Category Archives: Publishing Industry News

Wednesday and The Thing That is Kind of Big Deal or I’d Like to Thank the Academy

July 22, 2015

You know that feeling you get when it’s Wednesday, hovering somewhere between ten and eleven o’clock, and you can’t prove it–but you’re pretty sure the corporate overlords have stopped all the clocks in the building–or slowed them down considerably–and Saturday is only a mythical creature lurking on the other side of a forest of meetings and a swamp of chores and and a moat of to-dos, and the only thing you can think about is pulling a Netflix marathon while eating peanut butter from a jar with a soup ladle?

Okay, maybe it’s just me.

But I do have good news. Today I learned that Kirkus Reviews chose HitList for a featured review in their July issue. I even got a pullquote! You’ll just have to take my word for it for now, since I’m too tired to show you. Color me every shade of excited-happy-tired. A very good Wednesday in spite of the corporate overlords.

HitList Review and Release Date

June 1, 2015

HitList by K. Rawson

Big news on the old blog today. First, I’m happy to share the first official review of my novel HitList, by Kirkus.

KIRKUS REVIEW

An impulsive high school cyber-prank spirals dangerously out of control in Rawson’s visceral, compelling debut YA novel.

Barton High, in a fancy Chicago neighborhood, is a typical school full of freaks and geeks, and senior Quinn Cotti belongs to the latter category. Despite a strong aptitude for computers, her socioeconomic status ensures that she can only make it to her dream school, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a scholarship. Unfortunately, that passport to success may be in danger. In an impulsive move, she once had a drunken sexual fling with her longtime crush—a dreamboat named Jake Vanadel. Now, it appears that Jake has posted their encounter on HitList, an online site that lets kids brag about their “scores.” After other men also put her on their lists, she finds that her school reputation has changed to one of promiscuity. Determined to take revenge, she unleashes a computer virus that hacks her fellow classmates’ social media accounts and posts their unsavory material online. The virus, however, takes on a life of its own, spawning unintended consequences that affect a host of Barton students, including, among others, the slimy Eli Edimas, son of a high-powered attorney; and Cameron Price, a bullied gay kid. As Quinn and Jake try to contain the damage, they come to know the “thorny fact that lies and truth have equal weight,” and that honesty may be the only way out of the mess. The novel’s characters seem to be cast from a standard high school playbook, and, as such, they often stick close to stereotype. That said, the story scores high marks for its taut pacing and for Rawson’s pitch-perfect ear for teenage talk. It also clarifies the nuanced nature of cyberbullying, in which distinct definitions of perpetrators and victims are difficult to come by; after all, Quinn may have unleashed the virus, but her actions also ring true for someone who’s been publicly shamed.

A precise portrait of the teen zeitgeist that reassures readers that, despite indications to the contrary, the kids are all right.



The official release date of my debut novel will be July 2, 2015. The ebook is currently available at Amazon for pre-order.


And hey, if you’re interested in obtaining a free review copy of my book, please provide your email via my contact form and let me know what format you prefer: print, kindle, EPUB or PDF.


Thanks to everyone who stuck by on on this journey!

    
    

		    
    
	
	





		
	
		
		

			
It’s The End of the World As We Know It
			    
    

        January 22, 2015
    
    

		

		
		    
    

        
Writers, are you sitting down?


Okay, here’s the bad news:


Amazon has discontinued their Breakthrough Novel Contest. So if you’ve spent the last eighteen months polishing your novel in anticipation of competing along with 9,999 others for that $50,000 prize, well—it ain’t happening.


More bad news? They are replacing it with the Kindle Scout program. Okay, maybe it’s not bad news, I guess that all depends on what you want to write. And what you want to read.


What is Kindle Scout? 


You can learn all about it here, but to sum-up, writers are invited to submit their unpublished novels for nomination for review by a Kindle Scout Team. If the Kindle Scout Team selects your book, you win an Amazon publishing contract. Authors will know within 45 days whether or not they’ve been selected, and winners receive a $1,500 advance.


By submitting, writers agree to Amazon’s contract terms which offer 50% royalties (yay!) and the option to back out of the deal if the book hasn’t sold $25,000 in 5 years. Even after a careful reading of the publishing terms, I’m not clear if one can ever escape Amazon’s clutches if the title proves popular (boo).  Amazon captures all rights to the book, with the exception of print, which stay with the author.


Books need to pass muster with their gatekeeper, and they strongly suggest professional editing and cover design. I don’t know if you’ve priced either of these things, but done right, it will easily eat up that advance.


Still, it may be hard to resist the opportunity to earn -.27 cents an hour. On the plus-side, copy editors, cover designers, and of course Amazon, will profit.


Jane Austen, you can go home now


Writers of historical literary YA fiction need not apply. Neither should Faulkner, Hemingway, Eudora Welty, Saul Bellow, JK Rowling or even Stephen King. Because as of now, Kindle Scout seeks only submissions in the following categories: Mystery/Thriller, Romance or Sci Fi/Fantasy.


It’s no coincidence that those categories constitute their greatest share of ebook sales.


Why did Amazon do this?


What Amazon has accomplished is to recruit their customer to filter the slush pile. And there is a lot of logic to that—who better to tell you what the customer wants than the customer themselves?


But will it work? Amazon selects candidates based upon customer nominations. So if you are a social media darling or promotional guru, you have a chance of getting elevated to a Kindle Scout Reviewer without anyone reading a single word of your work.


I can’t help but wonder if this came up because they found that books that garnered the best editorial reviews didn’t necessarily sell. Publishers Weekly reviews factored heavily in later rounds of the last ABNC.


Instead, Amazon is quite frankly asking the customer: what will you buy? And, when you’re in business to make money, I guess that is the most important question.