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May
11
Litopia After Dark : Author 2.0
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photo credit: newhousedesign
Tonight on LITOPIA AFTER DARK we’re delighted to have as our special guest an acclaimed author who could be considered a signpost to the future.
In the words of publishing maven Martyn Daniels (who was our guest on “The Money Issue - How will Authors Survive in the Digital Future?” April 5th) Kate Pullinger is one of the few authors who “gets it” about the new digital media age, and who is already using it in highly creative ways. Reader in Creative Writing and New Media at De Montfort University, Kate currently teaches the online MA in Creative Writing and New Media. She could well be considered the prototype “Author 2.0″. So join us as we ask her all the most important questions about the next step in the evolution of the author.
Also on the show this week:
- In a wonderfully virulent attack, legendary science fiction author Orson Scott Card lays into JK Rowling.
- Louise Hay is a one-woman publishing phenomenon and one of the best-selling authors in history. We discuss what has got her to the top and kept her there.
- Also: music and politics - the campaign soundtracks are put to the test and we ask whether original creative works are used or abused by politicians.
- And HarperCollins are making hundreds of videos of their authors - we ask why?
On the panel this week are Donna Ballman, Richard Howse, Eve Harvey and very special guest Kate Pullinger. In the Ustream chatroom 8pm GMT, everyone was amazingly polite and attentive. Join us next week to try to get us as off-topic as possible!
May
7
Special Guest Alert! Kate Pullinger
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We’re delighted to announce that this Friday’s special guest on LITOPIA AFER DARK will be Canadian-born novelist and author of digital fiction, Kate Pullinger. Currently Reader in Creative Writing and New Media at De Montfort University, Leicester, Kate teaches the online MA in Creative Writing and New Media that she helped establish.
She has been writer-in-residence in many places, including Battersea Arts Centre, The University of Reading, the prisons HMP Gartree and HMP Maidstone, and in Maidstone itself. She was Judith E Wilson Visiting Writing Fellow at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, 1995/96 and the Visiting Writing Fellow at The Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University, 2001/03.
Kate is one of the first literary writers to work in the digital field. In February 2007, De Montfort University and Penguin Publishing collaborated to host the world’s first wiki novel - “A Million Penguins” - using the same software that runs Wikipedia. Over a five week period nearly 1,500 people signed up to edit the novel, over 11,000 edits were made and it was viewed over 500,000 times leading the CEO over Penguin Publishing to muse that it was maybe the “most written novel in history.”
Her most recent novel, A Little Stranger, was published in the UK by Serpent’s Tail in January 2006.
Join us live in the UStream chatroom this Friday to be part of a special podcast! The chatroom opens at the following times, the show itself starts recording 30 minutes later.
- 7:30pm London time
- 2:30pm New York / EST
- 11:30am Los Angeles PST
May
4
Litopia After Dark : A Big, Sexy Package
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photo credit: Mea Culpa Merlin
Your book is written, re-written, checked and double checked and you’re ready to find it a home. But in this ultra-competitive publishing climate how do you ensure your novel escapes from the slush pile? On Litopia After Dark this week our very special guest is Simon Flynn, Publishing Director of Icon Books and we ask him how to sex up our submissions to get them noticed and how publishers themselves package their books to entice the reader.
Libraries are branching out: As Swansea Library declares Friday nights, singles night and Swiss Cottage Library, London introduces a “borrow a person” event, we discuss whether the Libraries should be using gimmicks to attract visitors.
Children’s books (in the UK) are about to be labelled with suggested suitable age ranges by the publishers. Is this a good thing or (as children’s librarian Jake Hope believes) is it a cynical and misguided idea? Also, digital books for kids - should bedtime stories be left to the iPod or is this a step too far? And, My Beautiful Mommy, does your child really need a book to prepare them for your plastic surgery?
And as Richard and Judy prepare to leave Channel 4, taking their book club with them, the panel discuss whether this is the beginning of the end for UK authors? We also talk about the growth of the importance of bestseller lists, embedding your credit card details in your e-book and A-levels in Harry Potter.
On the panel this week are Donna Ballman, Richard Howse and Dave Bartram. Also, our special guest is Publishing Director of Icon Books, Simon Flynn.
The chatroom on Ustream at 8pm (GMT) was off-topic as usual and the panellists were left wondering what show they had been listening to. Join us next week to see how far we go.
Apr
27
Litopia After Dark : Virtual Dinner Party
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photo credit: Théo La Photo
Dinner parties! Soul food for the chattering classes (if you’re a writer that means you). Don’t you just love them? If you’re a man, the answer is likely to be “No!”. If female, probably the opposite. An intriguing item in Slate explains why eligible men are so difficult to find for these quintessentially middle-class eating events (apart from the fact that they simply don’t like them).
Our soigné panellists then examine a new book published this week that re-evaluates the 1960’s - what lasting impressions has this decade left on our lives today? Singer and troubled celebrity Amy Winehouse has allegedly been offered £1 million to write a book - is this another example of car-crash publishing? And Chick-Lit - formulaic pap or modern classic? According to recent figures, Amazon is defying the economic crunch, but why? To round off the conversation, we consider television - do you - does anyone still watch it? A veritable smorgasbord of tasty morsels of news, canapés of fact and appetisers of opinion, this week’s show offered a prize to the panellist who most over-extended their food metaphors - llisten to the podcast to find out who won!
The contestants tonight were Donna Ballman, Dave Bartram and Richard Howse with special guest Carolyn Soutar.
In the Ustream chatroom at 8pm (GMT) Friday we spilled wine on our keyboards and threw nibbles at the screen as the chat became frantic. Join us next week for a cocktail or three.
