Buzz Worthy News: 24 September 2012

24 September, 2012 Buzz Worthy News 19 comments

Buzz Worthy News

Wel­come to this week’s Buzz Wor­thy News! Where you could be America’s Next Author, Walmart breaks up with Amazon, Molly Crabapple Occupies Jail and E.L James gives us the choice between something horrible, and something more horrible on top of that.  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 24th September 2012

America’s Next Author looking for writers

Could you be America’s Next Author?  Do you have it in you? Then this is a competition for you!

From the website itself:

Welcome to America’s Next Author! You’ve discovered the first real social writing contest, where the winners will be chosen based on a unique combination of votes from readers and judging by industry experts.

No entry fee! Grand Prize: $5000.

This is not your average writing contest. In most writing contests, authors are left in the dark without ever knowing what other people entered or why they didn’t win. We decided to change all that and make this writing contest a transparent and social experience.

Click the link to check it out!

Walmart breaks up with Amazon

 In an attempt to remain competitive with Amazon, Walmart has made the decision to no longer sell Amazon Kindles. I guess we can’t all be friends.

“In a memo sent out to store managers yesterday, Wal-Mart explains, ‘We have recently made the business decision to not carry Amazon tablets and eReaders beyond our existing inventory and purchase commitments. This includes all Amazon Kindle models current and recently announced.’”

 Other retailers such as Target have followed suit. However, fear not. If you’re like me and way too impatient on snail mail or too fashionably broke for next day shipping, Best Buys and Staples are your new BFFs for Kindle-related purchases.

Tell Us Something We Don’t Know

 Much to everyone’s utter shock and surprise, according to an eBook publishing survey conducted back in April by Aptara and Publishers Weekly, Amazon is the most popular and lucrative sales channel. Is this an appropriate time to say, “duh?”

The study, which was conducted in April, found that 68 percent of eBook publishers sell via Amazon making it the most popular sales channel for eBooks, followed by Apple’s iBookstore which is used by 58 percent of eBook publishers.

SOURCE

Apple Settles 

Apple along withHarperCollins, Hachette Livre, Simon & Schuster and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck have settled with the European Commission.

*throws confetti*

The Four Publishers will offer each retailer other than Apple the opportunity to terminate any agency agreements concluded for the sale of e-books that (i) restrict, limit or impede the retailer’s ability to set, alter or reduce the retail price, or to offer price discounts or promotions, or (ii) contain aprice MFN clause as defined in the Four Publishers’ commitments.

SOURCE

OccupyJail: Molly Crabapple did that too

Marval and DC comic artist Molly Crabapple was arrested during the Occupy Wall Street anniversary  protests. Her arrest spawned numerous responses from writers like Neil Gaimen and Warren Ellis who launched the hashtag #freemollycrabapple and tweeted:

“Somewhere in NYC, a cop is listening to an angry short artist in heels spewing obscenities in four different languages #freemollycrabapple”

She later updated on Twitter with a photo saying “Freed Molly.”

 

 

SOURCE

Forth Fifty Shades book or new Erotica by E.L James? Noooooooooo… 

Because obviously three books of the virgin turned vixon, Anastasia Steele, and “You’ve been a bad girl,” Christian Grey, wasn’t enough for the world. You needed more and E. L. James has heard your pleas. We now have been graced with the possibility of a book four! Hooray. Let the drinking commence.

When the best-selling, pull-to-publish author was asked of a book four, her response?

James said that when she finished the third book, she felt she had completed the couple’s tale, saying “I left them in a really, really good place. But there seems to be lots of people clamouring for a fourth book in the trilogy,” said James.

Not only do we have THAT prospect to look forward to, but she is also hard at work on another Erotica story and has plans to write – wait for it – a Paranormal Romance.

I’ll leave you to your headdesking and facepalming now.

 

 

SOURCE

 A win for Stranger

Stranger, a YA Post-Apocolyptic novel that features a gay hero and lesbian couple, has found a publisher. After intially being told by an agent that the main character, Yuki, would have to be changed to a straight character in order to sell the book to a publisher, Viking, an imprint of Penguin, has picked the novel up.

