Snippets

Lots of goodies for WU readers this week:

Just in case this opportunity got lost over the weekend, I’ll repeat it again. Pat Walsh, editor at MacAdam/Cage Publishing, is actively looking for submissions.

Thanks so much and please let your readership know that MacAdam/Cage is once again accepting unsolicited manuscripts and we are actively seeking great books from the slush. We are also going to try and give as much feedback as we can.

MacAdam/Cage publishes an eclectic mix of literary and commercial fiction. If you’re a writer who writes outside the box, this is a great opportunity. The feedback offer is the gold here. A rejection is a rejection, but a publishing professional give feedback on why you’ve garnered the rejection is priceless.

WU contributor and best-selling author Barbara Samuel’s offer of critiques to raise money for breast cancer is also another tremendous opportunity for priceless feedback by a published author.

WU reader Chris Eldin has a promising new blog in Book Roast. From the Roast’s home page:

Each week we’re open for business, Book Roast cooks up five authors from different genres. Stop by to hear about their books, jump in the oven and poke them with a meat thermometer to see if they’re done.
Your menu selections for June:

Weirdly, Bernita Harris – June 23
Souvenir, Therese Fowler – June 24
Head Case, Dennis Cass – June 25
The Roofer, Erica Orloff – June 26
Queen of the Road, Doreen Orion – June 27

Yesterday’s post features a brief excerpt and some, er, thought-provoking questions to ask yourself after reading. You’ll get a kick, a fork, something out of it, we promise.

In other blog news, Writer Beware cautious all of us against the FieldReport Award for True-Life Stories. If you’re interested in entering this contest, read HERE to fully understand what it’ll mean for you and your rights.

Writer’s Digest editor Brian Klems answers the question you want answered: Are agents stealing my stamps? Check it out HERE at Questions and Quandaries.

More business news after the jump.

JK Rowling’s prequel to Harry Potter, written to benefit a charity, sold for nearly 50k at auction recently.

Chick lit becomes lit-prize worthy in the UK (HERE).

Amazon continues to antagonize the UK’s small presses while battling over cuts of the profit pie by disabling the “buy it now” option.

“The buy button is their weapon of choice and that’s how they impose market discipline,” said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, an American trade group that also briefly lost the buy icon, for titles sold from BackinPrint.com, a print-on-demand service for infrequently purchased works. “This is such a clear indication that once they have the clout they are willing to use it to the full extent that they can. It’s ugly with Amazon and will probably get uglier.”

Amazon is saying little about its tactics. But bloggers have been organizing letter-writing campaigns and petition drives accusing Amazon, which bills itself as “Earth’s most customer-centric company,” of transforming itself into the bully of the publishing industry.

More HERE.

This is interesting: Author Paula Coelho and MySpace are going to work together on a movie adaptation of his novel The Witch of Portobello.

Using the ‘mash-up’ video concept, Coelho will transform his most recent book, The Witch of Portobello, which HarperCollins published last year, into a feature film using original videos and music created and submitted by MySpace users. Coelho will select up to 15 videos and 16 songs to be included in the final film. Coelho will own the film, and distribution of the final product has not yet been set.

More HERE.

A little creepy: A locket that experts believe contains some of Jane Austen’s hair is going to be sold at auction. More HERE.

And will James McAvoy, so stunning in Atonement, be cast to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit? (That’s his pic at the top of the post.) Check out the Fantasy SF Blog HERE.

Keep checking back with us as we have other goodies coming down the pipeline you won’t want to miss.