Then write that rule clearly on your website. Curtis Brown did not. Not all are mind readers and "know".
The sycophants on the comment thread are worse than the man who did not have a clue.

Seriously! What was that guy thinking? I kind of hope he delurks himself though and explains it. That would be kind of awesome.

Read Nathan's blog, did you? ;-)

Anonymous,
I'm not familiar with a wide variety of office situations, but from my limited experience, I'm having trouble thinking of an office you could simply drop in on, especially when a person has no relationship with the company.
Can you think of one?

EA

Umm Anonymous, I could *maybe* forgive the guy for showing up at the office without an appointment...but the dark glasses and hat, refusing to give his name, and refusing to leave would have made me consider calling the police, if I had been that receptionist. Sorry, but those just aren't the actions of someone who "didn't know" it isn't kosher to show up on an agent's doorstep--they're the actions of a borderline personality.

Any office has an expectation that you will at least call first for an appointment. Exceptions include places like some hair salons, which then advertise "Drop-Ins Welcome." If they have to advertise that, clearly IT is the exception and not the rule.

OK, that was creepy and I hope they gave the receptionist a raise after that!!!!

Hi, different Anonymous than the 1st one here, just wanted to pipe in. I've had several art friends drop off their portfolios in person to several different Cali studios, and it was a wasn't considered a taboo. In fact they met some awesome people, and even got a short tour of the workplace. So, possibly a case-by-case basis. (They did have awesome portfolios.)

'Then write that rule clearly on your website'.



*Runs off to amend blog listing all the ways I don't want to be approached by complete strangers.*

Wait. What happened?

You know, it's nt the fact that he showed up that's freaky. It's the fact that he showed up in sunglasses and a coat and refused to give his name. And the Oscar goes to Mr. SAWED-OFF SHOTGUN!

Reminds me slightly of the time during the early seventies when I was hippie-tripping cross-country and ended up in Eugene, OR for a week. As the well-known novelist Ken Kesey lived in nearby springfield, I borrowed a bicycle, asked directions in downtown Springfield, and rode out to his fartmhouse, and knocked on the door. His wife was cordial, but explained he was busy writing and couldn't be disturbed. I conversated with her for a half hour or so, and went on my way.

I did catch a glimpse of The Bus parked out back.

It was a mellower time, I guess.

-Steve

I wouldn't show up at his office, but I might invite Nathan and his wife out to dinner at Millenium. And I promise to not bring a manuscript.

:-)

Awesome restaurant if you're ever in SF.

My son's been on a watching-"The Muppets Take Manhattan"-over-and-over-again kick lately, so the first thing I thought of when I read this post-- and it's sort of a shame he closed the comments, because I would have mentioned this and lightened the mood-- is the scene in that movie where Kermit dresses up as some sort of flashy agent type and bursts in on a Broadway producer to drop off his script. The producer merely exchanges a "Whatever" look with the people in his office, then dumps the script in the trash as soon as Kermit leaves.

Apparently people who try desperate measures such as these in real life have not watched enough Muppet movies.

But then again, in "The Muppet Movie," they DO get a movie deal simply by bursting in to the studio offices and assaulting the receptionist, so maybe they're just watching the WRONG Muppet movies....

This is like the people who end up get led off in handcuffs from American Idol auditions.

LOL at the lessons learned from Muppet movies.

Re: anonymous on "post it on your site so people know!" Isn't that what Nathan and this site just did?

I agree about the sycophants, though. Nathan handles it like a reasonable person, but all the "I hope you're okay, Nathan! How scary for you, Nathan!" is off-putting. He's an agent, not one of the Jonas Brothers.

I'm thrilled by the incident--it invalidates all the crap I was told by various workshop speakers and "stand out from the crowd" type articles. One guy claimed he got a job because he cut out Superman emblems and mailed them with his resumé to show he would be a "super" employee. I remember thinking, "Can't I just write a good resumé to show my qualifications?" But I guess people don’t get paid to be workshop speakers if all they say is "write a good resumé."

I'd say Drop-in Guy was given similar terrible advice, and thought face time with Nathan would pay off. He probably was wearing sunglasses because it's California and the sun actually shines there in February. He didn't give his name because it's another tactic—don't give any info to the gatekeepers, because then the head honcho is forced to come out and speak to you. And he wore a hat because...well, he probably had a Superman emblem shaved into his head.

First anon:
Curtis Brown very clearly posts their submission guidelines on their website. Nowhere in the guidelines does it instruct those querying to drop by the office in person.
On the scale of difficulty, following directions rates at about a negative 2.

Maybe she could recommend a nice writer's conference or workshop to her sister and let someone else explain why the manuscript isn't ready for an editor. If the picture book is amazing, the sister might find her own editor.

Or she could give her sister a current Writer's Market and ask her to read it.

"If the parents think the story is wonderful, then it has appealed to the only important people in the world."

To quote Broadcast News: Oh there I go, dropping the lead again.

"Am I refusing my sister a fair chance?"

Well, is it fair to the folks who have to go through the slush pile to find an agent or publisher? She has the same opportunity to try that route as everyone else does.

Actually, I'd use the opportunity to set some groundwork for future clashes. And, with family, there are ALWAYS future clashes.

"You want me to talk to my editor about (say) Sue's picture book????" Insert over-the-top level of disbelief in voice. "Do you remember what you said when I told you *I* wanted to be a writer? You said," sing-song voice now, " 'oh, darling, when are you going to get a *proper* job', 'but how will you pay the mortgage?', and 'well, now that you have all that free time...'."

Go back to putting some strength into those tonsils. "And now! Now, you want Sue to just crawl on my back to some pinnacle of success that took me [insert appropriate number] years to achieve just because she drew a couple of pretty pictures? Do you remember how much hard work I described just to get where I am? Did you think I was joking??"

C'mon now, don't lose it, we're in the home stretch. Tap your toes, it'll give a nice effect. And narrow your eyes. Always remember to narrow your eyes at this point. And put your hands on your hips; it'll give you a bigger silhouette, which is all important in these sorts of games. Falter now, and you'll lose the whole box and dice. "So, what is it you wanted me to do again?" Make sure your tone of voice conveys that you're not about to do anything that's going to be suggested.

I don't have any brothers and sisters but I've used it to great effect on similar situations with extended family. Yeah, I doubt you'd like me very much if you met me.

Well said. It's like if she made them a blueberry pie, they can enjoy that without telling her she should market the recipe or get it on Paula Deen.

I once wrote a story for my niece for Christmas, and everyone they showed it to told me I should sell it, when I knew a story about my niece and her cat just wasn't going to sell. It got so I wanted to say, "Just enjoy it!" But to some people art ain't nothing unless it sells.

To be more polite, one can always say that one's editor just bought a book just like it, for a three-book deal, and so doesn't need any more just like it any time soon.

Beautifully expressed. You've given everyone a fair out. The author, the sister, and the editor. I especially liked the question: "Does she really want to spend her golden ticket on this particular novel? This one right here? Are you SURE?"

Maine C., I sew for my family as a hobby, and people are always telling me "You should sell these!" or "You should have an Etsy shop!" I smile and thank them, because that takes less time than to say, "There's no money in sewing because, for better and worse, I'm competing with women in developing countries who work for twenty-five cents an hour or less. There's some money to be made in mending, alterations, or home dec sewing, all of which I hate doing, or in teaching or designing, neither of which I'm interested in or qualified for. And I barely find time to sew for my family, and definitely wouldn't have time to reproduce anything in quantities, not to mention that mass reproduction gets very dull."

So, yeah. Outside observers often just aren't equipped to know the difference between an amateur and a professional or what the market can really bear, and educating them can be more trouble than it's worth. (But it might be worth it if they're family members and pestery.)

Perhaps you can suggest a compromise to your sister. Ask her to prepare the manuscript for submission and send it to your editor herself. Your part will be emailing the editor and mentioning that your sister is submitting a picture book to her - a sort of head's up - and ask her to watch for it. The editor can then respond as if she would to any manuscript submission (assuming she accepts submissions without an agent - if she doesn't, then your sister will probably want you to send it to your agent and I'd go the same route there too!).

Thanks for the excellent advice! I've had several acquaintances ask for an intro to my agent, and that's always awkward to deal with. Your suggestions fit the bill for those situations as well, so I appreciate it!

Tawna

Maine Character - I like your point about "for some people, it isn't art if it doesn't sell" -

I think many people believe they are being complimentary by saying, "this looks like professional work, and it's as good as other things I like. You could sell this and others would like it, too." Unfortunately, they compress it to, "you could sell this!"

I'm a trapeze artist. What I get is, "You should be in Cirque du Soleil!" I finally learned that no-one wants to hear my dissertation on why that's not the path I'm on, so I answer the compliment they *meant* - "You're as good as other professionals I've watched" with "thanks, I'm glad you liked the show."

myimaginaryblog - thanks for making me feel less lonesome. I can tell you really have a handle on your work - both the job market and what it means to you - and I wish you many years of enjoying your sewing.

And Allison, you're absolutely right. And I do get that, how they're often complimenting you in the one way they know how, and that sort of validation is great. It just gets old really quick (especially if you start to dread it), and that's when I shut out everyone but my niece, when I read her the story and she points and says, "Read again." That's priceless.

Introductions to my agent are easily handled because he requires everyone to send a query the normal way, even if it's a recommendation by one of his clients. So I say, "send a query and I'll let him know to watch for it." Then, if I don't know the writer (or work), I just tell my agent, "So and So is going to query you, and probably mention me. I don't know them though." And that's that.

Good post, thanks EA. The only saving grace is that most relations can't even get it together to write the ms that they threaten to, but it always strikes fear in the impossibility of saying no and the impossibility of saying yes.

There is such a disconnect between the reality of what it takes to make art, actually working commercially in the arts and other people's [usually those with no experience in any aspect of the arts] rampant fantasies of how it all works. It is like "get rich quick" meets "do what you love" meets "connections are everything" meets some kind of naive matchmaker impulse. Oh yeah, and we all know "everyone has a book in them".

Besides people wanting connections, as an author/illustrator I get told over and over how I "should" have movies made of my books, make character based products etc etc, as if I simply lack the initiative or forward thinking. The same people may then even offer to act as "my agent" [zero applicable work experience of course] since my explanations of how reality works make it clear I don't have vision like they do [ie, magical mystery tour to the field of dreams].

