Ready for the 100 day challenge?

Happy New Year! I can't believe we're just about to say hello to March. The last few months have galloped by and seem to have been all about poetry and non-fiction for me.

I received a lovely email from Roi Faineant Press while I was away over Christmas accepting all three adult poems I'd sent them - Double Happy, Plum Jam and The Politics of Pockets - which was a wonderful surprise to end the year on. You can read the poems here. I also received a copy of Volume Ten from Paddler Press in Canada which has one of my poems in it - The Night is Singing. And another three children's poems of mine have been published on the Dirigible Balloon site, most recently The Talk in the Trees which you can check out here. I still feel very much in my infancy as a poet so these results are very encouraging. I feel so slow writing poems - I wish I could speed up. There are a steady stream of publishing opportunities and I never seem to have sufficient new poems to submit - more on that in a minute.

Despite the earlyness of the year I have already been busy with a brace of projects - current status? - two down (I have penned a profile on the wonderful Feana Tuʿakoi which will be in the next Magpies Magazine, and I wrote an article on 'translation' for The Sapling), one to go. There are other small jobs hovering round the edges as well. As is always the way, because I have these jobs on the go, my mind has been busy working out a solution to an old abandoned junior novel. Of course, as soon as I am done with those other tasks my brain will lose interest in the junior novel. I'm wondering if I can trick my brain into maintaining that excitement. It really is a very fickle organ sometimes. Perhaps it needs some specialist training.

To that end, and apropos of my comment earlier about never having enough poetry to send out, a small dedicated bunch of us are running a project which we hope will help build a lovely daily poetry writing habit and result in a good swag of poems. If you are a keen poet you might like to check out the 100 day Poetry Writing Challenge over on The Poets XYZ page on facebook, starting March 1st. I hope I see you there!!

PS: My picture book Lucy and the Dark, illustrated by Vasanti Unka and published by Puffin (Penguin RH) has been shortlisted in the picture book category of the 2024 NZ Booklovers Awards (you can see all of the finalists here ) woohoo!!!, and it is also off to Germany, hopefully for publication there later this year.

A bit of a rant...

 I often hear the phrase - 'it's really hard to get published' and my mind has often responded with, 'it's always been hard'. I've thought that the publishing setbacks and failures I've experienced are because my stories or books are just not good enough.   

But other things have been happening to legitimately make it harder. The sheer volume of stories being published now provides a veritable ocean of books in which your own book is the proverbial drop. It is easy to sink without trace. There are self published books in addition to traditionally published. It is fantastic that folk can now self publish and there are many wonderful self pubbed titles out there, but the total number of books has increased markedly as a result. There are less in-print reviews, especially of children's books, whether in magazines or newspapers. Some online review sites have popped up (yay!) but are they reaching the audience that can make a difference? How do we get cut through, can we even get seen? And can we stay on the shop shelves long enough with so many books coming through? I read an article here which talks about market saturation and some things you can do to help your book along. Personally, recently I've been teaming up with fellow creators to try and connect more with our target audience on social media in a positive, and interesting way. Social media is having a few hiccups at the moment but people are still hanging out around the digital watercooler so hopefully our community building will have some mutually beneficial outcomes. I'll keep you posted on our project when there is more to share. I also think creating and strengethening your own personal brand can help - being visible whenever possible and doing good work both in your books and in the writing and reading communities.

I've been finding it hard recently to stay strong in the face of the unspoken belief that children's literature requires an inferior skill set to produce and has lesser value in the eyes of adult writers and readers. I know 'not all adult writers and readers' but I've had some personal experience of being denigrated as a writer for children recently and it wasn't great. I am at a loss to understand what the issue is. As if literature is a pie and if adult literature cedes anything to children's literature it is a failure or a loss from their own share. I'm not sure how it became like this but I'd say boosting children's literature and valuing it helps create young readers who turn into adult readers. Isn't that desirable? I'd also argue that children's writers, just as any other writers, strive to master their craft and create quality. I'm thinking about plotting, character development, language techniques and deeper themes. I'm writing for an audience that I am no longer the same as. I'm writing not just for the child reader who might have emerging language skills and an inquisitive and demanding mind, but also the oft present adult intermediary who would like some relief in the form of subtle adult humour or other emotional connection and universal ideas that also speak to them. I am mindful always of the malleability and potential of words and how my efforts in the text will grow and inspire a young person's vocabulary and future reading and writing skills. Its not less than. Its just different. And the disdain I have felt recently is frankly undeserved. Maybe a children's book hurt you as an adult. Honestly, I don't know what it is. But it is selfish and it is unnecessary. Lifting each other up seems like the best thing to do eh?

The joys (horrors) of revising ...

Lockdowns are hard and it's fair to say my creativity has taken a wee bit of a hammering over this time. I've kept writing - mostly reviews, blogposts, manuscript assessments and reports but from time to time I've managed a smidge of something a little more creative - while major projects have been sitting this one out I've produced a couple of grown up poems here and there, and done some picture book revising. I've kept submitting things beause this is still possible. And I've had some good news things happening too. 

One of these good news things was seeing three of my books in the Storylines Notable Book Awards. Sharing with Wolf illustrated by Nikki Slade Robinson (Scholastic), My Elephant is Blue, illustrated by Vasanti Unka (Puffin [PenguinRH]) and Ko PekaKiwi, illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White and translated by Pānia Papa. BatKiwi also got a mention - highly commended in the Picture Book Category. I'm very proud of these books and it is a real thrill to have them recognised this way. You can check out the whole glorious list here. Lots of wonderful books across 5 categories, perfect for Christmas gifts for the young people in your lives. 

Recently an article was published in New Zealand with authors talking about what they were doing in lockdown and a bunch of us agreed this would be a cool thing to do with children's authors and illustrators as well. You can check out what we said here. 

I also thought I'd share this lovely treatise by author Eirlys Hunter on how a little fantasy can end up bringing the real world closer, and how the distance between the two is surprisingly small and the barrier extremely porous for young readers. 

