Shelf Space

They're evil! They're brilliant! They're reviewers!

ForeWord Soundoff — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:19:01 GMT

Everyone loves a librarian, except when that librarian is also a reviewer for Kirkus. In addition to writing reviews on my personal blog, I've worked as a professional reviewer for seven years. One moment, publishers quote reviews I've written in their ads. The next, an author calls me a bitter, failed writer because I dared to give his book an unfavorable review. Reviewing for professional journals is both a joy and a challenge for many librarians. Those of us who review do it because we enjoy sharing our opinions and writing about books (and the free review copies don't hurt, either). What's frustrating, however, is the lack of understanding that often comes from readers, authors, and even our fellow librarians when they don't understand why we wrote what we did. This week, I've interviewed Vicky Smith, children's book editor at Kirkus Reviews, and Linda Benson, book review editor at Voice of Youth Advocates, about the process of reviewing for professional journals and how books are chosen for review.

Who are your reviewers? How are reviewers chosen for journals?

Linda Benson: Our reviewers are volunteers from across the nation and Canada. I've touched on the application and selection process above, but most are librarians, educators, or library and teacher educators. Some are booksellers or have been in that field. We require a sample review with the application to test a potential reviewer's ability to adhere to our guidelines and create a coherent review. If the sample is accepted, a provisional book is assigned, further guidelines expressed, and then if that review is also cogent, we're on our way. We do expect at least three years working with teens in some way to ensure familiarity with reading habits and taste.

Vicky Smith: Kirkus's reviewers are mostly librarians. Because Kirkus's primary market is librarians, it makes sense for our writers to have that understanding of the audience in mind as they approach a book. Will it make for a great storytime read-aloud? A fruitful discussion-starter? Also, because librarians tend to have a much broader familiarity with the world of books already available, they can comment knowledgeably about a new book's relationship to what's gone before. Is it just like every other dead pet book in the children's room or does it do something different? Will it provide something new for those teens who are avid for vampire books or is it the same old stuff? Does it replace THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS INSIDE A BEEHIVE--or is it so duplicative that librarians would be better served simply by buying a fresh copy of the old standby?

I really can't speak for how reviewers are chosen elsewhere, but I look for the following qualities, in no particular order:

1. Broad familiarity with children's and/or YA literature and the ways kids and teens use books.
2. The ability to turn in clean copy on deadline.
3. Special expertise in certain areas--science writing, LGBTQ, multicultural and ethnic understanding, emergent literacy, art and so on--is a huge plus.
4. A fresh and flowing literary style. Kirkus aims for each review to be a 175-word literary gem in itself as well as an authoritative comment on the book in question. Whether we always achieve this is open to debate, but it is our goal.

Do you have any advice for getting your small press/independently published book reviewed in a journal?

LB: First, writers should make certain that their work has been professionally edited. If a work has been rejected by a mainstream publisher, there are reasons. Too often, in the rush to publication, an aspiring author considers his or her work a finished product. It is not complete until it has seen at least one more set of eyes—and not mom or dad or sister Kate. This person should have professional copyediting skills that can identify and express when a work does not flow, when dialogue is forced, or when characterization does not ring true. Beyond the issue of grammar and punctuation, a professional copyedit should identify issues of plot, telling not showing, and possible didactic point of view, among others. Check cover art. Does it look like an elementary school student and his box of crayons have been at work? Teens are proven to be drawn to attractive covers. Good editors work with their authors to create the best possible work.

VS: First, make sure you understand each journal's submissions requirements. Kirkus, for instance, is a prepublication journal, so we need ARCs in hand at least three months ahead of publication, and because I work from home but the administrative details are taken care of in the New York office, we need ARCs in both places, if you're submitting children's or YA books.

Also, Kirkus doesn't review self-published material. Sometimes it's very hard to tell the difference between self-published books and books from small presses. Making sure your presentation is as professional-looking as possible helps--copyedit your press releases as carefully as you do your books.

Keep in mind that any journal editor is juggling deadlines and many physical books and won't always be able to respond to emails. Once again, knowing whom you're submitting to makes a world of difference. Although we do some interviews in our supplements, Kirkus does not do any interviews, Q&As, feature pieces or the like in our magazine, so if you offer me the opportunity to interview your author, don't be surprised if I don't take you up on it--it's just not my focus.

Why do some books seem to get reviewed in all the major journals, while others might get only one or two journal reviews, or none at all?

LB: For VOYA, selection of titles for review is based on space available, relevance of theme or topic, popularity or promise of popularity of author, good cover (I remain a teen at heart), and quite frankly, whether or not we actually receive the book. We match books to reviewers' preference and ability. There is a lengthy and detailed selection process in which potential reviewers indicate interest and preferences. Sometimes there is just not a good match of available reviewers and books under consideration. And let's face it, with 4,000 or more books arriving on our shelves yearly, some will fall by the wayside.

VS: Again, know your journals. In the children's and YA worlds, not all journals review all books. Booklist and Horn Book, for instance, are selective, and rarely publish negative reviews (although the Horn Book Guide reviews everything). If you've submitted a book to Booklist or Horn Book and it's not reviewed, you can assume that their respective editorial boards looked it over and decided it was not a book they'd recommend.

Kirkus does its best to review just about everything, with some caveats. We rarely review paperback originals, unless they're from a small press that doesn't do anything but. Also, although I understand the truism that there's no such thing as bad publicity, I operate on the general principle that a small, independent press doesn't need a crushing Kirkus review. If I receive a submission from a small press and I don't think it's got a good chance at a positive review, I probably won't assign it, unless it fills some kind of niche. I feel it's important to weigh in with negative reviews on books with a lot of publicity backing them up--if they deserve it, of course—because book selectors need to have a full spectrum of reviews to consider in their purchasing decisions.

