YABookgate -

[GeorgiaGuidestones]

My friend is a pretty talented graphic designer who has designed book covers for bestsellers.

I think I mentioned her a few pages back but I’m too lazy to look for the post.

In a panic after George Floyd she created a bunch of YA and romance featuring POCs book covers. She will do that to auction them off and network. Some designers were being criticized for only creating covers with white models and she didn’t want to be cancelled.

How many did she sell? 0 out of 10.

For months she tried to sell them with no success. Finally, she said fuck it and replaced the POCs with white girls. 9 sold.

The hypocrisy in the YA world never ceases to astound me. My friend is a perfect example.

Although YA is over saturated it’s still a huge market and she’s booked all the way to the end of the year. 40% of her designs are YA requests.

 

[Boston Brand]

Who happens to be a female editor-in-chief at a major SF imprint, yeah its Baen but still talk about silencing female voices

That whole witch hunt was just horrid. Churns my guts.

For all the flak Baen gets, as a whole, thier authors and editors are some of the nicest and most down to Earth in the spec fiction industry. Toni Wiesskopf especially, woman's a sweetheart.

Some are less so... Larry Correia is a bit of a prick, but you can afford to be a prick when you sell enough books to buy your own mountain range and build a mansion on it with an indoor gun range. Rest of the lot? Great bunch, and in a better publishing market, they would all be household names.

Hell, the fact they have remained successful independent of the Big 5 publishers in this day and age is worthy of admiration. That they haven't caved and started publishing the same woke bilge as the big 5 even more so.

 

[Trianon]

My friend is a pretty talented graphic designer who has designed book covers for bestsellers.

I think I mentioned her a few pages back but I’m too lazy to look for the post.

In a panic after George Floyd she created a bunch of YA and romance featuring POCs book covers. She will do that to auction them off and network. Some designers were being criticized for only creating covers with white models and she didn’t want to be cancelled.

How many did she sell? 0 out of 10.

For months she tried to sell them with no success. Finally, she said fuck it and replaced the POCs with white girls. 9 sold.

The hypocrisy in the YA world never ceases to astound me. My friend is a perfect example.

Although YA is over saturated it’s still a huge market and she’s booked all the way to the end of the year. 40% of her designs are YA requests.

She's canceled now for being friends with Emily Duncan, but I really do enjoy the bookcoversalt tumblr. She critiques YA cover designs and points out the tropes that get really popular all of a sudden and then disappear. The graphic design points are interesting. However, she goes on these tangents about the lack of POC book covers and some of it is just stupid.

Blech.

This person is now part of the group who "bullied" multiple Asian debut authors! I don't believe being Asian had anything to do with whether the writing was bad or cringe, in their opinion, but to wax on and on about how bad white people are and how putting a dragon on a cover is Orientalism and then turn around and do that.... Like how do they continue to create the weapon that destroys them?

 

[JJLiautaud]

Hell, the fact they have remained successful independent of the Big 5 publishers in this day and age is worthy of admiration.

They aren't, they're an imprint of Simon and Schuster, but S&S from what I understand basically told Jim to have fun and keep making money, and if the money stops the fun stops. But everything else is true i read David Drake's Newsletter because he's just a great guy and has some hilarious observations

 

[Skitzels]

My friend is a pretty talented graphic designer who has designed book covers for bestsellers.

I think I mentioned her a few pages back but I’m too lazy to look for the post.

In a panic after George Floyd she created a bunch of YA and romance featuring POCs book covers. She will do that to auction them off and network. Some designers were being criticized for only creating covers with white models and she didn’t want to be cancelled.

How many did she sell? 0 out of 10.

For months she tried to sell them with no success. Finally, she said fuck it and replaced the POCs with white girls. 9 sold.

The hypocrisy in the YA world never ceases to astound me. My friend is a perfect example.

Although YA is over saturated it’s still a huge market and she’s booked all the way to the end of the year. 40% of her designs are YA requests.

It’s almost like the shrill harpies of Twitter don’t know what actually sells in real life.

 

[Boston Brand]

They aren't, they're an imprint of Simon and Schuster, but S&S from what I understand basically told Jim to have fun and keep making money, and if the money stops the fun stops. But everything else is true i read David Drake's Newsletter because he's just a great guy and has some hilarious observations

To my understanding, they distribute through S&S but everything else - from printing to marketing - is handled in house. Plus, they make a ton of their money on ebooks - they have been industry leaders on that front for decades, and it's paid off in spades for them.

