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You're right -- it does take up a lot of time and much of it can be wasted. Speaking from experience on that one. However, it's also allowed me to find some very old friends that I totally lost contact with. These used to be good friends that I actually went out and did stuff together with. Marriages, jobs, kids, and so forth pulled us all in different directions. So for that social side of it, I'm thankful for FB. Business-wise, a lot of these old friends had no idea I was writing children's books. So, if anything comes from that, then it will just be an added bonus. :)

Thanks Rena. Your comment rings true, mate. Good luck with the business side of it coming good.

Manuscript Critiques - My Books!
http://www.margotfinke.com
http://margotfinke.blogspot.com/
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BUY any Autographed Book from my website, and
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Amen. Well said Margot. I'm involved with social networking too, but not as much as I use to. Trying to concentrate on my writing instead...I'm in a much better mood when I get accomplished my goal of the day.

Warmly,
Donna
www.donna-mcdine.blogspot.com

Thanks for the input Donna. I was a bit scared that some would jump on me for this Rant - Twittering etc is almost a religion with some people.

http://www.margotfinke.com
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FREE: Link to me reading any Autographed
picture book you BUY from my website.

It's not a religion for me, but I love the way twitter has brought me some great links. Whether it brings enough positives to justify the time spent, I just don't know. But I have that suspicion about many promotional ideas urged on writers, to tell you the truth!

Thanks Book Chook - love that name!! Few here in the US have a clue about what it means.

I just think that so many of us
Tweet and go on Facebook etc, that these days only the famous, and the infamous hot posts, really get noticed.

I am still working on something that will make me HOT and infamous. . .!!!

http://www.margotfinke.com
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BUY any Autographed Book from my website, and
receive a FREE LINK to me READING that story!
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And this is why I am not on MySpace, Twitter or Facebook anymore. :)

Jenna Kay, you've become a purist, have you? Good for you. I love computers, but if you don't watch out, the new technology will steal your whole life!!

http://www.margotfinke.com
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BUY any Autographed Book from my website, and
receive a FREE LINK to me READING that story.

Yes, yes and yes again - nothing more that I can really add!

I agree, Margot. This social networking can be a curse. And, I joined Twitter and Facebook for business also. I do really limit it though. What I find has my time being sucked into a black hole is reading all the information about writing and marketing and building a business.

I have to say, I have found some great info from links on Twitter.

Karen

Thanks Absolute Vanila. I love a YES woman - especially when she is agreeing with ME!!

http://www.margotfinke.com
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
BUY any Autographed Book from my website, and
receive a FREE LINK to me READING that story!

Karen and Robyn, thanks for the thoughtful comment. I agree, there can be helpful contacts: you just have to put limits on your participation.

Like your comment and my reply to it, they only take a few minutes from each of us, but multiply those minutes, and your writing day soon disappears.

http://www.margotfinke.com
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
BUY any Autographed Book from my website, and
receive a FREE LINK to me READING that story!

I joined Twitter and Facebook before I knew too much about them. I DON'T Twitter. It's dumb and who in the world really cares what I am doing?

FaceBook, on the other hand, has actually let a few people "find" me that are old friends or relatives but we've lost each other's email addresses. It's a place to plop a few photos for friends and family to take a peek at -- without the annual fees the photosites want to charge and the limitations on using your own photos in blogs etc without actually linking back to them at the photo site.

However, if I ever gain a "tribe" of followers who really give a darn about what I am doing, then I'll find a way to keep them informed that "works" ... and I doubt it will be via Twitter or one of those type places ...

One more "little" comment -- about the widgets we're told are so important to have.
Two widgets I was told were important to have so that people would stay at MY site and not go somewhere else --
a google search box and a news feed.

Uh? On a blog for writing? On an art blog? People don't come to me for news. And if they want to search, most have a search toolbar on the browser now -- and many times that will just open up a new tab and leave my site open still. Two more time wasters -- finding the widget and installing it -- and then taking up "precious real estate" on the blog page that would be better "spent" on things related to the topic of the blog or website.