Are you more or less likely to send out a book for review if you know that other journals will be reviewing it as well?

VS: I don't think that much about the other journals when I assign—the more opinions there are out there, the better-informed selectors will be. That being said, I hate like poison when someone else beats Kirkus to the first review.

Posted by: Carlie Webber

This weblog is sponsored by ForeWord Magazine.

Beyond Night and Maus: Holocaust Remembrance reading

ForeWord Soundoff — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:41:23 GMT

April 19-26 hails the Holocaust Days of Remembrance, so this week's post covers some recent, recommended Holocaust books. These recommendations come from Ron Coleman, who is a reference librarian for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Since Ron is also a classmate of mine from the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Science, I want to share what he wrote to me about the museum library. I think it perfectly demonstrates a principle we learn in library school: The library is a living organism.

We add between 4,500 and 5,000 items to our collection every year, but this number is misleading because many items we add are not newly published, and we add a fair amount of material that is not strictly Holocaust-related. People are often surprised at that number, because they often think that “everything that could be written” on the subject already has. But new archival discoveries and fresh viewpoints on old debates continue to sharpen our understanding of exactly what happened during the Holocaust and how events came to pass.

Here are Ron's top picks, with his reasoning as to why he picked these particular titles. He also offers some sage advice about reading and collecting Holocaust books.

There is no shortage of overview histories of the Holocaust, but recent years saw the publication of a major new history of the time period that deserves a place in most libraries. Saul Friedländer’s two volume work Nazi Germany and the Jews (New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 1997-2007) won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, and it was recently—as in April 1, 2009—released in a one-volume condensed edition. Where earlier histories were often faulted for over-reliance on Nazi documentation, and other works focusing primarily on the victims may have presented a skewed version of events, Friedländer carefully presents a history of the evolving Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany and occupied countries that is based on a remarkable array of first-person accounts—from victims, perpetrators, and bystanders—balanced with an authoritative grasp of the primary source material left by the Nazis.

Everyone knows about the diary of Anne Frank, but people are often surprised to find that dozens of other diaries—often help by young people in the ghettos and in hiding—have been translated and published in English. Two such diaries were published in the last couple of years: Rutka's Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust (New York: Time Books, 2008) and The Diary of Petr Ginz 1941-1942 (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007) both relate the experiences of young people persecuted by the Nazis in different part of Europe . (Petr Ginz was from what was then Czechoslovakia, and Rutka Laskier was from Poland.) Another important diary that was recently republished is The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto (Oxford: Oneworld, 2006). These books can serve as counterpoints to Anne Frank’s diary because, where Anne kept her diary in hiding and offers no insight into the lives of those sent to ghettos or camps, these three diaries (and many others) provide first-person accounts of teenagers who lived in ghettos and/or camps. Also, although it is not a “recent” publication Alexandra Zapruder’s essential book Salvaged Pages: Young Writers' Diaries of the Holocaust (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002) compiles excerpts from fourteen wartime diaries kept by young people from across Europe.

Numerous memoirs of Holocaust survivors have been published since the end of the war, and the last 10-15 years has seen a sharp increase in this type of publication. I hesitate to recommend one memoir over another, because it may sound like I’m endorsing one person’s experience as being more important than another, and because even poorly-written memoirs provide important insights into the Holocaust. However, several interesting books by children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors—the “Second Generation” and “Third Generation”—have been published in the last few years. These books often provide accounts of second- and third-generation members seeking to learn about what happened to their relatives, in many cases because survivors were often hesitant to discuss their experiences with their children. Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost: A Search of Six of the Six Million (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006) tells the story of how Mendelsohn tried to reconstruct what happened to members of his extended family after discovering a cache of letters written by his great-uncle before the war. It’s part detective story, part memoir, and part history the Holocaust as told through the experiences of one family. Another book in this vein include Mark Kurzem’s The Mascot: The Extraordinary Story of a Young Jewish Boy and an SS Extermination Squad (New York: Viking, 2007). These kinds of books are fascinating and often deeply personal accounts of how the Holocaust continues to reverberate across generations. There are several others like this; the two mentioned above are only two of those I have heard great things about.

The Holocaust continues to be a topic that fiction writers draw from, and it has proven to be a popular topic for readers. While some authors come perilously close to using the Holocaust as merely a plot device, others—including members of the “Second Generation”—have written powerful and moving works that still manage to honor the victims and survivors by not cheapening their experiences. One book that has received a lot of attention in the last few years is Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), which after 60 years presents the English translation of two novellas depicting life in occupied France in 1941. Némirovsky was deported and killed in Auschwitz before she could complete her proposed five-part series. At the other end of the “provocative scale” is Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones (New York: Harper, 2009), which is the English translation of a book that shocked and titillated the French when it was published there in 2006. It’s a fictionalized memoir of a “remorseless former Nazi SS officer who's gay, incestuous and possibly matricidal.” I haven’t read it, so I can’t comment on whether or not Littell “honored the victims” (to use my phrase from earlier), but it does show how affecting this subject continues to be almost 65 years after the end of World War II.

With Holocaust denial still an unfortunate part of the contemporary discussion of the subject, it is essential that the facts about the Holocaust and Nazi persecution continue to be presented as they are discovered. With this in mind, the Museum has set out to publish an authoritative Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, which will attempt to provide information about all of the camps and ghettos in the Nazi system. (People are often surprised to discover that there were more than 20,000 camps in the Nazi system, from very small camps that housed forced laborers for only a short period of time, to the largest of the camps, Auschwitz.) The first volume of this encyclopedia, Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office, will be published later this month by Indiana University Press. While this work will appeal primarily to large academic libraries, there may be other libraries that would benefit from having this work in their collections.

We also offer annotated bibliographies on many different aspects of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany: There are 50 lists there, including lists of books and articles on music, daily life in the camps, Nazi propaganda, and published primary sources available in English.

