{fiction, instead of lies}

A huge thank-you to Book Moot for aiming me toward a really fascinating new thing —
digital storytelling. I KNEW I was not being unreasonable when I had a huge argument with my agent about digital rights. Many publishing companies are not leaving them with the author, but instead of capitalizing on them, they’re sitting on them. Perhaps e-Books aren’t huge news for children’s and YA fiction (which is what I was told — “Nobody is doing anything with ePublishing in children’s books.”), but there’s definitely something there… potential, I believe it’s called. Anyway, do check out inanimate alice, an online serial children’s/YA story told with interactive media (Alice ages a bit each episode, and she’ll end at age 20). It’s a fast-paced, mysterious story, and the pictures and sounds support the text. It’s thoroughly absorbing, as good as having your own little movie, or, since it’s interactive, your own little game.

Want to get a fix on what digital books can do for beginning or non-readers? See Jean Gralley’s Books Unbound, which capitalizes on the possibilities for picture books, and read her thoughts that were first published in Horn Book Magazine this month last year. I’m a bibliophile and I love the texture and smells of paper, but I am eager to see where this new medium takes us.

Thanks to sharp-eyed Sara for sparking these thoughts…

Our Cybils team scrutinized and dissected novel covers more than I usually do, and since on average I don’t spend time judging books by their covers (but I do judge them by their flyleaf copy — and if it’s too detailed or too flippant and tries to strike a stylistic tone — ugh, I put it down, which is unfair of me, I know) unless their covers really stand out, so it was a new thought to me how much cover art can really make a difference to who you get as readers. Our team additionally found that covers in the YA world tend to be pretty similar, (as did Fuse#8), and to follow trends. But using the same model, to me, seem to be a bit… much. Surely we’re not all out of cover ideas — or models — this early in the millennium?! Fortunately, though this same model was used on the Review Copy cover of Angel’s Choice that I received, I understand that the powers that be changed the cover for the actual publication copy that went out to readers. Since both novels may actually appeal to the same group of readers, this was a smarter move, I think.

Since I tend to find my books in smaller bookstores (and usually head straight for whatever I’m looking for), the display copies are sort of …well, invisible to me. (As I say this I realize I’m a bookseller’s worst nightmare – a focused shopper. Aaargh!) The books I actually notice displayed for YA readers have a definite… well, slant to them. They’re either in candy (or is it CUPCAKE or POPSICLE) shades, like the ubiquitous “chick lit” and they look like they’re all written for girls.

I wonder, sometimes, why… Good books like Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies) or An Abundance of Katherines are likely overlooked because of their covers. I absolutely love the cover Gail Gautier’s Happy Kid, and I think the cover of Kiki Strike is awesome – just random enough to leave out a hook for anyone, but artistically relevant. Both of those books are geared to the middle grade set(correct me if I’m wrong on Happy Kid.) – so maybe that’s where the breakdown in covers occurs? People often talk about young adult boys not reading… I’m not sure if anyone is actually marketing books in their general direction… the girls are already reading, so why skew everything their way?

As my publication experience grows, I look forward to seeing just how hard or aggravating it is for authors to deal with the novel cover selection process. One of my MFA profs said told that we as newly fledged authors would have no say in how our covers appeared, for at least our first several novels. He had at that point three in print, and only had gotten his say because he’d a.) taken a business course and b.) presented his professional opinion after begging to sit in on a publication meeting. They listened to him, he said, because he’d gone the extra mile to prepare something. And to humor him. YA/Children’s Lit might be different. Here’s hoping… If they’re open to it, when I am famous, I’m going to bug A.Fortis into designing my cover for me. (A.F., you have lots and lots of time to prepare.)

And now for something on the more random side of life: if you’re really keen to get into the marketing nuts and bolts of your novel, you can start by building your ideal male (an amusing promo for Anatomy of a Boyfriend), or just design a cover for that steamy romance novel you’ve been dying to write.

Oh, stop, you know you have one stashed somewhere. Cheers!

Thanks to sharp-eyed Sara for sparking these thoughts…

Our Cybils team scrutinized and dissected novel covers more than I usually do, and since on average I don’t spend time judging books by their covers (but I do judge them by their flyleaf copy — and if it’s too detailed or too flippant and tries to strike a stylistic tone — ugh, I put it down, which is unfair of me, I know) unless their covers really stand out, so it was a new thought to me how much cover art can really make a difference to who you get as readers. Our team additionally found that covers in the YA world tend to be pretty similar, (as did Fuse#8), and to follow trends. But using the same model, to me, seem to be a bit… much. Surely we’re not all out of cover ideas — or models — this early in the millennium?! Fortunately, though this same model was used on the Review Copy cover of Angel’s Choice that I received, I understand that the powers that be changed the cover for the actual publication copy that went out to readers. Since both novels may actually appeal to the same group of readers, this was a smarter move, I think.

Since I tend to find my books in smaller bookstores (and usually head straight for whatever I’m looking for), the display copies are sort of …well, invisible to me. (As I say this I realize I’m a bookseller’s worst nightmare – a focused shopper. Aaargh!) The books I actually notice displayed for YA readers have a definite… well, slant to them. They’re either in candy (or is it CUPCAKE or POPSICLE) shades, like the ubiquitous “chick lit” and they look like they’re all written for girls.

