#i mean the only books i've released are ebooks

[not-poignant]

For t/f: I assume you’re a huge advocate for physical books over ebooks??

False!

~

Ebooks are hugely accessible, and as someone with massive RSI issues in my wrists (partly from writing), holding heavy books and the repetition of turning pages can be literally agonising, and can even lead to me needing surgery one day for tendon release.

I do love physical books, and I have a large collection that I'm very proud of, and weed on a yearly basis. But I absolutely am not an advocate for them over ebooks, let alone a huge one. Ebooks have been such a game-changer for anyone with accessibility issues.

Readers no longer have to rely on publishers being grudgingly generous enough to offer books in large fonts if they have visual processing issues. They can change the font (most of the time) on an e-reader. Readers no longer have to lug around extremely heavy nonfiction books, and can save their backs and wrists. Readers who live in very small or cramped spaces because of poverty or other reasons no longer have to deal with 'where do I keep all these books' because some of them (or all of them) can be ebooks. Also, almost always - with mostly the exception of some university texts - they're cheaper. What a win!

On an accessibility level, ebooks win every time, especially now that we have so many lighting options so that people don't have to put up with backlight etc. anymore. They highlight just how previously ableist the publishing industry has been around visual accessibility and joint strain accessibility.

So I'm mostly a hardcore advocate of people reading how they want to read. A hybrid mix. Only audio. Only ebook. Only paperbacks. Only hardbacks. Some combination of the four.

I love the smell of books, but I don't love the dust. I love having them organised in my library, but I don't love the eternal problem of never really having enough room. I love my ebook collection, but I sometimes forget to check into it. I love that I can get very large nonfiction tomes in ebook form, but sometimes I find them harder to highlight etc. because there's something visceral to me about dragging a highlighter or pencil across a page. Everything has its pros and cons.

But ebooks beat out literally everything else except audio for accessibility (though I can't do audio ironically because of accessibility, lmao, my auditory processing for language isn't great).

[caffeinated-bibliophile]

Ok someone please harass remind me to post book haul pics 🙏

[sexypantsriorson-na]

VIOLET IS SCARED OF THE DARK! BUT WHY? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

🚨 Spoilers for Fourth Wing and Iron Flame Below 🚨

When reading Fourth Wing one of the many times I've read it I noticed that Violet seemed scared of the dark on several occasions. However, the newest Xaden POV bonus chapter (Ch 27) solidified my crack theory that may mean nothing at all even further.

Fourth Wing:

⚡️Chapter 1: "The Captain nods and points to the open door into the turret. It looks ominously dark in there, and I fight the urge to run like hell."

-> This is the weakest evidence but I wanted to include it. Even though the majority of the fear probably stems from having to cross the parapet and going into the riders quadrant I can't help but notice how the darkness of the turret is pointed out in relation to her wanting to run away.

⚡️Chapter 19: "'Hope you're not afraid of the dark.' He pulls me inside, and suffocating darkness envelopes us as the door closes. This is fine. This is absolutely fine. 'But just incase you are,' Xaden says, his voice at full volume as he snaps. A mage light hovers above our head, Illuminating our surroundings. 'Thanks'"

-> side note: as Nicole from FFG would say ITALICS! Is this a Xaden intinsic moment or is this similar to Ch 27 where he senses her fear down their bond?

⚡️Chapter 27 from Violet's POV: "Xaden lifts a hand a few inches above the table, and shadows pour from underneath our seats, filling the room and turning it dark as midnight in a blink. My heart jumps as my sight goes black."

⚡️Chapter 27 from Xaden's POV: "I lift my palms just enough to clear the table and summon the cooling darkness of the shadows. They stream out from under the table and blanket the room in less than a heartbeat, devouring all traces of light. Panic skitters down the silver bond."

Iron Flame:

⚡️Chapter 36: "He steps forward, raises his arms, and shadows rush in from the wall at our backs, engulfing the formation - and us - in complete darkness. Theres a glimmer of a caress across my cheek, right where it's split to what feels like the bone, and more than one cadet screams."

-> The structure of the first sentence, the emphasis on 'and us' is what clued me into the fear in this chapter. And once again Xaden, who is also the source of the darkness, uses the shadows to comfort her. Based on Ch 19 and Ch 27 of Fourth Wing he likely knows she's scared of the dark at this point.

Noooowwwwww - What does all this mean? Well.... I have no idea!

As mentioned before it might mean nothing at all. Rebecca might have just thrown it in there as a quirky personality trait of Violet's. I personally just don't think that's the case.

According to a study done by John Mayer (the clinical psychologist, not the singer) only 11% of adults in the US are scared of the dark. So, its not that common of a fear. Also the amount of times it's brought up throughout the two books we've had so far makes me think it might be significant.

