Welcome to this week’s news posts and it’s one of those weeks where the dramallama train has visited the world of publishing and decided to have an orgiastic train worth of drama full of author meltdowns and blow-ups – Which includes author stalking readers over bad reviews and how not to respond back to fan-mail.
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But this week opened up with the news that amazon has screwed up again by offering to remove copies of the self published version of Jamie Mcguire’s Beautiful Disaster from reader’s archives and offering a refund or credit to buy the new edition with Simon and Schuster. Readers complained about what was happening and which led to McGuire posting on her facebook page there were issues with returns but had no idea why Amazon would do this. It later transpired that the self published edition contained quite a sizeable chunk of lyrics from The Rolling Stones – Satisfaction which could have been the reason because the S&S edition only has one line from the song. So this may have been the explanation as McGuire is the only affected author who recently moved to NY traditional publishing and there have not been any reports of this happening to other authors who made similar deals. But it now looks like its a cock-up because Amazon later apologized by stating it was a mistake and disregard their previous email. But this has definitely led to speculation by some authors who felt there was a conspiracy and Amazon was flexing their muscles on indie authors which really doesn’t make sense in this case because it would upset their customers especially after similar fallouts with the incident over the removal of 1984.

I am not going to delve into details here because frankly I am so beyond tired of this happening – but I will directly link to incidents number (I’ve lots count and cant be arsed in even fun faking number of incidents because its that numerous now) of author meltdowns – I thought this year could not top last year which was an epic year of Authors Behaving Badly but this week there were two incidents that made me feel sad – the first meltdown was with author, Lloyd Lofthouse who tracked down a reviewer who gave him a negative feedback on a review he posted. He was so incensed by this he then tracked down the reviewer’s workplace. And in the other meltdown which really disappointed me was author Juliet Marillier’s post on receiving fan mail which was posted on Author Unboxed.The post has now been removed which was explained here, but this was really an example in how not to respond to fan-mail especially, posting it publicly and ragging on a fan like this and I really hope they didn’t witness this happening.

Author and SFWA president John Scalzi has ripped into Random House’s new digital enterprises after checking out the contract for the imprint Hydra and it looks like their other imprints are under similar terms. He found that the contract was one of the worse he had ever seen with no advances and authors having to pay for promotion and advertising costs as well as claiming world-right rights on ebooks. This could actually lead to Random House’s imprints to be delisted from the SFWA organisation. For more details into the contract click here:

I think I reported that Universal and E.L. James are suing a porn company over copyright infringement over their porn parody of Fifty Shades of Grey – well there is now a little twist in the tail as Smash Pictures are now countersuing Universal by claiming that the trilogy is under public domain. They are defending on the premise because it was originally posted as fanfiction with 89 percent of the text as being the same as the published work and it was widely posted on sites with disclaimers that it is fanfiction (which the writer of a fanfiction claims no copyright or ownership of characters/characterisations or plot etc… to avoid being sued themselves). I doubt they will win but I can’t not help laugh at this new turn of events but if they do – this could have huge ramifications on the whole issue of Pulled to Publish and even fanfiction itself.

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News in Brief:

Sylvia Day has posted another snippet from Entwined with You – She’d also like to warn people of an imposter who has created a Facebook page offering fans a fan pack which will cost them $1500 – No self respecting author will contact readers to offer such deals and this is a huge scam. She’s listed her official Facebook sites in the link above and please pass on the word!

J.R Ward has also posted another snippet from Lover at Last.

The official Twitter news account for Patricia Briggs has announced the next Mercy Thompson title which is due out next year! Night Broken will be the 8th book in the Urban Fantasy series – Patricia is also working on a Mercyverse anthology which has confirmed short stories that will include the first meeting between Ari and Sam, as well short stories featuring Ben and Tad as well as compiling all of the previous published shorts from other anthologies.

And now upcoming books to look out for!

Nalini Singh unveiled the much anticipated blurb to Heart of Obsidian – Is it June yet?

Step into New York Times bestseller Nalini Singh’s explosive and shockingly passionate Psy-Changeling world…

A dangerous, volatile rebel, hands stained bloodred.

A woman whose very existence has been erased.

A love story so dark, it may shatter the world itself.

A deadly price that must be paid.

The day of reckoning is here.

From “the alpha author of paranormal romance” (Booklist) comes the most highly anticipated novel of her career—one that blurs the line between madness and genius, between subjugation and liberation, between the living and the dead

Darynda Jones – 5th Charley Davidson book has a cover and blurb! Fifth Grave Past the Light is slated for a July release!

Charley Davidson may not look like your everyday, run-of-the-mill grim reaper, but she has vowed to reap grimness wherever she goes despite this unfortunate fact. Sadly, she gets sidetracked when the sexy, sultry son of Satan, Reyes Farrow, moves in next door. As he is the main suspect in her arson case, she has vowed to stay away from him until she can find out the truth.

However, when dead women start appearing in her apartment – lost, confused and terrified beyond reason – Charley has no choice but to ask for Reyes’s help, especially when it becomes apparent that her own sister Gemma is the serial killer’s next target. With his ability to observe incorporeally, surely he can find out who’s responsible. And even if he can’t, he is the one man alive who could protect Gemma no matter who or what came at her. But he wants something in return: Charley. All of her – body and soul. And to keep her sister safe, it is a price she might be willing to pay…

And finally the cover for Karen Chance’s new Cassie Palmer book – Tempt the Stars which is due out later this fall.

So does this news of authors hunting down reviewers or posting fan mail from readers, make you reluctant or wary to post or email authors?

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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