I wonder, sometimes, why… Good books like Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies) or An Abundance of Katherines are likely overlooked because of their covers. I absolutely love the cover Gail Gautier’s Happy Kid, and I think the cover of Kiki Strike is awesome – just random enough to leave out a hook for anyone, but artistically relevant. Both of those books are geared to the middle grade set(correct me if I’m wrong on Happy Kid.) – so maybe that’s where the breakdown in covers occurs? People often talk about young adult boys not reading… I’m not sure if anyone is actually marketing books in their general direction… the girls are already reading, so why skew everything their way?

As my publication experience grows, I look forward to seeing just how hard or aggravating it is for authors to deal with the novel cover selection process. One of my MFA profs said told that we as newly fledged authors would have no say in how our covers appeared, for at least our first several novels. He had at that point three in print, and only had gotten his say because he’d a.) taken a business course and b.) presented his professional opinion after begging to sit in on a publication meeting. They listened to him, he said, because he’d gone the extra mile to prepare something. And to humor him. YA/Children’s Lit might be different. Here’s hoping… If they’re open to it, when I am famous, I’m going to bug A.Fortis into designing my cover for me. (A.F., you have lots and lots of time to prepare.)

And now for something on the more random side of life: if you’re really keen to get into the marketing nuts and bolts of your novel, you can start by building your ideal male (an amusing promo for Anatomy of a Boyfriend), or just design a cover for that steamy romance novel you’ve been dying to write.

Oh, stop, you know you have one stashed somewhere. Cheers!

Mindy from Proper Noun brings up a bunch of really great points about the whole Cybils thing, and what she’s learned from it. She comments,

“…I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t blog very critically. My reviews are more likely to capture my personal reaction than discuss literary devices, and I’m okay with that.”

It is, in fact, true that people who read blogs aren’t usually after things like long discussions of story arc and protagonist motivation, but I find that once I’m sitting down to write a review, I kind of have to do that kind of thing anyway. For me, it helps to think of story and characters from every direction that I can, because I tend to be a bit… inelegant with my descriptions. Inarticulate. Scrambling for words.

See, here’s the thing. I get a book. I breathe in that Book Smell. I ignore the flyleaf and check out the cover art. Then, I settle in to read. For me, reading is much akin to sampling desserts. There are some you instantly like, some that are too sweet, some not sweet enough, but since I read quickly, I tend to just take myriad books in at once. When I find a tasty book, I just want to squeal “Ooh! Ooh! I like that one!” and with no further thought, go on to the next one. That’s… not really reviewing, but more recording-gut-reactions, enjoying the experience, and having far too much fun, which is why I tend to defer to a. fortis when any actual thinking about writing is done.

Sure, once I’ve thought about a novel for a bit, I can start deconstructing… I eventually (ahem)managed to do the work for my degrees in litarature. The problem is, like many others, I tend to only blog about books I like — or ones that I dislike so much that I must let everyone know how disappointed in them I am. I am hoping to learn to be more balanced and intelligent about literature (like A.F or Tockla or MotherReader, who can be counted on to say what she thinks quite clearly and hilariously), but sometimes I don’t care… Frankly, it’s just a lot of mad love and catching-up-from-a-fiction-deprived-childhood that I’m doing, and that’s okay, too.

Of course, when you’re being looked to to provide a bit more… discrimination in your reading responses (as in, you’re a Cybils nominator!), you have to really slow down bolting your books and chew each chapter thoughtfully. That was the hardest thing about working with the list of eighty-some books we had – to tone down the enthusiasm at being allowed bunches of free (!!!!!!) books and try to sift through, reading and re-reading them critically and consideringly.

The second painful thing was that shortlist — and discovering that four of the final five are from one publishing house. We hadn’t noticed until we ‘heard’ that house described as having a stranglehold on the category. Ouch!

Additionally, it was hard not to feel regret for those books that we could not choose. I had to laugh, the night after we’d turned in our list — our team emailed each other about ways to highlight our personal favorite books that didn’t make the cut. It was difficult for people with such varying temperaments to choose well as a group, and I continue to hope that each of us felt our opinions were heard and respected. Certainly I think next year will be harder, as people will be more familiar with the format and maybe more confident. I can say this: we chose well this year – next year we will choose awesomely!

Finally, the worst thing about all of this? Parting with the books. I actually sat down to take a few to the library of a school. And then I said, “But I like this one. And this one. And this one…” and I was quite dismayed that I could part with no more than five or six of them. Am I that big of a book hoarder? Why, yes, I am. I’m still going to be giving some away — that’s a personal goal, to pare down the list by two-thirds — but to salve my wounds, I promised myself new bookshelves.

It’s the little things, people.

More on the Bay Area Children’s Book Blogger’s Brunch (the truncated version, since it was sort of spur of the moment, and there were only three of us) and the reason I’m saving my resolutions until the Lunar New Year on February 18th… later.