1. Anders, Charlie Jane. "What would a Random House/Penguin merger mean for science fiction and fantasy?" io9 25 October 2012. Web. 27 October 2012.
Anders offers a handful of insights into what a merger of Penguin and Random House might mean for publishers, imprints, writers, readers and those aspiring to be writers. She also includes a link to an in-depth article about what mergers in general mean for science fiction and fantasy, and another link to a 2007 interview with Ace/Roc editor Anne Sowards. This article is written in a easy-going, conversational style.
This one is included, and set into the first place, because the possibility of a Penguin/Random House merger is huge news for anyone keeping an eye on the publishing industry.
2. Sullivan, Tim. "'Gone With The Wind' In North Korea An Unlikely Cultural Phenomenon." HuffPost World: Canada 24 October 2012. Web. 27 October 2012.
Sullivan writes on an array of reasons why Gone With the Wind is so popular among North Koreans. Among these reasons, he gives in depth treatment to the book's Civil War setting and its tough, hardship-enduring characters. He writes in a smooth style and uses a handful of quotations to underline his article's narrative quality.
This one's included because it's a great example of how cultural products can cross cultures and end up thriving in places that you would simply not expect.
3. Peng, Kan. "How to hard sell China's soft power." China Daily 26 October 2012. Web. 27 October 2012.
Peng begins by summarizing the Psy/Gangnam Style phenomenon, how social media has played an integral part in the phenomenon's popularity, and how the phenomenon has helped to promote South Korean culture and products across the world. He then moves into how China has tried and failed to do promote their soft power via cultural exports in the same way, but have failed because they've kept their attempts too official. Peng writes in a punchy, to-the-point style.
This article is included because of the contrast that it sets up between two nation's strategies for increasing their soft power. This contrast underlines the usefulness of pop-culture.
4. Rector, Gene. "'Science fiction' becomes 'science fact' following Utah test." WRWR The Patriot 23 October 2012. Web. 27 October 2012.
This is a brief article about a new microwave emitter-equipped missile (called CHAMP, or the Counter-electronics High powered Advanced Missile Project) that is designed to disable electronics. According to the article, the titular test in Utah saw this technology not only shut down all of the computers in a target building but also the camera recording the experiment.
As a technology article amongst articles about books and publishing, this one might seem out of place. However, at its heart it's about a missile that has the potential to take out communications systems - and what are publishing and books if not just friendly means of communication?
5. Perlow, Jason. "Computing's low-cost, Cloud-centric future is not Science Fiction." ZDNet 21 October 2012. Web. 27 October 2012.
This article looks at Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner as examples of futurism. Specifically, Perlow goes over the aspects of each movie that, some 50 and 30 years before the present, accurately depict technological aspects of our daily life and those elements of the movies that aren't here just yet. Perlow writes in an expositional style, using a generous number of links to his own and others' writing.
This one is included because it shows the importance of fiction as a way to explore ideas that seem far removed from reality, just one of fiction's enduring uses.
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Closing
That's it for this week in the blog, but check back here next week for another short story draft, a review of the recent cult classic The Room (Monday and Friday), and, over at Tongues in Jars, more of "Dum Diane vitrea" and Beowulf (Tuesday and Thursday).
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Showing posts with label publishing industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label publishing industry. Show all posts
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
[Wōdnes-dæg] Book Covers or Ebook Reviews?
Introduction
The Article Summed Up
Covers, Reviews, Impressions
Undercutting and Supporting
Closing
Back To Top
Introduction
Although hardcopy books might seem to be disappearing from the lives of many as more and more people get ereaders, the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" still has some currency. Yet, as books make the transition from paper to screen, their covers could become a thing of the past.
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
An article from NPR Books came to my attention through a Google Alert of mine.
The article posits that, in the past, books could sell based on their covers alone, while now ebooks aren't bought because of covers, but because word of them gets around or people read reviews.
However, Chip Kidd, an associate art director with Alfred A. Knopf, has no fear for the future of book covers. Kidd's theory is that hardcover books, the focus of his work, have always been luxury items, and that they will endure as such in spite of publishing's ongoing transition into the digital world.
Included with the article is a short recording that summarizes and expands upon it.
Back To Top
Covers, Reviews, Impressions
As much as reviews or mentions by friends might help to make books attractive to online readers, covers can really make or break a book.
Even if you've seen a book a few times, a really powerful cover can grab your attention with every pass. And as much as a review can help you to make an informed decision about a book, a book that's bought because of a review is a book bought based on reason rather than instinct. A book's cover can evoke a more visceral response, which can lead to stronger feelings both during and after reading it.
In fact, buying a book based on it's cover (along with a quick peek inside, perhaps) can make the experience of reading that book more enjoyable.
Instead of knowing what to expect from a writer's style, a book's story, or it's characters as you might after reading a review, peeking at a book's cover and blurb gives you a more nebulous impression of a book. The difference is like that between the impression a person whom you're meeting for the first time but have heard about before and the impression that someone completely new to you leaves.
Maybe you don't remember the book's title after an initial encounter, just as you might not remember a person's name, but if a cover and a peek at the text leave any impression at all you've just formed something that reading that book (once you get around to that) can cause to grow and change with more fluidity than a first impression from a review or word of mouth.
Now, the same could be argued about word of mouth or a review. These things also leave you with a first impression of a book comparable to that which you're left with after meeting someone for the first time. But the major difference is that in this situation your first impression isn't really your own. Instead, it's pre-formed based on what you've been told or read.
