Till We Meet Again

In April I reminisced about six + years of blogging with this wondrous group of authors. I've so appreciated the opportunity to come up with something every month at least vaguely related to this quirky profession we’ve chosen.

For my last go-round, I’ve decided give a glimpse of one writer's life day-to-day. It’s not all creating deathless prose. So here's as much as I can remember of my to-do and have-done lists in the last two weeks.  

• Revise my next book. It’s a middle grade group biography due out in 2016.  I’ve been working on this book since 2009 and so last week I decided to google one of my subjects once again. I found a 2011 book I hadn’t seen before, with a chapter on my subject. I couldn’t find the book in the Los Angeles system, so I consulted WorldCat: The World’s Largest Library Catalog and found that six miles away, Mt. St. Mary’s College had an ebook copy.

• So up up up into the Santa Monica Mountains I drove, to a beautiful Spanish-style library. Well, I drove to the parking garage and then hiked up some more steep hills to the library. I had the complete attention of three librarians, it being summer break. They all worked to figure out how to print a few pages from the e-book, but in the end, job done. This research yielded details and quotes I hadn’t found elsewhere.

• Reviewing my original research, I found a tidbit I’d not included in the manuscript.  My subject inspired a minor character in an 1828 adventure-romance novel.  Being a lover of tidbits, I ordered an interlibrary loan of the book on microfilm through my public library. This last week I spent part of two afternoons skimming through this forgettable tale of a beautiful and virtuous heroine whose romance with a worthy suitor is thwarted by a dastardly villain. My ‘subject’ helped to save said heroine from said villain, as well as perform some brave deeds in American Revolution. The hours spent skimming added three sentences to my manuscript.

• Chapter completed, I emailed it to my critique group who will meet this week and tell me how to make it better.

• I’ll critique their work as well.

• I’m meeting my editor at ALA in Las Vegas this weekend. She wants to read my revised chapters on the plane flying west, so I emailed her to ask about the last moment I can send her those chapters.

• Speaking of ALA, where I’ll be signing at two booths on Saturday (see below,) I must remember to call my trusty auto mechanic (named Toolsie!) to fix my failing a/c. Will need all I can get for the drive to LV.

• Made arrangements to meet with Starwalk Kids Media at ALA about signing up an out-of-print book for their e-book list.

• Confirm ALA meeting for coffee with INK Author Jan Greenberg.

• I’ve been a member of the Authors Guild for decades. They offer so many benefits to their members, one of which is a free legal critique of contracts. I finally got around to integrating their suggested changes to my contract for the above book and sending it back to the publisher. The Authors Guild also hosts my website for pennies, but perhaps their most important mission is their lobbying on our behalf to Goliaths like Google and Amazon.  Support yourself – and them – and join!

• I’ve nudged an editor who has had a ms. of mine for months and promised to give me an answer last week. Still waiting. I need to nudge a couple more editors who are sitting on my middle grade novel.

•  Last month I reported on the excellent BIO conference (Biographers International Organization) in Boston.  There I met Dorothy Dahm, creator of Kids Biographer's Blog, a first-rate collection of reviews and interviews.  She reviewed Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence, and asked for an interview.  I wrote that last week and it’s here. 

• I’m returning to London again in the autumn for another three-month home exchange. I’ve got some fans in Yorkshire, so I emailed four schools about return author visits. Have confirmation for two already.

• I wrote this INK blog.

• The World Cup: I’m trying to limit myself to one game a day, or two halfs of different games.  It’s hard though. Drama is building every day!

Traveling to libraries, reading, marketing, contracts, nudging, emailing, critiquing, blogging, and, yes, writing.  On and on it goes.

Finally, to quote my favorite English major: “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.”

My ALA Signings: Saturday June 28 
• 10-11am: Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek
• 2-3 pm: Lerner/Carolrhoda

A Vernal Interlude Eastward

I wouldn’t trade Los Angeles winters for those on the east coast, but spring is another matter.  In May, when most of the trees in Central Park and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park shimmer in palest green and the rest of them bloom white, pink, and magenta, there’s not a nicer place to be. And so I was. 

Lunch in Manhattan with fellow INK bloggers Sue Macy, Susan Kuklin, and Deb Heiligman brought forth nonstop chatter about the sublime, ridiculous, frustrating nature of our profession….Two author talks to the classrooms of my great-niece and nephew at Luria Academy in Brooklyn. (I forgot to take my camera.)

