1) If you want a bookseller to find a book for you give them any or all of the following: The author, the title, the ISBN (a 10 or 13 digit number usually printed on the back or copyright page of the book). If you don't have one of those three things, it will be extremely hard to find your book (contrary to long standing myth, books can not be located solely by color.)
2) If a book is in a place you can get to it, it's for sale, even if it's the last one or located in a window display.
3) If you use books as a place to lean, set your purse, pad the charge slip you are signing, or set your beverage on a bookseller may burst into tears. Don't make the bookseller cry.
4) Booksellers thrive on conversations about books, and we learn a LOT from our customers. If you are browsing and you spot something you love, see if your bookseller has read it yet. Tell them why it is awesome.
5) There's an unwritten code among booksellers and librarians. We don't judge you by what you read. Just ask us for the books you want and let us help you read what you want to read. Believe me, we're a widely read bunch and you're not going to shock us with your reading choices.
6) If a store doesn't have the book or author you are looking for they most can likely order you a copy. When a shop doesn't have what you are looking for, give them a chance to compete with Amazon for your affection.
7) Booksellers do not get to read all day (we get this question a lot) and if we did it would indeed be really cool.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
"She Makes Me Smile" Makes Me Smile and Then, Shiver a Bit
So the last time we chatted I mentioned a situation with a certain writer and a certain publisher. Today Mandy DeGeit's She Makes Me Smile went on sale on Amazon (in its original form) for 99 cents. GO BUY IT HERE!!!
It's a great short story! Short stories are so hard to write...in my opinion, much harder than long fiction. And this one's very short but it works really well; it's very tightly packed. It's also pretty disturbing (like short form fiction, pulling off a genuinely disturbing tale in today's jaded world is harder than it looks). I consider myself a fairly wimpy reader, and I squirmed a whole bunch...and kept right on reading. I can't really tell you what it's about or why it's so nice and creepy, there's really no way not to spoil it for the readers. All I can tell you it that I enjoyed it.
Mandy is using proceeds from this short story to hire a lawyer to help other writers regain control of their stories currently held by the unpleasant publisher. It's a noble and worthy cause, and I'm happy to support it. However, having read this story I now know that I can NEVER nap with this woman in the same room as I am.
It's a great short story! Short stories are so hard to write...in my opinion, much harder than long fiction. And this one's very short but it works really well; it's very tightly packed. It's also pretty disturbing (like short form fiction, pulling off a genuinely disturbing tale in today's jaded world is harder than it looks). I consider myself a fairly wimpy reader, and I squirmed a whole bunch...and kept right on reading. I can't really tell you what it's about or why it's so nice and creepy, there's really no way not to spoil it for the readers. All I can tell you it that I enjoyed it.
Mandy is using proceeds from this short story to hire a lawyer to help other writers regain control of their stories currently held by the unpleasant publisher. It's a noble and worthy cause, and I'm happy to support it. However, having read this story I now know that I can NEVER nap with this woman in the same room as I am.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Publishers To Watch Out For!
Full disclosure before I start this: I am a freelance editor and I also work for a publisher who focuses on zombie and horror fiction. None of that has anything to do with this, but I don't want anyone to think I am sneakily slamming the competition. I am openly slamming someone who happens to be in the same business as I am.
Now the details:
An author named Mandy DeGeit wrote a short story that was picked up by Undead Press, an imprint of Library of the Dead. There were some problems with the printed version of her short story, and now I will ask you to please CLICK HERE for an eloquent explanation straight from the author of what went wrong (and then, what went even wrong-er).
Having now read the author's explanation (you didn't read it? GO READ IT) of what happened, and the disturbing response from the publisher, you are probably pretty much where I am emotionally. The changes made by the editor are not only ethically questionable, the ones cited by DeGeit are poor editorial choices. Now I just found THIS which contains an interview with the editor (who, it turns out is not the same guy who put in the lurking errant apostrophe, so props to him...but who also has a kind of "sorry but I was just following orders" mentality I can't get behind)
There's nothing else to say that hasn't been said by others, notably Nelson W Pyles. (Go read his blog. Now.) But I do want to take a moment to remind my readers to be EXTREMELY careful when choosing a publisher, signing a contract, etc. Your words (and your money) are too valuable to be wasted on lousy editing or publishing.
I can now sleep soundly knowing that all four of my readers are aware of a horrible wrong that was done to a fellow book person. As GI Joe teaches us, knowing is half the battle. The other half, it seems, is apostrophe placement.
Now the details:
An author named Mandy DeGeit wrote a short story that was picked up by Undead Press, an imprint of Library of the Dead. There were some problems with the printed version of her short story, and now I will ask you to please CLICK HERE for an eloquent explanation straight from the author of what went wrong (and then, what went even wrong-er).