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Undercutting and Supporting
Of course, it could be argued that this talk of varying extents of first impressions (first and second hand) and the effects that they have on your perceptions of a book is just splitting hairs. This is a valid argument, though, and now my English degrees might be showing through, having first impressions that are entirely your own - and therefore based on a cover rather than a review or word of mouth - will lead to a richer personal experience of the book.
But perhaps the extra personal element that covers bring to books, just as their durability, is something that makes hard-copy, hard-cover books luxury items.
In a world that's constantly socializing the individualized experience of seeing an entrancing cover and knowing you must buy that book might just become another selling point for books that are read off of paper rather than a screen.
Back To Top
Closing
Tomorrow's Annotated Links will carry today's literary focus forward, while Friday's search for the salvageable in Alien Apocalypse may take a different turn. Be sure to check back here to find out!
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
Covers, Reviews, Impressions
Undercutting and Supporting
Closing
 |
Back To Top
Introduction
Although hardcopy books might seem to be disappearing from the lives of many as more and more people get ereaders, the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" still has some currency. Yet, as books make the transition from paper to screen, their covers could become a thing of the past.
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
An article from NPR Books came to my attention through a Google Alert of mine.
The article posits that, in the past, books could sell based on their covers alone, while now ebooks aren't bought because of covers, but because word of them gets around or people read reviews.
However, Chip Kidd, an associate art director with Alfred A. Knopf, has no fear for the future of book covers. Kidd's theory is that hardcover books, the focus of his work, have always been luxury items, and that they will endure as such in spite of publishing's ongoing transition into the digital world.
Included with the article is a short recording that summarizes and expands upon it.
Back To Top
Covers, Reviews, Impressions
As much as reviews or mentions by friends might help to make books attractive to online readers, covers can really make or break a book.
Even if you've seen a book a few times, a really powerful cover can grab your attention with every pass. And as much as a review can help you to make an informed decision about a book, a book that's bought because of a review is a book bought based on reason rather than instinct. A book's cover can evoke a more visceral response, which can lead to stronger feelings both during and after reading it.
In fact, buying a book based on it's cover (along with a quick peek inside, perhaps) can make the experience of reading that book more enjoyable.
Instead of knowing what to expect from a writer's style, a book's story, or it's characters as you might after reading a review, peeking at a book's cover and blurb gives you a more nebulous impression of a book. The difference is like that between the impression a person whom you're meeting for the first time but have heard about before and the impression that someone completely new to you leaves.
Maybe you don't remember the book's title after an initial encounter, just as you might not remember a person's name, but if a cover and a peek at the text leave any impression at all you've just formed something that reading that book (once you get around to that) can cause to grow and change with more fluidity than a first impression from a review or word of mouth.
Now, the same could be argued about word of mouth or a review. These things also leave you with a first impression of a book comparable to that which you're left with after meeting someone for the first time. But the major difference is that in this situation your first impression isn't really your own. Instead, it's pre-formed based on what you've been told or read.
Back To Top
Undercutting and Supporting
Of course, it could be argued that this talk of varying extents of first impressions (first and second hand) and the effects that they have on your perceptions of a book is just splitting hairs. This is a valid argument, though, and now my English degrees might be showing through, having first impressions that are entirely your own - and therefore based on a cover rather than a review or word of mouth - will lead to a richer personal experience of the book.
But perhaps the extra personal element that covers bring to books, just as their durability, is something that makes hard-copy, hard-cover books luxury items.
In a world that's constantly socializing the individualized experience of seeing an entrancing cover and knowing you must buy that book might just become another selling point for books that are read off of paper rather than a screen.
Back To Top
Closing
Tomorrow's Annotated Links will carry today's literary focus forward, while Friday's search for the salvageable in Alien Apocalypse may take a different turn. Be sure to check back here to find out!
Back To Top
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Annotated Links #13: Japan in Art and Quirk
1. Bennett, Lennie. "Art deco exhibit at Ringling Museum illuminates Japan's lost decades." Tampa Bay Times 22 July 2012. Web. 2 August 2012.
Bennett describes the contents of the "Deco Japan: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920-45" exhibition and gives a brief history, explanation, and context of the movement in Japan. However, Bennett doesn't include what the remaining two stops of the exhibition are or for how much longer the exhibition will be staying at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Bennett writes in the style of an informative account of visiting the exhibition.
This article is included because of the obscurity of its subject matter - I had no idea that there was a significant and culture-changing art movement in Japan after World War I and during World War II.
2. Elwood, Kate. "CULTURAL CONUNDRUMS/Cultural facets of Cupid's arrow." Daily Yomiuri Online 30 July 2012. Web. 2 August 2012.
Elwood gives a history of Japanese romance novels, including how they "blossomed out of Western seeds" in the 70s and 80s, and how Sanrio started its "New Romance" line for domestically written romances in 1982. She also summarizes a comparative study of Western harlequin and Japanese romance stories written during the 70s and 80s. According to the study, the most marked differences found in Japanese romance novels are that female leads are generally stronger, and that the hardships involve social restrictions that keep love from being widely accepted rather than love itself.
This article is included here because because it gives a good look at the differences in the romance genre, and thus in two cultures romantic ideals.
3. Liebl, Lance. "Giant dancing Japanese robot women in bras will be the end of us." GameZone 27 July 2012. Web. 2 August 2012.
Liebl reports on a restaurant in Tokyo that features robotic female torsos on giant mech-legs, operated by women in bikinis. His article includes a live link to the original picture album on The Chive. It also Includes a short youtube video of a man tinkering with one of the robots.
This article is included here because it's an example of Japan's well-known quirkiness, something that I find utterly fascinating.
Back To Top
Closing
Tomorrow, join me for Pt. 1 of All-Request August, featuring a search for the superb in Plan 9 From Outer Space!
