The Momentum Blog
The Momentum Comedy Hour
The Sturgeon General Recommends is a digital anthology of short fiction and other writing with a humorous bent. There are five books in the initial release, from young up and coming authors Cait Harris who joins us on The Momentum Comedy Hour podcast, and also Geoff Lemon, Jack Vening, Adam Norris and Callum O’Donnell.
Writers and books mentioned in this podcast include:
Sam Lipsyte (The Ask)
Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho)
Helen Fielding (Bridget Jones’ Diary)
David Foster Wallace (Consider the Lobster and other Essays)
Gerald Durrell (My Family and other Animals – Corfu trilogy)
Sloane Crosley (I was told there would be cake)
As well as the five Sturgeon General books we have another humorous book out this month, Sean Condon’s Splitsville. It’s a sharply funny book about a corporation that breaks up relationships – kind of like a dating service in reverse. Available for $5.99 from all good online book retailers.
Recommendations
Patrick: Chris Somerville – We Are Not The Same Anymore
Cait: Cheryl Strayed – Tiny Beautiful Things
Anne: Gerald Durrell – Marrying Off Mother and other stories
Joel: Tig Notaro
Help Wanted – Marketing Intern
Are you a Sydney-based Marketing/PR student looking for some workplace experience? Then we want to speak to you.
Who we are
Momentum is a digital-first imprint of Pan Macmillan Australia, publishing quality ebooks to a global market.
Who we’re looking for
Momentum is currently looking for an unpaid marketing intern to help out one day a week for a six week period at our office in the CBD. We’re seeking a motivated marketing/PR student or graduate with a passion for books, technology and social media.
Intern duties
You would be required to help our marketing team with various tasks including sending copies of books to reviewers, writing copy for press releases, liaising with authors and working on marketing campaigns across social media platforms. Some limited administrative duties, such as working on our database, will also be included.
What you get
Experience in the marketing and publicity side of the publishing industry. Working with our small team you’ll have the opportunity to get first hand knowledge of the digital publishing process, from commissioning novels to marketing the finished product. This is also an invaluable opportunity to gain experience and make contacts in a future-focussed section of a highly competitive industry.
Please note that this is an unpaid position.
If you are interested then please send a resume plus a cover letter expressing why you’d like the position to info@momentumbooks.com.au.
Who owns your favourite character? Author vs Reader
‘If “books are the windows to the world” as they say, then their pages are the magic carpets that lead us there.’ - EDEWEDE ORIWOH
‘If “pages are the magic carpets” as they say, then e-readers are the fabric of the magic.’ - ANONYMOUS KINDLE USER
‘Ereaders are great. Ebooks are great. Buy Momentum ebooks.’ - ANONYMOUS MOMENTUM PUBLISHER
Does an author have exclusive rights to the world they have created in their book, or series of books? Would you say intellectual property trumps the captured imagination of the fans? Can an author really ‘Lucas’ their franchise with sequels, reboots adaptations or revised editions to fulfil their fantasy, just because they had the idea in the first place? Or does the world, once set loose into the public domain, belong to the readers as much as the writer?
BREAKING NEWS: George Lucas now can be used as a verb
You can apply this train of thought not just to books, but across all mainstream entertainment media. This is from the Star Wars Special Editions to The Amazing Spider-Man reboot, to all the movie sequels that should never, ever have been made, and can never be undone. Many a time have millions cried out in terror, their voices suddenly tweeting a lot of complaints.
I tip my hat to authors. Family homes, cities, countries, worlds, even galaxies beckon for you to inhabit them and go on incredible journeys of wonder, gore, sex, technology, action, suspense, intrigue, and ‘OMG no way!’ They can be epic or intimate in scope, with events that can span a day, year, decade or even a century. They are the ones who take us on these sojourns of emotion.
A typical author sheds blood, sweat and tears in the creation of their work: tears from the struggle of getting a publisher; sweat from being told they have to work out how to use Twitter to help promote their book; and blood from smashing the keyboard after reading their first bad review. However, does an author’s role as ‘creator’ automatically mean they trump the rights of the reader?
Try to count the hours an author may spend imagining their world, dwelling on the characters and talking about their plot bunnies incessantly to their partners. What about all the writing, rewriting, re-rewriting, the endless struggle to get a publisher, having a mental breakdown that involves copious chocolate and/or alcohol, then somehow finally landing a deal? After all that there is that little thing called the publishing process to go through and all the marketing (read: tweeting) that goes into promoting the book once the text is finalised. The hours stack up. How long did it take you to read the latest instalment in your favourite series, and how do you think that compares to the length of time invested by the author? Unless you’re an epically slow reader, you’ll end up losing.
An author can take a year or more writing a book – six or seven if your last name is ‘Martin’. I may read that new book I’ve been waiting for in a day, over a weekend or up to a fortnight, depending on its length and how much time I have. One-on-one the author wins, right? Of course. The author has spent far longer on their work, no matter how dedicated I am to the series.
Like I said, one-on-one.
Whether you are thinking of a franchise spread over multiple mediums with a large and fervent fan base, or your more typical author who still has thousands of readers per book, the hours quickly sway from favouring the writer to the readers.