Barely a hint of green on the trees in the Berkshires where Alix Delinois, illustrator of Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence,  joined me at Ashley House in Sheffield, Massachusetts. As Alix and I talked about our book in the kitchen where the enslaved Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman tended the fire and cooked the meals, a brisk wind blew through the room.  Mumbet herself coming to call?

[Note to authors: when presenting and selling books to adults, try announcing "If you don't have school-age children or grandchildren, consider buying a book to donate to a local school or library."]

Then to Boston (and rainstorms) for the fifth annual conference of the Biographers International Organization (BIO.)  I first learned of this group several years ago when Marfé Delano Ferguson blogged about it here. 

What a treat! On Friday we had to choose only two of eight guided tours of the area’s many libraries and archives. I chose the Schlesinger Library at Harvard.  Several years ago they sent reels of microfilm across the country to me, relating to Jeannette Rankin, and finally I got to see a smidgeon of their vast repository of American women’s history, and hear about new technology that makes research easier.

In the afternoon I traveled across the river to the Atheneum in Boston, a venerable private library filled with donated antique furniture, rugs, portraits and, of course, books.

A full day of panels on Saturday covered all aspects of the biographical craft from research to publishing to marketing. Again the biggest problem was choosing among so many delectable delights. Talks on writing a group biography; finding the balance of a subject’s life, context, and work; and writing about place gave me some new ideas, and validated what I’m already doing.

Networking proved to be the surprise of the weekend. Few children’s authors attended. Nearly all were academics or independent scholars, but all were as friendly as children’s authors. I made some good connections for my current research and contacts for possible author visits. It’s so easy to break the ice with a biographer.  All you need ask is “Who are you working on?” and you’re launched into an animated conversation with a new friend. In fact, it's often hard to get a word in to brag about your "baby."

I recommend the annual BIO Conference to any and all biographers. History writers and writers of historical fiction will also find it useful. And lots of fun. I'll be going back to another conference…..

…..and to New York in the spring.

A Brave Not-So-New World

As I wrote in a post last March, I have three books coming out this year and another one in early 2013, due to the vagaries of publishing rather than my own writing schedule.  An embarrassment of riches, I’m not complaining.  Nor (at this moment, at least) am I whining about how this traffic jam caused an unanticipated drought of publications for the last four years.  Right now I’m thinking about how these past few years have given me time to take some steps toward the Brave Not-So-New World of author self-promotion.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t live in a glass bubble.  I’ve had a website for a million years; after all, it’s the modern equivalent of a business card.  I’ve always been willing and able to help promote my books.  As a former magazine writer, I had contacts and used them.  Four years ago, I was already blogging here at I.N.K. and knew all about Facebook, even though I had no interest in signing up.

So what's different now?  Many things, for me and for most  authors.  There are a lot fewer magazines and newspapers, for example.  Furthermore their decreasing advertising revenue have shrunk “less necessary” features about authors or their books. 

Four years ago my publishers did some promotion for my books coming out, and they are this year as well.  Yet more than ever, it’s so clear that even more of the responsibility for promotion has shifted to the author.  New and midlist authors certainly.  Yet I also have a friend, very well known, who has been firmly told she should post on her blog at least three times a week.

Most of the publishers I work with have sites or pr brochures that encourage us to promote.  The Random House Author Portal, for example, lets you track your book sales and subrights online.  But before you get to those weekly updates, you are invited to click on the “Connect with Readers” link or the “Monthly Marketing Tip.” Facebook, websites, blogs, twitter, of course.  Then there’s the world of Pinterest that our own Melissa Stewart uses so cleverly, Infographics, virtual reader communities (Goodreads, LibraryThing, and JacketFlap being just the beginning), and Linked-In as a social medium—not job hunting—which I still haven’t figured out.  It’s mindbloggling, but one ignores it at her peril.

The bad news, I now figure, is these tools have been put in our hands.  And the good news is—these tools have been put in our hands.  We have the potential of creating word of mouth ourselves in a way authors couldn’t have dreamt of even a decade before. 

