Jun 22 2010

Tuesday Midday Links: Publishers still thinking not thinking about readers

By Jane • Publishing News • • Tags: , , , ,

Stella Price and a few other authors have banded together to create a reader oriented event known as “Authors After Dark.”   The event is $140, includes five meals and drinks, and takes place September 16-19 2010.

In 2008, NTYBS Jacquelyn Frank, Bianca D'Arc and myself got to thinking after we went to RT about the price of the event, and the return on what you pay. We wanted to create an event specifically tailored for readers that wouldn't drain their bank accounts, or make them dip into their 401K's. After a few weeks of research and talking, AAD was created.

Authors After Dark (AAD) was created FOR readers, by authors to further the reader/author relationship. At AAD, readers engage authors they love and ones they will in the future, in a much more relaxed intimate setting, though events, panels and parties focused on the readers and their love of books.

I’ve posted a whole informational section about this event at the bottom of this post.

****

Dorchester is really excited about Erin Kellison’s Shadow Bound. If you read the prologue and answer a few trivia questions pertaining to the prologue, Dorchester will send you a coupon for $5 to be used at the Dorchester site.   Shadow Bound sells for $5.59 + shipping so it would be a decent savings (although admittedly I don’t know what the shipping costs are from Dorchester).

***
Amazon is selling Refurbished Kindle for $139.00.

***
Last week, Big Money hosted “Untethered” which was a conference about how tablets were going to reshape publishing. What it sounds like is a bunch of publishing folks got together and patted each other on the back for their lame digital adoption. Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches attended and you can read her lengthy report at her blog.

Lu then said, that when she discusses "open platform," that "open" doesn't mean open for me, as a consumer. Open is for her as a device manufacturer, not me as a consumer, because their device may be open but the bookstore that uses it may be closed. She then said that her device was for business-to-business use, not business-to-consumer use.

Farhad Manjoo, the Slate Technology Columnist then asked, "Doesn't that mean that consumer choosing your device will have to pay more for books?" Nell: "Yes."

Then came my favorite moment. Anthony Astarita said in as snide a voice as you can imagine, "Enjoy your $9.99 bestsellers while you can."

Ron Hogan, writing for Publishing Perspectives, noted that how cavalier publishers were in response to questions about the user experience.

****

Enforcing the idea that the internet is only about porn (or at least sex) is the launch of anew sex store devoted to Christians. According to Gawker, the Christian site is safe for work and contains nice bland words to describe the sex toy the site is selling.   Hurrah for safe sex under God’s umbrella of protection.

****

iBooks is now available for iPhone 3G, 3Gs and select iTouches with the iPhone 4.0 os.   You can now read PDFs through iBooks (not encrypted though) and while notetaking is added, it doesn’t work for PDFs.   Bookmarking is much simpler. Instead of highlighting text to create a bookmark, you can tap the upper right hand corner.   Problematically, some of the books formatted for iBooks don’t look that great on the iPhone because the smallest text allowed by iBooks is still too big.   I don’t recommend buying iBooks from the iBookstore.   Prices there are generally a $1.00 more.

****

The Daily Beast celebrates the age old tradition of literary feuds.   Authors behaving badly was part of the literary culture.

Richard Ford vs. Colson Whitehead

In 2004, Ford approached Whitehead at a New York party for Poets & Writers, and spat on him, saying, "You're a kid, you should grow up." Ford was apparently responding to a poor review Whitehead had given Ford's Multitude of Sins two years previously. Whitehead responded in the New York Times, saying it "wasn't the first time some old coot had drooled on me, and it probably won't be the last."

Are we drumming out something important asks Dystel and Gooderich blogger, Jessica?

****

John Scalzi and Will Wheaton are hosting a fan fiction contest. Sexytime entries are not welcome:

Contestants write a 400 to 2,000 word story describing the picture above. Any form of fan fiction is acceptable except slash explicit sex.

****

More from Stella Price on the reader convention: Authors After Dark:

Hi Everyone! My name is Stella Price and while some of you might know me as an author, I'm also the Executive Director of an up and coming reader focused convention called Authors After Dark, and today I'm here to tell you guys all about it.

In 2008, NTYBS Jacquelyn Frank, Bianca D'Arc and myself got to thinking after we went to RT about the price of the event, and the return on what you pay. We wanted to create an event specifically tailored for readers that wouldn't drain their bank accounts, or make them dip into their 401K's. After a few weeks of research and talking, AAD was created.

Authors After Dark (AAD) was created FOR readers, by authors to further the reader/author relationship. At AAD, readers engage authors they love and ones they will in the future, in a much more relaxed intimate setting, though events, panels and parties focused on the readers and their love of books.