So, does the author of a book have exclusive rights? Does intellectual property trump the captured imagination of the fans?
Let’s look at a book-orientated example. You can barely open the internet without seeing a reference to HBO’s Game of Thrones. Whether it’s hating Joffrey or loving Daenerys, this nerdy series of books about medieval-like lords and ladies fighting for an iron chair with direwolves, dragons and ice-zombies thrown in the mix has captured pop culture imagination after being realised in television form. George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series is the latest fantasy franchise to cash in on the ‘once-geek now-mainstream’ trend. While some fans of the first season may have mistaken the show for porn’s answer to endless complaints of lousy acting, low production values and flat storylines, the HBO show has unsurprisingly sky-rocketed sales of the books. New trade paperbacks and mass market formats, including those with covers to match the show, are everywhere, not to mention the Enhanced Ebook editions.
Sean Bean being a sport on the front cover
So what does Game of Thrones have to do with reader rights versus author rights? Well, quite a lot. George R.R. Martin not only gave HBO his blessing, but is a co-executive producer and writes at least one episode per season. It’s fair to say Martin enjoys a reasonable amount of influence steering the direction of the show. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss also fill in the role of ‘writers’ in this context. This begs the question (from me, at least), what about the readers?
Skip the next paragraph if you are not up to date with Season 3 Episode 2 of Thrones, otherwise keep reading.
On a case by case basis, you may get convincing answers from HBO as to why Kahleesi’s visions in the House of the Undying were replaced by the ones featured in the TV show, or why Peter Dinklage didn’t lose more of his face in the Battle of Blackwater Bay, and so on. I’m happy to let Peter keep his nose, so I’ll let that one slide, but the visions? I would like to have seen them. Everyone will have different nitpicks they are willing to concede, or for which they are deeply upset. I’m largely lenient towards changes in the show as I appreciate a lot of stuff on the page would not work on screen as well as what HBO decided to do. The showrunners have also given nods to the fans: Cersei says she heard Tyrion had lost his nose, acknowledging the difference between the book and the show; and Gendry criticises Arya for not spending one of Jaqen H’ghar’s kills on King Joffrey or Tywin Lannister. The latter is a conversation never seen in the books, but a common fan reaction. To me, this indicates that Benioff, Weiss and Martin are listening and engaging with the readers to create the best adaptation they can.
Do the readers get a say in the Thrones adaptation? Of course not, there are far too many differences of opinion for HBO to conform to, and why should they? So far HBO have shown they not only understand make good television, they understand the books as well. If anything, Benioff and Weiss represent the readers, and are our voice in ensuring the characters we have come to love – or pray that they die – are treated with respect. They were fans of the series before the show came into being, after all. It may not be absolutely perfect in the eyes each individual, but for most, it will be pretty damn close.
If you find Martin’s books too gargantuan to tackle, or just think boobs are far better on the screen than on paper, there are plenty more examples. The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings have all shared some criticism on how they have been adapted to film. They have also enjoyed a lot of fan adoration, from both readers and filmgoers-only. I chose Game of Thrones as my main example, though, as George R.R. Martin has a constant, active presence in the writing room, exercising his ‘author rights’. J.K. Rowling exercised some for Harry Potter, but loosened the reigns after the first couple of films, or at least that’s how it seemed.
Are you a Game of Thrones fan? Have you read the books too? What do you think of the show as an adaptation? Have your say in the comments below.
Have I picked a fair example with Game of Thrones, or is the fact the TV show has received such high critical acclaim make the changes in the adaptation ‘acceptable’? Is a critically unsuccessful but ‘true’ adaptation a failure? Can you think of any examples?
In terms of ‘reader rights’ being respected in adaptations like Game of Thrones, I think we will have to hold our breath and pray to the Old Gods and the New. Can we make a practical difference? Not likely. Does that render readers’ combined hours of love, dedication and eyestrain as obsolete? Not to me. Then does no power come with no responsibility? I suppose so, but it doesn’t take away my sense of entitlement.
What do you think about the rights of authors vs the rights of readers? Are we sentenced to just watch whatever may happen to our favourite books with no say?
Alex Lloyd is an editorial assistant at Pan Macmillan Australia. He interned briefly at Momentum before Pan snapped him up for full time employment. You can follow Alex on twitter at @AlexDNLloyd
If you’re a fan of consuming culture episodically you might like to try Adina West‘s Dark Child series. Find them here.
Welcome to the World of Aurora: Darwin
Welcome to the world of Captain Saul Harris and Corporal Carrie Welles. They are soldiers enlisted in the United National Forces, which consists of two divisions: Earth Duty and Space Duty. The UNF was created to not only protect the Earth, but oversee and secure the space migration. Human populations now dwell on the many stations floating off Earth, the five colony settlements based on the Moon, and the developing colonies on Mars – the new frontier. The ‘UNF Space Zone’ covers the entire area of inhabited space as controlled by the UNF. This is the world that Harris and Carrie have sworn to do their duty and protect.
Click the image to see a larger version
Aurora: Darwin – 1st May 2013. Available from your preferred ebook retailer. Pre-order your copy now ($2.99) and go into the draw for your chance to name a star!