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Oh, I would certainly join a Patricia McKillip appreciation week! You're right about her books and their loveliness and the wanting to hold onto it until the right moment-ness. I got her latest, a collection of short stories, at Christmas, and haven't cracked the cover yet.

(all that said, i liked this one but didn't love it with the fervor that i felt for... say... The Bell at Sealey Head or Alphabet of Thorn)

I'd join the McKillip fan club. Have you ever read THE ALPHABET OF THORN??? Oh, my stars. Good stuff.

This was indeed a very lovely one, and I felt a bit of a return to form for her. I especially enjoyed her take on the time period, which is different from anything else I remember of hers.

And YES on the appreciation week! Which I think I've already said, but sometimes my memory goes wonky.

Yes, I thought the same viz return to form! Now my only unread book of hers is The Bell At Sealy Head, which didn't work for me the first time I tried it....

All three of you will be on my list of guest post invitees!

Yeah, reading one adult fantasy a week on top of everything else is a pretty ridiculous goal (seriously, it sometimes takes me several weeks to get through an adult fantasy because I read them so much more slowly), but I'm glad your'e still enjoying your forays!

I've been wanting to read Patricia McKillip forever now, and hopefully will soon--it's always intimidating when an author has such a huge backlog! BUT the fact that this has two storylines, including an ARCHAEOLOGIST PRINCESS (my BA is in archaeology), has me pretty much convinced it needs to go somewhere near the top of my McKillip list.

Yay for archaeologist princesses! There aren't enough of them.

I think this would be a pretty good one to start with....but I generally suggest Alphabet of Thorn.

I love this line in your post:

"...it is often easier to put off reading books you know you'll love, that will wait there patiently for you to come to them..."

And I agree! It happens so many times with me. This is my first time to hear about Patricia McKillip and I can't say I'm sorry because I'm a new reader of adult fantasy. My fascination of this genre has been borne from reading a lot children and middle-grade adventure, mystery, and fantasy books... which is why I just placed a lot of McKillip books in my wishlist and promised myself another trip to the bookstore soon to look for these titles.

Lovely blog you have here! I've been following your blog for a while now.

Nancy
Simple Clockwork
www.nancycudis.com

I do so hope you enjoy meeting McKillip! She has been a favorite author of mine for thirty years!

It's true that giving books as gifts to adults can be tricky. They pretty much have settled down in their tastes. And they tend to bristle if it appears you're trying to impose your ideals on them. But with children, we adults are helping them to search out what they like and don't like. Why not give a favorite niece (or nephew) Almost Astronauts, even if she doesn't usually read nonfiction for fun. Maybe she will like it - maybe she won't. But at least you've exposed her to a new kind of reading that she might not have ventured into on her own. If she gets to page 10 and says - eh, this is not for me, that's OK. Next time I'll give her something different.

Lloyd Alexander's "The Extraordinary Journey of Prince Jen."
A wise book about a young man setting out into the word for the first time and almost getting smooshed by it. A gentle reminder that a diploma doesn't mean you know everything there is to know.

Personally, I want to give every teen-ager in the world a copy of *Lions and Shadows,* by Christopher Isherwood. It seems to me the ultimate book about the deadly seriousness and importance of both friendship and self-absorption at that age.

But I'm weird.

The problem with getting adults books is to find one that they'd like that they haven't already gotten for themselves.

Oh, agreed, choosing gift books is so hard! I'm confident with one my sisters, who tends to love what I love, and with my Dad, because some books just call out his name to me. And my baby twin nieces are pretty easy to buy board books for :). But beyond that, I'm often helpless. Makes me wonder about the complicated algorithms Amazon and Netflix and so on use to recommend titles.

The best gift book I recieved after my high school graduation was a brand new dictionary - with $1000 inside. I still have the dictionary; wish I could say the same about the cash.

A Mother's Gift: Probably not the kind of answer you're looking for--but I'll share anyway.

I wanted to give my daughter something special when she graduated from high school. I decided to make her a memory book of her life from the day of her birth through her senior year. It included her birth certificate, some birthday/greeting cards she had received from friends and relatives over the years, photographs, and poems—some of which I wrote myself. I divided the memory book into sections: the day of her birth and her first days at home, her christening, her birthday parties, holiday gatherings, relatives, her reading with her dad and me and some favorite childhood books, her years at school, sports, friends, vacations, my daughter with her dad, my daughter with me. I spent a couple of months on the project--and I shed lots of tears while I was going through hundreds of photographs—and writing and selecting poems. (The memory book included poetry by Naomi Shihab Nye, Nikki Giovanni, Mary Ann Hoberman—among others.)

My daughter LOVED her gift. She showed it to every friend who came to visit at our house that summer—and she took it off to college with her.

She is thirty now, lives in her own home, and still has the memory book I made for her a dozen years ago. It is one of her most prized possessions.

Well, in Jonathan's defense, he writes about "young adult literature"; it's just the headline that reads "best young adult fiction", so unless he wrote the head, it was someone else's fail. And I think middle-grade is pretty much a professional term used by librarians and booksellers and such. To much of the general public there are "kids' books" (picture books) and "young adult".

What are you implying?

Implication is far too subtle for the likes of me.

I am reminded of the scene in the beginning of one of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries (I think GAMBIT), in which he is ripping pages out of his recently purchased third edition of Webster's Unabridged and feeding them to the flames in his fireplace. He speaks to a potential client:

"Do you use 'infer' and 'imply' interchangeably?"

She did fine. [Archie, narrating, tells us] "No."

"This book says that you may."

Archie goes on to tell the new client that Wolfe once burned a cookbook because it said to remove the skin from a ham before putting it into the pot with the lima beans.

Lyle Blake Smythers

I'm not sure why the lead reads Best YA Fiction instead of Best YA Literature. We certainly discussed this and you'll note the introduction reflects this. Since this is the only list NPR will be doing for younger readers, we wanted a range of titles for teens *and* tweens, as the introduction also acknowledges.

Jonathan

It's true, as Wendy says, the the public seems to think YA fiction is 9 or 10 and up. What I find more troubling is publishing's neglect of true middle-grade fiction, of which When You Get Here (joke) is such a terrific exemplar.

Nancy Pearl has an NPR list up that includes LIAR, GOING BOVINE, WHEN YOU REACH ME, and BUBBLE TROUBLE.

Jonathan

Yes, but it is EEEEvil and it's illustrations are in the wrong places and none of it's links to excerpts seem to work!

Thank you for this - we will fix it for paperback, scheduled for 5/10. The world needs close readers.
- Amy Sohn

This sounds wonderful! Enjoy your time there -- and I'm sure it isn't all Ben & Jerry's. Hope Buster enjoys the fireplace!

Looking forward to the information on The Christmas Truce.

There isn't even a Ben&Jerry's in Montpelier, our state capitol, any more. O, the horror.
leda

Did you mean to link to the new Notes, or are you trying to make us subscribe?

