This week in writing… is it fall yet? edition

I don’t know about you guys but, the weather in New Jersey is being weird. I’m in shorts one day and freezing my tail off the next. A girl’s going to get a cold. Can I break out my boots already? Geez. Good news though, pumpkin spice lattes taste good no matter how cold or warm it is outside. On to the news…

The National Book Foundation has announced the finalists! Woo hoo! I have not read any of them. Better get on that. Meanwhile has anyone read Mo Yan? He’s the new Nobel Laureate for Literature. Anyone? Anyone?

Last week was banned books week, and the National Coalition Against Censorship has wisely tapped Ellen Hopkins and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor for fighting closed-minded idiots. I mean people who want to ban books, or authors from speaking.

Now to the business of publishing: What were the big buzzwords at Frankfurt? BIC, GAMA, and Haka? Um… yeah. You’re going to have to check the definitions of those. Also at Frankfurt, the declaration that children’s publishing will pioneer new forms of reading. (No surprises there.) While you ponder that, ponder the new author/publisher relationship and how it has changed drastically in the last decade, according to Jane Friedman. More proof that nobody really knows what to do here, but that authors, as a group, have a lot of clout. Speaking of no one knows what the H is going on… can someone explain why the authors are pissed about Penguin trying to recover advances for books that weren’t written?

For those authors with plenty of clout but don’t know what to do with it, the Highlights Foundation is offering a course on the Business of Book Publishing. It might be $595 well spent, but I don’t have it. Take notes, will ya?

Advice! From writers! Like Sherman Alexie and Margaret Atwood with top ten lists. Also if you need help with that query letter, Lisa Bullard and Laura Purdie Salas have you covered. Not up to that yet? Still world-building? There’s a post for that too.

If you’re an illustrator, you might need some help putting together a portfolio. Makes me want to put one together for my writing. But how do I do that?

Already published your first book? Here are the five stages of…grief? Yes. Oh yes. I know all about it.

And finally, some argue that certain books are better in print than on eReaders. Agreed. Especially when they have illustrations like this:

Okay, that’s all I’ve got. Have a great weekend, everyone!

[Image from The Odyssey by Gillian Cross.]

 

12 thoughts on “This week in writing… is it fall yet? edition”

  3. mariacatalinaegan says:

    Thanks for sharing the FALL colors! Here in south Florida we are having nice cool weather , after more than 2 decades i still miss the change of seasons! 🙂 Also enjoyed all the info in this post, curious about Penguin as they bought AuthorHouse….

  6. Tracey says:

    You did? That is COOL. If you have a picture of you doing that, I’d like to see it. My blog title is more metaphorical than literal. My daughter is learning to knit now. Not with pencils. 🙂

  7. Deborah Batterman says:

    Thanks for making me smile with those ‘Five Stages of Grief . . . ‘ Re: the return of advances — Wouldn’t it level the playing field if super high advances were parceled to lesser known worthy writers? 😉

  9. Roxanne R. says:

    Thanks for the awesome roundup of publishing news, Tracey. The publishing industry certainly is going through a world of change. While some changes are making authors unhappy, there seems to be a seismic shift in power and it’s moving toward writers who now have a world of choices.

    Like you, I don’t get why writers who never delivered the books they received whopping advances for are surprised that Penguin wants their money back. I feel like the e-Trade baby. “I wanna show you something It’s my shocked face. Wah!”

  10. Tracey says:

    Bwah ha ha. “My shocked face.” ROTFL. I’m excited for authors as well, Roxanne. Thing is there are so many more people writing now, and sometimes what I see from writers who want to self-publish is not good enough. As an editor, I can only guide. Whether that advice is taken or not is ultimately up to the author. The seismic shift may be good in some ways, but not in others. I fear for quality.

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