The Literary Life

From the staff of BookSwim.com

Category: The Literary Life

Suzanne Collins wins BookSwim’s first BOOKSIE AWARD for MockingJay

Our first award goes to Suzanne Collins, author of MockingJay (Scholastic Press), the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy. In September 2008 Scholastic Press released the first book, The Hunger Games, and it has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for more than 60 weeks in a row. The Hunger Games was followed in September 2009 by Catching Fire. Suzanne’s latest book, Mockingjay, has continued the trend by catapulting to the number one spot on Amazon’s bestseller list just a few days after its release on August 24th.

However, the rampant success of the book had very little to do with our selection of Suzanne as this week’s winner. What really got us excited was the use flash games to captivate an audience. We hadn’t considered the book until people started talking about it on Twitter. A quick web search for Suzanne Collins lead us to her website and the message “Visit the Scholastic website for cool games and info! www.scholastic.com/underlandchronicals.” Within a few minutes we were hooked, chasing fireflies through Gnawers Labyrinth and birthing my own Fishenstein with the Creature Creator.

Mockingjay’s audience is the Young Adult (YA) market. This crossover demographic is composed of two groups: teens, and adults who like YA fiction. A study by Pew Internet published in 2009, shows that 73% of teens play games on a desktop or laptop computer. Likewise, many adults who read YA fiction do so because it re-connects them to the wonderment of childhood. By creating a Flash game that speaks to both populations, Suzanne Collins has not only shown that she understand her audience, but knows how to impassion it out of complacency.

Collins began her career in 1991 as a writer for Nickelodeon’s Emmy-Nominated Clarissa Explains It All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. Soon after she received a Writers Guild of America nomination for her work on the Christmas special, Santa, Baby. After meeting fellow children’s author James Proimos, Collins was inspired to write children’s books herself. From 2003 and 2007 she wrote the five books of the Underland Chronicles: Gregor the Overlander, Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, Gregor and the Marks of Secret, and Gregor and the Code of Claw. Because of her success Collins was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people for 2010.

Without hesitation, Suzanne Collins and the team at Scholastic are this week’s innovators for creatively using technology to harness the imagination of childhood and convert someone who would have never picked up Mocking Jay into excited fan.

Our hat’s off to you Suzanne! We wish you much success.

No Comments by bookswim on August 30, 2010
filed in Booksie Awards, Company Blog, The Literary Life

A Look Back on Book Expo America 2010 & What It Means to You – The Reader

Book Expo America (BEA – twitter hash tag #BEA10) is an industry event that happens once a year where everyone involved in the process of writing, publishing, distributing and marketing books comes together.  This year it was held in the Jacob Javits center in NYC and, judging from preliminary numbers, had attendance around 30,000 people.

One of the most exciting things that I heard – at least in relation to readers – was that next year, BEA may open itself to readers as well as industry professionals and go back to a 3-day format (this year was two days) to allow for greater attendance and quality time.  So, with that possibility and to memorialize a great event, I’ve decided to write a why is BEA important post.

BEA starts with a great number of boxes, crates, and people willing to build up booths.  This process takes a full day.

Some of the booths are very creative – this one above was a giant typewriter.  Most booths are traditional “storefront”-type setups but there were a few other creative booths.  After things get set up, the doors open and thousands of people pour in. The scene looks like this:

Business is happening all around but what is most interesting to readers is the author signings, advanced reading copy (ARC) distribution, and general book discovery.  James Patterson, Debbie Macomber, Mary Roach, Kristan Higgins, Cherie Priest, and hundreds of other authors were signing books.  Below is a picture of me with Kristan Higgins, who is an amazingly nice person on top of a very good author.  Book Expo is a great time for authors to get to meet their readers just as it is for readers to get to meet authors. Book Expo allows for a stage that provides a bit of clarity into the process of publishing.  It is rare that the author, agent, publisher, printer, distributor, and bookseller are all in the same room.  When you add readers to the mix, there is a near-heavenly synergy.  Readers get to show their support (and flex their consumer powers) a bit by supporting the authors they enjoy and sending a message to publishers that print publishing isn’t dead yet.