Having now read the author's explanation (you didn't read it? GO READ IT) of what happened, and the disturbing response from the publisher, you are probably pretty much where I am emotionally. The changes made by the editor are not only ethically questionable, the ones cited by DeGeit are poor editorial choices. Now I just found THIS which contains an interview with the editor (who, it turns out is not the same guy who put in the lurking errant apostrophe, so props to him...but who also has a kind of "sorry but I was just following orders" mentality I can't get behind)
There's nothing else to say that hasn't been said by others, notably Nelson W Pyles. (Go read his blog. Now.) But I do want to take a moment to remind my readers to be EXTREMELY careful when choosing a publisher, signing a contract, etc. Your words (and your money) are too valuable to be wasted on lousy editing or publishing.
I can now sleep soundly knowing that all four of my readers are aware of a horrible wrong that was done to a fellow book person. As GI Joe teaches us, knowing is half the battle. The other half, it seems, is apostrophe placement.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Thoughts on the headline: Is 50 too old to go bare "down there"?
I originally posted this on Facebook as it really has nothing to do with books, but in the end I decided that here was better than on my crafting blog. I certainly review books with a feminist slant, so here is my commentary on a news website I follow.
So a few weeks ago, I was a little bothered to see that the usual stream of "look at this celebrity in a great/ bad/ unintentionally privates-exposing photo" type articles (yeah, unfortunately there's a lot of that mixed into the news) begin to morph into something a little more sinister. One article asked me to sound off on whether or not a certain celebrity was wearing an outfit I liked. Okay, I'll pass. Then, a few days later, a headline asked me to share my feelings on whether or not a young actress was wearing an inappropriately mature outfit. Then, a few days further on I spotted an article asking the readers to comment on whether or not a particular celebrity, an adult this time, was showing too much skin. ("Too much skin for *what*?" I asked myself..."are we suddenly imposing a moral code on the women we constantly strip down in movies and magazines?")
I started to get annoyed. Obviously celebrity news gets hits, and hits are what Huffpost survives on. So it makes sense that soliciting the opinion of the readers makes more people click on that headline. But why is the message so consistently one of sitting in judgement of *females*? It seems to me that one of the best ways to perpetuate the idea that unlike men, women are answerable to society for their personal choices (fashion, sexuality & reproduction to name just a few) is to give them a vote on it on a regular basis. Today, Huffpost is featuring a blog post from a writer who thinks that she needs the world's opinions on whether or not a 50 year old woman can keep "it" shaved without horrifying others. That bugged me on a deeper level. I get that the discussion (between the blogger and a friend) on the respectability of a shaved hoo-ha later in life was amusing and a good blog topic. Why is she soliciting opinions from random strangers on whether or not it's "okay". Will she be sharing it with them? Will she be applying for some high level public service position where the grooming habits of her boudoir will be a qualifying matter? I don't get it.
So here's my point. All of this, the question of what we wear, what we shave (or don't), who we sleep with and how we get down is completely personal. It's no one's business unless we want to share it. It's no one's (except our partner's) business to comment on it. It *really* doesn't matter what anyone (except our partner) thinks. Really, really, really doesn't matter. As women, if we want to stop being subjected to a war over who controls our bodies we need to start denying the premise that there's a battle to be fought.
So a few weeks ago, I was a little bothered to see that the usual stream of "look at this celebrity in a great/ bad/ unintentionally privates-exposing photo" type articles (yeah, unfortunately there's a lot of that mixed into the news) begin to morph into something a little more sinister. One article asked me to sound off on whether or not a certain celebrity was wearing an outfit I liked. Okay, I'll pass. Then, a few days later, a headline asked me to share my feelings on whether or not a young actress was wearing an inappropriately mature outfit. Then, a few days further on I spotted an article asking the readers to comment on whether or not a particular celebrity, an adult this time, was showing too much skin. ("Too much skin for *what*?" I asked myself..."are we suddenly imposing a moral code on the women we constantly strip down in movies and magazines?")
I started to get annoyed. Obviously celebrity news gets hits, and hits are what Huffpost survives on. So it makes sense that soliciting the opinion of the readers makes more people click on that headline. But why is the message so consistently one of sitting in judgement of *females*? It seems to me that one of the best ways to perpetuate the idea that unlike men, women are answerable to society for their personal choices (fashion, sexuality & reproduction to name just a few) is to give them a vote on it on a regular basis. Today, Huffpost is featuring a blog post from a writer who thinks that she needs the world's opinions on whether or not a 50 year old woman can keep "it" shaved without horrifying others. That bugged me on a deeper level. I get that the discussion (between the blogger and a friend) on the respectability of a shaved hoo-ha later in life was amusing and a good blog topic. Why is she soliciting opinions from random strangers on whether or not it's "okay". Will she be sharing it with them? Will she be applying for some high level public service position where the grooming habits of her boudoir will be a qualifying matter? I don't get it.
So here's my point. All of this, the question of what we wear, what we shave (or don't), who we sleep with and how we get down is completely personal. It's no one's business unless we want to share it. It's no one's (except our partner's) business to comment on it. It *really* doesn't matter what anyone (except our partner) thinks. Really, really, really doesn't matter. As women, if we want to stop being subjected to a war over who controls our bodies we need to start denying the premise that there's a battle to be fought.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Oh look, I own a bookstore!