So to add to your "rant" -- BEWARE the experts who tell you that certain things are absolutely necessary. Beware of "experts" of all kinds who seem to be echoing the other "experts" out there on how to run a web site or web business. They are in the business of selling their "expertise" and not really in the business of helping you sell yours.

My rant-add-on is done.

SuseADoodle, thanks for your insights. This topic has hit a blogging nerve. Everyone seems to have an opinion - either for or against.

I think a lot depends on your needs, what you want to promote, and the time you are willing to spend on-line to reach that goal.

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BUY any Autographed Book from my website, and
receive a FREE LINK to me READING that story!

Oh yes, beware the Internet EXPERT.
People seem to think if is on the Internet it must be true! At one time, way back in the dark ages, it was newspapers that had this dubious honor.

It is so easy now, to set up a blog or a Website, and declare yourself an EXPERT. As for Widgets, and the other enhancements places like Google and Feedburner say you must have, to make your Blog readable by thousands - I find them quite confusing. But they sure clutter that side panel on your Blog.

Manuscript Critiques - My Books!
http://www.margotfinke.com
http://margotfinke.blogspot.com/
---------------------------------
"Ruthie and the Hippo's Fat Behind" -
Coming . . . SOON.

I have twitter and use it to post once or twice a week. I have facebook and jacketflap. Will they help? I don't know, I don't use them like I am 'Supposed to'.

I am considered an expert on computers and websites. Ok, that being the case, I help when asked, for free.

I lose time on beading, yet it frees my mind to come up with more crazy short stories, my primary source of writing. Thankfully it only takes a word or two to trigger another story or Amanda story.

Good rant, I can see getting carried away easily.

Thanks Unwriter. You have the right idea, mate - don't get too drawn into this social networking craze.

http://www.margotfinke.com
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"Ruthie and the Hippo's Fat Behind" Coming . . . SOON.

I'm sorry, but I can't help saying "You go girlfriend!"
I agree, I agree, I agree. I love books with male and female protagonists, if only there was more balance when it comes to awards.

It's an interesting phenomenon and one that I really only began to notice once it had been pointed out to me (10 years or so ago).

There's a possibility that I hadn't really noticed the discrepancy for so long because I'm a boy, but I suspect it has more to do with the fact that the same thing occurs everywhere (film, television, politics, work) and that having a female protagonist (PM, CEO) is so unusual that it warrants special comment, instantly reducing it to a niche category (however unfair that may be). And this catergorisation automatically makes people feel like it's some sort of 'girly' book/film/PM.

Because of this, I then tend to wonder if maybe I genuinely DO enjoy books with male protagonists more as they don't carry those connotations. But when I actually think about it, that's not the case at all.

When I was reading this post, I tried to conjur up the books that have stuck with me the most and just assumed that they would have male protagonists for the reasons outlined above. But the first ones that came to mind were: Merryl of the Stones (I don't have a great memory for books I read a long time ago, so this is a big one); Margot Lanagan's Tender Morsels; and, in fact Scatterheart (and that's not a clumsy attempt at flattery, it's for reals (though possibly tainted by the fact I'm reading your blog)).

I don't enjoy books with male protagonists more, in fact I think I would go so far as to say I enjoy them less. So why principal female characters continue to be underrepresented in literary awards is a mystery to me.

My only guess is that it has less to do with the 'type' of story (emotion v action) and more to do with the niche thing: the feeling that a female protagonised (?) book/film doesn't fit into the 'normal' male-dominated world.

Whatever the reason, it sucks.

I'll stop talking now.

All most excellent points, Tom! (and thanks for the flattery!)

Susan Johnson wrote about this a while ago on the Sarsaparilla blog. I think her point was rather than emotional/active that the didactic at work had to do with the personal/political, private/public thing. Eg books by or about women are all about the personal, the intimate, the interior, the subjective and therefore are not world breaking. Books by or about blokes are about Important, earthchanging things. The political, the public, the exterior, the social, the sphere of objective truths.