Back To Top
Bennett describes the contents of the "Deco Japan: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920-45" exhibition and gives a brief history, explanation, and context of the movement in Japan. However, Bennett doesn't include what the remaining two stops of the exhibition are or for how much longer the exhibition will be staying at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Bennett writes in the style of an informative account of visiting the exhibition.
This article is included because of the obscurity of its subject matter - I had no idea that there was a significant and culture-changing art movement in Japan after World War I and during World War II.
2. Elwood, Kate. "CULTURAL CONUNDRUMS/Cultural facets of Cupid's arrow." Daily Yomiuri Online 30 July 2012. Web. 2 August 2012.
Elwood gives a history of Japanese romance novels, including how they "blossomed out of Western seeds" in the 70s and 80s, and how Sanrio started its "New Romance" line for domestically written romances in 1982. She also summarizes a comparative study of Western harlequin and Japanese romance stories written during the 70s and 80s. According to the study, the most marked differences found in Japanese romance novels are that female leads are generally stronger, and that the hardships involve social restrictions that keep love from being widely accepted rather than love itself.
This article is included here because because it gives a good look at the differences in the romance genre, and thus in two cultures romantic ideals.
3. Liebl, Lance. "Giant dancing Japanese robot women in bras will be the end of us." GameZone 27 July 2012. Web. 2 August 2012.
Liebl reports on a restaurant in Tokyo that features robotic female torsos on giant mech-legs, operated by women in bikinis. His article includes a live link to the original picture album on The Chive. It also Includes a short youtube video of a man tinkering with one of the robots.
This article is included here because it's an example of Japan's well-known quirkiness, something that I find utterly fascinating.
Back To Top
Closing
Tomorrow, join me for Pt. 1 of All-Request August, featuring a search for the superb in Plan 9 From Outer Space!
Back To Top
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
[Wōdnes-dæg] Fantastic Fantasy and the Grit of Popularity
Introduction
The Article Summed Up
Fantasy and Cynicism...Hand in Hand?
The More Names, the More Things
Closing
Back To Top
Introduction
The subject of today's editorial comes from the website Fantasy Faction - a site that hosts articles, interviews, reviews, forums, and a podcast that are all about the fantasy genre.
This article by Douglas Smith caught my eye because it attempts to explain the current trend away from "classic" tales of black-and-white good versus evil in modern popular fantasy. The article also grabbed my attention because it speaks to the variety that can be found in the fantasy genre.
These elements aren't just interesting, but are also quite relevant to me since I'm in the midst of writing my own fantasy universe into existence.
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
In his article Douglas Smith notes the growing popularity and presence of gritty, realistic fantasy and tries to explain it.
Quite deftly Smith looks at the trends in entertainment more generally, and concludes that what we watch and read to relax as a whole has become grittier as the world around us has changed into something a bit grittier, too.
Gone are the days of massively popular soap operas and police procedurals, and now things are more about characters so real we might bump into them on the street and involve plots so intricate that it's as easy to become entangled as it is to become immersed.
Smith concludes with the statements that writers of gritty fantasy are reinvigorating the genre, that it's cool to read fantasy again, and that this might just be "a second 'Golden Age' for fantasy."
Back To Top
Fantasy and Cynicism...Hand in Hand?
As far as its explanation of why gritty fantasy is now popular goes, this is a great article.
The world certainly has changed, and, as those of older generations have said from time immemorial, it may actually be worse off (in some ways). Technological advances aside, events like "9/11" have made people more readily dubious of others and paranoid enough that fear could now be considered a small animal living in most people's heads as much as a human emotion.
Older stories that follow a straightforward plot and shimmering, clean-cut characters are definitely no longer enough to put this animal to sleep for a time so that the human host can truly enjoy an escape.
Instead, worlds and characters need more depth. In fact, this might be an analogue to the extra cynicism in a lot of people's worldviews. Just as more scrutiny and attention is paid to the real world and goings-on therein, so too in entertainment are characters and plots under more and more scrutiny.
The best way to meet that scrutiny, so far, has been to present things that are more layered and more like the world that can be seen all around. Instead of escaping into worlds that contrast the real one, the increasing popularity of gritty fantasy suggests that people are more willing to escape into worlds that are like their own.
Back To Top
The More Names, the More Things
Another factor to consider when looking the rise in gritty fantasy is the ever-increasing drive to categorize literature and entertainment. Particularly, the urge to separate the "adult" literature from the "children's" literature.
Both fantasy and science fiction have always been perceived as children's literature.
They aren't set in the real, contemporary world.
They aren't written by those who aspire to write capital-L literature.
But at the same time, there have always been adults who enjoy fantasy and science fiction more than other forms of not-true stories. These adults would read Frank L. Baum, they would flip through Asimov, they would delve into the world of the Harry Potter series.
At times these stories, labelled as being for "children," would be adapted into re-tellings or versions that were more "grown-up," and at other times they would be distributed with darker, more "adult" covers. Anything to appeal more directly to those who were outside of the original key age demographic but nonetheless liked what they read for whatever reason.
Enter gritty, realistic fantasy.
Just like that, there's now a fantasy sub-genre for adults, those who'd been generally perceived as "too old" for stories about magic, heroes and villains, Good and Evil. And where there is a supply to fill a hitherto unfulfilled demand that supply will soon prove insufficient.
After all, give something a new, more specific name, and those previously too shy to admit to liking that something under it's old, general name (let's say fantasy) will come out and help push demand even further.
Back To Top
Closing
Don't miss tomorrow's Annotated Links (#13), and keep an eye out on Friday for the first part of All-Request August, featuring a search for the superb in Plan 9 From Outer Space!
