On September 11th, Penguin’s Dutton Adult is publishing a first hand account of the killing of Osama Bin Laden. The title, No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden, was written by a member of the elite squad who killed the terrorist leader known as SEAL Team Six.
The title has been published under the pseudonym Mark Owen, but Fox News reported that they discovered his real identity.
The title is already shooting up the charts from presales. It is
currently the No. 1 bestseller on Amazon, ahead of all of the
Fifty Shades of Grey titles and the
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Conversations about teens, technology and distraction are nothing new. When mobile phones first started to move from the domain of Important Business People at airports and into the hands of the general public, we worried that their presence in schools would be too distracting for students. (And we still have to tell the cinema-going public–including an awful lot of people over the age of 18–not to text or talk during movies.) Now that more and more schools allow students to bring their own laptops or tablets to classes, we worry about filtering and blocking sites like Facebook or YouTube during school hours.
And now there’s the question of reading on digital devices, and the threat of distraction by the device itself–or, at least, that’s what New York Times business writers Julie Bosman and Matt Richtel would have us ponder. Is tablet reading “more like a 21st-century cacophony than a traditional solitary activity”?
I don’t know about you, but I’m a multi-platform reader. I have a (print) book in my car in case I find myself early for an appointment. I have OverDrive on my Android phone and my iPod Touch, so that I can easily check a book out from my local public library if I’m on the go. I have a Nook Color, which I mostly use when traveling (and that my partner has all but co-opted after giving it to me for my birthday). And I’m constantly picking up (print) books at work to read at the desk, many sucking me in enough to get tossed in my bag to read at home.
And here’s my secret: I’m always a distracted reader.
Things I have done while reading a book:
Looked up a word I did’t know (sometimes on a built-in dictionary, sometimes online, sometimes in an actual print dictionary)
Looked up an event or a person on Wikipedia when I didn’t get a reference
Responded to a text
Put on music
(Half) listened to NPR
Eaten Chex mix
Attempted to keep my cats from eating Chex mix
Cooked a meal
Flown cross country
Things I have occasionally failed to do while reading a book:
Get off at the right subway stop
Leave for an appointment on time
Check something in the oven before it starts burning
Prep for a class coming in last period
Finish a level in Lego Harry Potter
Feed the cats dinner on time
None of the things I listed apply only to e-reading, by the way. Most of them have happened in the last month with print books, actually. And here’s the thing: once I was done with all those things (or done failing at those things), more often than not I went back to reading my book.
But what say you, reader? Does your Kindle or Nook or iPad make reading a “21st century cacophony”? Do you long for a 20th (or 19th, or 18th) century “solitary activity”? Can your teens relate to those who say the lure of apps and email is just too great when reading on a tablet?
Julie Bosman's
New York Times feature on author Patricia O'Brien intrigues us. O'Brien had sold five novels, the story goes, but could not sell a sixth, entitled
The Dressmaker, thanks to the sales of her previous titles. O'Brien's agent suggested a pseudonym. O'Brien agreed. Within just three days
The Dressmaker had sold for a very nice sum under a new author name, Kate Alcott.
There was some lingering subterfuge to attend to, of course. Some funny back and forth—a new email address, scanty personal details—with an editor who believed she had bought the work of a first-time author. But it wasn't until it was author photo time and the first blurred photo that the author sent was deemed no good that the gig was finally up, the truth spoken.
As one who teaches memoir and advocates for the truth in the form, it's hard to know how to feel about this. I mean, we're talking about fiction, after all. And the pseudonym business surely isn't new. And I'm certainly one of many writers who wishes deeply that the sale of her future books were not so tied to the sale of books she already wrote. We aren't always responsible for what happens to our books out there—can't insist on publicity, can't do much about where our books sit within our publishing house's priorities, can't dictate whether or not ads will be taken, whether or not a tour will be financed, whether or not the book resonates at this particular time, whether or not a lot of things.
But when I try to imagine keeping the charade going post sale—interacting with an editor under false pretenses, say—I wonder if I would have had the gumption to keep going, editorial letter after editorial letter, conversation after conversation. I suspect I'd be one of those who would have early on had to blow her cover. Working with an editor is personal, in the end. And novel writing can be akin to confession.