The last, but still important, aspect of BEA is connecting readers to the reading media.  While there will always be the NY Times Book Review, it seems as if major media outlets are slashing their book/publishing related budgets.  Now, more than ever, we need services like The Book Studio, Shelf Awareness, Bookmarks Magazine, Good Reads, and LibraryThing to help us weed through the masses of books and find well-written books that are also relevant.  Pictured below are Bethanne Patrick “The Book Maven,” a quintessential member of The Book Studio, and Robin Lenz, a member of Shelf Awareness.

If Book Expo does open itself up to readers and you are a book lover, I would highly recommend that you try to attend.

For those who couldn’t make it this year, here is a short summary of what I gathered from this year’s conference and how it affects you – the reader:

  • Print books (also known as p-books) are not dead.  They will remain a strong and driving force for many years to come.
  • E-books are important to publishers and they want their books to work on all devices.
  • There are a few tech companies that are moving into the book space.  Expect some new devices and some new e-book marketplaces.
  • Children’s books are going to be amazing in the future – between iPad apps and interactive websites, there are some cool things already available and in the works.

Should you have any questions, comment and I’ll do my best to answer them.

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on May 28, 2010
filed in Company Blog, Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life

Book Review: Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom

I just completed reading Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom.  More appropriately, I just finished listening to it on audio CD.  My wife had gotten it for us to listen to on a long car ride and my first thoughts were, “I’m not sure I want to listen to a preachy book.”  After listening for a few minutes, I was happily surprised.

Despite being a book that is about the stories of a rabbi and a preacher, it is not preachy at all.  If anything, it is more of a story about spirituality and what I believe is the soft take on religion/faith.

The book is a true story about Mitch Albom and starts when his childhood rabbi asks him to deliver his eulogy.  Mitch spends the next 8 years getting to know his rabbi on a more personal level so that he can properly pay tribute to this man’s life.  The story covers discussions they had as well as parallels to a preacher that Mitch had met in Detroit.

I would recommend this book to readers of any faith (even those of no faith).  It is a beautiful story and a quick read.  Enjoy!

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on April 28, 2010
filed in Book Reviews, Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life

Are writers vampires? The trouble with memoir

There’s always a trouble reading memoirs: writers have a habit (and arguably, an obligation– otherwise, why bother paying attention?) of describing things as more meaningful, more beautiful, than most of us would perceive them. Sometimes, this insistence on plot, metaphor, and ultimate significance doesn’t translate from novels, their natural habitat, to real life, where the details are messier, the characters less consistent, and guns we saw in the first act rarely make it to the third act, much less go off. I once read of a regular blogger whose significant other broke up with her over her writing, saying he felt as if the only reason she was in the relationship was so that she would have something to write about. It’s a risky approach, treating real life like a work of art.

Mark Doty begins his heartbreaking memoir Dog Years by explaining his need to apologize for writing, of all things, about his dearly departed dogs. This is the man who wrote another memoir that so clearly evokes the feelings of grief that I could barely read a chapter on the subway without needing to pull up my hood and pretend I had allergies: Heaven’s Coast. That earlier memoir chronicled the last days of his partner Wally, who died of AIDS after they had been together for twelve years. In Dog Years, Doty mentions some of the negative reviews he had received for that earlier work– notably, one British reviewer who accused Doty of being a psychic vampire, living off the corpse of his deceased lover.

Ouch. Most of the reviews of Heaven’s Coast are overwhelmingly positive, but it’s possible to find other readers who agree with the vampire-accuser. “This book,” one anonymous online reviewer writes, “despite the horrors it sometimes documents, ends up reading like one long, shrill assertion of its own marvellous[sic] sensitivity, inviting the reader to congratulate themselves on their special ability to share in it. Sometimes bad writing is also morally questionable, and this is one of those times.”

The detractors seem to agree on a common viewpoint: that it is inappropriate for Doty to write about his loss, at least in the manner that he does; that his writing reflects to them an indulgence, even macabre delight, in airing emotions that should remain private. There’s a revulsion in their negative reviews and the hideousness of their metaphors, aside from their insensitivity– a kind of disgust that we usually reserve for obscene things.