Leda, last I was in VT, people kept pulling me aside to whisper "Have you been to . . . Ben & Jerry's yet?" like it was some kind of secret state treasure. Worse, I did not get a single recommendation for anywhere else. Do those guys have some kind of socialismistic monopoly?

Anon, Notes comes out this afternoon and I won't be here to post when it does. A subscription is free and can be obtained by clicking the "sign up for newsletter" link on the right-side border.

I appreciated your points From the Editor in this issue of Notes. The nine-year-old I was would have loved to wave that paragraph in my parents' faces. Knowing the vital stats of all (at the time) seven Baby-Sitter's Club members gave me ownership and made me want to keep reading, and I can only imagine the feeling of power a similar level of knowledge gives a young fan of sci-fi or horror.

The builders of St. John the Divine left cryptic messages in the stonework—messages that come to us all the way from the 1970s!

Hmmm. Not seeing it. Scary, but not in a good way.

Just imagine Tom Hanks in flared pants hitting a secret button to reveal a hologram of L'Engle in a rosary-beaded Nehru jacket.

Perhaps someone should spearhead a marketing campaign to repackage L'Engle's books a la Jane Eyre and Twilight. As in, give them misleading Dan Brown-esque jackets and slap a "Robert Langdon's childhood inspiration" sticker on the cover or something? THAT I would love to see. ;)

Claire

She gave the Cathedral the "Dan Brown" treatment herself - The Young Unicorns.

nothing to do with Dan Brown (maybe a little to do with factoids)
Would it be possible to limit the number of times a contributor can post per day? or the length of his/her entry? this blog seems to have been taken over by LONGWINDED AND FREQUENT contributor who perhaps should set up shop on their own

Considering how often Anonymous pipes up around here, I'll certainly take it under advisement.

Dear Anon:

Perhaps it would be best to recall Virgil's admonition to Dante: "Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by."

Yours truly,
Mrs. Manners.

whar a tactful - and graceful and well-deserved - reproach from Melinda!

:) All hail Dante!!

I loved Nancy Bond's Another Shore. SUCH an ending. I don't know of another like it except perhaps Pamela Dean's Secret Country books.

Except for the ending, which I think I found a little confusing, I enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife while I was reading it. But as soon as I finished it, I didn't care anymore. Immediately. As soon as I closed the book. It was a very bizarre experience.

There was a direct correlation between liking TTTW and crying during BEACHES, and not liking TTTW and shedding nary a tear for poor dying Barbara Hershey. Robots.

Gail, I had a similar experience. It was a surprise to be so absorbed in the book while I was reading it, and then not give it another thought when I was done.

Wait, there were robots in Beaches? Maybe I'll netflick it.

I loved TTTW and hated Beaches, for what it's worth. . . . But then TTTW takes place in a city that I know and contains a lot of places and music that I like, and I suspect that those things are a lot of why it resonates to me. Set in some other context, I might well find it a bit sappy.

There were robots (or something similar) in that awful industrial number Midler did in Beaches. (I remember sitting in the back row of the Biograph Theater in Chicago with a friend and crying into our popcorn, much to the amusement of the single gentleman sitting behind us.) As for hitting yourself on the head, Roger- maybe you should stop that.

I'm afraid I stand with you on TTTW.

I'm very afraid.

Loved future Newbery winner WHEN YOU REACH ME. And loved TTTW, too, although I am dreading the movie which, nevertheless, I feel compelled to go see. I suppose if it's awful, I can time travel back to today, and skip it next time around.

Your statements about the Jane Austen Addict books remind me of my feelings for Linda Buckley-Archer's Gideon Trilogy. The first one has the typical children end old timey Britain plot (although very well done), but the second has its stirring bits when two "bad guy" characters end up in modern London.

Thank you so much for hooting derisively at The Time Traveler's Wife. I can't remember a book that pissed me off more. I nearly ruined a perfectly good vacation with that book a few years ago and I am still bitter.

TTTW was one of two books I received as birthday presents. (The other was Edgar Sawtelle.) Felt compelled to finish both, although reading them was tedious, and I gladly donated them to my local charity when I was finished.

Or adult books that aren't tedious.

I recently saw a SF trilogy where each book is 1000 pages. Yikes.

YA has some of the virtues of the pulps, momentum, excitement, and no fat.

Boy... that article's conclusion "The pedestal-mounting of YA as the saviour of modern fiction is dangerously misguided." casts the conversation in a completely different light - this isn't actually about who is reading what books, but rather about a segment of books getting credit for saving modern fiction! That's very different than the point that YA sales don't indicate that young adults are reading in abundance.

Getting back to the who is reading what issue... one question is how do you measure that? Observation in one library aside, I know teens who read avidly and guide their own purchasing decisions... though it is usually their parents who foot the bill. You can search online and find teens talking books, but that also doesn't indicate direct sales. Still, does anyone really assume that because a book is labeled YA, it's only selling to teens?

Another question is... why does it matter? Is this strictly a marketing and labeling question, or does this have repercussions outside of the business sense? Are educators relaxing because YA is selling a lot?

If this is strictly about teens reading, sales certainly aren't the only metrics we have for that. So it strikes me this is about perception... and I'm curious how it matters in the greater scheme of things.

I'm in a "teen book club" that is all adults (primarily public and school librarians) reading teen books. There's a lot of great books being written in the YA area, certainly better than what I faced at my libraries as a teen. I wouldn't recommend that it be ALL that one reads, but when that's where good books are.....

I notice that the Library of Congress (where I work) cataloged both the British edition (published in 2007) and the U.S. edition (published in 2008) as adult novels. Do you know if the title has ended up in any YA collections?

Lyle Blake Smythers

It was definitely published for adults, Lyle, but has a probably unintended boyishness to it I think kids would respond to. As a grownup reader, I was occasionally embarrassed by the plaintive earnestness of the writing but I kept thinking that as a fifteen-year-old I would have LOVED this book.

The disconnect between the book/audience you describe and the cover image could hardly be greater. The book looks it's about... tea?

Worse: it looks like it's about the memory of tea.

"Darjeeling Dawns," the looked for sequel to "Ceylon Evenings," coming this fall.

And the question I hate to ask but must, how hard do you think it is? (My boys who would like it are not the strongest readers necessarily.)

You might need to booktalk someone through the opening section, set in the present day and narrated by an old man about his present circumstances. Tell 'em it's worth it. It's not a book for "reluctant readers," but eighth-graders on up who like a challenge could get into it.

An old lady who's a martial artist--I'm so there!

Thanks for the mention, Roger. Funny, "Laika" is on my list for discussion!

I was in the same slump. I found a a Stillmeadow book by Gladys Taber while cleaning out my mother's home. It really helped me get through that sad task.

You didn't ask for recommendations, but I'm compelled to give one. I'm listening to the audiobook of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small, which is wonderfully read by Christopher Timothy, who played Herriot on the old BBC TV show. It's comfortable and non-thrilling, not to mention hysterically funny, when it isn't making me cry. Wonderful stuff!

