Thursday News: SMP Was to Receive $70,000 Worth of Pot
Publishing Newscollaborations / fan-fiction / St.-Martins-Press / Young-Adult17 Comments
In light of fan fiction, collaboration, and just plain fascinating stuff comes the story of a Redditor turned screenplay writer. Wired recounts the transformation of James Erwin from Redditor commenter who began to envision a story about a group of military folks in Afghanistan being time warped back to the Roman period. His scenes made him an instant Redditor celebrity, got him an agent, and now his screenplay is the basis of a big budget movie.
Mid-afternoon, Erwin posted the seventh installment, then wrote a brief comment asking the Reddit community what he should do next. “Subreddit? Publish? Pass the torch?” He promised that he would do whatever the top-voted comment told him to do. An hour later, the top-voted comment by a wide margin read simply “QUIT JOB ENTERTAIN ME.” A user named tick_tock_clock suggested a name for a subreddit: RomeSweetRome. Erwin responded, “As much as I’d love to quit my job to finish this, that may be … impractical.” He was thinking of his family; he had a young child to help provide for and a mortgage to pay. What wasn’t impractical, he wrote, “is moving this over to r/RomeSweetRome, where I will continue writing this up … at a slightly less feverish pace. :)”
I really encourage you to read it. Source: Wired
Kate Hart has a graphical representation of YA Deals for 2011-2012.
Paranormal is definitely moving away from vampires and werewolves. The only vampire deal I saw was for an existing series, and I only saw two werewolf and two angel blurbs, of which one each was new.
There were several folklore tales, a few ghosts and demons, and one dragon. Otherwise, it appears that “psychic” is the new “vampire” (ignoring the fact that our friend to the left is a psychic vampire to being with.)
In possibly one of the best stories of 2012 (yes, going out on a limb and saying this can’t be beat by anything in the upcoming 9 months), the feds intercept a shipment of a 11 pounds of marijuana addressed to Karen White at St. Martin’s Press.
Two shipments of marijuana destined for the New York City offices of a major book publisher were intercepted this month by federal agents after postal workers detected a “suspicious odor” emanating from the Express Mail parcels, according to court records.
The packages, containing a total of more than 11 pounds of pot, were bound for St. Martin’s Press, which is headquatered in the landmark Flatiron Building on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
And now, the next time you are thinking “what are those publishers smoking” you have an answer. Via everyone but I noticed it first via Sarah Weinman.
I lawled. Hard. I don’t think that story could be beat. And definitely not your last line =D.
Oh my god, oh my god! I read the very first Aghanistan soldier/Romance soldier comment on reddit and saw everyone upvoting and joking about it, but I had NO idea it actually went anywhere. I feel like I saw history *sniff*
The Smoking Gun article asked a question I want to know– why not do a controlled delivery?
Does this fall under the head of any publicity is good publicity?
Now all I can hear is the SouthPark vampire kids “I’m a psy-vampire.” I love that episode (The Ungroudable).
@Isobel Carr: It does my heart good that I’m not the only one who can come up with a South Park reference for absolutely anything.
Ha! My brain misfired, and I read “SMP” as “SEP.” I was imagining some crazed fan was trying to send 11 pounds of pot to Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
I think I like my version even better than the real story.
Oh for God’s sake.
Kiss of Snow over Heart of Steel in DABWAHA??
I may want some of that pot back.
In a reading comprehension fail, I thought it sad that SMP was getting $70,000 of plot.
I can’t wait for the pot story to unfold. Who is Karen Wright? How was the deal supposed to go down?
Somewhere, a very disappointed drug dealer is reading a crappy manuscript and plotting his revenge.
@Tamara Morgan: LOL!!! Priceless!
Mebbe it’s guerrilla warfare amongst the publishers.
Oh yeah….like maybe somebody at Harper Collins had it sent to SMP to get them investigated.
@Tamara Morgan: You made me laugh even harder than the post.
I’m glad that they are moving away from vampires and werewolves, although psychic is not that much better.
Thanks for the mention!
@Tamara Morgan:
*wheeze* Best comment ever.
LOL on Tamara’s comment also! The imagination explodes with this story. lol Pot in the mail? Take dumb pills much? I’m surprised any got into the package. And now we know what they WEREN’T smokin, so the question still baffles! :)
I like PN variety, including vampires and werewolves, so I hope everything does not all fall in one bucket. Although I won’t be sad to see demons or zombies fall by the wayside. And Psychic themes are not new, they were all you could find for a few years there. Christine Feehan’s Ghostwalker series circa 2003 were the first I recall noticing, but I’m sure there were a lot of others. Hmm publishers recycling previously successful genre trends? Sounds about right.
BTW I found out last year one of my favorite paranormal romances, the Cin Craven series by Jenna McClaine, was not continued by publisher SMP. This was an entertaining mix of UF and PNR and a twist on the “traditional” vampire themes/world. I liked how it had historical as well as current settings. She wrote short stories for anthologies and 3 full length novels. It was just good entertainment. I was fully invested. And SMP cancelled it. :( What were they smokin?