This week is the same as the last, except there’s more snow and my very talented/prolific CP Roslyn Carrington (AKA Simona Taylor) is having a book giveaway. All you’ve got to do is email her and you’re in.  The deadline is Valentine’s Day.  Here’s the best part:  You get to pick the book!  And there are a lot to choose from.  :yes:

So go to her website, see which of her books interest you then drop her an email. Two lucky people will win.

Now on to business.  Below I’ve got 9 topics. Skip what you don’t like, respond to whatever moves you.

1. WHAT WE’RE WRITING

Agent Nathan Bransford received a bunch of query letters last week which he broke into 18 categories. I’ll save the bad news for the end.

Young Adult (of all kinds): 73
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller: 53
Fantasy (includes paranormal and urban fantasy): 28
Historical Fiction: 26
Literary Fiction: 25
Science Fiction: 18
Memoir: 18
Spiritual Novels: 12
Women’s Fiction: 12
Mangst: 11
Middle Grade: 8
How-to/Self-Help: 7
Misc. Nonfiction: 7
Short Story Collection: 6
Religious Manifestos: 5
Biography: 5
Romance: 3
No freaking clue: 6

All in all, he said he got a total of 327 queries last week but made only 4—yes, FOUR—manuscript requests. :wtfno:

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2. AMAZON VS MACMILLAN

This particular battle may be over, but the war is ongoing. First, I’m a loyal Amazon customer, however I know how much the publishing industry is struggling. New technology. Pirating. Book swapping. Used book sales. All these things factor in when a publisher sets a book price. They know what they need to make a decent profit, therefore, it’s not up to Amazon (a retailer!) to dictate what Macmillan’s prices should be. As a consumer I love cheap books, but as a writer AND a small bookseller, I see what cheap books are doing to my business as well as the publishing industry.  Amazon is getting a little too big for its britches. Glad to see Macmillan didn’t back down and that  Amazon finally conceded.

What say you?

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3. COUNT YOUR FETUSES

I’ve given birth to three completed books. However, I’ve got dozens of fetuses (unfinished books/proposals) in various stages of development. Off the top of my head, I’d say I’ve got around (including my WIP) 6. :oops:

What’s your fetus count?

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4. RWA BLINKS

“Based upon the recommendation of the task force, RWA will no longer designate publishers as “RWA Eligible.” Instead, RWA will have a conference allocation system to identify Photobucket“Qualifying Markets,” which must be a non-vanity/non-subsidy publisher or a non-vanity/non-subsidy division, imprint or line of a publisher. Since RWA will no longer have a classification for Eligible Publisher, the Board approved definitions for “Eligible Novel” and “Eligible Novella” based on the non-subsidy/non-vanity production of these works. This change will allow members to qualify for PAN, participate in Romance Sells and trade shows, report first sales in the RWR, and receive a “First Sale” ribbon at conference as long as the terms of the definition are met.”

On the one hand I think it’s great because it recognizes the changing market. On the other, it’s kinda suspect because the only reason this change came to pass is because of the HQ Vanity Press debacle. Bottom line? It took the prospect of losing a big player like Harlequin for RWA to change their antiquated “Recognized Publisher” thingie.

Strangely, this new development both pleases and annoys me. :poke:

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5. BLAST FROM THE PAST

This amazing video is a side-by-side comparison of Michael Jackson’s iconic performance of Billie Jean at Motown 25 and Wylie Draper’s recreation of the performance when he portrayed Michael in the movie The Jacksons: An American Dream. As you’ll soon see Wylie pretty much nailed the dancing, but there’s still only one MJ.

Of course Michael died last year, but few people know that Wylie died in 1993 at the age of 24 from leukemia (a year after the film was released). It’s said that Michael hand picked Wylie to portray him in the Jackson’s movie. No doubt Michael probably coached him, considering how good his performance was. Wylie can also be seen as one of the dancers in Michael Jackson’s music video Remember The Time along with Eddie Murphy, Magic Johnson and Iman.

Wylie is on the left and Michael is on the right.

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6. WHEN WILL THEY LEARN?

I’m a little late to the party on this, but so be it.  Bloomsbury is at it again.  This after the Liar debacle. Seems they’ve released another book cover that doesn’t match the protagonist. :no: Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore has a heroine who’s described as: “dark-skinned.” She’s also said to have “brown skin” and “glossy black hair.” From the other quotes I’ve read, the girl is definitely not white. Far or Middle Eastern perhaps. Maybe Indian. Someone else who’s read the book postulated that she’s probably Turkish. Again, definitely not white.

——————————————————————————————————————– Yet this is the cover Bloomsbury came up with:
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And here’s what the AUTHOR came up with for her book trailer.  Hmmm…. Trailer heroine is definitely brown-skinned.  Strange, indeed.

As an aside, I think if THIS publisher had gotten the author’s manuscript, we’d've seen a vastly different cover. So how do you make a protest statement to a publisher without hurting the author? Boycotting the book is not the answer. Any ideas?

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7. FROM THE VEGETABLE SECTION

This is a parsnip. No, really it is. :lmao:

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8. DVD WARS

According to Salon.com, Sony Pictures is laying 450 people off and cutting 100 open jobs because folks just aren’t buying DVDs like they used to. “Our industry is affected by two things: It’s affected by the economy, of course, and it’s affected by technology,” co-chair Amy Pascal says in the video. “Over the last two years, it’s changed people’s DVD buying habits, which has had a huge effect on our company and the industry at large.”

The scary part is, that they’re actually delaying filming on many of their projects–Spiderman 4 in particular. With the influx of DVD rentals, bootlegs, and illegal downloads, no wonder they’re losing money. Interestingly enough, Time Warner bullied Netflix into accepting a deal where Netflix will have to wait 28-days before they can offer new releases to their subscribers. The studio believes this will prompt people to buy DVDs. Um…. NOT. If I didn’t intend to buy the DVD before, their machinations aren’t going to make me buy anything.  All that does is make me NOT want to buy. As for Nexflix, supposedly, they’ll be compensated with cheaper wholesale prices, which means they’ll be able to offer more copies to their subscribers. This should eliminate some of the LONG and VERY LONG WAITS people are seeing in their Queues. Strangely, Blockbuster didn’t have to sign such a deal.

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9. LOST **IS** LOST!

I’ve said many times the writers of Lost were just tossing spaghetti on the wall, seeing what would stick. I also said they’d written themselves into corners many times because a lot of the stuff just didn’t make sense and that they wouldn’t be able to explain it in the end. SmileyWell guess what? I WAS RIGHT! The following excerpt was taken from an interview with the Executive Producers in People magazine:

What would you say the fans are asking right now that is a complete waste of their time?

Carlton Cuse: “Are we going to answer all the tiny, little, minute questions?” The focus should be, “How are the character stories going to resolve? What is the destiny of these people that were brought to this place?”

Damon Lindelof: We’re going to answer the mysteries that have relevance to the characters that were on Oceanic 815. If it doesn’t have relevance to them, then we’re pretty much going to let it lie there and let people theorize about it. What’s relevant to the characters on Oceanic 815 and what isn’t? That’s what season six is all about.

Well, guess what?  If it wasn’t relevant, then it shouldn’t have been in dang blasted script!  IOW, they wrote sensationalized nonsense just to confuse the viewers and to *appear* clever, and now that the series is coming to an end they haven’t the foggiest idea how to explain away all the silly crap they tossed in. Smiley THIS is why I stopped watching this stupid show after Season 1 because I **KNEW** the writers and producers were slinging a bunch of horse$#*&.  Now I have proof.