October is Speculative Fiction Month on the Black Author Showcase

Media Advisory
October is Speculative Fiction Month on the Black Author Showcase

October 15, 2008

This month we will focus on all things speculative in writings from the African Diaspora.
Discover the wealth and breadth of the speculative fiction genre with members of the Black Author Showcase™ (http://blackauthors.ning.com or http://www.blackauthorshowcase.com).

Among the members featured this month: Milton Davis, Edward Uzzle, Carole McDonnell, Charles Saunders, L.A. Banks, Stafford L. Battle, Brandon Easton, Will Glenn, Valjeanne Jeffers, Oz Wilson, Bridget Moore, Dr. Niama Williams, Corey Burke, Trinia James and many more!

October 29th, the last Wednesday of the month at 7:30 to 9:30pm EST, we will have a special Spec Fiction net/talkcast in place of our usual member show. Join in the conversation, be interviewed, or just participate. There will also be a simultaneous online chat, so you will be able to ask questions of guests and still have a 'voice' in the conversation even if you choose not to dial in.

About Black Author Showcase™:

Black Author Showcase™ is a social networking platform for the literary community. Founded in 2007 it was created by 22nd Century Press, LLC as a cooperative learning, teaching and supporting community for anyone who helps bring a book to life. It is a network for authors, readers, publishers, photographers, librarians, reviewers, graphic designers, editors, ghostwriters, agents, and others. 22nd Century Press is headquartered in Mitchellville, MD – just outside the nations’ capital.
For more information, visit our Web site at http://www.blackauthorshowcase.com.

CONTACT: 22nd Century Press for Black Author Showcase™
Diane Williams
(202) 276-8876
info@blackauthorshowcase.com

When Big Publishers Want to Get Something Out Fast . . .

There's nothing to it but to do it. Talk about print on demand! Publishers Weekly reports that Collins has gotten a new Sarah Palin book finished in less than a month.
The 96 page: Terminatrix: The Sarah Palin Chronicles (Collins) will join 101 Things You—And John McCain—Didn’t Know About Sarah Palin as the latest humor book on the vice presidential candidate.

This all started on September 8th and went to the printer by September 15th, with 20,000 copies to be in stores on October 14th.

"The book is a satire written by “the editors of the Wasilla Iron Dog Gazette,” although, in the spirit of satire, two HarperCollins editors, Bruce Nichols and Adam Bellow, are “speaking on behalf of the authors.” It features digitally altered photographs of Palin and her family, annotated in “the Governor’s own hand,” which provide “a fascinating running commentary on her life.”

Publishers Weekly

Penguin's Fiction Mash-up is Setting the Pace

We Tell Stories, Penguin UK's digital fiction website is clearing the road for the new wave in publishing. Their use of multiple webware to tell six stories by six authors in six weeks is just a taste of the potential of internet publishing.

A favorite Shakespeare quote "What's past is prologue" is the theme here at 22nd Century Press. Publishers large and small alike must grasp technology for the readers' and author's sake. Using different web 2.0 utilities to present these six stories is a step in a direction all publishers should take.

Photos are courtesy of Flickr members, 21 Steps places you in a Google map, the storyline to Slice can be followed on Twitter, Fairy Tales allows the reader to participate in the tale with an interactive website, Your Place and Mine is a real-time blog, Hard Times takes the form of an online Flash presentation, and The (Former) General let's the reader navigate and change the direction of the story.

All of these are innovative, creative approaches to storytelling. It is what is needed to garner the attention of todays' readers. What really is exciting is that given the democracy of the web, any small publisher can utilize current technologies to move with Penguin and other creative publishing houses into the 22nd century.

We Tell Stories - http://wetellstories.co.uk/stories/

ForeWord Publishing Insider: Why aren't there more nonfiction graphic novels?

“Graphic novel” is a weak name. For one thing, it sounds like smut. (“Man, that novel was so…so graphic!”) Besides, it implies that a book-length comic book must be fiction.

And that’s a rotten shame, because nonfiction graphic novels have a huge potential readership. The Zogby polling group just released a new survey on books and reading. It found that the most popular genres after general fiction are nonfiction: history, current events / politics / international affairs, biographies, and religion / philosophy. Library Journal’s 2008 book-buying survey says that the books with the highest circulation are in the medicine/health category. An Associated Press / Ipsos poll says that the most-read books in 2007 were the Bible and other religious works; history and biography were popular, too. Nonfiction sells.

So why does nonfiction account for only two percent of all graphic novels?"

Continued: Why aren't there more nonfiction graphic novels?

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Posted by: David Seidman

ForeWord Publishing Insider
Industry leaders highlight current trends and the latest headlines

Librarians have a New Source for News

LISWire is a brand new idea from the guy behind LISNews & LISHost, Blake Carver. The plan is to allow member companies and organizations to use LISWire to send their full-text news releases and multimedia content to librarians, journalists, library professionals and the general public. We re going to build a network to distribute this information world wide.

