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Last week Overlook published the hardcover edition of CNET editor David Carnoy’s debut novel KNIFE MUSIC, a book that has otherwise existed only in digital formats. Our foray into the experimental world of self-publishing has certainly raised some industry eyebrows – a derisive colleague asks, “Self publishing? Really? You encourage that?”

We do. Not only does Overlook encourage the integration of new technologies into the world of publishing, but it seems that Carnoy’s novel and its journey from mobile app to printed book has struck a chord with reviewers and press throughout the media. Below are some recent stories on KNIFE MUSIC, Carnoy’s success as a self-publisher, and the future of printed media as it collides with interventions in new digital technologies:

Recently Carnoy guest edited an article on Publishing Perspectives (read it here) and discussed self-promotion in the age of self-publishing.

Gizmodo covered Carnoy’s relationship with iPhone Apps – in 2008 the App Store rejected Knife Music for objectionable content. Now, backed by Overlook, a new app has been accepted, naughty language and all. Read the full article here.

A few days ago Carnoy was on Media Bistro’s Morning Media Menu radio show offering his opinion on eBooks, self-publishing, and landing a book deal. His full interview is here.

David penned a letter to Steve Jobs that was posted on the Huffington Post, thanking the Apple exec for rejecting Knife Music, which may or may not have led to his book deal. Read it in its entirety here.

Knife Music is now available as a free iPhone App, downloadable at the Apple store. It’s been nabbed more than 400 times in less than two weeks. There is also a teaser available on Scribd (click here!) which has received more than 6,000 reads.

New Yorkers can meet Carnoy this Thursday when he makes an appearance at the Lincoln Triangle Barnes & Noble for a reading and signing at 7:30pm. Hope to see you there!

There’s an interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal from Joanne Kaufman—Authors: Where Do I Sign? It talks about the delicate balancing game publishers face when setting up author signings, and it’s definitely something that we deal with on an everyday basis here at Overlook. While we recommend reading it in full, here are a few excerpts, with our thoughts.

"Which authors get to sign at which New York locations is a tricky gavotte involving publishers, chain bookstores and other venues. In fact, independent bookstores or locales like the 92nd Street Y are sometimes more appropriate perches."

As an independent publisher, we particularly like working with independent bookstores. Their specialties and dedicated staffs are always a joy, and the unique personality of each bookstore can work really well with many of our authors.

However, working with Barnes & Noble and Borders is a crucial part of our jobs. Getting to know the big locations of their stores, particularly in Manhattan, is one of the first things every publicist learns to do. Their staff works extremely hard to accommodate our preferences and needs (and will also sell books off-site at events, which means those sales will be reported to best-seller lists—huge bonus!) and it’s an efficient and friendly business model.

“It's not that certain branches confer more bragging rights than others, according to literary agent Laurence Kirschbaum. It's just that certain branches are simply better for certain types of books. "There are definitely uptown authors and subjects and downtown authors and subjects," he said. "A lot of it has to do with where a writer has most of his posse. Thus, you're not going to put the latest Tea Party author at the B&N at 82nd and Broadway," Mr. Kirschbaum continued, alluding to the store in the heart of the famously liberal Upper West Side.

This rings particularly true to us. Even a chain store will have its own personality, whether it’s in terms of size, accessories (the Lincoln Triangle B&N has a piano and excellent video equipment), or the surrounding neighborhood. An author who’s a West Village or Upper East Side resident or native will often get the best response there.

“Whatever the location, "the key thing is the network the author can call on to show up," said Mr. Kirschbaum. Indeed, Ms. Gottlieb's publisher asked about the size of her mailing list and the number of people she thought she could recruit for her event. "And they had to provide that to Borders to justify why they should have me there," said the author, who ended up with a respectable crowd of 100.”

Interesting anecdotes: that sports books often get the lunch slot at the Wall Street borders, and that it’s no coincidence celebrity books are usually at the biggest B&N, in Union Square—there’s capacity for over 1,000 people.