I have Obama's Dreams from my Father lined up for after that.

As to your comment about fiction that wants to be thrilling, suspenseful, non-stop... editors routinely praise the writing, characters and choice of topics in manuscripts, then reject them as "too quiet." Perhaps it's time to question the assumption that books have to be loud to get attention.

What Anon 1:20 said, three hundred times over.

If "quiet" means there isn't a plot, then I'm with the publisher. Plot is kind of a big thing I see missing from the criteria "writing, characters, and choice of topics." But I agree that children's books in general have become louder than they need to be. Marilyn Horne said the best piece of advice she got from her father was "when you really want someone's attention, whisper."

I am so glad you are liking Father Tim! Some people don't like the slow place and lack of climate, but I adored all of those books!

I luurrrrrrrrve the Mitford books for exactly those reasons. (Plus, I'm Episcopalian.) Just don't read her picture books.

I'd also recommend (in addition to James Herriot) novels by Angela Thirkell. I found out about her years ago thanks to the A Common Reader catalog. I miss that catalog.

And reading slumps....hate those. Went through one recently and read through all the Lurlene McDaniel books I could stand. They were quite helpful.

Have you read Barbara Pym? I love her novels for the same sort of comfortableness--but in a British way. Jumble sales, vicars, spinsters, and other excellent women who prepare indexes and collect jumble for distressed gentlewomen.

Yes - "The Common Reader" catalog used to have a whole category of cozy comfort reads. I miss them, too. That's whwere I discovered Gervase Phinn. :-)

And Michael Perry's books aren't so quaint (and are non-fiction), but they give me the same sense of community and wonder.

Oh yes. Father Tim was very comforting during a stressful year of my life. In the television category, Ballykissangel does the same thing for me.

What about the Graveyard Book? It seems to have everything folks are looking for. It has an engrossing plot (stealthy murder, suspense, search for identity). It's not loud since the characters are pretty subdued (I guess it helps most of them are ghosts). And the pacing is patient not revealing major secrets until the end, and even then secrets aren't just exploded on the reader. I recall after finishing it a mixed feeling of exhilaration and relaxation. The characters took me on an enthralling ride but Gaiman's tone and style kept me interested and calm.

Quiet? Precious Ramotswe (AKA owner of the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency) does it for me.

how many Anglophilesbefore me have commented on the latent snobbery in the author's choice of MITFORD

I do find characters like Father Tim and Precious Ramotswe comfortable to return to, like old friends. I used to feel the same way about caterer Goldy Schulz in Diane Mott Davidson's culinary mysteries, but I'm having trouble getting into her latest.

I wonder if YA readers don't really want to relax into the calm and comfort of a quiet book, unlike those of us who confront real world stress and tension all too often? They may prefer to dive into a thrilling, suspenseful harum-scarum world when they read. Or perhaps YA editors want more thrills in their lives?

Plotless quiet would probably put us all to sleep, but I agree that a suspenseful whisper can be far more chilling than a rant.

Lynne Rae Perkins does it for me. I wonder what you thought of Criss Cross. I remember reading All Alone in the Universe--a book with an Utterly Predictable story arc, and a rather dull little protagonist in a conventional world-- and it was just astonishing how perfect it was. Not harum-scarum, not thrilling, not suspenseful. Perfect.

Donald Westlake's stories of Dortmunder and friends. Maybe too raucus for this genteel group, but the same rewarding consistency

Good point on the low-key reading pleasure. Such books do stay in the mind. But it's kind awkward to explain to a teenager that the pleasure of book X is that very little actually happens. What next, the collected films of Eric Rohmer?

yes to Barbara Pym, yes to Miss Read, but why not go right back to the source? ANTHONY TROLLOPE !

I dunno about The Graveyard Book as relaxing. The second time, through, sure, but there is all too much suspense and peril for a gentle first encounter. In one of my own childhood favorites, Gretchen Finletter's From the Top of the Stairs, a 1947 memoir of her childhood as a daughter of opera impresario Walter Damrosch, Finletter wrote of her own reading:

"It is difficult to analyze why a certain series becomes so popular with a child, but the ingredients that make for this success seem to be a large family, so that one can identify with a character one's own age, a day-to-day account of the characters, and great dullness. There is a fascination about dullness. It immediately eliminates competition."

For everyone who likes Barbara Pym, have you read any of her litrary executor Hazel Holt's mysteries? Very relaxing and comforting.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to lose interest in Nevada Barr. I actually discovered her books while staying in Sequoia National Park one summer--they were the only adult fiction titles the official gift shop carried! I read the first several quite happily, but the last two I read were beyond bleak into gut-churning, soul-crunching territory, in my opinion, so I avoided the newest. I do like the Number One Ladies Detective Agency, and I finally discovered Carl Hiaasen last year. But there's this feeling of anomie I've been getting lately: I look upon my stacks of new, unread books and find that they just don't seem to intrigue me like they should. (I also concur that the new Star Trek movie is a kick, yet here we are, awash in YA dystopia.)

I think that YA generally revolves around main characters in their late teens who are experiencing those "firsts" in life. First love, first loss, first... The themes are more adult than middle grade fiction and can border adult fiction, but general don't have the familiarity with the things that happen in the story as adult books would.

Using The Book Thief as an example, the main character is having her first experience with war, tyranny, and possibly even death. She has to lie in ways she never imagined. Adults generally have seen enough that, even if they've never experienced it, they can comprehend the ideas of evil in ways that younger people usually have to experience.

Why are adults drawn to YA? Sometimes it is just fun to remember those "firsts" (not The Book Thief firsts, but the love, etc), and it can be good to look at life through "younger" eyes as it gives us perspective. Often though, I think they are just really great stories.

I like tpo read them as a break from longer novels, because they're shroter and simpler, usually, in plot and characters, etc., but still with good writing.

I work at a public library, and this issue came up in discussion with a co-worker just yesterday. I noticed Libba Bray's "Rebel Angels" cataloged as adult fiction rather than YA, and it got me thinking about the entire distinction between adult and YA in the first place. I'm only in my late 20s, but recall not having "young adult" titles sectioned off in my library or bookstores when I was at that age.

On the one hand, I see that the distinction has undoubtedly allowed a number of books to be written and published that otherwise might not have been. On the other hand, "YA" has always felt a bit too much like target marketing to me, a way to sell stuff to teens that they might not really need after all. Based on my own experience, the adults checking out YA books are not checking out "literary" works such as "Octavian Nothing." They are checking out super-buzzed-about (I mean buzzed about beyond the realm of youth lit journals) books like "Harry Potter" and "Twilight," or those with built-in readers like James Patterson's YA titles, or they’re reading graphic novels that happen to be shelved in YA. These books might sometimes have literary merit, sometimes not so much. (How that’s even judged is another matter.) Of course, many adult titles aren't written too far above an 8th-grade reading level anyway, while some YA titles would give a lot of adults a serious test of their reading comprehension skills. At the same time, I had a 16-year-old check out "Lolita" about an hour after I noticed the Libba Bray thing. Take from that what you will, I suppose!