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
Fantasy and Cynicism...Hand in Hand?
The More Names, the More Things
Closing
 |
Back To Top
Introduction
The subject of today's editorial comes from the website Fantasy Faction - a site that hosts articles, interviews, reviews, forums, and a podcast that are all about the fantasy genre.
This article by Douglas Smith caught my eye because it attempts to explain the current trend away from "classic" tales of black-and-white good versus evil in modern popular fantasy. The article also grabbed my attention because it speaks to the variety that can be found in the fantasy genre.
These elements aren't just interesting, but are also quite relevant to me since I'm in the midst of writing my own fantasy universe into existence.
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
In his article Douglas Smith notes the growing popularity and presence of gritty, realistic fantasy and tries to explain it.
Quite deftly Smith looks at the trends in entertainment more generally, and concludes that what we watch and read to relax as a whole has become grittier as the world around us has changed into something a bit grittier, too.
Gone are the days of massively popular soap operas and police procedurals, and now things are more about characters so real we might bump into them on the street and involve plots so intricate that it's as easy to become entangled as it is to become immersed.
Smith concludes with the statements that writers of gritty fantasy are reinvigorating the genre, that it's cool to read fantasy again, and that this might just be "a second 'Golden Age' for fantasy."
Back To Top
Fantasy and Cynicism...Hand in Hand?
As far as its explanation of why gritty fantasy is now popular goes, this is a great article.
The world certainly has changed, and, as those of older generations have said from time immemorial, it may actually be worse off (in some ways). Technological advances aside, events like "9/11" have made people more readily dubious of others and paranoid enough that fear could now be considered a small animal living in most people's heads as much as a human emotion.
Older stories that follow a straightforward plot and shimmering, clean-cut characters are definitely no longer enough to put this animal to sleep for a time so that the human host can truly enjoy an escape.
Instead, worlds and characters need more depth. In fact, this might be an analogue to the extra cynicism in a lot of people's worldviews. Just as more scrutiny and attention is paid to the real world and goings-on therein, so too in entertainment are characters and plots under more and more scrutiny.
The best way to meet that scrutiny, so far, has been to present things that are more layered and more like the world that can be seen all around. Instead of escaping into worlds that contrast the real one, the increasing popularity of gritty fantasy suggests that people are more willing to escape into worlds that are like their own.
Back To Top
The More Names, the More Things
Another factor to consider when looking the rise in gritty fantasy is the ever-increasing drive to categorize literature and entertainment. Particularly, the urge to separate the "adult" literature from the "children's" literature.
Both fantasy and science fiction have always been perceived as children's literature.
They aren't set in the real, contemporary world.
They aren't written by those who aspire to write capital-L literature.
But at the same time, there have always been adults who enjoy fantasy and science fiction more than other forms of not-true stories. These adults would read Frank L. Baum, they would flip through Asimov, they would delve into the world of the Harry Potter series.
At times these stories, labelled as being for "children," would be adapted into re-tellings or versions that were more "grown-up," and at other times they would be distributed with darker, more "adult" covers. Anything to appeal more directly to those who were outside of the original key age demographic but nonetheless liked what they read for whatever reason.
Enter gritty, realistic fantasy.
Just like that, there's now a fantasy sub-genre for adults, those who'd been generally perceived as "too old" for stories about magic, heroes and villains, Good and Evil. And where there is a supply to fill a hitherto unfulfilled demand that supply will soon prove insufficient.
After all, give something a new, more specific name, and those previously too shy to admit to liking that something under it's old, general name (let's say fantasy) will come out and help push demand even further.
Back To Top
Closing
Don't miss tomorrow's Annotated Links (#13), and keep an eye out on Friday for the first part of All-Request August, featuring a search for the superb in Plan 9 From Outer Space!
Back To Top
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
[Wōdnes-dæg] The E-Book Shades and the English Classics
Introduction
The Article Summed Up
A Classical Fixation?
Fan-Fiction and a Possible Future
Closing
Back To Top
Introduction
Fifty Shades of Grey and its sequels are exploding all over the internet. Though some might be too shy to buy it from brick and mortar stores, they will soon be able to use convincing cover stories when buying other racy reads.
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
In today's Globe and Mail, Russell Smith reports on Total E-Bound's announced e-book series of re-vamped literary classics.
These re-releases aren't abridged versions, or copies re-written with androids, zombies, or werewolves (that's all been done, after all), but instead will have "graphic sex scenes" added to them. Rightfully so, this series of e-books will be called "Clandestine Classics." According to Total E-Bound, the series was planned before Fifty Shades came out.
Smith ultimately regards the re-release of classics with addition prurient bits as positive as it potentially brings new readers to the English classics.
Back To Top
A Classical Fixation?
Smith definitely has a valid point in his closing paragraph. Total E-Bound's altered classics do have the potential to draw new readers to the established classics of English literature. But is that really a good thing?
Some might say that the English classics are horribly under-read nowadays, and as a result the Western world's literacy and taste are slowly slipping. Genre fiction is eroding what was once a great literary tradition.
But what the apparent manipulability of English classics suggests is that they're anything but un-read.
Back around 2009 and 2010 we saw nineteenth century novels re-written with horror and science fiction elements added to them. Now, sex is being explicitly added to them, and they'll be read anew.
At its heart, the desire to see the classics read and thus to add things to them to entice new readers seems like a sound strategy. But, it also seems like sugar is being added to medicine. English classics are considered classical because they speak to various aspects of human nature in a rather direct way, and shed light on much of the foundation of Western society. Yet, there's no end to new books that do the same, both those considered genre fiction, and those considered regular fiction.