Apr
20
photo credit: Philgarlic
The dynamically changing nature of the publishing business is creating new opportunities for writers to eliminate the publisher and go straight to the reader directly. This week, Litopia After Dark considers just how easy - or otherwise - an option it is to make a living by doing it all yourself.
As the Harry Potter trial wraps up in New York, we spend some time thinking through the arguments and implications of what might be termed a literary weep-off. We also ponder some new opportunities for authors’ revenge against reviewers. And - do you really need to go to the expense of travelling to a country merely to write a travel guide about it?
This week we are delighted to welcome as our special guest author and self-publisher Darren E Laws, whose company is Caffeine Nights Publishing. Joining him on the panel are Donna Ballman, Beverly Gray and Dave Bartram.
There was no sobbing chatroom on Ustream at 8pm (GMT), thankfully. You should join us next week to find out what you’re missing.
Apr
12
Litopia After Dark: The Sex and Death Show
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The life of a writer is idyllic; long walks in the countryside, sipping latte in street cafes and pondering the greater meaning of life on the banks of a babbling brook. So everyone thinks! In reality, the writer’s life is very hard and in some cases deadly.
This week, after news of the death of several prominent internet writers, Litopia After Dark stresses about the exhausting, demanding pressure writers are under. Are we taking on too much?
We also discuss V.S. Naipaul (whose reputation is slated in a new biography out this week) and ask, can we overlook the imperfections of an author when they produce work of great literary merit?
Also, what’s the attraction of erotic fiction, (as if we didn’t know)? Are the days of the history book in the past? And book jackets, can you tell a book by its cover?
To discuss all these stimulating subjects our panellists this week are Beverly Gray, Donna Ballman, Dave Bartram, Richard Howse and John Quirk.
The Ustream chatroom opened at 7.30pm (GMT) and the heat became almost unbearable in there as the risqué discussion got out of hand. We’re sorry you missed it.
Apr
5
Litopia After Dark: The Money Issue - How will Authors Survive in the Digital Future?
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photo credit: Stijn Vogels
This week Litopia After Dark looks to the future. As we move rapidly into the digital age, there are undoubtedly opportunities for writers, plenty of pitfalls, but mostly uncertainty. It’s a timely subject - this week, Britain’s Society of Authors alarmed everyone with a shock prognostication: authors may stop writing - so their chairperson said - because it simply wont pay any more!
This has also been the week in which the blogs-to-books publisher The Friday Project crashed and burned its way into liquidation yet paradoxically, on the other side of the Atlantic, Random House has just paid $300,000 to an unpublished blogger! All this makes our key question tonight - How will authors survive? -very opportune.
We also discuss HarperCollins intention to do away with author advances, the growing furore over Amazon’s print-on-demand plans and we comb the bookshelves for the latest wave in book covers.
Our very special guest this week is Martyn Daniels, author of the seminal, pathfinding report for the Booksellers Association of Great Britain about their digital future - New World, Digitisation of Content: the opportunities for booksellers and The Booksellers Association. We also have author and polymath Brian Clegg, whose latest book, Upgrade Me: Our Amazing Journey to Human 2.0 is about to be published by St Martins Press, NY and our regular panellist Dave Bartram completes the team.
Mar
29
photo credit: nicasaurusrex
People are getting dumber, the world is sinking into entropy and signs of decline and fall are all around. So why are we bothering with Litopia After Dark this week? Well, someone has to sort it out!
The Queen’s English is on the endangered list. Katie Price (the UK glamour model aka Jordan) has a book in the running for a major award - her publsiher admits that even they don’t know how much of it she actually wrote herself - if any! Disney have turned our beloved Famous Five into a Hollywood cartoon. Enid must be spinning in her grave. Clearly, we’re all doomed.
Also, Bret Easton Ellis didn’t care then and doesn’t care now, comic books stultify the imagination and kids read Heat magazine in preference to Jackie Wilson. Yet more proof, if it were needed, that the end is nigh.
This week, here to contemplate the last rays of sunlight over intellectual Armageddon, are Dave Bartram, Beverly Gray and Richard Howse. Our special guest this week is best-selling children’s author MG Harris.
Mar
22
Litopia After Dark: Happy Talk
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photo credit: Fifi LePew
This week, Litopia After Dark boldly goes where no podcast has gone before (note the effortless Roddenberry reference!) as we consider Arthur C. Clarke’s legacy and ponder the literary merit of SF: geek fodder or classic fiction?
We also nominate a children’s author to (literally) shoot out of the sky - and the Encyclopaedia Britannica goes luxury… but do we love it enough?
Also, on the show this week… happiness is overrated… Sebastian Horsley is banned from the USA… employees are gagged… and it’s Mac! No it’s PC! No Mac! PC! Mac!
Finally, we enquire where old books go to die and give you the sure-fire success formula for writing your non-fiction blockbuster… so don’t say we never do anything for you.
Joining Peter on the panel are Beverly Gray, Dave Bartram, Donna Ballman, Richard Howse and Eve Harvey. And if you missed the party in the uStream chat room (8pm GMT on Friday) - where were you? Come and join in next week!
Links mentioned in the show…
Mar
15
Litopia After Dark: The Hooker Prize
Filed Under Litopia After Dark |
Litopia After Dark this week is plunging further into the murky depths of the literary world than we have ever been before, as we deliberate the question - Vice: is it any good?
We look at the sin of shoplifting books, the evil-doing of downloading e-books and the depravity of failing to return library books. And as we plummet, the panel discuss literally pitching your work and the wrath that may result… the sloth of Thesaurus use… the lust of the madam memoir.
By the time we’ve settled at the bottom of the pit, all that remains is the question of literary vice - naughty or nice?
The deviant panellists this week are Dave Bartram, Donna Ballman and Eve Harvey. And you should have been in the chatroom at 8pm GMT on Friday, it was wicked!
Links mentioned in the show…
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