Do we want to?  I have to say that the experience of building the guts of my new Wordpress website,  (individual pages, sidebars, etc.) while hiring a professional designer for the customized frame has made me much more confident.  And much less likely to glaze over or shrink away when considering my Brave New World.

These are the first new things I’m trying.  To paraphrase the late Neil Armstrong:  A small step for mankind, a giant step for me.  If you find anything new and useful for you, grab it. 

Facebook.  I know that sounds ridiculous, but I don’t even like answering my email.

A Facebook Author Page  This I like better, but try not to post 3 times a week because it feels a little spammy to me.  Am I being too retro?  I frankly don’t know.

A trailer for my new book, It’s a Dog’s Life.  And trying to find more ways to use it than just my own and my publisher’s website.

Again, for It’s a Dog’s Life, a monthly contest on my site showing a photo of a dog in action, which asks, “What is this dog doing?”  Kids and adults can email in their responses.  At contest’s end, the person who best explains the behavior and the one who makes me laugh hardest each receive a free book.  To me, this is a win-win situation.  I get website traffic and people get free books.  It’s actually win-win-win-win.  Teachers can use it for a fun literary activity and dog, mom, or book bloggers can run it as an easy post that will interest their readers.

Am I reinventing the wheel?  Sure, but how else am I going to understand it?

An Old Dog on New Tricks

I knew that my web site was outdated years ago.  What had been cool at the turn of the millennium was looking shopworn.  Furthermore the infrastructure of my site was so arcane that I had to hire someone if I wanted to add a school visit to my schedule page.

I finally pulled it together and started looking for someone to hire.  Being a nontechno type who wanted to remain so, I couldn’t imagine anything else.  I approached people I knew.  Busy.  I asked the people I knew for people they knew.  Busy.  How could this be?  It’s a bad economy. 

Then I thought of a former MFA student who came to Lesley University to learn more about writing for kids, but was already an accomplished illustrator, photographer, animator (http://bryanballinger.com/).  Bryan graciously replied that I couldn’t hire him, but that he would mentor me through the beginning steps of building a site.  Damn, it was that old “teach a man to fish” line.  I had really just wanted to go to the fish market or, better yet, ordered my meal at a seafood restaurant. 

Wait a second, I thought.  One reason I wanted the new site was so I could be more self-sufficient.  If I knew how to build the thing, maintaining it would be a snap.  Many normal people seemed to be doing it. And I’d been blogging for a few years; I knew how to insert pictures into text, would bad could it be?

Pretty bad.  Mainly because I not only had to learn this foreign language and skill set, I had to get over my resistance and fear of doing so.  Bryan opened an empty Wordpress site for me, gave me a Skype tutorial and then it was the first day of the rest of my life.  I found something I thought I could do and did it.  Hooray.  I crept along until I came up against a wall, metaphorically speaking, with no idea of how to remove it or get around it because I had no idea why it was there.  I simply Xed out of the site—for a week.  Bryan sweetly got me back on track, but sometimes the problem of asking for explanations meant not knowing enough to understand the answers.

Here we go again, I found something else I could do and in doing so, figured out that first problem.  Happiness!  Hours went by as I slowly learned why what I designed didn’t look the same once the page was in view mode or how to line three photos up across the page.  My new skills kept growing.  Rescaling picture sizes, using Skype to get tutorials, learning enough html to do sidebars, too many colors on one page are too distracting, saturated colors make print vibrate uncomfortably against a black screen, have patience, have patience.  Writing affords you many words and choices to produce a desired result.  Html—just one—so what did I do wrong?  Obsession, then another block and shutdown once more.  For two weeks.  Again and again I’d inch my way back in.

Ultimately I guess this is how we learn most things.  If they are easy for you because you have the aptitude or temperament for them, the push/pull isn’t so painful—or noticable.

Thank you Bryan, and thank you Tim John (http://boismierjohndesign.com/) who stepped in at the end to add the banners, programming, bells and whistles far beyond my pay grade.  Yes, it took an absurd amount of time to make this web site.  But maybe not so long to learn a new lesson about learning.

I proudly present to you www.susangoodmanbooks.com.