Anyways, whether you’re an aspiring author, a harried publicist, or a reader who enjoys meeting and greeting authors, this article delves into an important part of book marketing and publicit

I will be in Columbus Saturday with Carole Gerber at the Ohioana Book Festival. Hope to see you there!

We will be signing books with a lot of other talented authors and illustrators! Yes, I will be giving away magnets AND colorsheets!

April is going out with a bang! Last week I was the featured artist at the 23rd Annual Conference on Children’s Literature as a part of the Ashley Bryan Art Series. I was hosted by the wonderful librarians of the Broward County Library, specifically the African American Research Library and Cultural Center. If you are in Ft. Lauderdale please visit the Center. It is a beautiful library that houses many wonderful special collections. For example, there is the Alex Haley Collection (includes eight unfinished manuscripts by the author, scenes from Juffure in the Gambia, West Africa, where Kunta Kinte was born, cast photos from Roots, letters from prominent individuals and more), the Esther Rolle Collection (the collection consists of photographs, plaques, newspaper articles about her success as an actress. The collection also includes a painting of Esther Rolle, a dress worn by Rolle and awards, such as the NAACP Eight Image Award and Emmy Award- there’s an “actual” Emmy on display in the library! There the John & Vivian Hewitt Hatian Art and Book Collection (consists of books, artifacts, ephemera, sculptures, and paintings focusing on Haiti) and of course, there is the growing Ashley Bryan Art Collection (The ABAC is a collection of artwork of illustrators of African descent.)

View a photo album from AARLCC for May through July 2009. (.pdf – 2MB)

Thank you to Dr. Henrietta Smith, Elaina Norlin, Essie DeNoms, Eric Gomez, Joy Veasy, Marion Williams and the Friends of Broward County Libraries for making it such a memorable experience~

Next, I am off to NYC tomorrow to celebrate two friends, my cherished one, Taeeun Yoo as she accepts this year’s Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award, and Tonya Cherie Hegamin, this year’s EJK author! I’ll be in NY until Sunday.

The work still turns, so while I am in the big apple, I will be meeting one of my publishers to discuss an upcoming project (one that I can barely contain my excitement for, btw) and will be spending time in the NYPL working on revisions for another dummy. Then it’s back to NY to wrap up the last paintings for WHITE WATER and a school visit next week.

If anyone had told me two years ago that I would be challenged with balancing multiple projects and appearances, I don’t think I would have believed them.

Living the dream!

Thanks Lauren Bishop for this great story in the Cincinnati Enquirer!

Last week I was hosted by Mrs. Chrystal Carr-Jeter and the Cleveland Public Library in conjunction with BloomsburyUSA, for the opening of OUR CHILDREN CAN SOAR, a traveling exhibition the 12 original paintings from the book. If you are in Cleveland, please stop by to see the work. Paintings will be on display until February 13, 2010.  What an amazing time! I was given the royal treatment from the time I arrived to the time of my departure.

I arrived Thursday morning and once settled in, was whisked away to my first speaking engagement at Cleveland School of the Arts. It was a combined presentation with about 100 kids or so in the school cafeteria. We had a great time talking about art, their enthusiasm for the arts and reading, and how to make good choices from the examples they read about in books.

Exchange of the day

AWESOME KID A: “Where can we find your books?”
ME: “You can find my books in all major bookstores and online booksellers”
AWESOME KID B: “And in the library!”
ME: “YES! Especially in the library!!!”

AWESOME KIDS GROUP SHOT (click to enlarge)

Next we were off to the Martin Luther King branch of CPL where I shared ideas with librarians about how to show the exhibition, do a sound check, and get ready for the reception! I met more great librarians and was inspired by local Cleveland talent. Huge props to ChiefRocka Q-Nice, our spoken word artist of the evening, and local poet/genetic engineer, Sir Joshua.

The highlights of the night were performances by Q-Nice, a performance of “I Believe I Can Fly”, sung by Joshua Delk, from Cleveland School of the Arts, and a dramatic interpretation from Our Children Can Soar.