And in the best kind of surprise twist I didn't see coming, I've had another picture book accepted for publication. This one, titled Sun Shower, is to be published by Scholastic NZ. They've also said a tentative yes to another manuscript pending revision. This sort of thing can be thrilling and terrifying in near equal measure. Revising on your own time, for your own purposes is, while sometimes hard, a generally positive experience. You are working to please yourself at a pace of your own choosing. And there is no pressure on the end result, especially in comparison to the original manuscript. Mucked it up? No matter. Try again, or toss it in the bin, the bottom drawer, or bury it six feet under. No one need ever know. We need not ever speak of it again. But a requested revision can be a different beast entirely. Someone is waiting, they know my starting point, and they will be judging my efforts at improvement. It is a nice problem to have but I will be sweating buckets. 

I'll be keeping an original version safe so I can retreat to it if things go awry. I'll be scrutinising the original and asking what its strengths are so I don't lose those along the way. And I'll be trusting my gut as it has served me well in the past. And I am also working on a completely different story in case this one bursts into flames and is reduced to a pile of ash and I need to cheer myself up with a new submission.  

Some magpie behaviour...

A friend recently had some toxic blow-back from a book review she posted. The author took exception to this person's view of the book and got in touch personally several times to express their disapproval. This is incredibly poor form, and behaviour that won't win you any friends long term. People tend to remember when you tore a strip off them, and not in a good way. And if reviewers are trying to get a rise out of you, then rising to the bait is achieving their ends not yours. Truly, the best policy is to never respond. Writer Maggie Stiefvater has a classy attitude to reviews good and bad, that takes the sting out of the one star ones and and demonstrates why getting some negative response can actually be desirable.

And underling Maggie's point, agent Janet Reid (and friend) had this to say

Jessica Snell picked up the thread on book reviews (and how readers find books) with this:

Although many of the books I read are ones I've heard of via word-of-mouth (mostly from my brother and my mom, honestly; I know and trust their taste), I probably find most of my books via book reviews.

And the thing is, those book reviews don't have to be positive. Sometimes the reviewer doesn't like the book, but if she's a good reviewer, she'll say *why* she doesn't like it, and I'll know whether or not that reason would be a deal-breaker for *me*. Sometimes I know I'd like the book for the very reason the reviewer hated it, and I'll go ahead and pick it up.

So, I guess what I'm saying is: dear authors, don't be too discouraged by bad reviews. Well-written bad reviews might get you just as many readers as the good ones.

Very very true. One of our sayings back in my publicity days was "Get reviews. Good or bad, doesn't matter."

Now it's even more important because any mention of a book increases its discoverability.

Janet Reid has also made a few good comments that resonated with me, on a range of other issues. The first is about marketing your books. It's a long game folks. Of course all authors think their own book is an incredible work of heartbreaking genius, and even if they are making an objective assessment and are right, no self respecting reader is going to take that on face value. They want to hear it from someone they trust who has no vested interest in the sale/purchase of the book.

And then there's the one about when publishers give off warning signals  that the ship isn't quite so ship shape. Number 6 especially gave me pause - Publishing is Broken; We're Going to Fix It.  Confidence is a good quality in a entrepreneur. So is iron clad optimism.  Hubris is not.  Someone who tells you they're going to fix an industry they've never worked in is textbook hubris . I recognized this one...I'd heard it before and that hadn't worked out so well then either. If someone says this to you, wait to see their fix in action before jumping on board. Do your homework people. Ms Reid's blog is a good place to start.

And last but not least this one - perhaps the most sobering of all my links today - which pretty much concludes with  'Bottom line: it's a whole lot harder to stay published than to get published'. That's a hurdle (or dark long corridor of hurdles) that you can't imagine when you are working so hard on breaking in, but it's a reality for a significant proportion of all writers, and an issue that many mid-career writers grapple with. Getting published isn't a lifetime pass in to the publishing world, or a guarantee of future publication. More on this I think next time.....

Reviewing reviews...

Writers block - I've read some excellent articles on this recently which I think address the more serious variety of writer's block and offer insight, advice, solutions and hope if you are locked in mortal combat with the creative side of your mind -  this one is good.

This post by Bernard Beckett on why NZ YA literature is or isn't used in our classrooms is an interesting read. Teachers are too stretched and understandably go for the easy option of (generally overseas) YA titles that have movie tie ins, have been dissected and reviewed ad nauseam on easy to find online sites and are proven winners. This makes it too easy to ignore some excellent local content which already suffers from an embarrassing level of neglect. This site Hooked on Books aims to redress some of the balance (awesome work people!!!) but we have a LONG way to go before we are even truly accepted let alone embraced. While I agree it is best to be positive about small gains I think we should expect more. Look what happened to NZ music when we were obliged to hear more of it.

And if you want an easy lesson on how to start a fight you need look no further than this article by Iain Sharp lamenting the apparently too cosy nature of book reviewing in this fair country. He's only commenting on adult literature here, because reviewing children's literature is an obscure movement that seems to operate on the same level as dark matter. However, for my purposes let's pretend children's literature is part of the reviewing discussion.

I guess I agree on some points. Sometimes reviews are just a blurb, or the synopsis, without commentary on the key elements by which we assess books. On the one hand this gives us no real clues as to the merits of the book but it IS a mention which (due to our lack of cultural embracing) is pure gold. I am thrilled when my books are mentioned (even just by title) by someone other than myself or a member of my family or circle of friends, in some public fashion. We should be a little sad that such small things excite us so much. Round ups, therefore, are a simultaneously good and bad thing.

And the majority of reviews are a bit of a love fest, but then an absence of any mention at all in the places where book reviews hang out can be rebuke enough. As my mother always says, "if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all." And clearly I wasn't the only one in NZ raised this way. We would rather spend our time talking about things we do like, than things we don't. And this is especially true in a country as small as this one. Our tribe is too small. Too close. We avoid confrontation. We don't wish to offend. This doesn't mean our reviews are bad, just highly curated. And, nice isn't always nice. Sincerity, or lack thereof is detectable. Having some overseas reviewers involved might be a good thing but New Zealanders know their own literature best. Goodreads, of course, is immune to all of this and very educational on the subject of reviewing, partly because its structure encourages reviews of everything you have read, and partly because it's an international boundary-less site where people seem to eschew any kind of filter on their comments. If they feel angry about any aspect of your book, whether real or imagined, they feel a duty to let you know. Some of the most insightful reviews I have read have been on Goodreads.  And some of the nastiest.