And that's where the focus needs to be. Nineteenth century classics are a fine literary cornerstone, but that cornerstone has plenty of sound material built on top of it as well. Why not look up?
Back To Top
Fan-Fiction and a Possible Future
Although Smith only mentions it briefly, fan-fiction, a form that often involves the "a gleeful uncapping of [established] texts’ repressed fountains of desire" merits expansion.
Fifty Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fan-fiction. Many young writers cut their teeth writing fan-fiction under an alias or anonymously. Projects like Total E-Bound's "Clandestine Classics" are definitely a variety of fan-fiction.
Yet, they're obviously something more - most people on fanfiction.net aren't getting paid for their efforts, after all.
And so, the question that we need to ask is: To what extent does the success of Fifty Shades of Grey and the existence of a project like "Clandestine Classics" validate fan-fiction?
Ultimately, though industry-validated fan-fiction might see success and may open for more in the future, the track that some publishers seem to be on now seems dangerous. Re-hashing classics by adding what is essentially fan-fiction portions seems to be a perilous few steps away from going the way of Hollywood and making a senseless number of sequels and re-makes rather than focusing on original ideas.
Though, at the same time, were the mainstream to become more predictable, all of the vibrancy and life that's to be found in genre fiction would get more and more exposure.
Back To Top
Closing
Don't miss tomorrow's Annotated Links #11, or Friday's Nicolas Cage Month finale featuring Seeking Justice! Watch this blog!
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
A Classical Fixation?
Fan-Fiction and a Possible Future
Closing
 |
Back To Top
Introduction
Fifty Shades of Grey and its sequels are exploding all over the internet. Though some might be too shy to buy it from brick and mortar stores, they will soon be able to use convincing cover stories when buying other racy reads.
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
In today's Globe and Mail, Russell Smith reports on Total E-Bound's announced e-book series of re-vamped literary classics.
These re-releases aren't abridged versions, or copies re-written with androids, zombies, or werewolves (that's all been done, after all), but instead will have "graphic sex scenes" added to them. Rightfully so, this series of e-books will be called "Clandestine Classics." According to Total E-Bound, the series was planned before Fifty Shades came out.
Smith ultimately regards the re-release of classics with addition prurient bits as positive as it potentially brings new readers to the English classics.
Back To Top
A Classical Fixation?
Smith definitely has a valid point in his closing paragraph. Total E-Bound's altered classics do have the potential to draw new readers to the established classics of English literature. But is that really a good thing?
Some might say that the English classics are horribly under-read nowadays, and as a result the Western world's literacy and taste are slowly slipping. Genre fiction is eroding what was once a great literary tradition.
But what the apparent manipulability of English classics suggests is that they're anything but un-read.
Back around 2009 and 2010 we saw nineteenth century novels re-written with horror and science fiction elements added to them. Now, sex is being explicitly added to them, and they'll be read anew.
At its heart, the desire to see the classics read and thus to add things to them to entice new readers seems like a sound strategy. But, it also seems like sugar is being added to medicine. English classics are considered classical because they speak to various aspects of human nature in a rather direct way, and shed light on much of the foundation of Western society. Yet, there's no end to new books that do the same, both those considered genre fiction, and those considered regular fiction.
And that's where the focus needs to be. Nineteenth century classics are a fine literary cornerstone, but that cornerstone has plenty of sound material built on top of it as well. Why not look up?
Back To Top
Fan-Fiction and a Possible Future
Although Smith only mentions it briefly, fan-fiction, a form that often involves the "a gleeful uncapping of [established] texts’ repressed fountains of desire" merits expansion.
Fifty Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fan-fiction. Many young writers cut their teeth writing fan-fiction under an alias or anonymously. Projects like Total E-Bound's "Clandestine Classics" are definitely a variety of fan-fiction.
Yet, they're obviously something more - most people on fanfiction.net aren't getting paid for their efforts, after all.
And so, the question that we need to ask is: To what extent does the success of Fifty Shades of Grey and the existence of a project like "Clandestine Classics" validate fan-fiction?
Ultimately, though industry-validated fan-fiction might see success and may open for more in the future, the track that some publishers seem to be on now seems dangerous. Re-hashing classics by adding what is essentially fan-fiction portions seems to be a perilous few steps away from going the way of Hollywood and making a senseless number of sequels and re-makes rather than focusing on original ideas.
Though, at the same time, were the mainstream to become more predictable, all of the vibrancy and life that's to be found in genre fiction would get more and more exposure.
Back To Top
Closing
Don't miss tomorrow's Annotated Links #11, or Friday's Nicolas Cage Month finale featuring Seeking Justice! Watch this blog!
Back To Top
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
[Wōdnes-dæg] Crowdsourcing + Crowdfunding = Novel?
Introduction
The Article Summed Up
A Novel Form of Community?
A Return to Crowd-Sourcing Stories
Closing
Back To Top
Introduction
While getting through the newspaper backlog resulting from a five day absence, I stumbled upon an article on the front page of the Arts section of Tuesday's Globe and Mail.
Immediately, the headline "Please write his book" caught my eye, and I knew that it had to be the subject of this week's editorial (beating out an article from Monday's paper about the usefulness of drones for Arctic "surveillance and sovereignty").
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
Daniel Perlmutter, a filmmaker and writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is not only crowdfunding his first novel, but he's crowdsourcing it as well.
However, instead of offering incentives like copies of the book, or special objects related to its creation, he's instead offering different elements of the novel itself. For 1000$, in fact, a backer can tell Perlmutter how the book ends.
Despite the hodgepodge of responses that this approach is likely to generate, Perlmutter has said "no matter what the project ends up being, it's going to be comedic in nature, just because of the very process."
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A Novel Form of Community?