Honestly, if a woman had written The Slap do you reckon it would have been shortlisted? It would be considered good quality Chick Lit, not award winning literature. And I'm not saying this to be mean, I adored it.

I know that people have had trouble with the whole der it's fiction even if the character has the same name as the author and it's a novel even if it is short, but where the freak is The Spare Room on the Miles Franklin list (I don't think it was even longlisted)? To me that's absolute proof that the problem is not with the books themselves but with the judges and the whole way we look at fiction. Because The Spare Room is pretty much a perfect book. It's highly subjective, so personal you can hear its voice quavering, and yet it's the best writing from one of our best writers. How can it not even be shortlisted?

As for the CBCA. Quiet humph. That is all.

Hey Lili. It’s hard for me to comment and not to comment because Finnikin is on the CBC list and books like Everything Beautiful, which I loved loved loved , isn’t and I wish it was. In no way have I felt that the blog dialogue has been an attack on any of the novels that made the shortlist and I feel that it’s been respectfully dealt with, by most.

But I think some of the points you’ve made raise big problem for us as writers, especially in wanting to write a book about girls, but from a boy’s point of view. Writing from a boy’s point of view doesn’t mean that we can’t still be writing about “spunky girls being awesome”. I agree that awards shouldn't determine the direction we take in our stories and we can say ‘awards be damned’, but in the end it still means that by not doing what we set out to do (writing a book about girls from a boy’s point of view) an award shortlist is still navigating our work.

We know as writers that characters hound you, stalk you, wake you up at 3 in the morning demanding that you write about them. Deep down, I want mine to be female because I do believe there is too much focus on boys’ education and stories for boys and boys at risk and because the absence of women, or strong female representation, in Australian television and film has reached a frightening high. But when those pesky characters who come hounding me aren’t girls, I don’t want to send them away. Ultimately, I know the focus of my novel is going to be about how these young men are going to be shaped by the women in their lives. I’d like to think that although Finnikin of the Rock has a male protagonist, the story belongs just as much to Evanjalin of the Monts and I hope that the reader can see it’s a story about the power of women and their role in the emotional, political and cultural development of their community. In my next novel a father and son share the title, The Piper’s Son, but for me, it’s a story about the women in Tom’s life working with him through a time of intense grief.
I know what I’m saying doesn’t solve the problem of why there aren’t more novels with primary female protagonists on our shortlists, or even about the absence of female writers on the Miles Franklin, but I worry about how all this will affect how we tell our stories.
M

It is ironic that while male writers are being told to target female readers because "boys don't read" this bias towards male protagonists exists.

I am also astounded that so many of those whose work is honoured by these awards do no support the CBCA with membership.

Congratulations to all the authors and illustrators who made "the lists" this year.

Hi Lewis,
I like your blog very much! I'm one of those people who drinks one of the endless varieties of coffee lattes.:) Also, though I don't like vampires, I love the title of your book.:) My favorite color is red, but obviously not the blood kind.:)

I would love to host you on my blog for the book's opening. Let's talk about it. Send me a message.

With all the disclaimers at the end of the article, it sounds like they haven't really discovered much at all. But I wouldn't tell the husband and discourage all the cleaning!

Lili,

A wonderful rant. Made me think of all those nights I spent huddled over the ducted heating with an X-Men comic in my hands and a look of total absorption plastered on my twelve year old face. I dined on servings of comics and pulp fiction (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E Howard...) and all the while my palate was being prepared for whatever was next. I eventually went on to teach Shakespeare to senior students which probably earns me some credibility in somebody's eyes, but that's not the thing. What's important is I was permitted to read whatever I could find and that freedom to choose my reading matter without any conditions placed upon the medium encouraged my appetite.