Many thanks to Ron, and I will add a pop culture recommendation. In addition to reading these books, you may want to watch a repeat viewing of The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, which dramatizes the life of a woman who saved 2,500 Jewish children during the Holocaust. Read more about Irena Sendler and see Anna Paquin, who portrayed her in the movie, talk about the movie's production at Jezebel.com.

Posted by: Carlie Webber

This weblog is sponsored by ForeWord Magazine.

Support Teen Literature Day

ForeWord Soundoff — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:34:13 GMT

Support Teen Literature Day, celebrated this year on April 16, is an initiative started by the Young Adult Library Services Association to "raise awareness among the general public that young adult literature is a vibrant, growing genre with much to offer today's teens." Rather than have one big national event, YALSA encourages STLD participants to make a grassroots effort to show their communities that YA literature is a pretty great thing. This year, YALSA has paired with the Readergirlz and Guys Lit Wire to host Operation Teen Book Drop, a project that will give teen books to hospitals all over the US on April 16. If you don't have books to donate, or can't get to a hospital, fret not! YALSA has established a Support Teen Literature Day wiki full of ways for you to promote teen literature. Regardless of the size of your budget or the amount of spare time you have, there's an idea in there you can implement. If you are able to donate books, hospitals are a great place to bring all those ARCs that are taking over your coffee table. You may also want to consider donating audiobooks, as many hospitalized teens have conditions that prevent them from holding a paper book. Audiobooks are a way for them to enjoy new stories from talented authors and actors who bring their words to life.

What's one of my favorite ways to support teen literature? Give an adult an outstanding teen book, especially if the book is aimed at older teens.

The sad truth is, teen literature doesn't get the support it needs. Not yet. Ask your average adult bookstore customer or library patron to talk about teen literature, and chances are they'll be able to name three YA books: Harry Potter, Gossip Girl, and Twilight. Ask them who Markus Zusak, Nancy Werlin, or John Green are, however, and you're likely to get a blank stare. I'm sure I'm not the only person out there who has heard conversations in bookstores in which a parent tells his or her teen, "You're too good a reader to read books from the teen section." I've also heard conversations between parents and their teen readers that include lines like, "We'll go over to the adult section and get you a good book," or "You're sixteen; aren't you too old to be reading teen books?" There is a misperception among many adults that if a book is written for teens it must be forgettable, full of nothing but sex and vampires, or fluffy. Adults don't always understand why teens might find those great required classics boring or be resistant to reading them, especially if the classic is one they enjoyed as a teen. If the book was great then, it must be great now, right? It might be, but that doesn't mean that modern teen literature is somehow less worthy of admiration. Teen literature is a place where any story can happen in just about any format. For an adult reader just starting to read teen literature, the selection can even be overwhelming. Enter the YA section of a bookstore or library and you'll be confronted with shelves of shiny, colorful covers picturing everything from beaches to tiaras. Where to start?

When recommending YA literature to adult readers, I always like to ask about some of the readers' favorite authors and genres. Literature trends cross the age divide, so no matter what adult offerings you like, there's a YA book to match your tastes. For example...
•   We all know that vampires are the new black, but according to an article in this week's Time, zombies are the new vampires. Everyone is clamoring for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Those who love their love stories with a spattering of the undead will fall head over brains for The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, in which a teen has to manage family, a love triangle, and a zombie apocalypse.
•   Paranormal romances fly off shelves as though lifted by faerie wings. Dark, sexy faerie wings, of course. Adults who love writers like Laurell K. Hamilton and Sherrilyn Kenyon might also get swept away in the worlds of YA authors Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange) and Holly Black (Tithe, Valiant).
•   Humor? Chick lit? YA has those, too. Jane Green may have found her match in author Grace Dent, whose Diary of a Chav series follows a teen who loves gold hoop earrings, cruising Claire's Boutique, and also finds that she's pretty good at this whole school thing.
•   What about the ever-elusive male market? With romance and the undead dominating the market, are there any good teen books for guys? Absolutely! One important man in my life who's read everything by Christopher Moore also loved Soul Enchilada by David Macinnis Gill. The two books share the same sense of humor and interaction with the otherworldly. Other teen authors popular with guys include Barry Lyga, David Lubar, Scott Westerfeld, Neal Shusterman, and the aforementioned John Green.

After hearing feedback from readers, I like to use my own knowledge of the literature to recommend more titles, or I work with them using a reader's advisory tool like Novelist.

Regardless of reading interest, there's a teen book out there for everyone. Whether you're rocking the Drop or relaxing at home, make the effort to support teen literature on April 16...and every day after that.

Posted by: Carlie Webber

This weblog is sponsored by ForeWord Magazine.

Forever in debt to his priceless advice

ForeWord Soundoff — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:48:37 GMT

Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of the discovery of Kurt Cobain's body, news that rocked not just the music industry but millions of members of Generation X who made flannel shirts and Converse sneakers high fashion. Although today's kids might not care about Kurt Cobain, they cannot deny Nirvana's influence on popular music. Nirvana's peer, Pearl Jam , sells millions of albums to this day. Nirvana's drummer, Dave Grohl, went on to form the Grammy-winning Foo Fighters. Despite Cobain's distaste for fame, he became a sort of Jim Morrison for Generation X: artistic, dangerous, and elusive, clearly living in a world that most of us could never hope to understand. In an interview with VH1, Grohl said that "everything [Cobain] did was beautiful," and the only thing Grohl would ever change about his experience in Nirvana would be Cobain's death.

If today is a day for you to sit back and remember Kurt Cobain, pick up one or all of these books:

Cobain Unseen by Charles R. Cross (Little, Brown, 2008). This new biography includes previously unpublished memorabilia and photos, including three-dimensional, tactile replicas of Cobain's artwork. It takes the reader from Cobain's blue-collar beginnings to Nirvana's unexpected explosion to fame to the aftermath of Cobain's suicide.

Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography by Charles R. Cross (Hyperion, 2001) has been the subject of debate and outrage, especially from fans who believed it to be incomplete and biased due to the inclusion of the author's opinion on Cobain's final days. Despite this controversy, it is also one of the most complete and detailed books on Cobain's life available today.

Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana by Michael Azzerrad (Main Street Books, 1993) is a fan's perspective on Nirvana and contains extensive interviews with the band members. Most of the book was written prior to April, 1994, but later editions were revised to include information about Cobain's death.

Nirvana: The Biography by Everett True (Da Capo Press, 1997). This is Cobain as told by everyone who ever knew him. After a thorough exploration of Cobain's life, True interviews his bandmates and adds his own opinions about Nirvana's popularity and influence.

Journals by Kurt Cobain (reprinted by Penguin, 2003). Originally a collection of over twenty notebooks, this is a must-read for every true Nirvana fan. Whether it's song lyrics or sketches, if Cobain thought it and wrote it down, it's in here.

Grunge is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music by Greg Prato (ECW Press, 2009) covers major Seattle bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam as well as lesser-known acts like Mudhoney. Not just a collective biography of grunge rock, this book also looks at the wider grunge scene and how it spread.

If it's a day to listen to music, download these albums and immerse yourself in the sound of the 1990s:

Nevermind by Nirvana (Geffen Records, 1991). From the quick chords of the iconic hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to the quiet "Something in the Way," this is the album that introduced the world to grunge music.

Dirt by Alice in Chains (Sony, 1992). Alice in Chains never achieved the huge following of Nirvana or Pearl Jam, but songs like "Rooster" and "Angry Chair" have endured as gritty anthems of the grunge generation.

Ten by Pearl Jam (Sony, 1991). Although Pearl Jam is sometimes derided as being nothing more than a pale imitation of Nirvana, the two were contemporaries. Ten is the source of alternative-rock staples "Even Flow," "Alive," and "Jeremy."

Superunknown by Soundgarden (A&M Records, 1994). If you listen to Soundgarden and think, "I've heard this voice before," it's because you might recognize their singer, Chris Cornell, who sang "You Know My Name" from the soundtrack to Casino Royale, and fronted hard rock band Audioslave.

Core by Stone Temple Pilots. (Sony, 1992) STP's hard guitar sound and grainy-voiced lead singer, Scott Weiland, made them major players in the grunge scene. Although STP hasn't made a new album in years, Weiland went on to sing for supergroup Velvet Revolver, and a solo career.

Posted by: Carlie Webber

This weblog is sponsored by ForeWord Magazine.

ARCs: Just like the Hardcover, only Free! Part 2

ForeWord Soundoff — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:48:21 GMT

Part Two: What's the big deal?

Last week, I wrote about what an ARC is: an advance version of a book, printed to create buzz, reviews, and sales.

Let's talk about what an ARC isn't: the final published version of the book.

Once again, I spoke with Brian Farrey, a Flux Acquisitions Editor; Andrew Karre, Editorial Director for Carolrhoda Books, a division of Lerner Publishing Group; Sheila Ruth, Publisher, Imaginator Press; and fantasy author Sarah Prineas.

Despite the language that appears on ARCs, some bookstores seem to think an ARC is the final book. Stories abound of people who order a book via an online bookstore, and discover that they've been sold an ARC.

Some libraries, likewise, seem to think that an ARC is "good enough" for their patrons.

Keep in mind, I am not talking about informal galley groups with patrons and students. Sarah Prineas sees positives in sharing ARCs with young readers, as long it's not a formal sharing. "I think it's great when teachers and librarians share ARCs with their most enthusiastic kid readers, and with each other. They're the ones who fall in love with books, and their excited comments after reading an ARC can, in turn, get others excited. That's what "buzz" is all about!"

I am talking about libraries that make ARCs part of their formal collection, complete with spine label.

Oh, some librarians I spoke to said "never!" But others told me of seeing ARCs in collections, or waiting to be processed, and educating both directors and technical staff of why ARCs shouldn't be on the shelf. Suzi Steffen of Oregon is an avid library user. She checked out a recent nonfiction book from her local public library. "I was shocked & pretty annoyed to see it's an ARC."

On a professional library listserv, a librarian justified adding ARCs to her permanent collection because low budgets meant fewer materials. I wonder—as budgets continue to fall, with other people adopt this "but I cannot afford the final book" attitude?

And really, what's the harm? It's just a few typos, right? Isn't putting books—even if they are ARCs—into the hands of customers the most important thing?

Brian Farrey explains that "in theory, there aren't many substantial changes between ARC and final copy. Most changes are to correct typos, clarify text (eliminate confusing or inconsistent plot points/character traits)."

Andrew Karre says that while "ideally, very few changes are made—mostly proofreading and adding details like bios, art, design tweaks, dedications, etc. In practice, a lot can change. I've seen covers change, major plot points change, and even titles."

Publishing is a business; and like any business, many factors go into the process and a tight timeline exists. An ARC is needed at a certain time, ready or not. Andrew explains, "Book publishing can be a bit like that famous I Love Lucy episode in the candy factory. The conveyor belt generally does not stop for anything."

Typos do matter. Sheila Ruth agrees, saying "even such minor errors reflect badly on a book, because they make the book look unprofessional."
I've read ARCs with grammar and spelling errors, knowing that those things would be corrected in the published book. But to read them in what is the final version of the book can take the reader away from the story and creates the impression that the writer and publisher are sloppy.

One young adult author I spoke with experienced a mix-up with her publisher, when the wrong book file was sent to the printer. The author and publisher realized that some things just had to be fixed before sending out the ARCs. Italics had been left out that would have rendered the story confusing. The solution? Sitting down and underlining the necessary parts of the story in the ARCs—all 600 of them.

