Do other people's jobs wake them at three in the morning? It probably depends on how much the job matters and how much harm they can do if they cock it up. Anaesthetists and train drivers, I am willing to guess, experience their fair share of interrupted sleep.
Links of the week March 30 2015 (14)
Our new feature links to interesting blogs or articles posted online, which will help keep you up to date with what's going on in the book world:
6 April 2015
"The role of the editor" is sometimes discussed in a general way, but it is all very anodyne. What about the nuts and bolts of the process? The names, dates and salty anecdotes? That side of things - the side that spotlights the editor as having a viewpoint, a personality and particularly an effect - is not legitimate fodder for the commentariat. It does not inspire panels at writers' festivals or articles in the Saturday papers; you do not get to hear about how Author X's jokes always need to be rewritten or the progress of the War on Adverbs with Author Y or how many words Editor Z had to slash to get Novel Q right for publication. And when we do let slip a few details or a few opinions, as I am doing now, it all feels slightly dangerous, as if we are the bearers of information that could detonate on release and take a good chunk of the northern suburbs with it. You get the impression it is all right to talk about teamwork and so forth as long as the editor does not imply that anything they did had a material impact on the end result.
Today's crime novels are overtly critical of the status quo, while the thriller explores the danger of the world turned upside down. And with trust in politicians nonexistent, writers are being listened to as rarely before
As my compatriot Ian Rankin pointed out, the current preoccupations of the crime novel, the roman noir, the krimi lean to the left. It's critical of the status quo, sometimes overtly, sometimes more subtly. It often gives a voice to characters who are not comfortably established in the world - immigrants, sex workers, the poor, the old. The dispossessed and the people who don't vote. The thriller, on the other hand, tends towards the conservative, probably because the threat implicit in the thriller is the world turned upside down, the idea of being stripped of what matters to you. And as Bob Dylan reminds us, "When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose."
Several notable authors were walking the aisles of the Bologna Book Fair, from newcomers to the children's book world like bestselling adult author Sophie Kinsella to veterans like Malorie Blackman, the current U.K. Children's Laureate, whose next book for children will be her 61st.
With Kinsella's first book for younger readers on the horizon - Delacorte will publish her YA novel, Finding Audrey, in the U.S. in June - this was the author's first time at Bologna, and she said that between the sunshine, the food, and being surrounded by children's books, "this might be my favorite fair." Referencing the fact that Lewis Carroll's Alice is celebrating her 150th anniversary this year, Kinsella added, "I feel like I've gone down a rabbit hole and emerged in a wonderland."
Malorie Blackman was attending the fair in her role as U.K. children's laureate, a torch she will be passing on later this year, when her two-year term is up. Blackman was involved in two panels at the fair, one open to the public, and the other for international organizations that have been developing their own children's laureate programs. "What I find really interesting is to see how they are translating [these programs] to fit their own countries," Blackman said. The author is currently working on a book to be published later this year or sometime next year, "but my duties as children's laureate have put my writing on the back burner.
Discworld is one of the very most fabulous creations in all of literature. I am gutted by the death of Terry Pratchett. One of a kind.
Patrick Ness
No writer in my lifetime has given me as much pleasure and happiness. He could do knockabout for schoolboys (and girls) but he was also subtle and wise and very funny in the adult world. I loved him because almost all the characters he didn't like slowly grew more real, more interesting, more complicated perhaps to his own surprise.
He could write evil if he needed to, but if he didn't his characters surprised us and him. His prose was layered: there was a mischievous surface, and a layer of complicated running jokes, and something steely and uncompromising that turned the reader cold from time to time. He was my unlikely hero, and saved me from disaster more than once by making me laugh and making me think.
A.S. Byatt
Note from Jane: Today's post is by guest Matt Kaye, who started his career in traditional publishing (Avalon, Wiley, FSG) and then spent the past four years at Amazon. He recently joined Inkshares, a crowdfunded book publisher, in large part due to his interest in how crowdfunding might positively impact the publishing landscape. I asked him to explain the basics of crowdfunded publishing as well as the difference among various crowdfunding opportunities.
