Sep 29 2009
Tuesday Midday Links
Maili is guesting over at Victoria Janssen’s blog home about her favorite category books. Sadly so many of them are out of print. I’ve read all but one of the stories recommended by Maili and they are worth hunting down and not just because Jane is the heroine in one of the books. Really.
You never really know what you may get when you pick up a category romance. Will it be another tale of cookie-cutter characters, much-peddled-and-tired old story line, and insane fillers that makes you want to bang your head against a wall, wondering why you spent money on something wasteful?
Or will it make you sit quietly after it ended, musing about how much you enjoy being a romance reader?
The Daily Beast, a blog run by Tina Brown, has inked a deal with Perseus Books to create “Beast Books”. Beast Books will release the titles in digital format first, followed by a print run, the quantity of the print run determined by the sale of the digital title. The books will be primarily political and cultural and about 45,000 words.
Perseus is paying The Daily Beast a five-figure management advance to cover the costs of editing and designing the books, and Perseus will distribute the titles through its existing sales force. The writers will receive low five-figure advances from Perseus, then split profits from the sale of both the e-books and paperbacks with Perseus and The Daily Beast. Ms. Brown said writers were not required to give Beast Books a right of first refusal on any book ideas they might generate.
John Biggs of Tech Crunch writes a…something for Washington Post (I’m not sure if it is an editorial or a tech piece) about Disney’s move to provide a subscription ebook service. For under $10 per month, you can allow your child access to over 500 Disney titles. The book can be read aloud to your child or they can read along, clicking words for pronounciation help. Biggs is strangely outraged at this:
You can add up to three kids for $8.95 per month or $79 for the year. $8.95 so your kid can prop a laptop on your kids bed and let him or her read Toy Story while you fix yourself a Tom Collins. Seriously. Is this what Disney wants? We have enough trouble convincing the kids not to ask to play Mario Kart Wii all day let alone equate reading with dragging a pointer across a laptop screen.
I’ve been a user of kidthing.com, a similar digital book experience for my tot since kidthing’s release. It is certainly no replacement for a parent reading to the child, but neither is it the sign of the apocalypse. And frankly, if I had the choice of my child playing Mario Kart Wii or accessing the Disney digital books, I’d much prefer the Disney digital books. And 500 titles for under $10 per month? I can see paying that. BUT! We need a better, cheaper tablet device folks.
Self published authors can now reach a broader audience by selling through the Sony eBookstore. Smashwords is providing a self publishing portal in conjunction with Sony.
Self-published authors can now visit the Sony Publisher Portal and click on Smashwords to sign up for a free publishing account. Then they can format a book in Smashwords’ style andchoose their distribution preferences, and their book will be made available for immediate sale at Smashwords.com. The book can show up a few days later on Sony’s eBook Store.
There are some lovely tributes to Kate Duffy around the web:
- Smart Bitch Sarah’s post. Kate Duffy is the Julia Child of romance.
- Squawkradio: She ate buttered scones on Wednesday.
- Sue from Borders: Kate & I came from similar spirits -’ that direct, no nonsense kind of approach -’ man could we dish it!
Kate Duffy, for those who don’t know, was the founding editor of Silhouette Books at Simon & Schuster, founded Worldwide Library at Harlequin and Tapestry imprint at Pocket. At one time, Kate edited a stable of who’s who in romance: Jude Deveraux, Julie Garwood, Lori Foster, Heather Graham, Judith McNaught, Mary Janice Davidson, Jacqueline Frank and Mary Jo Putney.
It’s Banned Book Week and despite the ridiculous opinions of the editorial in the Wall Street Journal to the contrary, books are being challenged all the time. According to the ALA, over 70-80% of the challenges are never reported. A Google map was created of all the banned book challenge in 2008. Of Mice and Men was challenged in Newton Iowa. Really Newton? How embarrassing for you.
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Sep 29, 2009 @ 13:25:19
Umm, I think you mean The Christian Science Monitor? Regardless, I find it mind boggling that we’re still having to deal with “arguments” in favor of banning books. How could such a thing ever be good?
Sep 29, 2009 @ 13:26:54
@Jane A Nope, the op ed piece is in the WSJ – you can get there from the CSM link.