New Hope for Old-Fashioned Books

Exactly one month ago I received an email from my friend and colleague (and fellow East Bay resident), Marissa Moss. It began almost apologetically:

“I know this probably comes out of thin air, but I've heard from so many talented writers and illustrators that they have problems getting contracts now from the major NY publishers who only want books with mass market appeal …”

Sounds like an understatement in these days of publishing uncertainty (aka “crisis”) but I was hooked. Marissa is a versatile writer and illustrator of both fiction and non-fiction, full of ambition and creativity, who has enjoyed considerable success. What was she up to?

“The golden age of picture books, when fine books were edited and published despite not being blockbusters, doesn’t have to be over,” she wrote.

Instead of lamenting the demise of publishing as we knew it, Marissa announced that she is going to turn the dearth of publishers seeking to put out beautiful books into an opportunity. She has found financial backers who share her values, and she is starting a new publishing house intended to turn back the clock by producing “quality books the old-fashioned way.” Golden Gate Books will make its mark with children’s fiction and non-fiction that book-lovers will want to hold, admire and read repeatedly.

This is actually the second recent blast of publishing news to gust my way. Our own INK is becoming a publisher of e-books, starting with the out-of-print titles of our members. I have four titles ready to go, as soon as I do the necessary scans and we work out the contract details to sell our books on the iTunes store and perhaps other e-marketplaces. This is exciting news not only because it gives authors a chance to immortalize our books and make them available at very low cost to interested readers, however many or few they may be. I am also thrilled because it is the impetus I need to enter this new world of publishing and experiment with its myriad possibilities.

While INK, for starters at least, will be e-publishing out-of-print titles (which, in the current reality of publishing, does not mean out-of-life or out-of-value titles), Golden Gate Books, despite valuing the paper-in-hand approach to reading, may also enter the e-realm by releasing all of its titles as e-books within months of their print debut.

Whether or not its titles have an e-life, Marissa is embracing web-based promotion and even fund-raising. Right now she has enough money committed to plan eight books during GGB’s first year, but if she can raise an additional $50,000 she will go for twelve with a larger marketing bang for all of them. She is using www.kickstarter.com, a fund-raising website that follows the NPR model to seek pledges from donors who receive premiums at different levels depending on how much they give. No pledges are actually collected unless the goal is achieved. In this case, it’s $50,000 in pledges by April 19, 2012. Check it out and please feel free to choose your premium:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/404352146/golden-gate-books-a-childrens-book-revival

Here is one piece of the pitch, where Marissa (writing from the future) summarizes the mind-set of today's typical publishers:

"Instead of taking risks on new voices or subjects, they focused on what had already sold well – one Harry Potter book led to a slew of imitators. One Twilight book created a wake of supernatural novels. Instead of looking for the great books of the future, they looked for books that were like great books of the past."

I would make one edit: change “great books of the past” to “successful books of the past.” I recall my appearance at the Texas Library Association conference in April, 2000, after my book If You Hopped Like a Frog had just come out with Scholastic. It put forth a new, enjoyable approach to proportional thinking in which human abilities were compared, proportionally, to those of animals. Proportion is an important concept in algebraic thinking, taught in various ways (most of them confusing, boring or both) throughout the upper elementary and middle school grades. The Scholastic team was out in force at TLA giving away, waving and wearing a plethora of promotional items in various shapes, sizes and levels of extravagance. Did even one of these marketing pieces reference my book or that of any other up-and-coming author? Not on your life! Every single one was about Harry Potter, whose third (or was it fourth?) installment was hitting the American market. Harry really needed the help, didn’t he?

On May 25, 2009, I wrote a blog post here called “Paen to a Publisher,” in which I paid tribute to one of my publishers, Tricycle Press, which (along with its parent company, Ten Speed Press) had just been bought by Random House. I wondered aloud whether the many uncommon practices that had made Tricycle my favorite, if smallest, publisher would be retained once it became part of the world’s largest media conglomerate. (For example, Tricycle ignored a near-universal convention in publishing by allowing an author to have a voice in selecting the illustrator for his or her book. Tricycle even allowed authors and illustrators to influence editing decisions and sometimes gave them the final say. Can you believe?)

I have never written a postscript to that discussion and here it is: in January, 2011, Random House announced that it was scuttling Tricycle Press. My favorite publisher is history. One of the many pieces of flotsam left adrift by the maelstrom of that decision was my manuscript I Rot: The Fall and Rise of a Halloween Pumpkin, which I described in my May 24, 2010, INK blog post called “Researching With Researchers.” Since then, I have been seeking a new publisher for my rotten manuscript (and the revolting photos by Dwight Kuhn that accompany it).

