During BEA last week, middle grade books got some extra attention with their first ever Buzz Panel. Since I've never attended BEA (someday!!) I didn't realized that there wasn't a buzz panel before now. Young Adult books, of course, get plenty of attention. I'm glad to see that middle grade is getting noticed, too.And what were they buzzing about? New books by Matthew Kirby (I interviewed him here) and N.D. Anderson look amazing. And YA author Lisa McMann will be introducing a new middle grade series that sounds very promising. Publisher's Weekly has a full article about the buzz panel here.
Stories of self-publishing success keep making big news. But the Washington Post ran an article about the self-publishing "gold rush" with this quote from Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords: “We have less than 50 people who are making more than $50,000 per year. We have a lot who don’t sell a single book.” So much for a gold rush. Read the full story at the Washington Post.
Starting June 23, you'll be able to download two FREE audiobooks every week through August 17. Some of the free titles include Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (who I was thrilled to interview last year), Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and Storm Runners, the newest title from Roland Smith (I interviewed him here). Get the full list of audiobooks and links for downloading at School Library Journal.
12 comments:
Lots of interesting news here, thanks Sherrie!
My 11 yo read Lisa McMann's newest YA book (Cryer's Cross) and loved it. I bet he'll love her new series too.
I get a little worried about publishers and agents e-publishing. I still think it would be for books that they don't think will publish well and they'd quite possibly say no to or not be able to sell. and what does that say about the book?
LOTS of interesting news! Thanks for sharing.
I'm happy MG is getting some buzz now too :) And I read the article about self-publishing, which really helped me because I have SO MANY people in my non-writing life who have heard about Amanda Hawking-type huge sucesses and have demanded to know why I don't follow in her footsteps. Now I just direct them to the public service announcement portion of that article...
So happy to hear MG's getting more attention!
Thanks for the links. Will be reading the epublishing article next!
Very cool! I didn't hear about the audiobook offer!
So many awesome links! I love seeing MG get more attention. Thanks, Sherrie. :-)
Thanks for sharing all the news! What would I do without you? ;)
The audiobook offer is very cool though, especially since I still want to try the whole audio thing out. Will mark my calendar.
Thanks for the info! I didn't know Matthew Kirby had another one coming out. I loved The Clockwork Three, so I'll have to pick up his new one. And The Dragon's Tooth looks right up my alley as well.
I love the MG buzz too! Must go check out these free books...
I wonder about the epublishers you mentioned. Maybe if the publisher doesn't have to make a huge monetary investment, then books that can't normally squeak by the acquisitions table will get published and find the audience that really does exist out there. Seems like the bar is set so high for books now by the big six, because they need blockbusters...
Post a Comment