I feel for the commenters who relate stories like doing trapeze and everyone tells them to be in Cirque du Soleil, like as if you'll hit yourself in the head V8 style upon hearing the two things connected. Or that sewing automatically means easy big bucks on Etsy without say, the reality of turning your home into a factory. I knew a guy who was a great cook and loved throwing dinner parties. His relatives would tell him to be a caterer and so on - and he said but the reason he loved it is because it's NOT a job for him! Some things really are better left as passions to fully enjoy as is, while other people love the business challenge aspect of how to adapt ones art to a particular marketplace. But for people that don't even begin to understand the reality of those business challenges? I'd love to have a nifty comeback because my explanations tend to merely sink me deeper into their pep talks. Saying things like "the best thing for me right now is to concentrate on building a body of work" doesn't seem to compute.

Nifty comeback - I'm channeling what I imagine Miss Manners might say here - how about,

"Thank you so much - my agent has that in the works, and I'll keep you posted when they're on the shelf - I know you'll want to support me!"

They don't have to know that "in the works" really means, "if it's the right time and place, it will happen in a completely different way than you imagine or that I can be bothered to explain to you."

The movie adaptation of The Fantastic Mr. Fox is a great recent example of animal characters done well. One of the (many) things I loved about the movie was the way the animals exhibited human characteristics without losing their animal identity (eg. Mrs. Fox makes French Toast, but they eat it with the wild abandon of animals). It's been too many years since I've read the book, so I don't remember if that part of the story was Dahl's invention or Anderson's.

An author's ability to embrace that duality between the human and animal while still creating unified characters seems to be a common characteristic of many successful animals as main characters books. Though there are many examples (like the ones given) of this idea done well, to my mind this is illustrated best in TH White's The Sword in the Stone. The way White handles Wart's animal experiences is almost like a blueprint for writing good animal characters that don't lose their animalness (I thought that was a made up word, but spellcheck likes it).

I'm going to agree with mallard, here, on the duality issue. I will also note that the fear of humanoid animals (if indeed they are humanoid) might have something to do with the growth in the "furries" community; some people (such as me) find the furries culture a bit weird and so anything resembling this might be off-putting, even when this resemblance in unintentional. (If the resemblance is intentional, then I wouldn't expect mainstream publication; that's a niche market. Try on-line publications.) That's not to say that Redwall carried such a vibe, but if it were published now, it might.

Of course, if the animals are not humanized in anatomy but only in consciousness/intellect etc., then I'm not sure what the issue would be.

Somewhere down in that 'etc. etc.' you'll find books called Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little and Wind in the Willows.

I wonder if the generic resistance to animal books this author is encountering is based on the fact that fewer and fewer people grow up these days having contact with animals that aren't house pets.

So stories about them aren't seen as 'relateable.'

Indeed, there are so many examples. And don't forget The Toys Go Out, which is INANIMATE OBJECTS as main characters.

Which just goes to show that if you do anything WELL, you can do ANYTHING.

YA and MG are two very different markets. YA is for ages 12 and up. I can't imagine a 13, 14, 15 year old having a tolerance for a novel with no humans that would also appeal to a MG reader.

Because of this, you might want to consider dropping the "YA" from the MG/YA part of your query.

I don't think that's what's not getting your work sold, but it shows a lack of knowledge about the market, and you don't want to give that impression.

Good luck to you!

My feeling is if the book is well written with characters who resonate with readers, it doesn't matter whose skin they're in.

I for one never cared for books with animals as the main characters, even as a kid. I was even frustrated by animals in picture books. However, I am apparently in the minority because people are always shocked by my dislike of animal stories. Go figure. Working at a bookstore, I haven't seen any slow down of animal stories being published.

Would it be safe to assume that editors may be shying away from animal stories because there are so many well-established ones out there?

I can't see why all animals wouldn't work for an MG novel or a chapterbook. As everyone before me has said, there are a myriad of these books and movies where animals have human characteristics,and where humans appear only occasionally, if at all.

It's just a question of the right agent, I'd think. He or she may be difficult to find, but from what you say, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the books themselves.

And what about the one with the cricket?

You know, the one in Times Square.

Great book. Done well. AE

If I was you I'd stop telling people there are no human characters (unless specifically asked). Unless your book is a first person narrative of a pig rooting through slop or a dog's inner thoughts as he chases squirrels, your animals are probably acting like people. So just treat them like normal characters and only mention the "no human characters" part if anyone gets specific.

That's just what I'd do, not having read your book, I can't say if that's the best choice, though. Is not having any humans around a major plot point?

And then there was this guy, somewhere in Los Angeles, came up with this character... hmmm, called him, Mickey Mouse!

LOL, I had a PB at a major house, some time ago, Editor loved it, Editor in Chief nixed it, said, the eyes of the animals were too *emotive!*

I mean, c'mon. "Whatever ya do, please don't throw me in dat briar patch!"

Haste yee back ;-)

I love this line from your post:

sometimes people can only tell you you're not there yet, and when they try to guide you in the right direction, they're pointing the wrong way.

I'm having it tattooed on my arm later today. :)

Tawna

The wife just sold an animal fantasy MG to Harper after fielding offers from multiple publishers. In fact she's upstairs writing it.

Of course we don't use an agent, we use a publishing lawyer and decide for ourselves what to submit, when and where.

I think a lot of time when people ask for directions, they're just hinting around that they want a ride.

"...And when it doesn't work, when somehow it's not quite convincing enough, people fault the animals instead of the believability."

This is true of writing and feedback way, way, way beyond the animal issue question. If someone tells you something in your writing doesn't work, it may not be the something, it may be how you're writing it.

...and then there are the "editors" who want to be writers. I just had a sentence in my fourth book changed by an "editor" from "I recognized a love of theatre on his face..." to "a love of theatre EMBRACED HIM LIKE AN AURA." I stood my ground, and got it changed, but likely wouldn't have if it had been my first time around.

Seems an odd question to ask - almost like asking for permission to be lazy about writing the book in the first place (unless I have misconstrued teh query...?)

If the writer is wondering whether his/her book will be too much to fix, then maybe it's not ready to be sent to an editor or publisher.

Make it as good as you possibly can! Editors are not there to clean up after you...

I've run into a lot of people who think it's enough to have - drumroll please - the idea to end all ideas. I've talked to someone who was majoring in writing at a local University. He generously offered to read anything I had written and give me his feedback. He hadn't written a single word himself yet, but he had this cool idea.

I think a lot of people don't understand this business and I can't say as I blame them - much. I'm sure what they hear about are the JK Rowling's and Stephanie Meyer's of the writing world. They think it must be easy to pen a bestseller and become a multi-millionaire.

this is the most common problem
but no one wants to hear the plain truth
"err, your manuscript sucks because...you can't write"

Your comment about fixing gripes only on the first page is curious to me. If an agent gave me feedback, it seems to me that an appropriate course would be to review the entire MS with that fix in mind.

But maybe that isn't as obvious as I thought.

Thanks for the post. Good info.

I'm sorry, but I had to laugh out loud at this one...
As I sit and look at four feet of snow that needs shoveling, and two Things running amok, and a husband who's traveling,
and I wake up early so I can work on yet another (&)(*&(^%&$## revision of my manuscript because I believe in my idea but haven't quite executed it, yet

and I hear the Things in the basement, banging around, and there's no way we can get out if anyone gets hurt,

but I have to work on chapter three,

and I know there are others working harder. Who are smarter, stronger, faster.

I know at this point I am rambling, but it's only because the laughter tears in my eyes are only borderline hysterical tears.

Writing? Hard?

AHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAH!

I've edited for the people you described in your next-to-last two paragraphs.
You're right.
If an author can't apply advice beyond the examples they're given, that's a long haul of editing, it's irritating, and frankly, I won't do it anymore.

I think my manuscript was in the position that the writer describes when it sold, but I didn't KNOW it. If the writer is thinking this already, then the writer needs to keep working (IMHO). My agent loved it and sent it out. 7 people passed before a wonderful editor bought it. It wasn't until a TON of work had been done on the plot (by both of us) that I realized she'd actually taken a chance because she loved the idea, voice, and conflict (my strengths). So it happens, but I certainly wouldn't count on it. My guess is some of those other 7 editors liked all those things too but just couldn't face the amount of help I would need to shape it plot-wise. I feel EXTREMELY lucky. And I learned to plot a novel too, so my next book was so much easier to write and a lot better out of the starting gate, but you can't count on this kind of help.

Who are you calling a sisy?

That proves I can write. Plus I'm funny and original. Can I have a book contract?

@ Chris Eldin: {{{hugs}}}
Because I've been there too.

"When I got the manuscript, that fault had been fixed on the first page AND NOWHERE ELSE. People like this are a long, long slog to edit."

LOL! OMG! I'm a different sort of editor, not books, but I just got finished with an identical problem and Oh My God did it take foreEVer to get the manuscript slightly ok-ish. *sigh*

Here's what I'm curious about: with the economic crap going on now—the layoffs and reorganization of publishing houses—how many editors have the luxury of accepting something that is good, but not yet picture-perfect? I know some editors at the bigger houses have admitted that they have had to reject things they might have accepted a year ago because the head honchos want a "sure thing" or nothing. Do you find that to be true? Does this kill the whole "diamond in the rough" possibility?

While a great editor is to be prized above chocolate, I really do feel that it's OUR job to get the manuscript right.

People who just sit an imagine cool stuff are readers. Writers actually master their craft.

I have what i consider to be a great idea for a picture book, that randomly popped into my head while staring at my cat. That doesn't mean I can write a picture book, much less a half-ass one and hope that my idea will be enough to attract an agent.

If your writing is lacking a skeleton, an agent has nothing to build on. So go forth, all, and create rib cages.

Well, as I am a perfectionist at heart, I've been working very hard at my stories. I've been very critical of them up to this point and I've spent the last couple of months learning to not be such a perfectionist as it could hurt the story.

I believe that the term "too much work" means something different for each editor. I suppose newer editors might be more willing to take the time to work with an author if the storyline is strong than an editor that has done it once too often. I think it also might depend upon how much patience a person has with someone else's ability.

However, it could also be that "too much work" is a polite way of saying they won't take a person on because they don't really have an editor.

But yes, a good idea is definitely not enough.

Edited the first chapter and that's it? Maybe part of the problem is that the writer got bored with their own story.

If you love to re-read your own novel--if you find yourself captivated by your own writing--then 15 different revisions don't even phase you.

Last night I stayed up until midnight editing my own novel. Sounds crazy and egotistical, I know, but I couldn't put the damned thing down. And I WROTE it. I know how it ENDS. How silly is that?

(Giggle)
LOVE the kittens!
The basket of kittens looks like my house several years ago when two cats had a kindle of kittens at the same time -- and shared feeding responsibility. We had to build a box large enough for the two mamas and 11 kittens.

Sorry. Off topic. But I couldn't resist. -wendieO

Oh my god, those kittens are so cute.