Nothing has changed for today's kids except the menu is considerably longer and more diverse. Not only can they read online, on iPods, Kindles, phones etc. but they can also easily produce their own works and deliver them to a massive audience. Today's kids can also be involved in a new sort of critical literacy via the crucible of debate that messageboards give rise to, and in expressing their point of view, they grow as writers, readers and communicators, contributing to - as you say - the story machine. (I wonder if Dana Gioia has ever put forth her views in that context?)

Oh dear. I've ranted too.

Thanks - a most enjoyable post.

Thank you for this post! It is excellent and rational.

Rohan

I attended a seminar a little while back at which the presenter (whose name I can't remember) said, "a book is just a prop for telling a story".

As are so many other things, as you mentioned.

Wonderful post, thank you.

This is an excellent piece of rantology.

I think it is really lucky that we have people like you, ones with a 'profile' (ooh-er), standing up and saying this kind of thing, because there are an awful lot of loud-voiced gibbons out there who just. don't. get it. We need to hear more from the likes of you and less from the likes of them.

Wonderful post. The writer of the New York Times conveniently forgot that stories were once passed around by bards and storytellers--a decidedly oral tradition and not a writen one. As you said, feeding the story comes from many sources and we stifle creativity if we limit it to only one.

spends several paragraphs pointing out that some fanfic has lots of spelling mistakes

In my experience as an editor, I can tell you that lots of 'real' writers can't spell either. But that doesn't make their writing any less brilliant.

And the rest of the article: daft.

Your post: spot on.

I agree with you, the article was ignorant, at best, and ignored the core element of love for story.

It seems the people bemoaning the state of reading and technology are the same ones who use technology (like Leapfrog 'self-reading' books or the 'jump-start' video games) in place of actually sitting and reading to children. Or sitting and talking with a child/young person about their story choices (I like fantasy novels, but not every single one ever written).
KP

By the way--
Tag. I hope you'll play Eight Random Things blog tag with us, because you are interesting. Click on my link for more info.
Thanks,
KP

Hmm... I generally don't like reading poetry in its raw textual form.

BUT I really really enjoy watching a performance of poetry. Having a human voice and body that connects the poetry to its audience, and adds layers of interpretation and emotion through performance, really can bring out the magic in poetry.

(Of course, it still won't rescue crap poetry from being crap poetry, or performance poets from sometimes being incredibly pretentious.)

Hi Lili,

Have recently discovered your blog!

Had to comment, because poetry is such a big passion of mine.

Attended a poetry workshop with Dorothy Porter and she said that no young poet should publish their first 'book' of poetry - instead should sit on it a while, mature, pick at it later and decide if it is worth publishing. She argued the field of 'poetry' is in a bad way because people self-publish too early, before they blossom.

It's such a hard thing - I've written poetry since I was 8, almost every day. Possibly thousands of pages worth (all backed up on a memory stick). Sometimes I don't even care if all it amounts to is self expression, unread by others.

Sometimes, I want to improve and improve to be a 'good' poet (whatever that is - presumably the 'blossoming' Dorothy Porter mentioned).

Poetry is taught in schools, and some people pick it up as a form of self-expression (just like some people jump on painting, or writing, or singing). So, people learn the mechanics of writing it but it doesn't transcend the 'words'.

My family and friends always say "i don't get poetry". It is greatest thing in my life!!

Lilli,

Mind if I ask you a few questions about being a YA fiction author? Is there an e-mail address I can use? I'm a high school history teacher trying to put together something that is half gold rush history lesson, half tragic love story, half terrifying ghost story. As you can see, that's a lot to try to bash together.

Cheers,

Mike Stuchbery

sure, mike! you can find me at liliATliliwilkinson.com

I read your post on poetry
And mostly I agree.
I like the poems that never rhyme;
The ones that do feel twee.

Now Herrick is an odd one
His work reads just like prose
That's been sliced up with hard returns;
I don't think much of those.

And yet to hear him reading
To a thousand, maybe two
Is to hear a poet, pure and real
The kind that makes a person feel
That they could do it too.

But most of us can't.

i usually just say i like good poetry, and i don't like bad poetry. as to which is which...