Either way, its awful how many spec fiction authors in the wokie brigade have turned them into a punching bag.

To connect it to the talk on book covers, Baen usually also has some of the most eye catching book covers on the stands... I loathe how everybody else seems to have gone to the now cliche minimalist cover designs. The YA market is especially bad.

 

[neverendingmidi]

I like buying from Baen, if I want to support the author, because not only are the books DRM free, but they directly offer the books you bought in multiple formats, so you don't even have to convert them.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

Hell, the fact they have remained successful independent of the Big 5 publishers in this day and age is worthy of admiration.

Not as independent as all that. Baen's books are distributed by Simon & Schuster, so I imagine they have to abide by some sort of release schedule S&S (meaning ultimately CBS/Paramount/whatever they're called today) sets. And assuming S&S is sold to Penguin Random House we'll see what we see after that, though I'm honestly not sure what imprints PRH has dedicated to SF&F. I know Del Rey, but beyond that?

Anyhoo, stumbled across this beaut...

https://archive.md/usgsi

Be the Change You Want to See In Kids' Books
An activist says children’s books about social issues must be more empowering

Books have always played an important role in my life. Books about social issues and activism nudged me into my career path. It’s only now, though, that I see where the gaps in children’s literature are and am in a position to do something about it.

As a young child books about activists were a mixed experience for me: moving, but also scary and sad. It appeared that most people did not do anything to support the activists, powerful people were against them, their paths required suffering and single-mindedness, and many faced beatings, jail, and untimely deaths. Only bold, extraordinary people could have such conviction, make such sacrifices. I did not feel extraordinary. I did not even feel bold. Yes, I was taught to do the right thing and help others, but I was also expected to be polite, not yell, not demand, and definitely not challenge the adults enforcing the rules. Obviously, I did not have what it takes to be an activist—and even if I did, no path was offered to that destinati
on.

As an elementary school teacher the books about activists I had were mostly historical. I would finish a read-aloud title about women’s suffrage, desegregation, or labor rights and tell students there is still much more to do, that it isn’t all solved yet! There’s still discrimination, limitations, power imbalances. We need you! I knew there were vibrant organizations out there doing crucial work on issues like labor rights and immigration reform, but I didn’t have a way to capture it and bring it into the reading circle, the curriculum. I remember one student, Joselyn, who acted out but thrived when given leadership positions. Where was the book that showed an undocumented young girl like her how to be an agent of change?

As an activist I enjoy the deep sense of meaning of being part of a movement. Most days, I marvel about how lucky I am to get paid to do something I care about. I get to learn about issues, develop skills to address them, work with people I admire and respect. Where are the children’s books that show how joyful and satisfying this career is—and also how normal it is? Most of the time, no one is yelling in the street, but many people are sitting at desks, working on computers, and attending meetings and conferences to think of new ideas for legislation, while also negotiating, doing education and leadership building, organizing, researching, mentoring. Where are the books that show those parts of the job? Also, so much of what I do involves multifaceted teams, networks, coalitions. Yes, there are leaders, but every leader has a movement behind them. Where are the books that tell the story not just of the individual but of the collective?

As a parent I sneak in as many social justice books as I can get away with, but my kids can smell “lessons” coming from a mile away. I wish I had more books about social change that don’t feel like history textbooks—that are funny or surprising, and that have three-dimensional characters whom my kids can relate to instead of flattened-out “heroes.” I could sneak in a lot more books that way. I look for books that make activism seem fun, cool, and right for them. It’s not easy, as, currently, their passions are mainly riding scooters and making fart jokes. I wish I had books that showed them that no matter what they are interested in—science, cooking, sports, coding, business, art—there are ways to put these in the service of something that will change the world.

As an author, in my new book, For All/Para Todos, about a young undocumented girl who becomes an activist, I want to lift up the stories of people who are making change but not making it into headlines or lesson plans. And I want to do something more subversive—I want the reader to address a range of questions: What do you think about this? What do you care about? What do you think is fair? I want to make sure kids fully own their power as agents of change. And I want to question all of us: What role do we have in this issue? How are we complicit?

If all of us were civically engaged racial and economic allies, conscious consumers, community caretakers, etc., we wouldn’t need activist heroes. Many hands make light work. How do we each do own our part so that activists don’t have to use up their energy fighting the bad and can instead use their beautiful souls to create, enjoy, dream, and thrive?

