Saturday, June 20, 2009

Linkspam!

Since the blog will be dark for an entire week, I thought it best to leave you with some fantastic links to explore in my absence.



THE LATEST NEWS

  • A Twitter Celebration of PB/MG/YA Books released this year! I scoured this list not only to see what new books were coming, but also to find new authors to follow on twitter. (Be sure to say hello to @christinemarciniak and @pjhoover!)
  • OMG, you must read this. A bookseller's recent experience buying books. What blows my mind? Just how many Dan Brown books they buy...and how little anything else they buy. Not to harp on about Twitter, but look at this:
    Confronted with Othmer's book on the catalog page, I tried to see it in the best light possible. It's basically a book about advertising (sounds like a contemporary Mad Men) that is gunning for a general audience. Ron showed me two possible covers. One bizarrely featured a fried chicken leg, while the other showed the earth. I ordered five copies and prayed the chicken leg would go away. My guess is that without the personal interaction with Othmer on Twitter, I would have gagged on that chicken leg and moved on without bringing the book into the store.
  • BEA Panel about YA lit--especially good for you spec fic peeps out there.


INTERVIEWS

Kathy wrote: "Do you keep a notebook in which you jot down interesting ideas or thoughts whenever or wherever they come to you? "

I do. And I lose them. And then I find them again, and read things I've written and go "What a great idea. I have no memory of coming up with that at all. Brilliant."
Editing is more by-the-hip. You look at a text and ask yourself how it can be improved. One thing I have noticed is that when you're a younger editor, you're more intense about it. As you go along, you relax a little. More and more, I feel that the book is the author's. You give the author your thoughts and it's up to him or her to decide what to do.


STUFF TO READ FOR FUN


INSPIRATIONAL




ON BOOKS & PUBLISHING

I think we’ve had to look at our sluggish beginnings in epic, and realize that two hundred pages of wandering around a castle before conflict appears may not be the best way to begin a story. We’ve had to become more creative in our worldbuilding, partially (I think) to compete with the elegance of YA competition.


ON WRITING

5 comments:

Kate said...

Thanks for all the Linkspam!

Unknown said...

OMG so much linkspam! But I love it. And the fact that it will take me a good hour to go through- a good hour away from revisions! Yay!

Debbie Ridpath Ohi said...

Thanks for mentioning Inkygirl.com. :-)

And for posting all the great linkspam!

Debbie

Danyelle L. said...

Very nice! Have a wonderful week--will miss you. :D

Christina Farley said...

Great link list. I'm a big fan of Inkygirl too!