Afterward I shared a presentation of my work and talked a bit about my experience of illustrating Ruby Bridges as she took her first coura

I finally wrapped my second book, A PLACE WHERE HURRICANES HAPPEN by Renee Watson. It debuts this June with Random House. In the meantime, I will be making two appearances in November.

On November 12th, the Cleveland Public Library is graciously hosting an exhibition of the original artwork for OUR CHILDREN CAN SOAR, which was published with BloomsburyUSA. They have invited me to be a part of the opening exhibition and to talk about my work. If you’re in Cleveland, please come by!

On November 21, I will be at the Brooklyn Museum’s Children’s Book Fair with Zetta Elliott signing copies of BIRD and OUR CHILDREN CAN SOAR

On November 23rd I will be speaking on a panel with the NCTE Annual Convention
Workshop Title: Biographies: Bringing Lives to Life
Date and Time: November 23, 2009, 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

The Baltimore Book Fair was a great success! I had a chance to see some old friends, meet a few new little people and share my love of books and drawings. The best part of the day was when, while illustrating on stage with a few kids, I needed to draw a road. I drew two lines diminishing to a single vanishing point (art lingo for those in the know ). One young girl says, “that doesn’t look like a road!”. I say “you’re right”, add dotted lines down the middle (also toward the vanishing point), after which I hear a loud “that’s so AWESOME!” from a young artist (who informed me that he draws in a sketchbook at home earlier in the presentation).  I think it was his first perspective lesson. . . mind officially blown.

Thanks to Lee &  Low for arranging the visit and Heather C. (organizer and talent handler extraordinaire). For more pics check out the Flickr stream from book lover, P. Bee. Thanks Baltimore!

Hey Baltimore! Come out this Sunday to see yours truly and Zetta Elliott at the 14th annual Baltimore Book Festival. We will be presenting BIRD, Sunday, September 27th at 1:00PM. Look for us at the Children’s Bookstore Stage. Now, to find that top hat and cane….

So you may have heard me talking about this little book I wrote called THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON. It actually came out about nine days ago, on July 14th, but my Internetz went on the fritz and my laptop was all messed up and life generally Got In The Way.

But.

STELLA is finally out, yay! Feedback thus far has been the kind to put a smile on my face; Kirkus and SLJ loved it, and most of the buzz from the blogosphere has been positive. I'll post a roundup next week, and ...

Tune in tomorrow, when I announce a Very Big Contest that involves food, family, and FREE BOOKS. Yum, yay, and double yay!

Also: if you haven't had a chance to check out my lovely new web site, please do so. It was designed/executed by Little Willow of Rock the Rock, and I'm so in love with it. My last site had too many bells and whistles - this one is going to be all about content, delivered cleanly and in a nice, easy-to-read fonty fashion. There are some special features to come - you didn't think I'd forget about my soundtracks, did you? - but because of that whole life-getting-in-the-way thing, content will be rolled out slowly over the next couple of months. (And yes, I'm aware of the typos. They will be corrected, I assure you.)

FINALLY: for you local Delawareans, I'll be doing a reading/signing/Q&A/cupcake-tastic launch party for STELLA on Saturday, August 8, at 2 p.m., at the Borders in Christiana (the one by Toys R Us, not the one in the mall).  I haven't done a local bookstore reading since my first novel, BRINGING UP THE BONES, was published in 2002 (how did THAT happen?  Not the book, but the whole not-doing-a-DE-bookstore-reading-in-six-and-a-half-years thing), so I'd love to really pack the place.  (Are the cupcakes any enticement?  Because there will be, as I mentioned, cupcakes.  Hopefully in many fun, exotic flavors.)

More tomorrow .... Read the rest of this post

If you’re in Chicago this July, check me out at ALA. I will be singing with Lee and Low on July 13th and 14th.

The celebration has come and gone. We had a great turn out at the NYPL last night. My friends and family came out strong to share in my moment. Many thanks go to all committee members, the New York Public Library, and to the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation for such a wonderful honor. For those who couldn’t make it to the ceremony, here are a few pics from the night.

