Brilliant book for the classroom or for gifting, Tania. I understand some of the problems of this; when I wrote The Children's Book of Australia I continually found that "names" I meant to include were not (by our standards) worthy folk at all. In fact, many of the iconic folks of the past would have been MUCH better NOT to have done what they did. Hindsight is a glorious thing, but

Tania your book sounds fascincating can't wait to read it. Also interesting to hear how much research goes into writing something like this and the selection process aobut what goe in and what goes out.

You should be proud Tania. Putting this book together would have exhausted me.<br /><br />I imagine the culling would have been difficult.<br /><br />I wonder if you could create a book for adults with all of the research you found shocking, confronting and age-inappropriate.

Thanks for dropping in Sally, Cat and Jackie. It is a great book - very well put together. And thanks again for sharing it with us, Tania.

Congratulations Tania. What a mammoth undertaking. And worthwhile resource. I was forced to cut subjects from my last non-fiction book as you did and almost cried at the loss... and the work. Maybe you have another book in the cuts? Well done

Interesting post. The best non-fiction book I have read for years was Better http://caroleschatter.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/better-by-atul-gawande.html . You might like to add it to your list. It is a relatively quick read, too

I love that you have a wall dedicated to all your awards and certificates, Sally. I have a folder with a few bits and pieces of this sort in it to look through if I feel myself losing confidence a little, like you say, &#39;it reminds me that I can do it&#39;. <br /><br />Many, many congratulations on the well-deserved recognition your books have received!

Love that photo of you with your certificate and all those books. Pearl was the first verse novel I&#39;d ever read. Keep writing and writing so we can keep reading and reading ...

I think we&#39;re going to need a picture of that wall, Sally. Do you have a wide-angle lens? :)<br /><br />I always find it funny when people talk about &#39;overnight success&#39;. I suspect that is a very rare thing indeed. It must have been such a whirlwind for you, though, to have so much in such a short space of time after so many years of having a lower profile.<br /><br />I was actually

Sally&#39;s Super Story - I bet I would love it and feel quite sure it would touch my heart, perhaps most particularly the bit about the German backpacker who sounds a bit on the leprechaunish side.<br /><br />&quot;I swear that when my next manuscript is accepted I&#39;ll be less fearful of the editing process. But I never am.&quot; <br /><br />Neither am I, Sally! I wonder if and when people

Thanks for dropping by, Anna. Yes, I wonder if there will come a time when I&#39;m confident enough to tackle edits without having to first conquer the self-doubt monster on my back. Rational me knows that editing is not only important, but that it is the very thing that makes the story successful. But rational me is obviously scared of that monster and goes off to hide when he appears.

This is so interesting, Sally. It looks like you and I are quite opposite. I struggle with first drafts - doing a lot of the wrestling you describe at that stage. Of course, that doesn&#39;t save me from doing it all again later, so I&#39;m not sure why I don&#39;t just chill out and get on with the job. All my self-doubts come to the fore in the drafting stage; editing is a different kind of

Related? Of course. There&#39;s a whole family of alliterative industry members waiting to be used in my blog posts!<br />In retrospect I don&#39;t know why I don&#39;t struggle more with first drafts - because my first drafts are always pretty rough and need a lot of work. probably why I don&#39;t reread utnil I&#39;ve finished the first draft - because if I realised how bad it was I might not

Another Anna here. I love doing my own editing/polishing on a book. It&#39;s my favourite writing task of all - apart from cuddling a newly published book.<br /><br />As to outsider editing, I have a tiny advantage, Sally. I used to be an English teacher and then an editor, so I don&#39;t get much editing from the publisher - three comments on my last book. I don&#39;t even get much copy editing.

This is a great post, Sally. <br /><br />I&#39;ve just completed my 5th non-fiction book. They&#39;ve all become better books through the input of the editor, and for this last one, the input of the art director and book designer, too.<br /><br />The sample chapter I sent with the proposal wasn&#39;t included in the finished text. <br /><br />For this book, the contract asked for 300

Funny we were just talking about this yesterday at writers&#39; group. How no matter how many times we go over it we don&#39;t see our obvious mistakes but an editor will because it is fresh eyes. i know we do all we can to make it the best we it can be. So good when author and editor can work together to produce that super ms.

Thanks for commenting, Anna J. I think many authors, and would-be authors could learn a lot from you about dedication, story craft, editing, the list is endless. I know you&#39;re an inspiration to me!<br /><br />Peter, thanks to you, too. <br /><i>I&#39;ll feel that it&#39;s the best I&#39;m able to produce. IF it gets accepted, I&#39;ll certainly fear that an editor will ask for revisions I am

Thanks Sally, for your sharing your insights and experiences with editing.<br />I was surprised at your Fear of editing considering how many books you&#39;ve had published.<br />Very Refreshing and honest.

I really appreciated this post. For those of us who aren&#39;t expecting to see an acceptance in the mailbox in the near future, it is very difficult to figure out how to get a professional eye on one&#39;s writing for children. Friends, family and a child audience can help, but a professional eye is missing. Any suggestions for the pre-acceptance group?

