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This Week in Books 3/4/11

March 4, 2011 by Nathan Bransford

Lots of links this week!

Shall we?

Some big news in the book world as Random House, the lone holdout among the six major publishers, has agreed to Apple’s terms and will be moving over to the agency model. What is the agency model? Well, this post of yore provides some background, but for readers this means that over 17,000 Random House titles will now be available through iBooks, and will also means that the price you pay for Random House books will probably be a few dollars higher (Amazon likes the $9.99 e-book price point. Publishers, who set the price with the agency model: not so much).

Mike Shatzkin and Eric from Pimp My Novel offer some more background on the publishing implications, which are many. Shatzkin notes that this is a sign that the agency model has helped cracked Amazon’s hegemony, and Eric wonders what effect this will have in iBooks sales.

One big e-reader, the iPad 2 was launched on Wednesday amid much fanfare (and much tweeting from yours truly). Among the book implications was the Random House announcement, and Apple also stated that over 100 million e-books have been sold through the iBookstore. Wow.

And speaking of lots of e-books sold, my colleague and fellow author David Carnoy had a great article this week on the rise of the 99 cent e-book and what this might mean for publishers, and Mathew Ingram at GigaOM writes that with the success Amanda Hocking and J.A. Konrath are enjoying, publishers need to “wake up and smell the disruption.” Quite a few people have been asking me lately to weigh in on self-publishing and the new 99 cent/$2.99 Kindle bestsellers, and I shall do so soonest.

But meanwhile we have more links!

HarperCollins took the controversial/ingenious (depending where one sits) step of limiting library lending of e-books at 26 lends per library e-book purchase, rather than allowing libraries to loan e-books infinitely. Presumably 26 was arrived at as comparable to the number of times a print book could be lent before it wore out. What say you as author and reader on this one?

In rather hilarious news, Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware noticed an eBay listing for a story idea that the author claims “can be compared to stories like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Matrix, Indiana Jones and other titles in those categories…” Starting bid the author set? $3 million!

In case you want a sense of just how challenging things are for chain bookstores these days, the SFGate blog Dollars & Sense noted that Borders’ liquidation sale wasn’t even beating Amazon’s prices. In related news, the NYTimes surveyed publishers attempts to move beyond the bookstore, selling print books in other brick-and-mortar outlets like clothing and sporting goods stores. In the words of Perseus Books Group CEO David Steinberger, “The national bookstore chain has peaked as a sales channel, and the growth is not going to come from there. But it doesn’t mean that all brick-and-mortar retailers are cutting back.”

Earlier this week I posted some advice for authors getting started on Facebook, and Meghan Ward has a great interview with Miles of the Milesmaria publicity, communications and media company, about what to do with those pages. There’s some really terrific advice in there, so definitely check it out!

In writing advice news, Matthew Rush defines that plot device known as a MacGuffin, the Rejectionist cautions against adverbs and non-said dialogue tags in typically uproariously hilariously funny fashion (he extolled), Jim McCarty from the Dystel & Goderich agency is a fellow trend-unfollower, and Jim Duncan has important though controversial advice in a writerly world of “butt in chair:” sometimes it’s important to step away.

And at the Oscars were this past week The King’s Speech took home Best Picture. Author David Mitchell talked with Prospect Magazine about how the film was the first to portray his speech defect realistically.

This week in the Forums, listing your favorite words, wondering about how e-books are created exactly, whether you write with paper & pen or computer, what to do when HARRY POTTER creeps into your own writing, and how do you know if your idea is original?

Comment! of! the! Week! You know which one it is. Congrats again to Curt for his winning caption entry:

Our demands are simple. No more asparagus, bed time gets moved back to 9pm, and little Johnny here needs some gold chains for his track suit. You have 30 minutes or I push this button, and boom goes the dynamite.

And finally, via John Ochwat comes a seriously awesome time-lapse of a couple having fun organizing their bookshelf:

Have a great weekend!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Amazon, Borders, Dialogue, E-books, E-Readers, Facebook, Harry Potter, iPad, Publishing Economics

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    March 5, 2011 at 9:56 pm

    I posted a long comment in defense of teachers, and it has disappeared after being posted for a few seconds. I think maybe Blogger malfunctioned.

  2. Mira says

    March 5, 2011 at 10:55 pm

    Anon – I'm sorry if you felt unsupported by my comment. That truly wasn't my intention. I think it's great you stood up for respectful communication.

    I just interpreted the Rejectionist's post differently.

    So, that's all.

  3. Anonymous says

    March 5, 2011 at 11:28 pm

    Mira, I didn't feel unsupported by you at all. I definitely thought you interpreted The Rejectionist's statements differently than I did, that's all. I always enjoy your opinions, and I thought our discussion was really interesting. I wrote a long response back; but, unfortunately, it's disappeared from the comments section. 🙁

  4. Mira says

    March 5, 2011 at 11:37 pm

    Well, that's good! 🙂

    You know, you could post your comment about teachers at the Rejectionist's site, add your perspective to the mix. Why not?

    Okay, I feel the need to comment on something about the post now, though. Just to get back to all the wonderful links…..

    I want to announce I have an idea for a book story that can be compared to Twilight. It's called 'Sun's Going Down Time' and it's about a girl who moves to a town and meets two astoundingly attractive hunks of manliness only one is a fish-boy and the other is a Martian. From outer space. They both fall madly in love with her. It will sell millions, but I'll give it the first bidder for 29.99. And if I don't get a bidder, I might give it away, or possibly even pay someone to take it off my hands.

    So, let me know.

  5. Anonymous says

    March 6, 2011 at 3:35 am

    what a great video!

  6. Marilyn Peake says

    March 6, 2011 at 11:20 am

    Thank you so much for the link to Jim Duncan’s Blog post about writer’s burnout and "butt in chair". After reading his post, I left a long comment over there. For months, I’ve been suffering from writer’s burnout, and ended up slowing down on my writing and barely participating in writers’ groups. Then, all of a sudden, this past week, I’ve found myself writing like crazy and wandering back into writers’ groups which I missed immensely. I’ve come to the conclusion that "butt in chair" helps to develop and expand writing skills, but that doesn’t work when you’re burned out and writers need to replenish themselves.

  7. Marilyn Peake says

    March 6, 2011 at 8:16 pm

    I’m just catching up on reading links and comments. Whoa, Bob Mayer, I checked out your Blog and your pages over on Amazon. Congratulations on selling millions of copies of your books by self-publishing on Kindle! Your sales ranks and reviews over on Amazon are impressive. The science fiction novel I’m currently rewriting with the guidance and suggestions of Alan Rinzler has a similar theme to your ATLANTIS series – green humanoid creatures arriving through the gates, although, in my book, the aliens aren’t who we always thought they were. If I can’t get an agent for this book, I’ve made up my mind: I am self-publishing it on Kindle. I have a writer friend who’s been experimenting with self-publishing on Amazon, and she’s doing as well as she did with indie press.

  8. Marilyn Peake says

    March 6, 2011 at 8:27 pm

    I loved THE KING’S SPEECH! I saw it before the Oscars and was so glad it won Best Picture. This is one of my favorite movies!

  9. Breadline Books says

    March 6, 2011 at 8:52 pm

    Hey guys. I'm giving away free books on my new blog, Breadline Books, and trying to spread the news. Please check it out and tell anybody you know who could use a free book!

  10. Aurana Books says

    May 17, 2012 at 5:56 am

    I don’t suppose I’ve learn anything like this before. So good to find someone with some original ideas on this subject. really thanks for beginning this up. This website is one thing that’s wanted on the web, someone with slightly originality and useful job for bringing something new to the web.

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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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