News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, giveaways on this and other blogs, and other cool stuff.
Books & Ebooks in the News:
- Liberty Media sells of most of its Barnes & Noble stocks, reducing its ownership share and thus, much of its control over the the book retailer. (GalleyCat; also Liberty press release)
- “Waterstones founder: e-book revolution will soon go into decline” in UK. (The Telegraph)
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez is in the hospital. (AP, via NPR)
- Audiobook sales are on the rise. (GalleyCat)
- The Sony Reader Store has closed in North America, customers’ libraries are being moved to Kobo, and now Sony has a firmware update for its Sony Readers that removes the Reader Store. (GoodEReader)
- “April Fools on the Internet” takes a look at some of the book-related pranks that showed up on Tuesday. For instance, did you know Amazon’s opening its first bricks-and-mortar store.. on the International Space Station? (Los Angeles Times) Another prank involved Matthew Gladwell and Lemony Snicket accusing one another of plagiarism. (GalleyCat) And Reddit’s much-publicized book-banning announcement was also an April Fool’s joke. (GalleyCat)
- “Booksellers and Publishers React to the Defunding of S. C. Universities” (Publishers Weekly)
- The Authors Guild wants something like ASCAP to make sure authors are paid when their works are digitized by Google or libraries. (GalleyCat)
- Poetry Out Loud finals announced by NEA (GalleyCat)
- There’s a new monthly YA author Q&A series on Google Hangout. (Publishers Weekly)
Worth Reading:
- “Text is the New Black: The new face (or lack thereof) of YA Book Covers“. E. Kristin Anderson has written a terrific exploration of the new, gender-neutral trend in YA covers. It’s a breath of fresh air for those of us who’ve been concerned about the effects of gendered covers on teen readers – especially male readers, who are less likely to pick up a book if they think it’s “for girls.” (Write All the Words!)
- Neil Gaiman points out that authors aren’t our servants. On his blog, Gaiman responds to a fan who is annoyed with G.R.R. Martin for not having the next book out already, and more generally to readers’ sense of entitlement and impatience with authors. It’s a good reminder, as I’m waiting on several series experiencing delays, that I’d rather have the book be good than meet some arbitrary schedule.
- The Authors Guild elects a self-published author to the Executive Council. Apparently they have also been admitting self-published authors who reach a $5000 earnings threshold. And there’s a new nonvoting membership available also: Associate Member, for those with an agent who aren’t yet published and self-published authors with at least $500 in earnings. Good to see the AG opening its doors a bit wider. (GoodEReader)
- “5 Tips for Running a Little Free Library” – If you like the idea of a Little Free Library, why not set up your own? Swapna Krishna did, and here are her tips for making it a success. (BookRiot)
- Paper Lantern Lit and the Rise of the Hybrid Agent – as in, a hybrid of ebook-only self-publishing and traditional publishing. (GoodEReader)
For Writers & Bloggers:
- “Discussion: The Art of Blog Commenting” on Say It With Books
- Amazon’s Day One literary Journal is looking for submissions from previously unpublished authors. (GalleyCat, with email link to submit)
- Camp NaNoWriMo is underway for April, and you can still sign up. It’s a bit more flexible than the November NaNoWriMo.
Book, Movie, and Stage Announcements:
Fan art posters by HogwartSite on DeviantArt
- Harry Potter spin-off ‘Fantastic Beasts’ will be 3 movies. The series will feature Newt Scamander, author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and will take place 7 decades before the Harry Potter books and movies. (Variety, based on a piece by the New York Times on Warner’s new CEO. Posters are fan art by Hogwartsite on DeviantArt.)
- Fall 2014 Children’s [Books] Sneak Preview – a look ahead at picture, MG, and YA books coming this fall, by publisher (Publishers Weekly)
- Anne Tyler has a new book coming in 2015. (GalleyCat)
- Martin Freeman to play Richard III in London this fall. (BBC America)
Awesome lists:
- Why I Write: 23 Fascinating Quotes from Famous Authors (Aerogramme Writing Studio) I love the quote by John Green.
- 10 YA Books with Male Protagonists (YA Interrobang) Yes, there are some!
- 15 Dating Problems Only Book Lovers Understand (Huffington Post Books)
- Beautiful places from your favorite books – photos of places from famous books (Huffington Post Books)
- 14 Totally Badass Female Authors (Huffington Post Books)
Just for fun:
- David Tennant reads Shakespeare’s sonnets… for over 8 minutes, to a series of slides showing him in various Shakespearean roles. Wonderful!
- And if you like that one, try his reading of Sonnet 18 on Vimeo.
Bookish Quotes:
That’s it for this week!
I’m always on the lookout for interesting articles, lists, and links for News & Notes, so please let me know if you see (or write!) anything that might be good for this feature. You can leave me a comment or send me an email — my address is on the About/Review Policy/Contact page.
Herding Cats - Burning Soup
I love the little free libraries. Would be so fun to start one up 🙂
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
I’d love to do one, too, but I don’t think our POA would go for it.
Bea
I’m tired of reading about the death of ebooks. Change happens people, deal with it. Argh.
I’ve thought about setting up a Little Free Library so I need to read that article. I know zoning and permits will be an issue.
Happy weekend!
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
I don’t think ebooks are going away, but the market may not grow as fast or may even plateau, and that’s fine. I don’t think they’re going to kill off print books any time soon, either (though they may eventually.) Right now, I think the market has plenty of room for both, and I wish people would stop demonizing ebooks or blaming them for the demise of bookstores (which was starting well before ebooks — I remember when Waldenbooks and B&N were blamed for driving indie bookstores out of business.)
I hadn’t thought about zoning and permits for a Little Free Library, but in some cities or counties, you’re probably right. Definitely something to check out before you put one up!