Sometimes, the changes are more significant than these "minor" typographical errors.

Sarah Prineas, the author of The Magic Thief fantasy series for readers ages 9 to 12, shares what happened with the second book in her series. "My situation with The Magic Thief: Lost was a little different than usual. I'd originally turned in the LOST manuscript much earlier and my editor and I finished our edits on the book over the summer. But then, sadly, my editor was laid off in June and I was assigned to a new editor, for whom I offered to do a new round of edits. I turned the book in again for her in September, and the ARC went out during the third week of October. That's a pretty quick turnaround, and as it happens, my new editor and I were not finished with our edits yet. Still, the ARC had to go out then because the book itself comes out in May, and the booksellers and librarians need that much lead time to place their pre-orders for the book."

Obviously, Sarah couldn't hand write in changes in the ARCs. "I've tried to offer caveats when I see that friends have gotten copies of the ARC—"beware, the final version of the book is very different!" Also, my editor wrote a letter that was included with the copies of the ARC that went out to reviewers and booksellers. The letter basically said that the ARC and the final book would be more different than usual."

When I was discussing this with Carlie Webber, young adult services librarian for BCCLS, New Jersey, she handed me the ARC and book of Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini. The ARC has a chapter not found in the book.

Reviewers and those who understand what an ARC is—and isn't—know that when they read the ARC, they are not reading the final book.

These differences between ARC and final version should be enough to keep that ARC off of a library (or bookstore) shelf. The library that has one in its collection is not only giving its patrons inferior service, they are also misleading the patrons into thinking the ARC is the final book. As Sarah Prineas says, "adding the ARC to a permanent collection isn't a great idea …. The ARC just isn't as nice a book as the final version. Most ARCs are going to fall apart after just a couple of reads, and this isn't a great way to promote love of books."

A bookstore or library customer who gets an ARC that they believe is the book is going to think less of a publisher who put out the "book." Imagine the student who does a report on Ned Vizzini's book and links an argument to the "missing" chapter. Or the reader of Sarah Prineas's second book, who think they know how it ends… but doesn't. Is this really giving customers the best possible service?

In case quality service isn't enough, there is one more reason for not shelving that ARC. Simply put, it's stealing from the publisher.

Andrew talks bluntly about his concerns. "I hadn't heard of [adding ARCs to a library collection], and I'm a little shocked. It's not an exaggeration to say that shelving ARCs is an existential threat to the whole practice of distributing ARCs widely." Andrew later says, "there is almost nothing a librarian can do that's more damaging than shelving an ARC. Like I said, an ARC is expected to make a sale. If you shelve an ARC, then that ARC has the opposite effect. I think the relationship that's developing between publishers and libraries in YA trade publishing is very exciting, but misusing ARCs will kill it. I know budgets are tight, but shelving ARCs is stealing."

Are you thinking of adding that ARC to your collection? Don't. Pass it along to another librarian or a customer to create buzz and get input; but don't add it to your collection. Trust me—it's OK to throw it away. It's not throwing away a book.

Posted by: Elizabeth Burns

This weblog is sponsored by ForeWord Magazine.

ARCs: Just like the Hardcover, only Free!

ForeWord Soundoff — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:16:51 GMT

Part One: What is an ARC?

Lurk at a few book listservs or read some book blogs, and you begin to see one word over and over: ARC. Soon, you realize that people are reading books before the publication date by getting these things called "ARCs". What are they? And how come these people are getting them?

I asked several people to share their publishing wisdom about ARCs: Brian Farrey, a Flux Acquisitions Editor; Andrew Karre, Editorial Director for Carolrhoda Books, a division of Lerner Publishing Group; Sheila Ruth, Publisher, Imaginator Press; and fantasy author Sarah Prineas.

What, exactly, is an ARC?

At its most simple, an ARC is an Advance Reading Copy. Or Advanced Reader Copy. And it's also called a galley. Yes, even amongst the experts there are variations on this answer!

Andrew Karre explains that an ARC "is a promotional piece and a sales tool." Brian Farrey adds, "it's primarily a marketing/publicity tool aimed at generating advance interest and excitement for a forthcoming title."

Brian Farrey clarifies that technically speaking, a galley is a version of the book that is made up to six to twelve months before the book's release while the ARC appears four to six months prior to release. Farrey notes that many people use the terms ARC and galley interchangeably. "[Galleys] are for hot, hot, hot books where the publisher wants to generate buzz," Farrey says. "They're meant to get people talking about the book itself, not necessarily to generate reviews (although that does happen too)." With the recent cutbacks in publishing, Farrey speculates that we will start seeing fewer galleys and more ARCs; and that they will be done digitally, via PDF.

Brian Farrey says that both galley and ARC are "typically printed on low quality paper and materials (they're not meant to last; they're meant to be read once and tossed)." Galleys often do not have any cover art, while ARCs usually do.

Sheila Ruth, Publisher, Imaginator Press, notes that technology has also impacted the production of ARCs. Full color covers are the "result of improvements in technology reducing the cost and improving the quality of digitally printed color."

It's more than just appearances and quality of paper. Andrew Karre explains that "the text can be at various stages of editorial development," observing that "ideally it's a close-to-final manuscript that's only lacking proofreading." Farrey points outs, "there will be typos and other errors." The ARC is not meant to be the final book, but rather "give a feel for the final book."

Fantasy author Sarah Prineas illustrates how the difference between an ARC can be more than a misspelled word: "the ARC quite often is an earlier iteration of the book, so might contain a lot of sentence level and continuity errors and infelicities of prose that will be caught in a later copy edit. Another difference is that if a book has internal illustrations, these will often be either missing from the ARC or present only as rough sketches."

