- Brought to you by my annual winter sinus infection. Boo.
- In what appears to be a game of giant corporate chicken, Amazon has apparently yanked all Macmillan books off its site because of an e-book pricing dispute (meaning the publisher wants the ability to set more favorable pricing, just as it will have in the new iBookstore). See: Scalzi's spot-on commentary and more from Carolyn at Jacket Copy. I think we all remember from such classic films as Footloose and Grease that chicken played because of desperation/iPad rage/bullying never ends well for the instigator. Also, anyone know how much of Amazon's pie even comes from books these days?
- Liz Hand on Patti Smith's new memoir Just Kids at the Wash Post.
- Real time blogging from the SCBWI conference taking place this weekend, full of great tidbits.
- More reminders about why the ocean is a terrifying place full of MONSTERS. (We should really explore that place–we barely even know what's down there.) (MORE MONSTERS.) (Although ghost shrimp is pretty cute.)
- Via Leila some news about the third Monster Blood Tattoo book, along with the news that the series is being renamed and repackaged here in the states (sifting through the fan site, I believe the new overall title is Tales from the Half-Continent). These are wonderful books, and I hope it works. There was a small discussion about repackaging on twitter awhile back centered on Derek Landy's also wonderful Skulduggery Pleasant books, which haven't found as large an audience here yet as they have in the UK. (And which were part of a pricey deal.) Anyway, what I began to wonder is: Does this same kind of rebranding effort ever happen with fairly recent releases in adult books? Or if an adult book/series doesn't do as well as the publisher hoped do they automatically just write it off as a flop and then give it a new cover and smaller run in paperback or not put it in paperback at all? I couldn't think of any adult book examples of this type of repackaging off the top of my head. Which actually says good things about children's lit as a marketplace to me, as it indicates less of a willingness to bolt and a greater confidence in the material. But perhaps I'm being naive (and yes, I know that some books just get written off as flops in kid lit too, but I'm glad to see at least two series I love getting the extra effort). Also, wonder if these repackages ever make a big difference? Your comments and conspiracy theories welcome.