Sep 29, 2009 @ 14:04:22
I actually found the WSJ piece to be quite thought provoking. As a parent of two small children I would feel quite confident in arguing that some books are not appropriate in the classroom or within every library. That is not to suggest that these books be banned…but that debate and discourse should be welcome within the system. Do I think that every teacher and every school administration should be trusted to make these decisions without input from the community? No.
Is it ever okay to challenge a book, Jane? Should all books be available to all audiences? At one point does a parent have a right to voice a concern? I’m a volunteer in an elementary school library and find this fascinating. The ALA takes issue with any book being challenged, at least that’s the tone of their message. Hmmm…so we should strip individuals of the right to protest? Somehow that strikes me as dead wrong.
Sep 29, 2009 @ 16:12:33
I have no problem with a parent deciding a book is not right for their child. I do have a problem with a parent deciding a book is not right for another person’s child.
Sep 29, 2009 @ 16:40:08
@Jane:
Oh oops, I missed that!
Sep 29, 2009 @ 18:00:52
What got me steamed about the WSJ editorial was a single person or small group dictating what a whole society should read or not read. No. Just no on that. If a parent wants to limit their child’s access to certain books then that their right as a parent but not to impose their viewpoints onto other parents. But I also feel that way about adults wanting to impose their viewpoints onto others and silence all dissent. That’s what challenging and/or banning books is about- silencing freedom of thought.
And I believe the ALA isn’t about squelching protest but about protecting the right of all readers to choose individually. A person can voice an opionion all they want but to deny someone else the same right and/or access to something just because they don’t agree with it. No. You start banning books and/or taking them off the shelves you have Nazi Germany or any number of dictatorships/oppressive regimes worldwide.
Sep 29, 2009 @ 18:29:28
Exactly who pays for these books? That would be taxpayers. One could argue when you take away an individual’s right to challenge or voice opposition you’ve become a dictatorship.
Think about the argument. Really think about it. Censoring thought and opposition is as preposterous as banning books.
This is from the ALA site: “Imagine how many more books might be challenged-’and possibly banned or restricted-’if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society.”
Good heavens, can anyone see the irony here?
Sep 30, 2009 @ 04:36:52
The goal of many ‘challengers’ is to have books taken off the shelves and/or severly restrict access to them. That’s why the ALA has Banned Books Week- not to squelch dissent but to make sure people can have access to books and make up their own minds. The free flow of opinion and thought goes both ways and the ‘challengers’ have complete rights to their opinions and I will defend their right to express those opinions. But I will not stand for books being taken off the shelves and or being told what I can or can’t read.
Sep 30, 2009 @ 09:04:54
@Jane A No worries. Sometimes WSJ are behind paywall, so I figured I’d link to the CSM.
Sep 30, 2009 @ 09:27:58
Not all challenges are created equal. There’s a huge difference between trying to remove something from the shelves of a public library and challenging a book on your child’s required reading list. One restricts access. The other is asserting your right as a parent to not have your child forcibly exposed to something contrary to your values. Hey, parents were given the right to opt-out of viewing Obama’s speech which had to have a lot less controversial content than a number of books.
And some of the results of being challenged were good – crisping up book selection criteria, having additional discussions on race, etc.
So, yeah, a lot of the challenges are asinine, but the kneejerk reaction that challenging a book is a horrible, small-minded thing – no, not necessarily true at all.
And actually the WSJ article was pretty encouraging – 80% of the challenges are in schools as are all the removals but one. I don’t see this as severely restriciting access at all.
Sep 30, 2009 @ 09:29:33
@Terri By advocating against banned books, one isn’t restricting another’s right of protest. It’s advocating that one parent or a small group of parents don’t make decisions about what is read to my child.
Sep 30, 2009 @ 09:32:48
@Dawn The WSJ article was focused on arguing that Banned Book Weeks is not important anymore because the success rate of challenges are low, but I believe that the success rate of challenges are low because groups keep awareness of the dangers of banning books high.
Stumbling Over Chaos :: Linkity: Now available in new bite-sized portions! (I have no idea what that means, either)
Jul 02, 2012 @ 19:59:41
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