On July 8th Rebecca Yarros and Red Tower Books released a joint Instagram reel with a small video showing the cover of Onyx Storm for the first time. The caption has the tag line "Are you ready to BRAVE THE DARK?" written just like that with 'brave the dark' in all caps. 'Brave the Dark' is also written on the cover of the book in the same way 'Fly or Die' and 'Burn it Down' was used as a tag line of FW and IF respectively. This is another one of the most prominent reasons I think that these allusions to Violets fear of the dark are more than just a basic character trait. In each of the scenes mentioned (with the exception of chapter 1) Xaden comforts Violet in the darkness. Furthermore, if you search 'dark' in the FW ebook there are over 80 occurrences of the word and almost all of them are in relation to Xaden (I couldn't search IF because I don't have the ebook). We know that OS is going to focus on Violet trying to find a cure for Xaden. Is Xaden part of this darkness Violet is scared of?

The Empyrean Series is my current hyper fixation so I couldn't get this spiral out of my head since yesterday.

Please weigh in on what you think Violets fear of the dark means or where it comes from! I'd love to hear other peoples opinions. Also, if you know of any scenes I missed where Violet is scared of the dark please let me know.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk TairnTalk. (I stole that from someone else but I can't remember who said it first but credit to them you are hilarious).

[bookphile]

Lately, I've been frustrated by the huge waiting times at the library. Not just for ebooks or audiobooks, but even physical books. You don't have to explain to me how libraries work, because I know, I also know how ebook purchasing etc works for libraries. Also, I live near a large metropolitan area of a city known for being literary. So the libraries are not underfunded and have massive collections. Our librarians also do a fantastic job of curating the libraries and organizing not just books, but classes, book clubs, etc. Maybe it's a the fact that the libraries in my area do the interloan book borrowing system. Meaning, the catalogue is connected and so if your library does not have something you can request it from another library and it will be delivered to yours so you can borrow it. But that means that the librarians are more likely to cull less popular books/series to free up space since another library will have a copy. This means you have to wait for the book to arrive from elsewhere and if there's a sudden interest there's only one copy for multiple libraries to go around.

Maybe it's the fact that price of books both physical and digital has skyrocketed to the point where new hardcover books are anywhere from 30-50 $ (US) and paperbacks are 20-30$. Which most people simply cannot afford. To put into perspective, my electricity bill is usually lower than a new hardcover book. Audiobooks are even more prohibitive so that the only way to purchase them is get a subscription and be able to get one book a month for a reasonable price, wait for sales, or purchase at full price for $50-60. Ebook book prices have started to match paperback prices and sometimes even cost more. This of course, means more people look to the library to get a copy, but if it's a new release, you can end up waiting anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months to get a copy. In my area, libraries will often purchase a lot of copies of popular books to meet the demand as much as they can -- I cannot imagine how it is in less funded areas.

To make it clear, I'm not complaining about libraries. Or librarians. I love them both. Super privileged to live in an area that can not only provide these books for free, but also do their best to meet the demand. Also, super happy to live in an area where so many people read so many books!!

But I can still think it's ridiculous to have to wait six months for a new release. Clearly there's a hitch in the system somewhere.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Hi Derin,

I’m a relatively inexperienced writer (my only publication is in a school magazine lol), and I was hoping I could ask for advice, if it’s not too much of a hassle?

It feels weird being a writer in a time where there’s so many ways to publish work, and I’m having a hard time choosing between the stable but competitive traditional publishing routes and the independence of self-publishing. As an established writer, what works for you? Is independent publishing more of a struggle? Or does it create less stress from the lack of bureaucracy surrounding the publication?

Thank you.

I've never tried traditional publishing so I can't accurately compare the two for you, but I have to ask... why on earth would you think that trad publishing is in any way *stable*? Trad publishing does have many advantages, mostly in terms of publishers having existing networks to get your books into the hands of libraries and stores and soforth (it's best to ask a trad pub author about those, it's not my area), but stability is absolutely not one of those advantages. Trad authors are dropped all the time. It's a long journey fraught with obstacles to even get the book released.

For me, the choice was easy because I didn't consider things in terms of trad vs. indie, I considered income models. The two major avenues of earning money in this field are via book sales or via 'salary'. Trad or indie publishing fits the first; making your money primarily through book sales (traditional publishing is nice here because you get an advance as well as the sales connections of the publisher and use of their editors etc., indie publishing is nice because it's faster and you keep more of the money since you're doing it all yourself). A model relying directly on sales is inherently unstable --you might earn more in the long run, but aside from your advance, it's really hard to predict how much you're getting month to month.

I chose a salary model, via Patreon, for the stability. I want to be able to predict my income, and while it does fluctuate (people subscribe and unsubscribe all the time), it doesn't fluctuate nearly as much. Patreon also tends to be a 'rolling weight'; patrons who join usually stick around for awhile, meaning that once I've acquired a patron, they increase my income for several months, often years, rather than a single sale. This also means that I can release the stories for free to people who can't afford to, or don't want to, pay me.

