on our blog in the comments section of our posts and in our emails. We’ve done our best to ignore and delete as much as possible, but we can (or rather I can) only handle so much negativity. This is a problem that has grown steadily worse and since I started blogging over a year ago. To be honest, I’m not sure what brought all of this to us. We are generous, nice people who genuinely care about others. We aren’t sure if this is stemming from THE SITE THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED, the fiasco with self-published author Carrol Bryant, or if people just decided to make us their next target.”
The blog, which had recently been targeted by bullies and for harassment, will be missed by many.
Fangs4Fantasy
I was beyond disgusted when I read their initial defense of Save the Pearls, which literally translates to save the White people. Save them from what exactly? This shows an absolute lack of professionalism. How could they simply take Foyt’s word that people who were complaining didn’t read the book. A look at the promotional material for Foyt’s work easily proved people had fair grounds to avoid it any cost.. I believe that Weird Tales simply felt by publishing an excerpt that they were being edgy and would have done so if it were not for the backlash that they received. I don’t believe for one moment they chose to publish without vetting what they were publishing. This is more a case of thinking that hipster racism is cool.
The backtracking didn’t make at all happy. This entire conversation only ended up giving Foyt even more publicity. I am convinced only the backlash made them change their minds. It’s one thing for that hideous Stop the Goodreads Bullies to defend Hoyt’s racism (note: apparently Save the Pearls isn’t racist because Foyt said so) because they have zero integrity and another for a magazine to do so. Shame on everyone involved for trying to justify this racist claptrap.
Kate C.
The biggest news to me, and a lot of other indies, is that powerhouse John Locke, author of the insanely popular ebook “How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months” not only purchased at least 50 reviews, but also implied that he’d buy more if it worked out well. Shocking. It is basically THE story on kindleboards right now.
I think this is the first time in my life that (a) I’ve ever considered making a DNR list and (b) ever considered ditching the indie publishing road. Honestly, what are those of us with ethics supposed to do to combat this? When I think of the TIME I’ve spent building my name, acting professionally, trying to be the best writer I can be.
I mean the article says he was making $28,000 a month. That is a LOT of authors buying reviews. I think it would be naive to think they were just indies, too. I bet we’d see a lot of newbie or midlist authors on there. I wish, honestly, that I could see who was on it.
I’m just sick over it. I could go on and on, but I’ll save that for my own blog. 🙂
judy10001
LOL The guy did some mad back-peddling on that one! My side was splitting as I read his plea to forget their association with “Save the Pearls,” not that I see why you would support the book in the first place. I refuse to touch it.
He dropped it like it was hot! Haha, awesome XD
Ben Hennessy
Cory Ann receiving a death threat for a negative review: HNNNGGGGH.
Fella makes a ton of money writing fake reviews en masse: HNNNNGGGHHHHHHH.JK Rowling not charging millions for a ticket to her publicity tour: Good girl. 😀
Ben Hennessy
Cory Ann receiving a death threat for a negative review: HNNNGGGGH.
Fella makes a ton of money writing fake reviews en masse: HNNNNGGGHHHHHHH.
JK Rowling not charging millions for a ticket to her publicity tour: Good girl. 😀
Experiment BL626
@You Can Take the Girl Out of Self Publishing But Oh No, Wait. You Can’t.
I got “Maid for the Billionaire” on my Kindle. I need to read that this month and see what the excitement is all about. It’s been a while since I read a Harlequin-esque romance.
@Lazy Authors Buy Fake Reviews Instead of Sockpuppeting and Writing Their Own Like They Did in My Day!
Don’t authors know too many perfect reviews looks suspicious? There’s no way everyone can love the same book. If you’re going to scam readers, do it properly. Vary the ratings and reviews. Geeze.
Experiment BL626
@You Can Take the Girl Out of Self Publishing But Oh No, Wait. You Can’t.
Blech. Just read the interview.
[quote]
I suppose you could say that I’ve designed a ‘Kindergarten Teacher’s Approach to Marketing’
KTAM 1: Play nice
I know that sounds simplistic, but if you’re out there giving other authors poor reviews – you’re not making any friends. In this business, good networking is priceless.
[/quote]
Hmm…
cynicalsapphire
I thought Hot New Titles died? Is that a stock bit at the top referencing it?
Haha, I too was surprised at how relatively cheap the tickets to the Rowling event were. Unfortunately, I don’t live in NYC, so no go for me.
Right. She got a 7 figure book deal and turned it down. This is my believing it face. I don’t think so.
Jesse Williams is way better looking than this guy, that’s for sure. I totally pictured Finnick looking like a surfer. This guy really isn’t doing it for me. Then again, they did a pretty stellar job with makeup in the first one, so who knows.
It’s so hilarious to me how people flipped out over Revealing Eden just a couple of weeks ago. I read it many months ago and put it into my WTF IS THIS pile and moved on. I think it’s because they just now decided to make a trailer. Good call, guys. You’re no longer in obscurity.
About the book in DNA, my question is WHY? If they put the code for the book into you, would you know everything inside it? *ponders*
I’m not that bothered by the review purchasing. I don’t know why people were surprised. It’s pretty obvious that reviews are purchased, either with cash or free stuff. Not that every reviewer who gets a free book is lying in their review, but the ones who I almost never see rate a book below a 4 sure do seem to get more than the rest of the blogosphere. But I can always TELL.
