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The Winner(s)!!! (And Last Week in Publishing) 6/7/10

June 7, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 51 Comments

After more than 500 entries in The ROCK PAPER TIGER Chase/Action Writing Contest Extravaganza and many many votes….. WE HAVE OUR FIRST EVER CONTEST TIE.

Yup – it’s a tie between Josin L. McQuein and Bane of Anubis. While I considered disqualifying Bane on the grounds that he is a Lakers fan, I figured he suffered enough last night during the Lakers’ loss to the Celtics, so I am hereby declaring them both winners!

Congratulations!!! Winners and finalists, please e-mail to discuss prizes.

Meanwhile, there was a week, um, last week and many publishing-related happenings.

Amazon is hard at work on a new Kindle that will release in August, according to Bloomberg. It will be thinner and sharper picture but will not, per Bloomberg’s sources, have a touch screen or color.

And speaking of e-books, the Wall Street Journal looked at the impact of e-books on the self-publishing landscape, and notes that while most big authors are still published by publishers, the idea of going it alone (or with an e-book-focused company) is beginning to take shape.

The Hobbitses are once again on their own amid news that Guillermo del Toro can’t quite swing spending six years on the two planned movies based on Tolkien’s THE HOBBIT and will be departing the project. io9 held a survey on who should replace del Toro.

Also on io9, author Beth Revis added three more important elements to my recent post on making a setting come alive, specifically for dystopian worlds: an antagonist, history, and a stage for the character.

In writing advice news, agent Rachelle Gardner has some great advice for one sentence pitches, Cynthia Lord has excellent words of wisdom about school visits, and Bryan Russell/Ink takes a look at Orwell and info dumps.

Also, Bryan/Ink is accepting submissions for Flash Fiction, so if you want to be featured on a terrific blog, head on over!

Bookstores aren’t dead and neither are novellas! One of the greatest bookstores in the world, Paris’ Shakespeare & Company, is starting a magazine and a biannual prize for the best novella from 20,000-30,000 words.

“Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams had an interesting take on the landscape of media content and how the Internet is putting enormous downward pressure on the perception of value. He looks ahead to a world when the idea of an author making a living goes the way of the blacksmith as the value of content goes down to zero. Agree? Disagree? (via Bridget McBride)

There was a controversial article in Salon last week, which examines the outsourcing of book printing amid a study that suggests that many children’s books published in the United States contain paper derived from Indonesia’s disappearing rainforests, though the article notes the vagueness of the study on which books and publishers were found to be sourced in this fashion. (via the Book Bench)

Last week in the Forums, how bad is your first draft, how to handle flashbacks, how to distinguish between procrastination and writer’s block, and if you’re not watching Friday Night Lights, you are sorely missing out!

Comment! of! the! Week! Since it was a contest week that honor naturally goes to the contest winners: Josin L. McQuein and Bane of Anubis!

And finally, via The Forums, I’ve heard a lot of book promotion ideas, but this one may win for general hilarity. According to the NY Post, an author hired 40 actresses to read her book in public and laugh hysterically. That’s certainly one way to do it!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Filed Under: Contests, This Week in Books Tagged With: Amazon, Bookstores, contests, E-books, How to Find a Literary Agent, How to Promote a Book, How to Write a Novel, Kindle, Lord of the Rings, Self-publishing, This Week in Publishing

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Comments

  1. Leila says

    June 9, 2010 at 7:11 am

    Congratulations to both winners!

    Reply
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Hi, I’m Nathan. I’m the author of How to Write a Novel and the Jacob Wonderbar series, which was published by Penguin. I used to be a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. and I’m dedicated to helping authors achieve their dreams. Let me help you with your book!

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