Diversity In Publishing

I rarely (or never) do link-ups here but diversity in publishing, particularly diversity in children's literature, has been such a hot topic and I've been following the conversation with great interest.

I'm asking the same questions of myself and my own work that others are asking, and have been asking for years. Where are the different faces? On the pages and behind them? 

I thought it would be interesting to share the conversation here and ask if you've been reading any articles as well.  Please share any links in the comments.

Where Are All the People of Color in Children's Books? by Walter Dean Myers

The Apartheid of Children's Literature by Christopher Myers

Where's the African-American Harry Potter or the Mexican Katniss? by Ashley Strickland

Diversity Is Not Enough: Race, Power, Publishing by Daniel Jose Older

Men Surpass Women in Publishing of Research by Douglas Quenqua

Coverflip: Maureen Johnson Calls For an End To Gendered Book Covers With An Amazing Challenge Huffington Post

A Closer Look At The New York Times YA Best Seller's List Stacked Blog

Children's Books By and About People of Color Published in the United States University of Wisconsin Study

Cognitive Dissonance by Mike Jung

We Need Bigger Megaphones for Diversity in Kid's Lit by Kelly Jensen (which has an even bigger round-up of links)

The CBC Diversity Committee ongoing

Diversity in YA ongoing

Happy, Happy Personal News To Share and 25 Steps for Writers...

It's a beautiful day and I'm trapped in the work pod during an incredibly stressful week, taking a break to mentally wander away for just a moment to blog and share updates, then determined to leave the grind for a few moments in the sun.

I do have the happiest of happy news to share with you all: Tyler and I are expecting a baby boy this January! Which is excitement doubly, triply wrapped in fear and smiles and all kinds of emotions which no blank blog space is able to hold.

The first few months left me in an exhausted, somewhat sickly, fog. The strangeness of new found ailments, aches and pains had me in a whirlwind but as promised by all articles, studies, and advice-giving mothers, last week, I woke up in the 16th week and felt that I had truly woken up, not only to an incredibly messy apartment, but to this life again. Of course, it left me wondering what I might have been saying or emailing or writing over the last few weeks while in my dazed exhaustion but I think it vacillated between deadpan, exclamation-mark-less statements, and absurd, drama-queen, proclamations. Hope I kept things interesting for all family and friends.

So, that's where we're at. Feeling incredibly lucky.

Beyond that, I hope you will all check out this article: 25 Steps to Being A Traditionally Published Author by Delilah S. Dawson. There is something here for writers who are at every point in the process, whether starting out, finishing a novel, finding an agent or getting ready to launch a book. Warning: the article is pretty no-nonsense and there's a lot of necessary tough-love, but it had me laughing so hard. I thought the advice here was hilarious and, above all, spot on.

Flap Copy

Every once and a while I wander down to the first floor of our office building to chat with a copywriter in our packaging group. We have similar tastes in books and often spend quite a bit of time discussing what we're reading, what we've read, and what books we might like to swap. I recommended a book to her and then directed her to Amazon so she could see what it was about. She told me that she'd rather take my word for it and very adimately stated that she "does not read flap copy."
"Never?" I asked.
"Never."
She went on to say that all these book jackets give away far too much about what will happen and it takes away a lot of the pleasure of reading for her.

I thought about this and decided that, for many of the books I got at BEA, I would not read the book jacket before reading. In the first place, I decided to get most of the books by simply hearing from a friend that I might like them or from the one sentence description in the BEA program. Since I didn't have to invest any money in them, that seemed like enough. I could always stop reading and give it to the used book shop around the corner without any guilt.

I have to tell you, I enjoyed reading this way, knowing very little about what I was getting into. I'm not sure there's an exact science to my experiment, but it did seem to aid in my reading pleasure. Then again, there have been many times I have been reading a book, excitedly wondering when I'll get to the part they describe in the flap copy. But maybe it shouldn't be that way. Maybe I shouldn't wonder when I'm getting to a specific moment. Maybe I should wonder what that moment might be.

All of this made me think a lot about film trailers. Film trailers have evolved throughout the years from simply being a short, heavy advertising sell to a long, involved edit that gives away nearly the entire plot of the movie. This is a purposeful move on the part of the film industry. As it becomes more expensive to go to the theater, they want viewers to be assured that they are going to enjoy what they see. Because we all know that word of mouth can make or break the success of any film.

Is this what flap copy is? A way for publishers to ensure that we're spending our hard-earned money on a book we are going to like? A way to keep us from reading books we hate?

I'm curious to know what you think of flap copy. Does it heavily influence your book purchases? How do you think these descriptions affect the way you read?

And, one last thought, I know everyone on the NYC subway is reading Chris Cleave's Little Bee. I read this book and really enjoyed it with slightly mixed feelings as a whole, and I also have mixed feelings about the book's description (it's a little pretentious perhaps?) but I like the idea of the secret, of the promise that the excitement is in the journey. I actually had a very good friend and book lover tell me she absolutely would not read this book because the flap copy is, and I quote, "Stupid." But given the success of this book might this be the wave of flap copy future?