"LISWire | The Librarian s News Wire: "LISWire - The Librarian s News Wire

Walden Media & Harper to Publish Children's Books

As reported in Variety ( Walden, Harper team up - Variety ), Walden Media will launch Walden Pond Press with it's new partner, HarperCollins Children's Books.

Marc Graser reports "As part of the multiyear pact, the venture will acquire and publish books for young readers. Naturally, it also plans to turn several of its tomes into film adaptations or pair up properties with other filmmakers."

First published title will be "The Will of Will Wolfkin," by screenwriter Steven Knight, who penned the pics "Dirty Pretty Things," "Eastern Promises" and "Amazing Grace."

This is the media/publishing team that gave us "The Chronicles of Narnia" franchise, "Charlotte's Web" and "Bridge to Terabithia" film adaptations.Black Author Showcase

Diaz Wins Fiction Pulitzer

Junot Diaz has just won the Pulitzer for "distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000). Awarded to "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books). The Pulitzer Prizes

Wow! This is one of my favorites in the past year. This is a first novel based on a short story first published in the New Yorker.

Woo hoo - doin' the happy dance for Junot. And the 10k doesn't hurt either.

Amazon New Rules for POD May Create PO'ed Publishers

Many have weighed in since the announcement in February 2008 - and not all is happiness and light.

Amazon changes rules for print-on-demand publishers
Robert L. Mitchell weighs in over at ComputerWorld with "Amazon pulls a Microsoft"

Where do you stand? Angela Hoy of BookLocker is fighting the good fight for the little guy. Check out: http://www.writersweekly.com/the_latest_from_angelahoycom/004597_03272008.html

Authors, readers, and small publishers are taking a stand:
"We bemoan the loss of independent booksellers, but they're going out of business because we buy our best-sellers at Wal-Mart and online. This move will lead to small publishers going out of business, too, unless readers decide to take a stand.

There's a precedent for Amazon's throwing its weight around. Back in 2000, they began suing companies using a similar mechanism to their one-click checkout system. It wasn't until a PR swell on the Internet threatened their business that they backed down."
Now there's a petition to protest Amazon's move:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/protectPOD/

Greg at the blog Publish Yourself comes down on the side of publishers and consumers with Amazon Strongarms Small Publishers.

The shakeout will be interesting. Will small publishers move to B&N and rely more on their own websites to sell or will they relinquish more profit to Amazon and pay $29 per book Advantage fee distributed with 55% off of the cover price?

Great Author's Bookmark Idea

Author Chris Crutcher has a great idea that also saves money on his webpage. He has uploaded his newest bookmark (front and back). The beauty of this particular bookmark? While most authors create new bookmarks for each new book they write and promote, Crutcher has chosen to promote himself - the story writer.

It's a awesome concept and if I'm late on the train, so what! He never needs another bookmark. On one side it has an outstretched photo of him with the phrase "I feel a story coming on . . ." and on the reverse is his headshowt and contact information. Brilliant!


Don't totally copy or plagerize it, but please use the concept. And give Chris his props. Check out his site here:
Author, Chris Crutcher - Homepage

Word-of-Mouth Top Book-Buying Decision according to Publishers Weekly

Felicia Pride wrote an article for the February 11th Publishers Weekly stating the results of a survey conducted by Global Market Insight Inc. It states that "Among African-American consumers, 33% buy five to 10 books a year and they generally decide what to buy through word-of-mouth, according to an e-mail survey of 1,285 consumers."

Read the entire article here: Word-of-Mouth Top Book-Buying Decision - 2/11/2008 - Publishers Weekly

HarperCollins Publishers Promotion to Make Select Books Available Online for Free

According to Seth Godin at the O'Reilly TOC conference this week "Authors are really idea merchants. The ideas that spread best win. Free ideas spread better than paid ideas. The way you monetize this is to sell 'souvenirs'.... It's not a new way of promoting, it's a whole new business."

This was part of his take on HarperCollins new program to offer complete online access to a select group of books for a month at a time. They are also providing "sneak peaks" of selected books by activating online access (limited to only 20 percent of the text) two weeks before the on-sale date. The files can only be viewed via the web and cannot be downloaded or printed.

Author and marketing guru Godin sees the Harper announcement as a typical traditional book publishing mentality attempting a new initiative: "They took all the [viral marketing] things that work--that make it spread--and they're turning them off." His idea is that marketing is "trying to start conversations, and if that conversation takes place the ideas spread."

Godin may be correct, but the big houses are scrambling to recreate the old publishing paradigm within the expanding internet universe. Tor Books is now offering a program with "free digital books from bestselling and award-winning SF and fantasy authors" through a newsletter sign-up on their website. Random House has announced "a pilot project to sell individual chapters of a book online."

HarperCollins Publishers Promotion to Make Select Books Available Online for Free: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance