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Book Bloggers, Publishing and Social Media

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I was fortunate to be able to interview Nicole Langan, the owner of Tribute Books recently regarding social media, bloggers and the future of publishing. As I know a lot of my readers are also writers and bloggers, I thought the answers would be interesting to many of you.

1. Can you tell me a bit about Tribute Books?
Nicole: Tribute Books began in 2004 and we’ve published over 30 titles since that time. Some of our books have gone on to win awards such as the Christian Small Publisher Book of the Year and the Mom’s Choice Award while others were endorsed by PBS and The Thoreau Society. We’ve covered a wide range of genres from children to history to sports.

2. Describe your new project for my readers?
Nicole: In 2012, we will transition into being an ebook publisher for young adult titles. Our main reason is the explosion in popularity of e-readers such as the Kindle, Nook and iPad. Over the course of 2011, we’ve watched our ebook sales outpace our print sales by 2 to 1. The under $5 price point of most of our titles and the ease of purchase and delivery are surely contributing factors.

3. What are you looking for in an author? Who finds illustrator if needed?
Nicole: We’re looking to work with authors who are savvy with social media – those who blog, tweet and update their Facebook status on a daily basis. I’m most excited about working with authors who enjoy promoting their book on a daily basis. Ones who know the ins and outs of the time and effort it takes to make a book a success because I’m ready and willing to work with them every step of the way.
(At this time, illustrations will not be needed since we’re looking to e-publish solely text manuscripts.)

4. Why epubs and not traditional hard copy books?
Nicole: Our main reason is the explosion in popularity of e-readers such as the Kindle, Nook and iPad. Over the course of 2011, we’ve watched our ebook sales outpace our print sales by 2 to 1. The under $5 price point of most of our titles and the ease of purchase and delivery are surely contributing factors.

5. What is your social media experience and philosophy?
Nicole: I am a big believer in the power of social media. I even conduct monthly blog tours for outside publishers and authors in order to help them increase the online presence of a book. Book bloggers are a powerful force in the book industry. With more and more book stores closing and book review columns being cut from major newspapers, readers are depending on bloggers to help them find the books they want to read. They are turning to the internet as a reference point to fill that gap.

Thanks very much to Nicole and Tribute Books

Nicole Langan, owner of Tribute Books

Five Trends To Watch in Publishing

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Five Trends To Watch in Publishing:
An Industry in Flux
by Paula Schuck

Anyone following trends in print media and book publishing will know that this is nothing if not an industry in flux. I am fortunate enough to have front row seats to the evolution of books and media and it is at once a challenging and exciting time. The publishing world was quick to recognize the threat, but they were also, in print media incredibly slow to act upon it and challenge their traditional genre. But over the past few months I have noticed a number of increasingly savvy and interesting approaches to forcing interactivity upon readers. So if ebooks are the new norm and social media is the fastest growing media ever, how then are books, three dimensional handheld books, making themselves relevant or reasserting themselves in an industry in flux?
In the past few months I have seen a number of really creative ideas.
1. The new standard for book tours – is the book blog tour. I have run several here at thriftymommasbrainfood. The virtual book tour makes a lot of sense. Authors don’t need to knock themselves out quite as much criss-crossing Canada to flog their newest release. Instead they do so by pitching bloggers, simply sending books out to a select group with on line influence. There are often accompanying contests, giveaways and reviews.
2. CDs/trailers other media. Sing You Home by blockbuster best-selling author Jodi Picoult has a CD tucked inside the front of the her latest novel, you are to play the CD as a supplement to the chapters. The songs by Ellen Wilber are essentially a soundtrack to the book. This book was published by Simon and Schuster Canada.
3. Complementary use of social media. I just finished a book being promoted by Graf-Martin Media called The Heart Revolution. The author is Sergio De La Mora. The book itself is an empowering faith-based book teaching people to reconnect with their heart and trust the power of that to drive your actions throughout life. Punctuating the book, published by Baker Group, are several links to web sites. The links take you to sermons on line. Creative.
4. Kids books are employing on line games and tricks that kick it up a notch. Best example I have seen of this lately is The Search For Wondla, by Tony Diterlizzi, also published by Simon and Schuster. Main character Eva Nine’s life comes to a computer near you if you hold parts of the book upto a camera on your computer. Bizarre and yet how very logical for sci fi children’s fiction, especially for this generation of children.
5. But truly the smartest thing I have seen so far is The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani. A book about marketing with this fast-growing media form, the savvy author takes her material to an entirely different dimension. She clearly indicates at the start of the book, that buying it also gives you access to to the continuously updated digital version. Access the site for http://www.zenofsocialmedia.com/ and put the password in provided in her book and receive her latest data and expert opinion. 

Scribbling Women Blog Tour and a Huge Giveaway

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The author Marthe Jocelyn, photo credit Tom Slaughter

Welcome to Day Two of the Scribbling Women Blog Tour. Scribbling Women: True Tales From Astonishing Lives is a series of stories about little known female authors who documented their lives and the trials, tribulations and triumphs along the way. There are several stories here that I found captivating. Some of these interesting women travelled the world, some escaped slavery, others were mainly homebodies. All were intriguing and help us gain insight into a period in history when women were less likely to be written about or acknowledged. Many of their stories are authentic and colourful, told through letters, this compilation will be historical in its own right as this dying artform continues to give way to technology.

Marthe Jocelyn is an award-winning author and illustrator of over 20 books. She was born in Toronto and now lives in Stratford, Ontario. Her novel Mable Riley won the first ever TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. Her non fiction book A Home For Foundlings won wide critical acclaim. In 2009 she won the Vicki Metcalf award for body of work. In this new non fiction collection of women’s stories, aimed at age 14 and up, there are many different women, many different personalities. Mary Hayden Russell, for instance, followed her husband and took her son on board a whaling ship in 1823 where they lived for more than a year. She noted their pursuit of whales and the challenges of life at sea. Harriet Ann Jacobs was a slave, remarkable because she was literate and she left her story for history. She wrote a book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in the time when slavery and literacy were so feared by most that laws were passed making it illegal to teach a slave to read or write. She assumed a pen name and recounted a brave life. Most of these mini biographical slices of life are compelling but most interesting to me was the snippet regarding Nellie Bly, perhaps the first ever female investigative journalist, who took on some incredible stories in her day, going under cover in a women’s insane asylum to reveal the deplorable conditions.

Scribbling Women is part of Tundra Books blog tour and a giant giveaway also being hosted by author and publisher. This giveaway consists of 28 books. That’s right. One lucky winner will be sent 28 books, the full range of author Marthe Jocelyn’s writings. This contains toddler books right on upto young adult novels and all are sure to please. What a great collection! Take a peek here:

Scribbling Women: True Tales From Astonishing Lives, by Marthe Jocelyn, Tundra Books, Hardcover, 208 pages, age 14 and up, Canadian $21.99 and US $19.95. 

Thriftymommastips review is $$$$ out of $$$$$ for the variety of stories within this book. I received a copy of the book in order to complete this review. This is no way impacts my opinion.

An Interview with the author: Thriftymomma was lucky enough to be able to interview the author for this blog tour. Here are the answers to my questions. A Big thank you to Marthe Jocelyn for taking the time to speak with my readers..

Q 1. How did you come to writing and illustrating as a career?

Marthe: I was a late bloomer as far as writing is concerned. I had a small toy design company in New York City, and also made children’s clothing. When I had my own kids, I began to make books just for them. I took a couple of writing classes and read a thousand books and slowly learned how to do it. Although I call myself a writer, I don’t quite think of myself as an illustrator just yet.

Q 2. For Scribbling Women you have such a variety of women in the book…how did you choose?