Honestly, I’m not sure how I ultimately feel about the issue, so I’m ending up with a pretty ambivalent anecdote here. In any case, as a bit of an afterthought, if YA were to be (even partially) integrated into the adult realm, to what extent would it take place? For example, even the covers of YA books often have a different look to them from their adult counterparts. And despite what we’ve all learned, we are very much conditioned to judge books by their covers. I guess I’m just wondering where that “laying claim” thing really begins and ends at this point.

And sorry for the lengthy post!

I agree with Jason M. in the sense that YA is more a target ploy for marketing than for writers of that genre/style. On that skein, Twain's HUCK FINN I think, would've been classed as YA because he dealt with firsts: first hand of bigotry, first running away for a long period via a raft, first in standing up to what he believes in and loyalty to a friend he didn't see colors in as his time/world did.

I also merit YA reads more--not so much seeing those first through the eyes of teen years of discovery and reality--in the sense of bloom long worn off by adults in adult fiction. Teens are a fun bunch to write for, I think. If an adult LC were to hold that look on life a YA does, many of the characters/readers would wonder why that person's not in a straitjacket yet :). YAs, I think, permit this level of writing with wonder, a take-no-prisoners 'tude and not framed in bullshit some adult fiction carries. I love reading it and writing it because I'm allowing myself to use a voice that may/may not be permitted in the adult fiction marketplace.

(And I always thought "Adult fiction" equated to--but never meant the same as--"adult bookstore" or "adult movies." Not that I've a dirty mind---much :)--but c'mon, y'all wondered this, too!)

Wow. That last went off in a weird skein :).

It's also true that we label as YA books about children such as The Book Thief or To Kill a Mockingbird, where the theme is more growing into awareness than growing into adulthood.

This reminds me of Howard Buten's "When I Was Five I Killed Myself." Amazon has a quote from the Library Journal: "Published in 1981 as Burt, this novel, told from the point of view of a child, received praise for actually sounding as such. Unfortunately, it was unfairly marketed as a young adult title, so librarians who passed on it for their adult collections should reconsider this time around." Unfairly... Hmm...

Also reminds me that in junior high a teacher took "A Clockwork Orange" away from a friend of mine during a class reading time. She said it wasn't appropriate. It was the first book he truly enjoyed, largely because he could identify with the teenagers in the book (I know, I know, but I swear he was actually a very nice person.)

In other news, I'm thinking I'll suggest my library move a copy of "Lolita" in with YA after all.

Anyone read The Good Thief? Child protagonist and full of the themes mentioned above yet published as adult.

Oh gosh, this is one of my favorite subjects. 1. Some of the more sophisticated teen readers have "switched" to adult books by the time they are 14 and up. How do we "get" them to continue to read the best of the YA stuff? 2. I read and enjoy so much YA novels that I think there might be some kind of diagnosis indicated. 3. The best literary YA fiction is sometimes a tough sell to ANY age but it is SO WORTH IT. (for example, The Octavian books: on my top ten list across all age groups. Okay that's all for now. I will just continue to passionately advocate for the best YA books to all ages.

Y A is, generally, characterized by the dominance of "voice" over narrative.

I've written an YA that was submitted last year to mainstream YA trade publishers. The editorial response was, consistent: "this is fantastic but it's an adult book."

I freaked out. I thought I'd written a YA book - had intended to, actually - and was surprised by the response (s.)

My agent however, was unfazed and resubmitted it to adult trade houses soon after.

He pointed out that Curtis Settenfield (Prep, An American Wife) had demanded her book NOT be submitted as YA. Although it was, ultimately, cross marketed (to adult & YA markets), she's considered an writer of adult fiction.

Historically, those writers who've tried to move from YA into the adult realm have struggled. However, as someone points out, Jane Smiley recenlty wrote a middle grade book, an entirely different scenario.

As the author of three current literary YA books and two to come,I would welcome, welcome, welcome a dissolving of adult/YA lines.

As for bloggers asking for ARCs. Oh, yes. Many, many times.

Roger,
I not only have (still) that album but I once had that poster. Ah - "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" is now lodged in my brain for today.
Jean

When I hit one too many bumps, either because Life interrupts, or the book tosses me out, I start to skim. Then I have "technically" read, say, Paper Towns, in the sense that I can reasonably be sued for copyright violation when I write a screenplay about a guy whose objet d'amour goes missing and how he tracks her down. On the other hand, I cannot claim that what I did with the last half of Paper Towns was reading it.

Skimming for plot points so that you can eyeball the resolution without actually participating in the story, that's not reading. But that's what I do instead of not finishing a book. Better maybe, I should let it fall.

I usually read before I go to sleep. If I find that three or four nights have gone by, and I've only been able to read a few pages each night before falling asleep, I'll usually move on to something else. I figure that the book isn't capturing my attention. I'll also sometimes drop a book after one too many instance of bad writing. I don't use a formal page limit for deciding to stop.

Technically, I aim for fifty pages before "officially" giving up, but if a book isn't grabbing me, I set it aside with the idealistic belief that I'll come back to it later and try again.

I recommend Orhan Pamuk's Snow like crazy despite leaving the last fifty pages unread.

I'm the same with Famished Road by Ben Okri. Exquisite writing but the novel didn't hang together for me. Perhaps I was too young and I need to read it again. Though I did discover his short stores with relief, now I can love Ben Okri in achievable portions. I struggled with Starbook too, and that is also languishing unfinished in my pile of good intentions.

I hate that annoying point where you leave off a book and then enough time passes that you feel you can't pick up from where you left off but it's too soon to start reading again from the beginning.

Doug Johnson just had a similar post. Great minds and all that. 100 pages sounds ok, but I think if you're reading it for fun the rules are your own to make. I don't care what anyone says, I'm never finishing The Bone People.

Have you read How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard? I skimmed it (I know!) but it does deal with similar questions. Also French.

I don't claim to have read a book unless I have gone through the whole thing. However, as someone said, sometimes what I was doing was not quite reading. For example, I've gone through Finnegans'Wake; but did I really read it? Has anyone?

I usually give a book 50 pages, and don't say I've finished fiction unless I've read the whole narrative. But I'm never sure when I have or haven't "finished" a non-fiction book if it has appendices or instructions or the like.

I agree with Kimberly about nonfiction. One of my most dearly-beloved books on the horticulture shelf is The Manual of Woody Landscape Plants and Shrubs by Michael Dirr, but reading it all the way through? There's no way. But I will say that I've read it, and that I worship its author. With fiction, however, I will have to read (or skim) it all the way through.

I really don't have any rules in reading. Generally I pick up books at the library like candy, but if I don't finish them, oh well, I'll probably check them out some other day. Or not.