First and foremost Perlmutter definitely deserves notoriety. Undoubtedly many people have tried to crowdfund their writing in the past (possibly even offering similar incentives), but that it's happening (again?) is great news.
A video game is something that can provide great entertainment and can tell excellent stories.
A piece of music or an album is something that can create a great atmosphere or provoke deep thoughts.
A piece of art or a graphic novel can plunge the depths of human experience and present what was found at its nadir in an easily digestible form that may just be as deep as the experience itself.
All of these media are represented on sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but books seem like hard sells on these sorts of platforms.
If something goes wrong with a piece of art, music, or digital entertainment, there are options. Art can be hung and forgotten, or accumulate value. Music can be passively enjoyed or remixed into something else. Video games that fail to deliver can be lampooned or re-made into something else.
But if a book fails to deliver, the disappointment can be palpable.
But that's where Perlmutter's project shines.
The success of so many crowdfunding projects hasn't come entirely from the promise of what was ultimately to be delivered, but because they pulled on the heartstrings of a community (thereby loosening its purse strings).
And that's exactly what Perlmutter's project does - it turns the creation of a novel from something solitary into something communal. Again, something done before, but with the power of the internet, the reach and grasp of such a project are greatly increased.
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A Return to Crowd-Sourcing Stories
Truly fascinating about Perlmutter's novel-to-be, though, is that crowdsourcing a work of fiction might just be the oldest way of making works of fiction.
Oral traditions, though often passed from generation to generation with the utmost care, would definitely have been subjected to additions or subtractions based on what the group performed for wanted (the original perhaps privately retained by the singer or maybe kept in a more occult tradition). And adjusting material to the desires of an audience is something that every successful artist does.
Thus, Perlmutter's project, and any others like it, are strange examples of some of the oldest reasons for crowdsourcing stories being brought into the internet age.
There might not be a campfire, and there may not be anyone in the audience who could lop off a head for a line that goes amiss, but the project definitely speaks to the human desire for community and for stories.
Back To Top
Closing
Tomorrow, another set of annotated links will be posted, and on Friday watch for the search for the good in The Season of the Witch, part two of Nicolas Cage month.
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The Article Summed Up
A Novel Form of Community?
A Return to Crowd-Sourcing Stories
Closing
 |
Back To Top
Introduction
While getting through the newspaper backlog resulting from a five day absence, I stumbled upon an article on the front page of the Arts section of Tuesday's Globe and Mail.
Immediately, the headline "Please write his book" caught my eye, and I knew that it had to be the subject of this week's editorial (beating out an article from Monday's paper about the usefulness of drones for Arctic "surveillance and sovereignty").
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
Daniel Perlmutter, a filmmaker and writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is not only crowdfunding his first novel, but he's crowdsourcing it as well.
However, instead of offering incentives like copies of the book, or special objects related to its creation, he's instead offering different elements of the novel itself. For 1000$, in fact, a backer can tell Perlmutter how the book ends.
Despite the hodgepodge of responses that this approach is likely to generate, Perlmutter has said "no matter what the project ends up being, it's going to be comedic in nature, just because of the very process."
Back To Top
A Novel Form of Community?
First and foremost Perlmutter definitely deserves notoriety. Undoubtedly many people have tried to crowdfund their writing in the past (possibly even offering similar incentives), but that it's happening (again?) is great news.
A video game is something that can provide great entertainment and can tell excellent stories.
A piece of music or an album is something that can create a great atmosphere or provoke deep thoughts.
A piece of art or a graphic novel can plunge the depths of human experience and present what was found at its nadir in an easily digestible form that may just be as deep as the experience itself.
All of these media are represented on sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but books seem like hard sells on these sorts of platforms.
If something goes wrong with a piece of art, music, or digital entertainment, there are options. Art can be hung and forgotten, or accumulate value. Music can be passively enjoyed or remixed into something else. Video games that fail to deliver can be lampooned or re-made into something else.
But if a book fails to deliver, the disappointment can be palpable.
But that's where Perlmutter's project shines.
The success of so many crowdfunding projects hasn't come entirely from the promise of what was ultimately to be delivered, but because they pulled on the heartstrings of a community (thereby loosening its purse strings).
And that's exactly what Perlmutter's project does - it turns the creation of a novel from something solitary into something communal. Again, something done before, but with the power of the internet, the reach and grasp of such a project are greatly increased.
Back To Top
A Return to Crowd-Sourcing Stories
Truly fascinating about Perlmutter's novel-to-be, though, is that crowdsourcing a work of fiction might just be the oldest way of making works of fiction.
Oral traditions, though often passed from generation to generation with the utmost care, would definitely have been subjected to additions or subtractions based on what the group performed for wanted (the original perhaps privately retained by the singer or maybe kept in a more occult tradition). And adjusting material to the desires of an audience is something that every successful artist does.
Thus, Perlmutter's project, and any others like it, are strange examples of some of the oldest reasons for crowdsourcing stories being brought into the internet age.
There might not be a campfire, and there may not be anyone in the audience who could lop off a head for a line that goes amiss, but the project definitely speaks to the human desire for community and for stories.
Back To Top
Closing
Tomorrow, another set of annotated links will be posted, and on Friday watch for the search for the good in The Season of the Witch, part two of Nicolas Cage month.
Back To Top
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
[Wōdnes-dæg] Books with Amazing Argentinian Fading Ink
Introduction
The Article Summed Up
The Power of Mystical Emptiness
New Bounds for an old Medium
Closing
Back To Top
Introduction
Last week's editorial was all about the mainstream acknowledgement of ebooks and indie authors.
This week, we take two steps back from the fore of technology and then one toward it.