And everyone has an agenda. Writer Elizabeth George (in an article published in our own Herald Canvas magazine some years ago) said reviewers were looking to their own careers when they write reviews, and the content should be judged on this basis. She made her comments about big name overseas reviewers so are her comments relevant here? Should they be? or is it better if they aren't? I think reviews anywhere can reveal as much about the reviewer as they do about the book.

I've had my fair share of reviews. Some have just repeated the synopsis and made no real comment on the qualities of the story. Some have been insightful criticisms both positive and negative. Some have just been mean-spirited. Some referenced things which weren't in the books. Some seemed to be written by people who hadn't even read my book but felt compelled to comment anywho. And the advised practice (which I agree with) is that authors never respond to reviews, so errors (or misreadings) in reviews go unchecked. If authors can't respond, how much licence is it okay for reviewers to have (and please don't review that sentence, it's a bit rubbish although the content is still meaningful and relevant). We have no right of reply and must take our medicine. Reviewers should keep that in mind.

So are we gutless reviewers? For my own books I hope for honesty and erudite insights. For the books I wish to read I want a feel for the book, the style and quality of the prose, the complexity of the themes and plot. How satisfying is the ending (but no spoilers). When I review books on Goodreads I believe that what I don't say has as much weight as what I do say. You can easily tell when I think something is a must read. And if you have agreed with my past assessments my reviews will be more useful to you. I know who to trust as a reviewer. A reviewing history carries a lot of weight with me.

It's crucial to remember too that reviewers in the media don't necessarily have control over how much they can write, the format in which their reviews appear (round ups), or sometimes even the books they are able to review. They do what they can within the constraints of the current environment.

In the end, the same book can receive scathing reviews and adoring ones. I look at the kinds of comments made and depending on the language used, the issues noted, and the tone of the piece I get a fair idea of whether a book is for me or not. A nasty review isn't necessarily the kiss of death. Sometimes it is the opposite. Give us some credit for being able to read between the lines (cos that's what good readers do) - a review isn't the last and only word.

My personal relationship with self promotion

I read this blog post on self promotion with great interest. And then its follow up. I felt like the author and I were kindred spirits.

My greatest joy as a writer has been discovering that a complete stranger has selected my book from amongst a shop's curated wares, read it and enjoyed it. When someone I don't know says 'this is my child's favourite book,' about something I have written, I want to cry tears of happiness. I thought my heart would burst when one young reader told me she identified with the central character in one of my novels and said reading about him had made her feel better about her own situation. This is what I want for my books. It's why I write.

And it's why I am rubbish at the direct kind of 'self promotion.' I do blog, and have a presence on facebook and twitter and instagram. But I find it eye-poppingly difficult to actually tell you to buy my book. The moment we build a connection on social media or in real life, you can no longer be the unbiased reader. And I struggle mightily to believe any nice things you might say about my books, no matter how sincere you are (strangely I will believe you if you say something negative about my stories - my brain is a weird place). And that connection might also make you say 'yes' when you were actually thinking 'no'. And it might mean you can no longer just see me as a creative person who writes books, because you might wonder if I am also just seeing you as a potential purchaser. That's just awkward. I want us to be friends.

I also know the direct sell approach doesn't work on me. It's involuntary. I glaze over. No matter how good the product might be. This is how my nature is wired. I blame my genes, and possibly also coffee and olives and organic peanut butter. We may never know.

What I do know is that I want to pour my heart and soul in to my books and then let them speak for themselves. I want them calling to readers with their own voice that I carefully crafted with love and hard work. That is the job I want to do. Not self promotion. Not selling. Writing.

The question of talent - just don't ask...

Updated - cos I felt like it :-)

The interweb blew up a bit last week when this came out - a somewhat grumpy and cathartic outpouring from ex-MFA tutor Ryan Boudinot, to which our fave Terrible Mind Chuck Wendig nearly exploded when responding (here). He had obviously been doing some deep breathing before posting again here on the subject, although it is still fairly ranty and at times confused. More recently there was this from Laura Miller. At some point in all these articles they each make some good points. And they all get a little tetchy at others.

All this frothing and invective got me wondering about the issue of 'talent'. We wouldn't question that some natural ability lies behind the careers of people like Mozart, Johnny Cash, Picasso, Da Vinci, Jonah Lomu, or Roger Federer. These people had/have talent. Sure they all worked their butts off to perfect their skills but no amount of practice would ever push me up to their level of ability. They have something I don't have which cannot be obtained through effort. Yet somehow we can't so easily apply this same thinking to writers. Is writing different? And if so, why? All I'd like to say is Gaiman, Le Guin, Mahy - you get the idea. Folks, I believe the creative area of writing is not mutually exclusive of talent. But I also think there is no creative area more divided about what we believe is evidence of natural ability.

Here are some points about talent I believe are worth considering

1) Talent does not equal success
2) There is no simple measurement for talent in writing. It is not a publishing contract, book sales, awards, 5 star reviews, or most likes on your facebook fan page. 50 Shades of Grey has nearly 430,000 5 star reviews. I rest my case.
3) People can have talent and not use it or walk away from it, or squander it
4) People can have limited or no talent and achieve great results. See above
5) Ten people will say you are talented. The next ten will say you aren't. Who is right? Might they both be right? (or both wrong?)
6) Talent might not be evident at the start. Talent might be latent, needing passion and effort (or some other trigger) to allow it to manifest itself
7) Working hard at what you are passionate about will result in improvement
8) Persevering when the going gets tough may be the single most important predictor of success
9) If you are obsessing about whether you have talent or not you are not focusing on the right things (such as numbers 7 and 8 above).
10) The more passionate we are about what we love to do, the harder it is to be objective about it

I have some natural abilities. I can cook well. I can empathise. I am good at loving my family. Dancing. Spelling. Finding lost things. These are some things I am naturally good at. But I got better at all of them with practice and experience. Am I a talented writer? I don't know, and I don't want to ask the question cos my writing is important to me and I would care TOO MUCH about the answer. If talent is there, it will be there no matter what I do or think or say about it. And if it isn't, would I let that information stop me in my tracks? If the answer would derail me, I do not want to ask it, or dwell on it. Better to just get on with the writing.  The only way forward for me is to be passionate, practice lots, and persevere when the going gets tough. Is talent necessary? I think that's probably the wrong question.

Money is a confusing subject for writers ...

