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Odds & Ends On The Web: July 7th Edition

7/7/2012

9 Comments

 
Readventurer Odds & Ends on the Web logo
This link is for all of our Australian friends: just click on it. You won’t be sorry.  Also, have we mentioned how much we love you lately?  And that we have like… five different kinds of m&m’s over here?  Maybe even six. Just sayin’.

In related news, we’d just like to mention to our friends in L.A. and NYC that we are all very tidy houseguests, and that July is a great month for hosting visitors. 

The Casual Vacancy cover
Now that that’s out of the way, we can proceed to the most underwhelming news of the week – the cover reveal for J.K. Rowling’s forthcoming book, A Casual Vacancy. I know you want to distance yourself from that wildly popular children’s series, but really? What do you guys think about it? Is it refreshingly different or just boring?

I was both fascinated and terrified by this article – “Your Ebook is Reading You”, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal and was picked up by a few other publishing news outlets. In this new age of ereaders and ebooks, publishers and ebook retailers are gaining more information than ever before on the reading habits of their customers. Massive amounts of data, including the amount of time it takes readers to get through a certain number of pages, which passages they’ve highlighted, and whether they immediately purchased the sequel or not can all be mined from ereaders and ereading apps. From the article:

“Barnes & Noble, which accounts for 25% to 30% of the e-book market through its Nook e-reader, has recently started studying customers' digital reading behavior. Data collected from Nooks reveals, for example, how far readers get in particular books, how quickly they read and how readers of particular genres engage with books. Jim Hilt, the company's vice president of e-books, says the company is starting to share their insights with publishers to help them create books that better hold people's attention.”

Of course, Google, Amazon, Kobo, and many other publishers/retailers are also getting in on this game. Coliloquy, a small publishing company, has even released interactive ebooks where readers can choose which aspects they enjoy the most (for example, which love interest they’d like the hero/heroine to be with). That data is then sent to an author, who uses it to inform the rest of the series.

John Green also writes, in an interview with USA Today this week:

“There is a lot of talk in publishing these days that we need to become more like the Internet: We need to make books for short attention spans with bells and whistles — books, in short, that are as much like Angry Birds as possible. But I think that's a terrible idea.”

Creepy stuff, and I have to admit that there’s a part of me that feels that same “death of literature” outcry rising up – you know, the one that I openly mocked the last time I wrote an Odds & Ends post (payback is a bitch, Catie!).  

Margaret Atwood is a badass
Badass.
However, I’m pretty sure that publishers have been putting out clichéd, repetitive books in the attempt to hook readers for decades and I doubt that adding in a few “like” buttons will change that very much. And it turns out that even Charles Dickens responded to market research, of a sort. Margaret Atwood, who recently joined the online writing community Wattpad, “to encourage young writers” (as if we needed any more evidence that she’s a complete badass), writes in an interview with The Guardian: 

"This is nothing new. [It's] simply being reinvented by the internet... The Pickwick Papers was published serially and people would respond to the chapters by letter. That's why Sam Weller became such a big part of the book."

Great literature will always be produced, but I do wonder if this (among other things) will further encourage authors to self-publish or go with smaller publishers. It will be exciting to see how this massive shift in publishing plays out over the next decade.

Angry Robot will also soon be experimenting with a new business plan to help support indie book sellers: customers who purchase a print copy of an Angry Robot book from an indie seller will be able to download the ebook for free.

And some other examples that creativity and great literature are not dead:

Kristin Cashore gives a wonderful interview over at The New York Times – I personally loved how many questions she refused to answer (but what’s up with that crazy illustration of her face?!).

Tamora Pierce loves and reviews Seraphina by Rachel Hartman over at omnivoracious.

And just because it’s awesome, here’s a very comprehensive list of non-European fantasy written by women from The Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf and Book Review.

Have a great weekend!  

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9 Comments
Amy @ Turn the Page link
7/7/2012 06:51:57 am

I love Harry Potter (although I've found they don't read so well now I'm older) but I haven't been particularly interested in her new book. As time goes on, I'm even less so. The blurb sounds boring. The cover is both boring and badly designed. She may have a trick up her sleeve, but it very much sounds like the books my mother reads that I dislike, Miss Marple etc.

Reply
Tatiana (The Readventurer) link
7/7/2012 07:34:17 am

I am not sure if JKR's name wasn't on the cover anyone would be interested in picking that book up. This absolutely bland cover says nothing of its content...

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Audrey link
7/7/2012 07:36:27 am

OOH Kristin Cashore AND JG interview? YAY thanks for the post!

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Kate C. link
7/7/2012 09:46:25 am

OMG, if Tamora Pierce ever said nice things about my books I would DIE of happiness! Yay for Rachel, she's such a cool person. I look forward to reading her book.

I kind of agree with John Green, but aren't comic books kind of like the Angry Birds of books? I read comics, but they aren't the same as a real novel. I don't think we have to worry about the ruination of literature as we know it.

Reply
Kate C.
7/7/2012 09:47:13 am

BTW- The Kristin Cashore interview links to the second page. In case you care.

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Catie (The Readventurer) link
7/7/2012 10:25:30 am

Thanks Kate! Nice catch.

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Maja
7/8/2012 12:46:08 am

Is that the cover for Casual Vacancy? Really? All that money and she coudn't afford a better one? :D Kidding, but man, it's boring. I almost fell asleep just from looking at it.
Another great post, Catie! I wouldn't know the first thing about what's going on if not for you, guys. Life is boring under my rock.
Ohh, and The Scrubs video was a nice touch. ;)

Reply
VeganYANerds link
7/8/2012 07:04:39 pm

I'm going to email you about Quintana ;)

As soon as I saw 'payback is a bitch' I thought "I KNOW WHAT THAT IS!!" and then I clicked it and clapped along. Scrubs makes me happy :)

I really enjoyed Kristin's interview especially "My favorite genre is Beautifully Written Books of Any Genre", that was a very entertaining interview!

Reply
Rosa
7/8/2012 11:40:37 pm

Of tangential interest: The illustration accompanying Kristin Cashore's interview is by Jillian Tamaki, the artist behind the excellent YA graphic novel 'Skim' http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2418888.Skim

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