Marthe: Choosing the women to fit into the book was the biggest challenge and took me about a year of reading and mulling and writing and more reading… I still have a file full in case I get the chance to write More Scribbling Women.

Once someone had landed on my long list, I began to research and write about her as if I was using her. If the work faltered, it was usually a sign that she might not make the final cut – perhaps there wasn’t enough information about her that would appeal to children, maybe her writing had not been translated into English, or possibly I couldn’t sustain my own interest, let alone that of a young reader. So the ones who were left at the end, the eleven finalists, were the ones, as I say in my introduction, whose stories made me catch my breath.

Q 3. What motivates you to get out of bed every morning?

Marthe: Some mornings I don’t get out of bed. I slip down to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and then climb right back into bed to work. However, when I do get up? If it’s light and sunny, I want to go for a walk. If it’s snowing, I might go sledding. If it’s pouring rain, I think about making a living… which means work.

Q 4. What advice do you have for aspiring writers or illustrators?

My advice for aspiring writers is to read, read, read. Write for a few minutes a day, stop before you’ve run out of steam, and read some more. For illustrators, I’m not so clear, but I think the same advice applies. Look at pictures, draw something, and do it again the next day.

(I love these answers. Especially the some days I don’t get out of bed one. Ha! That’s what I am doing wrong! I need more time in bed to become a successful author like Marthe!)

Giveaway:
To WIN: Enter to win a full collection of 28 Marthe Jocelyn books by leaving a comment on this post.That’s right just leave me a comment here at thriftymommasbrainfood. Tell me why you want to win or what you learned from this post or any old thing pertaining to books.
Rules: Entrants can enter across all of the blogs taking part in this Scribbling Women blog tour. You can enter a total of 30 times if you enter on each blog taking part in the tour. The contest starts Monday, March 28th, 2011 and closes Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 11: 49 p.m. EST. One winner will be selected from all the entries

Disaster Preparedness: A Memoir

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In a memoir entitled Disaster Preparedness nothing much happens at all – unless you count the daily business of life and growing up in the 70s as a disaster. Heather Havrilesky is author of the sarcastic Rabbit blog. Up until this past year she was a staff writer at Salon.com. Havrilesky’s blog is clever and entertaining. She tackles all manner of pop culture, entertainment and personalities. At the heart of this non-fiction memoir is an interesting metaphor about life and the messy process of growing up at a time when children were raised in a culture of fear. Hard not to grow up slightly maladapted or anxious if some adult, teacher or newscaster is always shouting “It’s the end of the world!”  The Iran Hostage Crisis, The Regan years and constant threats of World War 3 were reference points for Havrilesky’s formative years. The cultural references here in Disaster Preparedness are both fun, resonant and slightly grating. At times the references were a bit overly familiar to me, a writer of about the same age as Havrilesky. In fact at times I felt as if I might have been reading a story of my own early years. Havrilesky was raised by parents that argued bitterly and then got a divorce, which is hardly earth shattering. Many children of the time period were in the same boat. Havrilesky’s gift is sarcasm and she excels at recreating the 70s in fine detail. There are scenes here of birthday parties gone awry and parents acting out ridiculous soap operas as if life too were a performance. “Around the time my parents stopped making the slightest effort to hide their distaste for each other, we started taking long family vacations in the car each summer. This is the perverse logic of two people caught in a crumbling marriage: Instead of spending as little time together as possible, they vow to spend more time together, thinking they might reignite some lost spark through the purgatory of enforced contact.” She is at her best when skewering rights of passage like high school cheerleading tryouts, which she dubs a masochistic ritual. Sarcasm is one of the most difficult tools for a writer to make jump off the page, but Havrilesky’s on line writing has clearly helped her to hone this style. Fans who follow her on line writing will enjoy this memoir, but it is not the type of read that will appeal to everyone. At times I couldn’t wait for this book to be done, but I love a good metaphor and this idea of life as a great series of disasters that happen between the lines while waiting on perfection, well that is a truly gorgeous use of this literary device. And the ending, well it is empowering and lovely and strangely perfect.