Independent publishing is no struggle for me whatsoever, because I use the patreon model. This means that I don't have to do most of the marketing and organisation stuff that someone trying to sell books has to do. The big issue is still marketing, but if you can get a critical mass of readers, readers who will help you by making fanart and memes and getting their friends into your work, your main job is to write the best story you can and never miss any updates. I do know that indie publishing via the book sale model can be extremely challenging, which is why some people choose trad publishing instead (which is also extremely challenging but people who know what they are doing are involved with you). If does sound like your goal is to sell books though, judging by how the question is posed, in which case I'm the wrong person to ask, because I am not in the business of selling books. A previous work of mine (Curse Words) is available for sale as an ebook, but the core of my income is via Patreon, which is an entirely different business structure.

Do any indie or traditionally published authors who rely on book sales have advice?

[tobiasbegley]

Book One of Mana Mirror is now out on Amazon! It is up on Kindle Unlimited, as well as for normal ordering. The audiobook is up for pre-order, releasing in July.

This is the novel's description:

When Malachi Baker stumbles into an offer of apprenticeship from the esteemed and powerful Occultist Orykson, he's left in shock and jumps at the chance to learn... Even if it means taking out a few loans.

Unfortunately, his new teacher sees him more as a tool than a student, and has set Malachi near-impossible goals before he becomes worthy of Orykson's full attention, and Malachi's innate power is only somewhat above average.

Worse, it turns out that Orykson has enemies more powerful than Malachi had ever imagined – and now their attention has landed solidly on him.

Torn between the mage who can offer him everything, and a strange old woman who offers him the chance to guide his own path, Malachi is left scrambling to find his purpose as a new mage.

…

"Mana Mirror is an exciting new magical progression fantasy where Malachi, our hero, awakens a long-lost family legacy and trains to unleash its full potential. With a fascinating magic system reminiscent of Sarah Lin's Weirkey Chronicles, but a setting slanted more toward classic wizardry, Mana Mirror is an exciting start to a fantastic new adventure. I couldn't put it down."

- Andrew Rowe, Author of Arcane Ascension

…

And for those of you who only care about the finale of The Journals series, fear not! It’s up for pre-order now, and will release on September 26th! It can be found here! Audiobooks for book three and four are in the works as well :)

...

I know this may not matter to some of y'all, but this is perhaps the most important launch of my career.

This book is the first Amazon release of a new series, and algorithmically, if book one is a flop, it becomes far harder to succeed. I've begun full time writing recently, and this book is going to be what ultimately decides if this will be a

If you can, please leave a rating or review. Even if there's no text, having the stars is super critical to the all powerful algorithm. 

...

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/Mana-Mirror-First-Tobias-Begley-ebook/dp/B0CYHQG7L4

Audiobook Link: https://www.audible.com/pd/Mana-Mirror-The-First-Gate-Audiobook/B0D5SB2784

The Audio is done by the amazing Neo Cihi, and the artwork is by Asur Misoa

[mermaidsirennikita]

I was thinking about what you said irt trad historical romance being in a weird spot and decided to look at Sarah Maclean's website to see when her next book is releasing, only to see her next book is a contemporary! Like talk about on the nose

Lol I will admit, I knew about that when I made the post, but it's not WHY I made the post. And disclaimer: so happy for Sarah, I'm reading that book 100%, love the premise as a Succession fan, and I'm also interested to see what she'll do with a different publisher... which is an interesting part of all this, imo. She's said she'll do historicals forever, I believe her, the Duchess book is out in 2025, I trust Sarah with her love of historicals.

I doooo however see a lot fewer trad pub historicals coming out (and I say this as someone who is on NetGalley a lot--I see the incoming trad pub historicals). And the ones I do see are often from smaller presses, which isn't bad, but--Avon seems to be slowing it down, and they have been one of the big historical romance publishers in the past. I've said this before, but they also lost Carrie Feron, one of their majorly influential editors who worked with a lot of big historical romance authors, last year. I don't think that's a coincidence...

And while Sarah MacLean isn't leaving historicals, a lot of core authors haven't been publishing as much. Lisa Kleypas hasn't published a book since Devil in Disguise in... 2021? Ms. Bev hasn't published a historical, think, since To Catch a Raven in 2022. Elizabeth Hoyt's less book was pre-pandemic, I think.

Joanna Shupe has a historical romance, The Gilded Heiress, out in December year. But it doesn't appear to be a part of a series as of now which is kinda unusual for historicals in this day and age and indicates a shorter deal unless there's more to come, I could've sworn it was due out earlier originally (and that could be her needing more time, but it could also be Avon delaying it, I honestly don't know) and I mean.... Joanna has been publishing indie a lot more in recent years, both historicals under the Joanna name and mafia under the Mila name. I see Minerva Spencer doing more indie stuff with her S.M. LaViolette pen name, too.