WE DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS BOOK.
It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it.
Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this:
It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific.
The story starts there, but the book doesn't.
And it's what happens afterward that is most important.
Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

Patience

I am a very impatient person. I don't like waiting in line for anything and I avoid it as much as possible. I open presents immediately after they are given to me. If someone tells me they are having a baby, my honest to goodness first thought is, 'How on earth are you going to wait nine months for that?" And when they look at me oddly, I say, 'No. Seriously. How are you going to do it?' This also means that if I want something, I am determined to find it and insert it into my life as quickly as possible.

This hasn't always been the simplest feat. Waiting on college and graduate school applications, trying to find an apartment in New York City, looking for new jobs, saving money to travel, finding love...all of this has been an exercise in a virtue I don't truly possess. I often feel like an agitated parent whose child is throwing a tantrum in the dairy aisle at a supermarket. What I really feel like doing is throwing milk cartons at unsuspecting shoppers, dragging the child by the ankle, and screaming, "COME ON ALREADY!" But instead, I grit my teeth and say firmly, "You are really trying my patience sweetheart."

As it turns out, the thing I've wanted most in my life, since I was six years old, my parents reading Charlotte's Web over and over again before bed, is to write and publish a novel. And it turns out that is the worst exercise in patience I have ever given myself.

I've been writing query letters to imaginary agents since before I knew what my novel was about. I have imagined the exact scenario of learning I have a book deal (it's a very dramatic event that involves me picking up the phone during an office meeting, leaving said meeting while jumping up and down and screaming, then running through the streets of New York City to tell all my closest friends and family members by foot.) I even have answers prepared for Q and A sessions that come after the book signings of a novel that hasn't even been completed yet.

Uh. Yeah.

So, imagine my despair in discovering that it took a year to get through a first draft. That revisions are taking months. That writing a query to an agent is an art form that can barely get you through the slush pile. That if you manage to get through the slush pile and someone requests pages, they may not take the manuscript. That if they take the manuscript and send it to editors, all the editors can pass on it. That if they don't pass on it, there are more and more revisions and more and more edits to be done. That if you get through the edits, it takes months and months to find it's way to a shelf near you. Oh, and then people actually have to read it. So that you have a hope of going through the process again.

The chances of making it that far, are slim. Realistically, it is more likely that my novel will never find a home and I'll write many more that don't. This is not a cue for all of you to coddle me and massage my ego. It's just a simple fact.

This 'adventure' (again something I am saying through gritted teeth in the middle of the supermarket) has truly been one of the biggest challenges to my patience, ever. I want to start pitching agents today. But I'm only on my first edit. I want to know what the cover looks like. But I'm only on my first edit. I want to write my 2nd novel. But I'm only on my first edit!

So, I go back to my desk, and I ignore every impulse to do anything else but get through the next hurdle. And the next one. I am slowly learning that writing is not something for a person who is wildly impatient. And yet, I can't imagine how you could get through it all unless you are a person who is wildly impatient. A person who is always, always looking ahead. A person whose patience is constantly on trial.

NaNoWriMo

Before I head off to Boston for the weekend (to end the most wonderful month of October) I wanted to send my best wishes to all of you participating in NaNoWriMo!

I had a goal of finishing my first draft by Oct. 1st and setting it aside in order to have some fun writing out an idea that's been marinating for a while during NaNoWriMo. Unfortunately, I still haven't finished that dreaded draft and I booked a trip to Provence for 8 days instead! :-)

I must say stuffing my face with wine, baguettes, and cheese sounds like a better way to spend the month but, er, uh, I mean...it's awesome to write a novel in 30 days! Woohoo!

I hope that any of you who actually read this blog (Who are you anyway? Does anybody read this?) will let me know all about your experience writing this month. I love the idea of a writing frenzy and WOW WOW WOW to writing frenzies that last entire month.

God speed!

Young Adult Novel Discovery Contest

Anyone writing a Young Adult novel should check out the YA Novel Discovery Contest:

Serendipity Literary Agency, in collaboration with Sourcebooks and Gotham Writers' Workshop, is hosting its first Young Adult Novel Discovery Competition for a chance to win a one-on-one consultation with one of New York's leading YA literary agents! If you've written a novel for young adults—or have an idea for one that you would like to write—we invite you to enter our contest. Simply submit only an enticing title along with the first 250 words from the opening of your original YA novel. There's no entry fee or purchase requirement.

Despite the fact that I'm not even finished with the first draft of my novel, I am seriously thinking about writing another one! Which is rather silly. But I'm doing it anyway. And because it's a YA novel, I'm toying with the idea of entering this contest. It would be very amusing for me (not to mention highly unlikely) to win it because it rewards you with a full manuscript critique. Being that I have no manuscript, it would be a rather difficult prize to redeem. lol. And yet, I am tempted anyway.

Good luck to those who enter! May you have a better idea of what you're doing than I do! ;-)