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
According to Tecca over at Y! Tech (a division of Yahoo News), an Argentine publishing house called Eterna Cadencia is creating books that will not outlast their authors or readers.
It’s not that these books are poorly constructed - quite the opposite in fact.
Using a new ink technology, developed by the ad agency Draftfcb, the Argentine publisher is going to be printing books with short-lived ink. Apparently, these books will fade into illegibility two months after they’ve been opened and exposed to light and air.
However, the publisher isn’t going to be doing this with all of their books, only with collections of new authors’ work. A move that might just help to give them the captive audience that all new writers need.
Back To Top
The Power of Mystical Emptiness
Although the article closes with a point about the fading ink gimmick only working if people can be convinced to buy “books that'll end up as fancy bound paper within just a couple of months[,]” this might also be the gimmick’s greatest strength.
Many people are reluctant to write in books that they cherish or thoroughly enjoy reading. And rightly so, there’s something special about a book - an inanimate object populated with ink splotches shaped into an old alphabet - that can make you feel or think things that you might otherwise not feel or think.
But what if that book went blank?
Would the book still hold the significance that it did for you while the story was still within? And, if it did, mightn’t that inspire some people to try their hand at writing using their since faded book?
The cost of these fading books, assuming that they’ll be priced at just a little bit more than a standard paperback or hardcover, might be a barrier to their success. But, if Moleskine notebooks can be sold for an exorbitant price based on a link to Ernest Hemmingway, Oscar Wilde, and Vincent Van Gogh, then why wouldn’t these eventually blank books have the same level of mystique?
In a way, they might even have more because they will have actually held what a revered and enjoyed author wrote rather than just having been used by him or her when he or she was alive.
Printing books with fading ink might not be a practice that will catch on for the classics, but it definitely could lead to some interesting stuff down the line for new authors.
Back To Top
New Bounds for an old Medium
Perhaps this gimmick will become something more than a response to ebooks and will lead to a cross between the two, possibly leading to something like the journey book from Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series.
Or, getting more specific, maybe the idea of disappearing ink will seep into the digital world and lead to some kind of technology that lets fans write directly to the author via their faded out tomes.
That gimmicks are needed, or at least believed to be needed, to sell paper and ink books might be one of the death knells sounded over the coffin of traditional publishing, but bringing the book into the digital age like this, without any computerization to speak of, is quite a feat, and points to better things ahead for traditional paper and ink publishing.
The question shouldn’t be will people buy books that will essentially become fancy notebooks in two months time, but rather: What will the use of this disappearing ink lead to?
Back To Top
Closing
Be sure to check back here on Friday for the search for the good in Deadfall, part one of Nicolas Cage month. Plus, don't miss tomorrow's annotated links!
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
The Power of Mystical Emptiness
New Bounds for an old Medium
Closing
 |
Back To Top
Introduction
Last week's editorial was all about the mainstream acknowledgement of ebooks and indie authors.
This week, we take two steps back from the fore of technology and then one toward it.
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
According to Tecca over at Y! Tech (a division of Yahoo News), an Argentine publishing house called Eterna Cadencia is creating books that will not outlast their authors or readers.
It’s not that these books are poorly constructed - quite the opposite in fact.
Using a new ink technology, developed by the ad agency Draftfcb, the Argentine publisher is going to be printing books with short-lived ink. Apparently, these books will fade into illegibility two months after they’ve been opened and exposed to light and air.
However, the publisher isn’t going to be doing this with all of their books, only with collections of new authors’ work. A move that might just help to give them the captive audience that all new writers need.
Back To Top
The Power of Mystical Emptiness
Although the article closes with a point about the fading ink gimmick only working if people can be convinced to buy “books that'll end up as fancy bound paper within just a couple of months[,]” this might also be the gimmick’s greatest strength.
Many people are reluctant to write in books that they cherish or thoroughly enjoy reading. And rightly so, there’s something special about a book - an inanimate object populated with ink splotches shaped into an old alphabet - that can make you feel or think things that you might otherwise not feel or think.
But what if that book went blank?
Would the book still hold the significance that it did for you while the story was still within? And, if it did, mightn’t that inspire some people to try their hand at writing using their since faded book?
The cost of these fading books, assuming that they’ll be priced at just a little bit more than a standard paperback or hardcover, might be a barrier to their success. But, if Moleskine notebooks can be sold for an exorbitant price based on a link to Ernest Hemmingway, Oscar Wilde, and Vincent Van Gogh, then why wouldn’t these eventually blank books have the same level of mystique?
In a way, they might even have more because they will have actually held what a revered and enjoyed author wrote rather than just having been used by him or her when he or she was alive.
Printing books with fading ink might not be a practice that will catch on for the classics, but it definitely could lead to some interesting stuff down the line for new authors.
Back To Top
New Bounds for an old Medium
Perhaps this gimmick will become something more than a response to ebooks and will lead to a cross between the two, possibly leading to something like the journey book from Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series.
Or, getting more specific, maybe the idea of disappearing ink will seep into the digital world and lead to some kind of technology that lets fans write directly to the author via their faded out tomes.
That gimmicks are needed, or at least believed to be needed, to sell paper and ink books might be one of the death knells sounded over the coffin of traditional publishing, but bringing the book into the digital age like this, without any computerization to speak of, is quite a feat, and points to better things ahead for traditional paper and ink publishing.
The question shouldn’t be will people buy books that will essentially become fancy notebooks in two months time, but rather: What will the use of this disappearing ink lead to?
Back To Top
Closing
Be sure to check back here on Friday for the search for the good in Deadfall, part one of Nicolas Cage month. Plus, don't miss tomorrow's annotated links!