Actually, I thought the naked kittens were the cutest of all, in an alien-esque sort of way. Is it too weird to want one of those?

Miaou! We cats do not feel comfortable sans fur! It is unnatural!
Purrhaps you could write a little about the sort of fur which pleases editors? Presumably this clean, neat, well groomed and in order even in the otherwise invisible places?

Too cute! Though the naked kittens were a shock ...

Naked kitties! They look so...cold.

Oh, those kittens are so precious (yes, even the naked ones)! I couldn't think of anything to say yesterday because I like everything you post. So, just keep up the good work.

Amy

Yay for nudity! ROFL!

http://aclairedawn.blogspot.com

The naked kitties' ears look like radar dishes, giant naked pink radar dishes.

I wonder if they make fun of each other or it they wear they're nakedness like a badge of honor.

"Sup? Cool look."
"Thanks."

Ha! Didn't expect to see kittens on this blog.. thought I selected Cute Overload by mistake. Love it, though.

Oh my God - kittens! Love them all even the naked ones. Actually their quizzical faces and huge ears are more like my fully clothed Burmeses then the tabby and gingers ones are.

I love those kittens, especially the furry ones. I'm sitting here grinning at the middle picture in an inane way. Thanks for putting a smile on my face on a dreary Sunday afternoon.

I love the kittens. So does my old Cat Clancy who is watching me read blogs.

Thanks for sharing.

Kittens - yes!

And as far as the naked ones - an entrepreneurial opportunity?

Kitten couture, perhaps?

Eeeeee kittens!

I couldn't think of anything to add to the previous post, but I wanted to toss in my thanks for this blog and all the advice therein :)

Love it! Though I'm wondering what Michael thinks of the 'nudity'?

HAHAHAHAHAsnort-choke-HAHAHAHAHA!

Love the naked kittens.

Word Verification: aplat - my own invented word for "burping cloth" when I was one year old. The fates brought me to your blog today.

Hey, what about bunnies? Bunnies are even awesomer. :)

I second whomever said that the posts in which you answer questions are wonderful because they're often questions that we didn't even know we had...and thank you also for giving equal time to posts for unpublished AND published authors.

A. Awww!
B. Awwww!
C. Gack! Alien invasion!

I appreciate the tasteful nudity.
Nearly revealed is so much more fascinating than revealed, don't you think?
Hilarious.

I like stories of crazy/funny/strange things you've seen in publishing, done by authers, agents, fellow editors, etc. I also enjoy commentary on current publishing issues.

I wouldn't have gone looking for kitten pictures, because I wouldn't have guessed how happy the widduh biddeh kittiez would make me.

So cute.

Thanks for the blog, the purr-boxes and the double take. ae

all your publishing information is excellent. but please continue with the kittens! Has anyone else noticed the high percentage of writers who are also cat owners? Or am I imagining it?

Awwwwww!
I love reading your blog, but kittens make anything even better.
:-)

Okay, so there I am sending my Children's Book Publishing 101 class to the best introduction to children's book publishing there is. EA is professional and she tells it like it is...
Kittens! Really I love the kittens! I love the naked kittens! Thank you for the perfect moment. Back to class. Lisa Von Drasek

The only way this post could be any better --
a giant basketful of 3 month old corgi pups.

But thanks for listening to our wishes! We might get uppity if this happens too often.

Really hilarious. Thank you.

AWWWWWWW! INTERN loves kitten photography exhibit as curated by Moonrat!

I got to pet a naked cat at a cat show. It felt like stroking suede.

Three Years! Thank you, EA, for your continued dedication, I know we are a collective pain in the butt sometimes...

As for content? I like it best when you answer reader questions, as I often learn things I didn't know I didn't know.

Might be nice if you talked about the editorial process, as well, in general or specific terms. What can writers do to make an editor's job easier, what are editor's pet peeves, what delights them, what is the best/worst thing about what they face in a day's work, etc... :)

I hate to sound like a fanboy, but I like your blog very much as it is, and one reason is that there are not a lot of wasted posts here. I, for one, would not to see a lot of mysterious contests and games (like the ones that made me stop reading Evil Editor), just keep up the good work.

I've been reading regularly for the last several months. The posts are both informative and amusing. I'll continue to check and read as long as I'm online.

How to get an agent and how to get a publisher are covered by agent blogs and query-craft blogs. I'd enjoy seeing you address editorial and revision processes more. Things you can do in original drafting and revision to please the utlimate market -- the reader!

Why is it easier for your marketing and sales department to laydown copies of one book over another?

Our only door to an editor is through an agent. So, you know, agent blogs kind of cover everything you want to know about submissions.

Since you're an editor, I'd love to see more about the process once a book is acquired or at least once it is rep'd.

Or things such as how a writer might compose an original work that, gasp, doesn't need major revision of any kind.

What makes a publisher offer $250,000 for a book rather than $25,00? Well, you know.

You've done such a terrific job blogging (and so have others over the past year or two) that, frankly, query advice is old hat.

Tell me more about how to make a character sympathetic in revision, how to decide when a character is not needed at all in a novel. How can we decide what chapters to cut and what chapters to add BEFORE the book gets to you?

Lastly, I don't think you need much advice. This is a TERRIFIC Blog writhing with AWESOMENESS.
Congrats!

I like the blunt answers, the no frills straight talk, the occasional meanness, even. Keep that please.

Also I liked the publishing myths contest. You should have more contests of the same nature, things like "worst premise for a picture book," (although I think the satanic ritual one takes the cake there.)

But the blog is great! Happy Three!

Look at me. I'm never first at anything - all sleeping in and such.

I'd like to see more of answering questions. Some of them I never knew I had until I saw them answered.

What editors are thinking and talking about is good too. It's like a secret inside look into the dark, I mean other side of things.

And kittens. You know, this blog is extremely light on kittens.

INTERN loves the utter classiness of Editorial Anonymous. It looks classy! It reads classy! INTERN combs her hair before even looking at it!

Every time you post, it's something really well thought out and considered. And the responses to letters from readers are really interesting.

Perhaps you could start doing some really drunken, sloppy posts so readers don't get too comfortable with all the intelligence and classiness???

-INTERN who adores this blog

I dunno -- this is one blog I feel is pretty much perfect. I like the visuals, the humour, the frequency. Don't mess with a good thing, I say.

I just discovered this blog, and I like it a lot the way it's been. It gives a fresh perspective.

My one request if for an amail subscription option. (This can be done via Feedburner which is now a free Google feature).

I sort have a kluge now from the LJ feed, but being able to see the blog text in my inbox would be more convient.

Thanks,
-Steve

Generally, more of the same, more often!

But apart from that... if you happened to know a fantasy editor who might come and do the odd column now and then, that would be awesome. They're hard to track down and squeeze opinions out of, those fantasy editors... no matter how much stalking I do. :-)

Craft advice. More suggestions for intermediate-level writers.

Also, I hear that fancy new cars make middle-aged blogs feel younger. Especially red ones.

Every now and then, I'd love a peek at slush trends you're seeing. I know slush tends to look a lot like my student files -- suddenly everyone sends a cat story. Or suddenly everyone has talking crickets. If we knew what the "suddenly everyone sends" trend was, we could try not to be one of those folks (or have something tangible to suggest students not keep hammering away on that talking screwdriver story.)

Love the blog as-is EA. Really do! I wouldn't be disappointed if it continued on like it's been. You know, after its nap.

That said, I would love to see a post or a series of posts on contracts and contract negotiation for both the agent/author relationship (if you know much about it) and the agent/editor (agent?) relationship.

I know authors who've felt "trapped" (for lack of a better word) by certain clauses and agreements (particularly with multi-book deals) that they didn't fully understand before signing. Situations I think the average aspiring author is completely ignorant of.

We all hope to find an agent that can deal with this for us, and to our benefit, hopefully, but it would be nice to know more about the things we're leaving in our agents' hands. And, likewise, the things we're agreeing to when we sign with them (if there's a written contract).

Maybe it's only interesting to me?

Carry on!

Well, this is my favorite blog just as it is, but I second what the other illustrators are saying: more advice for illustrators. I know you're an editor and not an AD, but we'd love to hear any tips you have for us.

Sometimes I feel it would be a blessing in everyday life for someone to just come along and say, "That won't work. That's a horrible idea. The people you're pitching to would have appreciated it better if you had done this."

And you deliver that.
Politeness doesn't always tell you much. But straight-talk doesn't waste a would-be writer's time!

Since running two blogs was too time consuming, why don't you feed bits and pieces of the anonymati blog crits onto this blog? Let us know what stops you from reading, what is different enough to keep you reading, and what you've seen overdone--On slow or off days, of course.

You have one of the most awesome blogs out there in the ethernet. I like the brutal honesty, the humor, and the variety.

I've noticed a heavy focus on YA and MG in the Blogosphere, and I'd like more that is relevant for me. I write primarily PB manuscripts and have learned that most agents are only interested in novels, so I'm in the position of needing to go directly to the editor. So I'd like more info for PB authors - not the basic stuff like whether you should try to illustrate it yourself (which you have already covered, and many thanks for that!), but the more subtle issues, like whether it's okay to send a manuscript with the query regardless of submission guidelines and why an editor might pass on a manuscript (other than the manuscripts that are about the spirit of their dead grandmother talking through them about the secrets of life, death, and stinky cheese).

You've blogged a lot about the really awful queries and submissions you've gotten, but I'd really like to hear about the good ones that you say "no" to anyway, and why you say "no". Where is the line between "pretty darn good" and "so awesome I have to say 'yes'"?

And contests for PB authors!

Happy third birthday!

You answered an anonymous question of mine and I'm very grateful for it. There's not much advice on the internets aimed at midlist authors, so thanks.

The illustrators want you to talk about illustrating more. I like it when you talk about writing.

Even tho it's on hiatus, are people still submitting first pages to the Anonymati? I just took a look there and there are 101 submissions. Yikes!

I like that you're frank and say things people at all stages of the process need to hear. The last post about complaining about one's publisher came across as a little more scold-y/emphatic than necessary. That's not your usual tone, but it gains more weight the longer it is the most recent post so -- when you feel the need to do the mostly negative posts, maybe you can make sure to post something a little more welcoming relatively soon. I tend to drift away from blogs that trend toward indignation. And in general -- more regular/frequent posts would be great. If you need material, say the word and the masses will ask. We appreciate your insight!

This blog is great. To readers like me it's still young and bouncy. Guess it's about finding a way to keep fun for you. I love it to bits.

One of the most useful things on this blog for me have been the various contests that are then posted with EA's incisive comments, like the ones for synopses and pitches. More of those kinds of things are always welcome, though I know that they take a lot more of your time, so I'm only saying...not demanding.