So we come to the problem of memoir: writing about real life to make it interesting (which usually means tragic, challenging, and very occasionally hilarious) without triggering the voyeuristic feeling that we’re reading someone’s diary. I’ve come across this kneejerk revulsion to difficult memoirs, for books from The Glass Castle to Angela’s Ashes. A reader invariably accuses the author of being self-pitying, hyperbolic, whiny, even a liar.

Admittedly, in this case, Doty comes from a background in poetry. This means that when he writes about an emotion, he not only describes it, he lingers, examining the feeling in every setting, from every point of view. So accusing him of melodrama, perhaps, or self-importance, comes easily.

But what do we want when we read memoirs, if not this close examination of feelings we may or may not share but want to see someone else surviving? A man loses his partner of twelve years, a girl born to Mormons escapes after years of physical and sexual abuse, and they write their stories. Do we demand that these writers present brave faces throughout their stories, as if they had always had the strength they do now? Reading these memoirs can be so harrowing, so effective, that getting through the book makes us feel as if we’re undergoing the same difficult circumstances, inviting them onto ourselves whenever we open the pages. Most of us will find the redemption of such difficult reads in the strength and hindsight the protagonists gain after their hard-won triumphs, so our main interest lies in the ‘after’ rather than the ‘before.’ Or are these reactions instead demonstrating a belief that emotions like grief and rage should be kept private, as if they are never warranted in adults, as if we should be ashamed of them?

I wonder sometimes if we’re surrounded by too many media sources, too many stories, so we feel ashamed that our own lives aren’t bigger. Doty lost his partner, and this hurt; he also lost his dogs, and that hurt too, if not as much or in the same way. We look to writers to tell us about our own lives, help us make sense of this pour of babbling experience that never bothers to explain itself to us. Is it wrong to treat the death of a dog as something worth talking about? What makes one life experience worth noticing, the other a kind of private thought reserved for self-reflection?

I say: if a man experiences the worst loss he will endure in his life, and he needs to write about it to put his mind back together… let him linger. Let him stare as long as he needs into the place where we hide our powerful emotions, afraid that if we let them loose, we will never have the strength to navigate our lives again. And if someone else accuses him of making too much prettiness out of private grief?… well, some people drink themselves to oblivion to forget how hard life is. Some people need to tell stories of their own lives so the world will still feel beautiful, still worth inhabiting, despite the pain. What else are writers for?

-Chip

No Comments by Chip on March 17, 2010
filed in "Sound & Fury" by Chip, Company Blog, The Literary Life

Book Review: The One That I Want

For Valentine’s day, I contacted Allison Winn Scotch asking her if she could send me an ARC of The One That I Want so that I could give it as a gift to my wife (who was a big fan of Allison Winn Scotch’s prior novels).  A few days later, a copy was in my mailbox.

My Rating: 4/5
My Review:
While I haven’t read any prior Allison Winn Scotch books, I can now say that I’m open to the possibility.  I’m a picky reader, and often start a novel and never finish it.  Either I have no connection with the characters, it takes too long to move, or moves too fast.  I think I’ve actually finished 50% of the books I’ve started.  The main character, Tilly Farmer was well painted from the beginning.  While I wouldn’t say that I could see any bit of myself in the main character, I could honestly say that she was painted well and I cared about what would happen next.

I read the book in three sittings and closed the book wanting for more – to me the sign of a good book.  Now a bit about the book that will hopefully convince you to give it a read:

To paraphrase the summary, The One That I Want is about a hometown girl who grows up to be a hometown woman and ends up married to her high school sweetheart, working as the high school guidance counselor.  Everything seems perfect until she’s given “the gift of clarity” when she starts to see that her life wasn’t nearly as perfect as she thought.

The main character undergoes quite a few changes and the reader is taken on a roller coaster ride sitting right next to her.  Personally I find that books that include premonitions or any form of fate need to be done with care.  Often I see its used as extreme-foreshadowing that leaves any reader with half a brain no need to read the pages in between.  When it comes to The One That I Want, this is not the case.  Enough is revealed to pique ones interest yet questions are still left unanswered which drives the story well.