Along comes Golden Gate Book, seeking authors and illustrators with worthy manuscripts in search of a publisher, authors who have established relationships with booksellers and who effectively promote their own books through school visits and other appearances. . . Along comes Golden Gate Books, promising to give the creators of books an unusual amount of control over their projects. . . Along comes Golden Gate Books, “a company that cares about the magic that happens when a parent reads a picture book to a child.”

And I am now delighted to announce that the magic of a decomposing pumpkin (and it is magical in its own transformative, regenerative way) will be featured on Golden Gate Books’ first list in the Fall of 2013.

Have you ever waited at a bus stop? Waited and waited at a bus stop? You watch cabs rolling by, watch buses going the other way, watch your watch with increasing irritation. Finally your bus does come--with two or three other buses right behind it. A herd, a pod, a troup of buses. Very annoying, isn’t it?

A similar thing has happened to me in the publishing world, but I’m not sure whether it’s annoying or not. In 2004, I had five books come out in one year. And, up until a few months ago, I thought I would have four coming out in 2012.

How does this happen? I’ve never written four or five books in one year, so how do they get bunched up on the other end like buses? Good question. Some books go into production relatively quickly, while others take a long time to write. For example, I wrote a book called Skyscraper that chronicled the making of the Random House Building and I couldn’t write any faster than the construction. It had a four-year gestation period and came out in 2004 along with Choppers! that took about two years from research to release. Other reasons? Editors have babies. It can take a while to find the right illustrator or to wait for an illustrator to finish two other projects before starting yours or the illustrator goes on strike. The economy tanks and publishing houses thin their seasons and spread out the books so your pub date jumps a year or so into the future.

Let me be clear, I’m not complaining, really. I know having a bevy of books is an embarrassment of riches. It’s certainly better than no books at all, or a surfeit of buses traveling in a pack. But what are the pros and cons for the author—and the books?

In the old days, the perception was: bringing out more than one book a season or a year meant the author was competing against herself. Mark that down as a notch in the “con” section. Of course in the old days, most authors published with only one house so the publisher would be competing against itself too; they controlled supply and demand.

Today many children’s book authors work with several houses. We cannot act as traffic cops giving Simon & Schuster the green light for one season and putting Penguin on hold. Now publishers are competing against each other. Has that changed the model? Does it help or hurt the author? And given the increased avenues of media, does having multiple books out at the same time increase buzz? Advertising wisdom says the more consumers hear something, the more likely they will remember it, perhaps become interested and start word-of-mouth.

In 2004, I decided that if there was any time to hire a publicist, having five books come out was it. Susan Raab and I concentrated on three of them. Susan was great and responsible for a good deal of the media coverage they received. So having that many books in one year pushed me to hire a publicist. Having her work on three in one year was also cheaper than if I had hired her for each separately. Furthermore, it may have garnered more results. If a journalist wasn’t interested in one, Susan had an opportunity to mention two others that might be more tempting. Three checks for the “pro column.”

There is another serious con, however. Just as a band of buses assures someone is going to have to wait a long time before the next clutch arrives, if you have four or five books come out in one year, chances are, it will be a while before the next release date. And if it’s quite a while, you feel the effects. Without something new in the offing, your name isn’t as much in the public eye as a reminder of your whole body of work. You get fewer invitations to speak at conferences during the lull. You, or at least I ended up feeling de-energized, even though I knew I had “books in the bank.”

That’s why I was so easygoing when my editor called a few months ago to say we had to delay my fourth 2012 release, How Do You Burp in Space?, a kids’ tourist guide to space travel. I was gracious and calm in response to a conversation I’m sure she had dreaded having. After all, I’m an experienced professional who knows that these things happen.

And now I also have a book coming out in 2013!

