I missed a couple of walker Wednesdays there, so here’s a lovely bit of Lego fan art. It’s one of the German scout walkers from Chapter 18 of Leviathan:
Cool, huh? It’s by Jonathen Haney.
It makes me stupidly happy that this piece is roughly the same scale as the Lego Stormwalker I showed you here back in January, because they both use the same-size little Lego peoples! So they could, like, fight each other.
I have much more Leviathan fan art waiting to get shown, so here are a couple of bonus pieces. WARNING, some have been ganked from the internets without permission!
Here’s Deryn, as drawn by Deviant Art’s Comicker Girl:
In terms of composition, these are taken pretty much straight from the book, which makes it kind of interesting to see how the two drawing styles differ. I like how all the clothing details pop in this version.
Here’s Alek and Deryn, by Deviant Art’s Polymath13:
I assume this is Chapter 35, where Alek tells Deryn how his parents met. The funny thing is, Keith and I had considered illustrating this scene. But it got very tricky, emotion-wise, which is why we went with the more abstract pocket watch image. It’s great to see someone draw this sort of missing scene.
And now for you Midnighters fans, this is a lovely piece by giuly chan, a little ariel kissing between Jonathan and Jessica:
Make sure to click here for a bigger version.
Starting today and for all of March, Leviathan will be the featured book on Readergirlz.
For those of you who don’t know the site, Readergirlz is a YA and middle-grade book reviews, chats, and inside scoops. Read their manifesta page for more.
For the whole month the site will have features about me and Leviathan, and I’ll be doing a chat there on March 17 (US time):
Hope you get a chance to check it out.
In other news, Leviathan has been short-listed for the Andre Norton Award for outstanding young adult science fiction or fantasy book published in 2009. w00t, and congrats to all the other nominees:
Hotel Under the Sand, Kage Baker
Ice, Sarah Beth Durst
Ash, Malinda Lo
Eyes Like Stars, Lisa Mantchev
Zoe’s Tale, John Scalzi
When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland, Catherynne M. Valente
Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld
And breaking news: Leviathan has also been short-listed for the Indie Next Book Award for 2010. Let the w00ting be redoubled!
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
Going Bovine, by Libba Bray (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)
If I Stay, by Gayle Forman (Dutton Juvenile)
Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld, Keith Thompson (illus.) (Simon Pulse)
Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic)
Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson (Viking Juvenile)
Reminder: Don’t forget, Sydneysiders, that I’ll be launching Foz Meadows‘ debut novel, Solace and Grief this Sunday, March 7. Click here for details.
Last week there was a short piece in MTV News’s Hollywood Crush last week about the Uglies movie. Let me quote it:
Industry sources have confirmed to MTV News exclusively that Screen Gems, in the wake of the success of its current release “Dear John,” is developing — and in fact, fast tracking (!) — a film version of “The Uglies” series.
While there haven’t been any decisions made regarding things like casting yet, we can tell you that our source said production of the movie is planned for later this year. That means we will all hopefully know soon enough who could be playing the beloved teen Tally Youngblood in the futuristic, meaningful tale about a dystopian society that places an incredible emphasis on looks.
Emphasis theirs. Here’s the rest.
In the words of my Hollywood agent, fast-tracking means, “it’s on the list of projects that they are hoping to make vs. the ones that will never see the light of day.” In other words, this is not a done deal. But it’s a lot better than being in that other, not-so-fast-tracked pile.
Now, some of you are no doubt asking about casting at this point. STOP! I’m the wrong person to ask. Trust me, if I hear anything I will tell you here on this blog, on FB, and on the Twitter machine. But in the meantime, I have nothing to do with casting movies.
If it were up to me, you would all get to play Tally for exactly three seconds of screen time. (And this would be why it’s not up to me.)
Plus, I doubt it’s as far along as this article makes it sound. Like, the casting isn’t going on right now. Probably.
Watch this space for more.
In other news!
If you live in Sydney, you can catch me at the launch for Foz Meadow’s debut novel, Solace and Grief.
It’s about a girl named Solace who has grown up in foster care her whole life, and who’s always realize that’s she’s kind of . . . different. She doesn’t like the sun, she’s wicked strong, and if she concentrates really hard, she can hear a conversation two blocks over. Then someone starts invading Solace’s dreams, and things get really complicated from there.
