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.’”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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]
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:
@_katkennedy Book blogging is beneath me. Bye bye bitches!! #Hairflip
— Xpresso Reads (@Giselleco) September 24, 2012
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