let's all be kind for a week: a modest social media proposal

Last night, 11 o'clock-ish, my hair flat, my eyes slightly swollen, my red and white striped socks in grotesque visual combat with my too-tight but also floppy-collared top, I read this story by Pamela Paul in the New York Times. You'll get the gist from the title, perhaps: "She Sounds Smart, but Look at Her Hair!" If you need more, I share this paragraph below—an email Paul received following her seemingly successful (televised) moderation of a book-fair panel in Miami.

“Had the unfortunate experience of seeing you on Miami Dade College video tossing your head around and continuously pushing the hair out of your face. What the hell is the matter with you? Why wear hair that covers your eye? You are an insult to women.”

Paul's piece goes on to feature a handful of other women (Lori Gottlieb, Rebecca Skloot, Bridget Todd) who spend time in the glare of the media sun talking real issues. Women who, after adding something to the intellectual exchange, are barraged later on by inane commentary. Hair. Baggy eyes. A twice-worn purple sweater. The works.

My first thought (and I have been having this thought a lot lately): Glad I am not famous or TV-worthy. Indeed, except for those few days after a stylist has blown some sense into my tresses, I am not even hair-fit for the gym. I've lost friends over the wilderness of the stuff that sprouts from my head. I've endured the exasperation of a colleague who, while perfectly balanced on a stool in a swanky bar, implored me to find a way to fix it.

I have tried. I cannot. Imagine what the anonymous, peering-in-from-their-living-room crowds would say about me were I equipped to endure the media glare in an attempt to say something that mattered.

My second thought (and this should have been my first): Why does it give so many people so much pleasure to be unkind, inconsiderate, ruthlessly shaming? What sports zone are we living in? Why have so many grown so vigorously immune to seeing the bigger picture, and of exercising compassion?

My third thought (and this follows on the heels of my compassion post) is this: What would happen if we all agreed to use our social media channels—our blogs, our Facebook walls, our Twitter, our LinkedIn—for unadulterated good? I know it's a tall order. Heck. There are times when I want to shout, and sometimes do. But what if, for this week ahead, starting now, we set aside our inner mean and only wrote kindly of others (or, as our mothers taught us, held our tongues)?

I'm going to give it a shot. Perhaps you'll join me.

And if you want to join me, pass it on.

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Returning to New York City for the Publishing Perspectives YA: What's Next Conference

We have felt—we still feel—paralyzed by the storm.  Those of us who love New York City and the Jersey Shore, those with friends in Connecticut and south, have watched the news and wondered about how those affected will survive the immediate flood waters and losses, and about how we, entrusted with this world, will somehow correct the devastating weather course we are on.  We have thought about those who died in the terror of the moment.

Shortly before the storm hit, I was invited by Dennis Abrams to return to New York City on November 28th for the second Publishing Perspectives conference, this one titled:  "YA: What's Next."  I said yes in a second (ask Dennis).  The first Publishing Perspectives conference was so well conducted, so informative and classy, that it is a thrill to return, this time as a panel moderator, to that Scholastic stage, where Taylor Swift sat in her signature red not so long ago.

I am always grateful on those days when I travel to New York City.  I know I will feel especially grateful for the ground beneath my feet as I make my way to the Scholastic headquarters on Wednesday, November 28, for the half-day event (9 AM to 1 PM).

I'll be moderating the panel, "YA: What's Next," where I'll be joined by David Levithan (author and VP and Publisher at Scholastic Trade), Francine Lucidon (owner of The Voracious Reader Bookstore), and Eliot Schrefer (2012 National Book Award finalist).

The full slate of speakers can be found at the link here. 

Finally, thank you to Ed Nawotka, the editor-in-chief of Publishing Perspectives, who has published so many of my stories on people who matter in publishing—Ruta Sepetys, Tamra Tuller, Michael Green, Lauren Wein, Pamela Paul, Jennifer Brown, Vaddey Ratner, Alane Salierno Mason, Eric Hellman, among them.  Click here to read my most recent story, an interview with 2012 National Book Award finalist Patricia McCormick.