Alejandra Domenzain is a daughter of Mexican immigrants and the parent of two school-age kids. She is an activist for immigrant workers and the author of the bilingual children’s book For All/Para Todos (Hard Ball, out now).

 

[neverendingmidi]

Not as independent as all that. Baen's books are distributed by Simon & Schuster, so I imagine they have to abide by some sort of release schedule S&S (meaning ultimately CBS/Paramount/whatever they're called today) sets. And assuming S&S is sold to Penguin Random House we'll see what we see after that, though I'm honestly not sure what imprints PRH has dedicated to SF&F. I know Del Rey, but beyond that?

Anyhoo, stumbled across this beaut...

https://archive.md/usgsi

Be the Change You Want to See In Kids' Books
An activist says children’s books about social issues must be more empowering

LOL, the kids don't give a shit and mom is actively making sure they don't want to give a shit by cramming "empowerment" down their throats. These kids are going to get lectured to no matter what interests they eventually show.

 

[Skitzels]

Not as independent as all that. Baen's books are distributed by Simon & Schuster, so I imagine they have to abide by some sort of release schedule S&S (meaning ultimately CBS/Paramount/whatever they're called today) sets. And assuming S&S is sold to Penguin Random House we'll see what we see after that, though I'm honestly not sure what imprints PRH has dedicated to SF&F. I know Del Rey, but beyond that?

Anyhoo, stumbled across this beaut...

https://archive.md/usgsi

Be the Change You Want to See In Kids' Books
An activist says children’s books about social issues must be more empowering

The writer of the article sounds extremely out of touch with what kids actually want to read.

If anything, I’d say it’s because of Karens like her that children have been reading less books overall; as most new published books have unappealing themes. Kids are more into fantastical stories with simple lessons, they don’t need to be hammered with Neo liberal social Justice themes. Otherwise, they will get bored and just put the book down.

Also, she has no idea what the term “empowering” actually means. Truly “empowered” people do not claim to be empowered, nor would they embrace any sort of victimhood. A truly empowered person is self sufficient and emotionally stable, with the ability to take personal accountability for their own failures instead of blaming it on

 

[Rose Winters]

SoC is a huuuuuge improvement over the main Grisha books, where characters are just Perfect Moral Paragons who argue over nothing and just walk around in the snow. I'm on the second book of the Crows series now. I agree the characters feel like they could be mid-20s. I'm kind of interested to read her adult novel because Six of Crows feels like she's trying to find the line of how dark she can go.

Kanej is my least favorite ship of the series so far though. I mean, it's good, it's just not hitting me like the other main relationships are. I think the show will end up being an improvement on the books too.

So how's the Netflix show?

 

[Trianon]

So how's the Netflix show?

Liking it so far. It does follow the books pretty closely, but since they introduce all the characters at the same time, the world feels more complicated and expansive than if you're just reading the first Shadow and Bone book. I'd say if you liked The Witcher on Netflix, it's a comparably good, fun fantasy show.

 

[Someone in a Tree]

“It’s capitalism’s fault that stores won’t carry my shitty book!” There’s a line in this article that’s pretty stunning. About 98% of the books released by publishers last year sold less than 5000 copies. I suppose I should be less shocked by that, not only given the quality of what is released, but also the ever declining number of people who read recreationally.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/books/book-sales-publishing-pandemic-coronavirus.html#click=https://t.co/nj53GFOXJd

 

[JJLiautaud]

“It’s capitalism’s fault that stores won’t carry my shitty book!” There’s a line in this article that’s pretty stunning. About 98% of the books released by publishers last year sold less than 5000 copies. I suppose I should be less shocked by that, not only given the quality of what is released, but also the ever declining number of people who read recreationally.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/books/book-sales-publishing-pandemic-coronavirus.html#click=https://t.co/nj53GFOXJd

Thats pretty much how it always is though most books are commercial and financial failures and writing for 99% of authors pays less than minimum wage

 

[Kari Kamiya]

but also the ever declining number of people who read recreationally

Now is this for physical copies? How do Kindle downloads work when it comes to turning a profit?

If anything, it's quite possible there is an actual percentage of recreational readers out there, the problem is there's nothing to read because all the new books are shit (least those coming out of publishing houses). The fact that no one is buying these shitty books should be a tell-tale sign for these publishers to rethink their business strategy, but no, they're doubling, tripling down.