How do you tell the ARC from the finished book? As Karre says, "All ARCs have some variation on a banner that says "Not for Sale: Advance Uncorrected Proof."" If that's not evidence enough, "instead of reader-focused backcover and flap copy, it … has details of release date and promotional plans as well as copy more akin to catalog copy, where the audience is librarians and buyers, rather than readers."

As explained above, at best the ARC is close to the final book. Farrey cautions, "sometimes there are significant changes between the ARC and the final copy (which is why reviewers are urged to check any quoted material against the final copy)."

Why use a "not final" copy of the book to promote the book?

Andrew Karre points out those things that cannot wait for the final copy of the book: ARCs help book designers fine-tune their designs and "authors and publishers send them out for blurbs. Sales people like to have them to show and perhaps leave with bookstore buyers. Foreign and subsidiary rights sales people use ARCs."

Sheila Ruth explains how originally, influential journals such as Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal/School Library Journal, Kirkus, and Foreword Magazine, would "only review a book if they receive it 3 or 4 months before publication date." Ruth continues, "Galleys/ARCs were used primarily for these prepublication reviewers and for other influential reviewers, like some of the major newspapers. In recent years, however, many publishers are printing larger numbers of ARCs and using them to generate wider prepublication buzz, distributing them widely at conferences and sending them out to bloggers in large numbers."

Andrew Karre points out another way that ARCs are used by publishers: "In [young adult literature], publishers also participate in [the Young Adult Library Services Association]'s excellent galley program, which puts ARCs into the hands of teens."

ARCs are not cheap; and publishers have to decide how many to create.

Sheila Ruth says it depends on the publisher: "In some cases, only a small number of ARCs are produced to send to the major journals and influences. In other cases, particularly for the "big push" books from the major publishers, hundreds can be produced."

Andrew Karre says, "the basic thing to know is that, the larger the print run, the cheaper any single book in that run will be to produce." Karre adds, "the ARC is probably going to cost more and maybe several times more."

Brian Farrey of Flux breaks down the price of the ARC (which, remember, is given out at no cost) to the final book: "we might print 30 ARCs of a book but 5,000 of an initial print run. Those 30 galleys, because they're so few, will cost us around $5-7 per copy. Because of volume discounts, the final print run might be between $1-2 a book." The publicity team at Flux "works to craft a very targeted list of media contacts who will receive ARCs."

If the number of people and groups who get ARCs seem long, remember the purpose. Andrew Karre is blunt: "Every ARC will earn its keep by creating a book sale or two (a librarian reads an ARC, digs it, talks about it to her teen reading group, buys copies of the real book for her collection, etc.) Let me repeat: ARCs must create sales of actual books."

Stay tuned for next week, when I delve deeper into the ARC versus The Final Book!

Posted by: Elizabeth Burns

This weblog is sponsored by ForeWord Magazine.

eBooks, PDFs, and Audiobooks, Oh My

ForeWord Soundoff — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:52:12 GMT

Are some forms of reading inherently "better" than others?

When people start talking about an e-reader such as the Amazon Kindle2 or the Sony Reader, reaction seems to fall into two camps: "I want" versus "but that's not reading!"

I admit that I have techno-lust for an e-reader: they are so sleek! So shiny! So small! Think of how uncluttered my house would be if the books were all in this one small reader!

The other camp points to the physical aspects of the book: the feel of the pages, the weight of the book, the durability and lendability of an actual print book.

And I agree… I'd still want some of my books around. Books have memories; it’s not just owning The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, it's owning the one I read as a kid. It's being able to take it off my shelf, reread, lend it to someone with an "OMG you'll love this" that just cannot happen with an e-book.

Or can it happen? I don't have an e-reader; so I cannot say, firsthand, the differences in reading an e-book. But, wow….the size appeals to my desire to simplify my life by decluttering my living space. And then there are the trees that would be saved. Did I mention how cool they look?

A similar conversation about reading is going on concerning review copies for book review blogs; if you had a choice, would you review from an Advance Reader's Copy or a PDF? If you think bloggers are new and techy, think again. A surprising number say, "reading on the computer isn't the same. I want the book." Bloggers spend enough time on the computer; a book is a break from that.

The Kindle2's text-to-speech function has brought another issue into the "what is a book" argument. A synthetic, computer voice can read aloud the e-book. Understandably, the Author's Guild got a little worked up about this feature, fearing that it may negatively impact audiobooks.

I love audiobooks; I'm a "listen while I drive" person. While a bad narrator may make me stop the book, I don't abandon the book. Rather, I go back to the traditional print book. A good narrator, on the other hand, can make a book come alive. It also forces me to really listen to the words, rather than skim or skip a descriptive paragraph or two.

Because I'm an audiobook listener, I personally think the Author's Guild fears of a computer voice are unfounded. Honestly, audiobooks are superior; when readers have a choice, they will go for the book that is recorded, narrated, directed, and edited by professionals. Not all books are available in audiobook. The Kindle2 provides a nice option for those books, magazines, and blogs that don't have an audio version.

You know what would be cool for the next e-reader? Being able to download audiobooks to it. All my audiobooks and e-books on one device? Sweet!

So what does "reading" mean?

I want to say, "read any way!" People have different preferences; and what works for one person doesn't work for another. To say "listening to an audiobook doesn't count" (as I've heard teachers and book club members say) is a disservice to those who get more out of an audiobook than a print book. (It also is insulting to those whose only choice is an audiobook, in that it says their reading experiences will never count, but that, dear reader, is another topic). "It doesn't count" shows a surprisingly narrow world view; "if something doesn't work for me, it doesn't work for anyone." Ditto for e-books and reading, with people who believe, "I wouldn't want to read on a screen, so no one would."

