Jun 14 2011
Tueday Midday Links: Go the F to Sleep
I received Go the F to Sleep in PDF form in two different email boxes. One in my Dear Author account and one emailed to me by a personal, non book friend. I knew when it had hit my personal inbox, that Go the F to Sleep had hit piracy levels that I hadn’t seen before. Despite this, Go the F to Sleep, an irreverential bedtime story, debuted at the Number 1 slot on the New York Times last week even though it’s official release date is today. The film rights were sold to Fox. And the digital version releases from Open Road Media today.
Clearly a great new Dad’s day gift.
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Australian finance minister announced that he believed all but speciality and niche bookstores would fall within the next five years to online shoppers. I suspect some of this might be the huge import prices Australians have to pay for their books. Territorial restrictions were often put in place to help foster local publishing houses. If there are no local bookstores for those local publishing houses, territorial restrictions become increasingly pointless.
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According to a summary at PW, U.S. Census Bureau shows an uptick in retail brick and mortar book sales of 0.2% year to date. This includes, however, the sales at the closing Borders’ stores.
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Two lesbian non fiction writers have been outed as men. Straight men, no less.
On Sunday, a writer named Tom MacMaster confessed that he had fabricated the online persona of openly gay Syrian blogger Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari.
Via Galley Cat
and
Paula Brooks, editor of the lesbian news site “Lez Get Real.”
“Paula Brooks,” editor of Lez Get Real since its founding in 2008, is actually Bill Graber, 58, a retired Ohio military man and construction worker who said he had adopted his wife’s identity online. Graber said she was unaware he had been using her name on his site.
Via WashPo
We’ve addressed this issue, obliquely, as it relates to women masquerading as men in the gay and lesbian romance genre. Some don’t care. I think masquerading as something that you are not to gain authenticity is problematic.
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Jun 14, 2011 @ 16:36:51
The audio version of Go the Fuck to Sleep, is currently free at Audible. Samuel L. Jackson is the narrator, and it is awesome.
Jun 14, 2011 @ 17:05:05
I’d be as willing to read f/f written by a man as I am to read m/m written by a woman, but I’m turned off by either author masquerading as someone they’re not. A pen name is one thing, but role playing an online persona is another thing entirely.
Jun 14, 2011 @ 17:08:51
Just tried to download from Audible.com but geographical restrictions apply and it isn’t available from Audible.co.uk.
Jun 14, 2011 @ 17:27:59
http://www.ausbooks.com.au/ The Australian book publishing and selling industry has its head in the sand. Supporting territorial rights will mean the industry will fail. Innovation is needed not conforming to the old model. I’m a voracious reader of many genres not only romance and the only items I buy in bricks and mortar bookshops now are art books and other books with high levels of graphics.
Jun 14, 2011 @ 20:26:36
Yeah the Aus book industry is fairly heavily regulated to protect the local publishing, the govt recently voted against changing this. :(
While I understand wanting to try to protect local industry, the thing is, how much longer can it continue, when trade releases of international books are 25-35, and people can get the MME for $10-12 delivered??
Plus the problem of us coming under commonwealth territory rights.. and the UK industry benefiting more than us on most deals..
Jun 14, 2011 @ 22:34:10
Australian book prices are outrageous. Why do we pay $20 for mass market paperbacks that are sold in the US for $8? I used to kind of be able to swallow it when the australian dollar was worth half of the US dollar, but now the Australian dollar is worth more. So why would anyone in their right mind shop at a local physical bookstore when you can buy online? I will not pay $20 a book.
Jun 15, 2011 @ 00:04:18
I downloaded it free on Audible. There is no better choice for narrator than Samuel L. Jackson. It was hilarious. Pure juicy wonderfulness.
Jun 15, 2011 @ 00:21:11
As a point of interest I just searched Deanna Raybourn’s “Dark Road to Darjeeling” on Kobo books – For once I can get it as an e-book in Australia but it is agency priced at $19.59 AUD’so that is a lost book sale that illustrates the messed up nature of book buying for Australians
Jun 15, 2011 @ 03:41:52
As an Australian, I want to support my local industry, but not when I can get a book from the Book Depository for $8 instead of $16 – and with free shipping. And I buy ebooks direct from Harlequin to avoid the geographical restrictions as well.
Jun 15, 2011 @ 05:40:24
I couldn’t get the audio version of Go the F to Sleep either, sob. Sounds hilarious. The mind boggles at a movie based on it.
Living in Australia has its disadvantages, no freebies, overpriced books, colossal spiders. Eek. But it’s home :).
Jun 15, 2011 @ 08:22:04
Go the F to Sleep is a really cute book which I read in three minutes standing in line at Borders yesterday. How the heck are they going to make a movie out of it? And if they do, please tell me it won’t star Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey…please…no…
Jun 15, 2011 @ 09:52:22
“masquerading as something that you are not…” Didn’t that used to be called fraud?
Jun 15, 2011 @ 19:50:49
In the case of A Gay Girl in Damascus, an American man posing as a Syrian lesbian is more than problematic. This man’s arrogance could well have resulted in GLBTs in Syria being detained, questioned, etc. as the authorities tried to determine this blogger’s identity. He may have well put people into danger with his idiocy.
Stumbling Over Chaos :: Frazzled linkity feels flighty
Jun 17, 2011 @ 07:23:29
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