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Odds & Ends On The Web: June 9th Edition

6/9/2012

8 Comments

 
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We were saddened to hear of the passing of science fiction legend Ray Bradbury this week. Some of our favorite authors wrote about their memories of him: Neil Gaiman wrote a piece for The Guardian and Margaret Atwood was interviewed about him at The Globe and Mail. She also wrote a piece for The Guardian.  One of our favorite bloggers, Kelly from Stacked, wrote about him over at The Hub.  We’d also like to share this wonderful video, which shows Ray Bradbury speaking on a panel at a 1971 NASA symposium.

He was truly a visionary and a wonderful human being and he will be missed.

Last week, we participated in The Armchair Audies and blogged about our predictions for the mystery category.  Well, the results are in this week and we were wrong, wrong wrong!  The Audie for the mystery category went to… Feast Day of Fools by James Lee Burke. Tina Fey also cleaned up, winning both audiobook of the year and best memoir/biography for Bossypants. We were also excited that Libba Bray won for best author narration in Beauty Queens. And our egos were slightly soothed by Katherine Kellgren’s win in the teen category, for her narration of The Wake of the Lorelei Lee by L.A. Meyer.

Audiobook sync is once again offering two free audiobook downloads for each week of this summer, including Anna Dressed in Blood (July 5th) and Daughter of Smoke and Bone, the Audie winner for the fantasy category (August 2nd).

And of course the big news this week which invaded all of our twitter and blog feeds was BEA. (Elsewhere in the world, gamers squeed in frightening unison about various news from E3. Book nerds paid no mind.) Both Dear Author and The Book Smugglers wrote excellent recaps of the event.

Tor/Forge announced that it will be opening a DRM-free ebook store. This article discusses why they are committed to going DRM-free: “The group talked about why going DRM-free improves author/reader relationships, strengthens relationships between publishers and retailers, and does not encourage piracy.” IPG (Independent Publishers Group) also announced that it will give its member publishers the option to produce DRM-free ebooks.  We hope to see this become a trend with major publishing companies.

A few thought-provoking articles this week: 

Maureen Johnson writes about the pros and cons (mainly the cons) of hosting or participating in blog tours.  Obviously, we don’t have a problem with blog tours since we participated in one, but she does have a lot of good points. I personally (Catie) think she might be onto something when she says that they might be a good idea for new authors, but not so much for established ones. What are your thoughts?

Gabrielle Prendergast writes about the last taboo of young adult novels and Sarah from Clear Eyes Full Shelves writes about “guilty pleasure” reads.

Would you like to become a real life gunter? Ernest Cline is offering up a 1981 Delorean to the fan dedicated and obsessed enough to locate the easter egg that he’s hidden in both the hardcover and paperback editions of his book Ready Player One. Once found, the easter egg (which is apparently a url) will lead you to the first of three increasingly difficult video game challenges!  

The world outside of books was kind of depressing this week, but it was brightened a bit by DC Comics' announcement that the original Green Lantern will be re-introduced in an alternate universe as a gay character.  Read what they had to say about it; it's kind of awesome!

A bunch of trailers for film adaptations of books have come out recently, which of course will probably inspire a few Book vs. Movie posts when they release later this year. Which ones are you all looking forward to seeing? And which ones are you dreading?

That's all for this week!  Stop by and let us know what was happening in your corner of the world!
8 Comments
Tatiana (The Readventurer) link
6/9/2012 01:00:51 am

I quite agree with Maureen about blog tours. They might be a better idea for less known authors. But at the same time, I think blog tours, if done well and with thought, are a great way for even popular authors to connect with their fans. Once in awhile.

Reply
Heidi link
6/9/2012 02:16:42 am

Tatiana summed up my exact thoughts quite nicely! I've only participated in one tour myself, but have another one coming up at the end of the month. I'm more than happy to do this for books that I genuinely enjoyed, especially when the authors don't have a huge name and this really might be how some readers find them. Sometimes they do get boring or repetitive though. I enjoy author interviews, but I'm not going to read 10 in a row. I prefer when authors get the opportunity to discuss very different things at each stop.

Okay, next! SO excited for Sync's list this summer, I just finished writing up a post about it for Monday. =)

Also because I hadn't actually seen The Hobbit trailer before just now: a;lsdkfja;sldijf;alsdkfj;aslkdfj <---that's me incredibly excited.

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Flannery (The Readventurer) link
6/9/2012 03:28:55 am

That's how I feel about blog tours as well. There are several reasons we've only done the one so far. I don't want to read tons of content on the same thing over and over. And posts like character interviews, while sometimes interesting are not really helpful to people unfamiliar with the book or the author. I much prefer if the blogs/author put more thought into it and try to make it something novel.

The one point I disagree with in Johnson's post is about readership. Sure, very small blogs might not be the best platform to do blog tours with BUT some smaller blogs do a wonderful job with SEO so that blog tour posts will be earlier on in certain search strings with the author's name in them. I know that we get a few hits a week from random people searching for the author we did a blog tour for. That post doesn't disappear. I guess I consider us a "medium-size" blog, but that's just my two cents on the matter.

I am so flipping excited for Sync's list, too!

Reply
Jasprit link
6/9/2012 09:26:04 pm

Wow this weeks news seems chocker block! Thanks for the heads up on the free audiobook sync audios I still haven't listened to an audiobook so this will be the perfect opportunity to do so! And yay for Tor setting up a free DRM-free ebook store! :)

Reply
Pocketful of Books link
6/9/2012 09:59:48 pm

Ahhh thanks so much for the link to the Maureen Johnson article- so interesting! I read it and really saw where she was coming from. I think some authors definitely spread themselves too thin and don't actually have any time for writing new books! I think once you are established you should let the books speak for themselves! x

Reply
Maja link
6/11/2012 12:25:15 am

I've spent this past week under a rock, or more precisely, under a blanket with a fever, so I had no idea that Ray Bradbury died. I only saw it yesterday when I came to read your post, and I'm still slightly in shock.
I agree with pretty much everything Maureen Johnson wrote. I only participated in two tours: one was Preloved, same as you, and the other for a self-published author who is kind of a friend. They do tend to be very repetitive, but they have their advantages too, for the blog, I mean.

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Missie link
6/11/2012 01:58:45 am

Thanks for the info on Audiobook Sync! Can't wait to grab those titles and more.

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Maggie, Young Adult Anonymous link
6/11/2012 01:57:12 pm

So... I wept during the Les Mis trailer. BUT that's also because I Dreamed A Dream is the song I played on repeat when my Spurs were eliminated by the goddamn Thunder. "But there are dreams that cannot be / And there are storms we cannot weather." SOB.

Wait, what were we talking about before my mental health was being questioned? Oh yeah, Richard Armitage in The Hobbit!

We just participated in our first blog tour, which was really fun thanks to the author, but I kind of agree with Maureen's points. To piggyback on not wanting to spam people with links, this is a problem with regular blog posts. Since YESTERDAY, I've seen one blogger tweet a link to his/her review (and not even a super special blog tour post) over 10 times. I think 3 is acceptable, 5 is pushing it but I won't unfollow you, TEN?! You're officially spam and I'm calling for a plague on your house. Non-lethal, of course.

Anyway, this is me, whole assing. I promise though that this is the longest comment I'll ever leave on your site!

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