It's good to stretch our ways of reading. I want to say, "read any way." I do say it. I listen to audiobooks during my commute; and find that sometimes I pay more attention to the story than if I was reading a book. I prefer children's books that I can finish in less than a week. I've found that sometimes reading on a computer, where I can play with font size, is easier on my eyes than the small print of books. I'm open to an e-reader, and just found out that my iPod Touch has an e-book application that I'm going to try out. To truly respect the different ways people read, we should try them out.

And yet… I have to confess; I was recently asked to do the foreword for You Don’t Look Like a Librarian: Shattering Stereotypes and Creating Positive New Images in the Internet Age by Ruth Kneale. When asked, "do you want a galley or a PDF"—dear reader, I said a galley. I knew, to give the book a good reading, I needed the physical pages.

When it comes down to it—despite using other ways of reading—my own, personal preference is the old-fashioned book.

Posted by: Elizabeth Burns

This weblog is sponsored by ForeWord Magazine.

How Do You Read That Book?

ForeWord Soundoff — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:10:48 GMT

This past year, I read a lot of Young Adult books. How many? I lost count. Any number would be a bit meaningless, because I read many of those books multiple times.

This wasn't just any reading; I was on the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award Committee. The Printz Award is awarded annually by the American Library Association; it is for "a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature."

I read fabulous books and worked with brilliant librarians; and this past January, we met in Denver during the ALA Midwinter Conference and discussed books in person and ended up picking one Award Winner, Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, and four Honor Books, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson; The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart; Nation by Terry Pratchett; and Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. After the Awards were announced, I returned home, took a deep breath, and - didn't read a thing for two weeks.

Being on the Printz Committee was awesome. A dream come true. But it was reading unlike any reading I've ever done before. The first and most important thing, it wasn't about me and what I liked or didn't like. The Printz is about literary excellence, not "Liz's Favorite Books". Now, a year later, I have the award criteria memorized; but at first, I didn't. So in addition to printing out the criteria, I had post-it notes with short reminders of what to look for when I read the books. Now? I have those paragraphs memorized.

Second, the book mattered. Yes, upon occasion I read an Advance Reader's Copy. Sometimes I just couldn't resist and didn't want to wait months for the final book! ARCs are not the final books; spelling and grammar may be corrected, passages rewritten or changed. The copy that was read and reread, with marked pages and highlighted passages? That was the final copy, not the ARC.

Third, my time was not my own. There were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of YA books published last year. Every time I wasn't reading one of these books, I felt guilty. I ignored the new Nora Roberts; my issues of Vanity Fair piled up, without even a glance at the photographs. "Do I dust, or read a book?" The answer was - read a book.

Fourth, rereading is important. Luckily, I've never been the type of reader where knowing the ending "spoils" the book for me. I've been known to read the first chapter of a book, and then the last, and then the rest of the book. On the other hand, I don't usually reread books. Oh, sometimes I'll revisit a childhood favorite to see if it holds up; or see if a book I read in high school or college is different from an older perspective. Other than that, I'm not one of those people who will read Pride & Prejudice every year. This past year, that all changed. I'd read once for me. I'd read again for the criteria. I'd read again, using fellow committee members' input. And again, and again.

Finally, all books and no breaks makes Liz a tired reader. Don't get me wrong; I love YA books. The first book I read after my two week break? YA. But, given how intense my reading was, I found that I needed something to give my mind a break so that I could jump into each book, fresh and ready to appreciate the new story and writer. So what did I use? TV. Not just any TV; reality TV. Watching a little America's Next Top Model or House Hunters was the perfect minivacation for my brain.

Now I'm back to reading for me. Not for a committee. Not for an Award. I can read whatever I want, including adult literature or books written 20 years ago. As I read my first book, I realized that my Printz reading habits were still with me. I noticed how the book met the Printz criteria, marked passages to share, wondered how a reread would be. I thought that being on the committee would end after a year; but instead, the deeper reading experience continues.

So how was being on the committee? Tiring. Exhausting. Time consuming. And awesome.

Posted by: Elizabeth Burns

This weblog is sponsored by ForeWord Magazine.

Online Reading Groups, Book Discussions and Challenges

ForeWord Soundoff — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:25:28 GMT

The desire to pass on a favorite read to a friend has always been in vogue, but with the advent of the Internet, the number of ways to share one's passion for books seems boundless. There are online reading groups that focus on any subgenre you can imagine; Canadian authors, ancient Roman history, Dick Francis' horse racing mysteries, children's fantasy, etc. Love a particular book and you can discuss it with other ardent bibliophiles all over the world.

The beauty of all of these communal reading groups is that they fit anyone's schedule. There's no need to stray far from your favorite armchair (and your TBR bookshelf) to find amiable bookworm buddies to chat with and glean reading recommendations from when you can do so with your computer. With a side order of fuzzy slippers and a hot mug
of coffee or tea, this becomes even more seductive.

Here's a sampling of some other online book groups that I've noticed:

Book Talk - This free discussion group has fiction and non-fiction picks (voted on by registered members) for each two-month period and has a special book chat forum, where authors occasionally drop by to answer questions and otherwise enlighten Book Talk readers about their work.

African American Literature Book Club - Billed as the #1 site for readers of Black Literature, this popular site provides author profiles, a discussion board, book reviews and news, with fiction and non-fiction titles galore.

Books a Month - Together since 2000, this group votes on their monthly reading picks, a wide range of classic and contemporary fiction, with certain months designated for kiddie lit, mysteries and holiday reading.

Reading challenges provide a different format for sharing book lust. Instead of having participants focus on specific books, they offer themes which readers are "challenged" to read on their own, selecting their own authors and titles. There are many different sorts of reading challenges currently ongoing and starting up again with the turning of the calendar year. Some challenges offer book prizes, others involve mapping destinations one reads about, some focus on edification, while others are pure escapism. Here is a reading challenge sampler:

A Novel Challenge - The mother lode of information about reading challenges, both perpetual and with deadlines, with great links to all. Start with this site if you are shopping around for a reading challenge to suit your reading speed and fancies.

