Buck Up!

Good old David Eggers is giving people in publishing a message telling them to 'buck up' if you email him here, maybe he'll tell you to buck up too: deggers@826national.org

Here's Dave's message to buck up:

Dear Person Needing Bucking Up,

Hello and thank you so much for writing. I feel honored that you would take
the time to reach out and in many cases tell me your very real struggles
with writing and work and the future of the printed word.

I have a few thoughts to share, though unfortunately in this space I can?t
detail all the reasons I think we have a fighting chance at keeping
newspapers and books alive in physical form. But before I do blather for a
few paragraphs, I should apologize for sending you a mass email.

As you probably know, in May I gave a speech to about 100 people in New
York, and I didn?t foresee it getting out there on the web. (Shows how much
I know.) And I really didn?t expect this email address to be given out.
Again, though, that was my lack of foresight. And I?m an infrequent emailer,
so I?m unable to respond to most of the (plaintive, beautiful,
heart-ripping) emails that have been sent to me these past few days. So I
apologize for not being able to answer your email personally. Or at least
not in any timely manner.

Anyway. I would like to say to you good print-loving people that for every
dire bit of news there is out there, there is also some good news, too. The
main gist of my (rambling) speech at the Author?s Guild was that because I
work with kids in San Francisco, I see every day that their enthusiasm for
the printed word is no different from that of kids from any other era.
Reports that no one reads anymore, especially young people, are greatly
overstated and almost always factually lacking. I?ve written about youth
readership elsewhere, but to reiterate: sales of young adult books are
actually up. Total volume of all book sales is actually up. Kids get the
same things out of books that they have before. Reading in elementary
schools and middle schools is no different than any other time. We have work
to do with keeping high schoolers reading, but then again, I meet every week
with 15 high schoolers in San Francisco, and all we do is read (literary
magazines, books, journals, websites, everything) in the process of putting
together the Best American Nonrequired Reading. And I have to say these
students, 14 to 18 years old, are far better read and more astute than I was
at their age, and there are a million other kids around the country just
like them.

These kids meet every week at McSweeney?s, and things at our small
publishing company are stable. We?re a hand-to-mouth operation to be sure,
but we haven?t had to lay anyone off. To some extent, that?s because we?re
small and independent and have always insisted on staying small and
independent. We take on very little risk, and we grow very cautiously. It?s
our humble opinion that the world will support many more publishers of our
size and focus. If you can stay small, stay independent, readers will be
loyal, and you?ll be able to get by publishing work of merit. Publishing
has, for most of its life, been a place of small but somewhat profit
margins, and the people involved in publishing were happy to be doing what
they loved. It?s only recently, when large conglomerates bought so many
publishing companies and newspapers, that demands for certain margins
squeezed some of the joy out of the business.

Pretty soon, on the McSweeney?s website ? www.mcsweeneys.net ? we?ll be
showing some of our work on this upcoming issue, which will be in newspaper
form. The hope is that we can demonstrate that if you rework the newspaper
model a bit, it can not only survive, but actually thrive. We?re convinced
that the best way to ensure the future of journalism is to create a workable
model where journalists are paid well for reporting here and abroad. And
that starts with paying for the physical paper. And paying for the physical
paper begins with creating a physical object that doesn?t retreat, but
instead luxuriates in the beauties of print. We believe that if you use the
hell out of the medium, if you give investigative journalism space, if you
give photojournalists space, if you give graphic artists and cartoonists
space ? if you really truly give readers an experience that can?t be
duplicated on the web ? then they will spend $1 for a copy. And that $1 per
copy, plus the revenue from some (but not all that many) ads, will keep the
enterprise afloat.

As long as newspapers offer less each day ? less news, less great writing,
less graphic innovation, fewer photos ? then they?re giving readers few
reasons to pay for the paper itself. With our prototype, we aim to make the
physical object so beautiful and luxurious that it will seem a bargain at
$1. The web obviously presents all kinds of advantages for breaking news,
but the printed newspaper does and will always have a slew of advantages,
too. It?s our admittedly unorthodox opinion that the two can coexist, and in
fact should coexist. But they need to do different things. To survive, the
newspaper, and the physical book, needs to set itself apart from the web.
Physical forms of the written word need to offer a clear and different
experience. And if they do, we believe, they will survive. Again, this is a
time to roar back and assert and celebrate the beauty of the printed page.
Give people something to fight for, and they will fight for it. Give
something to pay for, and they?ll pay for it.