Eva Leigh seems to be pivoting to fantasy romance for her next few releases. Tessa Dare has been out of the game for a bit, though I think there are many reasons behind that.

Now, on the bright side, we see authors like Adriana Herrera, Liana de la Rosa, Cat Sebastian, Alexis Hall, Amalie Howard etc doing new and interesting things with the genre. Alexandra Vasti has her full-length trad debut this year. These are good things!

But I do see a lot of authors saying on social media that publishers are not very open to histrom as of late... and as someone who wants to write it, that's discouraging lmao.

Obviously, I wanna say, I support ALL of these authors doing things that aren't histrom (can't wait to see what Eva's books are about omg). BUT.... I do hope that this doesn't submerge out of tradpub for a billion years. And if it does, I know indie is a resource, and I hope that histrom readers pick up the all and support indie historical releases.

The struggle there, imo, is that a lot of histrom readers are a bit less into ebooks (stereotypically) but like--tell your mom who loves historicals to read shit on KU. Tell your buddy in her 20s who thinks it's all stodgy and chaste that there is some WILD SHIT in there. Tell your dark romance reader friends about all the dubcon and kidnappings lol. Spend money on these books when you can, and obtain them from your library, subscription services, etc when you can't. This audience does need to push to support authors who are doing the work.

[katnissdoesnotfollowback]

This week marked the 12th anniversary of The Hunger Games movie release.

What do you think about THG as a movie adapatation?

Do you think THG influence other movie (/book) in the genre? Yes/No? Why?

Is there any difference in your opinion about it between when you first saw the movie (/read the book) and now?

Thank you :)

@curiousthg

Ugh, it has been 12 years, hasn't it? Which means it's also 12 years since I first read the books. I may be old, but I do remember that I saw a Jennifer Lawrence interview for a different movie, but the interviewer asked her about The Hunger Games, and I'd bought an ebook version of them like maybe a year prior to that, not knowing they were being made into movies. So then I was like, well... better read the books now, because I always like reading books before the movie so I can be even more disappointed.

I think THG is an okay movie adaptation of a book. It's not great, but it's also not the worst. I do think that the books are still far better in terms of character development and maintaining the themes of the stories. And I get that Hollywood has to cut out something in order to fit into their allotted approximately two hour runtime, but that doesn't change the fact that there are plenty of movie adaptations that do a much better job, in my opinion, of maintaining the integrity of their source story. I mean, Clueless is technically a modern AU of Emma and I think that movie was a fantastic movie adaptation. And there are others that are different from their books but actually work equally as well as the source material, in my opinion (How to Train Your Dragon, and The Bad Guys both come to mind for this one).

I don't think my opinion of it has changed all that much. If anything, I think my opinion of the movies has gone down over the years. Part of that might be because I was in theaters as they were being released, so I was swept up in the excitement of seeing these books I loved so much being brought to life. I kept getting my hopes up that the adaptations would improve with each successive installment. And now... I'm much more likely to devote the time to rereading the books than I am to watching the movies again. Can't take the increasing disappointment, lol.

I think there is definite influence that THG had on the genre. You can see it in series like Divergent, and the literally hundreds of other YA dystopias that came out in the years following the "success" of THG. Dystopia turned into a cash cow for publishers after THG. I'm not yet convinced that any other writers managed to capture the kind of depth of character, story, or world building that Suzanne Collins did, tho I have to admit that there's only one other YA dystopia series that I've managed to finish. It honestly felt like watered down THG fanfiction and I just couldn't push the "I believe" button on the world building enough to really love it. I kept reading it, thinking I knew the direction it was going to take, but it didn't. The ending kind of...ruined it for me? I dunno. None of the others I've tried have caught my interest enough to get me past the first book.

Thanks for the ask @curiousthg!

<3 kdnfb

[threequarterslifecrisis]

I would like to propose that wannabe authors sell their unedited books for a fraction of the price. Then, if so many people buy it and like it, it could fund the author the opportunity to hire an editor. If the author wants to stop there, release the new, edited version for a little more.

I think this has potential. Books are so expensive these days. Editors are so expensive these days. I would absolutely pay $1-3 for an aspiring writer's messy first/second/third draft. Getting a full story for just a few bucks is pretty decent, even if it's not groundbreaking or perfectly cohesive. As long as I'm entertained, I think it's a good deal.

Plus, just because they're not edited properly doesn't mean they won't be good. Anyone who's spent some time on AO3 knows just how amazingly and beautifully written some stories can be even without editor, beta reader, or even any semblance of a plan before starting to write. So, yeah, you might spend a dollar or two on a story that's not all that great, [But hey, it was only a dollar or two. That's better than spending $7-35 on a physical book you might think is trash.], but you might also spend a dollar or two on what turns out to be a gem that would otherwise have not been published at all because it's simply too expensive.

