This Week In Books
Saturday November 11, 2023 Edition
This Week In Books: Publishing is changing, rich white men are misbehaving, introverts are having their (unwanted) moment in the spotlight, BookTok bans, Sexy Dragons are winning at everything, and more.
Me, with my Saturday morning read and my coffee just the way I like it: black like my dragon-loving heart.
It’s been a week, y’all. We’re coming in hot. Maybe because of hot flashes. Maybe because it’s still seventy degrees in the south. Who knows. Life is mysterious. So is the book biz. And nothing can capture the delightfully unpredictable and erratic nature of publishing nearly so well as this oldie but goldie video of Jimmy Fallon as Jim Morrison singing the Reading Rainbow theme song. You’re welcome:
The Future Is Vague and Murky: At least that’s what Esquire would have us believe. The consensus with, well everybody, is that book publishing is changing. With major publishers being sold to private equity (Simon & Schuster) or getting rid of imprints (Random House phasing out Anchor) and general upheaval in the industry, everything is on unsteady ground. All the traditional ways of marketing books are losing steam and nobody has a roadmap for a successful book launch these days. Everybody hopes for a celebrity book club pick but those spots are few and hard to get. The book community that began on the platform formerly known as Twitter has fractured and splintered onto multiple social media platforms. And yes, all of this is true. But we don’t intend to stand idly by and watch. Part of what we are trying to do here at The Book Tide is create our own book community where word of mouth and honest recommendations actually make a difference to everyone–readers, writers, books (you know… a rising tide… and all that jazz). It is why we chose Substack as our platform and why we have some great things planned for the new year. Stay tuned.
The Chief’s Chief gets sued: Publishers have been known to pull a book from publication for various reasons, but this is a new one. All Seasons Press is suing Mark Meadows, chief of staff for former President Trump, for making claims in his book, The Chief’s Chief, and then later making statements to special counsel Jack Smith that contradict those claims.They are seeking the return of his $350,000 advance and over $1 million in damages. It seems that ASP was completely fine with the claims of election fraud, but balked when they got wind that Meadows wouldn’t stand behind those claims under prosecution. ASP doesn’t know exactly what kind of deal Mark Meadows made and is basing its lawsuit on media reports. Meadows claims that the news is greatly exaggerated. Mr. Meadows, it seems like you would have been better off sticking to fiction…oh wait….
Rebecca Yarros is riding her dragons to the bank: And good for her! Yarros is the living embodiment of all of our favorite literary tropes. Underdog. Upstart. Everyman. Rabble Rouser (she’s a hockey mom so you know she’d be good in a fight). We have routinely gushed about the breakout hit romantasy, Fourth Wing. And it looks like the sequel, Iron Flame, is set to do just as well. The New York Times profiled Rebecca Yarros this week and came to the same conclusion we did: she’s a lovely person and a genuine rockstar. More dragons please. (Said using our best Christopher Walken impression).
Ssshhhh, I’m introverting over here: Move aside book clubs, with your “official selections” and “discussion questions”, silent book clubs are all the rage. The gist is a bunch of introverts get together to read a book of their own choosing and then talk about them. Or not. Because, you know, introverts. Truthfully, this sounds like my whole high school experience. Leave me alone, I’m reading.
Rich White Men Misbehaving: A new tell-all book, The Fund, goes behind the scenes of hedge-fund mogul Ray Dalio. Let’s just say the book does not paint good ol’ Ray in a flattering light. See the New York Times book review here. Of course his company Bridgewater had a lot to say about the portrayal of its former leader as did Dalio himself. If you like boardroom intrigue and exposés of rich men behaving badly this is the book for you. Me, I am tired of these tyrannical men getting all the attention, it’s time for us tyrannical ladies to shoot through that particular glass ceiling. I’m going to use this as a playbook to enact psychological warfare on my employees. I’m eagerly awaiting a tell-all expose on my management style. Now, all I need is to find me some employees.
The FTC agrees with writers: The Federal Trade Commision weighs in on AI. The gist? AI “may violate copyright laws” and “exploits a creator’s reputation” or could possibly “diminishes the value of her existing or future works”. This is in response to a request for comment from the US Copyright Office which is still mulling over its decision. This promises to be a long drawn out battle of rights. Honestly, I feel like we could settle this faster the old fashioned way: a sunrise duel to avenge the honor of besmirched authors everywhere.
Louisa May Alcott is as good as Gould: A researcher uncovered short stories, poems and a non-fiction work he suspects were written by Alcott under the pseudonym E.H. Gould. Alcott is most famous for writing Little Women, but was known to have written other works under different names. And while we were hoping that these newly discovered works were the romantic, salacious stories written by her main character, Jo, in Little Women, we are left to puzzle over an (imaginary) dead dude with feelings. As you do.
BookTok is a fickle mistress: Authors such as Colleen Hoover, Alex Aster, Leah Bardugo and Rebecca Yarros have reaped the benefits of the book community on TikTok (see Alex Aster’s interview on GMA where she mentions creating her own entry into publishing with TikTok, or Rebecca Yarros discovering a fanbase for Fourth Wing). But the ole ‘Tok can be a two-edged sword when fans suddenly turn against an author. Best selling self published author, Tillie Cole, removed several of her books this week after the last book in her dark romance series, Hades Hangmen, caused a stir. It features a love story between “an heir of the Ku Klux Klan” and the “daughter of a Mexican cartel boss”. The book was published in 2019 and had, until recently, enjoyed glowing reviews on GoodReads. But a public campaign has caused Cole to scrub the whole series from publication and her website. Methinks “dark romance” might have been the understated trigger warning of the year.
The Velveteen Rabbit is coming to the small screen: AppleTV made The Velveteen Rabbit into a movie. The beloved childhood classic, originally published in 1922, is about a toy’s quest to become real through the love of a child. And this adaptation promises to bring all the joy and wonder of the original story to the small screen. I am looking forward to its release on November 22. And after watching that trailer…I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Speaking of rabbits that will make you cry. A new graphic novel edition of Watership Down was published last month. If you also had a mother who read the classic Richard Adams novel to you as a child, if you fell asleep to the warm perfect timbre of her voice, and have spent the rest of your life wondering what Hazel and Fiver and Bigwig are up to now (because all beloved literary characters live forever), then this is the book for you. The artwork is beautiful. And it also happens to be a perfect, and entirely safe way to introduce your kids to the complexities of war, loss, and trauma. I mean who doesn’t want to understand the importance of WWII through the dramatic lives of anthropomorphized rabbits?
Barnes and Noble Book of The Year finalists: B&N released its list of the top 12 books of 2023. How many of them have you read? Which one was your favorite and why was it Fourth Wing? (Duh. Dragons).
Catch Up with Ariel over at I’m So Glad You Asked.
See what Marybeth is up to at I Will Tell You This.
I have not read the dragon series but I loved another dragon series--with female pirates!--by Gayle Carline.
You 👏🏻 ladies 👏🏻 are 👏🏻 on 👏🏻 it! 👏🏻