You can make microwave popcorn using a brown lunch bag! For some reason I never knew this. I thought I had to buy the microwave popcorn complete with nasty chemicals, or else haul out the air popper. But Nooo!
- Simply combine up to 1/2 C popcorn with a dollop of oil (1 tsp or less depending on how much popcorn you use).
- Put it in a brown lunch sack, sprinkle with a little salt, fold the top over twice and pop it in the microwave - this is important - standing upright (not on the side like you do with store-bought microwave popcorm).
- 2-3 minutes later (listen for the popping to slow down) - voila - popcorn! How cool is that!
Sometimes it's the little things that make my day.
So, on to writerly things. I thought I would bring to your attention the amazing Kate Hart. Yearly, she puts together a round up of YA book deals - what's hot now, what's trending, what's fading - in fabulous full color graphs. Please check out all one, two, three of her wonderful posts on the subject.
I love Numbers + I love Graphs + I love Writing = I love Kate Hart's Posts
Beyond just the general coolness of the graphics, there's all sorts of interesting stuff to dig into. I know we all need to write what we love, but don't you ever get the littlest bit curious how your preferred genre stacks up?
Probably since I love my Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Dystopian, I was surprised by the size of the Contemporary Market. Sci-fi has been trending recently as the 'new Dystopian' from all I've read. And while people talk of Paranormal fading and the Thriller rising, I'm not seeing it so far from this graph. Interesting. What would you like to see more of? Less of?
Next up, should you be planning that seven book series? Apparently only if you're writing Paranormal.
And lastly, I know, I know, none of us are in this for the money - are we? But don't you just wonder what you might expect if you got the magic phone call from an agent, and then the even more magic phone call from a publisher?
The data is a little more rough here since nearly three quarters didn't report monetary figures at all. 17% had six figure deals (but consider, most of those are established authors since under 20% of book deals this year went to debut authors). I have heard the advance for debut authors is more likely in the $5k range (do any of you have any data on this?), although a fellow Hatracker, J.N. Koury, recently inked a deal for her debut, Origin, which looks amazing! Congrats!
Please take a minute and look through Kate Hart's blog. I have been so impressed by the quality and effort that has gone into this round-up. This overview barely scratches the surface of all the good stuff she has posted there.
Happy Writing!
and popcorn eating
~Susan
Yay, I love graphs.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting information. Thanks for sharing and letting us know about Kate Hart and how to make microwavable popcorn.
Some of these graphs really surprise me. It sort of explains why I'm having such a hard time finding new books in YA that I want to read lately. I mostly hate contemporary YA, with a few exceptions that I can't think of right now. How sad is that? Still, when you add fantasy, paranormal, dystopian, steampunk and sci fi together, it's a pretty huge chunk of the industry. Why can't I find a book to read?????
ReplyDeleteVery excited about the popcorn idea. I can't wait to try it out!