Crowdfunding Options
If you decide to crowdfund your book, the next step is to figure out which platform is right for you.
The options fall into two main camps:
Fundraising platforms that help you connect with your audience
Full-service book publishers that use crowdfunding to decide what to publish
Both camps provide direct reader engagement, so the decision comes down to your publishing goals. If you prefer to control every aspect of the publishing process yourself, and maximize your profits, then fundraising platforms are your best bet. If distribution into bookstores and editorial, production, and marketing support appeal to you, then the full-service publisher model may serve you well.
Authors: end to censored versions of books is 'victory for the world of dirt' | Books | The Guardian
Chocolat author Joanne Harris is claiming a "small victory for the world of dirt" after an app that blanked out the profanities in books, replacing them with so-called clean alternatives, removed all titles from its online catalogue following a week of angry protests from writers.
The Clean Reader app, launched by a couple in Idaho in the US, has announced that after significant feedback from authors, many of whom did not want their work being sold in connection with the app, it has "taken immediate action to remove all books from our catalogue".
The Society of AuthorsThe British authors’ organization, with a membership of over 7,000 writers. Membership is open to those who have had a book published, or who have an offer to publish (without subsidy by the author). Offers individual specialist advice and a range of publications to its members. Has also campaigned successfully on behalf of authors in general for improved terms and established a minimum terms agreement with many publishers. Recently campaigned to get the Public Lending Right fund increased from £5 million to £7 million for the year 2002/2003. Regularly uses input from members to produce comparative surveys of publishers’ royalty payment systems. http://www.societyofauthors.org/ said it was concerned "that the app contradicts two aspects of the author's moral rights, namely the right of integrity and the right of false attribution", with the former the right of an author to object to "derogatory" treatment of a work, and the latter "the right not to have a work falsely attributed to you as author". Harris also raised the issue of the psychological damage resulting from representing to a child that "bodies are dirty". She said: "There's clearly a religious agenda here. And it has a sinister implication to it -it needed nipping in the bud. I'd rather my books were not read at all than they were used as part of some religious agenda to indoctrinate children into thinking body parts are bad, and sex is wicked."
30 March 2015
A century or so after The Iliad was written, the authors of the Book of Samuel also turned to the lexicon of family to depict the legendary bond between David and Jonathan. Their affinity is measured not just through comparisons with blood allegiances, but against them: David's survival hangs on Jonathan's willingness to betray his father, King Saul, to save his friend. Their story is a contest between the obligations of family and the free choice of friendship.
That friendships between adults are harder to rationalise than other close relationships may be one reason they are underrepresented in modern fiction, considering their importance in most people’s lives. Film loves friendships, as does television, as the cops and cowboys in buddy movies and series from Butch Cassidy to Cagney and Lacey and Thelma and Louise attest. So do children’s stories, perhaps because, along with the separation from parents with which they coincide, the making and breaking of friendships are among childhood’s first dramas. Think of the beautiful triangle of Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin and Piglet. Nineteenth-century authors, especially the Americans, followed friendships across oceans and frontiers; Jane Austen chronicled their tensions and microcrises.
The cherished French children’s book author and editor of hundreds of books Grégoire Solotareff offers his tips for creating books for very young readers.
PARIS: Within a program of events celebrating French publisher l’école des loisirs’ 50th birthday, the cherished children’s book author, Grégoire Solotareff, gave a talk on Monday about how to transform an idea for a book into reality. In the tradition of Maurice Sendak or Leo Lionni (both of whom are published in translation by l’école des loisirs), Solotareff’s 200+ books for children, which he has been writing and illustrating for 30 years, continue to dwell in a magical and quirky universe. For the past 20 years he has also been the editor of an imprint called Loulou & Cie for children ages 0-4 where he has overseen the production of 400 books. It was in his capacity as both author and editor that he gave the following talk, loosely translated and edited here.