I stop reading books all the time. If I'm reading something for work, I'll make myself continue even if I'm not feeling it (taking any shortcuts I reasonably can). But if I'm reading on my time and can't get into it fairly early on, I have no trouble walking away. And I can't think of a book I've put down in that way and ever picked up again.

If I'm offering an opinion about a book, I'll clarify whether I've finished it to put my thoughts in context.

I tend to "drift away" from a book also. Typically give it a few chapters to grab me and then skim a few more to see if the title can be redeemed, if not, I walk away.

If I am reading a YA book to review for the library, will often read the first half, skim the next part and read the last few pages. And yes, I will have claimed to have read the book. . . I usually 'fess up at some point that I technically "skimmed" the book, but details like that don't seem to bother teenagers.

I have no qualms about walking away from a book -- and in fact, I probably don't walk away as quickly as I should. After slogging all or part of the way through one title, I'll get absorbed by a book I really love and be reminded, "Ah -- this is how it's supposed to feel!"

If I find myself re-reading a sentence or paragraph over and over and JUST. . .NOT. . .GETTING. . .IT. . .that's my ultimate signal. I had that problem with "Shipping News" and a lot of Joyce Carol Oates. And don't get me started on anything by Margaret Atwood.

I used to give a book 100 pages. I am down to 50 and falling fast because there are too many books out there I haven't read yet to worry about quitting too soon. You know--you can always go back.

Jane

Oh, dear. With a couple of exceptions, I give up if the reader doesn't grab me on the first page. I am a slow reader and there are a lot of great books to read. First pages are important.

The exceptions: If someone I know well has suggested the title. Or if I am a fan of the writer's other books. But even then, I wouldn't go past twenty or so pages.

I've got no qualms about ditching a book early on, but once I cross the halfway point, giving up feels like a waste. If I've made it that far, I insist on getting some kind of return on the time I've already invested in the story and plow forward out of sheer stubbornness. (One of my dopier habits.)

I think you have to make allowances for books written in an earlier time. If I'd given up on Middlemarch before it got really good (roughly page 200), I'd have missed one of the best books of my life.

Admittedly it helps if lots and lots of people keep telling you it's one of the greatest novels ever written. I can't give every book I dip into 200 pages. Sometimes 20 are enough to say "not for me right now."

If I'm having trouble getting into a book that I'm not required to read, I'll usually give it 100 pages before I decide to give up completely. However, if it's a children's/YA book considered noteworthy for some reason (recently won an award/was on a list, popular with local children/teens...I've had a Newbery medal and honor book reading project for a few years, and I've had to make myself finish some of the earlier winners), I'll keep reading it.

I'm not nearly as forgiving with adult fiction and nonfiction. If I'm really not liking it, I'll stop long before the 50-100 pages.

I don't have a hard-and-fast rule. If it's something I'm reading for professional reasons, I'm inclined to stick with it longer than I otherwise would.

When I do give up, it's often an unconscious giving up. I am a two-timing reader, often simultaneously reading two or three (or more) books. So, I continue to read whatever else I'm reading at the time, and I may or may not get back to the offending book.

I refuse to feel guilty about it. There are too many books I haven't read for me to waste time on a book I don't like.

Fifty pages. Then I discover I have often thrown it across the room. I am too old now to waste hours of my life on drivel and trash, unless of course I am enjoying it.

I only read 25 pages of The Da Vinci Code and the end, only because we were going to Paris and TheInfomancer had actually finished it. It gave me actual, physical pain - not Paris, that damn book.

Hurrah! Somebody else who couldn't finished The Shipping News.

I've abandoned books when I've already read 90%; I've abandoned books on page 3. But if I feel I need to say I tried, I do as many others do and shoot for 50. If I've spent those 30-60 minutes with the characters and feel so little for them that I don't care what happens to them (or am so annoyed with them that I wish they'd all get hit by a truck), it's time to stop and look for a book that speaks to me.

Lisa hit it on the nose. The book has to speak to me, if not, I chuck it (unless, of course, I need to read it for work. Sigh...many a children's/young adult book has been slogged through.)

Life is short. If a book doesn't grab me by a couple of chapters in, I usually drop it. The harder part is what you mentioned about liking a book and then having it wilt right there in your hands for some reason.

To say I've read a book, I have to have finished it. Otherwise, it goes on my "I tried to read it, but..." list.

I recently slogged through a novel for book club that I really didn't like. Nothing is more painful than wasting precious reading time on a book you don't want to read!

I like to give the author fifty pages, but I think it's also important to play fair; to read those fifty pages when I'm not exhausted, in a reasonably quiet place. Sometimes my schoolchildren take a book, glance at the first page, spend the next ten minutes giggling, chortling, and poking their friends, and then come back to me with the words, "I couldn't get into it. It's kind of boring." I try to do a little better than that.

I thought of a two more exceptions when I'll give a book a longer read.

Like mb mentioned earlier, I will make allowances for an older classic and I always finish books or manuscripts that I'm asked to read for contests. However, it's interesting to note that the way I felt about the first page is usually the way I end up feeling about the book. First impressions are lasting.

Kimberly

P.S. I loved The Shipping News. It was a difficult read for me, but the characters were unforgetable. I'm so glad to have read it.

I gave up on Tenants of Time 100 pages shy of the end. At that point suspense wasn't building, boredom was.

I have no rules. I read for enjoyment. If I'm not enjoying a book I stop reading it. If I haven't read an entire book I don't say that I have.

Ditto what most said. I, too, sometimes can't/don't/won't finish a book because it is more work than pleasure.

But it is often because my own work swallows me whole and I set books aside. Sometimes it is that I have stacks of research to absorb. Other times I am lost in writing.

But I only rarely go back because of the hynotic buzz of new books, the growing piles of friends' new works, etc,.
I feel terrible about it. My office is littered with good, half-read books I am almost sure I will never finish. Once a year, I give them to local schools.

depends on what else you are reading at the time (or have read recently) I am now trying to read THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLE and can only think of WICKFORD POINT. Either one might have amused me but too close together they cancel each other out does anyone else have this problem? when reading for pleasure, of course - it's different when you are doing a group review of books on subject x.

I cannot imagine not finishing a book. I have always felt the need to finish every book that I have started. I have found that although some books start off very slow, they pick up speed very quickly towards the middle and the end. If you stop reading a book because you don't like the beginning, how will you know how it ends?

To me, you have to have read the whole book in order to say that you have read it. Otherwise, you have just started it and never finished. That said, I have tortured myself through many a book when the very fact that the reading of it was not enjoyable meant that I should have given up long, long ago.

I wish it were only a trend. I'm afraid it's becoming an entrenched business model. It's bad for authors, too. All this now necessary blogging about themselves, themselves, themselves, and all this worrying if they're doing enough to push their books, since the publishers seem to have neither the money nor the will to do it themselves. It's not good for the soul.