Money is a confusing subject for writers. As I covered in my last post, the average earnings on a single title aren't the stuff luxury dreams are built on. Most of my writing income comes from book related things rather than the books themselves. I am not complaining. I love writing books. And talking about books. And writing. And I did my research - I figured out pretty quickly that I was unlikely to make my fortune this way. I knew what I was in for and I went and did it anyway. But that doesn't mean I agree with how writing is valued. And it is somewhat awkward when the normal sector of the community who head off to their 9 to 5 jobs for at least minimum wage, and then usually plus some, try to understand why you do what you do, knowing what you know, about the likely going rate. As Sara Baume explains here ( " gradually, society has made me feel foolish for devoting myself so fervently to a career so unlikely to earn me any money. " ),  often they don't get it (thank you to Maureen Crisp for this very juicy link).

And here in New Zealand, with a seriously modest population that can never drive large print runs, a tyranny of distance that strangles the most thoughtful marketing and promotional campaigns, and as publishers have tightened their belts, or upped sticks and retreated to the shores of our larger neighbour Australia, margins have become tighter than most.

Despite all this we do still have writers here who earn enough from their book sales alone to buy their own coffees. But they are a small percentage of the writing community. I read recently of an overseas study which calculated that the majority of writers (including both independently and traditionally published) had an average annual income of $500 from their books. That is a sobering result.

We work hard at what we do, whether it's writing and polishing our manuscripts, or preparing and delivering talks, workshops or readings. We often go the extra mile - dressing up for appearances, making handouts and bookmarks, giving prizes from our own resources in competitions of our own devising, or judging those devised by others. We mentor, teach and share. And underneath it all we are slowly taught that there is little money in this industry. Slowly our sense of the value of what we do is muddied or eroded. What should a manuscript be worth? Is it $6000 all up? I feel a little ill when I see million dollar advances for celebrity titles, or some hot, young debuting writer. Is their writing really 167 times (or more depending on the currency - don't talk to me about £1,000,000 advances) better than my writing? Maybe. Maybe not. How can I tell? I know publishing is a business, and advances and royalties represent what income a company anticipates making and/or actual sales. Is this the only measure of a book's value? Should we be paid by the word? Well probably not because writers take many different routes to get to the same length manuscript, whether going through twenty drafts and labouring over each individual word, or knocking out 50,000 words a month, nanowrimo style, whether we are supported by an agent or editor or doing all the writing, rewriting and editing ourselves. Should we be paid by the length of time taken, or the sweat generated while we worked? It's all a bit confusing. What ARE we worth? Are we further away from understanding what a reasonable value is, than ever before? And that's just for our writing. What are we worth for all the other writing related tasks that we do.

And if folk question our sanity for choosing a career that doesn't pay, do they then extend this to thinking that this IS what we are worth?

We have debated the difficulties of being asked to do gigs for nothing. Many organisations, schools and other institutions understand the importance of paying writers a fee for events they participate in. But there is a worrying trend for unpaid gigs. Doing jobs for free creates an unhealthy and unrealistic expectation that undermines the ability of other authors to charge. Why pay someone when you can find someone else who will do it for free? Yet we put a lot of thought and effort into our presentations. It seems fair to be remunerated. And what if writers are financially supported by family or some other form of patronage. Should they do all their gigs for free? Or not at all? Is their value different again?  For me one of the biggest arguments against doing something for free is that often the people inviting you to speak aren't working for free. They justifiably expect fair recompense for the work they perform, and it would seem only reasonable for us to expect the same. If they are voluntary workers than I am happy to be voluntary too, but that isn't always the case. I appreciate that so many organisations are strapped for cash, but they must also appreciate that that is also true of so many of the authors they are inviting to work for free. I believe part of the difficulty is that we have no real clear understanding of what we are worth, whether for our writing, or for other writing related tasks. How can we negotiate payment when we are so unsure ourselves. The waters have just been getting muddier and muddier. We are being taught to expect less. And that we can't rely on income from our writing. And the wider community seems to have a different understanding of how we work, and what and how we are paid and it seems impossible to bridge this divide of understanding. It would be a travesty if in the future the only people who could afford to write were those with independent means. Money is a confusing subject for writers.

How NOT to write a blog post...

How not to write a blog post:

1) Have final university assignments to complete

2) Have paid work with a deadline

3) Run the last story writing competition for Fabo 2014 (with heartfelt thanks to Tania Hutley) at www.fabostory.wordpress.com (entries are closed, and I am now judging the winners)

4) Get a cold

5) Start reading books from the enormous tbr pile beside your bed as soon as 1) is posted away to your course controller (so far I've read Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater and Every Breath by Ellie Marney)

6) Watch movies (I recommend Mud) and all 7 series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to avoid/get you through doing 1) and 2)

7) Be down about the state of publishing, which seems to be turning in ever decreasing circles these days. Lists have got shorter, publishers fewer, and competition fiercer. Publishers are looking for safe bets, blockbusters-in-waiting, the next big thing. I've recently had a couple of accepted projects subsequently declined. And I'm not the only one to whom this has happened.

8) Spend time looking for the silver lining to 7)

9) Stare at the looming prospect of Christmas that sucks the air out of everything else from now until January 1st

10) Read other peoples blog posts about what you should put in a blog post

11) Think a lot about writing (rather than doing any)

12) Listen to/watch your writing heroes say amazing things about the art of writing

See what I did there? :)

Climbing out of the ghetto...

Sigh - oh, look, somebody is complaining about YA literature again. How original...and refreshing...and, OFGS.

If we talked more about children's and young adults literature in the wider media maybe people would have a better understanding of it and we could spend less time having to defend it. Sigh. This article argues for greater media coverage on behalf of Australian literature but we need to be doing this in New Zealand too. If media attention was apportioned according to market share, children's and YA literature would be featuring a lot more than it does now.  And as Danielle Binks says, the YA and Children's lit crowd are having way more interesting and complex discussions while the adult critics bang on about their cringe over adults reading YA. Our envelope is being pushed, the boundaries challenged and the bar raised, while their record appears broken...

Sure, there are some children's and YA books that are not well written, are formulaic and break no new ground either thematically or in literary terms. But there are many that are and do. Can we please discuss each book on its merits and accept that the term children's or Young Adult does not make a book some inferior entity? No category of book is automatically inferior or superior. New Zealand SFF author Helen Lowe argues the point well on her blog here. The divisiveness harms all of us. Folk need to grow up and talk about each book on the quality of its content, including Children's and YA.