Here's my 2012 line up:

Five Things I Learned in Social Media Class

Last fall, I decided to get my bearings in the world of social media by taking a class at my local community college. The class, “Social Media for Business,” included an overview and then hands-on sessions focusing on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. There was also an introduction to the tools companies use to evaluate the impact of their social media presence. A lot of information was tossed around during those nine three-hour sessions, but thanks to my detailed notes, I was able to capture most of it. Here are some things that stayed with me:

#1. Send Seven Tweets a Day: My teacher, the former head of social media at A&P, suggested that one should tweet seven times per day. That includes several new tweets and a few retweets (incoming tweets that you forward to your own followers). He also suggested following 150 people and/or companies. I’m currently tweeting two or three times on a good day and following 90. Those people represent my main business and personal interests: children’s books (love @SLJournal and @CBCBook), sports, women’s issues, entertainment, friends, and a few celebrity tweeters. I’ve dropped some people who tweet too darned much about pointless things, like the singer who tweeted every minute of a three-hour car ride. And I continue to add folks who seem to have interesting things to say.

#2. In Twitter, Avoid Naked Links and Don’t Pander: (This is not nearly as naughty as it sounds.) Tweets may be only 140 characters long, but they still can have plenty of voice and personality. “Naked links” are tweets that are solely Web addresses, with no introduction, no extra information. They’re boring and annoying, almost as annoying as companies (and people representing products or companies) that pander to their customers. If your customer says, “I love your turkey sandwich,” don’t reply, “You have very good taste!” Say something useful like, “Try it on toasted bread,” or “That’s our best-selling lunch product.” Something that adds information.

#3. Get Demographic Info From Facebook: When you set up a Facebook page for a business (as opposed to a personal page), you gain access to all sorts of demographic information that Facebook hopes you will use to advertise your products on their site. You can find out how many Facebook users in your state or town or Zip Code like Glee, or Harry Potter, or The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie. You can find everyone on Facebook who ever worked for the companies you worked for (you also can do this on LinkedIn) or who shares your birthday. You can search this information to your heart’s content, and you never have to actually buy an ad. All that, and setting up a Facebook business page is free.

#4. Remember LinkedIn: Since social media is not an actual job for most of us, there’s only so much time we can spend posting and reading posts. But LinkedIn is a valuable professional resource and having a presence on the site can pay off in unexpected ways. A former acquaintance recently recommended me for a speaking gig at her new job because she’d been following the news about Wheels of Change through LinkedIn. And because you can program your tweets to show up on your LinkedIn profile page, you can keep the page lively without writing actual LinkedIn posts.

#5. Consider Haul Videos: This one isn’t a tip, it’s a head’s up. Until our YouTube class, I’d never heard of “haul videos.” In case you haven’t, either, they are videos in which young women (I haven’t seen any by young men) parade their purchases from a recent shopping trip for all to see. According to my teacher, haul videos represent the fastest-growing segment on YouTube. One enterprising video maker, juicystar07, has entertained close to a million viewers by showing off her winter wardrobe purchases and 1.4 million viewers by revealing her birthday haul. She’s put up so many videos that she had to add a second YouTube channel and she and her sister have started an online business selling makeup and fashion accessories. As of this month, her videos had over 172,000,000 total views. I could have written an entire blog post about haul videos. Do they signal the impending downfall of society or are they evidence of female ingenuity and empowerment? I'll leave it to you to watch a few and decide for yourselves.

My social media connections: Twitter LinkedIn

To Market, To Market

Twelve reactions to my latest nonfiction work:
• “[This] made me quite teary. [I]t’s a beautiful [story], and very nicely told”
• “A great conversation piece, and I think boys would particularly like it”
• “I have to say, I think the story is fantastic”
• “Not only is [the] story an interesting, little-known slice of history, but the writing is quite lovely as well”
• “We all had very positive reactions to it overall. What we all really loved, and what I am sure appeals to you, is that it is a war story but it’s one about reconciliation. That’s really both a lovely and unusual notion”
• “I have read the story several times, and it is an unusual one with lots of good themes and excitement”
• “[A] lovely paean to peace coming out of war”
• “I was very moved”
• “Compelling and well told”
• “I was fascinated by this story of forgiveness and redemption. It’s so touching!”
• “Haunting”
• “There’s no question this has some compelling marketing hooks—and it’s a pretty unbelievable story in the first place”

I would be proud to say that these twelve comments were reactions to MY latest nonfiction work. But this is actually the way that Marc Tyler Nobleman started off a very thought-provoking post at his own blog.