I'm optimistic that this won't be a trend (I also suspect that some authors have always done this--they've just got a new way to do it now with the Internet). My advice to authors has been to be thoughtful and deliberate about how they present themselves online. I liken it to entering a large, pleasant dinner party already in progress. The people are generally welcoming and the mood is inclusive (I'm speaking of the kidlit community), but nobody likes someone who crashes a party, behaves badly, and dominates the conversation. Wait till you've got a sense of what's going on and what people are talking about, then jump in with something interesting, not simply attention-seeking.

The reality of the situation is that writers have to do this or there will be no second book. The key is to balance the writing and the promoting.

With the blogging, I wonder (and worry) more if anyone is measuring its effectiveness or if people are simply throwing stuff out there in hopes that something will stick? I guess that like much of marketing, you can't always know what exactly has been effective, especially if you are promoting something in several different ways at once.

Sure, I think our sense of what works and what doesn't is still a little crude, but again, I'm optimistic, because it's a lot easier to analyze and quantify the efficacy of online marketing than it is to measure that of traditional print advertising (now that was throwing stuff against the wall to see what stuck).

I bet given five minutes, you can figure out whether a blog is at least effectively capturing quality attention (influencing booksales is another matter). You can't really say the same thing of a print campaign or, worse still, a mass postcard mailing.

No one has this all figured out, but there are a lot of bright spots, it seems to me. Smart publishers are being proactive and helping their new authors emulate those bright spots and apply what we've learned before they simply start tossing spaghetti around.

That's my question, Andrew--how do blogs, or an online presence generally, affect sales? My gut tells me that online marketing leads to online reading--if I could turn one percent of this blog's readership into Horn Book Magazine subscribers, I'd be a happy man. Happier, I mean.

I get a warm, fuzzy feeling of community when I ponder that question, because I know I'm one of many thousands whose professional future probably depends on solving a version of that very conundrum.

At best, I think we can say good blogging can affect the purchasing habits of someone who was already going to read/buy a book. The question is which book. I feel like the online book community does a good job of serving committed readers who are only wondering what to read next. I think the realistic next step is figuring out how to reach people who aren't contemplating what to read next, who might be wondering whether to buy a book or a _______. That's probably the bigger population.

Thank you so much for broaching this topic! As a first-time author, I am loathe--LOATHE--to spend money and time on building an online presence when, truth be told, I don't have really anything to say in this arena. I'd much rather spend the time on the next book.

And that's the problem with most author blogs--they really have no purpose beyond self-promotion or self-absorption ("Today, I face The Blank Page ...") and the comments generally tend to be back-slapping among friends. Boring.

How this sells books is anyone's guess. Look at your own bookshelves--were the last books you bought the result of positive reviews/awards attention or an author revealing what she ate for lunch on her blog? (Yes, true anecdote.)

To me, it's just a bunch of busywork--a means to make authors feel like they're doing something and that their book is "out there" and for publishers to feel like the chore is off their already too full plates.

As a mid-list author, with a publisher who would like to see my sales rise, I am completely freaked out by the potential futures I see on the horizon. It's been ten years I think since someone seriously suggested [I wish I could remember who] that copyright should die and authors should give their work away for free and earn their cash from speaking engagements after they were famous. Cory Doctorow goes on and on about his creative commons license, but I think it works for him because he is CORY DOCTOROW. To his audience, he is someone they "know" and people generally don't steal from people they know. But I don't want my audience to know me, and I don't want to create some public persona that isn't me, but that they think is. Yuck. I couldn't possibly do what John Green does, and wouldn't want to if I could. I am myopic and middle aged and not good at being one of the "cool" kids. Please, don't let this be the wave of the future.

coldis

I'm an illustrator just getting started, and for us, having a website is a professional requirement. Period.

Now, there's a difference between having an online portfolio and slapping your blog persona all over the place, but...let's say it's a gateway drug.

I'd be very interested to know how John Green's sales reflect his online popularity.

"Public persona" being the key phrase. Yuck, indeed. It's like we're all supposed to turn ourselves into a children's book world version of Carrie Bradshaw.

I can't think of one person (aside from you, of course, Roger) whom I like MORE based on their "public persona." I purposely avoid some writer friends' blogs because I like them LESS after reading their online writings. I find that they make me cringe online in a way that they never do in real life.

One more and then I'll shut up. Cory Doctorow and John Green (and throw in Neil Gaiman, too) are excellent examples of extremes of online presences, but they are by no means the ones. I think there are other models for building an online presence, many of which don't call for being an extroverted "cool kid" (remember, the cool kids were generally the ones who said less).

Characterizing even most author blogs as naval-gazing, breakfast-reporting is a bit of a stretch and ignores people who are doing interesting stuff. Think of Cynthia Leitich Smith or any number of collective author blogs.

And of course there are successful authors who are barely online. It can be done and probably always will be done. But I think a whole generation of readers is being conditioned to expect access to authors. This is not a phenomenon driven by publishers (why would it be?). This is coming from readers.

I think there are interesting differences between the web presences of Green and Gaiman. Green is a popular author who has a larger and overlapping web audience--his online stuff doesn't depend on his books. Gaiman is a hugely popular author whose web presence augments his print work but doesn't really stand apart from it. I guess I mean you can be a "John Green fan" without reading his books but not so with Neil Gaiman.

I would also guess that Green's web presence does more for his book sales than Neil Gaiman's does for his.

As someone who blogs in the world of kids books, I'd like to thank Andrew Karre for saying that not all blogging involves navel-gazing. For a lot of us, it's a way of building community - good old-fashioned (well, new-fashioned, actually) friendships. Some of us get to conferences and meet each other, but more often than not, we connect this way & become friends. Take Poetry Friday as an example, where authors, reviewers, and readers share both original work and opinions about poets & books. Or the Poetry Stretch, which actually generates new writing. And Andrew Karre is right again when he says Cynthia Leitich Smith is a perfect example of someone whose blog helps build community.

It's a big country, and I'm happy to share ideas & laughs & questions & ruminations with people from coast to coast, without having to live right in their home towns. Blogging is more about community building than self-promotion, in my opinion. When you go to the "self-promoter" sites, you don't usually go back. And having these online connections with each other makes for wonderful times when we do meet at places like IRA, NCTE, BEA, ALA conferences.

Andy Griffiths (who is not only one of Australia's most successful but also one of our best publicised authors) is of the firm belief that an author is their own best publicist and should be trained by their marketing department to sell their own books. That's certainly the reality, and I think he has a point. I do wish that publication came with the guarantee of an efficient lady in a brown dress suit who would accompany you everywhere you go and organise things and tell you how marvellous you are.

I have a blog, which would probably be considered midlist if it was a book. It has been well reviewed in mainstream press and has a loyal following, though I am by no means an online celebrity (which is partly by choice). It probably has done little for my sales for a start my blog readership is generally adult and I write novels for teenagers, but it has given me an identity within the industry and yes, has opened up opportunities for speaking gigs and articles that I wouldn't have had otherwise.

