The Chosen Sin Missing Pages

So, I got a new vampire book for review called The Chosen Sin by Anya Bast. Nice cover huh? I started to read it and was really getting into the story when BAM, 50 pages are missing. I was completely bummed because I wanted to find out what happened next and it would just be too confusing to skip over the missing part. I went on over to Anya's website to see if she had anything posted about it. I was a little worried for her since the book's release date is in a few days (10/7/08) but there was nothing. I didn't want to freak her out so I emailed the publisher, Berkley, instead. Thankfully a nice PR person replied and said they would be sending out corrected books. It kind of made me wonder if all the bookstores had books with missing pages in them and how that whole process works. Anyway, if anyone else happens to get stuck with the messed up version be sure to return it to the bookstore where you bought it and see if they have corrected books. If not, contact Berkley.

Free Kindle E-Book from Samhain

Samhain Publishing announced that they are giving away an Amazon Kindle e-book. The title is Unbreakable from Sydney Somers. The free download period begins on Monday, August 18th through Sunday, August 24th. This title is the first in the Shadow Destroyers series from Somers.

They will be doing another Kindle giveaway in September of The Dragon’s Demon from Marie Harte. So stay tuned Kindlers...

Jezebel: Why Chick-Lit Covers Are Pink

A blog I regularly read called Jezebel has a great article about the publishing trend of slapping a pink cover on books written by women, or even written by a man with a female protagonist.

It has been suggested that females prefer pink because of an evolutionary preference for reddish things like ripe fruits and healthy faces. We also prefer pink books. Or at least the publishing industry is so convinced of this that to cover their asses they're wantonly packaging any book written by a woman with a chick-litish cover in the desperate hopes that we'll buy it. Having cottoned on to the fact that chick lit books sell like cupcakes, publishers are now adding chick lit-style covers to any book written by a woman whether it fits the genre definition or not.

Speaking of, covers that don't reflect what's inside irritate me. I picked up The Wedding Officer thinking it was a light frothy romance but instead was a very gritty realistic view of the tragedies of WWII in Italy which included starvation, prostitution, rape, VD, and murder. Not that I didn't think it was a good book, but it's something I definitely have to be in the right frame of mind for. In the article Sadie Stein said publishers may experience a backlash over this treatment:

They are, however, likely to be disappointed when they get to the beach and find that instead of some heartwarming bit of froth they've ended up with Serious Fiction full of incest and substance abuse.

Right on sister. Read the full article here.

E-Book Reader With Flexible Screen

Holy Moses it's an electronic scroll! Readius by Polymer Vision is about the size of a standard cell phone. It has a flexible screen that can be pulled out to read ebooks, magazines, newspapers, etc. Sounds way better than the Kindle but will probably be more expensive. Readius will be available in the US early 2009.
-Via New York Times

Rain Boots are the New Shoes for Chick-Lit

Publisher's Weekly reports that publishers have run out of every variation of shoes and handbags for chick-lit covers. The new trend may be rain boots. I have to say I was confused by two of the books below and thought they were the same book on two separate occasions. I've definitely been noticing the surplus of rain boots on covers.

Contests at Harper Collins: Win a Camera, a Tropical Vacation or a Birkin Bag

I'm going for the Birkin Bag myself. I may just have to check out the book Bringing Home the Birkin as well...

The Best Selling Books of 2007

I haven't decided if this is a good thing or a bad thing yet, but my reading choices over the past year seem to be fairly out-of-step with mainstream America. Publisher's Weekly put out their list yesterday of the top sellers of 2007. From the top 15 (in fiction) I've only read two and they're both Janet Evanovich. And what's up with James Patterson? I'm not convinced he's really writing all these books. I think his publisher is suffering from the Hollywood sequel syndrome; if one is a hit, pump out 10 more of the same damn thing and people will gobble it up.

Here's the list:

PW 2007 Bestsellers
1 A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Riverhead (5/07) 2,201,865
2 Playing For Pizza by John Grisham. Doubleday (9/07) #1,445,000
3 Double Cross by James Patterson. Little, Brown (11/07) 1,428,974
4 The Choice by Nicholas Sparks. Grand Central (9/07) 1,200,809
5 Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich. St. Martin's (6/07) 1,116,828
6 Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich. St. Martin's (1/07) 1,080,686
7 Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell. Putnam (10/07) 1,027,000
8 The Quickie by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. Little, Brown (7/07) 795,736
9 The 6th Target by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. Little, Brown (5/07) 769,460
10 The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz. Bantam (11/07) #740,000
11 Step on a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. Little, Brown (2/07) 732,702
12 You've Been Warned by James Patterson and Howard Roughan. Little, Brown (9/07) 724,713
13 T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton. Putnam (12/07) 716,582
14 Stone Cold by David Baldacci. Grand Central (11/07) 670,590
15 Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. Atria Books (3/07) 609,000

Click here to read the full Publisher's Weekly article.

The Onion - Novelist Strike

I've been away for a few days to the beautiful city of Washington, D.C. One of the things I usually do is pick up a copy of the satirical newspaper The Onion. The headlines and stories are just plain funny. Sometimes silly, sometimes neatly skewering politicians or current mainstream news drama.  This week they have a funny article, Novelist Strike Fails To Affect Nation Whatsoever. My favorite part is a caption under a picture of a writer titled "Novelist T.R. Walsh was forced to put a manuscript on hold he has been writing for more than 15 years." 

Kim Harrison Wants You to Win an iPhone

Kim Harrison's new book, The Outlaw Demon Wails (Rachel Morgan, Book 6) came out on Tuesday. To celebrate the release, her publisher Eos Books is giving away an iPhone. To have a chance to win you must be on MySpace and place her book widget on your profile page. Click here to read the details. Good luck!