Planet of the Apes Anthology Story with Kevin J. Anderson!

From Colorado author Sam Knight:

I am so excited to announce I will be a part of this fantastic project!

You can read more about it in Rich Handley’s blog here: http://hassleinbooks.blogspot.com/2015/10/prose-of-apes-guiding-planet-on-its.html

I will be co-authoring a story with Kevin J. Anderson. My second time doing so with the legendary Science Fiction writer. To say I am excited about that part of this project would be an understatement! The list of other authors involved makes me weak in the knees!

I wanted to share a couple of quick thoughts on this project. I think it is very exciting that they have opened up the television series and the animated series for this anthology. Just having the entire original movie story arc available would have been incredible, but this, is extraordinary!

For research, I have watched the original 5 films, the television series, and am about half-way through the animated series. (I know, research sucks, right! ;D  )  I remembered all of these, if not the exact details of the stories, from when I was a kid. I found it interesting at how different each was. Online, I discovered many people consider them “alternate universes” of each other. Kind of like what happened with the Star Trek reboot. Die hard fans just pretended it was a whole different story so they can cope.  There were some surprising (if easily overlooked) discrepancies in the original movies even, so to have changes in the other series were expected for me, but… wow.

In the original series, humans couldn’t talk. On the television series, they all could. This fact alone kind of blows the plot of the first movie right out of the water, but it is still enjoyable. In the animated series, the apes are truer to the original idea for the whole thing and have a society nearly like ours with television sets and an army that drives around in military jeeps and trucks.

In spite of these differences, the two newer series reference the first, sometimes in odd and conflicting ways. Hence the whole “alternate universe” thing. (Not to mention the dramatic ending of Beneath the Planet of the Apes. No spoilers! Go watch it if you don’t remember/haven’t seen it!)

I could pick at these for a while (plot holes, things that don’t make sense, etc.) but there is no point to that. The point is to have fun with it. And the idea Kevin had for a story is exactly that.

When I heard his idea, it was pretty easy to realize our story would have to be set before the first movie. So you would think that I wouldn’t have to watch EVERYTHING for research, right? (Pshaw! Where’s the fun in that?) Actually, I still wanted to make sure that nothing like our story had been done already, and I wanted to make sure that if there was anything like it referenced, that we matched things as close as possible. Why? Well, because a) we are writing this for the fans and they would spot the problems right off and b) because we are fans and would never forgive ourselves for overlooking something obvious. (Also, I wanted the excuse to watch them all again!)

Some might ask why I would put in that kind of time. Aren’t there reference books, Wiki pages, that kind of thing where I can get quick answers? Yes, there are. But what if they are wrong? What if they are referencing Fan Fiction and I don’t realize it? What if I accidentally use something “outside” of the properties I was told we had access to? ( The original five films, the television series, and the animated series.) I would hate if we wrote the perfect story around that exact phrase said by that one character that makes the whole world work, only to find out that was from one of the comics and we have gone outside of our contract.  See? Media Tie-in writing is fun! (Actually, so far, it has been. But I have had a great mentor in Kevin J. Anderson!)

So what is our story about? I’m not gonna tell! You’ll have to buy the anthology! It should be out in Q1 2017. Okay. That’s a long ways away. I’ll tell a little bit to hold you over. It’s about a young Dr. Zaius! (and maybe … the Forbidden Zone? Oh, yeah. If you know Kevin, you know there had to be some Forbidden Zone action!) So exciting!

 

 

How Writing Non-Fiction Improves Your Fiction

This month we’ve been reading about story in non-fiction and how we can make money from it, and we’ve even got some tricks and tips to write non-fiction. So today, let’s do a something different. Let’s apply a little of what we’ve learned so far. First, read a piece of non-fiction. This can be a newspaper…

Continue reading →

How Publishers Must Use Images

How Publishers Must Use ImagesLet me drop some statistics on you: the Google domain was registered in September 1997, and today, the most popular search engine in the world indexes close to 50 billion webpages. Out of those webpages, Google has indexed over 1 trillion page images for its Google Image Search (as of 2013).

In case you didn’t know, images drive a lot of site traffic. Just look at the stats:

• Sixty percent of users are willing to consider search results that include an image.
• Content that contains images leads to 94 percent more views.
• More than 30 percent of users share images over the Internet.

Using search-optimized images on your webpages can give you a major advantage over your competitors. Book jackets and author images, pictures of book readings and other live events, or even a simple graph can significantly attract users and convert their visits to purchases.

Much more.

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Will You Sell More Books on a Holiday? (BookBub)
Timing plays a crucial role in any ebook marketing strategy, and knowing when to discount your book can mean the difference between a successful promotion and one that doesn’t meet expectations. With the winter holidays fast approaching, we were curious to find out how holidays might play into this question of timing.

Guide to Ebook Licensing for Public Libraries and Publishers (Pub Perspectives)
The 21st century will see public libraries becoming one of the main destinations on the Internet for readers to discover new reading material (ebooks, audiobooks, apps, etc.), in conjunction with other readers of similar tastes. The prospect will provide publishers with a wide range of possibilities to employ new business models, whereby libraries will be able to offer e-lending services in keeping with the new trends in content consumption (book club streaming services, pay-as-you-read, etc.)

Holiday Shopping 2015: Three Predictions for Retailers (Google)
Micro-moments are changing how we shop. As people increasingly turn to mobile devices, search and YouTube to inform purchases, Matt Lawson, Google’s director of performance ads marketing, makes three predictions for retailers to take note of this coming holiday season

The Subscription Wars Are Here (Observer)
The second wave of the web is here. Soon you will be asking friends if they are part of the Google plan or perhaps the Amazon plan. In fact, in the very near future, we might all be part of the Google, Amazon, or possibly Netflix and Facebook plan. In fact, it is very possible that our choice of plan will be part of how the coming generation defines itself. What is the second wave? The second wave is the idea that the Internet goliaths of the world are now playing for the $150 or so we spend with the cable companies each month. In an effort to justify and grow the monthly price of their particular content bundle, these Goliaths will acquire, roll up and merge anything and everything into the offering.

Is Subscription the Future for Digital Comics? (PW)
From Spotify and Apple Music to Netflix and Amazon Prime, huge chunks of the media distribution world are moving from paid downloads to monthly subscriptions. But since the early days of digital comics and graphic novels, most have been sold on a per-unit basis. Services such as Marvel Unlimited, Scribd and ComicBlitz now offer fans access to content rather than downloads. But it’s still too early to know whether these services can change consumer habits. Here’s a look at the principal players offering comics on the subscription model.

The Independent Alliance 10 Years on (Bookseller)
Two things in the book world never ever change: the first is predictions of the death of the novel, and the second is the certainty that independent publishing is coming to the end. Everything else is pretty much up for grabs. So it is pleasing to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Independent Alliance when great and varied novels are being published from around the world with aplomb and independent publishing is carrying on as ever.

Seven New Publishers Join Independent Alliance (Bookseller)
Seven new publishers are joining the Independent Alliance following the closure of Faber Factory Plus. Daunt Books Publishing, Lonely Planet, Murdoch Books, New York Review of Books, Pavilion Books, Pushkin Press and Scribe Publications are the seven new members of the Alliance, which was founded in 2005.

Mark your calendar for Indies First Day on Sat Nov 28

Mark your calendar for Indies First Day – a national campaign of activities and events in support of independent bookstores, first envisioned by author Sherman Alexie in 2013. It kicks off each November, on Small Business Saturday (November 28, 2015), when independent bookstores host authors as honorary booksellers throughout the day to help sell books, share recommendations, sign stock, give readings, and more.