When all is said and done, this book will make a perfect summer beach read.  Its fun yet serious and has meaning to it if one wishes to extract that kind of thing from reading books.

-Nick

(In full disclosure, I received a free copy of this book.  Despite this fact, I provided an open and honest review of the book, because I value honesty above free books.)

No Comments by Nick on March 5, 2010
filed in Book Reviews, The Literary Life

How the Dutch Auction Can Save E-Books

Quietly I’ve been watching the e-book pricing debate and the feuds between Amazon and many publishers.  I’ve seen quite a few interesting articles on the price of e-books from heavy hitters such as Cory Doctorow (via podcasts) and articles such as this.  There are tons of other articles I’ve read lately and all of them seem to be offering perspectives but very few of them (if any) provided an actual step by step solution that publishers can follow to solve this crazy complex question of HOW TO PRICE AN E-BOOK.

The solution is simple – Dutch Auctions. (wikipedia entry)

For those that are unfamiliar with a dutch auction and don’t feel like reading here’s a short summary

1) The seller sets a quantity of an item to sell, the description of the item, and a time to keep the auction open
2) Bidders get to select a price and quantity they wish to buy at.  For example, they can say they are willing to pay $50 each for 10 units.  Their bid is a contract and should they be a winner, they must pay and will receive the item.  (The second part is key to getting people to be honest in their perceived value).
3) When the auction is over, starting with the highest price, quantities are matched until the quantity is met and that is the price that the top bidders get.  (Ok, this is a mouthful, see the chart below)

EXAMPLE:
Stated Quantity: 80
Bids:

Bid Quantity Bid Price
10 $100
20 $80
50 $50
100 $25
1000 $20
10000 $15

In this case,the quantity level would be met at the price of $50 (10 + 20 + 50), so the 80 people who bid $50+ would be sold the item at $50.

Got it?  Good.  Cause now comes the fun part.

If you have ever taken econ 101 or had to sit into a business meeting with a CFO, you’ve seen this before.  Its the supply/demand curve.  Most of the articles that have talked about e-book sales have mentioned that publishers need to figure out the supply and demand curve for e-books so they can solve the pricing problem.  Well, I’m about to explain how dutch auctions will solve that problem, and how to make the data work.

The Information a Dutch Auction Provides
1) The number of people willing to pay a given price for e-books
2) The distribution of people at a given price
3) How scarcity effects price

To keep this discussion short(er) and focused, I will NOT touch upon hardcover/paperback releases or pricing.

How Does a Dutch Auction Solve This Problem?
If you look at the chart above with bid quantity and price, as you see, your quantity increases as your price decreases.  In actuality, there will be a cutoff where a reduction in price will not yield a significant gain in quantity.  To save on time and screen space, I will use the above table in the rest of these examples.  From the data, we’ve learned that we have a demand of 11,180 from the sample size of people who knew of the auction.  Based on this data, if we know 10% of our addressable market saw the auction, then we have potential sales of 111,800 (assuming that we sell it at $15).  We also see that we have a potential of 11,800 if we sell it at $20.  With this, we can actually plot out that supply/demand curve.  (I will address data quality issues later).  I’ve addressed facts #1 and #2 above.  As for scarcity, based on the quantity defined in the dutch auction, you will have different price distributions (which can help address limited editions)

How Can This Be Done With Statistical Accuracy?
I have a reasonable schooling in mathematics and have held quite a few positions being “the stats guy” so I understand the importance (and irrelevance) of limited/bad data.  Below are the steps to gather enough data so that the information gathered will be statistically relevant and will provide a reasonable cross section of information.

Providing Diversity Within Data:
1) For all of the following lists, they will need to be repeated for the following groups (Suggested min 5 authors per group):
a) Mass market (high recognition) authors such as James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, Stephanie Meyer
b) Niche market (high recognition within a niche) authors such as Neil Gaiman
c) Mid-market (medium recognition) authors – this would be a multi-published author with some popularity
d) Debut authors.  For best results, ignore previously well known figures
e) Celebrities.  It seems their putting out books in greater frequency and you can’t ignore them.