It looks like this:
Here’s the launch deets:
Sunday, March 7
12:30PM
Kinokuniya Bookstore
Level 2, Galeries Victoria
500 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000
I’ll be giving a wee speech about how cool this book is. Of course, I’ll be more than happy to see you guys there and say hi. But please remember that this is Foz’s party, not mine, so buy her book!
It comes out in Australia on March 1. When it finds a US publisher, I’ll let you know.
And finally!
Sorry that I missed the latest Forum Meet-Up. It was scheduled for early Sunday morning, Sydney time, and I woke up ill. Too ill to type!
But I hope you all had fun. I’ll try to check out the questions you left me, and answer some of them here on the blog.
My apologies again.
Here I am posting without any cool ideas in my head. Just news:
ONE
Team Toshi Banana tells me that there will be another Forum Meet-Up soon! The last one was awesome, with about a hundred people showing up. (Seventy-eight at one time was the record.)
Meet-Up Number 2 will be this Saturday, February 13th, at 5:00 pm EST (US time). That’s 9AM Sunday morning here in Sydney, so I may be a little late.
The Forum is reached by clicking the word “Forum” on the menu bar above. I KNOW YOU CAN FIND IT. (Argh, okay, here’s a link.)
TWO
This will be sad news for some of you: It appears as though the Midnighters TV show will not be going to pilot. In other words, NBC doesn’t like the scripts they’ve come up with, so they aren’t going ahead with the show.
My guess is that this is because TV-land is obsessed with making everyone 20-something, and Midnighters doesn’t actually make sense with 20-somethings. Because staying up till midnight when you’re 27 is PURE DEAD MAGICAL! I discuss this sad phenomenon in hilarious detail here.
To be fair, this is just a guess. I only bring it up because the marvelous Ally Carter’s Heist Society has just been optioned by Hollywood, and they’re making everyone older—in their 20’s.
Note that Ally doesn’t seem to mind, and that I haven’t read HS yet, because it only arrived in in stores, like, THIS WEEK, so maybe aging it up is okay. But I just want to know from you teens out there . . .
WHAT DID YOU DO TO HOLLYWOOD? IT’S LIKE THEY hate YOU!
And I’m sure it’s your fault.
Okay, that’s it for today, except . . .
THREE
Walker Wednesday!
Many of you didn’t know much about steampunk before reading Leviathan. So I should salute you for your bravery (and faith in me as a writer), because you forged ahead and read it anyway. Yay, you.
But even now, some of you possibly don’t realize how big steampunk is. It has books and bands and games, along with a huge visual culture of jewelry shops, clothing stores, mad inventors, sculptors, and artists. Enough to fill a museum.
Um, literally. Below is a video from the Oxford Museum of the History of Science, which is currently hosting a steampunk exhibition that looks positively awesome.
For all you in the UK, it’s on until February 21. If I could make it, I would totally be there.
Enjoy here, or head over to YouTube to see it in slightly larger form.
Hey, and there are more videos from the show here.
Here’s my new button for anyone who wants to buy my latest novel, Leviathan. Just select whatever retailer you want: Barnes & Noble, Indie Bound, Books a Million, Borders, Buy.com, Overstock.com, Powell’s, or Walmart.
Yep, that’s all of them.
Well, almost all of them. For reasons discussed here, there’s no Amazon link anymore. Sorry for any inconvenience, but trust me, it’s not as annoying for you as it is for the hundreds of authors who’ve had their income decimated by Amazon.
So, yes, I’ll steadily be deleting links to Amazon wherever they occur on this site. Making changes to code is my least favorite kind of internet fiddling to do, and I’ll getting more and more annoyed as I go.
I’m sure Amazon intends to re-friend Macmillan at some point, but I assure you, it will take me even longer to put these buttons back than it did to remove them all. This won’t starve either me or Jeff Bezos, but it’s the little things that count.
Update: On the afternoon of Friday, Feb 5, US time, Amazon at least re-listed the print versions of Macmillan titles. (Not the Kindle versions, apparently. But hey, that’s what being negotiated, so it makes at least some sense to have them down.) So Amazon’s entire snit fit was one week long.