<i>I used to be an English teacher and then an editor, so I don&#39;t get much editing from the publisher - three comments on my last book. I don&#39;t even get much copy editing.</i><br /><br />That&#39;s an interesting perspective, Anna. I&#39;m not sure I necessarily agree that those things are related, though. I think there are quite a few writers who are former, current, perhaps future

<i>Any suggestions for the pre-acceptance group?</i><br /><br />I&#39;m sure Sally will have suggestions, but in my own case, I was fortunate to be accepted into a mentorship program with an established writer. This gave me an objective, no-punches-pulled opinion on the specific manuscript I was working on, as well as a lot of food for thought about the way I was writing in a more general sense.<

For a book sold as &#39;work for hire&#39;, you are selling them the copyright on the material to use/edit as they wish. This can be painless. For one of my books, after submitting the text, that was it. They did all editing in-house (or, more likely, using a freelance editor) and just sent the cheque and a couple of copies of the book when it was printed.

Sally, this is such a luminous post. It really resonates with me. Thoughtful, engaging, this latest offering is a worthy addition to the growing genre of &#39;thoughts on reviews&#39; in this country.<br /><br />Oops. Accidentally flipped the switch on the &#39;random review phrase generator&#39; :)<br /><br />Seriously, I love reading these different takes on things. I wanted to comment on your

Sally, I never saw the bad review of Pearl Verses the World but when I was nervous about seeing the first reviews of Violet, someone mentioned it to me in the context of, &#39;If Pearl can get a bad review, then its hardly worth worrying about&#39;. It helped a lot.<br /><br />I have often wondered if writing reviews changes the experience of being reviewed and vice versa, so I was especially

Glad to hear my negative review helped you, Anna! And yes, I think having been a reviewer I know that most reviewers do it in the spirit of sharing, of wanting to contribute to the conversation (as Meg puts it, so nicely). <br /><br />And ladies, I agree with you both that a bad review does not necessarily turn all readers away. Sometimes I read a bad reveiw which makes me want to read the book

<i> But I do think negative reveiws will impact on some readers, especially if they come from an authoritative source.</i><br /><br />And now I think I must fall into the &#39;arrogant&#39; camp because when I read this, I immediately thought, &quot;Oh, but there&#39;s no such source.&quot; Again, I guess this just reflects the way I see reviews as one part of a broader dialogic process (in which

I don&#39;t think you&#39;re arrogant at all. I too hate to thik that anyone would make a decision against a book based on a single review. But I&#39;m sure it happens. But I do think there ARE review sources that are considered more authorative than others. Just online, for example, a starred review from Kirkus would hold more sway with post readers than a glowing review from Barry&#39;s

<i>I don&#39;t think you&#39;re arrogant at all.</i><br />Ah, but what you haven&#39;t understood is that I don&#39;t care what you think :). I am impervious to the reviews of others! Come at me, slings and arrows!<br /><br />I am totally joking. I was just messing about in my head thinking about sources and authority. I actually do think I&#39;m arrogant. And also very self-effacing and insecure

Hard to believe anyone didn&#39;t like Pearl, Sally.I loved that book but I guess it goes to show not everyone is going to like every book. I recently started to read one by an &#39;acclaimed &#39;Irish writer and have given my thoughts on Goodreads which is very different from what others thought. That time I was the negative voice. Good to read your thoughts on this subject. Dale<br />

Sally, I so admire your ability to move on from a bad review. My experience is that all the rejections you get on the path to being published, should help to reduce the impact of bad reviews. I know it&#39;s too much to ask that everyone likes my books, but it still is a dart in the heart to me when I get rejected. As for reviews, I haven&#39;t had many for my non-fiction books. Sales themselves

Thanks all for your comments. Sorry I&#39;m slow geting back to you - been rnning around the place being a writer :)<br />Meg: <i>I&#39;m arrogant. And also very self-effacing and insecure. I reckon that&#39;s probably a fairly common mix in the creative arts.</i> Yep. I think that is very common mix. And, as a reveiwer I am aware of that mix all the time. I started a book review site when I

This is a really interesting conversation and a never ending one. Being a reviewer and an author yourself, Sally, you have a great perspective on the subject. Sometimes I think reviews say more about the reviewer than the book they are reviewing. Of late I&#39;ve had some pretty negative reviews of The Garden of Empress Cassia which was published in the US in September. They weren&#39;t just

Gabrielle, thanks for reading and commenting. I agree that a review can reflect the reviewer as much as it does the book, which can be a good as well as a negative thing. I am so sorry to hear of your experience&gt; I sometimes wonder when there is a spate of negative reviews if some reviewers are influenced by each other, particularly if a prominent publication has been negative. But massive

Wow! Is there anywhere your fabulous writing will not take you? Here&#39;s another congratulations to add to your huge pile, Sally.<br /><br />C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S !

Thanks so muchh no-relation Julie!