This week’s news post its a bit of a jammed packed one with interesting announcements and drama!
First up – this was so going to happen, especially since it was no real secret that Amazon has made its ambitions into the world publishing.
Amazon has announced that it will launch an imprint that will focus on romance and its debut release will be Connie Brockway’s, The Other Guy’s Bride which will be slated for release in November. It will be interesting to note how this imprint fares but since Romance is a huge and best-selling genre it was no brainer that would have started an imprint for one. This isn’t the only Imprint for Amazon which also has launched, Amazon Crossing, AmazonEncore and Powered by Amazon which is the self published line. I’d also like to note that the cover isn’t the final one and is only a placeholder which I am glad because I am not a huge fan of the font or the choice of pic.
This is
an interesting article about the idea of more ebook might be released in serial format and the motivations why this might be the case in the furture. I can see this working for some books/stories and in a lot of ways it is already happening with a couple of epubbed series which releases a series of novellas in monthly installments but I don’t think overall this would appeal to a wider audience. Nonetheless it is interesting to note that authors like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens original releases did come out in installments or volumes in the 19th century or so.
This is my WTFERY news of the week. While amazon has recently kept their noses clean it looks like another censorship cock-up is going to implode on them.
According to a post on the Kindle forums it looks like Amazon is censoring Yaoi ebooks which is definitely giving me shades of amazonfail# all over again especially since the last time they censored gay/erotica themed books created a twittershitstorm. But seriously – I have seen much much much worse ebooks, and many are still there! And this doesn’t include the one that had the paedophillia guide which caused another brouhaha on amazon this is not good at all because there seems to be a habit right now on amazon to censor or remove LGBT themed books. But from the gist of what I read this looks like people who are in charge of classification for Amazon don’t have a good idea or understand the genre and have removed books without really checking. For more info and to help with the campaign check
here.
Neil Gaiman found himself embroiled in a bit of brohaha after a US Republican politician, Matt Dean from Dellwood Minnesota called him, and I quote a “pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota.” – this relates to the fact that Gaiman was paid for a speaking engagement which he was invited too. The funding for the speaking engagement fees is specifically aimed and is dedicated to promote the arts for the state of Minnesota (which the people voted for and knew about) and ironically enough Gaiman donated his fee to charities. Gaiman wrote a witty reply about the ‘high-school’ styled bullying for cheap political points and had a bit of twitterfest too.
Whilst writing this, there has been a bit of an update with Dean now apologising albeit, in a very grudging way, because his mother was horrified about his comments.
I think this says it all really.
For more info check here.
But I would like to add that in a world where soother celebs are being paid for appearances, most notably the recent case of Snookie being paid 50 K for a University talk which focused on her time on her show and how she does her hair, or the fact that Bristol Palin was invited to a similar style engagement – this politician’s cheap pot shots is really about the attack on funding the arts and literature and especially sad that we are living in a time that librairies are being defunded right now.
Now onto ze book covers!
First up Silence the last book of the Hush, Hush series. Personally I think this is the worse cover in the whole trilogy and it looks like a pretty awkward pose and reminds me of a promo pic of Bella and Edward from the first Twilight movie.
Release date : October 14th, 2011
Blurb:
“The noise between Patch and Nora is gone. They’ve overcome the secrets riddled in Patch’s dark past…bridged two irreconcilable worlds…faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust…and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in one another, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they’ve worked for—and their love—forever.”
Next up is Devyn Quinn’s Siren’s Desire – absolutely love the colours here. So vibrant.
Also a treat for Maya Banks fans! New covers including Sweet Addiction and next KGI novel, Whispers in the Dark!
And finally we have the first book cover for Zoe Archer’s Hellraisers series – Devil’s Kiss!
And Jennifer Estep’s Spider’s Revenge. I really really need to pick up this series- but I do think this is my favourite cover so far!
Ever since declaring war on Mab Monroe, the ruthless head of the Ashland underworld, Gin Blanco has had a target on her back. Mab wants her dead in the worst kind of way, but what’s worse is that Mab has also put a bounty on Gin’s baby sister Bria’s head.
Keeping Bria safe is Gin’s first priority, but taking out Mab is a close second. It’s a battle that’s been years in the making, and it promises to be deadly. And if Gin isn’t going to survive, then neither is Mab—no matter what Gin has to do to make that happen.
Release Date: 09-02-11
Going to focus on Amazon this week, what do you think of the latest #amazonfail? Do you agree that Amazon has a right to censor Yaoi manga/books? Or do you think this is another hamfisted way of censorship? Also what do you think of their move to Romance do you think it will be a success?
About Has
Has is a bookaholic and feeds her addiction whenever she can. She usually can be found lost in a Romance or an Urban Fantasy novel. Her favourite sub genres are Paranormal, Fantasy and some Scifi. Her most treasured authors are, Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, Ann Aguirre, Lisa Kleypas and Tamora Pierce. She loves that discovery of finding a brand new author and falling in love with their books. Has also blogs a The Book Pushers - Book chatter and reviews
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The City Pages has better coverage on the Dean-Gaiman issue – check the "Previous Coverage" links at the bottom of this page:
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2011/05/neil_gaiman_matt_dean_apology.php
This is yet another reason I continuously steer people away from the Kindle. Amazon is a book seller – not the arbiter of literary merit.
Amazon is not some little old lady selling books out of her spare bedroom in a small town. Who the hell do they think they are "protecting"? And from what?
I am so in love with the lips of the cover model of "Whispers in the Dark"!
It's wrong of Amazon to target yaoi manga. It sounds a bit ignorant of manga or maybe racist. However, it may be some other group is putting pressure on Amazon to pull the yaoi manga titles.
It'll be interesting to see how Amazon fares with this new imprint. We've seen publishers start to sell some of their wares directly, but you don't often see the distributer turn around and become a publisher (unless I'm mistaken)? Hm.
But anyway.
The Spider's Revenge cover is full of so much awesomeness it's ridiculous.
Maya's KGI covers just keep getting better – well, all the stud-muffin covers keep getting better, so what does that say about we droolers and our power? 😉
Silence looks like Cover Boy had some bad Mexican food for lunch.
Amazonfail..ugh. I disagree strongly with their decision to start censoring Yaoi – hate it, hate it – but once they started down that slippery slope of censorship with the man-boy shit and the incest erotica, I think they assumed they'll get to ride it as far as they want without anyone stopping them. They're Amazon, after all. And this is "just" Yaoi in their minds – it doesn't have the same cachet or support as LGBT lit, so I doubt they're giving it a lot of thought. They can always claim cultural ignorance, right?
I've been watching Amazon's Encore publishing line for the last handful of months trying to gain traction and it seems sort of dead in the water – I don't know if it's from lack of promotion or if I'm just watching the wrong books. I just don't see their romance line taking off. While they're good at pricing, I don't know that they're that good at much beyond that – with all due respect to Connie Brockway, I don't know that they'll pick the sort of talent and maintain the kind of standards that romance readers expect to keep it afloat.
I'm wrong a lot though, so it'll probably be a smashing success!
I like the idea of ebooks being released serially. Even though my ereader isn't uncomfortable to read, I still have a hard time finishing long books on it–and I'm sure for people who don't have ereaders and read ebooks on their computer or laptop, that's even more true.
I got a funny feeling that it is ignorance and certain groups pressuring amazon to remove those books. Amazon has a right to sell whatever books they like but what I don't like is the inconsistency – and it is very easy to check that other books that has worse subject matter i.e Necrophillia and beastiality being sold. I just find that strange and Amazon knows they are selling these books because they are screened before they are published.