Jumping at our own shadows...

Sorry I have been a bit absentee. Things have been busy and I find I am unable to post on my blog during the day. And, well, I have been having doubtie moments. This might seem perverse with books published and things going well etc... but doubts are no respecters of, well, anything, really. For many creative folk it is a normal part of their personality/genetic make-up. We are sensitive souls who jump at our own shadows (when we aren't inserting them into our stories). These things don't have to be logical. Doubt is my middle name.

When you work within an industry which is mediated at every step by personal taste, opinions and subjectivity, and where every step of the process is unpredictable and not necessarily tied in to the value of your writing, well because what is valuable? and how is that value mediated by personal taste, opin....well, you get my drift - things can get tricky and doubtie. Especially when there are so many ways for people to tell you what they think of your work, and then if they don't talk at all, well the silence is VAST. Anyways. So, as you do, I went in search of some good advice online on the topic of doubt and came across some useful stuff - this is helpful, and so is this. The second one is more about dealing with criticism but I think most of our doubts boil down to our worries about how our work will be received. And the lovely thing about these two posts is that they demonstrate that plenty of others also deal with doubts. It is normal to feel doubts. The important thing is not to let those doubts make decisions for you.

Meanwhile The Song of Kauri has had a nice review from Barbara Murison on her fab Around the Bookshops blog. I love how she says -

"The whole beautiful production sings of the kauri – its gold, brown and yellow cover with its embossed koru, the carefully crafted words and the feeling that if you took a deep breath as you turn the pages you would be able to smell the leaf mould of the forest and the heady scent of the kauri gum." 

And I'm thrilled to say, two of the other 2014 University of Otago Fellows, Mozart Fellow Jeremy Mayall and Caroline Plummer Dance Fellow Louise Potiki Bryant have suggested collaborating with me to create music and dance for The Song of Kauri. I'm recording a reading of the book today to accompany the music Jeremy has composed. More details soon on the dance, I hope. This is a first for me, and for one of my books. Exciting times.

I talked up a storm last week down in Invercargill, running a round of workshops for Intermediate students, High School students and adults for the Dan Davin Literary Foundation. I met a host of wonderful people and was well sorted by organiser extraordinaire Becs Amundsen. A cool few days in the deep South. I even got down to Bluff, which was amazing, thanks to Becs. See? 2014 is my year of adventures.

Sent in and received back another university assignment. Had my misgivings but it went okay. It will be weird to be at the end of my studies when I complete this year's paper.  I've been enjoying the Diploma of Children's literature so much (except when an assignment is due and I want to throw things and set fire to my hair and run around the room screaming). It's been a terrific insight and taught me so much. I am still not sick of learning yet but will have to take responsibility for it myself in future. The world is such an interesting place.

Hours of fun...

I am thrilled to report that I am part of the WORD Christchurch Writers and Readers Festival 2014, happening August 28-31. You can check out the programme here. I'm one of the writers involved in the 'Read Aloud Schools Programme' along with Jackie French, Donovan Bixley, Dylan Horrocks, Laini Taylor and Anis Mojgani. Excuse me if I am a little giddy about all of this. I am part of the free storytelling on Saturday for 8 to 12 year olds at 11.30am on Saturday and for young children at 1pm. And then I get to debate the truths of writing for children with Gavin Bishop and Tania Roxborogh at 2.30pm. You can be sure I have some opinions on this. Hours of fun. Bring it on!

It was fascinating to see a report on the contribution publishing makes to the NZ economy. I was surprised by the results. We make a real contribution ($330million total sales). Educational publishing and trade sales to educational institutions and libraries constitute 24% of total sales. And children's and Young Adults books will take a respectable share of trade sales. I would love to see the numbers drilled down to the different categories of books: children's and YA, adult fiction, non-fiction etc... For a small country these seem like robust figures. I have all sorts of thoughts and questions and need more information to find answers, and comment meaningfully. A key thought is that money is still being made in publishing. I shall not give up my day job yet. Ha ha, the day job is writing, and it doesn't pay well but I still feel hopeful. Oh who am I kidding. What else am I going to do. To all those people who say, 'what you do is not who you are,' I say, 'you are obviously not writers.' Sheesh.

And as my new book The Song of Kauri slowly eases it's way into the world, here is another lovely review with some Q and A from yours truly. And there was a bit of a thing on me in the Otago Daily Times last Thursday.

Thrilled and terrified...

The release of a book is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. Up till that moment the book has just had potential and promise. Now it is up to people to decide whether it is something they like and want to buy. Now readers will have a read and make up their own minds. As they should. My marketing and promotion strategy has always been kind of organic, and long term. Agent Janet Reid talks about the same sort of thing here and I think this has always been my philosophy. I'm not keen on being actively 'sold to' so I try to avoid doing this to others. And reading the phrase 'the next big thing, or 'by the next (insert famous author's name here)' about a new book hot off the press makes me grumpy. I want to hear what other readers think. Genuine word of mouth is not something you can manufacture.

Yet again there is much debate about the suitability of books for their target audience. In particular the winner of the 2014 Carnegie Medal, The Bunker Diary, by Kevin Brooks. Folk have been outraged that such a bleak book can win a prize. Because now more teens might read it. Nicola Morgan talks very thoughtfully about this fact, and our desire to protect young people, here.  I've talked about my stance on this issue before. I believe children and teens are self limiting and smart readers. There is no magic transformation into adulthood from adolescence. It can't happen in a vacuum. Teenagers must have access to information in order to become responsible, empathetic adults. Better that they read about difficult topics in a book, than have to experience them first hand in order to understand. Letting teens read books like The Bunker Diary might actually be a better form of protection for them.

And I loved this terrific smart response to that annoying article in Slate admonishing adults who choose to read YA books. It made my day. Because:

Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. - CS Lewis

But you should really go and read the whole thing. Or an extended version of CS Lewis's original article here.

Why yes, I do have an opinion on that...

Well, look at that! I am reading and talking as part of the Read Aloud Programme for Schools for The Press Christchurch Writers Festival in August. Super excited! Writers Festivals are a little slice of heaven.

