HarperCollins Closes Two Warehouses – in Scranton, PA and Nashville, TN. In case you are wondering this includes the Thomas Nelson Publishers warehouse, which if you ever visited, is a massive facility. HarperCollins already has closed the Zondervan warehouse in Grand Rapids. This is one of the consolidation moves where the parent company makes money by reducing duplicate efforts. It does not mean they are doing less business, merely that they now are shipping from one location.
10 Marketing Techniques That Annoy Potential Readers – Good reminders from Jon Gibbs on Nathan Bransford’s blog.
Cokesbury Chain to Close All Stores – Another sign of changing times. The United Methodist church is closing their bookstore chain of 35 stores and shuttering their 19 Seminary bookstores. Before panic sets in realize that those stores focused mainly on selling to Methodist clergy and their church supplies. But it does signal that it is that much more difficult to sell books, in stores, regardless of the core customer.
Wikipedia Export Feature – This allows you to export various articles of your choice into an epub file or PDF which you can then read on your computer or favorite e-reader. Collect all your preliminary research from Wikipedia into one place and save yourself time later. Of course you should not use Wikipedia as your sole source of research, but it a great way to get a solid overview on a topic with relative ease.
Why Adults Read YA Fiction – Maureen McGowan makes an interesting case. Do agree or disagree?
Would The Hunger Games Get Published Today? – An interesting quote from the article below. Do you agree or disagree?
“A book that’s very similar to Hunger Games may find obstacles getting published today, but that would most likely be because it wouldn’t be seen as fresh enough now that so many dystopians are on the market, not necessarily because of a show of violence or oppression or political themes.”
New Christian Imprint from Random House – The Crown division which already has Doubleday, Image, and Waterbrook/Multnomah add Convergent. See the link for a full description of the types of books they are acquiring.
Elizabeth Taylor #1 Earning Dead Celebrity – Surpassed Michael Jackson this year. But seriously, $75 million in perfume sales alone?
Oh yes, I agree with the quote on the Hunger Games. I’ve shopped a fairy tale type fantasy that I wrote before the Hunger Games came out. Well, fairy tales might feel dsytopic, with their put-upon heroines, but my book is not dystopian. And yet, some agents and editors thought it was derivative. It went to pub board at one publisher, and it didn’t get a rejection, really, but they wanted me to revise to make it not like Hunger Games.
Then recently I entered a contest with another book and the agent who judged the contest said he loved the voice and characters, but dystopians were a hard sell and he was seeing Hunger Games as he read my first three chapters. UGH!
Neither of these books were anything like the Hunger Games.
My books have very little violence, they are written with a Christian worldview, and my heroines are not kick-ass girls who know how to kill boys. They have nothing to do with war or reality TV.
I suspect that any teen girl in a fantasy world that is not pleasant will automatically be seen as a Katniss wannabe. Middle grade boy books are the way to go for the coming year.
Inspired by the success of Elizabeth Taylor’s estate I’ve decided to start my own line of perfume. It will be called “Odeur de Rejet.”
What do you think?
Hey, Steve, thanks for your submission. Not sure about that name. It sounds way too last week. We went to perfume board and they’ll give it a shot if you change the name to “Huit Maris”.
I’m never going to get an agent.
Besides…Odeur de Rejet makes me think it smells like cow patties, whereas Huit Maris makes me think it has irresistible appeal. I think you need to hire Jennifer as a marketing consultant, Steve.
Of course my brand, in English, is “The Smell of Rejection.”
Yours is “Eight Maris”??
🙂
I now feel affirmed in my enjoyment for YA fiction.
It means “Eight Husbands”.
Liz Taylor? 8 husbands?
Let’s just file that one under “epic fail” or “people who’ll never get an agent even if they buy one on Amazon”.