As for those who question my use of the word “decimated,” it literally means to reduce by 10%, which is roughly the percentage of books that sell through Amazon. (Well okay, it literally means to reduce by 10% by execution, but still . . . )
In consideration for this re-listing by Amazon, my links to them will be restored in, let’s say, a week times the number of friends I have who publish with Macmillan. About half a year from now.
This is a bit out my usual blogging style, as it concerns technical aspects of the publishing biz. Feel free to ignore it and look at Stormwalkers made of Legos. But as an author, I have to keep up with these things, and occasionally make my opinion known.
This weekend, Amazon more or less “de-friended” one of the six big US publishers, Macmillan. They removed the buy buttons from all Macmillan books as part of an ongoing conflict about electronic book pricing. Many people are quite annoyed with Amazon, and a few are also blaming Macmillan, in a “pox on both your houses” kind of way. But I think a lot of people are uttering total yackum on the subject.
So let me attempt to set the record straight, as best I know how.
Stage 1: Amazon prices ALL its Kindle e-books at $9.99 or less. This becomes a selling point for Kindle, as new hardback books can cost up to $27. In some cases, Amazon is actually paying the publisher MORE than $9.99 per copy sold, and losing money. But, hey, Amazon has stacks of cash, and it’s a way to sell more Kindles. “Loss-leading,” as it’s called, is a fairly common practice. It’s a way to get people into the store, to leverage other products, etc. Plus, books are commonly discounted well below suggested price.
My Verdict: I don’t hate anyone yet, but I’m kind of sad. Losing money on every book sold is a very aggressive form of pricing, which indie bookstores will never be able to match. This is not going to be great for my bookseller allies in the physical world, where many of my readers (especially the youngest) like to get their books.
Stage 2: Macmillan (and many other publishers, to be sure, but let’s stick with Macmillan for simplicity of narrative) suggests to Amazon that they raise their Kindle-edition prices. Macmillan is worried that e-books are being devalued, and that customers will always expect this discount forever, when it’s currently being propped up by Amazon’s crazy-internet-bubble stacks of cash. Macmillan is also worried that normal bookstores, made of bricks and mortar, will take a hit as sales are lost to much cheaper electronic editions. These are difficult times for bookstores, and we (authors, readers, and publishers) all want a diverse bookselling ecology that includes chains and indies, as well as online and physical bookstores.
Macmillan also suggest something called the “agency model” to calculate what cut Amazon gets. I will not bore you with details, but it does change the way profits are divided between Amazon and Macmillan.
My Verdict: I still don’t hate anyone. It’s far-sighted of Macmillan (etc.) to take the needs of their smaller allies into account, rather than just saying, “Hey, Amazon’s selling at a loss, and we get to keep out usual profit! FTW!” (By the way, I know this is merely self-interest on Macmillan’s part, but at least it’s enlightened self interest, which is what I mean by “far-sighted”.) As for the agency model, Macmillan is certainly allowed to suggest new business arrangements to Amazon. As a bonus, it’s all fairly polite so far, or at least it hasn’t affected those of us on the outside world.
Stage 3: Amazon says, “Nope. We set out own prices. And we like the cut we’re getting now.”
My Verdict: Okay, I still don’t hate anyone. Amazon has the right to set prices (even if the pricing seems predatory to, say, an indie bookstore going through tough times) and to negotiate for the cut they’re taking. If they want to burn their own money to make electronic books cheaper, I may shake my head for the future, but I can’t stop them.
Stage 4: Macmillan says, “Fine, if you’re going to do that, we’re going to ‘deeply window’ our electronic editions.” In other words, Macmillan will delay the release date of electronic editions (Kindle editions in particular) so that they don’t cannibalize the more profitable hardcover sales.
My Verdict: This is cool with me. Publishers have always delayed lower-priced editions, like paperbacks, until the people who will pay $27 for a shiny new book have coughed up their money. This is not an evil strategy. It’s common with many products—clothing, music, gadgets, prescription medicine—early adopters pay more. Why? Because they’re the ones paying to defray the creation costs. (Which is ME!) Once that’s been done, later adopters can pay less by buying last year’s stuff (and cheap knock-offs). We’ve been lucky in publishing, because we have a physical distinction between what we sell early and late adopters (hardcovers and paperbacks). But this is not a given. In fact, in many industries, the reverse is true. (A later generation iPhone is both cheaper and better. A later, cheaper DVD release often has more extras on it.)