Some folk have been complaining about adults reading YA. Here and here. Cos ya know YA is just dumbed down stuff and talks about issues that have no relevance or interest for adults.What are we thinking reading that puerile stuff. Cos like children and young adults are, ya know, like some simple, inferior version of like, grown up people. Sheesh. Folk reacted, responded, or went a little septic, here and here. What do I think (cos y'all know I am bound to have an opinion on this)? There is an arrogance that underlies some of the criticisms of YA literature. That young adults and children are simple, un-smart versions of adults. That YA books can only offer the adult reader escapism, instant gratification and nostalgia (and it is obviously embarrassing to want these from a book). That YA literature is incapable of dealing with complex, important or challenging themes.  That grown up issues are somehow better and more important than issues facing younger people. Is Malala Yousafzai's experience simpler and less important because she is a teen? Can we not join the 'real' realm of adulthood if we don't read 'difficult' adult literature. But perhaps the thing that I wonder most about this brouhaha is why? Why the complaints and criticisms? And why do folk see the need to denigrate a book category to further their agenda? I wonder if perhaps some writers of adult literature aren't happy that adults are buying and reading YA books rather than adult books. They want to shame us into changing our reading habits. I just can't help thinking that telling me I should be embarrassed is the wrong way to go about getting me to change my behaviour. And making sweeping generalisations about YA books of which many are diverse and rich and well written is just, well, poor ammunition. Of course not all YA books are sophisticated and smart. But then neither are all adult books. And children and young adults might lack experience but they don't lack brains, or feelings. And they can be faced with issues just as complex as those facing adults. And if they aren't there yet, doesn't mean some of the books don't contain those more difficult themes for when they are. Because the thing that irks me most about this whole debate is thinking that the way to win me over is by telling me YA books are beneath me. That there is something wrong or bad about that kind of literature. Perhaps if the critics had spent more time impressing and exciting me with the books they would like me to read, I would be more open to their suggestions. I just want to read good books, regardless of the target audience.

Books - powerful and vulnerable, all at the same time...

Recently at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival I was asked about my stance on whether we should censor the content of children's and young adult's literature in terms of contentious themes or the inclusion of sex, violence or profanity. I answered, saying what I believe to be true about whether readers need protecting or not. I think children are self limiting. Either they will decide it isn't for them and stop reading or it will be inaccessible to them as a result of their level of maturity (it will go over their heads). Or they will be ready for it, and frankly, a book is a much better way to come across such material where it is presented in context and provides a springboard for understanding and/or discussion. Sometimes it is material that provides wider understanding of an issue and makes them more empathetic. Humanity could definitely do with being more empathetic. Sometimes it is reflecting their own experience and helps them to feel less alone. The most excellent and wise author Judy Blume spoke to the same question here. Or you can hear the mellifluous Benedict Cumberbatch reading out Kurt Vonnegut's impassioned letter to a school district regarding the censorship of his books here. Children and young adults are far more likely to be harmed by the people they know than by the books they read.

And the intramaweb has been aglow with talk of the stoush between Hachette and Amazon. I don't know all the ins and outs. But I think Chuck Wendig's run down on the issue is useful and kinda reflects my own opinions if you want to take a closer look. I'm still looking to be the cork on the ocean.

And a few years back I had a meltdown over Joel Stein's New York Times editorial suggesting adults should not demean themselves by reading young adult or children's books. Obviously as far as Mr Stein was concerned, children's and YA books would never deal with issues or themes that could be of interest or value to adults. He mentioned The Hunger Games, which he had never read. Perhaps he should have come down off his high horse and read the trilogy. This week, this appeared. While the books are a work of fiction, the issues they contain represent real social concerns and author Suzanne Collins has spoken about the different real life events and real world problems that informed her work. And while Guardian journalist Jonathan Jones says the trilogy (and associated movie franchise) is not a manual for changing the world, the themes and concerns present in the books (and movies) have resonated with people and use of the symbolic gesture in the books have provided a platform for drawing wider attention to their fight.

Less snot and froth...

Recently I wrote a bit of a frothing-at-the-mouth reaction to an article quoting Jonathan Emmett in the Times (which turned up in the NZ Herald) about gender imbalance in the children's literature industry. Mr Emmett rightly responded to clarify a few things.

"Hi Melinda.

Sorry that the Times article annoyed the snot out of you. I didn't write it. It was written by two Times reporters in response to this blog post about children's book reviewing which I did write:
http://coolnotcute.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/gender-balancing-books.html#blogpost

You've made a number of unfounded assumptions about my views, some of which are addressed in this post: http://coolnotcute.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/four-clarifications-in-light-of-last.html#blogpost

I've offered "some practical solutions that might work" under the section headed "Solutions" which starts on page 21 of this essay: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/j.emmett/COOLnotCUTE/COOLnotCUTE.pdf

"And all you can say Mr Emmett is that we don't give our sons sufficient books about pirates?"
If you take the time to look at the rest of the essays and blog posts on coolnotcute.com, I hope you'll recognise that my argument is somewhat more complex and nuanced than that."

Fair enough. Mr Emmett's original article is considerably different to what appeared in the Times/NZ Herald (and I'm a little disturbed by how much the tone has been skewed). And his stats make for very interesting reading and raise a whole bunch of other questions about gender in writing, reviewing and publishing, that should be widely debated. I'm not totally convinced, at the latter end of the article, about how influential the boy-centricity of picture books (or the lack thereof) is on literacy levels. I wonder what contribution other factors like electronic gaming, online activities and television make to boys abandoning books? Do these things appeal more to boys? Here in New Zealand I sometimes even wonder how much the thought of the money to be made in sports (predominantly by men if we are considering gender imbalances) attracts boys away from reading? Plenty of boys I know certainly apply themselves more diligently to sporting activities than they do to academic ones. We are thought of as a sporting nation. Sports gets a lot of press (especially those sports played by men) compared with arts and culture. Sports are cool. Culture, hmm, maybe not so much. Children's book reviews in general are thin enough on the ground here in mainstream media, without considering the gender of the reviewers. This is the environment we are raising our boys in. These are complex issues.