So it's possible that my two readers (you know who you are) may not BOTH have heard that I am now the co-owner of Eljay's Books in Pittsburgh's South Hills. You can bet I'll be plugging the store here all the time, and I'm going to start by posting my March Events calendars here for you to read...
Sorry it's not bigger, I'm working on creating a link to a full-page calendar. You can also visit my store HERE. And if you're in Pittsburgh, you can visit us anytime you want! We're having a big party to kick off my partnership on March 16th at 6pm. We'll have food and drinks and possibly some live entertainment...I hope to see you there!!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Jonathan Frazen vs the Ameircan Female
When I read Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (to be accurate I read half and then gave up in disgust.) I was put off by the subtle anti-female tone of the whole thing. The tone of the writing is sympathetic to Patty, (the protagonist) but her actions, thoughts and words belong to a lesser being who exists nowhere but in relation to a man, and is helplessly bound by her womanhood to a certain destiny. Allow me to be the next of many, many women to call bullshit on that entire line of thinking.
Interestingly, this is not the first time Franzen has run afoul of females, the last time being at the release of this same book a few years ago (and to be fair, this one was not his fault, it just sort of sprung up around him). At the time, Franzen's book was hailed as a literary masterpiece by many, and one of the major points of discussion was his ability to write a female so "well". His work is, in theme and characters, very similar to the works of countless female authors writing about the world from a woman's perspective. A huge media-fueled firestorm swirled for a few weeks around Franzen and authors Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner. Franzen became the poster boy for a problem many see in the publishing world: say something as a female and be branded a "female-interest writer", but say the same exact thing as a male and be "important". Did Franzen deserve more attention for his work than Picoult and Weiner have received for their own (considerable) talents? I certainly didn't think so. So Picoult and Weiner both had something to say on the topic, and ultimately, they gave THIS INTERVIEW on the topic which you can now read if you want to hear their thoughts.
So now you have some background to explain why I was so interested when this article: Jonathan Franzen's Female Problem popped up in my web browsing this morning. After reading Freedom, I was not prepared to brand Franzen anti-female, I just thought the critical response to the book was horribly overblown and that he wasn't my kind of writer. Maybe, I told myself, he had some sort of weird ideas about what goes on inside the female brain, but that didn't make him a bad guy. After all, the huge conversation about female vs male writing in the media wasn't exactly his fault...and then I read the article I linked above. Now I suspect he might actually just be kind of a jerk. I don't think I really need to explain to anyone reading this blog why this article was so troublesome (go read it, it's short), but I do want to say this.
Mr Franzen, I was among those "forced" to read Ethan Frome in high school and the first time I read it I thought it was crap. So boring! Such stilted writing! Then, tragically, two years later I was forced to read it again, in another class. The funny thing is, I had grown up a bit by then and I discovered that while Wharton might not have been a keen crafter of lyrical phrase, they story itself is compelling and resonant. I tried to read Freedom and found that while each line was its own carefully built work of art, there was nothing underneath of value to me. I vastly prefer the substance to the style. (And for heaven's sake, who cares what she looked like you big jerk?!?!?!)
Interestingly, this is not the first time Franzen has run afoul of females, the last time being at the release of this same book a few years ago (and to be fair, this one was not his fault, it just sort of sprung up around him). At the time, Franzen's book was hailed as a literary masterpiece by many, and one of the major points of discussion was his ability to write a female so "well". His work is, in theme and characters, very similar to the works of countless female authors writing about the world from a woman's perspective. A huge media-fueled firestorm swirled for a few weeks around Franzen and authors Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner. Franzen became the poster boy for a problem many see in the publishing world: say something as a female and be branded a "female-interest writer", but say the same exact thing as a male and be "important". Did Franzen deserve more attention for his work than Picoult and Weiner have received for their own (considerable) talents? I certainly didn't think so. So Picoult and Weiner both had something to say on the topic, and ultimately, they gave THIS INTERVIEW on the topic which you can now read if you want to hear their thoughts.
So now you have some background to explain why I was so interested when this article: Jonathan Franzen's Female Problem popped up in my web browsing this morning. After reading Freedom, I was not prepared to brand Franzen anti-female, I just thought the critical response to the book was horribly overblown and that he wasn't my kind of writer. Maybe, I told myself, he had some sort of weird ideas about what goes on inside the female brain, but that didn't make him a bad guy. After all, the huge conversation about female vs male writing in the media wasn't exactly his fault...and then I read the article I linked above. Now I suspect he might actually just be kind of a jerk. I don't think I really need to explain to anyone reading this blog why this article was so troublesome (go read it, it's short), but I do want to say this.
Mr Franzen, I was among those "forced" to read Ethan Frome in high school and the first time I read it I thought it was crap. So boring! Such stilted writing! Then, tragically, two years later I was forced to read it again, in another class. The funny thing is, I had grown up a bit by then and I discovered that while Wharton might not have been a keen crafter of lyrical phrase, they story itself is compelling and resonant. I tried to read Freedom and found that while each line was its own carefully built work of art, there was nothing underneath of value to me. I vastly prefer the substance to the style. (And for heaven's sake, who cares what she looked like you big jerk?!?!?!)
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