I blog for the joy of it, and I don't blog about writing very often. I blog about all sorts of things, and I treat it as part of the rigorous job of developing myself as a writer, it makes me exercise my voice, articulate my thoughts and feelings, write about subjects that challenge me. The 'pay-off' for me isn't financial, or professional, it's this amazing personal record I have that combines all the different and sometimes conflicting strands of myself: writer, mother, academic, editor, girl. It also connects me up with places and people (including other wonderful bloggers) I wouldn't normally have access to. I love blogging. Perhaps that's why my blog seems to work for my readers.

P.S. Claire E. Gross's beautifully written reviews in Horn Book of my books remain a highlight of my career, so you can't really blame him for trying so hard...

A big element of a web presence is not to reach the individual reader, but to reach booksellers, teachers, librarians and reviewers. I have to believe that an author such as Gail Gautier is helped by her blog. Gail's name is more likely to be familiar and for the librarian to have a pleasant association with it. She's part of the "community."

Penni, you seem to have many good reasons to blog, but the one I want to know about is marketing. Does it sell books? Maybe Gail Gauthier could tell us.

coldis

Some people are great writers and some are great publicists. Only a very few--like Gaiman--are brilliant at both.

Most of us are midlist all the way around.

However, in this dwindling time of marketing and money, there is little any of us midlisters CAN do but blog.No shame in it, but it can take time away from what we do best-- write our books.

I see the community-building that Cynthia and Julie and others do as a special and additional benefit, but to a rather smaller audience than celebrity-makers. Pinkwater on PBS can make CLICK CLACK MOO a mega hit. One mention in Doctorow or Gaiman's blog can break out a book.
What the Cynthia and Julie(and Big A and Miss Rumphius etc) do is remind us what and who we are the way ALA used to, a community of book lovers.

Yet not every writer thrives in a community; some of us do better when we don't have to manage comments or be "present" online. And, well, if you're writing mainly for 4-year-olds, it's not as if your readers are demanding it anyway.

I don't begrudge anyone who loves to blog the right to do so. If it's your thing, then I'm sure your blog is worth visiting and you attract a like-minded bunch. Even you don't attract a thriving community, if you're passionate about this type of writing as self-expression, then perhaps you don't even care about that aspect.

However, it's the notion that everyone HAS to have some type of online presence nowadays that's so annoying. Sure, as Andrew says, there are many successful authors who are barely online; however, the ones that come to my mind are the ones who encountered success, or were well on their way, before blogging seemed like mandatory marketing.

So, yes, we should blog, because it might help. No, we shouldn't harass the editor of The Horn Book. Yes, we should introduce ourselves in every bookstore, but no we shouldn't move our books to the tables at the front. Anything else? Because I have been told that authors need to do their own publicity, but I agree with Yolen that not many of us are equipped for anything except blogging.

Still, I get the feeling that I am supposed to do more, and I have no idea what it is. I don't think the marketing people at my publisher know either. They have lots of digital marketing strategies that they didn't have for my last book, which is nice, but they are all based on DRM protected stuff and I am thinking that DRM might be doomed. I wish I thought they had a plan for what happens next, so that I can keep writing books and they will have a business model to sell them.

I know that I prefer paper to electronic books, but for the first time, I think paper might be doomed. If publishers go out of business than the price of books still produced is likely to go up past the point at which I can afford to buy them, even if I prefer them to the e-book. As fewer people buy paper, it will cost more and more, until we are all on e-books, like it or not.

coldis

I know this isn't the topic, and I'm not apologizing for the guy, but Roger, you can't imagine how awful it feels to have a book come out and nobody reviews it. Sometimes it feels as if reviewers look at not the book, but the publisher, and if it comes from a small publisher, you just don't have a chance.

It's interesting because an online presence doesn't have to be a blog. It can be other things as well, even for younger children. I've been really amazed by what our author and poet Kenn Nesbitt has done with his web site to get kids interested in poetry. It's a pretty simple site too. But today it's the #1 kids poetry site on the net and he uses it to really communicate and engage kids in poetry (which I obviously find wonderful). I think it does translate to sales but not directly. Rather I think it's more about making him a real person in their eyes and making poetry an art with which they connect. So in that sense it enhances the book and future book projects. One of the ways we used the website was to pick out some of the favorite poems for My Hippo Has the Hiccups.

No, I'm afraid Gail Gauthier can't tell you if blogging sells books. I do believe, though, that my blog has made my name known to a far wider circle than any other kind of marketing I've ever done.

Limited numbers of people show up to see mid-list writers at book festivals and bookstores, and those people are only from the festivals' or stores' specific geographic area. When I speak at a conference, it's a conference for a specific group in a specific region. Again, we're talking a limited number of people, since I can only reach the people at that one conference.

I know that I've reached people all across the country (and sometimes beyond) with the blog, because some of them have contacted me. Plus the potential number of people I could reach is limitless. I am not confined to a geographic area or to the number of people who are attending a conference.

Again, I can't say whether or not reaching so many people has made a difference in sales. But that's the case with almost any kind of marketing you do. I made a bigger effort than usual to promote one of my books a few years ago. At the same time, a buyer from Barnes & Noble, who happened to like the cover, placed a very nice order. What mattered more to that book's sales? My efforts or that order, which had nothing to do with me?

None of us relies on just one type of marketing, so unless something really unusual happens (Oprah or the Today Show calls, one of the Obama kids is caught holding your book, etc.)it's hard to tell which things are doing you the most good.

Anon 5:27, it's true that advance and date-of-publication reviews from national media are harder and harder to get, because the numbers of children's books being published have risen at a pace far greater than either a)subscribers to those media and b)advertising in those media. So there's no way anyone can afford to keep up. This is one place the blog reviews can fill in but I again wonder whether they do--are they as satisfiying to an author or publisher, and do they sell books? The Cybil Awards may eventually provide us some data about this.

Hey Anon, 5:27pm: your publisher's name doesn't matter much as you might think. My series debuted with a major publisher and no one reviewed it either despite substantial marketing efforts, a great cover from a well-known illustrator, and really wonderful feedback from blogs and Amazon. No profiled reviews? No immediate sales and no shelf-life beyond a couple of months.

No matter how many great pieces you put together as an author, there is still every chance you will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It matters not a jot the size or name of your publisher -- or even what you actually wrote, I am increasingly of the opinion. Hype and luck: now those are the real currency...

Collection development is not my sole responsibility, but it is part of my duties as a youth services librarian. I have ordered books (not that many, but several) that were mentioned on a blog/The Cybils. I do search Books in Print or our vendor for the print reviews, though (I normally put together an order while going through the journals and patron recommendations, but occasionally, I will read a review/mention on a blog before I receive the print journals).

I realize that's not hard data, but just wanted to offer my little experience!

