Okay, two book news pieces that I found interesting over the last few days.  First off is the Variety article about Todd McFarlane remaking the world of the Wizard of Oz for a new movie.  McFarlane and partner Josh Olson will be creating a darker, grittier Oz that they hope will still appeal to fans of the books/movie.

“…Olson told Daily Variety. “The appealing thing about the Baum books to me is how wildly imaginative they are. There are crazy characters from amazing places. I want this to be ‘Harry Potter’ dark, not ‘Seven’ dark.””
Sounds like this could be pretty interesting.
 
Second article is from Wired and talks about the popularity of Chinese online novels. Readers pay by 1000 characters (usually only a few cents) and authors gain royalties by the same measure (usually 7-12 dollars per 1000 characters). So the more you write, the more money you make. The exact opposite of the quality, not quantity ideas taught to American writers (unless you write mass market paperbacks).  I wonder if this trend will pick up over here? Already, some authors publish online, but it is often said to be a death stroke to your novel, as who would want to publish what your audience has already read for free?

The biggest problem I see here is quality control. I mean, I read plenty of fan fic on fanfiction.net. Very few of those stories are something I would consider paying money to read.  Readers would have to at least have the option to read a few chapters for free to decided if its worth the risk. Of course, if its cheap enough, then it’ll be easier to get new readers.
 
Oh! And to any sci-fi writers out there with redheads, check out this article.
“If predictions by the Oxford Hair Foundation come to pass, the number of natural redheads everywhere will continue to dwindle until there are none left by the year 2100. ”

 Okay, working on a review of Stardust. Haven’t had much time for reading lately. I plan to do a series of posts about my bookshelves–first up will be books that were truly worth buying (because I’ve reread them a million times).

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