A micro-flog

[pastygothchick.livejournal.com]

Announcements

Okay, here are the two announcements that were made at the signing last night.

Okay got some things to share that were announced last night at the signing. So drum roll please!

In case it's unclear Deeply Dumb Darla has something to say.

Press Release from Berkley:
At Berkley, Editorial Director Susan Allison signed up three more Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels from Laurell K. Hamilton—the 1 bestselling author credited with starting the genre of paranormal fiction. North American hard/soft rights were brokered by Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House in a major 7-figure deal. The first of the three books-the sixteenth hardcover in the popular series, following the latest installment Blood Noir-will be published in 2009.

I am trying to assemble the snark that has come screaming into my brain.

1.  Does anyone proof read ever?????  The punctuation mistakes alone.  Do they just look at a poorly constructed sentence and go "Looks kind of funny let’s toss a hyphen at it, or maybe pull out our overstock of commas."

 

2. 7 figures?!? Please tell me that includes the two to the right of the period.

 

3.  WTF do you mean she started Paranormal Fiction???  Does Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, H. P. Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, or dozens of other writers ring a fragging bell????  I choke down vomit to say Anne Rice even pre-dated her.  What sycophantic troo said that???

 

4.  The only glimmer of a silver lining is having 3 more books to rake her over the coals for.

I need to take my pills now before blood comes shooting out of my eyes.

Comments

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

A piece of my soul dies everytime I see someone gushing about how LKH started the urban paranormal genre.

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

LKH started not just urban fantasy, but ALL paranormal fiction now? Someone call Bram Stoker and tell him he needs to send that bitch a fruit basket!

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

No, somebody needs to get Lucius Shepard drunk and tell him that.

[darkese.livejournal.com]

I heard she invented plastic and toy poodles!

I love how that sentence starts (sort of) 'the 1 bestselling' ..huh? She's the only bestselling novelist? EVAH

[snipervalentine.livejournal.com]

I think Anita should raise Mary Shelley as a zombie. She'll be pissed.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

See, if LKH had self-awareness, she would totally do this. There would be some wannabe-gawth novelist who was a pain in the butt, and her rival, and the two of them would get Anita to raise the zombie of their publisher to determine once and for all which of them invented their genre, and somehow Anita's superpower of necromancy would lead to the town being terrorised by various paranormal-genre zombies such as Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, the superbly decadent Monk Lewis, and whoever wrote the Castle of Otranto. Think of the jollity!

[dameruth.livejournal.com]

I'm torn between going fetal with the horror of it all, or else screaming "Seven frickin' figures, why, God, why?!?!?"

Oh, and I'd like to kick someone's ass on behalf of all excellent urban/paranormal fantasists who have preceded LKH. Heck, even if her later books weren't that hot, Anne Rice was there waaaayyyy earlier.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

*headdesk* Yes.

Shit, my writing coach is a published vampire novelist, and I KNOW he was there before LKH.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

There's one answer to that seven-figures question:

Sex sells.

To quote the genius Yahtzee, the nerd is a tiresomely predictable creature, and you put some sex in it and they'll just snap it up.

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

Dark Shadows. I know it wasn't a book but for the love of God will someone please tell me why Dark Shadows isn't considered Urban Fantasy?

[pastygothchick.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the sloppy formatting. It looked better in preview.

[unrund.livejournal.com]

You can edit your entry even if it has been posted in a comunity.

[x--shameless.livejournal.com]

I kind of want to cry. I mean, I'm not surprised, because she (SADLY) is popular, but .

[pastygothchick.livejournal.com]

It's strange though. Most really popular authors get leaked to the internet and she doesn't really have that problem.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

I feel a bit sorry for LKH, forced to produce three more Anita novels. Who, I mean what, on EARTH will she do in them?

[pastygothchick.livejournal.com]

Pretty much write pages and pages of cut and paste pron. Like the last 3.

[drho.livejournal.com]

I hope LKH saves that seven-figure advance, as I can't imagine these books will keep selling forever.

[christraven.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I think you underestimate the power of stupidity...

