Buzz Worthy News 8th October 2012

Buzz Worthy News

Wel­come to this week’s Buzz Wor­thy News! Tamara Webber lands a book deal, NaNoWriMo is on the horizon, The Casual Vacancy fairly rolled it in, and there’s a whole pile of challenged books to read for Banned Book Week – just because we can!  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 8th October 2012

Too Easy for Tamara Webber!

So it turns out I read Webber’s fantastic new book just in time, because she just picked up an impressive two book deal with Penguin’s Berkley group. After selling 150, 000 ebook copies, Penguin thought, “Hey we better get on that shit!”

“Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management negotiated the two book deal with Penguin Young Readers Group president Don Weisberg. On October 9, Penguin Group start publishing the digital version of Easy, and Berkley will release a trade paperback edition on November 6th.”

We tried to contact Webber for comment but all we could hear was loud music and cheering.

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Brace Yourselves.  NaNoWrimo is coming!

It’s almost that time of year again.  You all know it.  That time when yourself or people around you transform into novel writing monsters.  They disappear into their caves, talk about nothing but writing and plotting and their wayward characters.  Then they occasionally hulk out, go beserk, cry and obsess about stuff that bores you to death.

What amazes me is that NaNoWriMo claims that 90 published novels can be attributed to these yearly torturefests.  This is incredible news to me because nothing I ever wrote in all the years I did NaNoWriMo was worth wiping on toilet paper BUT OBVIOUSLY THAT WASN’T THE CASE FOR EVERYONE!  *Breaks down weeping*

The updated NaNoWriMo site added new new badges and upcoming pep talks from writers like Marissa Meyer and Nick Hornby. The site also added a wide range of NaNoWriMo merchandise, everything from clothing to thermoses to pencils to pre-sale winner shirts. – SOURCE

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Not Bad, J.K. Rowling.  Not bad at all.

Casual Vacancy greeted the world with a flourish last week – and what a week it was!  Certainly for J.K. Rowling, anyway.  In six days her new book sold 375,000 copies.

The Washington Post described that as, “Fast, but not magical.” Way harsh, dudes.  Way harsh. Would any authors out there like to sell 375,000 copies of their book in 6 days?  Anybody?  Anybody?

“Little, Brown and Company announced Wednesday that “The Casual Vacancy” has sold 375,000 copies so far, a figure which includes hardcovers, e-books and audio books. That makes Rowling’s novel among the fastest selling new releases of the year, although not in the same league as her Potter books. The last Potter, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” came out in 2007 and sold more than 8 million copies in the U.S. alone in its first 24 hours.”-SOURCE

Well, I guess maybe compared to 8 million copies in 24 hours but…SHUT YOUR FACES, WASHINGTON POST!

I should add that we were offered the opportunity for an exclusive interview with J.K.Rowling this week.  Steph and I wept and thanked the bubblegum shrine of Rowling that we keep in our closet.  Turns out that it was only spam though – cruel, cruel tactic, spammers.  That’s a new low – even for you guys!

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Why Do They Keep Trying to Ban All the Good Books?

Ha! I’m just joking.  But if you like to buck conservatism, give a one-fingered salute to the patriarchy/the system/society/etc. then let us make it easy for you to find all the good stuff courtesy of the American Library Association.  Here is a list of the ten most frequently challenged library books of 2011.  Though, I’m just wondering, can we get some more dignified books for 2012?  I mean… Gossip Girl, folks?  Really?

10 Most Frequently Challenged Library Books of 2011

1) ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series) by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

2) The Color of Earth (series) by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

3) The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: Anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence

4) My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons: Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

5) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

6) Alice (series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: Nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint

7) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: Insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit

8) What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
Reasons: Nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit

9) Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons: Drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit

10) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Reasons: Offensive language; racism

There is also a list of the 16 books that were challenged for having LBGT themes or content.  Some great ones in there if you’re cruising for a read!