As for those last two bits of info, that just sucks. If you don’t like people’s reviews, punish them by NOT READING, not by coming around and being a fucking douchenozzle.
rocapri
mocha reads left and now .hippiesbeautyandbooksohmy.com/ noooooo . whyyyyy . nooooo . nooooo . hides in a corner and depressed . nooo
sofie_hatter
YAY Rowling! I love her so much!
Jessie Williams is so much hotter. That is all.
Rant about to commence. Sensitive people, move along.
I blame the inability to accept criticism on a society that doesn’t believe in rewarding hard work or excellence, but instead prefers to catapult those without talent or merit to fame and fortune as evidenced by the “reality” TV shows and mediocre authors/singers/actors/designers/athletes/etc being shoved to the forefront.
Authors, you do not realize that you are not entitled to praise and reward solely because you published a book. Do you think no one else has been criticized or do you believe your work must be universally accepted because you are special? Ask Rowling how much criticism she has encountered. Look at the Banned Books List and tell me those authors haven’t suffered worse criticism than some blogger/book reviewer saying they did not like their books. All these examples of authors behaving badly demonstrates a lack of self-awareness, low class and a lack of perspective on your part.
You are not being persecuted for your writing. No one is organizing book burnings of your books. Scathing editorials are not being written in major newspapers or magazines attacking your work or character. You are not making the 6:00 o’clock news. You are not that high in the public consciousness to warrant such attention. Even that Snooki thing is more important than you are in the media totem pole. All that is happening is someone saying, “I don’t like your book and this is why.” That’s it. Nothing more.
Read the negative reviews and either learn from them or laugh at them for being too stupid to understand your marvelous writing. Then go bask in the praise of your five star reviews. Regardless of which, your responses should always be private. It should not be written about on blogs/tweets/facebook for public consumption, because in the end the only people who will be on your side are the sycophants that deem it morally imperative to attack those who do not agree with them or you and only await your acknowledgement to enlarge their own egos.
The saddest part about this situation is that now people fear being attacked for being honest with their opinions. Blogs are shutting down because of harassment perpetrated in your name. Yes, in your name. Your silence is construed as approval. By not decrying the actions of those people, you are silently saying, “I approve.” This is SAD. When opinions cease to be diverse and are resoundingly homogeneous, it becomes harder to sort the quality works from the mediocrity. With no contradicting opinions you will never know, and neither will we, what quality is and you have no reason to improve your skills. This is the function of criticism at it’s basic; to show you how you can better.
My entertainment budget is mostly spent on books. Buying an average of 52 to 100 books, at retail price, a year, I depend on these blogs and their reviews to help me decide what I want to read. Every time one of the blogs goes down, I have one less option. It makes it that much harder to discover new authors and books. I have found so many of my now favorite books through these blogs that had they closed down, they would have been left undiscovered.
As an author you should be rallying for these reviewers to keep working because they can convince me to read your books better than any advertisement. Word of mouth is still the best form of advertising. I have even bought books because of a negative review posted on a blog, simply because the issues presented by the reviewer did not bother me enough to not read the book. Either way it works. What doesn’t work is poor behavior on your part and the rampant bullying your admirers are engaging in. Learn to control your hordes and know that listening only to those who agree with you blocks your capacity for growth.
Okay, rant over. Second one today. I’m really in need of a glass of wine, a bath, and a good book. Yes, in that order.
P.S. I do not have a blog. I do not write reviews anywhere, not even on GR/BN/Amazon. I do not work with authors/publishers or within any part of the book industry. I have nothing to promote or sell. I am simply an avid reader and lover of books.
JeepinJaime
I will definitely miss Hippies, Beauty and Books Oh My, in a big way. They were an amazing team and I loved getting their posts in my email. I love to read with a passion that only other avid readers understand. I have only recently started writing reviews (on Goodreads), and I had been working on getting a little book review blog up and going in my spare time because I thought that it would be an enriching experience that I would enjoy. Now, the blog is basically on the back burner because of all of this crap that is continuing to happen. I rarely read a book that I would have to write a negative review about, but the thought of getting attacked, even on a rare occasion that I would write a negative review, took all of the fun out of getting the blog going. I am not going to write nice, sweet reviews for a book that I don’t like, so the possibility of getting crapped on would be very real. I am an incredibly sensitive, caring and loving, giving person, and I know it would eat away at me if it happened. It is sad that I won’t do something that I would love because of the way people are acting, and it is even worse and more heart breaking that people are leaving the blogging community because people treat them like shit. GOOD people, who have amazing blogs and do it for their readers as much as themselves, leaving because they are hurt. It sucks and it makes me incredibly angry. I know you get crapped on, Kat, and I admire the way you handle it. All of you at Cuddlebuggery. And I am glad that you still let us know about the shit thats going down so we know who to stay away from. You rock! Thanks for that!
Sarah P
I am so sad the Hippies, Beauty and Books Oh My said goodbye. I just can’t believe it. What more was it happened almost right after when Mocha Latte Reads leave. Gosh. These bullies should die a fiery death.
Heartless_Lyn
So many ups and downs!
Why do we have to wait for 2013 for the next HG movie! BAH!
I am sad to see book blogs step away from the internet. We’re losing some wonderful and unique voices. Hopefully when things calm down, we will see them resurface.
Emma Fitzgerald
I loved the FREE read from Ruth Cardello. Maid for the Billionaire was a fun and fast read! Have read the rest of the series too and have loved them all!