Jul 26 2012
Thursday News: It’s all vertical
Image via Big Stock Photo
Random House Television Launched – “FremantleMedia and Random House, two companies owned by the Bertelsmann AG media conglomerate, have teamed up to create Random House Television. The new entity will focus on creating and developing television content from Random House books.” GalleyCat
Barry Diller and Scott Rudin Explore Ebook Venture (Updated) – “Barry Diller, chairman of IAC/InterActive Corp., and producer Scott Rudin are exploring the idea of establishing a highbrow literary ebook publishing concern, according to an informed source. Key details about what authors might be involved and how they would be compensated, as well as whether the imprint would issue print versions of books, are not known. In March, Rudin hired John Schoenfelder, the editor of genre imprint Mulholland Books and previously an editor at St. Martin’s Press and Little Brown, to be the director of development for his production company.” Hollywood Reporter
Amazon’s ‘Studios’ effort picks first TV shows to develop | Internet & Media –“Amazon’s “Amazon Studios” project has announced the first four TV series it will develop: three animated shows and a mockumentary, all of which were pitched by way of the Amazon Studios Web site. The Studios project announced last month that it was looking for comedies and kids shows. The Studios effort — which hitherto had been focused on short and feature-length films — is designed to provide original programming for Amazon’s Instant Video service.” cNet
How Publishers Bolster Their Bottom Line by Retaining Film Rights – “”Why wouldn’t [big publishers] jump in?” asks Brendan Deneen, who serves in the dual role of book editor at Macmillan imprint Thomas Dunne Books and head of its nascent film group. “Content is king,” he says, and developing content is what publishers do best…. These film divisions operate just like producers, acquiring theatrical rights independent of their sister book imprints. The companies believe that by integrating the publishing and development process, the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts. Millions in producing fees and backend profits are just one side of the equation. Functioning as producers, they hope, will give publishers a voice in the marketing of films that could yield higher book sales.” Hollywood Reporter
Other news includes:
Gorillas Seen Destroying Poachers’ Snares In Rwanda – “Poachers’ snares pose one of the biggest threats to mountain gorilla populations according to campaigners – and it seems that the gorillas themselves have worked this out, because they’ve been observed dismantling traps. Field staff of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Rwanda report that on Monday they saw several young gorillas destroying snares – which maim and often kill gorillas – with their bare hands.” Huffington Post
A-mazing. I mentioned on Twitter that I’ve read pig shifters, bear shifters, octopi shifters (and heard a rumor of a trout shifter from Samhain) but never an ape/gorilla shifter. I think it is Lillie who replied that in the Laurann Dohner New Species that some of the male main characters have Ape like characteristics and DNA.
Sex assault won’t stop Chicago woman’s row for charity – A woman decided to row around the perimeter of Lake Michigan in hopes of raising money for her charity to help breast cancer survivors. This adventure was impaired when a man decided to hunt her down and sexually assault her. “Investigators think the attacker may have tracked Gibbons’ trip using a map that updated her whereabouts on the website sponsored by the charity, Recovery on Water, at Row4row.org. On Tuesday, investigators released a sketch of the man and continued their search for clues. Gibbons told her story and made plans to resume her trip on Wednesday.” Chicago Sun Times
This is why women use psuedonyms on the internt.
Amazon, AT&T Limit 3G Browsing Via Kindle – Browsing Via Older Models Now Capped at 50 MB Per Month | – DSL Reports
According to various sources, Amazon is imposing a data cap of 50MB on 3G access and limiting to Amazon.com, Wikipedia, and the Kindle Store. Some enterprising hacker revealed how to tether his 3G Kindle to his laptop, thereby using the 3G for free. Amazon and AT&T don’t like that.
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Jul 26, 2012 @ 04:36:12
If only there’s a way I could track down that arsehole because I want to kick the daylights out of him. I know vigilantism isn’t just and blah blah, but fuck it. What right had he to abuse the trust basis of a public route map and to do that to Gibbons? I hope the police will nab that despicable arse ASAP.
All said, much respect and admiration to Gibbons.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 06:14:10
Ah, publishers jumping into TV and movies. I guess when they have trouble with appendicitis they just remove it themselves. These ventures will be just as successful as such self-surgery. And just as FAIL as all their App Dreams have been.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 07:23:41
The problem publishers face is that they don’t know how to compete now that the book industry is changing. Diving into a new business isn’t going to change that.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 07:39:38
Yes, that’s exactly what I thought when I read this yesterday.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 07:51:08
@Mike Cane: Jack of all trades, master of none.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 09:44:07
Not just one pseudonym, either. I know women who use two or three after dealing with stalkers or maladjusted men online. At this point, it’s necessary because it’s the only way to be safe. Which is terrible and shouldn’t be a mandatory precaution.
But I do love you included the gorilla link to counter the bad. Left me with a smile once I did a reread. I don’t really understand the filming business model of the publishers but I presume it won’t end well.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 10:14:40
@SAO:
I think you nailed it. I would expand on your thoughts by adding that if publishers are serious about staying relevent/being successful through the publishing changes, maybe they should improve on what books they publish (maybe even taking a risk and giving new voices a chance), how they distribute their books, and even accept that e-books aren’t going away and therefore putting every book into a reasonably priced e-book form instead of trying to get into the movie business as well.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 10:30:59
As a manga reader, the whole publishers trying to jumping to TV and movies reminds me a bit of Tokyopop – they (or maybe just their CEO) also decided that their original product alone wasn’t going to cut it and tried branching out into other things. All that came of that was failure. Granted, there was even more awfulness going on there, but I still don’t have good feelings about other publishers going this route.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 11:20:21
The story about the Chicago rower hurts my heart. I sincerely hope they find the a**hole who did it. Unfortunately, even if they do, I have no faith that our criminal justice system would mete out a punishment that fits the crime.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 12:44:50
Absolutely about the pseudonyms but I’m not sure how that would have helped Gibbons as long as she allowed her trip to be tracked and without the buddy system she’s now using. I doubt that creep cared much about her name. The sad reality is that women have to be careful about posting their daily whereabouts via social media.
