Social Media and the Herd Mentality

By Martha Reed

Last night I watched the movie Social Media, about the advent of Facebook and the business chaos it inspired, and as I sat there watching it I kept thinking: This has a lot of application to what it happening in the publishing business today, too. I’ve repeatedly heard at conferences and workshops that what’s happening to authors today is very similar to what happened to musicians with Napster five years ago.

We’re experiencing the concept of direct content (via eBooks), we’re questioning the old business model structure and pay breakout, ie., author/agent/editor/Publishing house. I’ve seen concerns over copyright. And these are all good discussions to have, in any situation.

The question, as I gaze into my murky crystal ball, is what is an author to do?

For example: I have a completed manuscript in the pipeline. I’m following the traditional publication route, querying agents, etc. but I’m also reading everything I can get my hands on about the publishing marketplace. I get discouraged to see that agents, desperate now because of the inflow of out of work former editors who are morphing into agents seem to be following a herd mentality by only looking for YA supernatural because they think that’s where the money is post-Twilight. Maybe it is. But Sisters in Crime paid for a survey that indicated a majority of readers were women between 50-70 years old who lived in the southern states. I’m sure some of them are reading Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse, but there must be room in there for other trend lines that are not YA paranormal.

What are your thoughts on the current marketplace? What publishing strategies are you choosing to follow? Inquiring Mind wants to know.

FEAR AND ATTRACTION

by Gina Sestak

The topic of the month is scary things, so I sat down and tried to think about some things that frighten me.  I had to stop.  I got too scared . . .

It's odd, though, that things that terrified people for centuries seem to have morphed into things that are downright attractive.  Take the vampire, for example.

Many cultures have legends about beings - the dead or undead, corporeal or in spirit form - who suck blood from the living.  Sounds pretty horrible, doesn't it?  Early depictions of the vampire on film showed a repulsive creature, one you wouldn't want to run across in a dark alley - or anywhere else!

Bela Lugosi may have been a leading man on stage in his native Hungary, but when he played Dracula in American horror films, he managed to look pretty scary.

I know I'd run screaming if I saw him coming after me.

Anne Rice's vampires are attractive, but they are killers nonetheless.  Even Louis, with all his angst, slaughters humans.

Nowadays,  though, vampires are depicted as attractive, even relatively harmless.  Think Edward Cullen from the Twilight films.

Who wouldn't want him sneaking in through her bedroom window?

[Yeah, I know he's way too young for me, but this is fantasy, OK?]

The werewolf has undergone a similar metamorphosis.

When Lon Chaney transformed beneath the full moon, we knew we'd better run and hide or else he'd tear us
limb from limb.  He couldn't help himself.

Neither could Professor Remus Lupin, the werewolf in the Harry Potter films.  He, too, is a tragic figure, doomed to turn into a monster every month.

Even a man who is pure of heart
And says his prayers by night
May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms
And the moon is shining bright.


Jacob Black, on the other hand, is a hunk, no question.  Even in wolf form he comes across as a nice guy in the Twilight films - at least, if you are Bella Swan and not a vampire.


[Yes, I have read Breaking Dawn, but let's not go there.   That book creeped me out in ways that are neither fun nor even horror.  I mean, the Jacob part was just plain icky.]

So, what do you think?  Do vampires and werewolves scare you?  Or would you rather date a few?