If you are at all familiar with playground chants and rhymes you know how bloodthirsty and combative little children can be. I agree with Emmett that content should not be excessively sanitised. I think it's not necessarily always the publishers or the reviewers or librarians applying constraints (or gender-centric biases) to the content of children's books, but the (adult) consumers. Some adults felt my book The Were-Nana was far too scary for younger children and yet it won children's choice at the NZ Post Book Awards. In the end publishers have to publish what they believe they can sell. And they have to manage the risks of their choices. And how far would we push the content to attract the reluctant boy reader? Is that okay? What should our limits be? I also agree with Mr Emmett's lament about the sorry decline of children's non-fiction. For me this seems a more serious issue. If boys prefer reading non-fiction then this must also make a contribution to literacy levels. 

I still wonder how much our own subtle messages influence what boys think is cool to read. I wish I knew. I think too, some boys are even resistant to boy-preferred content, although this doesn't mean we shouldn't try to change their minds about books. On the flip side should we look at why many girl readers read more widely across a range of content. Is that driven by nature or nurture? Should we be producing more 'boy-centric' picture books or be applying different psychologically to the way we encourage boys to read? Either way we can do better. Mr Emmett, I am sorry I got so reductive. I really should know by now that sometimes the media like a spot of controversy and that some information might have dropped off along the way. 

  

Why this article annoys the snot out of me...

This article has been doing the rounds - Jonathan Emmett on why women are responsible for everything wrong with the world why a publishing workforce dominated by women means boys don't like books. I almost want to cross out the second bit because it is as ludicrous as the first.

It may just be me, but I always like some statistics to back up such publicly asserted statements. Is 'boys lagging behind girls in reading' just a recent issue? Have women always dominated publishing? Some facts please. Do women even dominate publishing now? I have two publishers - one of them is run by a man, the other one has women at the helm here in New Zealand and a man at the helm in Australia - and that's only editorially speaking. A man has overall responsibility for the second company here in New Zealand. Do women buy too many non-piratey books for their sons? Are there no male writers writing for boys? (Charlie Higson, James Patterson, John Flanagan, David Hill, Brian Falkner, Peter Millet, Anthony Horowitz, Paul Stewart, Eoin Colfer, Rick Riordan, John Green, Phillip Pullman, Kyle Mewburn, Michael Grant, Patrick Ness, Terry Pratchett, Ken Catran, Michael Morpurgo, Mal Peet etc...etc...etc... and that's just a fraction of the living blokes who write on topics like war, zombies, spies, and ... oh yes ... pirates).   Everything might be based in truth but it just comes across as blunt, inflammatory kind of commentary that can't really help in the end. To me it just seems designed to annoy people. And bingo, I am annoyed. Lordy the trolls are now writing the articles.

Boys might ask for book advice from their dads but I can tell you right now plenty of dads grew up not giving a toss about books either and couldn't recommend a title if they tried, and their dads before them. This isn't a new thing. And is it just what books are handed to them or is it the fact that in some households there are no books at all, and other male role models aren't seen to be reading, and books aren't 'cool'. Maybe there are too many sport trainings, or too much playstation? See I can be just as anecdotal as you. But really, can we get some scientific thinking and statistics please?? And if it's a problem that's worsening can we then suggest some practical solutions that might work rather than just pointing a finger and saying the women did it?

And Mums (and nans) have been raising sons since...oh, I don't know...since sons were invented. For all the boys who have read in the past it's often because their mums and nans bought them books. And all you can say Mr Emmett is that we don't give our sons sufficient books about pirates?? I tried to raise my son as a reading boy. I gave my son books about pirates, and zombies and boy spies and war to try and spark an interest in reading. He's never been a fan and no amount of blokey books seems to have changed his mind. It's not for want of trying Mr Emmett.

And while my son isn't keen I know many boys his age who are. And many women who work with books who bend over backwards to find the right thing to tempt a boy to read. And I think maybe the pendulum has swung too far and we have unknowingly, subconsciously taught boys that anything not zombie, sporting, or piratical is 'unmanly' and might give them girl cooties. But I don't have sufficient statistics to back this up. All I know is that growing up I read war comics (still available now in handy dandy omnibus editions), and The Lord of the Rings (one of my all time favourite books), and Treasure Island. It didn't bother me that these weren't books about fairies or romance or whatever other things you think dominate female publishers' minds.

Whatever truths your article contained Mr Emmett were subsumed by your confidence that women are to blame for boys lagging behind in reading. And it annoyed the snot out of me (shoot, I'm a woman - we don't like bogeys - my mistake). Thankfully I am not alone in my views.

Creating better citizens...

NZ Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults finalist author (of picture book The Three Bears...Sort Of), Yvonne Morrison, spoke eloquently on radio the other day about her interest in teaching children 'critical thinking'. The text of her terrific picture book, with great illustrations by Donovan Bixley, directly encourages children to question everything, and children should. Blind acceptance of everything we are told is a dangerous path to tread and it is never too early to start encouraging children to ask why. Along with a love of reading, critical thinking is a tremendous gift to give our children. If they can question, and ask why, seeking clarity and truth, and a greater understanding of the world around them, we have given them an essential tool to take through life.

The meaning, the resolution, the underlying themes of picture books, shouldn't have to be dominated by closed, concrete thinking. Think The Lion in the Meadow - a book that turns on the idea of 'the potential', 'the possibilities', 'the magic' of our imagination, and even our existence. What if? we want children to ask.

And as children grow into young adults we want to extend their critical thinking while developing their empathy. Our recent 'roast busters' case demonstrates a serious need for a greater sense of empathy amongst our teens. Books for young adults should reflect their experience or challenge them to understand the experience of others. Not everyone lives a secure and happy life. If you do, you are very fortunate, but you become a better member of society if you acknowledge that others may be faced with hard choices, difficult situations and harsh experiences. To pretend that teens aren't exposed to alcohol, drugs, violence and sex does not help teens at all. Folk worry that such content might be too mature for teenagers but research shows that reading what is often deemed as 'controversial content' can help create better citizens, rather than resulting in increased antisocial behaviour as some adults fear might happen.

New Zealand YA author Mandy Hager is in London en route to her writing residency in Menton and dropped in on the London Book Fair. You can read about her experience here. She was fortunate to attend a talk by UK Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman who had many wonderful things to say about how good young adult literature can help teens figure out the world and their place in it. That's a very valuable thing.

The tedious round of 'my one is better than your one'...