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Rewrite Victorian Vampire Fiction – Win the World

Want to do something that only 1/3 of the world’s writers do?  Then why don’t you try to do it for a competition?  To celebrate the release of their new Media App Summit, Galleycat is doing something about Vampires.

“You will rewrite a small section from the book your own unique style (from poetry to Twitter updates to cartoons to imitations of your favorite writer). We will publish and distribute the final product as a free digital book through Smashwords (complete with Victorian-era illustrations) so it will be available at the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, the Diesel eBook Store, Blio.com and others.

Intrigued? You can sign up at this link. Registration closes on Oct 8, 2012.” –SOURCE

The grand prize is a lifetime supply of chocolate!  Oh wait, no it’s not.  It’s a free pass to Galleycat’s Media App Summit and a second prize winner will be graced with a free Mediabistro course.

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One Direction Fanfiction Getting Published

When I asked, “Why, God? Why?” I got no answer which, retrospectively, shouldn’t have been all that surprising because I never do.  A One Direction fanfiction is getting legitimately published.

You know, back in my day RPF (Real Person Fiction) was looked upon in the fanfiction world with all the disdain and condescension that people usually reserve for those who marry their sister in a pick-up truck.  I guess times have changed, because these days it’s getting published like it’s a real thing.

“Lindsey Heaven came across 16 year-old Emily Baker’s story – which was the most popular fiction on the site and had over 30,000 Directioners asking her to write more – and thought it would be a perfect fit for the publishing house.  Penguin had been looking to commission a writer to pen a romantic YA fictional novel that tapped into the current obsession with boy bands,” said an official statement.”-SOURCE

MAKE IT STOP!  WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!?”

Apparently, and this is the most shocking thing of all, the fanfic is about a regular girl who two of the bandmates fall for.  Brilliant!  Unique!  World changing!  I have never seen something like this before!  Quick!  To Fanfiction.com!

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6 Books To Rule Them All

So the Johnson Prize, which is not as phallic as its name suggests, is happening right now and is kind of a big deal.

“The £20,000 award is the UK’s most prestigious prize for non-fiction, which, in the past, has honoured Antony Beevor’s history, Stalingrad, and Jonathan Coe’s biography of BS Johnson, Like a Fiery Elephant.”-SOURCE

Okay, I’m a little excited.  Who got honored this year?

“Katherine Boo was selected for her first book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, an investigation into the lives of the inhabitants of a Mumbai slum, Sue Prideaux for her biography of August Strindberg, and Wade Davis for Into the Silence, about the conquest of Everest and the first world war. Paul Preston’s The Spanish Holocaust, Steven Pinker’s history of violence, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Robert Macfarlane’s search for Britain’s ancient roads, The Old Ways, complete the shortlist.”

Well, 1/3 of them were women.  I guess that’s a better average than usual.  Congrats to the winners!

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Fantasy Pin Up Created

So, fantasy pinup is happening.  Seems like something that’s right up my alley.  But then I also assumed there would be some male fantasy characters in there.  Whilst I haven’t seen all the characters being done, I think we’re getting jipped.

“It’s a fantasy fan’s dream: from a sexy female Rincewind to a sizzling Lady Amalthea, a series of reimagined fantasy characters from the pens of authors including George RR Martin and Terry Pratchett will be making up a “literary pin-ups” calendar for 2013.” SOURCE

We’re probably overreacting.  It’s not like female characters are under and poorly represented in the fantasy genre in general.  Oh wait.  Fuck.

But still, they’re great fantasy characters and I’m sure he’s portraying them accurately in a way that shows how fantastic they are.  Not doing anything dodgy like changing their appearance from their description in the book to make them conform to unattainable standards of beauty that renders them into pretty objects.

“Pratchett, meanwhile, signed off on Moyer’s unusual version of Rincewind, a far cry from the author’s description of the character in The Colour of Magic as “scrawny, like most wizards”.”

It’s all for charity. It’s all for charity. It’s all for charity. It’s all for charity. It’s all for charity. *Rocks backwards and forwards*

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