Around the Word

It's a relatively slow news day in the online realm of the word, but our friends at GalleyCat had a couple tidbits we thought were worth sharing.

Grim News for Giveaways: Over the last few years Facebook has been a favorite platform for  authors, publishers, and other book industry professionals for hosting contests. But thanks to a few barrier-raising format changes Facebook recently instituted, that tool may now be toast. As Jason Boog reports, contests must now be hosted on a Canvas Page or Page Tab created inside Apps on Facebook. Then there's the new rules for registering participants. "You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking into a Place, or connecting to your App. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a wall." Before hosting your next giveaway, be sure to familiarize yourself with all the strict, new guidelines and lengthy restrictions.

A Return to the Traditional: Our friend Jason Allen Ashlock, Principal of the Moveable Type Literary Agency, is one of the best analytical thinkers we know about the e-volution of the publishing industry. Today he was kind enough to share a few insights about how agents work with self-published authors like Victorine Lieske, a Moveable Type client who has sold more than 100,000 copies of her self-published e-book, Not What She Seems. You can hear more from Jason at the free workshop we'll be co-hosting with ASJA on May 24 on how to break into ghostwriting.