Gibbons is a great inspiration and I hope she raises more money than she set out to for her cause.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 12:49:59
@Hell Cat:
I use one handle for video game discussions and Ridley for pretty much everything else. Nerds are fucking VICIOUS if they know you’re female, so I try to keep my gaming footprint gender neutral to save myself the guff.
Consider that for a moment: how awful do you have to be for *me* to feel intimidated?
Jul 26, 2012 @ 12:56:43
Wow on the Gorillas. That is amazing. And they were young. I wonder if that indicates increasing intelligent?
Jul 26, 2012 @ 13:41:40
@Ridley:
Oh, I definitely know the nerd rage. I was briefly interested in comics and decided I liked NOT being stalked, feeling a little more safe in my own skin and location. It killed my budding love, too, because I couldn’t not associate. It’s very difficult to neutralize yourself, too. It seems like anything you do, someone else will call you out and down. It’s why I have a different handle in hockey forums than this or my media fandoms. It’s simply safer that way. It sounds like it’s over done but after looking at the hockey boards, I might as well be on a comic one. And I catch myself being very careful on the hockey ones because I have the audacity to be female in the male locker room, essentially, and the words used at me were over the top.
For me, it’s better to be safe than sorry. I’m a hell cat by nature and most people know it, but there are those few that scare the bejewels out of me. If I’m intimidated, if I’m upset about something, everyone who knows and cares about me looks at me in disbelief. But there are certain spaces online where it’s really, really unsafe to be yourself entirely.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 14:16:19
@Hell Cat: I use Ridley for hockey talk and thus far have not had a problem with being openly female. Maybe that’s a function of sticking to blogs, though. The HF boards frighten me.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 14:28:24
Oh, man. I had an account at HF Boards and fled. NHL boards, too. I still read HF, but I never comment. I logged out and keep it that way. My local ECHL affiliate board is much more friendly. But HF is so…it’s the same form as the comic ones. It’s like, “you can stop peeing on my shoes now.” I was there for roughly 2 weeks and said no more.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 14:57:44
@Lada:
True. That’s why I was surprised every time a “I am at [location]” tweet appeared in my stream. Foursquare is potential criminals’ paradise.
Announcing a holiday – and how long for – in public is also a great way to notify the world that your house is empty, too. Some can somehow figure out where your house is, particularly if you’ve been pretty open with naming your town name and sharing photos of your home and garden.
I do come across as an alarmist, but I don’t care. Caution is a fail-safe solution, so please do consider before tweeting or the like.
It’s still possible for one to enjoy fun and freedom in sharing photos and info about home life, though – as long as one doesn’t mention town name or any identifiable details. Such as the full name of child’s school. Just don’t make it so damn easy for burglars and other dodgy people.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 16:14:09
I like to think that I’m protected, my real life name has no google presence at all, but even I know better than to think that if someone really really wanted to find me they’d still be able to. Thw fact that this assault happened to a woman performing a charity drive is just salt in the wound.
On the publishing topic: TV and movie production is very expensive, very time consuming, and will not rake in the profits unless done very well. I can only predict disaster from those endevors. They can’t figure out the modern book market, how are they going to be viable and/or even competitive in a new market entirely outside their realm of expertise? On the flipside I’d love to see them actually suceed. Some good still could come of it.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 17:27:05
@Maili: @Lada: Remember that creepy app that was around a few months ago, “Girls Around Me”? It used Facebook and Foursquare check-ins to tell users about women who were currently nearby; you could link to their Facebook page from there and learn anything they had made public. One guy demonstrated how he could easily have used a woman’s information to pretend to know her brother. It’s been pulled from the market, but the technology is definitely out there to exploit that sort of information, and there are sickos who will use it.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 17:28:11
I want justice for Gibbons and special place in hell for her attacker.
I want the gorillas to teach other gorillas.
And I wonder if this new wave of vertical integration isn’t a result of Marvel’s success turning out their own movies based on their intellectual properties. They have been on a roll with the pre-Avengers movies and of course, Avengers.
ETA: I know Marvel is a unit of Disney, but that doesn’t change the philosophy.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 18:19:34
They may be trying to follow in Marvel’s footsteps but if you look at the history of comic book movies their success has been a mostly recent thing due in large part because the production was handled by professional and experienced production teams. So Disney’s involvement is infact a very big thing and not one the publishers should ignore if imitation of success is what they are going for.
Jul 26, 2012 @ 23:17:06
Gibbon is my new hero. She has a backbone of titanium to keep going with her mission after what happened. As for her attacker… I hope every bad thing happens to him. What a sack of shit.
The movie/TV/book thing is interesting. As someone noted earlier, TV shows and movies cost a hell of a lot more than a book to get out into the market place – hence the fact that about a gazillion more books are released than movies or TV shows every year. As William Goldman so famously stated in Adventures in The Screentrade, no one knows what makes a hit. No one. If they did, they’d nail it every time, and they don’t. So the odds are good that there are gonna be some turkeys and lots of lost money. However, developing and producing something based on something that has already proven popular in other media does give you a leg up when it comes to audience recognition and promo. There’s no way Twilight movies would have been as successful if it hadn’t been for the books, for example.