Since I’m hard at work writing and editing this week, with little time to blog, here’s some links to interesting articles about various recent happenings in the publishing arena:
The big one that has people talking: Amazon to begin publishing original books, starting with a fall slate of 122 titles. This move cuts out publishers entirely, but how can they respond when they’re so dependant on Amazon?
Also getting a lot of buzz: the National Book Award’s initial goof and subsequent bungling with Lauren Myracle’s SHINE. Vanity Fair has a fantastic interview with Lauren about the whole incident which is worth a read.
In the manga arena: Viz Media is taking their weekly Shonen Jump magazine to a purely digital format, a move that has some people celebrating (as a step towards getting an already-online audience into the habit of paying for their digital content) and others concerned. Chris Butcher has a pretty insightful commentary on why the Shonen Jump digital move is possibly bad, not just for comic shops but for the industry as a whole.
From Little Island Comics, a great list of five kid-friendly Halloween comic titles, just in time for the spooky season! Little Island Comics will be running some special events over the Halloween weekend (Oct 29-30), including how-to comic workshops with local creator Tory Woolcott and free comics for costumed kiddies. They’re also selling special packs of Halloween give-away comics – our house has been giving out comics along with candy for a few years now, and it makes us the most popular trick-or-treat stop on the block!
And for writers: some fabulous advice from Ali Luke about How to Finish What You Start. Personally, I am prone to #1 (starting new projects while others remain incomplete) and #5 (not setting enough milestones during a project to keep me on track) – what about you?
