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The Last Few Week in Books 4/2/12

April 2, 2012 by Nathan Bransford 11 Comments

I’ve been very hard at work finishing up the edits for Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp, though some of that hard work happened in quite an idyllic spot.

Thank you Moss Beach Distillery!

Posts should hopefully get a bit more frequent now that I have more time, but due to writing fatigue I’m reverting to digest form to give you some of the top links from the past few weeks.

Infographic: Dystopian Fiction on Goodreads

Feds grab 11 pounds of marijuana headed for St. Martin’s Press (seriously)

Scarcity and Abundance (via Mira)

Author Turow fears DOJ Apple Suit Would Empower Amazon (disclosure: link is to CNET, where I work)

A writing blog sampler

Don’t Blame Publishers – You’re a Commodity (via Livia Blackburne)

The Trend Games

Does Agency Pricing Mean Higher E-book Prices? That Depends

This week in the Forums: the Blog Bracket Challenge is nearing an end, the A to Z Blog Challenge 2012, Dos and Donts for Writer Websites, and Fifty Shades of Gray: What do you think?

Comment! of! the! Week! There were many great comments on what the Harry Potter e-books mean for the world of authors – here’s a great counterpoint by Anonymous about why it really is a big deal:

I think the big deal is when all the best selling authors walk away from their publishers and do this.

What
will publishers think if James Patterson does this next? Stephen King
has already played in this pool. Will he go back and try again?

If
the big publishers bread and butter authors walk out the door because
they have name recognition, what will the big publishers do? Will they
start appreciating their mid-list authors? Oh, wait, they have moved
onto self-publishing.

The dominoes can topple pretty fast.

 And finally, this is totally mesmerizing. The ocean currents illustrated, Van Gogh style (via io9)

Have a great week!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Amazon, This Week in Books, writing advice

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    April 2, 2012 at 2:17 pm

    I have to write on my dining room table with people walking in and out all the time. Ah… some people have the life…

    I didn't think you suffered from writing fatique Nathan. While you've written what feels like a million Wonderbars (the first of which is lying on my desk waiting to be read) I'm still trawling through my WIP.

    Great links this weak, and I'm looking forward to more blog posts!

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says

    April 2, 2012 at 2:17 pm

    *week, not weak. And I'm wondering why I haven't finished that darned book!

    Reply
  3. Mr. D says

    April 2, 2012 at 2:31 pm

    Seems you are moving along at a good pace.

    Reply
  4. Rick Daley says

    April 2, 2012 at 3:02 pm

    St. Martins was probably just after some hemp to make high-quality paper, I'm sure.

    Reply
  5. Jennifer R. Hubbard says

    April 2, 2012 at 6:45 pm

    Thanks for linking. Be sure to breathe between drafts!

    Reply
  6. Doug says

    April 2, 2012 at 8:52 pm

    Writing at a distillery? Maybe you're taking this "famous author" thing a bit too far.

    Reply
  7. Susan Kaye Quinn says

    April 2, 2012 at 10:39 pm

    I vote for Rick's comment as comment-of-the-week (next time)!

    Also: Mira! Loved that Scarcity and Abundance post as well! So much, in fact, that I blogged about it. 🙂

    Reply
  8. Susan Kaye Quinn says

    April 2, 2012 at 10:40 pm

    p.s. congrats Nathan on getting your edits done!! 🙂

    Reply
  9. Bryan Russell says

    April 2, 2012 at 11:19 pm

    Okay, that video was very peaceful. Now I want a nap.

    Reply
  10. Mira says

    April 3, 2012 at 2:45 am

    Nathan – good luck with the edits – I think it's wonderful you're treating yourself to a beautiful spot to write in.

    Thanks for the links!

    First, I know it's weird that I comment on all the links, but I just HAVE to. My apologies.

    I agree with Bryan – that is a lovely video. Very soothing.

    That was a pretty funny story about St. Martins. (lol, Rick)

    Susan! I know – I thought the scarcity/abundance post was absolutely brilliant. And I loved your post, too!

    Cool writing blog sampler.

    Interesting article about publishers treating authors as commodities because authors are plentiful. I like her balanced perspective, but nonetheless I disagreed with some of that – I don't believe real talent is plentiful, and I think the primary reason writers never made money throughout history is because publishers took all of it.

    I liked the trend article and how she points out the next trend never follows the first trend, so do your own thing. Agree.

    The main arguments against Turow is that a. Amazon would not become a monopoly, that's just an urban myth, b. it's ridiculous to keep book prices high so that Amazon won't take over and raise book prices. That's just silly.

    Interesting article about how the independents are experimenting with pricing like the indie authors, so the agency model has really only meant higher prices for the Big 6.

    Okay, I packed it into paragraphs so my comment wouldn't look TOO long. Thanks for taking time out for the fun links, Nathan!

    Reply
  11. salima says

    April 3, 2012 at 4:08 pm

    Thank you for the round-up and the pic—I lived in Half Moon Bay years ago, and miss it. I think at one point every single one of my roommates worked at the Distillery.

    Have fun with your writing!

    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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Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe
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