Posts on celebrity authors

I started this round-up yesterday and was going to call the post "Friday Flurry." But I didn't have time to finish it, so now it's the "Saturday Slurry" instead.

Bookish Challenges and Challenged Books
Last week I tortured myself over the question of "age appropriateness" in children's libraries. This week, Bookavore discusses similar challenges in her bookstore, specifically with tween books. (Via Cynsations.)

Peter at Collecting Children's Books shares hilarious/sad/scary examples of books that have been tampered with for the "protection" of children, and asks tough questions about the lines between selection, deselection, and censorship. My thought? They're very fuzzy lines indeed.

Little Willow has written an impassioned response to an anti-intellectual freedom, anti-gay political ad running in California. (California voters, please vote "no" on Prop. 8!)

On the AS IF! blog, author John Coy shares his dismay about middle school librarians refusing to buy his book Box Out because they're afraid of challenges over a lesbian character. UGH. Come on, librarians, you're better and braver than that!

Last week, I posted AL Focus's video of Stephen Chbosky from ALA's Banned Books Week Read-Out. Since then, they've posted another video with clips of Judy Blume, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Lois Lowry, and others saying their piece.

What's a Prospective Author to Think?
At my SCBWI network meeting this week, the guest author said that big chain bookstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble only stock about 20% of titles, those they think will sell biggest/fastest. I'm not sure if she meant 20% of fiction vs. nonfiction vs. both, major publishers or all publishers, or what. I tried to find some numbers via Google but couldn't. Does anyone have more info on this? Any way I look at it, 20% seems sadly, frighteningly low. All the more reason to support your local independent bookstore.

Further confounding me, Editorial Ass answered the question, what constitutes good sales for a literary novel? EA's figure: 7,000. That's it? It doesn't seem like such a scary number. I wonder what the magic number is for children's literary novels? (Via Cynsations.)

More Writerly Stuff
Newly minted editor Brian Farrey picks apart the fallacy and truth of that old adage "write what you know" in yet another thoughtful, thought-provoking post from the Flux editorial blog.

You can now download The Career Novelist, by literary agent Donald Maass, for free as a PDF. (Via Cheryl Rainfield.)

Not Quite a BACA Alert
British comic actor Simon Pegg has gotten himself a three-book, seven-figure book deal. What will the books be?

1. "as-yet-untitled self-penned memoir"
2. "lower-cost 'quicky humour' hardback aimed at the Christmas gift market"
3. "'highly illustrated, lavishly produced' title"

It's hard to know just how frightened to be. Given that Pegg's written brilliant comedy for the screen (I'm a big fan of the UK sitcom Spaced—now available on Region 1 DVD!), I have more faith in his ability than in the average celebrity author's. We shall see. (Via Bookshelves of Doom.)

Last week, Big A little a posted a BACA Alert that reality TV star Lauren Conrad has landed a three-book deal with HarperCollins. The subject of Conrad's new series? Why, an ordinary girl who becomes the star of a reality TV show, of course! (What's a BACA Alert, you ask? MotherReader, BACA founder, explains.)

Collecting Children's Books reacted in items 12 through 14 of his Sunday Brunch. This bit made me bust up laughing:

Every time I hear one of these stories about Harper offering big deals to TV stars, hiring movie actresses as editors, publishing movie adaptations, etc., etc., I always say, “Ursula Nordstrom must be spinning in her grave!” Considering the number of times I’ve had to utter this phrase in recent years, they might as well have buried poor Ursula in a Waring Blender.

Ursula Nordstrom, of course, was the best-known, highly influential children's editor of the 20th century, who spent most of her career at Harper. Indeed: poor Ursula.