Furthermore, as someone who has a few writer friends [and is very nosy], I've seen the wild ways stories will change and grow over time. And it's so cool. I would love to get the opportunity to see all the drafts of writers. And I would be more than willing to pay a small price for them. It's just fascinating~

[I know some people might read this and think $1-3 is quite low, but given that these drafts would be digital, I'm using ebook prices for reference. Generally, I see them for around $7-12, and after taking out fees for editing, artwork, publishing & distribution, I can't imagine these authors are left with much of anything. $1-3 dollars is my lazy estimate.]

I think this would be better for writers in terms of just getting their book out there [skipping the editors and publishers], as well as marketing their books by themselves. [I think a lot of people would be willing to try out a newbie's book if it were significantly cheaper, and therefore, less of a loss if they don't like it.]

However, rest assured, I'm not encouraging cutting out authors completely. As I said earlier, if so many people but the unedited book and like it, and would like a properly edited copy, then the authors could do that. The properly edited book would be funded by the unedited copy's success. Rather than an author shelling money out for an editor for a book that will never take off, the author is using the editor with guaranteed future sales to at least make that money back, and potentially more.

[Regarding physical copies of these books, I suppose the writer may later on get an offer from a publisher, or [my preference] we will see beautiful things happening in the bookbinding business. [I cannot lie. I love watching those videos.]

[tarysande]

So this is related to The Aurora Project but I realize it can also be more broad: are there places besides Amazon you can recommend for buying eBooks? My experience with eBooks up until this point has mostly been stuff I've gotten from The Gutenberg Project or Ao3. I like using the .epub format, and would prefer to continue to do so.

My issue is that I'd like to support the author the best I can but I don't have a lot of money. My library doesn't have the book yet, and I'm already planning on requesting it. But since this is more your wheelhouse, I was wondering what you would suggest for The Aurora Project, in case they don't get it in right away. I'd like to help, but yeah, don't have a lot of money.

So, one of the (many) strangleholds Amazon has over the self-publishing market is the lure of Kindle Unlimited. Basically, if you promise not to sell your ebook anywhere else, you can include it in the Kindle Unlimited program. The benefit there is that anyone who subscribes to Kindle Unlimited can read the book for "free"--and the author gets paid for every page read, rather than just the lump sum per unit of book sold. And authors don't get dinged for returns. (Which happens a distressing amount at Amazon.)

I don't know the specific math, but one of my successful self-publishing clients tells me Kindle Unlimited makes a huge financial difference for her. Which, of course, means self-pub authors stay loyal to Amazon, and Amazon keeps making money off them.

Side note: The royalties Amazon pays are much higher than those in traditional publishing. Although one must keep in mind that traditional publishers pay lower royalties to authors because they are footing the entire production/editorial/marketing/etc. bill; the self-publishing author has to pay for all those things out of pocket. Even if Amazon only makes 30% on each sale, they don't really have overhead or anything. They make 30% to host the platform through which an author distributes.

Which is all a long way of saying that, for now at least, Paul has decided to sell The Aurora Project only on Amazon. I have no idea whether libraries/bookstores are able to nab copies.

Please don't put yourself in any financial hardship over it! If he ever puts it on sale, I'll let you know. I know I'm going to encourage him to do that in the weeks before the second book comes out. :)

If you don't know about it, you might want to look into BookBub, by the way. You tell BookBub what genres you like, and it sends a daily email with links to heavily discounted books in those genres. I don't think I've ever seen a book more expensive than 2.99 or maybe the very occasional 3.99, and they are OFTEN .99/1.99/FREE. I've found so many amazing books through BookBub over the last few years--lots of authors put books on sale when they're about to release a new one. You don't need to buy from Amazon, either; BookBub always lists other retailers (Apple Books, Kobo, etc.) if the books are available there.

[cartograffiti]

November '23 reading diary

In November I finished 9 books, mostly continuing series. I'm also at the caboose end of being very sick with the RSV, to the point that I actually couldn't comfortably read for more than a week, so this is my encouragement to get the vaccine for it if you've been considering it.

Poison or Protect is the next Gail Carriger novella I needed (I'm going in chronological order), and it was very pleasant, but not more than that. It stars Preshea Buss, who was a supporting character in a clique of mean girls in the YA Finishing School series. I can't say I was particularly compelled by her before, but she's been developed interestingly here, now a grown assassin very annoyed to be attracted to a rival spy at a house party. It should technically stand alone, but I wouldn't start here. Preshea's had a hard life, and if I hadn't read any Carriger before, this character's tendency to distrust strangers by grouping them into broad gendered stereotypes could have made me cringe away.