Speaking of which...here's a link for a cool contest going on right now at kidlit.com. Hurry if you want to enter.
http://kidlit.com/kidlit-contest/

MORE POSTS MORE OFTEN LIKE ALL THE TIME.

Your reactions to actual first lines, first paragraphs, queries, etc. is incredibly helpful (and often entertaining!) I second Magolla when I wonder if you can take up some of the critiquing you did on the Anonymati site here -- throw a morsel to the hungry masses!

Do you think this is a good first sentence for a PB book?

Come mornin,' the Old Snappin Turtle roared. "Ain't nothin, I likes better than a plump wiggly one. They taste so good tremendous, I wish I was my stomach!"

Haste yee back ;-)

I'm going to join a few other people and say that as an illustrator, I'd like to see more advice on the picture side of things and especially advice for people looking to start out in children's books (which I am). I notice that there is tons and tons of advice out there for writers, but a lot less for illustrators, so that would be neat to see.

Advice for Illustrators...

Try writing your own stories... seems the trend today is an all in one package, writer/illustrator.

Have a website featuring your work.

Send your portfolio samples, never originals, to illustration reps, especially those who feature PB's.

Take a trip to N.Y. City, show your portfolio to as many art dept. pub houses as'll let you thru their door.

Do illustrations, (pro-bono) for as many of the children's magazine as you can find.

Join SCBWI... network with local members if possible. Enter contests.

DO NOT quit your day job!

Haste yee back ;-)

EA, your blog is wonderful the way it is. Since you're asking, I would love to read interviews with people in the business: editors, art directors, marketing people, booksellers, agents, etc. I'm sure you would ask unusual and embarrassing questions...

Thanks!

Sergio

I am an editor for a UK educational publisher and have enjoyed reading your blog for quite some time: it's comforting to know that authors, freelancers and publishers are the same, regardless of what sector they're in!

I would just ask for more regular posts as I check your blog everyday (at work at least!) and always find it highly entertaining (usually followed by nods and comments of 'Yep, I know what you mean!')

Well said. And, so true about complaining. I'm sure the author was working WITH the publisher to help repair the situation. But complaining is antagonistic. It assumes a position on the other side.

...

I just typed and removed a paragraph suggesting my hopes that racism was not involved. I just couldn't support it. I hope the publisher settles things with an explanation and better practices in the future.

I can't help but wonder if the author spoke up to the publisher before the book hit the shelves. Would she have seen the artwork before it was final? Would most publishers have listened to her when she pointed out the obvious?

According to news reports they've pulled the book and will re-print it.
Here's Jaclyn Dolamore's statement on the whole thing:
http://fabulousfrock.livejournal.com/344808.html

Seems like she's a go-with-the-flow kind of person.

Thank you so much for posting this. If I were in Jaclyn's shoes, I'd keep my mouth shut and just be excited to have my name on a book. It is good that people are discussing the issue, but don't fault the author.

Well said.

Yes! Thanks, EA, for making clear what racism is.

Years ago while I was at the bar during an RWA conference, a disgruntled author was making the rounds asking everyone their opinion about her cover. The cover featured a mid-section of a woman, but definitely 20ish. Author was upset because the character was in her 40's.
Years later, I still haven't bought this author's books because the whole thing bothered me. She had an agent that I would give my eye-teeth for and she should have kept her unhappiness between her agent and herself, not share it with everyone at a bar.
I found out later that this woman was a professional journalist prior to being a published author. Go figure.

Great post! I completely agree. This isn't about what the author has or has not done in regards to the cover because she is the one who gave us the amazing book that makes us so upset that the cover doesn't do it justice. It is about how a reader feels when they see a good they want to read because they feel a likeness to the main character only to see that even the cover refuses to accept that likeness. I don't care whose mistake it was I am just happy it is being fixed.

EA, I would like to know what you think of NUMBNUTS sharing their royalty statements on their blogs. I, as I've perhaps already revealed, think they are NUMBNUTS for doing this.

I hope when my book is published that my publisher screws up the cover so badly that it generates this level of press.
I guess I should start recoloring my characters now.
The author must be reveling in this attention. Why complain??

The only difficulty with EA's clear description of a professional business relationship is that it leaves out the fact that the author has a different sort of a professional relationship with the reading public. And most readers do not, unfortunately, realize how little control the author has over design and marketing decisions. An author is liable to be held responsible for the cover of his or her book by most people who view it.

An author who doesn't like the cover selected for a book--especially if the grounds have shifted from the aesthetic to the moral--is in a tight corner. He or she risks losing a relationship with the public who may be holding him or her responsible for the moral travesty.

Sure, to begin with, the author should take any disgruntlement to an agent and editor rather than the public, but once that has failed, the author has, to my mind, some responsibility to speak up about something as important as racism.

If we entirely excuse an author from speaking up because of a business relationship, we are in effect saying that financial well-being trumps moral well-being.

Perhaps Dolamore is a model author who has spoken clearly and vociferously behind the scenes and thus is behaving in the best way possible. I have no way of knowing. I'm happy that Bloomsbury has acknowledged the problem, but I'm not entirely happy with EA's use of a professional relationship as a cover for ignoring a moral problem.

"No comment" is a good comment only for the time it takes for the publisher to reach a new decision. If the publisher is not willing to own up to an error, "no comment" runs the risk of becoming collusion with that error.

Great post. Very well put.

"No comment" is a good comment only for the time it takes for the publisher to reach a new decision. If the publisher is not willing to own up to an error, "no comment" runs the risk of becoming collusion with that error.

I agree with you, Eilonwy.

But I'm glad that in this case the publisher did own up, and that situation was sidestepped, because I wouldn't wish such a fix on any author.

This has been discussed before, but it bears repeating. The author *did* make some small commentary about the cover before this thing exploded:
http://xicanti.livejournal.com/173376.html

"My cover was already made before the LIAR controversy, of course... It would be nice to see a darker girl on the paperback...the hair, particularly...Nimira's hair is her best feature! Although I love that dress. =( It will be nice when the industry straightens this out. Ever since Liar I've noticed a lot of books with white girls on the cover and non-white girls in the pages..."

Even that little statement was risky, and who knows what the fallout with her publisher was just over something so innocuous?

There is also the fact that her own official trailer and art depict the protagonist as a woman of color. And while the author talks about how she likes the mood of the cover, clothing, and lighting, NO WHERE does she say she approves the model (believe me, I've looked). Some may see that as a small thing, but I personally think it speaks volumes.

So, just because she didn't get into a public bloodbath over the cover, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt as her actions (spending years writing a PoC lead in the first place comes to mind) and what that she never states her approval of the model come to mind. Indeed, a look at her art page reveals an early version of the story from years ago with a different romantic lead, but even then, the PoC protagonist is depicted with dark skin.

Lapetus, while I can appreciate some cynicism here and there, I doubt that the author is "reveling" in this attention.

Thank you, thank you for the second part of this post.

A friend of mine made a similar point after a fraternity on her campus dressed up in black face (!) and then insisted they didn't mean to be racist. Defining racism by intentions leaves it up to the perpetrators to define what's racist, instead of focusing on how people of color are affected.

It seems especially insidious when the affected are children, and the medium is something that's meant to expand kids' lives.

"those of us who objected to the cover were not objecting on the author's behalf. We were objecting on the readers' behalf."

Thank you for that very intelligent sentence that sums up a very important point. I could easily see why a first-author would not be at the forefront of a fight about her own book. People already forget that the first word on the Liar cover wasn't from the author - it was only when a statement had to be made that she broke her professional silence to lend her opinion. It also was different in that the entire interpretation of the book changed for Liar with a different cover, which gave the author reason to defend her writing and vision, as opposed to complaining about a cover art choice that wasn't in her control.

Agreed, I'm so glad that you took this perspective and stuck up for the author's professionalism!

The reality of book cover designs is that there are many talented people with input behind-the-scenes, adding different perspectives that might not be "exactly what the author envisioned". Usually it's almost always better for an author to trust those people's instincts, and increase a sense of trust in their relationship with the publisher, than to cause a public stink.

In this case, Bloomsbury can take all the flak, and Jaclyn Dolamore stays classy.

Awesome post, EA.

It is also worth mentioning that this was Jaclyn's debut, and that she has a sequel and a companion book coming out with the same publisher. (I do know her personally.)

Excellent post. It wasn't about the author's response to the cover controversary it was aobut the reader's response and the message Bloomsbury and other publishing companies send through whitewashed covers. Humph, Bloomsbury's statement was ok. I'm glad they're changing the cover but they need to explain why the keep doing this!

Mmmm. I wrote a second series with a biracial protagonist. I told my publisher, repeatedly, that I would be very upset if a pasty white person (such as myself) ended up on the cover. I embrace diversity, and I'm highly pissed off by prejudice of any sort--especially in a field that claims to be seeking out diversity in authors and characters. Still, I knew being a middle of the road author, I had no say whatsoever in the final product. And had the protagonist ended up white as Cool Whip, there wouldn't have been a thing I could've done about it...nor was the book high profile enough to raise ire in the readers if it had turned out that way. Luckily, the cover model wasn't white...she wasn't what I'd written, but she wasn't white. So, I took my half victory and counted myself lucky. I have discovered though if you do not dig your heels in over something at least once, your publisher will ride over you and never look twice at your twitching body in the rearview mirror. In the end, I know not to bitch wholeheartedly at what has been visited like the wrath of God down on me...but sometimes you have to comment on at least the little utterly insane things that they do. Or you'll lose your ever-loving mind.

This post still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's one thing to keep quiet when your publisher makes some kind of personal mistake. Like an author showing up to work drunk--that is a "mistake" sure, but it affects only the author and is not exactly morally reprehensible so much as simply bad PR. But whitewashing is more than bad PR--it's racist.

Keeping quiet because you want to be "professional" and maintain your contract with the publishing house says "it's ok to ignore racism when it's professionally profitable for me to do so." Which is exactly the attitude that causes cover white washing in the first place--the author doesn't want to speak up because they don't want the publisher to cast them loose and lose their contract and money, and the publisher doesn't want to put black people on covers because they think it's less profitable and will lose them money.

Racism is not the same as simply being "unprofessional." It's NOT OK to keep quiet about it because you don't want to be personally inconvenienced.

Now, if you mean that an author should keep quiet publicly while trying to straighten the matter out (vocally, strongly, using as much leverage as they can muster) behind the scenes--then I agree. But only then. If they're not doing that--if they're just keeping mum as it goes to press and are just maybe hoping someone else says something--then their silence is condoning the practice, then they are becoming collaborative in it.

It is certainly the author's right then not to say anything publicly, but it is then my right to judge them as a coward who cared for their bottom like more than for their principles.