That, and each generation of Troobies will probably continue churning out L'il Troos who will keep the whole thing going.

...but then, I'm an incurable pessimist.

[pandorasblog]

"What IS interesting is that it's only 3 more books. When she started she had at least 10 books."

Ten books' worth of ideas, or a ten-book deal? In the video interview someone just posted, she mentions having a drawerful of ideas for, I think, another fifteen books.

I suspect that the reason this is only a three-book contract is that the publishers know damn well that the market is getting saturated with this stuff. Everyone and their mother is writing paranormal romance; there's a labelled section for the sub-genre in bookshops.

Given that for much of the newer part of the fanbase, its appeal seems to have been that it was some kind of kinky alternative to regular romance, I wonder how they'll feel about it now that it's becoming increasingly mainstream and overdone. Will it stop being forbidden fruit; will they be disappointed that they've lost the cachet of liking something niche? Even if they still like LKH, will they be put off the genre as a whole by the army of people copying her, who will be seen as unoriginal by comparison?

Given that publishers will have seen various literary fads come and go (the historical/religious conspiracy theory wave, for instance), I can't believe they haven't thought of all this... I'm not saying her sales will fall overnight, but there has to come a point when "paranormal romance" is no longer flavour of the month.

[leoin.livejournal.com]

I think everyone here should start writing really awesome books that embody what the Anita Series SHOULD be but aren't. And then when they are supremely popular and well reviewed, everyone will put under their dedication: "To Laurell K. Hamilton for making me see that if you're crap can sell well and have thousands of fangirls, then my work would be like the second coming. Here's to you and your non-existent editor!"

I think that would own.

[pastygothchick.livejournal.com]

Anyone else wonder about the fact this book deal was done before Blood Noir came out?

[karmyn75.livejournal.com]

So she invented a genre that's been around pretty much since people started telling stories? It can be argued that Homer wrote paranormal fiction. Various gods, River Styx, Land of the Dead. That just screams paranormal. And she didn't invent paranormal romance either. Those have also been around forever. Old school Gothics, the old Penny Dreadfuls, etc. Those could be considered paranormal romance. LKH is not romance by any stretch of the definition.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Yay, Dexter reference!

Also, SHE DID NOT CREATE A GENRE. *runs off sobbing*

[pastygothchick.livejournal.com]

Wait, Dexter kills bad guys. LKH has killed trees, plot, characters, the English language and for ID a good weekend. Let's call in the Dark Avenger.

When I think of Darla I always see Julie Benz and a vapid expression. Like her character in As Good As It Gets.

[brushfiretiger.livejournal.com]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember some supernatural shit going on in ... oh, say, the BIBLE. Demons, angels, curses...

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

7 figures. Wow, there is hope for me. Oh, and she has an editor. Really?

[wakarimashta.livejournal.com]

we SO need a secret spy decoder ring so we can identify each other at these clusterf*cks.

and wasn't it just tooo speshul that she TOLD every one just HOW much freaking coin she makes for dredging up CRAP?
Apparently a decent stylist costs EIGHT figures....... and conditioner even more than THAT.

Odd that one of her security guys looks JUST like fanboi.

I am so throwing up in my mouth a little now.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

What have we learned from this, children?

MERILEE HEIFETZ IS AN INCREDIBLE AGENT WHO COULD SELL SHIT TO A FEED LOT.

[togana.livejournal.com]

I heard that LKh not only created paranormal fiction, she created books and ALL written languages as well! Yeah, see, on the discovery channel, they did a documentary about her and apparently, it was her who built the pyramids and of course, the Egyptians just copied off of her, the bastards!

They also revealed that LKH created the sun, moon and stars, even though there is no hard proof evidence to substantiate that claim. However, there was mentioned of witnesses who saw her swirl her arms around "like she was mixing up soup" one witness stated. "She then pulled something out of her ass and threw it upwards and all of a sudden tiny bright lights appeared over the darkness."

Okay, joking aside, who ever made that ridiculous statement needs to put down the crack pipe and back away slowly.

[bethanydonne.livejournal.com]

You win the internets.