Julie Bosman of the
New York Times brings us this good news today—the publishing industry has grown over the past three years, according to a recent BookStats survey. From
her news story:
“We’re seeing a resurgence, and we’re seeing it across all markets — trade, academic, professional,” said Tina Jordan, the vice president of the Association of American Publishers. “In each category we’re seeing growth. The printed word is alive and well whether it takes a paper delivery or digital delivery.”
Let us take a moment, then, in these darkened times, to celebrate the good news and to congratulate so many of us for never giving up hope in the first place. The important thing, I think (and this indeed fueled my recent
post about historical fiction), is never to panic when it comes to purported book trends. We are human beings. Stories feed us.
* A veritable spate of articles lately about how e-readers appeal to kids. C. J. Lovelace reports on a Chambersburg, PA, middle school that features a boys Kindle reading club:
“They spent all of last year with Kindle clubs with the reluctant readers and they had phenomenal results,” [district head librarian Joanne] Hammond said. “They tracked the progress of the students and so many of them read so many books by the end of the year because they liked reading on the Kindle much better (than) the print book.”
Not sure if this trend has legs or not, but it’s worth tracking. From an article by Julie Bosman for The New York Times:
“The young adults and the teenagers are now the newest people who are beginning to experience e-readers,” said Matthew Shear, the publisher of St. Martin’s Press. “If they get hooked, it’s great stuff for the business.”
It is too soon to tell if younger people who have just picked up e-readers will stick to them in the long run, or grow bored and move on.
But Monica Vila, who runs the popular Web site The Online Mom and lectures frequently to parent groups about Internet safety, said that in recent months she had been bombarded with questions from parents about whether they should buy e-readers for their children.
In a speech last month at a parents’ association meeting in Westchester County, Ms. Vila asked for a show of hands to indicate how many parents had bought e-readers for their children as holiday gifts.
About half the hands in the room shot up, she recalled.
“Kids are drawn to the devices, and there’s a definite desire by parents to move books into this format,” Ms. Vila said. “Now you’re finding people who are saying: ‘Let’s use the platform. Let’s use it as a way for kids to learn.’ ”
Cats like ‘em, too! Photo: Joyce Dopkeen for the New York Times.
* Virginia’s Reading Teacher of the Year, Ashleigh Fisher, a reading specialist in Roanoke, is determined to hook ‘em all. She plans to use the $500 prize money to establish a book club for boys:
“It is pretty devastating. Boys score lower than girls; they don’t see reading as a masculine activity. Boys aren’t as engaged in reading as girls,” she said.
Fisher is setting out to change that by launching a lunchtime book club for third-, fourth- and fifth-grade boys. She said she would like to begin with The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by local author and former Roanoke Times columnist Tom Angleberger. The only thing keeping Fisher from beginning immediately is a lack of funding to buy several copies of the book.
* Many young boys are missing out on quality time with their fathers.
Oh that is interesting. And sad. :(
Fascinating story! I came *this* close to using a pseudonym for the same reasons this author did after having 3 books go nowhere due to a variety of reasons, but my new agent told me "not yet" and "let's wait and see" as she started subbing for me after I had an 8 year famine. Six weeks later I had a huge 3 book deal with Scholastic and then another 3 book deal with Harpercollins this past October in a pre-empt. Timing, the right agent, the right editors, the right project - it all has to come together at once.
So glad I didn't give up during all those awful, discouraging years - but I very nearly was done in - and did.
I looked up the book THE DRESSMAKER and it sounds fantastic! Just ordered it.
As a former journalist, I've always argued for transparency in all forms of writing.
And yet, there are great authors we would never have known if they hadn't fictionalized not only their names but their gender. OK, so those days are gone. I hope.
And yet, as someone who knows entirely too much about how we are tracked, targeted and even abused in this digital world, I am tempted every day to find or invent the computer equivalent of a disposable cell phone. Because finding out who wrote what when and on what computer isn't some future worry; it's here.
I probably couldn't keep up the exhausting charade either, but my bottom line is that if she chooses to publish under a pseudonym, I think that's her choice and being unmasked becomes another gray, wobbly line on the privacy battlefield.
Jean Ashburn
Boy, this is a tough one, isn't it? I often think that I need to change my name to make another sale but honestly, I think I'd need to change it to something famous, not just another unknown. I'm already unknonw. :)
Finally, there is hope!