Hi EA, I'd say there are a lot of reasons an author might not want to publicly distance herself from a publisher's screwup. Some of those reasons we might classify as professionalism. But just as I think it's overly broad to argue silence=professionalism, I also think it's too broad to argue that speaking out=unprofessional. More likely, it depends on the facts at hand.

And regardless of the facts at hand, a publishing deal isn't a nondisclosure agreement. If speaking out vs silence isn't a matter of contract but rather one of the spirit of partnership, doesn't the spirit of partnership include also an implicit expectation of real consultation and publisher competence in their presumed areas of expertise? And if the publisher violates the implicit expectation of consultation and competence, why would we expect the author to continue to be bound by an implicit expectation of silence?

In this regard, I'm not persuaded by the tequila example. An author's public drunkenness reflects on her publisher only tangentially, if at all. Likewise, if my editor does some boorish thing in public, it's no reflection on me and there's no use in my commenting on it. A quite different dynamic -- involving different expectations and different responsibilities -- ensues when a publisher puts out a book with the author's name on the front cover.

I'll say this: if any of my publishers would give me complete control over the packaging of my books, I would have no trouble at all with them complaining publicly about my decisions. If publishers insist on maintaining such control themselves, it doesn't seem fair for them to also require silence in the face of their mistakes.

Actually, I don't think fairness is really the primary issue here -- nor, generally, do I think the primary issue is professionalism. I think the primary issue is self-interest, on the one hand, vs concern for one's fellow authors and the fortunes of the book business generally, on the other. It may make good business sense for any given author to remain silent and cause no offense no matter how badly his publisher screws up a book's packaging, placement, or promotion. But in the aggregate, such self-centered decisions hurt everyone. If more authors spoke out more often, publishing overall would be enjoying better health. And if we authors don't call publishers on their shortcomings, then like someone covering for a family member's drug dependency, we enable the continued shortcomings and make ourselves complicit.

I'm no paragon of speaking out, by the way; many times, I confess, I've bitten my tongue out of self-interest when one of my publishers has done some stupid or lazy thing. But I have -- I hope respectfully and constructively -- spoken out from time to time, and if doing so has cost me anything personally, knowing that I've helped someone else in some small way, maybe even helped the industry generally, has been a nice offset. In this regard, on Tuesday I have a guest piece running in Dear Author detailing an ill-conceived move one of my publishers insists on continuing. The publisher might be irritated, but perhaps they'll also be shocked or embarrassed into improving their performance. Regardless, others might learn from this publisher's mistake and from my prescription for how to fix it.

Publishers aren't very good at the business they're in -- which is why they're in so much trouble. They need our help, and sometimes that help will come in the form of a specific, public critique of their performance. For this reason, I can't support a code of silence, whether driven by what I think is a misplaced sens

EA said: And also for the record: those of us who objected to the cover were not objecting on the author's behalf. We were objecting on the readers' behalf. And especially on the minority readers' behalf, because some of us understand how excruciating and demoralizing it is to children to be made to feel that they are the wrong color.

I do my share of disagreeing around here, but I'm on board for this statement one hundred percent.

"Now, if you mean that an author should keep quiet publicly while trying to straighten the matter out (vocally, strongly, using as much leverage as they can muster) behind the scenes--then I agree. But only then."

While this is true, none of us will likely ever know what happened behind the scenes in this situation. Unfortunately, people will often *assume* that because there wasn't a big public blowup, that they can judge the author on the actions on public actions alone.

We will never know what happened between author and publisher (due to the professionalism described in the post), but I think that the little hints described in other entries (the xicanti quote, the art, the lack of endorsement of the cover model) shows that this author wasn't as passive as some may believe, and truly did care about her creation.

But again, this is all pointless assumption. I just find it interesting that the cover was changed less than 24 hours after her statement. A statement that on the surface may not have been as publicly bloody as some wanted, but in private, may have had larger ramifications...

If you didn't mean it to be racist, then it's not.

Great line. That point is so often overlooked in many debates about racism.

I did not see the cover so cannor comment on that, but I did have an awful cover for my first novel, years ago now. Badly drawn, totally out of phase with the story and my characters etc. I bitterly complained to the publisher who told me it had to stay because "the bookclubs like a woman on the cover" (!?) As the book was supposed to be only for said bookclubs I let the matter go, muttering "Well I hope I just never see the darn thing."

To my horror they then decided to use it for the general paperback edition as well. Thank goodness, about a year later someone saw sense and agreed with me that the wretched thing was dreadful & produced a much better cover. Annoyingly, "the purple puke" as I called it is still around on e-bay, 2nd hand etc.
Thankfully, my present publishers have produced fantastic covers for me!

I think publishers listen a lot more to their authors now - or is it that I have gained confidence in myself and I am able to put my foot down? (In _private_!)

Re complaining in public about a publisher: Funny how the authors who moan and whinge often seem to be the ones whose books are not selling, the authors who do nothing to market their books for themselves, who have never heard of the word loyalty.... and seem to want everythng served on a plate.

Thermocline: I think EA was disagreeing with that view of racism. My favorite thing about her post was the point that ignorantly non-racist intentions do not constitute a Get Out of Accusations of Racism Free Card when racism has occurred.

Storylady--

I know my publisher would have listened to such a concern, because they did, when I said I was worried about how a black character looked on the cover.

Bloomsbury seems to be a special case.

To step beyond the racism issue and discuss truth in cover art... fantasy/SF and romance have suffered for years from covers that often bear little or no relation to their storylines and/or characters; the covers were there just to attract someone enough to make them pick the book up and read the cover blurb. Pure advertising, in other words. Is children's publishing different? Should it be?

Amen!

Excellent commentary on a clearly VERY hot topic. Thank you.

Why I love my editor:

If I post something on my blog that is perhaps less than helpful/politically correct/not a good move, she will txt me with: okay, now you've had your say, get it off the blog. We don't write things like that.

I say again: I love my editor.

No one seems to be wondering if Bloomsbury did this intentionally. I'm wondering if the sales for 'Liar' were so good they decided it was worth creating some accidental *controversy* a second time round?

Great post and great answers. What bothers me about your original post, EA, is the suggestion that business trumps morality. I understand what you're saying has practical merit, especially for the author. Still I can't help thinking that mode of thought is what led Bloomsbury to try to use a racist cover to begin with.

I don't believe business trumps morality. I believe the difference between good people and bad people is that bad people think that ends justify means, and good people know that's just not true.

But I do defend the author's right not to speak out on this issue. Those authors who, in Jaclyn's position, would want to speak out about it would be welcome to, from a moral standpoint, and they could let the chips fall where they may.

It's also possible that in Jaclyn's position, and knowing what DID happen behind the scenes, an author might choose not to speak publicly about it, and not for reasons of prejudice OR cowardice. I hope you can understand that.



I also happen to know enough about what went on behind the scenes to know that Bloomsbury did NOT do this as a publicity stunt.

"...I also happen to know enough about what went on behind the scenes to know that Bloomsbury did NOT do this as a publicity stunt..."

Not to beat a dead horse, as the situation is being rectified, but I think for those of us who were speculating (myself included, of course) had known you had inside information to begin with, then we wouldn't have had so many previous comments in which we all took turns playing devil's advocate (i.e., maybe the author hates/loves the cover, maybe the agent/editor did/didn't speak up, maybe the pub is racist/are idiots/doesn't give a shit... maybe this/that/and the other).

If you're coming from a place of inside knowledge, well, then that is framing your assertions, which are naturally going to be accurate or at least more accurate than the rest of ours.

And, yes, I stand corrected. In a previous post I was one of the comments that felt bad for the author and stated if she loved the cover shouldn't we leave well enough alone. I said that as someone who didn't want a controversy to cloud what should've been her happy book release. I do realize that readers can protest a cover without bullying the author -- but at the time it seemed like the author was being pushed into a corner (and expected to publicly skewer her publisher) possibly to the detrement of her career.

We were objecting on the readers' behalf. And especially on the minority readers' behalf, because some of us understand how excruciating and demoralizing it is to children to be made to feel that they are the wrong color.

Why was this lost on some bloggers? It quick and passionately readers defended the author but did not seem to remember Ari's point about what it means to be POC and not see your face.

I know others have quoted the same lines but this didn't seem to be obvious at the time and I don't want readers to forget it.

Thank your for the article and for linking to RAWW.

[sigh] How many times does Bloomsbury plan to carry out this re-covering scenario? Why didn't they take care of this before publication? Better for them if they'd just begin with an appropriate cover using a POC, and then they could maybe even brag about how well suited it is and how race conscious they are. Not that we'd believe them.

Oh please may it not happen again!

Hurray!

Bloomsbury have got this free advertising thing down to an art.

Yeay! I was hoping they might make a new cover that could do the novel justice. Thanks for posting the update! Looking forward to seeing the new cover.

Ha! FTW!

I am very pleased with the outcome.

I just saw that too. You'd think they would get it right after the controversy. Their authors should definitely look at the covers carefully.

Amazing what a little pressure will do. The real question is, after doing this twice, have they learned their lesson?

i'm extremely happy the cover is to be changed.

but now i just want to know whether it was all a publicity stunt or if bloomsbury are genuinely daft people making the same racist mistakes twice?

Yay! I am happy to see this. Hopefully Bloomsbury learns from this what they didn't from the Liar controversy.

Damn right.

Hot damn! That's good to hear. Sad that a stink has to be created before they realize it, but still.

I think New Zealand is now one the least racist, sexist, homophobic, class driven societies. Yet, one of our most cherished and loved writers has a new book out called Access Road. OMG - it is rich chocolate to read. But, check out the cover here: http://www.penguin.co.nz/afa.asp?idWebPage=30233&ID=1979670&SID=808364985

Ask yourself, what is the colour of the main character's hair? Looking at the cover, it's black. yet, part of the makeup of the character/narrator is that she is a vibrant read head.

Here in NZ, it's not about race but still this fab publishing house (and I am in their stable) still provide very good covers where the cover doesn't match the content.

But yay for EA and others who put damn fine pressure on publishers to lift their game.

It was an expensive lesson to learn *once*. Twice, more so. The poor dears. (At least they responded!)

Maybe it was all a marketing ploy.

Also, maybe they can recycle the image for some princessy book about a white girl (if they can find one to publish).

I am so happy we have been heard. This is the first time I've written to a publisher, and it's gratifying to see things change.

So how many times do you reckon they'll have to do this before they realize it's cheaper to do it right the first time?

Wow:)

Awesome. Let's see what happens in the future..

I am happy the cover is being changed but Bloomsbury needs to do more.

Bloomsbury is not going to trick me twice into believing they've changed or learned their lesson because of a new cover.