Anon 5:27 pm: The guy's book *was* reviewed by The Horn Book -- the Guide reviewed it. What he wanted was a second, more prominent review in the Magazine. Understandable from a publicity standpoint, but, as was explained several times to this person, we (The Horn Book, Inc.) had already weighed in on his title and were not going to review the same book twice.

OK, I sort of get authors and illustrators with blogs and websites. What I really don't get are all the "pre-published" authors and illustrators with blogs and websites. Why are they spending time promoting books that don't even exist when they could be spending that same amount of time creating those books?

This doesn't directly relate to Roger's original point, but thank you to Dominique for pointing out something that bothers me about the internet presence of many children's authors: it has nothing to do with their child readers. I understand the desire both to build an online community for the those in the field, and to promote one's work... but so often it feels like the actual audience-- kids who are building a relationship with the books-- isn't acknowledged. Maybe this is what can end up feeling naval-gazey and self-aggrandizing...

By which I meant navel-gazey. Gazing at the navalry is a whole other subject.

"Pre-published" illustrators need to have websites because portfolio appointments don't really exist anymore. One can still drop off a portfolio at some places, but art directors would rather view an online portfolio, or so I hear.

I don't know if blogs sell books.

I do think if you don't like blogging and you don't want to blog and you blog out of some sense of duty because you think it might sell your books, then your blog will not sell books.

The American market is a mystery to me. But in Australia the way to market yourself is to go to book events (not just your own), to talk to people and be interested in everyone, even the girl with the tray of mini-quiches, to do the speaking circuit in schools and literary festivals, and to write good books that you hope might win an award and then hope someone notices that you won the award and puts you in the newspaper. Or write controversial books and hope someone notices and puts you in the newspaper. There is a lot of competition and limited bookshelf space and all the problems all writers face. Blogging can help get you noticed, which increases your chance of being put in the newspaper. Which in the long run sells books.

Little children don't buy their own books. The blogs are looking to the adult buyers--parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians--just as reviews do.

The new thing to look at are book trailers that authors hope will go viral and tempt tweens and teens into shelling out their allowances for the promoted books.

In fact, at an illustrators' meeting last night, we were talking about what such trailers cost and the animators and web designers among us were saying that this was where the action and money was right now. In creating book trailers, not illustrating books! Make of that what you will.

Penni,

I don't disagree that that is the business model that is growing stronger every day. I'm saying that as a writer, and a reader . . . I hate it.

I don't think it is an accident that all the blogs I love to read are written by authors whose books I like, but that don't really rock me. And that the authors whose work I admire most, MT Anderson, for example, don't have a blog. Never mind me as a writer, Me as a reader really hates the idea that these people might get pushed out of the profession because they aren't comfortable being as public as they need to be to get in the newspaper. I want their books far more than I want their (probably, as you say, very lame) blog.

As a reader and a blogger, I think blogging is just another tool to connect with readers. If it works for you, do it. If it doesn't, don't (for the love of God, if you don't like blogging, don't do it--readers will be able to tell).

Blogging is what you make of it.

Jane, book trailers make me want to go the movies!

Remember the teasers in Cover to Cover? Those totally worked for me.

coldis

Anonymous 7.57

My point is more that there is some value in blogging (and doing the speaking circuit and etc) but it's not the be all and end all. I don't think it's an essential part of being a writer, except on an individual basis. Who knows what makes a book break through and become a best seller? That seems to be a kind of magic more than marketing practice.

I just started a blog in December. I had resisted due to the inane non conversations and back slapping going on in the blogosphere. I started a blog for young people to read with their caregivers (parents, teachers, librarians and yes, even the specialists). My blog hopefully conveys visually the breakdown of my latest book. It is for those who primarly focus on picture book text learn how to read the silent stories the illustrations portrays. (At least, I do). My latest book process is multi-layered with historical references and portrays 65 + NYC artists who appear in the book. I plan to interview all those involved in my book or involved in my career. From the Mazza Museum to the Brooklyn Public librarians who gave me the idea for the book and how their idea grew into a published product,

That being said, as a midlister picture book author and illustrator I cannot afford a proper publicist. I teach marketing for SCBWI and have learned that only 1-5% of a publisher's marketing budget goes to authors and illustrators. So while some wear Gucci, others in the business are dressed in paper bags. I believe we can all wear the GAP. But I'm not in charge of these marketing depts. I need to dive into the action to make people out there become aware that my books exists, that my career had already been invented whether they had known about it or not.

I am trying a new way that I think is intelligent and not obnoxious. I love teaching others about the illustration process. I find blogging as a new part of my creative career. It is far better than getting a smidgeon from that 1-5% of Penguin's budget. I stopped taking the lack of help personally and became more pro-active.

One more thought: For me, it's comparable to MySpace for the music industry. Every artist worth their salt (and some not worth it) has a MySpace page where you can hear their music. Every CD has the band's web site url and MySpace page.

What's the equivalent for authors?

I'm not saying MySpace is great and everyone should use it, but having some sort of online presence, whether it's a blog or something else, where readers can connect with authors in some way seems pretty vital these days. Maybe a few well known luddites can get away with not doing it, but the rest of can only be helped.

One of our librarians posted an honest (and terrible) review of an author's book on her private "Good Reads" account. The author in turn flamed the librarian and it got a little nasty. Interesting reading, though! ;-) Still...doesn't seem to be helping the author in the long run, does it? Authors are already paranoid enough.

Boy, no sympathy here for new, upcoming authors who have to struggle to get on board today.

It’s a sad world when sensitive,artistic souls are treated in such a harsh manner. Anyone who spends so much time and effort to write a book should at least be shown respect and dignity.

What has this publishing world come to?

It's frightening to see how hard it is to become noticed in the media today, Janie I agree with you on tis one. New authors should call and pressure anyone and everyone they can find to read and talk about their book. Without some of this pressure from the authors so many wonderful books probably would not have received the attention that they deserve.

No, no, there must have been an exchange of value. Your altruism-induced blindness just made you miss it.

Told you I had a cold.

Oh, how funny. But it confirms my theory that the people who are attracted to Fountainhead are the ones who are least likely to actually practice Objectivism.

How about Atlas Shrugged? You really have to be somewhat intrigued by the concepts to force your way through all those speeches. I have to say that you seem to be right in my case; I'm not at all an Objectivist, but I do love her books... and take her philosophy with a huge grain of salt.

When Random House editor Bennett Cerf tried to get Rand to cut the "This is John Galt speaking" fifty-page speech from the manuscript of Atlas Shrugged, Rand famously replied, "would you cut the Bible?"

Roger, I'm just glad you didn't tell the story of the time I had a blind date with an Ayn Rand fanatic. (Member of the Rand society, his second favorite author was Victor Hugo.) I went to the bookstore and read 10 pages of the Fountainhead, then called him and said "I don't think this is going to work out."

As another Jew, Isaac Asimov, once said, "Ï have no false modesty... or any other kind, for that matter."