How To Collect The Data:
There are a few rules that need to be followed for any of this to work.  A failure to follow any of these rules will compromise the data and provide less accurate results
1) There needs to be a limited quantity that will be provided during the dutch auction.  This quantity should be less than the total demand (60% or so).  Prior sales can be used as in indicator.
2) This must be the only channel in which the e-book can be purchased.  There must be at least 3-4 months delay before the e-book will be available outside of this dutch auction.
3) No pricing data should be available in the auction description.  Bidders must not be given starting points for comparison with such immediacy.
4) Traffic must be driven to the auction site.  Quantity being sold during the auction should be driven by the expected traffic that will make it to the auction.
5) The auctions should be run during the month or two leading up to the release of the book and should end on the day the book is released (so that winning bidders can receive their e-book on the day of release)
6) Bid quantity must be fixed at 1 unit and bidders only allowed one bid.  This will keep out people trying to fix results or bulk buyers.  The goal is to find out what consumer demand is.

Summary:
1) Publishers should run 20-25 dutch-auctions to gather data on the supply/demand curve of books
2) Publishers should control the supply of those e-books to get an accurate idea of demand distribution
3) After data is collected, a reasonable idea of what specific types of books with different marketing spends/author recognition look like will be gained

I realize this is a blog post, and I’m speaking to a general audience, but I will be available via comments and e-mail (nruffilo@bookswim.com) if you have further questions about this.

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on March 1, 2010
filed in Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life, VIDEO CLIP!

Sacramento CBS13 News: Save with Dave

View the video at CBS13.com
- OR -
Read the article at CBS13.com

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― You’ve probably heard about renting textbooks, now that system applies to all books with a new website called “Bookswim.”

By their own description, Bookswim.com is like Netflix for books. For around $10 a month, you get unlimited book rentals and the shipping is absolutely free!

The books are delivered to your house and you can take as long as you need to read them. Just ship the books back when you’re done.


You can even buy the books you like after you’ve read them.

First, you sign up with the service, and then pick the books you want to read and put them in the “rental pool.”

There’s no checkout, you just wait for the books to arrive and start reading! If you have one of those e-readers, or read on your phone, they offer I-book rental as well, at ten to twenty dollars off the cover price.

And best of all, there’s no contract, and no cancellation fee, you can quit at any time.

So how do you save by renting your bestsellers?

If you bought ten books in one month, the company says this service would save you $175 by using Bookswim!

View the video at CBS13.com
- OR -
Read the article at CBS13.com

No Comments by bookswim on March 1, 2010
filed in "I Should Probably Read More" by Eric, Press & Media Clippings, Television, Television (Online), Website

How Books Were Made

Short and simple: an instructional video on the production of books circa 1947.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/bookpatrol/archives/195355.asp

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on February 24, 2010
filed in Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life

A Literary Valentines Day + Update On My Challenge

My Valentines Day:

Hello all!  I’m back after a short blog hiatus due to crazy times here in the office as well as some time off for a wedding as well as spending time with my wife during Valentines Day.  While I’m not normally a big fan of celebrating holidays (I prefer to celebrate for no reason or for a good reason), Valentines Day is a special holiday for me.  I’ve always considered myself a hopeless romantic and now that I’ve found a love I can share my life with, I guess that means I’m just a romantic.

While this year wasn’t my most crazy Valentines Day gift, what I did was track down one of my wife’s favorite authors (of the moment), Allison Winn Scotch.  I then groveled and begged for Allison to sign an advanced reader copy of her new book (Due out June 1st.  She’s agreed to an interview, so expect that closer to launch date).  Being the kind and generous person she is, Allison came through and got me a copy, of which I will be reading and reviewing as soon as my wife lets go of it (although she’ll probably finish it tonight).