Hallelujah sister.

first of all, I agree.
Secondly, I have learnt that I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, ever since I read a book when I was 11, that had horse poo on the cover, but in a little bubble said "do you judge a book by its cover?". It was a really great book...
So, now I judge a book by its title, which is essentially on the cover, but blurbs are evil and misleading, and well, the 'Horse Apples' book knows all.

You are wrong Lili, you are wrong, wrong, wrong. Monterey Pines have only recently become available in Qld. We usually only have Radiata (?) pines which are pretty spindly and always have branches sticking out where they shouldn't. When my sister got a Monterey pine last year it was the first time in my life I actually saw a Christmas tree that looked like a real Christmas tree. I'll admit those other pines are impressive, but in choice starved Queensland the Monterey rules!

Okay...I'm not an expert in the publishing industry as of yet. But I am a techie, and, as a techie, I've been wondering in what ways the internet and technical advancement will change the way books are published and presented.

I don't know about you, but I'm reading more and more from my computer screen. I'm not actually reading novels from my laptop, but I'm reading a fair amount of short fiction and tons of non-fiction from my internet connection. Not only that, but I'm ordering books from Amazon more than anyplace else these days, since they can supply everything in print and lots of things that aren't. And all of my local book sellers are out of business. Oh, I will go to Elliot Bay Books in Seattle or 3rd Place Books. But my Totum bookstore in Monroe closed its doors last year, and I've been hitting that evil "Buy Now With 1 Click" button more than I care to admit. Amazon has gotten practically all of my book and music buying business these days. If you want to make me feel guilty about it, don't. I fully realize what my consumer practices do to the little guy.

Anyway, the point is that I'm using technology more and more to acquire books and music. If I want to find something like a short story by John Cheever or the lyrics to a song sung by Petula Clark, I can find 'em through Google. If I'm doing research, I can search databases my local library subscribes to from my computer at home. I can even access the articles and print them out.

Speaking of Google, the folks at Google have embarked on a Library Project. The goals of the project are as follows:

The Library Project's aim is simple: make it easier for people to find relevant books – specifically, books they wouldn't find any other way such as those that are out of print – while carefully respecting authors' and publishers' copyrights. Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers discover new readers.

Is the penny about to drop yet? How about this:

If the book is out of copyright, you’ll be able to view and download the entire book. In all cases, you'll see links directing you to online bookstores where you can buy the book and libraries where you can borrow it.

Now, think the words, Print On Demand...yes, Print On Demand...POD, POD....

So, if the book was first published by S&S, it will never go out of copyright, right? You may be able to borrow it for free from a library, but you'll never be able to download it for free.

So, who benefits here if the book publisher never relinquishes the rights? Just the publishing house? What about the writer who would not get any royalties for a book which is being freely distributed through Google's library? It's not just Print On Demand, it's Download On Demand.

There are so many implications here, and I haven't thought them all through. I'm just blathering here, but my mind is all over this. What if a book, Tammy's Tasty Chocolate Syrup Sculpting Book, went out of print and became a downloadable free, public domain book through the Google library. Tammy spent her $5000 advance several years ago, and S&S doesn't even remember that they published the dang thing. Then, Archie Ballinger, the famous fetish sculptor and confection enthusiast mentions Tammy's book on his enthralling reality sculpting TV program and 3,475,219 people download the book from the Google library for free. S&S doesn't know about the potential money it could have made through print copies, let alone by offering it as an internet download. But it's scratching its head, wondering how to maximize its profits. In the meantime, Tammy has pawned her candy thermometer to buy catfood.

Alternately, S&S retained rights to the work, so, when Archie becomes the tipping point for this work, S&S can offer downloads of the book for a price. They don't sell as many copies as were downloaded in the free scenario, but they make a profit and Tammy experiences an unexpected windfall.

Okay...that's just one scenario. I know there are all kinds of things I haven't considered. And maybe I'm way off base and am missing the whole point. But we be living in interesting times. Yes, indeedy.