We?ll keep you posted throughout the summer about our progress with this
newspaper prototype, and any other good news we come across.

Thanks for listening for now,
Dave

P.S. The email address you wrote to ? deggers@826national.org ? was a new
one I set up to give to the attendees of the Author?s Guild. I won?t be able
to check it very often, as I?m slow with email to begin with.

Quoting Alistair Spalding :

>
> Hi Dave,
>
> I work in children's book publishing and I'm really worried that
> e-books are going to really ruin our industry.
>
>
> It all just makes me so depressed. I really feel like I need someone
> to buck me up.
>
> I hope you can help.
>
> Morosely,
>
> Alistair Spalding
>

Excellent scam email

What a story. I wish they were all as entertaining as this.

from Vicky

My Dear

Please let this letter not to bring confusion to you. I know that we have not met either before but hear me from the dept of your mind. It is circumstances that made to send this to you.

I will introduce myself first to you, My name is Victoria Abushi, I lost my mother, my hero and my lord Ms Abu a year ago. She was poisioned to death by her associate in business. She formed a company by one Mr. Philip Brown who poisioned her only to take benefit of the multi million venture. He was arrested immedaitely my mother died and he entered an agreement with my mother;s brothers that I and the immedaite younger brother of my mother will represent my mother;s interest in the company. After six months I was kicked out of the company because I said that we have to change the company;s lawyer who I termed was part of the elimination of my mother. I did not know that they have changed all the company39;s document without my name appearing any where. I will have to let you know more detail on that but let me move to the point why I am contacting you.

I have been nick named bastard by my mother;s relations, They have named me all source of names even calling me outcast because my mother is late, while my mother was the bread winner of the family. They have pushed me out of my mother;s mansion and still want to eliminate my life.

I got through the records of my mother account books three weeks ago while crying and meditating, which I beleive was inspired by the spirit of God, I discovered that there is a huge sum of money she deposited in a bank, which is $9,800,000. The note attached to the deposit agreement she made with the bank indicated that, the money was to be used to purchase machinery for the establishment of a new company of her own.

Please all I need from you is to do all you can to help me to get this money out of the bank. I have been to the bank where this money is deposited immediately, and confirmed the account most deligently. The bank told me that my mother informed them that the money was to be remitted to her company39;s costumer account abroad, which her costumer will provide to them but since then they have never heard from her nor the costumer. Now my mother is late. I don39;t want the bank to know that my mother is late. I told them that she is ill and appointed me to represent her in her affairs.

(1).I want you to provide an account where the money will be remitted into as my mother39;s costumer. (2).Make arrangement for me to leave here as soon as possible (3).How much commission you will take for rendering the assistant?

My mother did not marry to any man, She had me as the only child while she was having an affair with the person that supposed to be my father when she was 18 years and the man abandoned her and disappeared which forced her to remain single. Now I am 20 years and never saw my father for a day. I have no home now and my life is in danger. I don’t have any one to run into. All the members of my mother family have turned their back on me because I demand for me right. They told me that I don;t belong to the family. That I should go and look for my father, Whom I don39;t know. I have made trace to know my father without success. I want you to hear me from the inner most of your heart and accord me this help.

God will bless you for saving my life and future.

What About the Girls?

What About the Girls?

Are we meeting the reading needs of girls aged 8 to 12?

Publishing Associations Children's Bookselling Group seminar

11th May 2009 2:30pm

[The following is paraphrased from the sparse notes, I took whilst people were talking and may contain as much of my opinion on what was said as what was actually said. Apologies for any inaccuracies]

Chairman: Wendy Cooling

Panel: Adele Geras, Sally Gardner, Julia Golding

After a bit of an introduction where we all acknowledge that panel have written too many good books to go through them all in detail Adele kicks off the debate.