An Update On My Book Challenge:

While I made my declaration of my book challenge – to read 1 book from every major genre – early January, I didn’t exactly start it until about a week ago.  The reason for my delay was actually video games – my guilty pleasure.  Recently, I’ve decided to put the games aside and focus on my many other hobbies/loves.  To get the ball rolling, I decided to pick a children’s book.  I chose Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney.  I’ve noticed that quite a few BookSwimmers have been reading books from this series so it struck me as a book that may have a bit more substance than a book meant for 3-year-olds.

I read the book in three sittings – which gave me a good sense of accomplishment as well as speaks highly of its ability to keep my attention (which is pretty tough given that I’ve only read through about 30-40% of the books I’ve picked up due to lack of interest/grasp).  At first, my perspective of the book was simply as a cheeky humor book – of which it did a good job executing on.  As I progressed, I started to look at it as retrospection from a child.  While I’m far from being old, I can honestly say I’ve nearly forgotten what its like to be a kid and see things from a completely different perspective.  I wouldn’t say I gained anything profound after reading through, but I would say that it was nice to revisit similar moments in my childhood and laugh about them.  Ultimately, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading.  The illustrations every few pages were a very nice accent.  I may just buy up the series and hold onto them for when I have young kids and pass them along.

The next book on my list of things to read is from the Reference Genre.  Its “Operating Systems Concepts.”  Its a textbook and to most people its the most boring thing in the entire world, but I actually am excited to read this – I’m a dork, and I love it :)

Thanks for listening.  What kids books/reference books have you read recently that you enjoyed?

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on February 17, 2010
filed in Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life

Calling All Romance Readers…

There isn’t much to say about this one.  For those who love the cowboys on the covers of romance books, you’ll love this: http://takeacowboyhome.com/takeacowboyhome/

Enjoy

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on February 4, 2010
filed in The Literary Life

Can you march to the beat of the BookDrum(.com)?

I recently stumbled upon a great website with a great purpose: BookDrum.com

To those who love data (also known as catalogers) I would describe BookDrum as a “360-degree book related metadata website who’s goal is to enhance the reading experience.”

I realize I may have lost a few on that one, so to better describe BookDrum, it’s a website that provides information about things within a novel.  For example, it would explain, with words/pictures/videos, what people might dress like in the time period of a given book.  Straight from their marketing person, I have this for you:

“Book Drum has pioneered an exciting new approach to reading. We’re bringing the books we love to life with images, music, maps, video, and all the other riches of the Internet.

We need writers and editors, and we’re running a Tournament to find them.
First prize is $1,500, and we’re offering job interviews to everyone who impresses.  Closing date for the Tournament is 28th February.”

Book Drum

You can link up with them via Facebook or Twitter below:

Facebook link : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=189944095836

Twitter : http://twitter.com/bookdrum

Look forward to BookSwim and BookDrum making quite a splash with great harmony in the future!

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on January 19, 2010
filed in Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life

My Book Challenge for 2010

My wife has taken a challenge to attempt to read 210 books in this upcoming year.  She is an extremely avid reader and may actually accomplish that goal.  As for myself, while I love to read, I am no speed reader and devote slightly less time to reading.  Nonetheless, I wanted to challenge myself to read and most challenges seem somewhat arbitrary beyond having the goal of “reading more.”  The challenge that I’m going to undertake will challenge me to read outside of my comfort zone and to expand my horizons.  Anyone wishing to partake in this challenge with me, feel free!

Part 1: Read a book from every major genre.
Arts & Photography
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children’s Books
Cooking, Food & Wine
History
Health, Mind, & Body
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Parenting & Family
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Home & Garden
Nonfiction
Science
Entertainment
Comics & Graphic Novels
Outdoors & Nature
Gay & Lesbian

Note: If a book falls in two genres (ex: nonfiction/science) I will only be counting it for one genre.

Part 2: Read the Classics
I’ve chosen the following list of “top 100 books” of which I will read 3 that I have not previously read.

Part 3: Open the Mind
I will read 1 book written by an author whom I have differing political or ethical views.

Part 4: Tie Up Loose Ends
I will finish any books that I’ve started and not yet completed.  Thankfully that is only 2-3 books, but its going on.

