Publishing Industry News

This week's publishing news and industry blogs post covers 3/28-4/10/15. (If this goes up incomplete, it was probably the storm knocking out power... It'll be finished Friday evening.)

Publishing News

Amazon and HarperCollins appear to be butting heads, with rumors of HarperCollins refusing to sign the new contract Amazon is offering now that they are allowed/required to sign new deals with retailers (following the DOJ vs Big Six court case in which they were banned from using the agency model for a while). (Also in the New York Business Journal)

There's a lot of controversy over this year's nominees for the Hugo Awards. A group called Sad Puppies block voted a number of books supporting certain rightwing ideologies into the Hugo nominations. Slate.com looks at it, as does George R. R. Martin, and the Atlantic, and i09, among others (fellow local writer Fraser Sherman writes an opinion piece with some relevant links). One thing everyone agrees on: what the Sad Puppies group did to get their nominations in was perfectly legal according to the rules of the contest.

Oyster, an e-book subscription service, adds a retail side to begin selling books.



Industry Blogs


On Writers Beware, Victoria Strauss looks into a site called BookBzz, which offered a contest a while ago... and disappeared, taking the entry fees with it. The site is back, and promises to pay the winnings now, but with some not-terribly-encouraging posts. Also, if you find yourself talking to a Peter Thomas Senese, make sure it's not this guy: a conman who ran a literary scam before going on to scam parents of lost children.

Agent Janet Reid answers questions and offers advice. You got your rights back from a small publisher; can you market to bigger publishers now? (You can; be sure to include who your book didn't reach yet.) How reliable and how useful is a Publishers Marketplace subscription? (It's a useful tool for what's not posted and what is; the exaggerations aren't terribly important for your purposes as a writer.)If you're writing a non-romance, such as mystery, should your book to have sex scenes? (Write what you're comfortable with--this is truly your discretion.) Is it okay to use a pitch session to ask an agent for advice? (In Reid's opinion, yes... though she doesn't do pitch sessions anymore...)

On QueryTracker, guest poster Peter Hogenkamp gives the 5 steps to getting a literary agent. And read your contract; Jane Lebak shares some terms from one magazine that are utterly horrific.

Agent Kristin Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency explains another defining point of what makes a good agent (versus a bad one): good negotiating skills.

Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch posts another business blog, looking at the recent end of the gold rush of indie publishing. She also goes on to explain one of the ways authors are making up the difference, through freelance, and what that means, and how to make it work.

On the Editor's Blog, more writing and style advice: why smiling and laughing as dialogue tags don't work, the meaning behind some writing advice, and using -ing words.

On the Books and Such blog, agent Rachel Kent reminds writers not to write the same book over and over (I know I've seen [and stopped reading] series like this...)

On the Futuristic, Fantasy, and Paranormal blog, editor Peter Senftleben is interviewed. So is agent Kathleen Ruschall.

Publishers Weekly offers a review of publisher acquisitions for 2014.

A DOSDOCE.com report on new business models for book-industry-related business models in the digital age (the 2014 report) is released.

Publishers Hachette and Penguin Random House make a statement of support for the amendment forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity to the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act. These publishers both have warehouses in the state.


(In a random note, is it weird that I'm somewhat gleeful at feeling the need to type the year? I've been doing versions of these posts since July 2011. Wow! How time flies.)

Leftover cream makes good pancakes

You could just feed it to me.
("Lactose intolerant"?
What's that? Silly human...)

So you make a delicious lemon-chicken pasta with a heavy cream sauce. Then you have slightly less than a cup of cream left, and then you make tea with cream, and then you make some strawberries and cream.... and you wind up despairing that you'll ever finish off the cream, because don't have quite enough to make another recipe's worth of the pasta, and yet you have too much to run out by trickling over strawberries before it goes bad.

Plus you've got a banana on the counter that's gone slightly browner than you like. It's tragic, because you know it's still edible, and if you had six it would be perfect for some banana bread, but it's all alone.