A little later in the piece, he revealed that each reaction came from a children’s book editor—who was rejecting his manuscript. It wasn’t that they were afraid to take a chance on a newcomer; Nobleman has written many, many books including the highly lauded Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman. So, why? Doubtless many reasons, but he was often told that nonfiction—especially nonfiction about someone who is not a household name—doesn’t sell.

Okay, it’s no news that the economy is in trouble and if that weren’t affecting publishing, the changes in technology still would be. No news at all. But Nobleman's post isn’t whining about it. Instead he created his own news—and hopefully a bit of buzz to pitch and call attention to the story he loves and wants to tell in print.

He turned to illustrators—some kids, some old pros with hundreds of books among them. He asked them to create covers for his book. There are twelve on his blog (interestingly, the same number as listed rejections). You can go to the link below to see them all. Since I’m just picking one to share here, I'm loyally going for the cover by Tim Bush, who illustrated my own All in Just One Cookie.

I'll let Marc tell the rest of his own story at the link below. But at the end, he closes with two questions:

Librarians: Is this a book you can see adding to your collection?

Editors: Is this a book you can see?

For me, Marc’s post, http://noblemania.blogspot.com/2011/09/picture-book-for-sale.html, also raises many more:

What about the stories that need to be told precisely because they are about people, who aren't household names but perhaps should be because they came out of mist to be heroes or do the decent thing? People like, say, you or me or the kid that is reading the book?

What is the author’s changing role in these crazy transitional times? First it was just creator; now our roles are equal parts promoters and “publisizers.” The Internet also gives Marc and all of us a platform for another additional role. But what is that role and what will it entail?

And, what will happen when the iPad (RIP Steve Jobs) and its equivalents make illustrated books a realistic digital commodity; how will that shift the roles of publishers and authors even more? What are some of the best case scenarios?

Come on guys, do we have a shot at a discussion here?

Out and About

This past month I left my office to attend various events covering genres and technology and media I don’t know much about.

"RESPECTABLE" COMICS

First was the Jewish Literature for Children Western Regional Conference, a one-day event in LA, on Not Your Parents’ Comics: Graphic Literature for Today’s Readers. Among the speakers was Sid Jacobson, who has spent more than half a century writing and producing comic books for the Pentagon (soldiers’ manuals,) comics geeks, and now is writing award-winning graphic biographies for children, on subjects ranging from Anne Frank to Che Guevara to Vlad the Impaler.

Graphic books are not just created by author-illustrators. Jacobson writes and Ernie Colón draws the pictures. Something for us writers-only to consider. The conference also featured education specialist Anastasia Betts who gave a great talk about how teachers are using graphic literature to advance visual and verbal literacy and supplement the curriculum. (See her website www.graphicnovels.101.com for all this and more.)

FIRST NOVEL CAFES, NOW ESPRESSO BOOKS

Then, a couple of weeks later I went to the newly expanded Flintridge Bookstore in La Cañada (near LA) to see a demonstration of the ESPRESSO BOOK MACHINE! (http://www.flintridgebooks.com/index_files/Page1157.htm) There aren’t many of these around, and most are owned by university presses. This Rube Goldberg-type machine is a wondrous

sight. You put your files into a computer at one end, press a button, and watch through the glass panels as wheels turn, flaps open and close, a glue pot dribbles – and a bound book comes out the other end! Amazing.

Right now, the machine can do text and black and white illustrations, but stay tuned. Before long it will handle color and large format and anything else you want. Want to resuscitate your out-of-print darlings? To publish your niche-market blockbuster? You can do it in a couple of hours! You don’t need to live near LA either. Grant Paules, espresso book genius, can work with you at any distance.

A STEP TOWARD HOLLYWOOD

Lastly, this month saw the premiere of my first-ever book trailer. Full disclosure: it’s for a middle-grade novel, All the World’s A Stage: A Novel in Five Acts, but I plan to exploit this medium for my future nonfiction books as well. Researching the whole thing was soooo much fun! I watched dozens of book trailers and decided that less is decidedly more.

Next, I wrote a script that is just over one minute. Working with my illustrious friend, Christopher (Kit) Gray, documentary video editor, (cgray@cgpost.com) we found the perfect copyright-free Elizabethan music. (www.jsayles.com/familypages/EarlyMusicOld.htm) Then I asked another friend, David Burston, an English actor, to narrate the script. Finally, Kit put it all together, using Thomas Cox’s cover and interior artwork. It was ever so much fun sitting at the editing deck watching Kit tweak the sound and images to create a gem that I’ve not yet tired of watching. School Library Journal even featured it as its Book Trailer of the Week.