If you wish to participate in the same challenge and track your progress on your blog, let me know and I’ll link to it.  If you have another challenge you’re participating in, share.

Happy New Years!

-Nick

1 Comment by Nick on January 6, 2010
filed in Nick's Notebook, The Literary Life

Author Interview: Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant

Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant are co-authors of several books including Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made which has sold 800,000 copies to date.  A few days ago they provided BookSwim with a guest post with an interesting perspective on the most recent Publisher’s Weekly cover which was extremely controversial.  I decided to follow up their guest post with an interview to find out more about these two authors.

Virginia & Donna – How did this union begin?
Virginia – Before we began writing together, we were both plus-sized models in NYC.  Donna was in the biz for a year and a half before I joined.  After a short stint, I ended up going to the business side of things.  I became the Editor in Chief of Maxima magazine (a magazine for sized 14+ women).  Donna came and joined me and we worked on the magazine together of over a year.  On New Years Eve of 1987 as a result of the economic crash, we got a call from the magazine’s backers saying “Thanks so much, we’re not going forward with this.”  Donna and I discussed options and decided to write a book together.  We picked up a copy of How to Write a Romance and Get It Published by Kathryn Falk and began our journey.  Our first book, Exposures was based off a romance template.  We got an agent and the book was sold within 2 weeks with only the proposal and first two chapters.

There was a large lull between 1990 and 1997 when we searched for a new agent and tried to decide what book to write next.  Finally, we came up with Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made which published in 1997.

Who handles all your twitter/blog/internet presence?
Virginia – I do.  Donna isn’t much for all the social media and e-mail, so I handle that aspect of things.

Have there been any studies about how well a book sold if it has been displayed in two different sections?
Virginia – I think a book should be displayed in all applicable sections.  I understand that publishers control the co-ops and advertising displays, but when it comes to a store cataloging items as “Fiction,” “Science Fiction,” etc, if a book appropriately fits multiple genres, it should be displayed in all.  After Donna and I wrote our open letter to Oprah, that set off an interesting firestorm of “stuff.”  A dozen or so other authors also shared in our views.  The recent Publishers Weekly article and a New York Times article made it seem as if all black people are only interested in all black things.  It is because of this that having a book just displayed in the “African American Literature” section is bothersome.

What are your thoughts on the “African American Lit” section in book stores?
Virginia – Both Donna and I are of the belief that there should not be a separate category for African American fiction.  What happens today is that what you mainly see is urban lit, street lit, and erotica.  When I look at these books, I know that it is not the stuff that I want to read.  Our books end up on the same table even though we are very much a different type of fiction.  Our books would make a better fit within Women’s Fiction.

How would you describe your books?
Virginia – We write Women’s Lit because most of our main characters are women, and our stories are about mothers, daughters, etc – women.  Our themes are friendship, and family.  We write about women’s lives and the kinds of things that all women go through no matter what their race.

Do you have any advice for an aspiring African American writer who is looking to get published?
Vriginia – In today’s market it is so hard to give any advice as we’ve just heard the most horrible things about what people have been looking for.  Publishers are looking for street-lit, erotica, or christian, otherwise it won’t sell.  As a writer, if you have a broader vision of yourself and the stories you want to tell, you absolutely must tell the best story you can.   Hope that your hard work and efforts will pay off.  The publishers are trying to catch up while things change much faster than they can keep up with.  Publishers are very reactive and not very proactive.  What you really have to do is be true to the story you wish to tell, and tell it the best way you possibly can and put it out there.  You have to be afraid for an uphill battle.  Publishing isn’t working on developing the young new talent.  They want big numbers, if you don’t, they won’t give you a next book.

I still think that what we do is a very noble part of human history – that storytellers have been the keepers of what has transpired – factually and in fiction since the beginning of time.  Writers are valuable to culture and always have been in every culture and every country.  There will never be a time where there won’t be storytellers.  We need to figure out how we can continue to be storytellers in a marketplace that is constantly in flux.

————

Thank you Virginia and Donna for your time and your contributions to the literary world!