What to do?

Pancakes. Chocolate banana pancakes.

It's as easy as replacing however much milk you planned to use with cream. This is the original recipe, but here's my updated version:

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
~1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 eggs
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted and cooled butter, plus unmelted butter for cooking
1 banana, cut into bits
3/4 bag chocolate chips

Sift the dry ingredients together, minus the chocolate and banana. In another bowl, whisk the cream, milk, eggs, melted butter, and lemon juice. Let that sit as you mix the dry and wet ingredients together. There should be lumps; don't beat these out. Add the bananas and chocolate chips.

Cook over medium-low (that's about a 4 on my stovetop, which goes from 1-9). If you first pancake blackens before it finishes cooking all the way through, turn your heat lower. I started at a 4.5, which is usually pancake-fine on my stovetop, and had to turn it down more. These are thicker than regular pancake mixes, so go slightly lower in temperature than you usually do.

You'll also need to keep them small. I used two large spoonfuls per pancake, and I ended up manually spreading them with my spoon when I added the batter to the pan, as much as I could.

But I promise, they may be high-maintenance pancakes, but they're worth it. Very filling. Very rich. Soooo delicious.

Good luck.

At least it's a good story?

I was going through some old card collections when I came across the taped-assembled make-my-own Magic card. "Player may take a card from opponent's deck and place it in their own," it read, with ransom-note-style cutouts cannibalized from other magic cards, and stuck into place with masking tape. I think I remember it turning out about as well as you'd expect... didn't net me too many cards, we'll put it that way.

But hey, I was ten, and thought I was clever.

How many stories start (or end) with a one-liner like that? One that you know means trouble--or at least a good laugh?



Usually the stories are funny. Sometimes they're just eye-roll worthy. But you always know you're about to hear about someone doing The Dumb.

"It was college, and I was drunk..."

In retrospect, gun-swords were probably not such a great idea.
But boy did the idea sound cool, right?

"Well, we lost our map, but we thought we remembered the route pretty well..."

"It was Vegas..."

Sometimes it's something you know will make you mad, or worried.

"Now don't be mad, but..."

"Nothing's broken!"

"I can fix it."

What are some story starters that let you know you're in for a funny story? Which lines tell you you're about to be mad, even before you hear the story? And which one do you dread the most?

Gem Shows and Things I've Yet to Learn

The dragon in me is always happy to attend gem shows.

There was one in my region this past weekend. No, I didn't get much--a pretty geode, some cheap strings of beads--but walking down the aisle of the sparklies pleased my inner dragon indeed. (Inner goddess? I think the dragon ate her, sorry.)

It always reminds me how much I have yet to learn, though. So many gems whose names I didn't know. So many that I barely recognized. Meanwhile, rockhounds and specialists tossed around long stone names like they'd spent years studying them (like? okay, "because").

There's always more to learn. And that's one of the great things about life. No matter how much I know, I can be certain there are things yet to learn about.

I hope one day I learn more about gemstones and minerals. And I hope I continue to improve in everything I do know about, whether its writing or cooking or tea or making beadwork jewelry.

What new things do you hope to learn more about one day?

Publishing Industry News

This week's publishing news post covers 3/14-3/28/15.

Publishing News

OverDrive is being bought by the Japanese company Ratuken. OverDrive was one of the first companies to bring e-books to libraries and will still continue to do so.

In the GSU e-reserves court case, the case nearly went back to court for a second trial. However, the judge has ruled that no additional trial is needed, as no sufficient new evidence has been brought up.


Industry Blogs


Writing links over at agent Nephele Tempest's blog for Friday, 3/20 and 3/27,  Particularly recommended is the Publication Opportunities for Writers collection for April and May over at Aerogramme Writers' Studio. 