[The group quickly fell into the generalisation “pink” book for anything that targets girls specifically eg: Rainbow Magic and “blue” book to describe anything that targets boys.]

Adele:

The quality of product is there. There are a range of books for girls ranging from the pink and fluffy to the meaty and sensitive.

This is met with broad agreement from the assembled booksellers.

Boys won’t choose to pick up “girl” targeted books, but girls are quite happy to pick up books that are clearly aimed at boys.

Teachers are more likely, when selecting a book to read for the class, to pick something that favours the harder to reach boy readers. At best they might select something gender neutral, but very unlikely to pick something with a strong female protagonist or storyline.

How do we get parents to buy more books for female readers?

We need to get readers enthused from a lot earlier than 8 years old. In fact this process needs to have been begun from more like 3 years old to instil a love of reading.

All agree that as long as a young girl reader has a pile of books by her bed, no matter what books they are, that is a success.

Parents should have the confidence/responsibility to increase their children to more complicated books. Parents should encourage children passed 342 pink book to stand alone novels with more complex/realistic characters.

Sally:

The power of storytelling is paramount. The strength of the story should be the first decision making factor and any notions of gender secondary.
In fact publishers, parents and teachers (but mainly publishers) are reinforcing this trend by making it less and less likely for a boy to pick up a very pink girls book and more and more common for female characters in boys books to be marginalised and “girly”.

Julia:

Repeats the idea that Girls read across the gender boundary more easily and that girls are not well represented in the majority of fiction.

Hermione Granger in Harry Potter is the pain in the backside character in Harry Potter while Harry and Ron have all the adventures. Would it have been the same success if it was Harriet Potter?

Thinks that readers need to be encouraged by readers closer to their own age. The idea of bringing in cool older reading role models from secondary school of college to talk about books and show how they have progressed from eg: Jaqueline Wilson to something more complex.

Debate:

When the question is thrown open to the audience the discussion is varied because a clear issue has not been identified. All agree that if readers want to read more complicated books, the books are there for them to get into.

There is agreement that the trend of boxing female characters and books up into obvious stereotypes is a negative one, but also perhaps a necessary one to enable parents to identify relevant titles from clear indicators on the cover.

Also agreement that some authors such as Cathy Cassidy would be suitable for boy readers if they weren’t so clearly packaged for girls. However as many people thought that part of their success was to pick a clear audience to target with the covers and there were other people who could mention examples of gender neutral covers (Michael Morpurgo given as example)

Lots of anecdotes about specific examples where the overt genderising of book covers has been a negative and limiting factor for readers but no consensus that these specific cases should be extrapolated into a wider rule.

Also acknowledged was the idea that the recent push to get boys to read has left girl books conforming to very similar formulas but still no clear conviction that this has somehow damaged girls reading experiences.

Interesting point made that actually it is below the 8-12 age group where gender stereotyping is even more extreme and harder to get away from. While lots of examples were found of books that were non-gender specific or contained strong female role models in the 8-12 group, very few were identified in the 5-8 range.
Recognition that a vast majority of parents were uncertain of what to choose for their children. I drew the personal conclusion that cover stereotyping and age banding helps these parents to make quick choices (but didn’t voice it).

In Conclusion:

No clear problem identified and so it was difficult for the group to answer one. It was quickly established that there were a range of product available to meet the reading needs of those that wanted to read widely. Likewise it was established that “pink” books were not in any way “bad” books. That left the group in a more general quandary about the complex issue of stereotyping of authors and characters and the very general issue of encouraging all children to read more from an earlier age.

Recipe for Honeycomb

INGREDIENTS

100g caster sugar
4 x 15ml tablespoons golden syrup
11/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda


1. Put the sugar and syrup into a saucepan and stir together to mix. You mustn’t stir once the pan’s on the heat, though.
2. Place the pan on the heat and let the mixture first melt, then turn to goo and then to a bubbling mass the colour of maple syrup – this will take 3 minutes or so.
3. Off the heat, whisk in the bicarbonate of soda and watch the syrup turn into a whooshing cloud of aerated pale gold. Turn this immediately onto a piece of reusable baking parchment or greased foil.
4. Leave until set and then bash at it, so that it splinters into many glinting pieces.

