Monday News: A fight over fan generated video content begins; Author appearances; Genre wars over?
Nintendo targets user YouTube videos – Youtube creators can turn on ads for their uploaded videos and receive income generated from the placement of those ads. Some youtube creators will record themselves playing a game, sometimes just for fun and sometimes for “walkthroughs” which help other, not so awesome gamers, finish out certain levels. Nintendo says that they will issue a “content ID match” which allows a copyright holder to claim any monies stemming from the use of the game in the video. GamesIndustry International
Nintendo issued a statement to Gamefront that indicates it has no plans to block content, only to use the videos as a platform for advertising. “We continually want our fans to enjoy sharing Nintendo content on YouTube, and that is why, unlike other entertainment companies, we have chosen not to block people using our intellectual property,” the statement read.”
The Youtube gamers argue that their videos serve as advertisements for Nintendo games and help spread word of mouth regarding a game. If they aren’t allowed to reap revenue, fewer game plays by users will be uploaded, argue the gamers.
Matthew Dicks: Redefining the Author Appearance: Four Proposed Categories – Matthew Dicks writes for Huffington Post about the Author Appearance. A simple reading and signing isn’t sufficient anymore, but readers want more interaction with authors including a question and answer and a discussion about the book itself.
I’ve been to readings before and unless the author is a good orator, with a good sense of timing and drama, readings are difficult to sit through. There is a reason that few authors narrate their own audiobooks. I prefer the interactive nature of an author appearance with the author responding to questions from the crowd. Do you guys have author appearance preferences? Huffington Post
Is this the end of fiction’s genre wars? – Over at the Guardian books blog, there is a suggestion that genre is a false literary construct to be done away with. China Mieville is published in Fantasy and Iain M Baks in science fiction and Kathe Koja in horror. Books | guardian.co.uk
Despite all these authors being of “literary” quality, publishers and retailers place them in different categories thus marginalizing the books in some way.
Literature – in whatever form – ought to make the world more complex, not less. I don’t know of a single serious critic nowadays who would dismiss genre writing solely on the basis that it is genre writing. To that extent, the “genre wars” are over. Could more be done? Of course: book festivals, for example, still tend to pair up genre writers; publishers spend more time marketing already successful genre books than other novels – the crime writer Denise Mina told me the Man Booker should go to a “literary” writer as they need all the help they can get.
From a reader standpoint, I like genres only because it helps me to find the books that I am interested in reading. If there were no categories, only authors listed by alphabetic interest, I’m going to spend a lot of time staring and very little time buying. But, are genres too discrete?
The thought of doing readings at signings gives me hives. I much prefer interactive sessions. I managed it once but I don’t remember it. I am told I didn’t suck, but went completely dissociative for a good fifteen minutes.
I wonder how the anti-genre folks would feel if they accidentally picked up an HEA book because it wasn’t labeled as Romance? It might work for omnivorous readers, but it wouldn’t work for readers with specific tastes. Actually, I think genre labels are a reader tool, like reviews are supposed to be, so I guess I can see how writers might have a different view of them.
I need genre labels. Even in Romance, things have gotten a bit confusing lately with the rise of erotica and the tendency for the term erotica to be applied to any story that’s sexy. IMO, (accurate) genre labels are even more important for ebooks since readers can’t skim through them or end-peek. I’ve been tempted to do the buy & return thing just to check out an ending.
The other day I had a brilliant idea for an “end-peeks for ebooks” website where readers could check out the final scenes of an ebook. It’d never work though. Authors and anti-spoiler peeps would be up in arms and takedown notices would be flying all over the place.
Genres can help us find the kind of book we’re looking for, but they can also be limiting. One of the reasons I enjoy YA is because it is an age group rather than a genre. YA novels can have elements from more than one genre in them, and sometimes they mix things up in creative ways. It’s not necessarily easy, but it is easier, to find a mystery set aboard a spaceship, or a romance set in Renaissance Italy, or a horror novel with comedic elements, in the YA section of the bookstore. This is because books from different genres are all shelved together there.
Do away with genres? Why?
Oh wait… I just read the guardian article. Just twee literary flattery. I almost took “flimsy irrelevence” seriously.
@MaryK: Here you go Mary :) http://killafairy.wordpress.com/
I don’t care as much for readings either–it really is hit or miss based on the author and their comfort level. If the excerpt is short enough I like them, but I’ve been to a few where the reading goes on a bit long, and the author is clearly losing the crowd!
@Kaetrin: Thanks!