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The Fab Five (I feel like a Rock Star)

Today, another short note, a simple reminder:

I have the great privilege of joining David Levithan, Ellen Hopkins, Eliot Schrefer, and Jennifer Hubbard this coming Friday, 7 PM, at Children's Book World in Haverford, PA.  CBW is billing us as the Fab Five, and I have Philomel publicist (every author's dream publicist and my good friend) Jessica Shoffel to thank for making me Feel So Fab.

I hope that you will join us. The photograph above was taken during the Publishing Perspectives "What Makes a Children's Book Great?" conference held earlier this summer, where I had so much fun joining moderator Dennis Abrams on the author panel.  The smart and savvy notables from left to right are Roger Sutton (The Horn Book), Pamela Paul (New York Times), David Levithan (Scholastic editor and author phenom), and my good friend Jennifer Brown, a former school teacher, editor, reviewer, and jury panelist (not to mention head of children's books for Shelf Awareness) whom I always rightly refer to as this country's ambassador for children's books. 

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Joining David Levithan, Ellen Hopkins, and Jennifer Hubbard at Children's Book World, September 21

This past May I had the privilege of participating in the uber-fine Publishing Perspectives Conference, What Makes a Children's Book Great?  One expert panel featured Roger Sutton (The Horn Book), Pamela Paul (The New York Times), and David Levithan (Scholastic editor and beloved author) in a conversation hosted by the fantastic Jennifer Brown (Shelf Awareness).  I sat in the audience admiring those four—their wit, their knowing, their bookly stature.

Today I learned from the pretty darned perfect Jessica Shoffel at Philomel that I'll be joining David Levithan, Ellen Hopkins, and Jennifer Hubbard at Children's Book World in Haverford, PA for a panel/signing.  The date is September 21.  The time is 7 PM.  I'd love to see you there.

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The Publishing Perspectives Profile (In anticipation of the Children's Book Conference)

Poor Dennis Abrams of Publishing Perspectives!  He was given the task of interviewing me, and it was one of those days when I was talking too fast about, well, everything.  That Dennis was able to create this beautiful profile for Publishing Perspectives says much about his talent for deep listening and fine cohesion. I am grateful, and I am so looking forward to the Publishing Perspectives Children's Book Conference, to be held on May 31st at the Scholastic Headquarters in New York City, where I'll be joining Peter Brown, John Rocco, and Raina Telgemeier on a panel Dennis moderates.  Earlier in the day, conference participants will meet Pamela Paul, Jenny Brown, Roger Sutton, David Levithan, Ken Wright, Rosemary Stimola, and Erica Rand Silverman, among others.

I hope to find some of you there.  And, again, thank you, Dennis.

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Hoping to find you at the BEA

My friends:  I'll be at the BEA on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, working for Publishing Perspectives, the fabulous book news pub for which I have written about Pamela Paul (New York Times Book Review children's book editor), Jennifer Brown (Shelf Awareness children's book editor), Lauren Wein (Harcourt Houghton Mifflin editor), Alane Mason (WW Norton editor, not to mention my first editor), and others.  I'll be getting the inside scoop on some important stories.  But I'll also be looking for you.

If you'll be there, let me know?

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Children's Publishing Conference 2012

I have mentioned my excitement about being a panelist at the upcoming Children's Publishing Conference, to be held on Thursday, May 31, 2012, at the Scholastic Headquarters in New York.  The half-day conference, which was created by Publishing Perspectives and is designed to bring together industry leaders, is organized around two key questions: What makes a children's book great, and How and what will children be reading in 2020?

The schedule for the event has recently been published. I am sharing the highlights, with the hope that you'll consider attending. Registration details can be found here. Space is limited.

9:00 Welcome

Edward Nawotka, Editor-in-Chief, Publishing Perspectives

9:15 What Makes a Children's Book Great?

Richard Robinson, President and CEO, Scholastic Inc.

