This is a two-parter. Choose your favourite half.

This all starts over on Fandom Lounge (sort of!), where it is revealed that author, Casea Major first made a novel based off 50 shades and just as we found out about this joy she removed all traces of it from the internet.

Why did she do it? Well, it may have something to do with how EL James (author of 50 Shades) recently cease and desisted someone's lingerie parties that were themed after her books.

Actual quote: EL James’ agent Valerie Hoskins said the legal letter was not personal, adding: “You can’t just hijack something someone else owns.”

Now we enter into the next phase!

Cleolinda tweets about it, because that's what Cleo does.

Enter: AJA

See, lately Aja's blogger for the Daily Dot.

Anyway, she decides to write an article and tweets Cleo about the article:



Cleo does not respond.

So Aja tweets again:



Wait, what's Cleo talking about? What official account? WELL. Included on Aja's post, was this screencap:



Sounds hilarious, right? It's a photoshop though. If only because if it HAD happened Cleo would have it bronzed on her wall. But that's okay, because Aja wouldn't claim a photoshop was rea--oh, she did. Because that's how you Journalism in Aja land.

I'm not being unkind, she actually admits it:

Okay, she admits it AFTER Cleo keeps asking her about it (read these bottom up):





If the image isn't working, she says this about how she factchecks: "you know i was afraid of that, i tried to find it yesterday too & didn't confirm before we went to press. should have asked you!"

As of this post, Aja has kept a link to the photoshop in case she can magically verify it.

Hot off the wank_report presses:

Jenny Edwards, aka The Rejection Queen, is a "soon to be published author who is still getting rejection letters from literary agents". She runs a blog called Tales from a Rejection Queen, which consists of a laundry list of rejection letters for her writing dating back to 2008. Lest you think this might make for boring reading material, the letters are also interspersed with icons such as "Careful, you might end up in my novel!" and "How 'bout NO!".

Suddenly, the dam breaks. ( Read more... )

So, one fine Friday, Amazon abruptly delists all titles by Macmillan. John Scalzi, who has books with Macmillan via Tor Books, notices and is initially puzzled and then increasingly annoyed as the reason for this gradually becomes clear. Amazon has apparently pulled this stunt because Macmillan is demanding that its ebooks be sold at prices of its choosing instead of being forcibly discounted to $9.99 so Amazon can sell more Kindles.

John Sargent of Macmillan runs a paid ad in the Saturday edition of Publisher's Lunch explaining their position.

I told them they could stay with their old terms of sale, but that this would involve extensive and deep windowing of titles.

(I think this is publisher-speak for "sure, you can sell them for $9.99, but we won't be releasing them to you in ebook format until WAY after the initial publication date. You give us paperback prices, you'll get 'em about when the paperback comes out.")

Amazon's repsonse was to delist the Macmillan titles (without actually telling anybody why, mind you, except as an anonymous tip to The New York Times.)

The Twittersphere and blogosphere respond as one would expect. Charles Stross is particularly pissed off. Making Light also has a post about it and there's a thread about it on Absolute Write with some hilarious mansplaining as a guy who knows the vague basics about ebooks doesn't understand why they cost so darn much and gets into it with a woman who has been in the industry for years and knows exactly why they do.

Amazon finally backs down in a public statement on, um, their own message board by the "Amazon Kindle team."

We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.

Scalzi sums up the mess in his own snarky style.

Which means he'll probably be the last to get relisted.

There's loads out there, really, but these are the most entertaining highlights, I think.