Dr. Deborah Pope presenting the award

my agent, Lori Nowicki and my Lee and Low family

Stain Hole, EJK author award recipient

painting the town red!

my art homies, Lauren Castillo and Taeeun Yoo

art homies part 2, Paul Hoppe, Christopher Myers, and Jonathan Bean

the lovely Zetta Elliott

it’s all about the bling

Thanks again everyone. Time to get back to work!

There are some very cool book events coming up, including an interview on C-SPAN for OUR CHILDREN CAN SOAR. If you are not on the mailing list and would like to be, e-mail me at [email protected].

Doesn't it seem as if all the cool bookstores are closing?   My favorite back in the early 2000's had been the The Book Burrow.  It'd opened right around the same time The Three Grumpies was released, so naturally I went in to introduce myself.  Laurie turned out to be a bundle of energy!  Having been a teacher, she seized the idea of carting me to all the local schools to give quicky presentations about the book, while she'd handed out fliers about her new venture.

She carried all the local authors and supported them to the extreme!  I did three signings with her and she always worked so hard to publicize them. 

The day she called to say she had to close, was one of the saddest in my writing career.

This week, I had to make a quick trip into the mall for B.  I power walked in the side entrance and rounded the corner.  There before me was a new gift shop, buuuuuuuuut the name seemed somewhat familiar.  (I'm sure you know where I'm going with this . . . )

I completely forgot about my mission for B.  I started browsing for Father's Day cards . . . was lured further into the story by an awesome selection of books . . . .  then I discovered a section of children's lit!   

I looked up, and there was Laurie behind the counter!

She's back!

Percy's Burrow is the name of her new store.  It has a 50/50 mix of beautiful gifts and amazing books. She's already lined up two authors for signings.  For you local people, you'll find it in the Auburn Mall, Auburn Maine!

Stop by and say hi  . . . tell her I sent you!

Even though October was supposed to be the busy month, November is shaking up to be even more crazy.  Between wedding plans, signings, work travel, and three bar mitzvahs, I'm seriously scheduled.

Take a look!

Nov 6 (TONIGHT):  New Voices Reading at the Dartmouth Bookstore, Hanover, NH.  I'll be reading with ACE Bauer, Heather Tomlinson, Carrie Jones, Jo Knowles, and Greg Fishbone!

Nov 7:  We do it again at THE FLYING PIG, Elizabeth Bluemle's amazing bookstore in Essex, VT!!!  And she is bringing PIZZA!!!

NCTE goings on:  I'll be signing at the ROARING BROOK PRESS booth at 3pm on Saturday, Nov 18.  Prior to that, come hear an interesting lecture on Teaching with a Social Conscience.  

And on Sunday, Nov 19, I'll be wearing all three of my hats: writer, sales person, and consumer, in a lecture, "It's not what your publisher can do for you, but what you can do for your publisher," at the JEWISH CHILDREN'S WRITERS BOOK CONFERENCE at the 92nd St Y!  (If I didn't have a podium, I would have worn all my different SHOES....)

Dec 11-17: I'll be working the floor at the URJ Biennial in San Diego.  I have free time on Friday night and Saturday, so if anyone out there would like to talk books, please let me know!

OTHER FYI's:

Know a great DJ in Portsmouth, NH?  Please let me know.

This week, the official planning for the 4th (where does the time go) Novel Writing Retreat at Vermont College begins..
So mark your calendars:  May 16-18.  

Get FREE copies of HEAD CASE!  Check out Book Chic on myspace or TeensReadToo for info!

And last: here is E's sermon!  I think it is awesome.  Enjoy the day!

Abraham’s binding of Isaac is one of the most confusing and discussed stories in the Torah.  In the parsha, God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his youngest son, to God.  Abraham does not argue with God.  He doesn’t complain one bit.  He doesn’t ask God questions.  Instead, Abraham simply follows God’s commands.  He gets Isaac and takes him alone up the mountain.  The only thing he says to God is Hineini—Here I am.  Isaac asks where is the sacrifice.  When Abraham says, “God will provide,” Isaac goes along.  Without any argument, he follows his father up the mountain to be sacrificed to God.