Thriftymommasbrainfood rating $$$ out of $$$$$
• Disaster Preparedness, by Heather Havrilesky, Dec. 30, 2010 Riverhead Hardcover Books (Penguin Books USA), New York, 256 pages, $25.95 or $32.50 Canada, Hardcover ISBN 978-1-59448-768-2

I was given a copy of this book to review. My opinion is all my own.

Sima’s Undergarments For Women

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As luck would have it the novels I have lately been given all tend to have some infertility, loss or adoption theme. Happenstance, or some greater design, I am not so sure. Perhaps more people are exploring these themes through fiction. Sima’s Undergarments for Women is a really moving story of a childless woman who runs a bra and panty store in the basement of her home in Brooklyn. Sima is an expert on lingerie. Nobody else can merely look at the customer coming through her door and tell immediately, almost always without fail, exactly what size and style, cup and width is needed for support. Sima’s store is a mirror of the community she lives in, a female hangout and place of bonding. She is an entrepreneur in her 60s seemingly content with her life and business until a young beautiful Isreali named Timna comes to her store looking for a bra and leaves with a job as seamstress. The closer they work together the greater the promise she sees in the young, carefree version of herself and soon Sima is casting herself in the role of surrogate mother to the young displaced woman. This eventually becomes the source of conflict as Timna grows to resent Sima who has trouble accepting boundaries. Ilana Stanger-Ross is an interesting author and a practicing midwife now living in British Columbia. She has received several prizes for her work including the Timothy Findley Fellowship. She writes authentic and heart-wrenching scenes that revolve around infertility. Sima carries most of the burden of this alone, seeking treatment and consulting doctors earlier on in their marriage, her husband a distant observor of her pain and stoicism. Stanger-Ross pushes the envelope here when she is exploring the ways in which a married couple can lapse into moments of over familiarity, and even emotional cruelty. Lev is the cuckholded husband who seems to take everything Sima can dish out and more until he is finally forced to stand up and call her out when she crosses the line in a brutally harsh scene where wife tries to make husband into her dressmaker’s dummy for lingerie. This is a book that is filled with rich metaphors and I love a good metaphor. She has built a career selling something very intimate and yet her life is completely devoid of intimacy. Sima’s store is in the basement of her home, for instance, the foundation upon which her world sits. She sells foundation garments. Just as a good bra gives support physically to a woman’s breasts, Sima’s shop is a central community hub for women seeking support.
Sima’s Undergarments for Women, by Ilana Stanger-Ross, Penguin Canada, 2009, paperback 2010. $15.00 U.S and $18.50 Canada. This novel gets $$$$ out of $$$$$.

I was not compensated for this review, but received a copy of the book from the publisher, as is common practice in media.