9:45 Trends vs. Tradition: The Present and Future of YA and Children's Books

David Levithan (Scholastic), Pamela Paul (New York Times Book Review), Roger Sutton (Horn Books)

10:30 Blockbusters, Bestsellers, and Everything in Between: Agenting Children's Books

Ken Wright (Writers House), Rosemary Stimola (Stimola Literary Studio), Erica Rand Silverman (Sterling Lord Literistic), moderated by Peggy Intrator

11:30 Born Digital, Buy Digital: Sales, Publishing and Community Building for the New Generation

Ken Wright (Writers House), Rosemary Stimola (Stimola Literary Studio), Erica Rand Silverman (Sterling Lord Literistic), moderated by Peggy Intrator

12:15 Author, Author!: Building a Career, Connecting with Kids, and Standing out from the Crowd

Peter Brown (author), Beth Kephart (author), John Rocco (author/illustrator), Raina Telgemeier (author)

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what makes a children's book great?: the children's publishing conference 2012

As some of you know, I have been having a lot of fun writing for Publishing Perspectives—interviewing book editors like Michael Green, Tamra Tuller, Lauren Wein, and Alane Salierno Mason, review editors (and trend makers) Pamela Paul and Jennifer Brown, and technologists/book lovers like Eric Hellman.

On May 31st, I'll have a chance to represent for this fine publication as one of the speakers at the inaugural Children's Publishing Conference 2012, to be held at the Scholastic Headquarters.  I'll be joining (among others) Pamela Paul of the New York Times Book Review, Jacob Lewis, CEO of Figment, Kevin O'Conner, who directs business and publishers relations for Barnes and Noble, NOOK Kids, and agents Rosemary Stimola and Ken Wright.

I hope those of you interested in the future of children's books will consider registering for this event.  I know that I am looking forward to it.

For a full press release, please go here. 

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Profiling Alane Salierno Mason, my first editor, for Publishing Perspectives

My journey into the land of books began in the way that most things begin with me—by braving myself away from the margins.  I had written in secret for years and without any "proper" literary education.  I had not met my first real writer—Fae Myenne Ng—until I was already a mother.  By the time I finally figured out what writing workshops were and what they might teach me, I couldn't enroll in any of them until I somehow wove them into family vacations. This I did, spending time with Rosellen Brown and Reginald Gibbons in Spoleto, Jayne Anne Phillips and William Gass in Prague, and Jayne Anne Phillips once more at Bread Loaf.

When I sent my unsolicited manuscript to Alane Salierno Mason at W.W. Norton—added it to what must have been a staggering slush pile—I had already been told that my work was too "literary," that it was unlikely to ever sell more than 3,000 copies, and that I should either look for something else to do or change my relationship to language.  Alane didn't say those things to me.  Instead, she called me on my birthday with the news that my first book, a memoir, would be edited by her.

Alane, then, was my introduction to book publishing.  She walked me through the streets of New York City and made sure I made the train home on time.  She introduced me to the Rose Room of the New York Public Library.  She sat with me over the course of many meals, was there for me throughout the National Book Award reading and ceremony (pictured above), and bought two more of my books—a memoir about marriage and El Salvador, and a memoir that called out for parents everywhere to give children more time to dream out loud. 

I have since read and reviewed many of Alane's books on this blog.  I have watched her harness her passion for international literature into the widely respected publishing and education venture, Words Without Borders.  I have read her own beautiful essays, and her reporting in Vanity Fair.  I have cheered as one of her books, The Swerve, went on to win the National Book Award.

A few weeks ago, I had an e-mail conversation with Alane about her life in books, and about the state of international publishing.  That story has gone live today at Publishing Perspectives and can be found here. 

To read my other profiles for Publishing Perspectives, please follow the links below.  For two more photo memories from a night I shared with Alane in 1998, go here.

Transforming Children's Book Coverage at the New York Times: My conversation with Pamela Paul

Success is when the world returns your faith:  My conversation with editor Lauren Wein

Between Shades of Gray:  The Making of an International Bestseller

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My interview with Pamela Paul, the NYT children's book editor

We'd been in London until late last night, celebrating the christening of this enormously special little boy.  Among the packages we'd carried with us was this beguiling deluxe pop-up version of The Little Prince, the Antoine de Saint-Exupery story that has never lost its magical glean. (We also brought Felix The Man in the Moon, the gorgeous new book by William Joyce.)