On Writer Beware, Victoria Strauss looks at Omni Reboot, a reincarnation of Omni Magazine, and its contract language. She's still waiting for clarification, but if you're considering submitting, make sure you read the fine print to be sure you get the correct contract... whatever you sign shouldn't sell away your lifetime rights to your fiction. Also of note is that a second class action lawsuit has been filed against Author Solutions, Inc. Anyone who has signed with them can still add information to suit.

Agent Janet Reid answers questions and gives advice. An agent requests a partial, disappears, and doesn't respond to nudges for months--should you worry? (Yes; that's a bad sign... agents shouldn't disappear.)  She gives an informative review of answers, questions, and general useful info from the past week or so. She also gives clarification on what pre-empts are, and some info about book auctions.

Reid also advises that if an agent promises to reply and doesn't, it's okay to send a nudge to be sure the query arrived safely. If a NY Times best-selling author offers a blurb, is it okay to say that in a query? (Sure. Can't hurt, but say why they made the offer.) You published a book when you were a kid for some friends, and took it down in a week--are you previously published? (Yes, but you don't have to say it at the query stage, or anytime soon. Just make sure your agent knows about before entering you for awards.)

Agent Jessica Faust lists what the agents in her agency enjoy.

On the Editor's Blog, advice to look at the intention behind writing advice. A one-line ultimatum might be short, sweet, and make a nice meme, but it probably has some really important exceptions.

QueryTracker offers a series on querying well. Make a spreadsheet, research your basics to avoid dumb mistakes, figure out what to do while you wait and who to query, learn how to get over rejections and keep on querying.

Author Kristin Kathryn Rusch warns writers to beware thinking that early success means eternal success--if you don't keep growing, you'll eventually wash up.

On the FF&P blog, agent Sara Megibow gets interviewed.

Author Jim Hines takes a look at the effects of being a Kindle Daily Deal on his sales, and the overall impact the deal had. He also invites a series of guests to talk about representation. One talks about the impact of lack of representation when growing up bisexual, another talks about the need for the presence of characters with disabilities in SF, another about the over-mystifying of Native Americans in SF and Fantasy, and about being an older female writer in SF&F.

Author Angela Quarles posts about SELF-e, a site that helps get indie authors into libraries.

At ContentAudit.biz, an infographic on writing content for a webpage.

And if you're self-publishing, make sure your cover isn't bad enough to wind up on the Kindle Cover Disasters Tumblr page.


What publishing news have you encountered in the past two weeks?

Late

It was one of those weeks were I overscheduled myself and then flopped onto the sofa for a five-minute rest.

Publishing news post will be tomorrow, on account of Thursday evening being hijacked by a three-hour nap. Oops.

Moral: Its important to remember to take care of yourself, yes, even giving yourself enough sleep. Otherwise you'll do so when you planned to work.

Tea Review: Rooibos Chai

Rooibos Chai Reviewed by: Rebekkah
Type of tea Rooibos, loose-leaf	Flavor aspects Spicy
Where I got it Teavana	Cost $4.98/2oz
How I brewed it 2 tsp with boiling water for 3 minutes n a 16 oz teapot, with a dollop of heavy cream and honey	Rebrewing notes Have not rebrewed
Review By now I know I don't like rooibos without milk and sugar (or, in this case, leftover cream from a pasta recipe and honey), so I made it with both. It's a chai, and as such is a spice tea. Coincidentally enough, with milk is also how I tend to like my chais, so... works well. The price is good, and as a rooibos it's caffeine-free. I've had spicier chais, and it's not exactly the standard flavor, so if you're particular about your chai you probably won't be impressed. But if you're willing to try a non-black chai tea it's quite good. It's basically cinnamon-ginger rooibos. I rather like it, on the whole. Given a choice between a regular chai and rooibos chai, most of the time I'd go with regular, but as I don't want to toss and turn tonight, it's great. So... basically a chai substitute that fills that craving when it's too late for the regular kind, and if it's a little mellower, it still has a tasty flavor and even has a built-in excuse for making it with cream and sugar (y'know, in case you ever feel guilty about that or anything). Looks like a normal cup of rooibos.