Karma is a bitch.

 

[Trianon]

I know authors who had to cancel their book tours right as their books went out because of the pandemic. It does hurt sales. Plus publishers always blow their load on marketing for like six books a year, so any shift in that means nobody else gets anything. It doesn't follow that they'll just push the books online, or push them harder in stores. The publishing business model depends on everything being a loss except for 2-3 blockbusters that carry the rest.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

“It’s capitalism’s fault that stores won’t carry my shitty book!” There’s a line in this article that’s pretty stunning. About 98% of the books released by publishers last year sold less than 5000 copies. I suppose I should be less shocked by that, not only given the quality of what is released, but also the ever declining number of people who read recreationally.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/books/book-sales-publishing-pandemic-coronavirus.html#click=https://t.co/nj53GFOXJd

Publishers now worry about the long-term health of physical bookstores, a critical part of the literary ecosystem that was battered during the shutdown. Bookstore sales fell nearly 30 percent in 2020, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

US Bookstore sales are optimistically about 30% of the total market at this point. And by that I mean ALL bookstores, B&N, Books-a-million and, yes, the supposedly "thriving" (whatever that means) independent bookstores. The last, for all the press they get, being under 10% of the market.

A wall of text from 2018:

The indie bookstores, which make up less than 6% of the US print book market, have been a beneficiary of B&N’s shrinking footprint and sales are about flat. But even if they were growing, this is a segment too small to really move the needle.

The screeching faggotry of independent bookstores vs. the corpo-fascism of Amazon as the ultimate no matter who wins, we lose outcome, I guess. But it sure looks like Amazon is not only winning but by and large has won.

Edit: This made me laugh.

Next month, Penguin Random House will start giving independent bookstores in the United States an extra month to pay their invoices in an effort to help them recover from the pandemic and stay in business in the long term.

Ignoring the fact that bookstores already have an unlimited "right of return" of unsold books. This lawyer flat out calls the bookstore/publisher relationship a "consignment" one.

Standard publishing agreements usually contain a clause giving your publisher the right to retain a “reserve against returns” or similar language. Why? Because the book publishing world works on consignment. Nearly all commercial publishers offer books to bookstores on a returnable basis. (This is part of what separates commercial publishing from print-on-demand publishing). Unless you are an established best seller, or your publisher’s sales force makes a big push for your book, the typical bookstore chain may order as few as 3-5 copies of your book. The store has the right to return your unsold books to the distributor or publisher for full credit.

Reserve Against Returns

What's really weird is that the whole industry seems to have gone "radio silent" about this over the past few years. Articles mentioning the practice are usually from before 2010, like the link I posted directly above. It is almost like nobody wants to acknowledge how unprofitable it is to run a bookstore, at least one selling new books.

I mean, they might as well drop the charade that bookstores have an inventory of books at this point, since they kind of don't. and just start charging leasing space.

 

[Skitzels]

Another YA author is being cancelled.

Her crime? Calling another author who happened to be Asian ugly.

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This author in question is named Emily Duncan, and apparently she writes Russian fantasy or whatever.

The chimpouts have been pretty funny and have spiraled into some typical anti-white SJW rhetoric.

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Hilariously, Emily has remained silent, though people in her friend group have spoken out, though they've also taken a verbal bashing:

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Imagine apologizing for something your friend did and for even associating with them. These people are thin-skinned as fuck.

Speaking of Rin Chupeco, there is something about her pfp that just rubs me the wrong way. It’s like you can feel the low effort, smug and condescending personality just leaking through the photo.

Then I realized that most of these harpies on Twitter have that exact expression.

 

[DungeonMaster]

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/08...t-science-fiction-is-the-way-it-is-right-now/

Scalzi's commentors consist of a gaggle of delusional idiots living the most ludicrous internal narrative imaginable.

What fucking privilege is she talking about, huh

 

[Boston Brand]

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/08...t-science-fiction-is-the-way-it-is-right-now/

Scalzi's commentors consist of a gaggle of delusional idiots living the most ludicrous internal narrative imaginable.

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What fucking privilege is she talking about, huh

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Scalzi is just lucky Joe Haldeman didn't sue the pants off him for ripping off The Forever War.

Again, he and the other wokies in SFWA almost merit thier own thread.