RIASS stuff:
Leanne Hall and Adele Walsh on Australian young adult literature'(My lengthy event summary)
An interview with Jane Heller in which we chat about sexist marketing terms and the 'death' of chick lit:''There will always be stories about women finding their way in the world.' (+ Giveaway)
Narrative scope and insularity and Laura Powell's Burn Mark
Other bookish stuff:
An interview with Barbara Shapiro about her latest book'The Art Forger'I found Shapiros thoughts on conducting research and about how the fine arts arent so different from writing interesting: she says that its because of this that the book seems to resonate with artistic types. I also loved her comment that the book inspired an 80-year-old man who hadnt painted since his youth to pick up a brush and start painting again.
Hobbit coins to become legal tender in NZ.'Leaving officials wondering why the countrys currency is being taken away by tourists and sold online, no doubt
Why Lena Dunhams $3.5m advance isnt as crazy as it seems'People have been doing the maths and coming up with a figure of 1m books sold before Dunham will earn out her advance. But author Jason Pinter says that Dunham doesnt actually need to earn out her advance in order for the publisher to make money. Thats the reason publishers are happy to fork out for huge advances. Even though the author might not make any more than the initial advance, the publisher can easily still rake it in.
Kristen Lamb on testing your idea to ensure that its strong enough to become a novel'An excellent post. Every now and then Ill read a book thats fine and dandy, but that makes me wonder why the author felt that s/he had to write itfor some reason it just doesnt feel weighty or important or whatever enough. Lamb explores this with a concept called LOCK, or'Lead'Objective'Conflict'Knockout.
Spy writer John Stock on surviving a literary mauling.'Stocks latest book was reviewed online on the major retail sites with a headline accusing him of being a misogynist and serial killer. The label caused Stock to reflect on the content of his books, and after he had done so, he contacted the reviewer to ask whether they might look at reviewing his books separately rather than as a body of work. Though he was happy to let the reviewers comments stand, he was worried that the blanket statement about his work as a whole might affect the sales of his new book.
Seattle: a book town in an e-reader world'Melbournes not too shabby in terms of bookshops, but Buenos Aires definitely wins it for me. (Until, perhaps ereaders become big news there.)
Agent Natalie Lakosil asks whether blog-based query competitions are the new slushpile'Although contests provide additional reach and opportunities for aspiring authors, there are presently so many that agents are feeling exhausted by them. Lakosil points out that although she doesnt want to miss out by passing on these contests, her primary job is to support her current clients, not to search through the slush pile.
Ebony McKenna talks about becoming one of those authors who cant let go of their characters'My take is that Im happy to see sequels or standalone works in a particular world so long as Im taken with the characters. If the extension is plot-based, I have less investment than if I adore an authors characters.
The finity of Pi: on the limited pool of readers and matching readers to writers'The author looks at the fallacy of the reading pie and subsequent distribution, and then goes on to point out that the key problem is that publishers are notoriously bad at matching readers with books that theyll like. Interestingly, he notes that as we get better at this, sales will drop for bestsellers (whose readers are reading those books because of availability and the desire to fit in), and will rise for everyone else.
Insights on copyright, fair use, and art'Austin Kleons novels involve blacking out newspaper articles to create new work. However, whether this counts as copyright infringement is difficult to determine, and he admits that he lurks in murky copyright waters. Given that in such cases the onus falls on the defendant to prove fair use, and artists and writers arent exactly loaded, its easy for things to go horribly wrong if someone does choose to prosecute.
Helen Nicoll, writer of the Meg and Mog picture books, dies aged 74'I loved, loved, loved these books when I was in kindergarten.
In Sydney? Pop along to Fairy Tales reimagined: enchantment, beastly tales, and dark mothers over the weekend.
The fairy tales reimagined program thing looks cool. :)
Jami Zehr recently posted..Nodds & Nends: Cosplay, Snow White, Knitting, and a Rant