-Nick


No Comments by Nick on December 23, 2009
filed in Authors Speak, The Literary Life

Beyond The Book: “BTB Podcast #139: Netflix for Books?”

Read and listen at BeyondTheBook.com

That’s the pitch from BookSwim, which offers books for rent the way many of us rent DVDs. From “The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association,” a how-to for getting published professionally, to “Superfreakonimics,” bestsellers and perennial hits are all available for monthly fees.

As BookSwim’s Eric Ginsberg explains, think of it as an online library where you pay for a subscription but never for any fines. With the publishing world still sorting out Kindles and Nooks, BookSwim reaches audiences who want to read “real” books but who don’t have room for real bookshelves.

Download “BTB Podcast #139: Netflix for Books?” on mp3.

Read and listen at BeyondTheBook.com

No Comments by bookswim on December 18, 2009
filed in AUDIO CLIP!, Press & Media Clippings, The Lit Life Podcast

Monday Mayhem – Last Minute Gift Edition

Book Purse

How is gift giving mayhem? Well – for those of you who have Christmas as your “end-goal” for gifts, you have less than 11 days left to shop. If you celebrate Chanukah (Hanukkah) then you have only a few days left until its completion. If you celebrate some other holiday in this season, then I’m sure you’re deadline is closing in. The holidays are always fraught with insanity because a few questions need to be answered: “Who do I buy for?” and “How much do I spend?” It isn’t until those questions are answered before the big question gets asked:

WHAT THE HECK DO I GET?

Hopefully I can help spur your imagination with some gift ideas.  Anyone close to me can tell you that I put more thought into gift giving (especially delivery of the gift itself) than most people.  In the past, I’ve written computer games, folded oragami until my fingers bled, built practice swords, hunted e-bay for antiques to be restored, and even more crazy ideas.  I rarely overspend and try to keep my buying short, so if you’re crafty then you can take advantage of these ideas, otherwise you’re going to fork over some major dough.

1) The Book Purse (Pictured Above).  Rebound Designs has them for sale for $125.  While that price-tag is reasonable, I wanted to customize the book, so my only option was to build it myself.  All materials (including the super glue, fabric, hot-glue, handles, clasps, book, etc) were $45.  My final product took 3 hours to make and isn’t as nice as Rebound Design, but it is completely personalized.

2) The Origami Heart Story – This takes time and a bit of creativity, but the total cost of this project can be as cheap as $3.  The only consumables are pencil or pen and the folding paper.  While you can use expensive nicely designed oragami paper, you can also easily buy cheap paper (or wrapping paper) and use that.  The idea is this, you write a story in pieces (number each one) and then you fold those pieces up into something significant to the story.  Instructions on folding an oragami heart can be found here.  The person gets to open the gift, see the oragami and then take it all apart and unfold the story.  You can number the outside, or just let the person try to put the puzzle together.

3) The E-Bay wheel of fun – E-bay truly is a unique marketplace.  While 80% of the items sold there are easily found in stores, there are some gems sold only on e-bay or in tiny boutiques.  Take a few minutes and think about a person and come up with 3 or 4 descriptors about them.  Then, add an item type to those descriptors.  If the person is over-the-top, outgoing, and loves jewelry then search that – you’ll be shocked at what you find.  Price usually is right as well.

4) The Unique Gift Card – While a Best-Buy or Target gift card is great for someone you barely know, it really screams: “I don’t know you well enough or care enough to get you a good gift.”  A friend of mine receives about 10-15 Best-Buy gift cards every Christmas from family.  The more specific the gift, the more thoughtful it is.  For example, a reader would much more appreciate a gift card to a used bookstore or BookSwim.  A movie watcher would love a netflix giftcard.  If you get something too specific, you risk them returning it, but if you know someone is a pen enthusiast, and you find a cool custom pen-maker a gift-card there is very thoughtful and appreciated.

Do you have any quirky gift suggestions for this holiday season?  How have you been pinching pennies (or have you not been) when it comes to gifts?

-Nick

No Comments by Nick on December 14, 2009
filed in "I Should Probably Read More" by Eric, Company Blog
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