Pamela Paul, who was named the fifth children's book editor at the The New York Times earlier this year, has an innate understanding of the importance of books made for children and has radically transformed their coverage since taking on the role.  I began to notice the changes some time around April.  The conversation was deepening.  The reportage was growing broader.  There was more children's book talk, not just on the weekend, but during the week.  Melissa Walker was having her New York Times Book Review moment.  We were being treated to behind-the-scenes conversations that I found frankly thrilling. There were more back-page essays exploring the influence of early books on readers.  Who, I wondered, was behind all this? What magic was she working behind the scenes?  What else could the rest of us expect to see as the weeks and months went on?

A few weeks ago, Pamela Paul graciously agreed to a conversation about this and more for Publishing Perspectives.  I'm honored today to share that conversation with you and to suggest that our future is in extraordinary hands.

To read my other pieces for Publishing Perspectives, please click on these links:

Success is when the world returns your faith:  My conversation with editor Lauren Wein

Between Shades of Gray:  The Making of an International Bestseller

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Pamela Paul and Adam Gopnik talk about children's books and the people who review them

The New York Times Book Review has lately been doing an extraordinary job of celebrating books written for children and young adults.  There's more coverage.  There's a greater sense of context.  There's the feeling that all of this matters greatly.  

Take a look at the upcoming Pamela Paul essay on the back page—she's talking about Sendak, Silverstein, Dr. Seuss, and rule breaking.  Listen, then, if you have the time, to the podcast slipped in alongside the story.  In it Adam Gopnick and Pamela Paul discuss, among other things, the ideal reviewer of children's books; what qualifies anyone to have an opinion?  Sam Tannehaus asks good questions.  He elicits some really smart answers.

I just sat here in the dark listening to the recording all the way through.

I'm going to stand up now, feeling heartened.

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Writing toward teen boys—the conversation continues

A week or so ago, I posted a video by a bright young reader who was contemplating the How do we get teen boys to read more? question.  This weekend, the New York Times is pondering that matter as well, with this video conversation between Rick Riordan, James Patterson, and Pamela Paul, as well as this Robert Lipsyte essay.

Good teachers and interested parents understand that the best cure for reluctant readers lies in identifying the right book for the right readers—easily said, but not always easily done.  I had a hard time myself finding just the right books for my own son (a concern I explored in my memoir Seeing Past Z: Nurturing the Imagination in a Fast-Forward World), and even today, given a choice, this hardworking, curious, academically motivated, generous-hearted kid of mine leans away from books toward other media—except when writing his own stories.  It's then that he professes himself most eager to see what others do, and he's especially eager to read the work of his contemporaries—his classmates, published young authors—finding most relevance and meaning in the stories they tell. 

I spend a lot of time thinking about the relevance of my own work. I don't write toward trends, don't capitalize on them, and I'm rather ill-suited for a world like the one that Lipsyte describes in his essay, in which one Harper executive noted (in 2007) that "at least three-quarters of her target audience were girls, and they wanted to read about mean girls, gossip girls, fenemies and vampires."  I have none of that in me.  I would not know where to begin. 

But I can write more inclusively, and I am working on that now, paying closer attention to the male characters in my stories, listening and leaning toward them.  Now at work, as many of you know, on a book peopled by teen boys in late 19th century Philadelphia—a murdered, good-hearted thief, his animal-rescuing brother, and a rising careerist with journalism in his future—I find myself exhilarated by the self-generated task of writing a book of redemption and adventure that has at its center conflicted, complex young men.  Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent, which will be illustrated with original, edgy art, is a prequel to Dangerous Neighbors (Egmont USA), my Centennial Philadelphia story about twin sisters.  It is an outside-the-trends risk, as all my work tends to be.  But it is also, I think, a risk worth taking, a readership that deserves our attention.

The book's first page can be found here. 

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Pamela Paul on the adult embrace of young adult literature

Several years ago, when I was just beginning to understand the transcendent possibilities of young adult literature, I wrote an essay for the Chicago Tribune, which the Tribune then titled "Welcoming posture of youngsters lures more writers." (February 5, 2006)  Why, I asked, were Adam Gopnik, Isabel Allende, Michael Chabon, Louise Erdrich, Sue Halpern, Marilyn Nelson, and so many others writing for younger readers?  I posited this possible explanation:

While some might claim that the wild success of the Harry Potter series has raised the stakes of--and interest in--writing for the younger reader, I'd like to suggest that something else might also be at work, something about the very hospitability of the young reader's mind. For aren't young readers typically blessed with capacious hearts and souls? Don't they tend to welcome the slightly askew into their midst? Don't they walk straight into topsy-turvy worlds, hail the wraith, admire the ghost, listen with care to the talking tree? Young readers, by and large, care more for stories than for labels. They censor less. They want the writer to get it right, or so it seems to me.

