Wednesday News: Locus Awards, Inkitt, Anne Frank VR movie, and Judy Blume on Tumblr
Publishing NewsAnne Frank / book algorithms / Judy Blume / Locus Award / SFF / Tumblr / virtual reality7 Comments
2016 Locus Awards Finalists – Interesting to compare these lists to the Hugos. The Locus Awards will be announced next month (June 24-26) in a ceremony emceed by Connie Willis. A full listing of nominees can be found at the Locus Magazine link above.
SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
- The Water Knife, Paolo Bacigalupi (Borzoi; Orbit UK)
- Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Aurora, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Seveneves, Neal Stephenson (Morrow)
- A Borrowed Man, Gene Wolfe (Tor)
FANTASY NOVEL
- Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear (Tor)
- The House of Shattered Wings, Aliette de Bodard (Roc; Gollancz)
- Wylding Hall, Elizabeth Hand (PS; Open Road)
- The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
Can a computer identify a bestselling book? – Combining algorithms and data analysis, Inkitt is allegedly “not just crowd-sourcing the sorting of the slush pile, they’re analyzing how the crowd does it,” and then working with authors and publishers to make deals for books deemed sellable by the service. How swell that publishers now have even more tools to stay numbers-driven.
At inkitt.com, writers can post their original works and receive feedback from readers. Readers have free access to thousands of those new pieces across myriad genres. But how they read those works is being watched: Inkitt’s algorithms reportedly track readers’ behavior patterns.
Using those patterns, Inkitt claims it can identify potential hits and bestsellers. (“Read and fall in love with novels before they go mainstream,” the site promises.) Inkitt then partners with traditional publishing houses to release the books. The first book identified in this manner will be Erin Swan’s “Bright Star,” a young adult novel scheduled to be published by Tor Books next summer, according to Digital Publishing News. – Minnesota Public Radio
Anne Frank’s story to be told in new virtual reality film – Jonah Hirsch and Danny Abrahms are working on Anne, a virtual reality film based on Anne Frank’s life during hiding, which is being touted as a novel way to present such an important historical event to younger generations.
“VR to me is this new, amazing tool that can allow viewers to connect with people and events like never before,” Abrahms adds. “I wanted to create a VR experience that connected viewers with arguably the most significant event in human history (World War II / The Holocaust) and I couldn’t think of a better way to explore this subject matter than through the story of Anne Frank.” – Entertainment Weekly
Judy Blume talks Tumblr, possible new book – At the prodding of her publisher, Judy Blume (who is rocking her 70s!) has opened a Tumblr account — judyblumeofficial.tumblr.com — and is using it to connect with readers in a more immediate way. Although she’s not sure how long she’s keep it up, right now she’s using it to talk about the upcoming paperback edition of her recent book In the Unlikely Event.
“I certainly plan on staying with it all summer, and maybe longer,” she said. “When I started tweeting I didn’t know if I would like it. I didn’t know much about it, but it just got to be fun. I’ve got friends I never met and I imagine it will be something like that with Tumblr. I hope so. It’s a way to have a relationship with your readers that used to come only when they wrote you.” – Yahoo! News
That Locus list has frustrated the YA community. All the authors listed in the category are men (one author is even listed in the category for TWO books). And some of those listed books in the YA category…AREN’T EVEN YA NOVELS.
I have not read most books on YA selection (only “Shadowshaper” but I read three on best science fiction novel, four on best fantasy novel short list and two on first novel list. I thought they were all wonderful. I love this list, so many candidates to cheer for.
@Tez Miller. I see what you mean – Joe Abercrombie as YA, What? He writes grimdark fantasy, (my husband enjoys his books). And he certainly isn’t shelved in bookstores as YA, but with the adult SFF.
Hmm.
So if:
1. All the authors on the shortlist for Best Fantasy Novel are women;
2. All the authors on the shortlist for Best YA are men;
3. Some of the authors on the YA shortlist did not write YA novels;
does this imply that it was recognised that the male authors in group (2/3) could not legitimately be nominated over the female authors in group (1) for Best Fantasy, but that people also wanted those men to be up for an award, so they bumped them into another category? I can’t quite articulate what I mean here, but the pattern is very interesting, and somehow it reminds me of how people seem to sometimes win Oscars more because of a past history of strong roles (or a history of not winning for possibly deserved roles) than for whatever they were technically nominated for when they actually won. If that makes sense (maybe it doesn’t).
@Anonymous: Which of the YA books on the shortlist are not YA? Because the Abercrombie books are the 2nd and 3rd book in his Shattered Seas trilogy, which he explicitly calls YA and the first book of which was reviewed (at DA and at Booksmugglers, among others) as YA. The other books all seem to be marketed as YA as well (or as crossover books with teen protagonists).
The choices can be criticized on a variety of grounds, but they are marketed, reviewed, and read as YA. Of course adults read them too, but that’s true with a lot of YA these days.
I’m thrilled to see the large number of people who aren’t white and/or aren’t men in the categories beyond SF and YA, and the ones I’ve read are worth of the nominations they received, in my opinion. I agree that it’s weird to see no women in the YA category, but I’m happy to see Older’s book.
Oh, interesting. The first book in the Shattered Seas trilogy (Half a King) won the 2015 Locus Award for Best YA. And there was only one book by a woman (Gail Carriger) in the YA shortlist. So not an entirely new departure. Locus voters surely do like their Joe Abercrombie.
@Sunita: Yeah “Shadowshaper” was awesome :).