I thought I was pretty far into the Whyborne & Griffin series, but the massive ebook omnibus I've been repeatedly checking out informed me I was only halfway through as I got into Hoarfrost. I was desperately hoping that wintry title meant they were going to the Yukon Territory, which turned out to be exactly right. This one has a slightly slow-moving classic adventure plot of discovering a lost city, and then Hawk did a breathtaking loop-de-loop to use my genre expectations against me.

A Power Unbound was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, and it delivered. That's it, that's the pitch, go start with A Marvellous Light.

For the Emelan group read I wrapped up the second quartet with Cold Fire, which had an incredible creepy A-plot and a lot of wonderful moments for Daja, but a pretty insubstantial teaching B-plot compared to the rest of the series; and Shatterglass, which has my favorite teaching plot of the quartet, and a solid but kind of impersonal crisis plot. I always think whichever of the four kids I'm reading about at the moment is my favorite, but I really do love Daja and Tris's pov voices, and descriptions of Tris's student glassblowing gave me delightful fever dreams.

The Children of Green Knowe is a very charmingly old-fashioned children's book about a boy sent to live with his great-grandmother, and becomes fascinated with the ghosts that haunt her house. I listened to the audiobook of this and enjoyed the story, which is heartwarming and only a little scary, but I was more struck by how well L.M. Boston integrates storytelling into the action.

System Collapse is the newest Murderbot book. You probably already know whether or not you're interested in this series about a security robot who has hacked itself and has to adapt to living as a free individual. I like it but don't go feral for it, but this one is my favorite so far, and made me want to reread from the beginning. (By which I mean relisten, because I enjoy the audiobooks with Kevin R. Free from WTNV so much I don't want to mix formats.)

Dressing the Part by Hal Rubenstein is the only nonfiction book for the month, a new book about how television shows have influenced off-screen style trends. I found it fascinating, with lots of photos and brief, focused entries for a wide range of shows. I'm not a big television watcher, so the amount of detail was good for me, but it might feel superficial if you're looking for something specific. Unfortunately, I found that it (at least the ebook) has major editing problems, with punctuation errors that confuse the meaning of sentences, and fact-check failures like misidentifying Rita Ora as black.

Masters in this Hall was the only KJ Charles book left on my to-read list, and since it's a Christmas novella, I went ahead and asked a library to buy it for me, and had a wonderful leisurely time reading a chapter or two a night and giggling over the lovers-to-enemies-to-"what do you mean we could have been on the same side all along" plot. Part of a series, but stands alone fine.

My brain is coming back, callooh callay, and I'm hoping I'll be able to finish Storygraph's Read the World challenge this year. I have the last two books picked out, I just need to get through them. Also the new Foz Meadows comes out this week, and I want to inject it directly into my veins.

[stormyoceans]

Bestie do you know when and where the LT book will be available in English??

HI, FRIEND!!!!!!

honestly it's pretty hard to say, but considering the thai novel has just been released, i think that unfortunately it's not gonna be any time soon ;;;;;;

i have to admit this isn’t a topic i know much about, tho. my only experience with thai BL novels has been limited to vice versa: in this case, the official english translation came out exactly 2 months after the show ended and is available as an ebook on amazon kindle or other store apps like meb and ookbee. however, from the quick research i've been doing, this actually doesn't seem to be a very common occurrence. the amount of BL novels with a licensed english translation is still pretty meager, and it mostly seems to involve works written by popular and proficient authors like mame and jittirain (can't believe that for once vice versa enjoyers lucked out IT'S A MIRACLE)

last twilight is a bit different because, unlike most BLs where the process is the exact opposite, it was born as an original screenplay first and only afterwards got adapted into a novel. this means that GMMTV as a company is actually involved in the publishing process, which could POTENTIALLY make it easier to have an official english translation not only as an ebook but as a paperback too. this could happen only if the show got A WHOLE LOT of views tho. just as a comparison, never let me go is also an original screenplay that got adapted into a novel, but despite all parts of the show having more than 1M views, it doesn't have a licensed english translation yet

anyway, my usual ramblings aside, tl;dr: i think GMMTV is gonna wait to see how the show fares before considering whether is worth it or not making the novel available in english, so in the mean time we're gonna have to rely on fan translations 🙏

[lexicaldreamer]

I was gonna ramble the the tags but I have a lot to say it turns out oops. I've never worked in trad publishing, only small press and indie, and also volunteer metadata and as a librarian, so I'm making some assumptions on things, but I have thoughts!

The 5/1 publication date for Good Omens was not just a super common mistake I see, it's a pretty reasonable one to make, considering the nature of book publishing. Most publishers don't make a huge deal of the day that a book comes out; that's a fairly recent phenomenon that's emerged with ebooks becoming a more prominent medium, and only because they have to release at some specific time.