Don’t worry about spreading it over the baking paper, just tip it on and it will start to set immediately. Let it cool for a least a couple of hours though otherwise it goes sticky not crunchy! And def use caster sugar, I tried golden sugar and it went really strange.

Stolen Bike- response from Kath Kelly

Thanks to Kath Kelly- regular reader, who sent me this extract from a book she's working on about living on £1 a day in Bristol. It's a sad bike story, but with a happy ending:

The cable lay like a dead snake, chopped in half. It was still twisted, as if it had put up a fight in its death throes, but its mortal blow had come from something very strong and sharp. I picked it up and saw the fibres neatly severed under the rubber exterior, the lock untouched. No sign of its best friend the D-lock. or their inseparable companion, my mountain bike.

What crime of passion had occurred out here while I was pottering innocently in the library? The love triangle between my three possessions had been violently broken. The snake's hold had been strong, but ultimately not strong enough. Were the D-lock and bike still locked close together, hitching a ride on some mysterious journey in the back of a van, or had they too split up? Perhaps even now someone else was having a free ride on that feckless bike.

I turned up my collar and set off on foot to work. What a pain. Bikes got stolen every day in Bristol of course, but outside the library, in broad daylight with two locks attached, I thought it would be safe. Up the hill, through the university, marching so as not to be too late, the implications began to set in. No bike to go to Bath at the weekend, no way of carrying heavy stuff back from the cheaper supermarkets on the edge of town, no safe and swift way home late at night when drunks prowled the streets looking for trouble.

I couldn't get taxis instead, or buses, or another bike, on a pound a day. Belatedly I felt anger against whoever it was who had ruined my day, if not the rest of the year. I was only a few weeks into my spending challenge and stuffed already! I undid my coat and stomped hot and bothered into work to report the theft to the police.

A couple of weeks later someone from the police station phoned me, just to let me know they hadn't found my bike. Nice of them to bother I suppose. By then I my friend Heather had lent me a very expensive replacement, which I didn't dare let out of my sight. It was festooned with a length of chain and a very chunky padlock, as well as the locks it came with, and watched through shop windows as anxiously as a mother checks her baby sleeping in its stroller. Still, it was great to be able to get around as before, though I sometimes left it at home at night to keep it safe, and took my chances out there with the drunks.

One of those nights, I was padding through Clifton after a night out at a friend's place. I still caught myself clocking bikes being ridden by or chained to racks, just hoping that one day I'd spot my own sadly missed steed. It wasn't expensive or anything- £60 in Halford's sale- but it was mine to trash or get nicked as I pleased.

I was taking a short cut down a leafy footpath. Not an ideal safety measure but I hadn't been home since morning and I was shattered. The street lamp halfway down had been smashed again too. Sugary crystals of glass crunched underfoot and I hoped there was no dog mess to tread in.

Against the railing leaned a bike. Silvery, like mine had been, with front suspension. Surely it wasn't... No, as I looked closer I saw it was a different, superior make. But what a stupid place to lock it up at night!

With a jolt of surprise I saw it wasn't locked at all. Two flat tyres, but nothing else seemed wrong with it. They'll be lucky if it's still there tomorrow, I thought, turning for home.

But it was there that morning, and in the evening too. I knocked on the door of the house it was nearest to, and asked if anyone knew whose it was. "They're always dumping stuff down there," said the woman of the house. "Probably stolen."

So the next day I dragged it into town, to the central police station, which had inexplicably closed down. Great. On then to the even more distant new police station, where I spent a tedious hour queueing, explaining myself and form-filling. "...And if no-one claims it within six weeks, you can claim it if you want," the desk officer added as she ripped apart the triplicate carbon copies.

"If I want! Of course I do!" I put a capitalised entry into my diary and hurried off on the long walk back to work.

So there was a happy ending after all; the bike duly became mine, a nice bloke I know helped me fix it, my friend got her un-stolen expensive bike back and I got a better mode of transport than I started with. But as for my old bike and the D-lock, they were never seen again. I hope you're happy together, wherever you are. And as for the cable, it's still really cut up.

(all material copyright Kath Kelly 2007)