Clementine review

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This series of books is new to our household. My avid little readers received this one and I thought it worthy of some space here on brainfood. Let me tell you why. Clementine is a cute, quirky girl character I enjoyed a lot. Clementine is talented and she is in gifted math at school, as she will tell you quickly in her story.
She has crazy orange hair, is impulsive and has renamed her darling little brother peas or broccoli or radish or whatever vegetable name she feels appropriate on any given day. That’s partly out of spite that her parents have given her the name of a fruit. You can almost hear the huffy disdain in the main character’s voice. Although this book is a tiny bit Junie B. Jones combined with the various other cute girl characters that are so popular amongst the grade school set, this one stood out to me for a couple of reasons. I like that Clementine is quite clearly a girl with gifted abilities and a bit of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). I know that Grandma didn’t know that when she bought this book for my darling Payton’s ninth birthday. But the character is not your average little girl. I love how Clementine gives us funny insights into her abilities and the way she sees it. She often states that she is always getting in trouble for not paying attention, but she also describes it as hyperattentiveness to other stuff ( which is pretty much how I see both of my children’s abilities on most days of the week). “I got busy working on my project, so I wouldn’t have to hear any: “Clementine-pay-attention’s!”. Except I did anyway.Which was unfair because each time I was the only person in the whole art room who was paying attention which is why I could tell everyone right in the middle of the Pledge of Allegiance that the lunch room lady was sitting in the janitor’s car and they were kissing. Again. No one else saw this disgusting scene because noone else was paying attention out the window!” Clementine has a prissy friend Margaret who is in fourth grade and lives in the same building as the title character. Margaret and Clementine together just cannot seem to stop getting into trouble. The trouble starts when Margaret tries to trim glue from her hair and Clementine tries to help, but instead gets blamed for everything. Clementine is a good friend and a good big sister and a cute girl with a big imagination and a strong creative spirit. I am already seeking the rest of this series out for the children because this book was so cute and it lent itself well to my nightly read out loud format with dramatic reenactments. It is intended for ages 7-10.
I give this book a solid $$$$1/2 out of $$$$$. Price is right and material engaging. Some parents may find her hijinks to be too much and her mouth to be too much (like Junie B. she has a knack for finding trouble.)
Clementine is written by Sara Pennypacker and cover notes it was a New York Times bestseller. Illustrated by Marla Frazee. Price is $4.99 in the U.S. , Paperback, Hyperion Paperbacks for Children.

Character Is The Key Book Review

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Very few could argue with the title of this book, Character Is The Key, by Sara Dimerman. It is to many parents an obvious goal of good parenting, teaching a child moral fibre and building great people, leaders and compassionate adults. But how to get there? It is so easy to get caught up in the daily ins and outs of parenting that character-building could easily be a topic that is neglected or placed on a backburner. For this group, Character Is The Key, subtitled How To Unlock The Best In Our Children And Ourselves, could be a worthwhile guide causing one to reevaluate old parenting styles and strategies for ones that focus on building the emotional intelligence of our children. For those who feel they are already on the path towards mindfully creating and moulding characters with integrity Dimerman’s book could be used as a supplementary tool. Dimerman, a parent, therapist, columnist, author and frequent contributor to Today’s Parent, was highly involved in the Character Matters program that was applied in schools throughout the York District in wake of the Columbine tragedy, and other high profile media reports of bullying and violence. The author draws on and refers to this program in many spots. Out of that program evolved 10 key characteristics that schools, parents and communities all agreed were key to producing young adults with substance and strength. The 10 virtues were: respect, responsibility, honesty, empathy, fairness, initiative, courage, perseverance, optimism and integrity. Dimerman advises families to tailor these to fit their own beliefs and priorities. Not surprisingly, Dimerman views modelling as a key tenet of consciously building children with strong character. Most of us already do this and much of Dimerman’s book is common sense parenting, but the next step to modelling in terms of character building comes with the reflection involved in evaluating why we as parents make the choices and actions we do. In reflecting gently and in age appropriate ways that are not heavy handed one can reinforce character or empathy or respect. When my own children were very small and even still now at five and eight, I would often say to them if a friend was sick, “Jack is sick today. He cannot come for a play date.” Then giving them permission to feel disappointed for a few minutes I would often take it one step further with: “I feel sad that he is sick. What can we do to help him feel better?” This type of reflection would often result in my own children drawing cards or baking cookies or calling their sick friend. Now, without any prompting at all both of my girls will often quickly do this type of reflection on their own and are usually the first ones problem-solving how to help people in heartfelt ways. While this has always been second nature to us in our home, I still enjoyed reading the book as it supports my own views that we are on the right path towards developing great children. Character Is The Key is by Sara Dimerman, published this year by John Wiley and Sons Canada, $23.95 Canadian and $19.95 US.

thriftymommastips rating $$$ out of $$$$$.