Hugh Howey got a bit of a s&!t storm going with his new blog and the subsequent online discussions ongoing. Winding up the indie vs. traditional publishing argument a notch or two or three. Yikes.  Sure, traditional publishing is not the only way to publish, distribute, market and successfully sell a book. Nor is traditional publishing a perfect model, unassailable, beyond criticism. Indie publishing is an exciting alternative offering greater personal control over your product and potentially a bigger share of any rewards. It offers opportunity when traditional publishing has increasingly become a closed shop. There are real advantages. But is not the answer to everything (that is, of course, 42). Indie publishing requires that authors know what all the steps in the publishing process are. This information is widely available online. There are forums discussing the ins and outs, and providing decent advice. But everything you need to know is not necessarily in one place. And people seem easily tempted to skip one or more steps. And we don’t always know the questions we should be asking or what it is we don't know.

If you are going the indie route into print publishing, the book distribution and selling channels are still very much run on the old traditional model. They are aware that times are changing and mostly appreciate that change is now unavoidable, but the changes taking place are creakingly slow. Many a small print publisher has come a cropper trying to distribute and sell through the old model. Indie publishers are still struggling to make the income and outgoings balance. Again you will need to find information on which operators are more advanced in the process of changing and which operators are indie friendly. You can’t just be the author if you go indie. You have to be business savy, understand some accountancy principles, some contract law, keep records, know tax requirements, and how these tax requirements are affected if you sell books overseas, negotiate arrangements with a raft of different organisations and oh, write the books. And if writing is your jam than this needs to be your biggest investment of time, compared with all the other aspects of producing a book. Those books might take you months or more to write but it doesn’t take a reader that long to consume them and if they like you, don’t you want to make them even happier with more titles? This is definitely Howey advice I agree with. But as you can see this can all be rather exhausting if you are captaining your own ship.

Meanwhile trying to get a toe in the door in traditional publishing can be a heart squeezing, confidence sucking, soul destroying journey. There is a reason whole blog posts, in fact whole blogs, are devoted to rejections. They are the curse and the badge of honour of writers and book illustrators everywhere. For all the time an independent party has been involved in selecting material to publish, there have been rejections. And there will always be many more manuscripts thrown at traditional publishers, then available publication slots to fit them into. And shoot me now but I don’t believe all manuscripts written should be reproduced for others to read. And some books published, no matter who was responsible – indie or traditional, are not a good experience. Although traditional publishers do like to put it out there that they are experienced practitioners in the art of selection, there are times when you wonder, what were they thinking?? Anyone can make mistakes I guess.

So what am I trying to say here? Anyone who thinks they have all the answers is deluded. No one system or method is ‘the’ system or method that everyone should use. Good books, even great books get rejected by traditional publishers. And poorly written books can be plucked from indie obscurity and sell by the truckload and be beloved. And everything in between. Please do not try telling me traditional publishing is dead. Please do not try telling me indie publishing is for suckers or any denigratory category of humanity. Please do not say I should publish my books ‘this’ way or ‘that’ way and be damned. And Stop Fighting.

If you choose indie publishing, for ‘whatever’ reason, be professional about it (and polite). You are taking on a business proposition publishing a book – whether it is your own or someone else’s. If you have not published a book before, it is smart to assume you will need help to do it. Unless you are a professional editor, artist, or designer, hire folk who are to work on your book (and maybe even if you are any or all of those – being too close to a project can mess with your objectivity). Get recommendations or look at the acknowledgements of a book you admire the look and readability of to find good editors, artists and book designers. It is possible to be your own publicist and marketer but expect to devote a significant amount of time to this to make a difference. And be prepared for your efforts to make no difference at all. Hugh Howey advises to just get on with the writing rather than focus on your own PR. He appreciates his experience of success through word of mouth is not a common one. I don’t think he could give you any tips that could guarantee to replicate his success.

And if you are happily traditionally published (and not everyone who is traditionally published is happy about it) learn from your experience and share what you know. And don’t assume this naturally makes you better than any other writer. If you want to be traditionally published then keep trying. New people continue to get traditionally published all the time.  But if you fancy the indie route, do that. And could either side stop telling the other side they’re better or worse or broken or stupid or ….insert insult here. And could everyone stop acting like these are life or death matters? I’ve had publishing droughts, slow sales, and meagre advances via both indie and traditional routes, but blow me down if I’m not still going. And sometimes good things happen. It’s the long game. I don’t expect miracles or shiploads of money (although I intend to enjoy them if they happen). If you see everyone as the enemy you will end up spending all your time fighting battles. If you agonise over every deal wondering if you could wring more out of it you might never discover the benefits of enjoying the moment and moving forward to the next and valuing what you DO have.

She'll be right mate...

Hey there peeps. Been absent a while as I have scurried around packing my valise for my imminent departure. And doing those little necessaries like getting the dog (and myself) groomed, and arranging flights hither and thither, and celebrating wedding anniversaries, and arranging payments of this and enrolments into that. I am distracted and feeling somewhat apprehensive and sleep and I are not on the best of terms at the moment. My mind is seething I tell you. I have to buy some extra school uniform items for manchild, and pay university fees for the girls and check that a book has reached a destination and post another and fit in some last minute physio so I can wrestle valises and book laden boxes and should I wear my Doc Martens on the plane and what will it be like while I am away. I am embracing my impending sense of dislocation and separation from my family as the perfect preparation for the story I intend to write. And I find it all so weird that so much of my year is already organised. How do people who are booked up for events three years in advance get their heads around it? I am excited by it all but I just hope I've printed off the right info and have the right gear packed now for the things I will be up to in August.

In the meantime, as I am unable to focus on anything that isn't to do with my preparation, here is a rather juicy link for those of you writing longer fiction. I confess to organising my chapters on a rather organic basis (a.k.a making it up as I go along) but this advice on what a chapter should be achieving from Lynn Price, editor at Behler Publications is worth a read.

And if you, like me, loved the Flambards series as a teen reader, you might be pleased to see that author KM Peyton has been awarded an MBE. I enjoyed the insight into the uneasy transition from horses to cars, the birth of aviation and it's role in the Great War, and the changes to the British rural idyll, and as a teen I adored the passion of all the characters for each other and for their respective ways of life. The books would have been nothing without them. And the original trilogy, along with series like the Little House on the Prairie books have had a big influence on the way I write my own historical novels now.