Everything that's happening in the American fiction world as of February 9th 2007.
It has been an exciting few weeks for the American fiction industry. Not all of the excitement has made headlines, however. Take, for example, the recent decision of the AP News Wire to stop their book review feature. This doesn't sound like a major decision at first glance, but the AP News Wire is picked up by news agencies all over the world. This means that authors of all levels will lose a valuable form of international marketing in a time more sales are already in a decline.
This development will probably not affect writers that are already established such as Stephen King, Nora Roberts and other New York Times heavy hitters. For an aspiring writer, however; this could have a great deal of impact on initial book runs and sales. How can a new writer combat this? By self-promoting on the internet, using the press release system, creating book promotional videos on YouTube, blogging and other free or low cost marketing methods commonly used by internet marketers. You can read the announcement from the AP News Wire here.
In legal news, author Clive Cussler is suing over the movie production of his book Sahara. He claims that multiple changes to the plot and the script made the movie unwatchable and nearly ruined his franchise based around the character Dirk Pitt.
Prolific novelist Sidney Sheldon died in January 2007.
Gather, an Internet-based social article writing and networking site, is looking to be the "American Idol" of the publishing industry. They have introduced a new contest, First Chapters, in which in new authors can win a publishing contract by using their site to publish the first three chapters of their book. You can read more about the contest in this article or visit their web site here. The winner will be published by an imprint of Simon and Schuster, Inc.
Read an LA Times Op-Ed piece on the demise of the independent bookstore here.
