Saturday, July 30, 2011

The New NetGalley

”netgalleysmall”


My publisher, Cedar Fort Books, is a subscriber to NetGalley, a new online service for the electronic delivery of galleys and press materials. It provides wonderful opportunity of distributing these materials to the media electronically, saving thousands upon thousands of pages of paper.  Even better, it's FREE!


What’s great about NetGalley is that you will be able to register and use this service to view new titles from Cedar Fort Publishing at no cost. You can read galleys online, download PDF versions to read on your computer or nook, read on your Kindle or Sony Reader, and search within galleys.

Through NetGalley, you can view marketing materials, book trailers, photos, author bios, cover art and more.  Plus, NetGalley will reduce our environmental impact by utilizing digital content to get our titles into your hands faster!


Visit http://www.netgalley.com/ to register and request to view Cedar Fort Publishing’s galleys.  Don't you just love technology?

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Personal note to Arnold Schwarzenegger

Personal note to Arnold Schwarzenegger: Zip up your pants, be a REAL man, and pay Maria Shriver's attorney's fees for the divorce YOU caused. Reports from MSN report that the unfaithful husband refuses to pay Maria spousal support or attorney fees. Granted, she may not really NEED the money, but it seems like such a slap in the face to the woman who put up with all of his disgraceful womanizing for so many years.

If Arnold is concerned at all about repairing his reputation, he may want to reconsider. Joseph Baena, Arnold's love child with his former housekeeper, said "Cool" when he was told who his real father is. Most movie-going audiences, however, are not having the same reaction.

Reuters announced that Schwarzenegger is shopping a new installment of the cyborg hit "Terminators." Will YOU see Arnold's next movie or will you voice your opinion of disgust by refusing to use your hard-earned money to buy a movie ticket? Are Americans forgiving or do we hold a grudge? Do other countries forgive and forget celebrity scandals easier?

How often do you embrace or reject a movie based on how you feel about the movie stars in the film? Does a celebrity's personal character (or lack thereof) dictate which TV shows or movies you support? Should they? Do you love to watch "naughty boys" on the big screen? Did I love Arnold's previous movies? Of course. Will I watch any future ones? I don't know.

Christian churches have worked fairly hard in the past decade to stand by their convictions and support decent, less-advertised movies in order to reward value-driven studios and encourage them to produce more of the same. Do you?  Is it working? We can definitely vote for good or bad behavior with our wallets.  Do we do the same when it comes to authors?  

Is talent valued more than character?  A Hollywood scandal used to damage a celebrity's ability to work in Tinsel Town, but not anymore.  As they say "Bad press is better than no press."  What can we do to reward honor and integrity in the industry?  Vote with your wallet.

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The End of An Era

                                                                    by Trina Boice
                                                               http://www.trinaboice.com/

I was out of town last weekend when Harry Potter opened in theaters, but I'm VERY excited to finally see the final installment of the wizardry masterpiece tonight!  It's been a thrill to watch the characters and even the actors grow up right before our eyes. I'm a little hesitant, however.  Will it live up to my expectations?  Will I feel a satisfying closure or be left wanting?  Have you seen it yet?  What did you think?  Who will be the next J.K Rowling of our day?

A dear friend of mine, whose first book will hit stores soon, shared his thoughts with me.  His name is Steve Booth.   http://www.stevenmbooth.com/   He has the talent to be an inspiring author and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everyone loves him as much as I do.  He told me "It’s hard to over-estimate the impact of Harry Potter, both the book and the incredibly successful films. I personally believe that J.K. Rowling single-handedly redefined the meaning of the Young Adult Fiction universe. She was one of my initial inspirations in becoming an author, and several of her characters were the genesis for players in my book, Dark Talisman."


He felt the same anxious excitement about watching the final movie and said "It was, therefore, with a good deal of trepidation that I attended the final episode of the film series in my local IMAX theater last night. I was not disappointed. Although I felt the ending lacked a certain definity, I left the theater with a feeling of both closure and completeness. Frankly, I wish that the quality of production and depth of acting in this, the final installment in the series, had been more evident in previous offerings, but I found it a highly enjoyable excursion, nonetheless."

So, we are left with the obvious question – now what? What new adventures are on the horizon? Where is the next, Great New Author.  I hope that someone will step into the fray, for I think, given the state of the world, that we all desperately need another Harry to walk with us through the difficult times ahead; to make us believe, if for only a short time, that magic could possibly exist in the world; that there is something wonderful around the next corner, or between the train platforms.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Celebrity Books in the News


Arnold Schwarzenegger was bragging that he was about to sign the biggest book deal of all time a month before the news broke in May that he fathered a love child with his housekeeper. But after the scandal, it’s Maria Shriver’s book that publishers are chasing, sources say.

#1 NYT bestselling author James Patterson’s next 26 books, including 4 new series for young readers, with 13 titles each for Michael Pietsch at Little, Brown, and Megan Tingley at Little, Brown Children’s, for publication through the end of 2014, by Robert Barnett at Williams & Connolly.

NYT bestselling historical thriller writer Matthew Pearl’s The Bookaneer, about a literary spy and bounty hunter in the 1890s who sets off on a quest to the Samoan Islands to wrest a manuscript from a dying Robert Louis Stevenson, moving to Ann Godoff at the Penguin Press, in a two-book deal, by Suzanne Gluck at William Morris Endeavor, and to Stuart Williams at Random House UK, by Cathryn Summerhayes at William Morris Endeavor.

Rock music legend from The Band, Robbie Robertson’s untitled picture book biography, written by his son Sebastian Robertson, focused on his early years growing up in Canada spending time at Six Nation Indian Reservation, and, later, living and working in America, joining Ronnie Hawkins ’s band as a guitarist at 16, sold to Christy Ottaviano of Christy Ottaviano Books, for publication for Spring 2013, by Ryan Harbage at the Fischer-Harbage Agency.

Jim Collins‘ Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite them All, co-authored with management professor Morten Hansen, asking why some companies thrive in uncertainty and even chaos, based on nine years of research, enumerating the principles for building a great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times, also to be released in ebook form for the first time (with Collins’ four previous bestselling books now being released as e-books from July through September), sold to Hollis Heimbouch at Harper Business, for publication on October 11, 2011.

Will you read any of these?