I REALLY want to read this one. Great review.

Morid curiousity got the better of me and I visited iUniverse for a sample. Not only are there two pages of acknowledgents (a shout-out to the author's mom for the cover design and illustration...), there is both a foreword *and* an introduction, in a cunning stratagem to max out the kid appeal...

So much hyperbole makes a person think that there must be a an inverse relationship to the quality of the book/story.

words fail me.

I got this e-mail not once, but twice. *le sigh*I stopped reading after the Rowling and DavE reference...but since you broke it down so nicely, I now have ALL the information. :)It certainly will help the title and author names to stick in my head, but not in the way the author hoped.

i looked it up at ingram. non-returnable, short discount. so even if i wanted it, which i decidedly do NOT, i wouldn't ever ever ever order it.poor bastards.

I'll bet you $42 that this is exactly the sort of person EA was talking about in her Don't-stalk-the-booksellers post. As ridiculous and irritating as this pitch is via email, imagine how much fun it'd be to deal with this person face-to-face.

For those writers out there who think self-publishing is the way to go, here is the perfect example of why it's not. I'm glad this woman has impressed herself, her family, and her fifth grade son's class though. That in itself is something. J.K. Rowling and Dav Pilkey have nothing to fear though. I'm guessing LeCreux's book sales will never ever ever come close to theirs.

Oh, my. As EA said, "Where to start?"Who wrote that email anyway, "Reviews for a Dollar?"

"...This short fiction novel..."God, that one always makes my teeth hurt.Sad. Very sad. But yes, EA, amusing in a painful way.

I love the quote from the kid. "Something unrealistic happens and everyone just accepts it!" The true mark of a quality story.

"Teachers and parents know something about children, but they are entirely unreliable in terms of knowing what's well written and what will actually sell."A curious statement. As an educator, I read 4-5 books a day to my kids. Over 10 years of reading, I'm able to quickly gauge what books will bore my kids. I often have to paraphrase books that are too wordy, but have great pictures that hold my

I blame my typos on keyboard stick-age. Thank you.

I'm related to several teachers, so don't think I don't hold them in high regard.And as I said, teachers do know a great deal about children, and thus about what makes a book accessible to them.There's a difference between that and "well written" or "salable", however. You yourself, and possibly all the teachers you work with, may be able to recognize "well written", but there are scads of

"At a time when teachers and librarians (to my enormous ire and frustration) have fewer and fewer funds, a book is not saleable based on its appeal to teachers and librarians."And that leaves us NF writers... where?

I suspect another problem with teacher recommendations is that teachers (generally) are very nice. Especially the teacher who teaches your kid. Honestly, I've seen teachers work hard to say something encouraging to writers of very very very very very bad books. You give a book to your kid's teacher, and the teacher will try to say something nice -- especially if you're a classroom helper or

Jan -- Bingo!

I think you're probably right, Jan.And Anon 7:31, that doesn't leave nonfiction writers nowhere--you just have to create books that will not solely appeal to teachers and librarians.Cases in point: Actual Size; First the Egg; The New Way Things Work; Owen and Mzee; Oh, Yuck; An Egg Is Quiet.

You want to look for the book on Amazon and check out the tags. Okay, I'll save you the trouble:good author (1)great book (1)great gift book (1)school reading lists (1)teaching resource (1)

Jan, I think you are exactly right. I would certainly be nice to a parent or volunteer who asked what I thought about a book they wrote; even if my kids threw blocks at me halfway through reading it. I'm a teacher- not a parent- and as a former Nanny I'm constantly shocked how little parents know about their kids favorite books or children's reading tastes. Often the books they ask me to read at

Nicely put, Year!

I came by via Roger. I'm a bookseller in the kids dept. at an independent and deal with a number of local authors on a regular basis. This letter is my life! Why oh why does everyone think they can write/illustrate a bestselling children's book. I'm going to have to dig back through the archives to find the do not stalk the bookseller post.

I disagree that a book isn't "salable" if it appeals to teachers and librarians. It might not have trade market appeal, but is salable to the school/library market, which is a viable one. I do agree that most teachers (kids, neighbors, etc) are probably just being nice and telling you what you want to hear when they read your story. So, yes, editors take that with a grain of salt.

I don't think all self-published books are bad. I read one recently that was actually a really good story. I think the reason a regular publisher wouldn't have touched it is because it didn't really fit in one genre or another. But it was an awesome book.

omg...http://www.intendedcreations.com/

I came from Read Roger, too.I write a monthly children's book review column for my local newspaper--in a very remote location with a very small population. Yet determined self-published authors find me and send me their books, hoping, I guess, that the tropical sun has turned my brain to mush and I am so desperate that I will write a favorable review of their book.At first I encouraged this, not

I can't help but be curious about what this writer believes will be a commercial success!

Too many new writers don't understand how HARD it is and how LONG it takes to get published, that there are NO shortcuts and that this is NORMAL. If you're in a hurry to get into print, be prepared to pay for publication, never sell enough to recoup your costs, and end up with a book that probably hasn't received the editing it should.Many also seem to be of the opinion that self-publishing a

Hey-- since we should discount all criticism from children, does that mean that when I test a story on my 4 year old and she says:"Mom, that's really boring. Can you read me another Narnia chapter instead?"then I can discount her criticism as worthless and uniformed and just trying to be nice to me?I didn't think so... =(

My son has two published parents, and tends to be glib at best, patronizing at worst, whenever previewing drafts or sketches of our work. So I was pretty surprised the other day when he asked to take my galley to read in English class. Walking back from school the next day after reading the first two chapters, he confessed to his mother: "Well, I thought it would be good -- I just didn't think it

My 5 yo and my 16 yo are my very first readers. Of course I have to pay the oldest ($100 if it sells)and bribe the youngest (with the millionth reading of something he likes: No David!).

People operate under the assumption that what THEY have to offer has never been done and that there is nothing out there to compare to their book ideas, so they owe it to themselves, their children and the needy public to get those suckers published.Can you imagiine such naive thinking?!? I mean, really, what publisher in its right mind would fall for that?Oh, wait....that was what Madonna said.

I'll go you one better and let you in on a secret -- lots of PUBLISHED authors think, too, that their book could've been a commercial success if just given the opportunity, too. You know, like some publicity support within their publishing company.

That is about the nicest I've ever heard it said.

This is why I love this blog. Bless you, you gutsy broad.

A publisher with a what? A marketing department? What are those?

Hi Amy,

Yes I just used them for the book I made for my niece - it was full color and came out perfectly! The images were very high quality, even after sending my images to them through uploading online. The hard back/dustjacket/paper quality is also excellent.

Warning: If you upload it to their site tho, order a copy for yourself (it's required before you can sell the book to other people) and realize a typo or errir, then you'll have to correct the error, upload the book all over again and rebuy another copy. So make sure to double and triple check you book before uploading it.