Thursday News: New SF imprint, convicted murderer wins writing contest, Peter Pan proposal, funny book PSA, and new Sylvia Day series sells for eight figures
Publishing NewsFifty Shades / mystery / SF / Simon & Schuster / Sylvia Day / Unbridled Books12 Comments
S&S Launching New SF Imprint, Simon451 – Senior Editor Sarah Knight is heading the new imprint, which will be digital first, even though the publisher says they will deal in both print and digital. The first books will be released beginning in October 2014, including a trilogy of which Gillian Anderson is co-author. Interesting use of the Bradbury reference in the imprint title, too. Publishers Weekly
Book News: Prize-Winning Mystery Writer Is Also A Murderer – For those of you who may be reaching the upper limit of your New York Times free article limit for the month, I’ll link to this NPR summary instead. It refers to a story by Sarah Weinman on an author who won a publishing contract (complete with $10K advance) in a mystery-writing contest, and who, unbeknownst to the judges, is serving a life sentence for murder himself (it sounds like a felony murder conviction). Anyway, it’s an interesting situation, because state law allows Alaric Hunt to profit from his book, which raises all sorts of sticky ethical and literary issues:
“Weinman says that she was drawn to his story after receiving a galley copy of the book and noticing that Hunt’s bio said he “is currently serving a life sentence.” In an email to NPR, she writes, ‘I knew there had to be so much more to the story.’ Asked about the ethics of Hunt profiting from his writing, Weinman says that, ‘I thought about the ethical issues a lot while reporting out the piece, and I don’t believe there are easy answers — nor should there be.'” NPR
Peter Pan marriage proposal at SSE Hydro in Glasgow – I don’t generally enjoy public proposals (they always feel like grandstanding to me), and the Peter Pan context may not strike you as romantic, but give this video a spin and see if you found it as cute and earnestly touching as I did. You Tube
Unbridled Books P.S.A. on Vimeo – You will want to watch this over and over to catch all of the incredibly clever literary references and hilarious use of figurative language. Plus it made me look up Unbridled Books, which I figure makes it a pretty clever piece of advertising, as well. Vimeo
‘Crossfire’ Author Gets Eight Figures for a New Series – NYTimes.com – Offered without comment:
“Ms. Day, in a telephone interview, rejected the suggestion that her success was primarily attributable to the enormous sales of “Fifty Shades” and the widespread interest in romance in 2012. ‘The majority of readers say that they don’t believe they’re reading romance novels,’ she said of her books. ‘For them it’s just a story.'” New York Times
Seriously, Ms. Day??? o_O
‘The majority of readers say that they don’t believe they’re reading romance novels,’ she said of her books. ‘For them it’s just a story.’” And there you have the future (and present, based on the massive and enduring popularity of contemporary, erotic and New Adult romance post-FSoG) of the romance genre in a nutshell.
It will be interesting to see how the genre changes in the coming future to appeal to this influx of romance readers who don’t think they read romance, because romance=Harlequins/bodice rippers. I noticed reader complaints about missing the mantitty that used to be on erotic romance covers just last year…
But congratulations to Sylvia Day. She definitely deserves her success.
I’m unclear why the murderer-turned-author is an ethical problem. It seems from the article that although his book is a detective story, it’s unrelated to the crimes he committed. It’s not like a murderer writing memoirs and thus profiting from their crimes. Is it because the fact of him serving a life-sentence could be seen as a promotional tool in some way?
It doesn’t say that it is life without parole or not. Ok, just saw he had an indefinite sentence with 30 years minimum. It would be good for him if he has a trade to fall back on since it appears he will be released from prison at some time and have to cope with life as a convicted felon. The name is vaguely familiar but I don’t usually read P I fiction. Hope he avoids the fate of Norman Mailer’s protege who wrote In the Belly of the Beast.
re: the murderer winning the prize: people don’t seem to object to Anne Perry, a convicted murderer herself, writing murder mysteries.
@Becca:
I have seen a lot of people say they will never buy or read Anne Perry for this reason. If she, or this author Alaric Hunt were writing of the murders they committed I absolutely agree they should not profit. As their books do not seem to be in any way similar to the cases they were involved in I don’t have a problem with it.
I think it’s scarier that Anne Perry left prison in one country, changed her name and immediately got work as a nanny in the U.S. all those years ago.
I also think this brings up the question of rehabilitation for a lot of people. If someone does a horrible crime and does the time the judicial system decides is appropriate do you think they have a right to unlimited freedom when they get out?
I personally like the idea of someone in jail using their time creatively but I think many people would feel jail should only be for punishment (especially for murder) and every moment in it should be horrible.
“I also think this brings up the question of rehabilitation for a lot of people. If someone does a horrible crime and does the time the judicial system decides is appropriate do you think they have a right to unlimited freedom when they get out?”
I don’t think you even have to go as far as ‘unlimited freedom’. I think people have a right to earn an honest living when they get out of prison. Being an author is one way of doing that.
Wow. Um, good for Day, but I’m more than a little sad to see someone who was JUST the President of RWA be so dismissive about her books’ place in the genre.
Dear Ms Day- at my current job we call this line of BS “magical thinking” :-)
@Ros: I agree that once someone has done the time, they should have the right to earn an honest living. I find that the thing that most people forget in the “prison as punishment only” model is that eventually most people sent to prison will be released. If they have not had any rehabilitation, including learning useful skills, and if they cannot find honest work once released, the chances are extremely high that they will re-offend.
As long as a criminal is not profitting from his/her crimes, then I have no issue with he/she earning money as an author. He/she will be taxed on that income as well so will be contributing to his/her prison expenses.
I spent about 3o minutes on the phone with Julie over two days and only a few of my words were included in her article. She didn’t include my comments on how romance has been a genre leader for ebooks sales, a format in which my sales far outweigh print, and how romance readers have been early and strong adopters of the digital format. I also said “love story” and not just “story.” I’m a proud romance novelist.
@Sylvia Day: That is so disappointing that your words would be twisted like that! It certainly gives off a different perception the way some words have been left out, wow.