Tim Wu, co-author of Who Controls the Internet, has been very busy lately. He has been writing up a storm on everything from AT&T to J. K. Rowling. Check out his articles below.
On Slate Wu writes about AT&T’s proposal to filter the internet:
“AT&T would immediately become the world’s largest target for copyright infringement lawsuits.”
Also on Slate, Wu answers the question: Is the Rowling copywright lawsuit within her rights? (more…)
Share This
I am so excited about Mickey Edwards and Judith Luna’s articles today that I almost don’t want to post my links of the week. I want you to stay on the blog and read all the great content we had this week. Seriously, how often do I get to post Philip Pullman, John L. Esposito and Patricia Aufderheide in one week! Okay, enough gloating. Links are below but please think twice before clicking away.
Can you help the New Yorker redesign Eustace Tilley?
Will you watch the Golden Globes press conference?
Gloria Steinem’s now famous Hillary crying op-ed. Slate’s snarky response. (more…)
Share This
What's the best way to finish your book? Drunk in a roach motel or handcuffed to a day-planner?
Over at Urban Muse, writing guru Kelly L. Stone advises writers to apply fanatical care to the business of writing; planning their schedules with an iron spreadsheet.
After interviewing over one hundred writers, she concluded these techniques work the best: "setting a writing schedule, adhering to that writing schedule under all circumstances barring illness and true emergencies, creating deadlines for getting the various stages of their projects completed, using some type of “quota” system to ensure that they complete their work consistently."
On the other end of the writing scale, Slate's Jack Shafer blasts all writers who adhere to such rigid codes. His essay touches the messy corners of every writer's brain, explaining "Why Booze and Cigarettes Are Essential for Good Journalism": "journalists identify with larger-than-life personalities, because that's how they see themselves. Deny the journalist his self-image as a rule-bending individualist and you might as well replace him with a typist."
I'm an ex-smoker who can drink Scotch like a hardboiled hero, but without an inner typist I'd never get through my next draft. Still, whenever my inner typist wrestles my inner hardboiled hero, the hero usually wins. That's why I'm still plowing through the billionth draft of my novel.
Who do you believe, the hardboiled hero or the boring typist? Are you stumbling madly through your book or are you following a time-clock?
I don’t know about you, but my worst nightmare is more along the lines of someone vomiting (or worse!) in the overnight book drop, but Slate has an article about Yahoo Answers and how librarians hate it. Of course the writer doesn’t seem to have talked to any librarians, he just likes to rail against the wisdom of crowds — with some valid points, certainly — and make fun of stupid answers on YA which is of coruse the opposite of what any decent librarian would do. There is a lively back and forth in the disucssion section which is hard to follow and hard to find but if the topic is as near and dear to your heart as it is to mine, I suggest you dig it out. I commented. [thanks alexandra]
Below is an article by Author Mayra Calvani. (I am illustrating a children's picture book written by Mayra)
This is Mayra's blog-tour stop on my blog.
For anyone who leaves a comment, she will be giving away a $20.00 Amazon gift certificate on Christmas day to the winner of a drawing if you leave a post after you have read the article.
On the Author/Illustrator Relationship…
By Mayra Calvani
For most authors, working with an illustrator for a picture book can be a thrilling yet stressful experience. Having created the imaginary world in their stories, authors often wonder whether or not the artist will be able to grasp the essence of the setting and characters—not only physically, but tone-wise as well. After all, it is up to the artist to bring the story visually to life. Sometimes the artist may have a different idea for the artwork than the author, and this can create problems.
When working with the big publishing houses, authors hardly have any saying as far as the artwork goes. The art department assigns the illustrator who they think will be better suitable for the book, and that’s that. With small presses, the author has more influence in the matter and often authors and illustrators work side by side. This, by the way, doesn’t necessarily lead to a better book. It’s okay for the author to indicate her vision for the book, but it’s also important to allow the artist to be creative and do her part. Likewise, an illustrator should keep in mind the author’s vision for the illustrations. Mutual respect and communication are essential in any relationship, and for authors and illustrators working together this is no exception.
Of course, an author has the most control over the artwork when she hires an artist for a self publishing project. This is how I found Amy Moreno. Initially I was planning to self publish my children’s picture book, The Doll Violinist. I had sent it out to dozens of agents and publishers, without success. I got some good comments on it, but apparently the editors and agents found the story’s tone too ‘quiet’. Nevertheless, I had faith in my project and set out to find the right illustrator for it. My plan was to keep submitting while the artwork was being done, and in the event that I didn’t have a publisher by the time it was finished, then I would publish it myself.