Have you ever pre-ordered a physical book from an online retailer and had the book arrive days before the actual release date? Walk into a brick and mortar and see books on the shelf that aren't supposed to be out for a week or more? That's because nobody at the distributor or the warehouse or the store is bothering to keep track. And that's because the publisher doesn't actually care... most of the time.

The more popular the book, the higher the chance that a gag order might be enforced, solely for the hype. Some of you might be able to remember the days of Harry Potter midnight release parties. Book stores open til all hours and flooded with children and parents and boxes sealed under threat of lawsuit? Yeah. That doesn't happen for anything less than billion dollar sales.

Back to the may 1st date. I didn't forget! All of this means that books' release dates aren't well recorded, frequently. People, and publishers, keep track of publish dates in months and years. The further back you go, before ebooks and the pre internet, the more this is true. Look at any copyright page of any book. Some list the month and some don't. None of them list the day.

That means that when some particular metadata form requires a date format to be complete, but the person filling it out doesn't have complete information, they have two choices: leave the date empty entirely of "falsify" the day, usually by setting it to the first of the month.

There are a shocking amount of books out there "published" on the first of the month, or on January 1st. Unintentional misinformation at its finest.

In 2020 we celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the Good Omens book on the May 1st, only to learn later that it was not the correct date! :D

[theinquisitxor]

2023 Reading Wrap Up + 2024 Goals

This post is a reflection on my reading in 2023 (including stats, thoughts, rambles, etc) as well as my goals looking ahead to 2024.

I read 103 books this year, which is above average for me. I usually get to ~96 books per year, and only got over 100 one other time (in 2020). I'm happy with the quantity I read since I am fairly busy with work and school.

Thoughts:

Audiobooks helped me get through more books this year, and I read 25 books on audio. This included some rereads, as well as the Wayward Children, Percy Jackson, and Mistborn era 2 books, and a few nonfiction. Definitely the most audiobooks I've consumed in a year, and I'm enjoying audiobooks even more.

Which means I read 76 physical books and 2 ebooks

I read a total of 32 series in some shape or form. I read and completed 12 series, wrapped up 2 series, started 11, and dnf'd 7 series

I read 19 standalone stories

I read 14 nonfiction books, which was above my goal for 1 nonfiction per month

I read 10 novellas/short stories

I dnf'd 2 books

The read the most books in January, with 15 books. And the least in August at 5

Goals for 2024:

Read the new releases I'm interested in while also working through my physical tbr

Try to read at least 1 nonfiction a month

Catch up on Brandon Sanderson books (Stormlight archive + secret projects)

Read what makes me happy and try not to make reaching goals stressful!

[ryttu3k]

End-of-the-year book asks! Check out 2022's and 2021's, too.

1. How many books did you read this year?

Okay let's break this down by length! Novels: 26. Non-fiction: 3. Novellas: 3. Novelettes: 3. Zines: 10. Not including novelettes and zines in that, a total of 32!

2. Did you reread anything? What?

Nope, all new stuff.

3. What were your top five books of the year?

Top three is easy - Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White, Space Opera by Catherynne M Valente, and Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle. For the last two, let's go with Jeff VanderMeer's Wonderbook, which is a wonderful craft book especially for SFF writers, and the incredibly bonkers My Volcano by John Elizabeth Stintzi.

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

See the first three above! I already have Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle on preorder, and I've just bought The Spirit Bears Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White!

5. What genre did you read the most of?

Comfortably in my SFF hole, tyvm.

6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

*laughs in excessively long TBR*

7. What was your average Goodreads Storygraph rating? Does it seem accurate?

4.24, or approximately 8.5. Yeah, that works!

8. Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

Read more novels, which I did! I also managed a nice little nonfiction month.

9. Did you get into any new genres?

Nnnnnot really, haha.

10. What was your favourite new release of the year?

Camp Damascus my beloved. (The other two faves were 2022 and 2018).

11. What was your favourite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

Wonderbook came out in 2013.

12. Any books that disappointed you? 13. What were your least favourite books of the year?

✌️

14. What books do you want to finish before the year is over?

There's only two and a half days left I'm good.

15. Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women's Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?

I read NK Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy (which would have been higher up in my listings but I'm kinda salty over her stance over the library thing and that tarnished them retrospectively) and they won. Everything. Three consecutive Nebulas, and The Stone Sky also won the Locus for Best Fantasy (as did The City We Became by the same writer), and the Hugo, with The Fifth Season and Obelisk Gate also nominated for the Hugo, and The City We Became for Nebula. Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation won a Nebula, Space Opera was nominated for a Hugo.

I'm gonna throw hands if Camp Damascus doesn't win something next year, by the way.

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

Mmm, maybe Annihilation? I enjoyed it! I actually have a copy now because I spotted an uncorrected proof at a second-hand store for $3! But also I just thought it was 'cool, really interesting' and not like. The greatest in existence.

