Publishing: Dorchester have fallen back into bad habits and are once again selling books they no longer have the rights to. Jana DeLeon already went through this once already and Dorchester only caved first time around when sites like SmartBitches took up her cause. There’s speculation Dorchester’s recent competition to suggest books for the e-backlist might have sparked the latest reappearance of books they’re not legally allowed to sell.

Meanwhile, a Young Adult anthology, Wicked Pretty Things, has caused an uproar after the editor asked an author to turn an m/m story into m/f (after the bingo cards). Anger was initially directed at the publisher, but the editor, Trisha Telep, admitted they were her own prejudices and she’d assumed the publisher shared them.

Don’t take it out on the publishers, the decision was mine totally. These teen anthologies I do are light on the sex and light on the language. I assumed they’d be light on alternative sexuality, as well. Turns out I was wrong! Just after I had the kerfuffle with jessica, I was told that the publishers would have loved the story to appear in the book! Oh dear. My rashness will be the death of me.

Authors to drop out of the anthology so far include Jessica Verday, who’s story it was, Lesley Livingston, Karen Mahoney, Brenna Yovanoff, Lisa Mantchev, and Seanan McGuire (that’s six out of thirteen stories pulled). In addition, Melissa Marr has asked her name be removed from the cover of the anthology, and both Saundra Mitchell and  Ann Aguirre have pulled out of different anthologies edited by Telep.

Interest-Piquing: Kate Hart loves graphs and flowcharts. And we love her for it. Intern loves her too (did you know that Intern is back? Yay! Intern is back!), and imitation being the sincerest for of flattery produces a pie chart to show why queries get rejected.

Procrastination: Creepypasta.com A lot of subs are essentially short horror stories (and obviously so at that) but the really creepy ones do a passable imitation of real life, e.g. Candle Cove and The Rake

Oh, I’ve been lazy lately. The sun’s put its first appearances of the year in, which means I’ve been doing a bit of garden stuff and generally finding excuses to be outdoors. Also, I’m trying to fugre out how to fill in a 1042-S and where to send it (answer on a postcard please?).

Publishing: HarperCollins wants to limit the number of times an ebook can be borrowed from the library. The limit of 26 loans is apparently based on the life of a print book. They’ve obviously not been to the libraries I’ve been too if they think a print book can only survive 26 reads. What do you think sellotape’s for? One theory about HC’s move is hey’re testing reception for the idea of placing a limit on the number of times purchasers can read ebooks, though it’s just speculation at this point.

HarperCollins are part of the Agency Six (it was five, but Random House joined the ranks earlier this year, making this a collaboration between all the major publishing conglomorations), who are setting ebook prices and refuing to allow retailers to offer discounts. There’s been a lot of discussion recently about how ebooks ought to be priced; a lot of publishing blogs are nattering away about a 99c price point. There’s some interesting discussion from KVTaylor, Courtney Milan and over at Dear Author. I’m with Katy here: I think if I saw a novel priced for 99c (which is about 70p in the UK, or a large bar of chocolate) I’d assume it wasn’t very good, but if I saw a novel discounted to 99c I’d be tempted. As Courtney points out, there’s a massive supply of free material on the internet already, a lot of which is very good, but people still pay for ebooks (which she credits to IP laws).

Apple’s insistance that they get a cut of in-app purchases and the fact they only signed onto the agency agreement for a year could shake things up a bit, but, frankly, I think the big six are too committed now. If they find this means no one’s willing to sell their ebooks, well, you can’t help but wonder if that’s not what they wanted all along.

Interest-Piquing: Which sexy Wonder Woman costume is a hallowe’en costume and which is the promo pic for the new TV series? Oh god. It’s so… shiny. Give me denim and red boots, and I’d be fine with it – in fact, I’m quite glad to see she’s not in star spangled panties, though I’d have liked to throw the high heels out too – but there’s a reason most live-action superhero stuff skips the lycra.

Procrastination: Start here. When you’re all caught up, check out the slenderman mythos (sorry, it’s a tvtropes link) and try Everyman HYBRID/CANYOUSEETHEWORDS. You can see where a lot of my time when these past few weeks…

Publishing: The Agency publishers are being investigated for price-fixing in Europe, with offices being raided. In several countries the issue seems to me more who’s setting the prices, rather than the fact they’re being set. France, for example, voted to fix ebooks prices last year. The problem with an international market (and products sold through international retailers) is that laws vary from country to country. I don’t want to see more geographical restrictions being imposed, but I can’t see EC member states sitting down and agreeing on this one any time soon.

Evidence is beginning to pop up that Pubit!, B&N’s self-publishing service, is stripping sample chapters from erotic works. They’re perfectly within their rights to do so, under their own T&C, but if I were considering self-publishing Pubit! would not be my first choice as a result of this.

Interst-Piquing: Monica Valentinelli talks about why authors suck at marketing. She makes some good points, but personally I’m getting a little tired of seeing ‘all writers are introverts’ being trotted out with such regularity. Between the internet, writing groups and festivals writing contibutes to a big chunk of my social life. Even the hard graft of actually writing needs not be a solitary activity; look at all those co-writers out there!

Procrastination: Skygypsises, a graphical adaptation of the short story by  Timothy James Dimacali’s, first published in Philippine Speculative Fiction III. I didn’t realise the Philippine’s had such a rich traditional of spec fic, and I’m grateful to John Raymond Bumanglag for introducing me to it 🙂

Finally, it’s both International Women’s Day and pancake day today, and what better way to celebrate both than with a clip from a kid’s TV show with an awesome female protagonist?

Maid Marian and her Merry Men

(Can’t embed ::pouts:: )