But to go back to Amy … I spent about three months searching online, studying illustrator’s styles and querying the ones whose work I liked to learn about their fees and work schedules. I found Amy via ChildrensIllustrators.com (http://www2.childrensillustrators.com/illustrator.cgi/art4kidsbooks/). I believe in the sixth sense, and I instantly felt a connection to Amy’s beautiful illustrations and renderings. I got in contact with her. To make a long story short, I sent her The Doll Violinist and she loved it. Amy’s background in music and the cello was a huge plus, as I really wanted someone who would understand the musical aspect of the story. After I described her what I was after and we exchanged ideas, I asked her to send me a sample illustration, which she did. When I saw it, I was spellbound—in that single black & white drawing, she had perfectly captured the essence of the story. This was in the fall of 2006. She’s still working on the illustrations, 24 in all, and in the meantime I have been sending off the story and sample artwork to various publishers. The Doll Violinist won an Honorable Mention Award at the Writer’s Digest Writing Competition and was one of 12 finalists this year at the ABC’s Children’s Picture Book Competition, so I’m still hoping that it will catch the attention of a publisher. Working with Amy has been a thrilling and rewarding experience as we see the story, setting and characters come to life. Since the story takes place in Victorian Europe, Amy has done a tremendous amount of research for the fashions and architecture of the time. She spent a long time studying the postures of violinists and even bought a violin so she could get the violin illustrations perfectly right! Thanks to her skill and vision, I know the book will turn out a beautiful product, whether traditionally or self published.
In the case of The Magic Violin, however, it was my publisher, Lynda Burch of Guardian Angel Publishing, who assigned the artist, though she asked my opinion before a decision was made. As soon as I saw K.C. Snider’s website (http://www.olaharts.com/kcsnider.html, or http://www.portfolios.com/profile.html?MyUrl=KCSnider) I was very impressed by her drawing and paintings, especially of horses, which are her specialty. So I accepted her suggestion to have K.C. illustrate my book. K.C. was wonderful to work with, even though I made a few mistakes initially. For one thing, I didn’t give her enough information about the setting and especially about the correct postures for a violinist. This created some delay as I found errors in the artwork which had to be fixed. I blame myself for this. If I had spent more time communicating, I would have made both our lives a little easier. She was very open to suggestions and wanted me to be happy with the result, so I’m really grateful to her for that. Part of the reason for this lack of communication was my hectic schedule, so this has been a valuable lesson—to always give my writing projects 100% of my attention. Fortunately, I’m happy with the results and especially with the cover. I think K.C. captured something special and even magical in that cover.
Every children’s picture book is an adventure and I can’t wait to dive into the next one. Finding the right illustrator can be difficult, but once you do, it’s really a worthwhile and exciting experience. The secret? Mutual respect and communication.
http://www.mayracalvani.com http://www.thedarkphantom.wordpress.com http://www.mayrassecretbookcase.com
http://www.violinandbooks.com
http://www.thefountainpennewsletter.blogspot.com
And also: congratulations, Melissa, on being one of the bloggers linked-to from Slate's coverage of the "Hipper Brand of Shushers" kerfuffle (scroll down, we're at the very bottom of the page). We have a love-hate relationship with Slate here at Pop, largely due to their consistently wrong-headed approach to literature for children & teens. This, however, qualifies as a true love moment. Thanks to Sonia Smith for choosing to highlight Melissa's post, and happy almost birthday, Issa!
Take a look at this Slate article about The Secret Agent. What do you think Conrad was saying about the interaction between government and terrorists?
Share This
I would have responded to you over there, but my life is too short to grapple with their system (especially seeing as I’d have to register as well).
To reply here: AskMe is populated by smart people like you (and occasionally me). Whereas Yahoo Answers isn’t ;-).
That was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but seriously: YA is pretty bad for factual questions - my favourite example was the ‘what’s the capital of Nigeria?’ question, where people kept answering (and voting up) “Lagos”, even after other people had said “it used to be Lagos, it isn’t anymore, here’s a link to [CIA Factbook/WP/etc] to confirm it”.
You do make some good points about the social type questions, the ones that don’t have a simple factual answer. Even then, YA seems to have short and not often useful answers, though. I’m hugely passionate about the power of online communities to help meet people’s information needs; I just don’t think that YA is very successful at doing so (whereas AskMe, and some sites I’m involved in, are).
This has nothing to do with Yahoo Answers and more about your worst nightmare. I worked at the library of a big football university and we would have to lock up our outside book drops on game weekends because people would use them as toilets. It was very sad and very stinky.
[…] jonathanldavis wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI’m hugely passionate about the power of online communities to help meet people’s information needs; I just don’t think that YA is very successful at doing so (whereas AskMe, and some sites I’m involved in, are). […]
Today’s “Shelf Check” imagines some worse librarian nightmares: http://shelfcheck.blogspot.com/2007/12/shelf-check.html .
Thanks for the post. I signed up for Yahoo Answers and am now answering questions, mostly in Words & Wordplay, Quotations, and Books (whatever the heading is.) A few observations after my few days at the site:
Many of those questions could be answered doing a websearch. I’m not sure why those posting don’t do that. Of course, the spelling on many questions is atrocious, so that may have kept them from finding what they wanted.
Many of the questions could be handled by a phone call to a library.
I guess it’s a sign of progress that students are asking for someone to do their homework, rather than having a parent go to the library to do it for them ….