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

Honestly, not really! Most seemed appropriately hyped?

18. How many books did you buy?

24 ebooks, 12 physical.

19. Did you use your library?

Yup, both for physical and ebook.

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

Camp Damascus, and absolutely. Go read it.

21. Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

No, because I value my sanity <3

22. What's the longest book you read?

The Fifth Season, at 498 pages.

23. What's the fastest time it took you to read a book?

I mean the novelettes didn't take long XD

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

Nope!

25. What reading goals do you have for next year?

Keep reading. Try not to lose mind too much over Alecto the Ninth. Fail to not lose mind too much over Alecto the Ninth.

For some extra fun, statistics! I worked out each month by page count, so I can work out when I read most and when I… didn't. It works out to:

January: 2,105 pages (5 novels, 1 zine)

February: 463 pages (1 anthology, 2 zines)

March: 1,342 pages (3 novels, 1 anthology, 1 novella)

April: 1,034 pages (2 novels, 1 anthology, 1 zine)

May: 834 pages (1 novel, 1 collection, 1 anthology)

June: 688 pages (2 novels, 1 zine)

July: 1,155 pages (1 novel, 3 nonfiction books, 1 zine)

August: 652 pages (2 novels, 1 novella, 1 zine)

September: 712 pages (2 novels, 1 zine)

October: 911 pages (3 novels, 1 zine)

November: 192 pages (1 novel)

December: 408 pages (1 novella, 3 novelettes, 1 zine - note that this is inflated, the novella is shorter in wordcount but the layout means it's more 'spread out')

Month with most pages read: January, with over two thousand pages over five novels and a zine.

Month with least pages read: November, with one (shortish!) novel.

Month with most out-of-the-ordinary content: July, the month where I focused largely on nonfiction. It also had Camp Damascus <3

Months with the shortest reads: Aside from November, February only had one (novel-length) anthology and two zines, and December had a novella, three novelettes, and a zine.

Most condensed reading month: Aside from November again, October, with all four reads over the course of the one-week cruise.

[thedude3445]

current irons in the current fire

Before I get to start new fun projects to kick everyone's asses, I gotta finish the stuff already out there, so let's remind ourselves what those are:

(gonna make a readmore cut thing because this got too long, as rambles often do)

Systemless, the very silly very gay epic that's wrapping up finally after 3 years, I'm aiming to finish in April. Honestly this book is super up the Tumblr alley and even has BL romance but I forgot to promote it on here lol. I'll do that when the ebook versions come out

Golemancer, which really bombed compared to my original expecations, but it's still a pretty well-liked story honestly. I am going to wrap up Book 2 since it's already almost done, then publish ebook versions, and if those do well I'll finish the series later on. I should have done this over a year ago...

Japan Romance, the codename for a long-gestating project I've been working on since 2019. It was a novel, then a comic, now it's a visual novel, and yes I'm intentionally adding these comma splices why do you ask? When this project comes out someday you are gonna flip out, I promise. It's gonna be my ultimate early career project.

Project U, a collab with Ktalaki, the actual mspa prophet and not me actually. This project will never see the light of day, on purpose.

Game Jam. Quinlan Circle is gonna do a week-long game jam during Golden Week. Unless the game is literally unplayable, we will post that online afterwards.

Project Z, this is a codename that's actually just the impending release of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, a game that I suspect will take up an entire month of my life. Still working on creative projects even while this game is out is going to be my life's ultimate challenge. When Fire Emblem Engage came out I totally failed at doing anything but playing that game (and also dealing with various life crises throughout February but that's a story for another time AKA an actual blog essay not this thing)

MSPA Reread 2023, a project that's semi-creative because it's unlocking entire spheres of my brain I forgot even existed. The sheer nostalgia that came with reading Homestuck Act 5-2 took up multiple days of my life reminiscing about old projects and long-dead forum thread. I'm on Act 6 Intermission 3 now as of today, and I think my friend group will finish around the end of April. Later, I'm gonna read the Epilogues and Homestuck 2 for the first time and see why people hate them so much lol. I know they're not "strictly canon" but I'm a long-time Star Wars EU fan, so fluid canonicty in layers is totally normal to me. Maybe not to other people...

(also I guess Psycholonials counts here? And the visual novel games? IDK about those quite yet)

Anyway there's one thing that I'm building to, and that's a project codenamed Really Big Story. You might be able to guess the story concept based on the codename. Quinlan Circle has been going for almost 5 years now, and we're getting ready to work on something super ambitious. But we can only work on it after we're all in better spots creatively. For me this means finishing (or quitting) all the stuff I've built up over the years. I have too many projects!!!!!

If you actually read this whole thing, send me an ask for which of these you want me to ramble about in my next mini-blog. I'll do that tomorrow or something (the mini-blogs will never be as long as this one, at least I hope so lol because this took like 20 minutes)