Welcome to this week’s news post and we have news of publishers expanding in the small and big silver screen, Goodreads have changed their reviewing policies and much more.

Yesterday  I was alerted via several Goodreads friends  and  VacuousMinx that their reviews were hidden from public view because they mentioned authors or was shelved under ‘Do Not Read’ due to badly behaved authors. According to Goodreads they are implementing new rules and will release guidelines very soon on this new move. Whilst some reviews have disappeared for now because they are in the midst of incorporating this new rule of where a review can be flagged if its not on topic as a review because it is about notifying members that an author has behaved badly and is shelved under that heading instead of being a review. Friends  and followers of that reviewer can still be able to comment and see the hidden  thread but it wont be in the public page.

I think this is a problematic move for Goodreads which has recently been the brunt of  all the brouhaha around negative reviews and authors behaving badly.  And I have already seen a few people remarking that if  this affects their reviewing of a book they will move to other platforms. I also think that this is badly thought out because I can forsee quite a few reviews most especially negative ones being flagged by others to try to game the system even though Goodreads have stated they are only focusing on postings and shelvings but it is going to be very hard to police this.  I also don’t like the message this sends out especially to sites like STGRB.  There is more discussion about this in this feedback thread at Goodreads.

It  looks like more and more publishers are branching out in other mediums such as Random House have announced they will be teaming up with FreemantleMedia – both companies who  are owned by the same conglomerate, Bertelsmann AG media   will be venturing into television productions based on the books which Random House publishes.

Macmillan has also a similar set up and has created a movie division to handle books for adaptation as well which help to help bolster revenue for properties. I suspect other publishers will follow suit in similar deals or set ups.

Bloggers should be aware that posting images and pictures on their site even with credit notices or link backs can still ensure the threat of  a lawsuit. Author Roni Loren has written a post detailing her experiences of being sued despite crediting the source. So be very wary if an image is not in the public domain.

Karl Lagerfield  has created a perfume which smells of newly printed books. The perfume is called Paper Passions which suppose to help people who miss this scent when reading a print book because of all those dratted ebooks and ereaders. It is pretty pricey for a bottle that will cost around over £60! But I wonder if he will follow up with a scent for musty books!

News in Brief:

In the UK it looks like Syliva Day’s Bared to You  has overtaken sales of Fifty Shades of Grey – It was picked up by Penguin and the UK arm has reported that it has sold over 50 thousand copies with its release last week!

This is great news and I hope that it works out but author L.J. McDonald has stated that Amazon is interested in more books in the Sylph series and because they are preparing to bid for Dorchester’s backlist of books they will be reissuing the previous books in the series.

The ongoing saga of the DOJ vs The Agency publishers – an interesting note in the recent filings and ruling, the DOJ has ruled Barnes and Noble as well as Apple are free to sell ebooks under Agency pricing.

And finally JR Ward has released the trailer for Rapture from the Fallen Angels series. I am unable to embed but you have to got to watch it!!! 😀

Now for books to look out for the coming months!

Laini Taylor’s follow up to Daughter of Smoke and Bones – has a UK cover.

 

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living – one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.

Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel – a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.

This was not that world. 

 

 

And here is the US cover – I am definitely looking forward to this book!

 

 

This looks like such a fun book, Liz Fichera, Hooked.

 

Sparks fly when a Native American girl with a killer swing joins the boys’ varsity golf team and takes on the boy with the killer smile. Don’t miss this heartwarming and emotional new romantic contemporary!

 

And the followup to Sophie Jordan’s  Firelight which I hear is slated to be turned into a movie – Hidden

Jacinda was supposed to bond with Cassian, the “prince” of their pride. But she resisted long before she fell in love with Will—a human and, worse, a hunter. When she ran away with Will, it ended in disaster, with Cassian’s sister, Miram, captured. Weighed down by guilt, Jacinda knows she must rescue her to set things right. Yet to do so she will have to venture deep into the heart of enemy territory.

The only way Jacinda can reach Miram is by posing as a prisoner herself, though once she assumes that disguise, things quickly spiral out of her control. As she learns more about her captors, she realizes that even if Will and Cassian can carry out their part of the plan, there’s no guarantee they’ll all make it out alive. But what Jacinda never could have foreseen is that escaping would be only the beginning….

Loyalties are tested and sacrifices made in the explosive conclusion to Sophie Jordan’s Firelight trilogy.

 

So what do you think of Goodread’s latest policy? Do you think it is fair and will help to stop online kerfuffles or is this a form of censorship and a way to stifle discussion? 

Note: The site had a few bugs recently which affected the loading of the page. We apologise for any inconvenience and we think we have solved the issue but there may be a few bugs affecting some pages.

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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