MONDAY MASHUP: Mr. Fifty Shades Book Deal, New Jurassic Park Movie, Making Ebooks Harder Than We Thought & Book iPhone Case
Welcome to our new feature where we talk about random things we’ve seen around the blogosphere. It could be an interesting article, a book trailer, maybe a fun piece of news we feel you should know about, and maybe even a stylish pair of shoes or handbag we’ve seen (if Laura has her way!). Basically it’s a bit of a mashup! Enjoy….
Mr. Fifty Shades Gets A Book Deal!
Ok, it does seem like nearly every week we’re talking about FIFTY SHADES OF GREY on Monday Mashup. I’m sorry I think we’ve got a little bit Mr. Grey obsessed! But this week we’re not talking about E. L. James, but her husband. After participating in Nanowrimo last year where he wrote a young adult thriller, it has now been acquired by Random House and will be published in September 2012. It is worth saying that Mr. Fifty Shades, or Niall Leonard, is a TV screenwriter, so has writing experience. They certainly seem to be a talented couple! I wonder if he will be able to emerge from beneath his wife’s shadow? It must be hard publishing after your partner’s phenomenal success in the same field, albeit in a distinctly different genre! I wish him the best of luck, but I have to confess if it was me, I’d be feeling slightly daunted.
Source: Guardian Books
New Jurassic Park Movie!
Now, I have a bit of a confession to make. I was twelve before I ever went to the cinema. My parents were never fans, so it just wasn’t something that happened. But one of the very first films I saw at the cinema was Jurassic Park. I loved it! Since then I have watched it more times than I can count. Then came the sequels: The Lost World and Jurassic Park III, they were ok, if a bit meh. Now comes JURASSIC PARK 4 and Universal Pictures have signed a deal with husband and wife team Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. The pair behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Am I excited about this? I can’t decide. I think it’s one of those films that will either be super or bomb! What do you think?
Source: NYDailyNews
Making Ebooks Harder Than We Thought?
I have many a time had a bit of an *ahem* rant about the price of ebooks. While I understand there are the usual editting, publishing, marketing costs associated with a book, surely there aren’t the logisitcs of print and physical distribution to stores and of course there’s no postage costs? So it was with interest that I read an article Carolyn sent me featured in the Huffington Post, discussing this very issue. For example there is the issue of typesetting, explained below far more eloquently than I could manage:
For older books, publishers didn’t own the typesetting file (the typesetter did) and those files were not usually maintained forever. So publishers often have to physically take an old book and have it scanned and then converted using OCR — optical character recognition — which is far from perfect. So publishers — good ones at least — then have the resulting file professionally proofread for scanning errors. And in a perfect world, they also ask the author to proof it again.
Then there are costs that I have never really considered before such as the cost of the ebook technology, hosting, as well as the royalties taken by the likes of Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I have to confess I’m not sure I’m totally convinced after reading the article that ebooks shouldn’t be cheaper, but I did find it interesting reading.
Source: Huffington Post
Book iPhone Case
If you’re like me and can’t resist a cute accessory or two, or three, I think you’re going to love these iPhone cases that look like little books! How cute! I’m a particular fan of the leopard print one. It would look rather awesome in my handbag don’t you think? 
Source: Brando.com
5 Comments
ooh, some interesting tit-bits this week.
Ok, my pennies worth.
1)The writings of Mr Grey – Why do I smell a rat? It seems very convineint that E.L James husband manages to get a contract with the same publishers as her. Maybe they hope to cash in on her name by saying “From the Husband of the author of the global smash Fifty shades….” I’m not niave that I don’t understand that its a business, but as they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Maybe he will be even better than his wife. *keeps personal thoughts on that to self* At least its a different genre, either way meh!
2) Jurassic Park 4- After seeing how MIB turned out, I think they should leave wel enough alone. They won’t but they should.
3) The biggest issue with ebooks is they re subject to VAT and the publisher sets the price, unlike physical books. I agree, it should be cheaper
4) Iphone cover- Wonder if they do them for the Samsung Galaxy S2???
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Not sure if I smell a rat or not, I guess we’ll see when the book comes out.
Don’t think I’ve seen MIB3 but it doesn’t sound promising!
I’d forgotten about VAT on ebooks although I have signed a petition about it. It should be removed without a doubt!
iPhone case, I have no idea, check out the site, you might be lucky x
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Lol, i am always looking for conspiracies.! How knows, he may be even better *keeps thoights to self. won’t be mean. zips lips*
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New Jurassic Park – YEAH!
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You’re not scared it could be awful? I hope it’s as good as the first!
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