Aspects of Self Publishing

A Brief History of Self-Publishing

Self-publishing has been around for thousands of years. Many of today’s classic and popular novels were self-published. The works of Ben Franklin, William Blake, Virginia Woolf, and Walt Whitman were all self-published.

While self-publishing has been around for thousands of years, it has become increasingly popular in recent years, largely thanks to companies like CreateSpace by Amazon.com, and successful self-published books like Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. Originally, Fifty Shades was self-published by James via ebook and print on demand (where unless books are bought books are not printed) in 2011. However, due to an overwhelming Internet presence and readership in April of 2012, Fifty Shades of Grey was picked up by Vintage Books, an imprint of Random House, and rereleased to the public.

The Sassy YA Truth

Reasons Why We Love and Hate Series: From a YA and Marketing Standpoint

Winter breaks can sometimes be very productive. After reading over ten books, I came across a common trend that I’ve noticed before, but never really thought in depth about. Series. Why are they always happening? Why does publishing one book and just being done seem so taboo? I will be discussing this, mostly from a Young Adult (YA) standpoint. I’ll sandwich the good and the bad.

Reason 1:

Loving that Journey

Who doesn’t want to follow the same characters as they grow and change? While some readers search for their identity and figure out what’s right for them, the characters in series are following a similar path. It’s nice to be able to turn away from the real world and read about lovable characters. It’s worth the thousands of pages and hours of time put into the reading experience.

Also, many series have tons of action. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, of course, is an example of this. As readers, we are sadistic. We read further to see what Katniss would go through in a second Hunger Games. We follow the journey of how she volunteers as tribute and then builds her strength, overcoming death numerous times. Without all her fighting and resilience, Katniss’ story would not be as engaging. Collins throws us into a world that readers know they probably wouldn’t survive, so they continue the journey until the end of book three to see how she overcomes, or if she will even be able to.

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GUEST POST: Editors: A Crazy, Stupid, Love Story

Over the course of writing twenty books, I’ve had five editors. They have had me.

Three of them were so spectacularly brilliant that the thought of them still brings tears to my eyes. Two of them were so spectacularly awful that the thought of them still brings tears to my eyes.

A writer’s relationship with an editor is often compared to a marriage, because it is so intimate. Now, I’ve been married twice, and once widowed. Trust me: the relationship with my editors is more intimate by far.

Your editor is the only person on earth whom you invite in to crawl around inside your brain and spirit.

Your editor’s comments can lift you off the ground to soar among the clouds, or lift you off an overpass to dive straight down to the asphalt.

Book Review: What We Saw at Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Allie Kim suffers from Xeroderma Pigmentosum: a fatal allergy to sunlight that confines her and her two best friends, Rob and Juliet, to the night. When freewheeling Juliet takes up Parkour—the stunt-sport of scaling and leaping off tall buildings—Allie and Rob have no choice but to join her, if only to protect her. Though potentially deadly, Parkour after dark makes Allie feel truly alive, and for the first time equal to the “daytimers.”

On a random summer night, the trio catches a glimpse of what appears to be murder. Allie alone takes it upon herself to investigate, and the truth comes at an unthinkable price. Navigating the shadowy world of specialized XP care, extreme sports, and forbidden love, Allie ultimately uncovers a secret that upends everything she believes about the people she trusts the most. (From Goodreads.)

Meet Soho Teen!

There is a new imprint being introduced to the world today and it is called Soho Teen. An imprint of Soho Press, known for its literary and international crime fiction, Soho Teen will be handled in much the same way. Kicking off with their debut title What We Saw at Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard, which is being released today, there is already no doubt that this imprint will bring great things to the world of publishing. Their exact description from the Soho Press website is:

"Soho Teen, coming in 2013, publishes a select list of YA mysteries and thrillers by international bestsellers, award winners, and debut novelists with stellar credits. Born of the conviction that compelling YA of any genre involves thrill and mystery, Soho Teen’s titles include the paranormal and dystopian, the humorous and realistic, the tragic and uplifting—whatever serves a great story best. Soho Teen’s small list is unique in that every title has a high-stakes, page-turning puzzle at its heart."

Their other titles, to release once a month through June, include Who Done It? (a collection of 83 famous YA authors, including Libba Bray, David Levithan, John Green, Lemony Snicket, Lauren Myracle), Escape Theory by Margaux Froley, Strangelets by Michelle Gagnon, The Sweet Dead Life by Joy Preble, and Deviant by Helen FitzGerald. 

There will be reviews coming of the first three titles, the first to show right here on January 11th. 

Until then, please enjoy this interview with Soho Teen's editorial director Daniel Ehrenhaft!

Close Encounters with Authors and Heroes; a Celebratory Evening in Review

covers.booktopia.com.au

“They say everybody has a book in them. I don’t know about that; I couldn’t write a novel. But everyone has a memoir in them. Everyone has a story.” That’s what I overheard author Anthony Martignetti say as he signed a copy of his newly published memoir, Lunatic Heroes. Seated next to his longtime friend, Amanda Palmer and her husband Neil Gaiman, Mr. Martignetti greeted each person that eagerly waited in the line that snaked around the columns of the lobby of Cary Hall in Lexington, MA. The book signing was the final note to the book launch party that had been as much a celebration of life, love, and friendship as it had been about the book.

Martignetti  moved in next door to Amanda Palmer when she was 9, she informed us as she opened the evening with the foreword that she had written for the memoir. And yes, when I say Amanda Palmer, I do mean that Amanda Palmer, of the Dresden Dolls. She and Martignetti have had a friendship since then that, as she said, is difficult to describe, but is best put to words as something like this “Anthony moved in next door when I was nine and taught me everything I know about love and knows me better than anybody and we still talk almost every single day even if I’m in Japan.”