I still refuse to sell or promote their titles.

Something is very wrong at Bloomsbury. They need to figure out what it is and fix it.

As far as I know Bloomsbury Kids doesn't have any authors of color. Please, someone correct me if I am wrong.

Natalie - one of the biggest things to come of this is hopefully the realization that authors have NO control over what is on the cover. None. Doesn't matter how many times we look at something, most often we only see it when it's done.

Doret -- by saying you "refuse to sell or promote their titles," you realize you are hurting the innocent AUTHORS, don't you?

Sorry, but that is not right. How is that approach any better than what Bloomsbury did?

---
I was in a bookstore this afternoon and the book (with the questionable cover) was already stocked and faced out. Since the book is already out and is associated with this cover, it seems as if a new cover after the release might hurt sales.


If the author is happy then I'm happy for her, but it does create apprehension, too, mostly because the driving force behind the change was not author/editor/agent (who is should have been, if they had issues) but from bloggers, who, by all intents and purposes, don't pay for their books anyway, but get them for free.

I'm interested in the larger question here -- What happens when an author LOVES her cover but the bloggers rise again and demand changes? Are pubs now supposed to bend to those that raise a racket, though they never purchase books????

Does this make my ARC a collector's edition? Actually, I had it in my TBR pile and had missed the kerfuffle until now, but I hadn't cracked it, so I didn't know what it was about yet. Glad others of you are paying attention though!

Anonymous wrote: the driving force behind the change was not author/editor/agent (who is should have been, if they had issues) but from bloggers,

While I think this is a valid point, unless you are the author/editor/agent (and you might be), you don't really know what they tried or didn't try to change. I happen to LOVE my cover, but I can tell you right now that even if I'd HATED it, the only people who would've known that would be my husband, agent and editor. I would never publicly debate a cover for my book, and I don't think most authors would either. If I remember correctly, Justine never said a word about her cover until after it all blew up across the internet, and even then, she was quite cautious. Just because an author doesn't complain publicly doesn't mean they did not voice their opinions. So hopefully, she did if it bothered her, but I don't think you can say for sure that it was ONLY bloggers who brought about the change.

I'm interested in the larger question here -- What happens when an author LOVES her cover but the bloggers rise again and demand changes? Are pubs now supposed to bend to those that raise a racket, though they never purchase books????

Exactly what I was wondering.

I think this is a good result and I hope the book does well.

It's interesting that it took this long for the author to complain about the cover. When the art was first done, and it was being Tweeted, the only complaint was that the model's costume looked like undergarments. Other than that, everyone involved seemed to love and approve of the cover. There was no mention of the model - or character's - race. I wonder if she decided it was a problem after the Liar backlash.

This is likely obsolete in view of the latest EA blog, but the author did say a little something about the issue in December:
http://xicanti.livejournal.com/173376.html

It's easy for us to be armchair generals about the whole thing, but the latest EA blog clears up why even the author's small commentary above may have been professionally risky in lieu of her publisher.

Her comments supporting the cover seemed more about the mood, clothing, and setting of the cover, while never actually praising the choice of model. A lot can be seen in what she *doesn't* say-- discrete, subtle, and professional.

Could this instance be as simple as someone giving an art director type person a vague description (like "young woman protagonist in an alternate Victorian England") or do you think that there is genuine racist intent behind the decision?

It's impossible to be sure what went on behind the scenes; bookmaking is a complicated process. But it seems unlikely that neither the editor nor designer noticed that description in the text and the fact that their model doesn't match at all.

Oh no. Not again!

Thanks for the heads up, EA.

Well, as an up side, this might be some good exposure for Jaclyn.

Curious to know why the author is Jacklyn in the US and Jackie in the UK. The girl on the cover of the UK edition has a definite skirt, but it's hard to tell her ethnicity.

!!!

Did anyone ever follow up on the Liar controversy? How did the book do sales-wise, with the new black girl on the cover?

Were sales what were expected? Did the newer cover make it crash and burn? Did it make white girls not be drawn to it?

How does this new author feel about her cover? If she likes it, and sales are good, maybe its none of our business. Just a thought. That maybe the publisher is trying to, I don't freaking know, GET sales, rather than hinder them??

My two cents, probably not worth much more.

Given the attention (and I assume sales) Liar got because of the kerfuffle, perhaps it's intentional.

Have a look at Elizabeth Moon's 'Hunting' series, published by Orbit.

The character is (from the text), dark skinned, yet on the cover she 's blindingly white.

The same goes for Heinlein's 'Friday', also described as mixed race, but I saw a cover a couple of years back with a white woman on the front and felt like marching to the till and registering a complaint.

I was going to say something pretty similar to what Paul said. I suspect that Liar did better because of the controversy, everybody was talking about it and it's never bad for a book to have everybody talking about it.

There should be an award for dumbest publisher of the year. And we shall call that award, "The Bloomsbury"!

JESUS GOD MAKE IT STOP

I design book covers for non-fiction. I had a request from a publisher to design a book cover for a book on "Leadership and Performance Management in Government". They wanted something 'modern' but not too 'edgy'. Accountants. Not too edgy.
It was a challenge. I would never design a book jacket/cover without a working knowledge of the contents, especially if it involved people. I research and asked questions before I desinged it. If well thought out each of the covers mentioned in this blog could have been designed to make the reader want to read the book without people on the cover. It all depends on the skill and experience of the designer AND the information provided for the designer by the publisher. Ultimately the publisher is responsible for the way it looks but the designer should take into account the story and content of the book. The Twilight series did not have person on any of the covers and we all know how well that sold.
My cover for the accountants? If you are curious, you can see it on my blog - http://kathleenhiggins.blogspot.com

I understand the feelings of many that the cover does not match the description, but the author seems to like it. If she doesn't have a problem, then I guess it matches her idea of the character. This is from her own blog:

Jun. 12th, 2009

Cover!

My cover!!!! Yayyy!!! SO pretty!! The dress is Gaultier!!! I would sleep with this picture under my pillow.

But did you see the way the author portrayed the MC in the book trailer she built?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFvAq2lgrZ4

Doesn't the author/agent/editor get ANY say in these matters? I mean can't they look at the preview or something and say YOU GOT IT ALL WRONG?

It seems that more and more decisions are completely out of the author's hands. I respect the professional opinion, but obviously people who have never read the book are designing these covers! (Or complete wackos!)

Thank YOU for speaking up about this. I loved this book, but on the first page it says that Nimira is a trouser girl and makes no bones about her color. It's also an integral part of the plot. Maddening that the cover is a white girl in victorian underwear!

Also, Anon., I wouldn't assume just because an author smiles and nods over her cover in public that they agree whole-heartedly with the cover choices. Justine Larbelestier spoke out about her cover but she has many books under her belt and some balls to her because of years in the business. Also, she was still INCREDIBLY tactful. I had serious concerns about the very first cover I had (long since changed) but as a debut author, you better believe I would not post in public about those reservations. I would definitely take the girl in Jaclyn's trailer as her personal view of the character (and also, you know, her WORDS, since that's what authors tend to use to portray their characters). Nimira was unequivocally judged by other characters by her color.

Anyway, I hadn't made the connection that both this and LIAR were Bloomsbury titles. Shame . . . I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the designers were just working off ambiguous copy . . .

Anon 6:59 - I don't think it is particularly wise for a young debut author to vent and bitch publicly about her publisher.

Hopefully this will be the impetus that Bloomsbury needs to change the cover for the paperback

(...or even the next print run? - Nah THAT is probably wishful thinking.)

This cover is seventy-five kinds of horrifying even apart from the racial angle. The type has nothing to do with the image, the image isn't configured to have type laid over it, neither the type nor the image suggest 'Alternative Victorian.'

All the awesome steampunk artists out there and this slapdash, generic romance cover is what they come up with to sell this book?

"Bookmaking is a complicated process"... apparently too complicated to allow even minimal aesthetic judgement into the equation.

WI: snort! It's not THAT complicated.

The UK book cover for this is very different and looks like it's for a much younger audience.

http://www.waterstones.com/wat/images/nbd/l/978140/880/9781408802120.jpg

However, the young UK girl looks blonde to me, with a big skirt.

Racism aside, it drives me a nuts when I'm reading about a blonde heroine and the cover girl is a brunette or vice versa. Use the cover to illustrate what's in the book and stop driving readers crazy.

When people complained about Liar Liar, they changed the cover from something artsy and gritty to watered-down valley girl. :( Hope that doesn't happen here. (admittedly I think the UK cover is much more charming.)

Grrrr.

Really interesting to see the comments above me.

I had to roll my eyes and groan at this, myself. I'm one who'll close a book at points during reading and stare at the cover, studying it. I learned VERY early on that cover art is ... art. Nothing more. It rarely has much to do with the book and it usually does get the heroine wrong in some way.

EA, you asked how to support the author without supporting the publisher. I know a number of authors who, with a few books out and under their belts, have put their older, unpublished books up at Smashwords. Might be an idea for you to look into. If not now, maybe a few releases down the road...

Great points here. I think that sometimes, in general, the book cover is quite unrelated to the story, whether intended or not.

I want to know how you get somebody to look that flat-chested in a corset. It's a kind of anti-bodice-ripper.

The difference between covers & contents struck me a looooooong time ago. As a brunette who wore glasses and read constantly, it started bugging me early on that girls on book covers, no matter how they were described, were blonde and unspectacled. (Except Dorothy Gale, who is blonde in the books and dark-haired on covers because of Judy Garland!) This has even happened on two of my own books. So it's not a new thing, or unique to Bloomsbury; but I think the blonde assumption is going to get more and more obvious and more and more obnoxious as more and more books are published with protagonists of color; and the number is definitely going up lately.

On the one hand, most dedicated readers learn early to blow off the covers. (I was seven.) On the other hand, it is a constant theme of librarians and booksellers that if the cover is bad or wrong they can't move the book no matter how good it is. At certain ages, the motivation to read a book may well be less than the motivation to not be seen reading something with a socially unacceptable cover.

And if Bloomsbury is making their decisions based on the notion that dark-skinned people on book covers are socially unacceptable, something is very wrong indeed.

generic romance cover

Working Illustrator, that was my exact feeling from the cover, a Harliquin romance novel:)

Bloomsbury needs to get on board, the rest of the arts world is changing their veiw of a white audience not willing or able to relate to anyone other then lily white.
Disney is doing well with the Princes and the Frog, Dream Girls was a hit. Not enough out there yet but a score of even 1 is better then the zero Bloomsbury keeps batting.
You could not get away with this in a picture book cover. My series features a child of mixed race and if I ever thought to portray her on the cover with pink skin and straight blonde hair.... well I wouldn't even if I was told to.
How ridiculous this all is!

