Sunday, May 25, 2014

Amazon vs. Hachette Book Group

Has everyone seen the articles going across the interwebs, the Twitter and Facebook posts, etc. about the feud going on between Amazon and the publishing company, Hachette Book Group? If you have, what do you think about it?

For those of you who haven't, I will post a couple of links at the bottom of this post for you to get caught up, but for now, this is basically what is going on:

Amazon and Hachette could not come up with an agreement on pricing verses the amount of discounts that were going to be given. Amazon prides themselves on a few things. One of them being pretty fast shipping without the high cost, and the low prices of their books. From what I gather, Amazon is trying to get bigger discounts for Hachette books. The two sides are not agreeing, so what did Amazon do? A few things. At first, they were removing the buy buttons from e-books, then they were making shipping time up to 5 weeks. And then, the biggest thing in my opinion, they stopped selling books that were published by Hachette Book Group. Before they stopped offering them altogether, they were raising prices drastically. One book could be found on Barnes and Noble for $17, but when you searched for the same book on Amazon, it was found to be $25.20. Outrageous, right?

Childish? I think so. They can't come up with an agreement, so they do something drastic. Amazon is basically saying, "If you don't give us what WE want, we will take it all away from you."

Who is the real victim here though? Authors.

The people who chose and accepted to be published by Hachette Book Group are now losing their profits due to Amazon being so childish and removing their books. When more than one party is involved, there are always better answers.

My question to all of you, what is your opinion? What could have been done differently? Do you think they will be able to come up with an agreement? Do you think Hachette Book Group will have to give in?

Please let me know what everyone thinks.




Articles:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/authors-publishers-say-feud-with-amazon-has-escalated/2014/05/23/03bea8d6-e2b5-11e3-810f-764fe508b82d_story.html

http://seattle.cityandpress.com/node/7824182


Monday, May 12, 2014

Do You Read YA Novels?

Hello, everyone!

I believe a lot of us read different genres throughout our lives, but we always have one genre we always go back to. For me, I absolutely love YA novels/teenage novels. The Twilight Saga, Divergent, The Hunger Games series, etc. For some reason, I always go back to the same genre. I gravitate to though "Young Adult" section at the bookstores and libraries. Do you feel this way about a certain genre? Which genre is it?

My next question is, do you read YA novels? In case you are unaware, I am 26 years old, which is considered a young adult, but in the book world I think of YA novels as teenagers or preteens. Do you think the same way? Why do you suppose that we, who are older than the preteen/teenagers that the YA novels are "meant" for, want to always read them?

My reason for this post is because while I was reading my June addition of Cosmo, there was an article in there by John Green (Author of The Fault in Our Stars) about YA novels and why adults always seem to go back to those books time after time, and if we are too old to read YA novels.

My take: No, we will never been too old to read YA novels. They are interesting. Give you real life situations. They are emotional and powerful and for some reason, give you the warmth that other books do not seem to give. At least for me.

John speaks in his article (which could be read here) about pretty much the same thing I said. We will never be too old to read YA novels, and the reason we do is because we can relate to them. Sometime in our life, past or present, we have felt the way the young adults our YA authors write about. We have felt lost, confused, unloved, betrayed. Being able to FEEL in a book, is the best kind of book.

Do not get me wrong, any other genre can make you feel, and can have confusion, not feeling loved, betrayal, etc. But there is just something about a YA novel that gives it a different feel than other genres.

What do all of you think? Am I completely crazy, or do you think the same thing I do? Do you read YA novels, and if you do not, can you tell me why?

I am interested in hearing all of your thoughts, opinions and ideas!


Always a book worm,

Steph




Sunday, May 4, 2014

Book Cover Reveal: Starlight Saga by Sherry Soule

BOOK COVER REVEAL

Today bestselling author, Sherry Soule has some exciting news to share with us! She will be publishing a brand new Upper YA / Sci-Fi romance series: the “Starlight Saga” with scorching-hot character chemistry, exciting suspense, and epic romance on June 26, 2014.
To help promote this interstellar love story, “LOST IN STARLIGHT,” Sherry is doing this fun guest post to share the news with fellow booklovers.

Please mark your calendars to buy your copy of LOST IN STARLIGHT on June 26th 2014!
VOLUME ONE: Starlight Saga
Is a star-crossed romance worth sacrificing your own life?
High school senior Sloane Masterson lives a quiet existence. She has awesome friends, gets excellent grades, and writes a column for the Haven Gazette. But her life goes from dullsville to bizarro when she witnesses mysterious loner Hayden Lancaster performing some freaky superhuman feats.
Like any good journalist, Sloane sets out to uncover the truth, and she’s not above stalking. But one look into Hayden’s remarkable eyes, and she’s crushing hard.
Even at the swoonworthy hunk’s insistence that hanging out with girls like Sloane is “off limits” by his strange family, she can’t resist him or wanting to solve the mystery.
Things get really complicated when a beautiful alien sets her sights on Hayden—and this devious girl’s not looking for a green card!
Now Sloane’s dealing with creepy government agents, über snobby extraterrestrials, and getting a crash course on the rules of interstellar dating. As their diverse worlds collide and the romantic sparks fly, Sloane must decide if Hayden’s secrets are worth risking her life to protect.
Places you can cyberstalk Sherry Soule:
Twitter @SherrySoule: http://twitter.com/SherrySoule


New Blog

Hello followers! First, let me say sorry yet again that I have not been very active on my blog site. The reason for that is because I have...