Many Kindle owners will get angry at this point, because they want to read new books NOW, not when the paperback comes out. But should they really be mad at Macmillan? As I said, publishers get to stage their pricing, starting high and gradually lowering it, to cover the costs of acquisition, editing, marketing, etc. And Macmillan would love to release its Kindle editions right away, but not at the risk of undercutting its hardcover sales and its physical bookstore allies. By insisting on low prices, Amazon has forcibly turned its Kindle customers into people who haunt the bargain basement and wear last year’s jeans. These customers simply didn’t realize this was happening, because Amazon’s industry muscle and huge stacks of cash were subsidizing them all along.
Stage 5: Amazon de-lists Macmillan, removing all buy buttons from both electronic and physical books from the publisher. This is done unilaterally, without warning or explanation (and on a Friday afternoon, when, supposedly, fewer people will notice). This deprives not only Macmillan but also their authors of both income and the accessibility of their works to readers.
My Verdict: I call SHENANIGANS!
Some have likened this de-listing as a “shock and awe” campaign, a stunning display of muscle power from an industry leader (or proto-monopoly). But I think it’s a bit more pathetic than that. It reminds me more of an educational film from an old Simpsons episode, the one with the tagline, “Sorry, Jimmy, but you said you wanted to live in a world without zinc!”
It’s like Macmillan woke up on an otherwise fine Saturday morning, and there was no more Amazon! Wow, that‘ll teach you to negotiate, rather than just caving.
Of course, in this case, zinc blinked. Amazon has admitted that they will re-list Macmillan, because an online bookstore that sells only five-sixths of all books is somewhat useless.
So to the “a pox on both your houses, Macmillan and Amazon” crowd, I must say that I think your analysis is lazy. This is not a case of two corporations pissing down on us mere mortals with equal disdain; it’s a case of complex negotiations in an ancient industry with many arcane traditions that’s in a state of technological flux, being conducted at a level which the overwhelming majority of readers do not understand (nor should they have to), and which were going along in a way that made, frankly, perfect sense to those of us who understand this industry a little, when suddenly, out of the blue, one of the sides in this negotiation spat their pacifier across the room in a very public and embarrassing display of petulance. And that corporation was Amazon.
Yes, Amazon gets to set whatever prices it wants. (Free market!) But guess what, Macmillan also gets to release its electronic editions later if it feels simultaneous release is not in its best interests and those of its allies. (Free market again, sir!) And yes, Amazon gets to de-list an entire publisher if it wants to, even on a whim. But that’s a massive free market fail, because authors, customers, and publishers start to hate them, and they have to back down two days later. And that’s really the end of it: their strategy failed, because the rest of us can call shenanigans and take our business elsewhere.
Oh, wait, except Kindle owners . . .
________
A quick note: All discussions of this event will draw commenters who think they magically know how books should be priced, and who say there is no reason for electronic editions to be more than $9.99. A quick note to them: You don’t know what you’re talking about. Seriously, your back-of-the-envelope calculations are crap. The printing costs of a book are generally between 3% and 10% of list price. So in most cases, 10% should be your “first-printing” e-book discount, not 50%. That may seem weird to you, but that’s because all the cheap stuff on the internet is backlist (like Baen Books), subsidized/coerced (like Amazon), self-published (no editing or marketing costs), or promotional (like when I gave Uglies away for free). Yes, the “long tail” of backlist books may become very cheap, or free, but not the new stuff, which is what this discussion is all about. (UPDATE: Also, see comments 1 and 9.)
And full disclosure: Most of my books, and the vast majority of my sales, are with publishers other than Macmillan. But two, The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds, are Tor books, a Macmillan imprint. They are, however, still available on Amazon due to their bargain bin status. *sobs*
Update: Regarding the last line of the post proper, I have been reminded that Kindle owners can put non-Amazon books on their readers. But much of the utility of the Kindle comes from the instant, wireless purchases, which are only through Amazon. So the point stands, but only partly.
