Wednesday News: Invitation to grill Nalini Singh
Monday, June 10
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Nalini Singh in conversation with Jane Litte of Dear Author!
ANDERSON’S BOOKSHOP
123 W Jefferson Ave
Naperville, IL 60540
Tel: 630-355-2665
Anderson’s offers “priority numbers” to readers in order to be at the front of Nalini’s signing line. You can receive a priority number by purchasing your copy of HEART OF OBSIDIAN at Anderson’s now! Simply ask the store to provide you with a priority number when you purchase your book and bring that number with you to the event on June 10th. You may also purchase the book online through Anderson’s website,www.
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Don’t forget we also have a book club chat for Nalini Singh’s Heart of Obsidian on June 15. We’ll deconstruct this book, the series, and start the speculations for the future. I promise I know nothing and will be speculating/guessing along with every other reader.
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Court Says Prison Can’t Confiscate Erotic Werewolf Novel – We now have a definitive ruling from the First District Court of Appeals on whether shapeshifter erotic romance is obscene. An inmate was reading The Silver Crown by Mathilde Madden which contained graphic sex scenes and violence. Prison authorities confiscated the book and the inmate sued for the right to have it returned and for him to read it.
“Personally, we would be hard-pressed to say The Silver Crown has ‘significant’ literary value and is a work ‘of great import,'” Richman wrote. But, he concluded, “we cannot simply dismiss the work as nonserious literature because it deals with werewolves and other paranormal creatures and activities. For better or worse, some segment of the population is fascinated by werewolves and other mythical beings. … Werewolves, in fact, have played a role in popular fiction for centuries.” Law.com
Could Bookless Libraries Revolutionize Access for the Poor? – In Bexar County, a suburb of San Antonio there is no public library and no book store. This was due to underfunding. The county put money toward a 5,000 square foot library that is digital only. There will be no paper books. Instead, there will be 150 e-readers that can be checked out two weeks at a time, 50 computer stations along with tablets and laptops. Patrons will be able to check out materials on their computers and smartphones. Is this increased access for the underprivileged? I suppose if the underprivileged have access to wifi and a smartphone. The former isn’t so difficult. Many McDonald’s these days have free wifi. The smartphone may be tougher but companies are increasingly interested in providing low cost smartphones. Perhaps ebooks will help decrease the digital divide. The Atlantic Cities
Harper Shares Data on Light Third Quarter; Shows Investors Profitability of eBook – Publishers Marketplace unpacks the financial data released by HarperColllins. The main points included that a few big books drive the business such as George RR Martin’s UK sales at $15 million or Sarah Palin’s US sales clocking in at $40 million. It also confirmed what we readers always suspected and that is digital books are more profitable.
It’s hard to say whether digital books have a higher margin because the costs of the production of a book (cover, advance, editing, marketing) is absorbed in the print version or whether it is an apples to apples comparison but according to the information provided by Harper, “the ebook edition is 39 percent more profitable, returning an additional $2.20 in profit to the publisher over the hardcover. Authors and agents will immediately note that much of the additional profit exists because the royalty allocation once earned out is $1.58 lower on the ebook than for the hardcover. On a hardcover, the author earns 30 percent of the publisher’s gross revenue, and 42.5 percent of the total margin (what the author and publisher together earn). For now, on the ebook, the author earns 25 percent.“ Publishers Lunch
What do women want? Sex, according to Daniel Bergner’s new book on female desire. – Slate Magazine – In Daniel Bergner’s What Do Women Want? he suggests that women are as sexually aggressive or more aggressive in a natural state than males but that because of the male dominated society and the fear of cuckolding, a woman’s desire is suppressed or conformed to the male gaze. It’s an interesting concept and the article has some thought provoking questions such as whether women have adopted the male gaze as their own and begun to objectify themselves. Slate
Thanks to Jil for the link.
I wasn’t sure I was going to be coming to this – it’s a Monday night, and a 3 hour drive from my house…but after finishing Heart of Obsidian, I’m not sure I can resist going!
@Angela: ANNNNGEELLLAAAA I am driving many hours to do this. Come and see us!
LOL! Chicago is the closest she’s ever gotten to me… Alright, I’m gonna be there :P Now just to get far enough ahead at work, that I don’t mind taking a few hours off on Tuesday morning.
*edited to correct my day-typo*
When I first read about “What Do Women Want?” I thought, “huh, Natalie Angier made that argument 10 years ago in her book Woman: An Intimate Geography.” Angier writes about male scientists WATCHING female apes engage in aggressive sexual behavior and not seeing it because it didn’t fit with their beliefs.
Angier’s book is great and I’m curious how the Bergner book holds up to it.
Edited to fix the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Woman-Intimate-Geography-Natalie-Angier/dp/0385498411/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370444089&sr=8-1&keywords=intimate+anatomy+angier
The people that get to see Nalini are in for a real treat :) I saw her last night at Mysterious Galaxy.. and that signing and QA was just wonderful. She was so warm & generous with her readers + no spoilers for those that hadn’t yet read the book.
That all digital library is a baaaad idea. It screws old people who are great consumers of print books and not likely to adapt to tablets and smartphones. Also, I imagine the fine to replace an e-reader or a tablet is going to be huge. Lost book fees are big, but a pricey e-device you leave on the bus? If they had money for this, why not save it for a real library, rather than this half-assed thing?
Have women adopted the male gaze as their own and objectified themselves? Uhm, yeah! Would many women dress the way the way they do if they didn’t objectify themselves??!! I can’t imagine stilletto heals and wired push-up bras existing for any other reason. No one can argue women (well, me anyway :) ) dress that way for comfort.
@Jennifer Lohmann: I remembered that, so I had a moment of deja vu on reading that news item. Thanks for clarifying my memory’s not so bad after all. LOL
@Readsalot81: I was at Mysterious Galaxy too! Ms. Singh was wonderful! Totally worth it! I can’t believe how long she stayed….
@Readsalot81: She was at Mysterious Galaxy last night? And I missed it? %[email protected]$!!!
@MarieC : Wasn’t she great? :) What row were you in? (or were you standing?) She signed soo many books, including ones that people brought in with them (I got Dimitri’s book signed along with HOO). She did stay a really long time.. took pictures with those that wanted them. Plus, you meet some really nice people at those signings. And they sold all the books they had at Mysterious Galaxy, including ones they were supposed to hold for some in SD. Oops!
@Janine: D’oh! :( Maybe she’ll come back to LA again for her next tour. I begged her to come back to LA. (I missed out on her having sign a book for me at RWA last year.. she sold out of books)
Heh, I’m glad the inmate got his book back.
I’d love to go to a Nalini Singh event! Oh well, maybe she’ll go to RT next year. I think it’s supposed to be in NO; I could go to that.
I’m still on the fence about going on the 10th. It’s a looong drive in rush hour, but it is Nalini Singh. And I don’t know anyone irl who reads this series, so it would be fun to squee in person with someone. My husband offered to come with, even though he thinks we’re going to see someone named Cy Changeling (that’s his joke, not mine).
@Janine: Bummer! Do you get her newsletter? She lists her schedule in there. Not that it ever does me any good.
@cleo: You could always listen to the audiobook on the drive.
@MaryK: No, I don’t. I guess I should sign up, sigh.
@Readsalot81: I was one of the many standing in the back! I loved many of the questions (Darn! Now I have to research some stuff!) and now am waiting somewhat impatiently for her tour to end and her site to be updated with answers! There was a part of me that wanted to try to bribe her agent and assistant for more info!