But the U.S cover is better than the U.K. cover, which makes it look like a bridal registry. So, I guess there are degrees of "not liking" the cover.

Sure, the author might not want to publically take her publisher to task on her blog if she isn't happy with her cover. But, if she said she likes it on her blog, perhaps she does. Are we now supposed to read between the lines of every thing that comes from an author's mouth and infer they are upset, when, in fact, they might be rather happy? Come on.

It's all speculation. It's people trying to drum up controversy. If EA wanted to ask the designer or pub what happened with the cover, she probably could, seeing as how she works in the business and it'd probably only take a polite email between fellow editors. But she'd rather say it on a blog? That doesn't seem fair. What if the author is happy? If she were EA's author wouldn't EA be a little ticked off about people ripping apart the cover?

Justine's "Liar" predicament was different as she came out publically against her cover and then all of the internet joined her until the cover was changed. Fine and good. But then she ended up with what looked (to me) to be a thirty year-old Vogue model on her cover, and black though she was, didn't fit with the feel of the book, either. It made it seem like chic-lit(imo).

I feel rather smug about this because I've edited YA fantasy with a dark-skinned female protagonist and the cover shows exactly what the author intended. Aside from my sterling efforts in this regard this is largely down to the fact that the cover designer who worked on it actually read the books he worked on! It's not always the case. Plus it means I can give a fairly vague brief (I think in this case it was 'let's see her looking badass with some swords') and let the author's words do the job of describing what the art ought to show.
In this case I have a feeling that Bloomsbury's design department aren't reading the books they are working on, or they'd surely have come up with some much more interesting designs than either of these covers. The US one is pretty awful - so boring - even if you discount the whiff of racism, and the UK one looks like a totally different book for a younger age group.
That said, what I did notice on my book - and I'm just going by the scans on Amazon, so it could be totally unfounded - was that the US edition, which used the same cover art, seemed to lighten the skin tone a shade or two...

Anonymous,

Let's remember that Justine Larbalestier DIDN'T say anything against her US cover until bloggers started questioning it.

I believe she (understandably) didn't feel she could be the first to publicly decry that cover, since she is a business partner with the publisher.

Let's also remember that I may have spoken to someone at Bloomsbury, or to the author, or others in the industry. If I simply wanted information for myself, I could get it, and it wouldn't need to go on the blog.

But that's not what this is about. And it's not about what a single author is willing or not willing to settle for in the way of cover accuracy.

One instance of putting a white girl on the cover of a book about someone dark-skinned (as with Liar) could be an honest mistake, somehow, MAYBE. But twice at the same publisher in short succession means this is deliberate. And regardless of how happy or not the author is, this is a dreadful disservice to readers. The book wasn't published for the author-- it was published for readers, and we have a right to object.

Justine's "Liar" predicament was different as she came out publically against her cover and then all of the internet joined her until the cover was changed.

That's not true. In fact, when I first saw the cover discussed, I posted (much as you have done), pointing out that Larbalestier appeared to be pleased with the existing cover and linked to this post:

The USian cover of Liar (Updated) | Justine Larbalestier

She updated after the discussion had spread all over the 'net.

It's a beautiful cover, but it could've been just as beautiful--if not more so--with a dark-skinned girl that accurately depicts the MC.

Sigh ...

This kind of thing happens all the time. The same way a protagonist of a book I finished yesterday was describes as having ebony black hair and the cover art showed a strawberry blonde.

I'm not saying it is right, I think that they ought to look more closely at their covers, however I doubt it was intentional racism. What would be the point? I agree that it is most likely a department that got a few lines about the book, non-specific information, and did the best cover they could think of.

Let's all be easy-going, shall we? :)

Perhaps we can use this as a lesson for future Bloomsbury authors - that they (or their agents) should try to add cover approval into their contracts...

As a Bloomsbury author (who obviously wishes to remain anonymous) let me just say: Everyone I have worked with, even with my first book, has been more than willing to change the tiniest of details so that I am happy with my covers. I get to weigh in on whether or not someone's hair is loose or braided! So the idea or either Justine or Jacklyn being forced to accept a cover they hate is laughable to me.

I have heard with great horror of authors being told to make their characters white to match the shiny new cover, and illustrators being told to make the characters white as well. But I've never heard this from anyone working with Bloomsbury until the Liar brouhaha, which, yes, didn't start until a blogger pointed it out.

Larissa said: Perhaps we can use this as a lesson for future Bloomsbury authors - that they (or their agents) should try to add cover approval into their contracts...

Perhaps we should use this as a lesson to future Bloomsbury authors (or their agents) to submit their manuscripts to a house that will take more care in their cover choices...

Oh please please don't perpetuate the myth about how Justine Larbalestier was thrilled by her cover. The very post you link to is pretty glaring in that she says 'My publishers really like it. Advance readers really seem to like it' and not once does she say that she likes it.

A huge amount of authors have to do that - fight like a rabid weasel behind the scenes, and then in public be polite. Because it's a business relationship, and you have to be.

It's also a huge mistake to think that authors who do speak out, as Justine did, have their careers benefit. They don't. It's definitely harmed Justine.

Which is terrible, and unfair: that authors who have PoC leads like Justine Larbalestier and Jaclyn Dolamore are now coping with having people think vaguely of racism in connection with them.

This is not to say that the cover decisions for both of them weren't bad decisions. They were, and it absolutely should be pointed out. It's just a horrible side-effect that both the writers are going to get punished for doing nothing wrong.

Working Illustrator -- you've got to be kidding! Who among us trying to get published can afford to black ball an entire publishing house because we don't like a cover?

I can't. There's a ton of worse covers out there. In fact, I see covers every day that suck ass. Yes, a pub should take an author's characters into consideration when doing a cover. And perhaps Bloomsbury was neglectful, or perhaps no one spoke up when they initially saw the cover (editor, agent, author), so their silence was interpreted as being kudos for a job well done.

The point, I think, is that none of us really know what went on because we weren't there. While we're busy pointing fingers, are we to assume that no one in the design dept where EA workds ever does a sucky cover? Or that they never use a crappy, hard to read font, or choose an ugly title? Or do a shitty job editing something, for that matter? It's one thing to point out that the girl on the cover should be "dark" and she is not. But it's another to blindly want to drive a stake in the heart of a book designer (a probably lowly paid book designer at that) because and author we don't even know MIGHT be upset.

There are other sites that are calling to boycott all Bloomsbury books. Do Bloomsbury authors deserve that?

There are two sides to every story -- I take great interest in Anon 3:21's comment, as she/he is a Bloomsbury author.

I'm really shocked to see people coming out of the woodwork to bash Justine yet again by implying that she only had a problem with the Liar cover once bloggers did, or that she hasn't been honest about her experience. She's been incredibly transparent about the whole thing, much more so than anonymous commenters assuming their own experience is the same as everyone else's.

Thanks for the great post, as usual, EA.

I won't buy the book because of this issue.

I'm fairly good at standing up for myself but I never liked my US covers and when I pushed back the best I could get were marginal changes.

Jaclyn is a new writer, a writer who had a long hard path to breaking into the business. I don't know whether she had any power, but I doubt very much she was aware she had, or believed she had any.

This is 100% on the publisher. The writer is responsible for the words. The rest of the process is the publisher's contribution.

Thank you, EA, for pointing out something that should be obvious to Bloomsbury. Maybe with enough feedback, editors there might think twice next time? I hope that's not being too optimistic.

Well said, Michael. When we are young (at anything) we lack power. This only comes with age and experience. One hundred years ago, this kinda conversation wouldn't be happening because book makers rarely paid much attention to the outside.

The most important thing to me (as a fellow writer) is that people buy and read her book. How dreadful that her initial foray into this world is now marred by politics (pointedly correct as they are).

I've had people slam one of my publishers; in our country it was the hot topic in the news for weeks and weeks and the media wouldn't let it go (it involved plagerism by a most beloved author and university lecturer) but, for me, the publishing house have been a wonderful crew to work with.

As I noted on Justine's blog, for one of my books, the designer had not read the book, just saw the title and dreamed up crap. I understand that the art designers (who, here in this land are all outsourced) rarely read the books they make covers for - they rely on the editors' briefs.

As a Bloomsbury author (who obviously wishes to remain anonymous) let me just say: Everyone I have worked with, even with my first book, has been more than willing to change the tiniest of details so that I am happy with my covers. I get to weigh in on whether or not someone's hair is loose or braided! So the idea or either Justine or Jacklyn being forced to accept a cover they hate is laughable to me.

Okay, as ANOTHER Bloomsbury author who has gotten cover art with the message, "here's the final, hope you love it" and been anywhere from delighted to moderately unhappy, and then as tactfully as possible asked for changes to the things I really felt I had to fight for -- and turned a blind eye to those of lesser import -- I have to disagree with this. Maybe some B authors get input on details, but others of us don't. Period.

Which puts us in really difficult positions at times like this. How do we defend our publisher or our own books in the face of cries for the whole company's list to be boycotted?

Torgo, did you edit Devil's Kiss? Because girl of color looking badass with a sword on the cover made me think of that one. Great cover, great book.

Stacy, sadly I didn't edit DEVIL'S KISS, which I wasn't really aware of in fact as I'm more picture books these days than teenage fiction (it's been a weird career.) But I'm glad to see that the book I did edit isn't the only thing like that out there.

ARGHHHH! this is a completel pet peeve of mine! aAs an illustrator, I read the entire manuscript before I get started on any sketches. My guess is it was a hurried stock photo purchase. BIG BUMMER! Give an artist a job, they'll treat you right!

Many thanks to all who've responded and thank you EA for addressing this. I'd like to post the link to a teen book blogger. It just about broke my heart to read her take on all this:

http://blackteensread2.blogspot.com/2010/01/open-letter-to-bloomsbury-kids-usa.html

Anonymous 5:51 said:
Working Illustrator -- you've got to be kidding! Who among us trying to get published can afford to black ball an entire publishing house because we don't like a cover?

Fair enough, but here's the thing: the power balance in the publishing process is heavily weighted toward publishers. It's their money, so mostly it's their rules.

There are really only two points in the process where the writer has any meaningful influence over events: in the creation of the work and in the decision about whose dotted line to sign on.

Once you've signed, it's their ball game, which is why that decision matters and why authors need to take things like insanely misguided cover decisions seriously. Covers are the most important sales tool a book has and the most important marketing decision a publisher makes.

Look... your book get one shot in the marketplace.

One.

If it misfires, whatever effort you put into it - years of rewrites, months of edits - goes down the drain and that's it. Game over.