Update 2:
According to commenters, certain Kindle books are priced higher than $9.99. Those aren’t the books this issue is about, really, but for the sake of completeness, it is duly noted.
Tobias Buckell is wicked smart about this kerfuffle. Read his take here. Also, go buy his books.
Charles Stross is smart about, um, everything. Here’s his take.
PS
Hey, Amazon. When cutting off publishers, don’t start with the one that has the most science fiction writers. We will blog you dead!
It’s Saturday here in Australia, but it’s always time for Fan Art Friday! Especially when we have such awesome Leviathan-inspired art.
Check out this beautiful Lego Stormwalker from Sam Hinz:
Yes, that’s Alek, Volger, and Klopp (left to right) hanging out at the bottom of the picture.
And now some more glorious views:
And here, for reference, is Keith’s original version:
Okay, that was awesome. Lego Leviathan, anyone?
Every year, the Australian speculative fiction (that is, science fiction, fantasy, and horror) community comes together for the Aurealis Awards. This year, Leviathan was nominated in the YA category, and won!
My speech was a bit shambolic, but here’s everyone I should have thanked:
Congrats to all the other winners and nominees (click here for a list), especially Cat Sparks, who won the YA short story category for her story “Seventeen.”
The award itself made of curved glass, and so is fiendishly hard to photograph. I’ve been trying and failing all afternoon. So here’s the picture I took with my phone on the night, lit by tiny lightsabers (long story), and showing the audience for the ceremony filing out in the background. It’s more interesting than anything I’ve done under controlled circumstances.
Event News
For those of you in Adelaide, I’ll be appearing virtually at the Royal Institution of Australia’s Science Exchange Book Club this week. If you’ve read Leviathan, come and join in the discussion. I’ll drop in through iChat or skype, so I can’t sign books, I’m afraid. But I’ll try to answer any questions generated by the discussion.
Leviathan at the Science Exchange
Wednesday, 27 January, 2010
6:00-7:30PM
55 Exchange Pl
Adelaide SA 5000
Admission is free, but book ahead.
Four Five things to talk about here, starting with an appearance! (UPDATE!)
Thing One
Leviathan has been nominated for an Aurealis Award, so Justine and I are headed up to Brisbane this weekend for the ceremony. We’ll also be doing an appearance at Pulp Fiction Books on Saturday at 11:30AM.
But it’s not just us. A whole crew of SF and fantasy writers will be descending that day. Check out this list:
Pulp Fiction
Shops 28-29
Anzac Square Arcade265-269 Edward St
Brisbane QLD 4000 (map)
(07) 3236 2750
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Trudi Canavan and Kaaron Warren, 10:30-11:30
Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld and Sean Williams, 11:30-12:30
Karen Miller and Glenda Larke, 12:30-1:30
Pamela Freeman and Katie Taylor, 2:30-3:30
It’s all very informal. Just come by and say hello. Brings books to be signed or buy them in the store. (You can also buy tickets to the award ceremony that night.)
Thing Two
I haz a wine:
My lovely Oz publisher, Penguin Australia, gave this to me. It’s a Barolo Valley Shiraz, if you’re interested.
Thing Three
Keith Thompson, illustrator of Leviathan, haz a sketchbook for iPhone, which you can buy at the iTunes Store. It looks like this:
None of these images are from Leviathan, but they are in color. It’s a nifty little collector’s item.
Thing Four
Congrats to everyone who took home Printz and Newberry Honors yesterday!
Special congrats go to Libba Bray, who won the Michael L. Printz Award for 2009’s Best YA, for Going Bovine. And Rebecca Stead, who won the Newberry for When You Reach Me.
Let the w00ting commence!
Thing Five
For all you non-monoglots out there, here’s an interview with me in Spanish.
Another, in Italian, is coming soon.
As you can see, my website has had its first makeover in many years. This is to celebrate the fact that my first new series in years, Leviathan, comes out this autumn. (October 6, to be exact.)
Things may be wonky for a while as we play around under the hood. But I hope you enjoy the new look. Let me know what you think!
Click here to contact Scott Westerfeld.
Jill Grinberg
Jill Grinberg Literary Management
244 5th Avenue, 11th floor
New York, NY 10001
212-620-5883
info@grinbergliterary.com