Rights departments at publishing companies face a tough question every day: how can we accomplish more in less time? What can we automate in a business so dependent on face-to-face meetings and personal relationships? Last Friday, Publishers WeeklyInternational news website of book publishing and bookselling including business news, reviews, bestseller lists, commentaries http://www.publishersweekly.com/ organized an event for rights professionals to address these very questions. What became clear is that, currently, there is are definitive solutions. But there is hope…
For the rights departments at publishing companies large and small, time is a precious resource. These teams handle hundreds and even thousands of rights deals each year. But a handshake at the Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two. is only the beginning. For each of these thousands of deals, the rights department must execute the contract, ensure that the advance is paid, the publication date is met, and then track the sales, check royalty statements - on it goes.
Sarah Ardizzone is one of the most respected translators working in English and French, who easily transitions between children's and adult literature.
"I believe this is the first time, in my admittedly varied career as a translator, that I've been expected to render a Shakespeare quoting, pun-spouting, trans-gender goldfish with suicidal tendencies," Sarah Ardizzone wrote in the Guardian in an article explaining the process of translating French children's book author Marjolaine Leray's Avril le poisson rouge (April the Red Goldfish).
Although Ardizzone says she could't make a living translating only children's books, she has been increasingly doing so, even if she recently took on the very serious project of translating a new edition of Alexandre Dumas "The Nutcracker" for Vintage Classics. "There's "There's a lot about working on children's books that I love," said Ardizzone. "If you've been working on hard and lengthy adult stuff, you need a breath of air and need to flex different muscles. Another aspect that I enjoy is that there is an immediate sense of your readership and a greater accountability - there tends to be a more palpable wrestling with what we are going to do to make this stand up with Anglophone children. This isn't always applied in more literary publishing scenarios. I enjoy that, the audience matters to me. And children' book publishers put so much into events."
The Edinburgh-based writer took to social media yesterday (mon) to describe some of the rude snubs she received from the industry as she began her career, and then turned her attentions, initially anonymously as Galbraith, to crime novels.
Writing on Twitter, Rowling revealed one publisher who turned down Harry Potter also send "the rudest rejection" of her book.
In 1996 the first Harry Potter book was turned down by 12 publishers before being picked up by Bloomsbury. The series went on to sell more than 450 million copies.
The Cuckoo's Calling, which Rowling published under the name Robert Galbraith, sold less than 500 copies in 2013 before she was accidentally unmasked as its author. Prior to this she also published her first adult fiction novel, The Casual Vacancy, as JK Rowling. It was recently turned into a BBC serial.
In reply to fan Megan who asked: "How many no's did you get before you finally got published?" Rowling said: "Loads! First publisher to turn down Harry also sent Robert Galbraith his rudest rejection. They don't even want me in a beard."
The median advance for traditionally published authors is "well under £6,600", according to early findings of a survey into authors' attitudes towards their publisher. The survey also found that bigger publishers pay more.
The "Do You Love Your Publisher?" survey was launched earlier this month and is co-produced by Jane Friedman in the States and Harry Bingham in the UK. It will be available to traditionally published authors to complete until 31st March. The hashtag #authorsay is being used on Twitter in relation to the survey. The results of the latest survey will published in The Bookseller on 10th April.
The survey found that taking advances paid only by the large trade publishers (from Penguin Random House to Bloomsbury) the median advance climbs to about £13,000. The survey asks authors a range of questions, from the level of advance they most recently received to how satisfied they were with their cover design. Of the authors who have so far completed the survey, one-third were published by a "big five" publisher, and a further fifth published by a "large trade publisher". The majority of writers had published six or more titles already, with about half the respondents indicating that they had self-published at least one title, while a further 23% reported that they had "seriously considered" self-publishing.