It makes no sense.  God had told Abraham that he would found a whole generation—how could you do this if your only child was dead?  Abraham was already old—too old to have another son.  What kind of father would kill his own son?  What kind of son would walk up the hill knowing that he was going to be killed by his father?

It seems wrong, but no one says anything.

In the end, it works out.  A messenger of God stops Abraham from sacrificing Isaac.  A ram appears and Abraham sacrifices the animal instead of Isaac to God.

          I think Abraham must have felt extremely sad and scared.  He loved God, but he was Isaac’s father.  He had already sent his other son, Ishmael, away.  How could God ask him to do this?  How could God have thought that Abraham would do it?  God was not being fair.  He was asking something completely unreasonable.  It’s like they were both daring the other and neither one of them would back down.

          Do you think God wanted Abraham to back down?

          Do you think Abraham wanted God to back down?

          Luckily for us, the angel stopped Abraham.  I have a theory about this.  I think Sarah was the Angel.  Although we can’t know this for sure, I bet Abraham told his wife what he had been asked to do.  Or maybe God talked to Sarah.  We know that Sarah is dead when Abraham returns.  I think she died during the Akeda and rescued her son. 

          Moms do a lot of things to help their children.  Even in Harry Potter, Harry stays alive thanks to the magic of his mother’s love.  The only way Sarah could convince Abraham not to be obedient was to become a messenger of God—an angel.

          I think Abraham was a bit too obedient.  It’s good to be obedient, but not obedient enough to kill someone.  I think he took it too far, and that he was lucky that the Angel showed up.  I think the Torah is telling us that it’s dangerous to always just say yes. 

          I try to live by the rules.  I like rules, because without them, we would be disorganized.  I would be disorganized.  But sometimes, the rules are hard to follow.  Sometimes, they need to be challenged.  No one likes to admit they made a mistake, but sometimes we have to.  I think this parsha shows that God is okay with that.

          When you’re becoming a bar mitzvah, there are a lot of rules.  There are a lot of things you have to practice.  And you can’t always do what you want to do.  But you get a lot of joy from being part of the community and getting the task done.  When you get a bar mitzvah, you also earn the responsibility to ask questions.    

          I would like to thank:

          My mom and dad

          The rabbi

          All my teachers

          My sister, Michael and my entire family

          Everyone who came to share this day with me.

1)
The signing at The Novel Experience went very well, as signings go. I've done some where almost no one comes and I only sell copies of the book to the store. This was much better.

It was a lovely day and the streets were crowded with tourists. Jim gave me the little alcove outside the store, and I brought all my characters and I set them up on the table and chairs.

At first no one stopped at all, even though I think the display was attractive with all the little people and Magellan himself. But people walked right by without a sideways glance. I guess they were all on their way somewhere else?

Half an hour in, the friends I'd invited and some others who happened by arrived. Pretty soon the little table was surrounded. People on the street were suddenly interested. Lots of people took the book club brochure, and I sold and signed several copies.

When the crowd finally thinned, I started approaching families with kids the right age asking, "Would you like to meet the characters from my new book?" That worked very well. More books went.

All in all, it was good, very good. Next time I'm going to wear more comfortable shoes though. What on earth made me think my feet should look good for a book-signing?

2)
On the very same day that Google called Tom to order many thousands of little chocolate coins with the Google logo imprinted on them, Journey to Mythaca turned up on Google Books.

Actress Helena Bonham Carter has been giving a string of new interviews recently, the latest found the Sunday Herald where she discusses her role as Bellatrix Lestrange in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Noting the... Read the rest of this post

Helena Bonham Carter appeared on the Friday Night with Jonathan Ross program which aired tonight in the U.K. TLC reader Sarah writes that the actress spoke briefly about her role as the Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange in the upcoming Harry... Read the rest of this post