Back To Top
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
[Wōdnes-dæg] Ebooks: Easing Working as a Writer
Introduction
The Article Summed Up
Not New, But Great
Publishing's Next Stage and Mainstream Acknowledgement
Closing
Back To Top
Introduction
On the front page of the Globe and Mail Arts section of Wednesday 27 June 2012, is an article about a 14,000 word ebook and what it means for journalism, as well as for writers more generally.
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
The article delves into the story behind Paula Todd's ebook about Karla Homolka, Finding Karla. Todd discovered that Homolka has been living in Guadeloupe with three young children, and wanted to get the story out more quickly than the standard months-long magazine publishing schedule permits.
So, she published her story as an ebook with Amazon. It's been in the top 10 list of Kindle Singles since its release on Thursday. Combine that ranking with the price tag of $3, and Todd must be seeing some tidy returns on her three-week, NaNoWriMo-like efforts
Simon Houpt, the article's writer, then goes on to explain and illustrate that this means that writers can take back some of the power - and the profits - that they formerly had to relinquish to publishers. Specifically, he notes that ebooks have helped writers to fight for the electronic rights to their works.
Back To Top
Not New, But Great
This is great news.
Not because it's anything especially new, but because this information's being printed in a high profile newspaper suggests that indie authors can expect to get a little bit more cred in the publishing industry. This is definitely a good thing, since those who take the ebook route are generally painted with a very broad brush previously dipped in a wide, deep pot of scorn by more than a few in the mainstream publishing industry.
Though there are some who might validly argue that along with the market for ebooks, a market for ebook editors needs to be established.
Back To Top
Publishing's Next Stage and Mainstream Acknowledgement
One article is not going to change that entirely, but the acknowledgement of indie authors' successes does suggest that traditional media and those representing it are starting to take ebooks seriously.
Does this mean that indie authors might not be able to add that adjective to their title soon? Likely not.
The printing press made it possible to create multiple copies of a book relatively quickly and cheaply. This meant that more people could put their ideas and stories to paper - hence the propagation of pamphlets and broadsheets and books from the 16th century onwards. But using a press is a process that requires time, special training, and specialized equipment.
E-publishing requires nothing so hard to get and efficiently operate as a printing press. It just requires a computer capable of word processing and connecting to the internet. More and more people are able to say that they have this equipment, and so there are more and more e-books being published on a daily basis.
So many are these e-authors, in fact, that the ebook industry might just be impossible to regulate in the same way as the traditional sort of publishing is with its queries and editors and budget considerations.
So, the "indie" label isn't going anywhere. But just as the case has been with indie musicians going mainstream, the growing recognition of ebooks as a serious alternative source for longer pieces of writing means that it may just get easier for indie authors to go mainstream.
Back To Top
Closing
Check back here on Friday for a hunt for the good in Wrath of the Titans, and tomorrow for another edition of Annotated Links.
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
Not New, But Great
Publishing's Next Stage and Mainstream Acknowledgement
Closing
 |
Back To Top
Introduction
On the front page of the Globe and Mail Arts section of Wednesday 27 June 2012, is an article about a 14,000 word ebook and what it means for journalism, as well as for writers more generally.
Back To Top
The Article Summed Up
The article delves into the story behind Paula Todd's ebook about Karla Homolka, Finding Karla. Todd discovered that Homolka has been living in Guadeloupe with three young children, and wanted to get the story out more quickly than the standard months-long magazine publishing schedule permits.
So, she published her story as an ebook with Amazon. It's been in the top 10 list of Kindle Singles since its release on Thursday. Combine that ranking with the price tag of $3, and Todd must be seeing some tidy returns on her three-week, NaNoWriMo-like efforts
Simon Houpt, the article's writer, then goes on to explain and illustrate that this means that writers can take back some of the power - and the profits - that they formerly had to relinquish to publishers. Specifically, he notes that ebooks have helped writers to fight for the electronic rights to their works.
Back To Top
Not New, But Great
This is great news.
Not because it's anything especially new, but because this information's being printed in a high profile newspaper suggests that indie authors can expect to get a little bit more cred in the publishing industry. This is definitely a good thing, since those who take the ebook route are generally painted with a very broad brush previously dipped in a wide, deep pot of scorn by more than a few in the mainstream publishing industry.
Though there are some who might validly argue that along with the market for ebooks, a market for ebook editors needs to be established.
Back To Top
Publishing's Next Stage and Mainstream Acknowledgement
One article is not going to change that entirely, but the acknowledgement of indie authors' successes does suggest that traditional media and those representing it are starting to take ebooks seriously.
Does this mean that indie authors might not be able to add that adjective to their title soon? Likely not.
The printing press made it possible to create multiple copies of a book relatively quickly and cheaply. This meant that more people could put their ideas and stories to paper - hence the propagation of pamphlets and broadsheets and books from the 16th century onwards. But using a press is a process that requires time, special training, and specialized equipment.
E-publishing requires nothing so hard to get and efficiently operate as a printing press. It just requires a computer capable of word processing and connecting to the internet. More and more people are able to say that they have this equipment, and so there are more and more e-books being published on a daily basis.
So many are these e-authors, in fact, that the ebook industry might just be impossible to regulate in the same way as the traditional sort of publishing is with its queries and editors and budget considerations.
So, the "indie" label isn't going anywhere. But just as the case has been with indie musicians going mainstream, the growing recognition of ebooks as a serious alternative source for longer pieces of writing means that it may just get easier for indie authors to go mainstream.
Back To Top
Closing
Check back here on Friday for a hunt for the good in Wrath of the Titans, and tomorrow for another edition of Annotated Links.
Back To Top
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