The authors, Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown, firmly stood by their characters saying, “When you refuse to allow major characters in YA novels to be gay, you are telling gay teenagers that they are so utterly horrible that people like them can’t even be allowed to exist in fiction.”

Brown said she was never tempted to “straightwash” Yuki to find a publisher because she and her co-author wanted the novel “to be about the people who are so often left out … Latinos and African-Americans, Jews and Asian-Americans, gay boys and lesbian girls, multiracial teenagers and teenagers with physical and mental disabilities”.

Stranger is set to be published in winter of 2014.

SOURCE

Beautiful Creatures Trailer Debuts

In case you’ve been living under a rock this past week, the Beautiful Creatures trailer has hit the web. What do you think?

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mmo4GzMMqw[/tube]

SOURCE

Another Blogger Calling It Quits… Or Pulling Our Legs?

In a recent, completely true conversation between Cuddlebuggery’s investigative reporter, Kat Kennedy, and Giselle from Xpresso Reads, we have determined that the famed blogger is chucking up the deuces… we think. When asked for a statement for Buzz, she replied with the following:

19 Responses to “Buzz Worthy News: 24 September 2012”

  2. SamanthaCitron

    I don’t think that Beautiful Creatures trailer is explaining anything for people who haven’t read the book :/ I couldn’t tell what it was about at all!

    • rabbitsfortea

       @SamanthaCitron I didn’t read the book (clearly I’m living under a million rocks) and I REALLY didn’t get the trailer. All I got from it was magic and two kisses.

      • SamanthaCitron

         @rabbitsfortea HAHA, yeaaa they are really mackin it in that trailer for YA lol

  3. Fangs4Fantasy

    Amazon is the biggest seller of ebooks? ZOMG you mean the biggest seller of books is the biggest seller of books? Really? I did not see this coming. I am shocked, SHOCKED
     
    Book 4?! NO NO NO! Lauren Kate did this to me with the Fallen series as well! So did Cassandra Clare! You think it’s a trilogy, you think you’re safe. You put down book 3 with a sense of accomplishment and relefi – it’s over, it’s finally over, the suffering has ended! AND THEN THEY UNLEASH BOOK 4 ONTO AN UNSUSPECTING WORLD! Why, oh gods, why?
     
    And straightwashing protagonists makes me rage. if I can read 101 books with straight protagonists, I’m sure straight folks won’t find it all that hard to identify with a gay protagonist, really, it’s not impossible

    • Stephanie Sinclair

       @Fangs4Fantasy I really wish authors would just leave trilogies alone. There have only been a few occasions where I actually liked an unplanned forth book. Usually though, it’s a failed experiment. 

  4. majibookshelf

    great news! I need to check out the trailer for beautiful creatures!
     
    – Juhina @ <a href=”http://www.majibookshelf.blogspot.com”>Maji Bookshelf</a>
     

  9. readingwishes

    “After intially being told by an agent that the main char­ac­ter, Yuki, would have to be changed to a straight char­ac­ter in order to sell the book to a pub­lisher, Viking, an imprint of Pen­guin, has picked the novel up.” – Whaaaaaaat! Well, at least Viking picked it up. Interested to hear more about Stranger, it’s a long way away though, 2014.
     
    Ha, oh Giselle! Love her. <3
     
    This news is oh so buzz worthy, can’t wait for my next fix!

  10. Cyn123

    That writing contest seems interesting, I will check out. Good for the author of Stranger, too. And I seriously did not know that Beautiful Creatures was becoming a movie. Yes, I’m living under a rock.

    • Stephanie Sinclair

       @Cyn123 I didn’t know it was being made into a movie until I saw the trailer either. I did read the book and thought it was okay, but I never felt the urge to continue the series. 

  11. Heartless_Lyn

    I might actually watch the author challenge – at least you have a fairer hope of getting something good.
     
    I am so proud of Viking for picking up Stranger – I’ll be watching out for this one!

  12. Dargy

    Is it sad I thought the trailer for Beautiful Creatures looked better than the book ever was? I couldn’t finish that book. Guh.

    Also EL…. Please leave the literary world alone- you had your 5 minutes, don’t punish us anymore 🙁