The Pulitzer Project - The challenge is to read all 81 novels which have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Deadline: None, thank goodness. Similar reading challenges involve reading all Booker and Orange Prize novels, Newbery novels, the oeuvre of Nobel Laureates in Literature, etc.

999 Challenge - Over at LibraryThing, a group of rabid readers are challenging themselves to read 9 books from 9 different categories over 9 months in 2009 (extra credit for completing the mission by 9/09/09.)

Caribbean Challenge - Six books by Caribbean authors or which focus on life in that part of the world are encouraged to be read during 2009.

I tried a reading challenge for the first time this year to stretch my normal diet of books about books, history, mysteries, and travel and culinary writing. I joined the Orbis Terrarum Challenge so that I could read out of my fiction comfort zone (primarily British, Canadian, and American authors) and read more widely from world literature. I have enjoyed the discipline of this reading challenge and found a few books and authors, like R.K. Narayan and
Mario Llosas Vargas, that I will dip into more.

In 2009 I hope to stretch my personal bibliography with either a classic fiction reading challenge or perhaps a nonfiction challenge. I find I am just too daunted by the Chunkster
Challenge (books of 450+ pages) though I love a good doorstop novel when I am on vacation or have the "luxury" of a bedridding illness. I'm just not in that stage of life right now.

Here's wishing a happy, healthy year of peace and good books to all throughout the holiday season and in the coming New Year.

Posted by: Rachel Jagareski

This weblog is sponsored by ForeWord Magazine.

Alcohol as Literary Muse? A Cautionary Review

ForeWord Soundoff — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:37:40 GMT

As the holiday season progresses to its crescendo on New Year's Eve, I thought it might be interesting to examine the drinking habits of some great American writers. What started out as an amusing research into the favorite author beverages, however, quickly lost its merry tone as I discovered a string of sad tales about our alcoholic literary history. From the dipsomania of Edgar Allan Poe to the abbreviated tales of Jacks Kerouac and London, I found the fun and lightness drain out of my self-assignment.

Mention liquor and writer in the same sentence and one immediately conjures up the beefy face of Ernest Hemingway, Mojito in hand, spinning tales of marlins, matadors, safaris and the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway is also known for his Rabelaisian appetites for Daiquiris, usually ordered by the Nobel Laureate as doubles, or Papa Dobles, at his favorite Cuban watering holes. According to Hemingway biographer A.E. Hotchner quoted here, the original Papa Dobles recipe is a mixture of 2.5 jiggers (3.75 oz.) white rum, lime juice, grapefruit juice, maraschino liqueur and shaved ice. Drink one of these and it will raise your blood alcohol level over the legal limit; drink two and the Sun Also Rises; drink three and you might just bid a Farewell to Arms and control of all other body parts.

The Prohibition Years (1920-1933) are ironically considered the Golden Age of the American Cocktail, when larger cities boasted not-so-underground networks of speakeasies where the booze flowed freely. No other author was so well-marinated in illegal gin as "The Great Gatsby" F. Scott Fitzgerald. He and his wife Zelda roared along with Twenties excess as they swilled Gin Rickeys and danced naked at house parties, until they and the rest of the country sobered up hard after Black Friday. Alcoholism contributed to the pair's diminished mental and physical health and soon after, both died young and sick.

The Martini is the quintessential American cocktail and has resurged in popularity among the bar set in recent years. One can order the Martini in its purest state (5 parts gin, 1 part vermouth, olive garnish) or remixed in any number of fruity, non-traditional blends, like Appletinis, that would leave fictional super spy James Bond most decidedly shaken, not stirred. Martin maven Dashiell Hammett imprudently self-medicated his chronic tuberculosis with generous amounts of his favorite beverage, heavy on the vermouth. The author of such detective fiction classics as The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man was Nick to the Nora of his long-time lover Lillian "Toys in the Attic" Hellman, but even she had no influence on the heavy drinking that curtailed his life.

Poor Sherwood Anderson was felled by a Martini Most Murderous at a seafaring cocktail party. The author of Winesburg, Ohio" (emphasis added) mistakenly chowed down on his entire garnish and perished from peritonitis after the toothpick stabbed his innards.

The pantheon of American women writers has not been immune to the ravages of alcoholism. Poets Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath committed suicide after battling mental illness, unadvisedly fueled with bouts of hard drinking. Algonquin Round Table wit Dorothy Parker slurped up a slew of champagne cocktails to assuage life-long loneliness, and her contemporary, Carson McCullers, was known as much for her memorable list of books and plays as for her constant companion, a thermos flask of hot tea and booze she nicknamed "Sonny Boy". McCullers' life was filled with chronic illness and she suffered from lingering effects of rheumatic fever and several strokes during her contracted life, which were most certainly exacerbated by Sonny Boy's intervention.

Modern, more health-conscious America, has created a crop of more abstemious authors who generally leave massive alcohol consumption to the Hollywood crowd, but there are two notable exceptions: Poet Charles "Barfly" Bukowski and Gonzo Journalist Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. It is certainly less fashionable to be a drunk once one leaves adolescence and there is a stronger societal focus on penalties for drunk driving and other crimes.

I'm not a teetotaler and didn't set out to pen a column about the sad streak of alcoholism and self-destruction among the American literary scene. I imagined a lively piece dispensing drink recipes and happier snippets of author folklore, but found this dismaying morass instead. Imagine the magnificence of all these writers' works if they had not battled with alcohol. How many modern masterpieces were left fuzzily half-imagined and unwritten? How many more plays, poems, novels and short stories would have sprung from these talents during a longer, healthier life span? I only wish they had been able to put their bottles away and hunker down with a ream of paper and their typewriter.

Posted by: Rachel Jagareski

This weblog is sponsored by ForeWord Magazine.