I’m finally entering the 21^st century (just climbed onto facebook,) and it’s an exciting place for authors as well as readers.

Book Festivals!

I haven’t appeared at very many book festivals, but attended two in the last couple of weeks. The first one came about because of a Facebook connection, associate professor Ernie Bond, who sent me an invite to the Children’s Literature Festival at Salisbury University, which is held every spring. By coincidence, I was going to be in town visiting relatives at the exact time, so sent him a message that I would drop by. One of the main reasons was that two I.N.K. bloggers would be there, Melissa Stewart and Sneed Collard lll. Then Ernie replied that he would have some of my books ordered for me to sign(!)

Well sure, I’m always happy to sign books and was impressed that some were available with only a couple of weeks notice, plus people brought books in from their library or personal collections. And though Sneed hadn’t arrived yet I was fortunate to be able to chat with Melissa who gave me some great tips about her Skype school visits, something I’d like to try now that my iPad 2 has arrived. Her Readers’ Theater scripts and other activities on her web site have also been inspiring.

Speaking of my iPad, I’ve had it a little over a week and used it to film, edit, and upload the video below, taken at the UCF Book Festival last Saturday:


It’s another amazing coincidence that I write and illustrate books, and my brother Robert sells them... pretty cool! His store, Leedy’s Books, is in Orlando, so this festival is a great way for people to find out about his bookstore (he carries primarily used books). The University of Central Florida started their book festival last year and did a great job organizing it, but this year was even better. My only complaint is that it can be very tough for mere authors and books to compete against blue-eyed miniature horses in costume!!!

Not one, not two, but THREE adorable tiny horses (two with blue eyes) were in the booth next to me when I was signing. Needless to say, most of the books were signed at other times throughout the day in Robert’s booth. There were plenty of other fun distractions like a zillion characters in Star Wars costumes, which all added to the fun. Everything is done by volunteers which is probably the rule at book festivals, so hat’s off to the organizers at both events!

April Fool's Day Edition: Ghost Books

Amazon.com thinks I wrote a book with basketball player Chamique Holdsclaw. I never did, but if you go to Amazon, you’ll find the title. Chamique Holdsclaw: My Story, published in July 2003 for readers 9-12, available from one seller for $68. It was published by Tandem Library, they say, and weighs 8.8 ounces. There are no customer reviews.

ARGH! Every time I see this listing, I want to scream, “I NEVER WROTE THE BOOK!” What happened was this: A little over a decade ago, I was in talks with a publisher whose parent company was contracting for a memoir by Holdsclaw, who was a standout athlete at the University of Tennessee with a seemingly great career ahead of her in the WNBA. The publisher wanted to include a kids’ book by Holdsclaw in their contract, and wanted to know if I’d be the co-author. I was honored and excited, but things fell through. Jennifer Frey, the author who co-wrote Holdsclaw’s adult memoir, ended up writing the kids’ book as well. Booklist liked Chamique Holdsclaw: My Story, by Holdsclaw and Frey, concluding that Chamique “comes across as an inspiring role model for readers, no matter what their dreams.”

Even so, this ghost book continues to follow me around on Amazon and on other book sites throughout the Web. What happened, it seems, is that the publisher released the marketing information before a contract was signed. Once it’s released, I don’t think there’s any way to take it back. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s annoying! And now I seem to have another ghost book out there. Recently, I’ve seen a posting on eBay for Bloomers and Hoops, a brand new book available for $16.94. But I can assure you that there will be no Bloomers and Hoops. That was the working title of my new book, Basketball Belles: How Two Teams and One Scrappy Player Put Women’s Hoops on the Map. Once again, the marketing information was released before the book was final, and I suppose the title will be floating out there forever. I guess it’s the universe’s own April Fools joke on me.

Do any writers out there have ghosts books like these? Has anyone tried to track down books that don’t actually exist?

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On a completely different note, I wanted to announce the relaunch of my Web site, suemacy.com. It’s now up and running, with some new features and some useful links to the content covered in my books. (But alas, nothing on Chamique Holdsclaw.) Come on by and check it out.