Oh the drama this week! First was the dustup over bad reviews on Goodreads, and then Wikipedia and Google went dark to protest SOPA, and as if that wasn’t enough, I went bawling all over the interwebs. TGIF, right?
So. The Goodreads thing. The Guardian does a good job of summing up the kerfuffle. I’m surprised this kind of thing is still happening. Did authors/editors/agents learn nothing from all the previous online bitch-fests over bad reviews? Alice Hoffman anyone?
On Wednesday, Wikipedia, Google, and others went dark in protest over SOPA. The Stop Online Piracy Act being debated in the House is backed by Hollywood, overwrought over people watching illegal movie copies. But the legislation could hold companies responsible for user uploads even if they don’t realize it’s pirated content. Here’s the lowdown. The protest worked. By afternoon, people were already beginning to buckle.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that ebooks experienced a major boom in 2011. Among the beneficiaries is Sourcebooks. Ebooks now represent 28% of their revenue. Their ebooks also increased by 795% last year. No, that’s not a typo.
From Jane Friedman, more ebook stats with a handy graph. Oooh, look at the pretty colors!
Ileene Smith moves to Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Update the contact info on those writer’s market books you purchased for 2012.
Dav Pilkey promises elementary-school devotees another CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS book. Will I be able to keep my little guys away? I think not.
Back in April ’10 William Kamkwamba‘s THE BOY WHO HARNESSSED THE WIND was the first ebook I borrowed from the library. Now there’s a kid’s version. Yay!
Heard of WIMPY KID? Sure. But have you heard of ZOMBIE KID? Can you say lawsuit?
The Scott O’Dell Awards honors Jack Gantos’ DEAD END IN NORVELT. Some say it’s not historical fiction-y enough. I say, so what?
Not necessarily writing news, but we writers tend to be solitary types who understand there’s good in being alone.
And we soothe the drama with some apple pie… the company Apple… publishing’s pie. I’ve been saying for years that this is the next frontier in educational publishing, so I’m glad it’s here. More on the iBooks 2 app.
Finally… they all fall down…
Tracey Baptiste 