Somebody at Bloomsbury - a whole slew of somebodies, most likely - signed off on this train wreck of a cover. The book may succeed despite this fact - plenty of books do, and for the author's sake I hope it does - but the fact remains that this is how they dressed it to send it out into a world where how you look has a tremendous impact on whether you succeed or fail.

And in this case, they've done the book the added injustice of hanging the word 'racist around its neck.

So yeah, I'd think twice before handing them any baby of mine. Not saying 'never' but I'd have sharp questions and a careful ear for the answers before I jumped.

Faster version of my last comment: it's not enough just to have a baby; it matters who you have the baby with.

Too many authors (and too many girls in my hometown) learn that lesson too late.

Where I worked (I'm a former editor), the designers were required to read every novel they designed, and they worked with the editor to come up with ideas and cover art. Then covers went through jacket committee for approval. Run-of-the-mill authors (i.e. non-celebrity, non-bestseller) did not have approval, but they were kept in the loop and if they really hated a concept or design we wouldn't push it on them. This is at a well respected, very old publishing house, not the biggest but certainly comparable to Bloomsbury. Somebody over there is dropping the ball...

Dear Fiona: Please do not march to the till and register a complaint. If you live in a location where you have indy bookstores available to you, that's great and your very fortunate, but having worked both in publishing and in a big-chain bookstore, there's nothing a cashier (or customer service at a publisher, for that matter) can do about it.

(It's like the time I was working in clothing retail and a customer marched up to a cashier and demanded that the cashier call Ralph Lauren, personally, because the customer's pants had shrunk when the customer hadn't followed the washing instructions. The cashier basically said, "Sure. I'll ring him, he's on his yacht right now.")

To lodge a complaint, I would hit 'em in their publicity department.

http://www.bloomsburyusa.com/contact

What I love about this is the fact the EA is bringing something important to the attention of Bloomsbury: white readers (like me) can and do buy books about characters who aren't caucasian! In fact, some of us are actively looking for more diversity in our reading selections. Put color on the cover, give it a face-out in the YA section and if the jacket flap makes it sound interesting, we'll buy it. Well, I will.

*Brown girl hits forehead against palm*

Something just dawned on me. I wonder if Bloomsbury is just bowing to pressure from the powerful book store chains? I'm not trying to let them off the hook but... I do know the number of cover revision's I have done, as a pic book illustrator, based on what the sellers have said they would or would NOT stock. It can be as ridiculous as background colour (don't like pink, too many pink books, want baby blue) to take rubber clown nose off dog, people are afraid of clowns (even though the interiors featured clowns, complete with their red rubber noses) It CAN get nuts at times. I wonder if the sellers can sometimes be responsible for a glut of white girl covers and a mass of publishers too afraid of ticking the large book chains off?

Before we rush to judgment, perhaps this was a stock photo. Instead of paying for a more expensive photo shoot, publishers - as you well know - use stock photos ALL THE TIME. Maybe a Thai trouser girl wasn't exactly #1 on stock photos searches.

Thank you for this! I saw another blog mentioning this and blogged about it myself yesterday.

It's baffling, in the worst possible way that this keeps happening.

I don't want to punish the author, so instead of boycotting, I'm urging people to contact Bloomsbury to complain. Loudly and repeatedly. I sent an email yesterday.

This kind of thing is so incredibly shameful...:(

I can't beleive Bloomsbury have done this again. What is wrong with them?

My heart goes out to the author - it's her debut, this should be a happy time for her.

I hope people don't boycott her book because of this, that would be so unfair as she will be the one that's hurt, not bloody Bloomsbury.

Red seems to be a popular color these days!

Purples and Reds...Do you organize your books by some complicated color scheme? If you pulled back would it be like one of those images that's really made up of lots of smaller pictures?

Al Capone Does my Shirts is the first one... I always have a problem naming these - I think because I pay more attention to the cover than the spine.

Claret is the new pink. What a way to toast the New Year!

I'm going to speculate on your identity based on your bookshelf.

The eye is still watching...

What sort of speculation, Liesl?

Ooh, Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware--what an awesome book!

Love the view!

Speculation over. You are so anonymous!

Still no nonfiction on your bookshelf? (granted, some titles I can't read, so I can't be absolutely sure there is none) -w

Publishers obviously know that we humans are programmed to notice red...it's something to do with blood, I think.

I think that means I'm saying that your bookshelf looks like an open wound. Sorry.

Simon: LOL!

Wendie: I count four nonfiction (five if you count Ounce Dice Trice)

In the Tall, Tall Grass by Fleming
All the World illustrated by Frazee
Flotsam illustrated by Wiesner (duhsville)

So that is three ...can't figure out the other

clues???

Barb

I Am the Mesenger by Markus Zusak
Princess Academy by Sharon Hale
There Are Cats in This Book Viviane Schwarz
The Wee Free Men by Terry Prachett

Another sales-potential myth about "issue books": that every doctor and/or therapist who specializes in that "issue" will want copies of the books in his office to show or (even give) to patients.

Nope. Doctors don't buy books, and the only issues-related stuff they'll give kids to read are the booklets and things that they get free from pharmaceutical companies.

The company I work for publishes issues books. A lot of parents write them for their kids, and when we turn down submissions I always hope they know that just because we can't take on a project IT DOESN'T MEAN THAT WE THINK THE ISSUE ISN'T VALID. It's rough going sometimes...

Hah! I used to work in a used book store and we got in that satanic ritual abuse book! I forgot all about it - if i remember right, it was part of a series of books, not all on satanic ritual abuse, but other weird things

That all makes sense, but I think there's a good school/library market for well-done issue books; they want to make sure they serve all their customers. You can also move books by going to conferences and meetings around the issue, I know a guy who's sold lots of his own book that way (which was a Schneider award winner.)

Will editors/publishers look more kindly on modest sales figures for a writer's first book that happens to be an "issue book"?

But that said, I think newer writers look at the success of Ellen Hopkins (teen prostitutes, drug addiction, cutting, meth use, pedophilia, and on and on and on, and logically assume the market is quite robust for them. I can't stomach them myself, but if those AREN'T issue books, I don't know what would else would qualify.
Also, in that best seller clique you've got ubiquitous books like Wintergirls or 13 Reasons Why.

Writers that don't write fairies! vampires! witches! naturally are looking for a big hook -- something drastic, because they've been told without it their book won't sell because it'll be (gasp) a quiet novel. It's completely understandable they'd go the "issue" route in search of that hook.

I blame the old ABC Afterschool Specials for making people think that issue books are the way to go.

Many "issue books" have interest far beyond the people who are affected. WINTERGIRLS, RULES, and MANGO-SHAPED SPACE very definitely tackle Big Issues, but they do not just appeal to the anorexic, the autistic or the synaesthesiac.

There is a huge difference between normal trade books that happen to feature an Issue and a self-published or otherwise ugly and weird niche books meant to be bibliotherapy.

Whoa, that Satanic ritual abuse book was something else! I hope I can sleep tonight. Blagh!

That's a good point, Literaticat. I was thinking of the books (picture books, mostly) meant to help parents explain / discuss an issue with kids.
Books that children or teens might choose for themselves and that have "issues" in them are a separate kind of issue book-- and can be much more acceptable, both to audiences and publishers. Maybe I should do a follow-up post.

So, what's the market for a YA book about a teen whose parent just cannot get that first novel published? Surely any editor eyeing the gigantic pile of slush spilling off the desk and rolling toward the hallway would recognize that there are lots and lots of people with this "issue." It would also leave room for many sequels as the parent has a drawer full of similarly unpublished novels and a decaying box of picture book manuscripts.

Maybe issue books are a good fit for some kind of POD model. Smaller audiences looking for some way to explain a genuine issue (done well...and also not crazy issues like satanic rituals) to their kids might be willing to pay the higher cost of POD books.

A publisher might well create a specific "issue" brand, but they wouldn't need to be concerned with the high costs of warehousing and such. I would imagine that in such a scenario, they might carry a very wide range of special issues in order to boost overall numbers (as in sell a small number of books, but a large number of issues).

I'm sure there are authors and illustrators out there who have the creativity and ability to make a whole series of books that might bring comfort to children and parents. And of course the editors to make those books better.

Then again, being a loyal EA reader, I know that a lot of the cost is in getting to the printing stage. And in marketing. Though marketing a brand rather than a single book might defray those costs.

And I could be (probably am) completely wrong. So, yeah. I need to work on my endings.

Oh and just to clarify my POD idea (and to utter a potential sacrilege) - In my mind these books would be good, but wouldn't necessarily aspire to be great art. More a technology and a product filling a previously untapped niche. As such they might fall short in artistry (literary and visual) but would make up for it in attention to a thoughtful presentation of whatever issue that book is about.

If I were a parent with a child who was struggling with something difficult and I were searching for an explanatory aide, my primary concern likely wouldn't be the artistic merits of the book. So they would be a product, but a socially beneficial one. The evil publishing child pornographers would be happy as would the poor non mormon parents and children being taken advantage of.

(I got the child pornography, mormon, and bad grammar myth, but couldn't figure out how to fit in the magic word - and I bet I'm still going to get this comment published which is the goal of every author.)

just adding
January 29 through February 12, 2010.

Hmm, wonder how many are going to submit their manuscripts anyway.

Wow, talk about news you can use! Thanks.

It is indeed an honor to be mentioned. Fun contest, thanks for hosting! And excellent mythmaking, Matt. I particularly love the specificity of it.

P.S. the three word phrase is "next Harry Potter."

These are great! Thanks for the fun over the break, EA - it was a ball to read all the amusing new myths.

Huzzah! It was a great contest and these are deserving winners (in fact, while reading Kurtis's, I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading an entry in a myth contest).

Hilare. The winner is almost plausible, and that is just really sad.

THis was a lot of fun! Thanks for the jocularity!!!
:-)

So much fun. Thanks, Matt and Kurtis all you crazy, creative people.

Thanks for posting these. The magic word/phrase made me laugh out loud

It was a lot of fun checking in and reading everyone's excellent Myth's, thanks to all for the laughs over the loooooong holiday.

Very fun! Congrats to the winners... and the players for being so nuttily inspiring. A nice way to start the decade and work week.

OK--- new challenge-- lets see if anyone can get a book banned from their YA section as 'porn' because it violates this myth! :)

(Try to pick a really innocuous one, so everyone will be confused when it shows up on the banned book list! Sure, banning books is bad and all, but the author will get a sales boost!)

Actually, do authors ever PURPOSELY include elements in their books as an attempt to get them banned? I mean, one borderline scene could get you ACRES of free publicity.......

What larks! So fun to see writers' insecurities brought out into the light and laughed at. We are a sorry lot.