What makes Authors After Dark so different and unique? The answers to that are several things, but most importantly, registration. This year, AAD is only $140 and that is $20 less than last year, and that price includes 5 meals and free alcohol! That's right, no other con is offering such a low registration price that includes meals and alcohol.

So how can we do it? Simple. We aren't making one dime off this event, and all prices are the base of what is needed to run the event. Your registration covers all your meals, that's 2 lunches, 2 dinners and a breakfast this year, and the food amazing (I went and tested everything myself) and not recycled (IE: the same side dishes each time). We are also the only con to offer a full vegetarian option for all meals, and no, that's not just a steamed veggie plate. In our first year, we realized that so many attendees would rather the veggie option that we made it a stipulation in the food and beverage contract.

To add to the foodie goodness, we are the only romance con to offer a Con Suite too! In the Con Suite you will find snacks, drinks and alcohol free of charge the entire event. Everything from fresh veggies to home made baked goods will be available, as well as mixed drinks and wine. Cool right?

Also, we are the only romance convention that has a GLBT track and a participating GLBT publisher. Fans of the GLBT genre that attend can look forward to M/M panels, a roundtable discussion and a F/F panel as well as a slew of print books, and goodies from GLBT authors and the publisher, MLR Press.

Speaking of books, AAD is offering up over 2400 free books this year, which is about double what we did last year. Participating publishers include but are not limited to Kensington, Ballantine, MLR Press, Phaze Books, Tease Publishing, Changeling Press and Dorchester publishing. More publishers are signing on each week, and those books don't count the amazing giveaways from the authors during the meals and parties as door prizes.

By way of parties, AAD is offering a Games night Friday night, which includes romance pictionary, general romance trivia, Speed authoring, reader discussions, a full vendor bazaar, and our fabulous Mystical Mavens, a gypsy camp inspired room filled with both professional and author fortune tellers waiting to use their gifts for the attendees, all for free!

Saturday night we are offering a masquerade ball, and this year it is a theme of literary characters. Attendees are encouraged to come in costume, and the best ones will win some awesome prizes, including a 100$ gift certificate to Spafinders.com. After the contest we will have a fantastic DJ spinning tunes to dance the night away as well as an area set up strictly for professional grade photos.

There are also several smaller author and group sponsored parties including a champagne and chocolate fondue party on Friday night, a cupcake dessert party Saturday night and a cheesecake party during the masquerade, so revelers can recharge while they are dancing.

Of course, there will be an awesome book signing (along with a wine and cheese party) on Saturday, which will feature 45 authors including Jacquelyn Frank, Joey W. Hill, Susan Sizemore, Jessica Andersen and Rosemary Laurey among others. Our bookseller is top notch, and will have not only newer books but backlist as well for those attendees that are just discovering authors for the first time. During the signing, we will be offering refreshment in the form of a wine and cheese affair, sure to make the event more fun for all!

We are running an amazing charity raffle to benefit two fantastic animal charities, Brother Wolf and Pets Alive, a local no kill shelter that has continuously cleaned out puppy mills all over the country and saved countless dogs from Dead Dog Beach in Puerto Rico. Attendees will be able to buy raffle tickets for author made baskets, gift certificates and some high end gadgets including a NOOK, iPad and iTouch, as well as iPod, a full photography session with a NY based photographer, a gift basket from Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs, and several of our vendors as well.

Lastly, we have editor appointments for those authors, both aspiring and established searching to sell a manuscript. This year we are blessed to have Alicia Condon from Kensington, Kate Collins from Ballantine, as well as editors from some of the smaller presses, including MLR Press, Phaze, Tease Publishing, Changeling and others. A full list will be available in July for appointments.

As you can see, this event is designed from the bottom up for readers to have a fantastic weekend filled with fun and goodies and books galore. Space is limited to 225 people this year, and the hotel is mere minutes from the Newark International Airport (which we have a free shuttle to and from for our attendees convenience) as well as a mile from the Secaucus Junction train station (a free shuttle will be available at this location as well). Rooms are $109 a night double occupancy. And the hotel is a 3-minute bus ride into New York City.

We have taken great pains to make this event reader focused and friendly and not something that's going to drain you of funds. Now, we just need YOU to make it happen. Head over to the registration website: http://aadromanceunlimited.com and our AAD blog for all the up to the minute information and details: http://authorsafterdark.blogspot.com

We look forward to seeing you at the event, and if there are any questions, I will happily answer them for you! This is all about the readers, and above all, we want them happy and excited to attend.

Send to Kindle

By • Publishing News • 21 • Tags: , , , ,