Today, in a wonderful essay for the New York Times Book Review, Pamela Paul explores why so many books labeled "young adult" are bought and savored by those well past their teen years (while also discussing the book club phenomenon Kidlit).  Among the reasons put forth:

...good Y.A. is like good television.  There's a freshness there; it's engaging. Y.A. authors aren't writing about middle-aged anomie or disappointed people.  (Amanda Foreman)

A lot of contemporary adult literature is characterized by a real distrust of plot.  I think young adult fiction is one of the few areas of literature right now where storytelling really thrives.  (Lev Grossman)

There's an immediacy in the prose.  I like the way adolescent emotions are rawer, less canned. (Darcey Steinke)

I know that many of you who read this blog read across genres and labels (and I am grateful).  I wonder how you, then, might answer the question, Why are so many adults reading books that are (at the very least) marketed to teens? 

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The book trailer dilemma (and Dangerous Neighbors)

In this weekend's New York Times, Pamela Paul tackles the topic of the "de rigueur" book trailer ("The Author Takes a Star Turn"), citing the recent YouTube moments of, among others, Mary Karr, Jeannette Walls, and Kelly Corrigan.  To quote from the story:

But in the streaming video era, with the publishing industry under relentless threat, the trailer is fast becoming an essential component of online marketing. Asked to draw on often nonexistent acting skills, authors are holding forth for anything from 30 seconds to 6 minutes, frequently to the tune of stock guitar strumming, soulful violin or klezmer music. And now, those who once worried about no one reading their books can worry about no one watching their trailers. (A mother still nursing her 8-year-old: 25,864,943 views; recent best-selling maternal memoirist: 5,124 views.)

I read the piece with great interest, as I read all stories about the marketing (and fate) of books with great interest.  I read it with a flush in my face.  Citing book trailer budgets of up to $15,000, I thought of my own budgets (no pennies, just my time, which I leave others to value), my own resources (the photographs I know how to take and the video I don't), my own technology (iMovie, after I lost patience with Final Cut during one particularly hot, sweaty day), my own music choices (severely limited by lack of budget and lack of personal composing/performing/recording capabilities, though I do hum a mean "Twinkle, Twinkle"), my own microphone (which is attached to my unportable computer, which sits on my glass-topped desk in my glass-surround office), my own vision (and how sorely it compares to the final product), my own un-desire to sit in front of my little Apple camera and interview myself (what a monumental bore, I think, to interview myself), and my own aims (to tell someone out there what the book is about in 90 seconds or less).

Had I thought, for example, about how hard it would be to create a trailer for my upcoming historical novel, Dangerous Neighbors, I might have thought twice (I'm saying might have, only) before signing up for all the difficulties that simply writing the book entailed.  Because how, in fact, does a woman like me—lacking budget, lacking video talent—recreate the kaleidoscopic quality of that book?  The skating on the Schuylkill River, circa 1876.  The digging for clams at the Cape May beach in the era's bathing costumes.  The fire that swept through Shantytown.  The massive grandiosity of the Centennial grounds themselves.  The Laurel Hill Cemetery in winter, as it was then, not as it is now.  How does one talk about twin sisters, when there are no 18 year old twin sisters in sight, and nothing late nineteenth century to dress them in?  Dangerous Neighbors is a book in which high color is thematic and the pace ever quickens; the images from 1876—still images—are black and white and grainy.  Dangerous Neighbors features a baker's boy who rescues lost animals from the streets of Philadelphia.  Can one let a pig loose in Rittenhouse Square?

The "de riguering" of book trailers is, I think, a fascinating development, and I myself watch many trailers—applauding and admiring and, yes, envying writers like Maggie Stiefvater—writer, artist, musician, film maker—who can do it all.  This is not to say that there isn't much I can still learn, much I can work against, much I must transcend.  I'm in the book business and so, alas, I must crack the code on video problems that have, until now, proved confounding.

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