In the New This Week

Fridays on the SCBWI blog, I share snippets of and links to some of the publishing/media-related news I've read during the last week that I found interesting, helpful, and/or fun. Click titles to get to the full articles.

Below you'll find two pieces on the habits of Gen Y, a nice post about sales reps and indie bookstores, a new PW blog, an Anne Frank graphic novel, Canadian children's book awards finalists, what the Twitterverse had to say to publishers, reporters waxing on about what's wrong with Amazon and the literature apocalypse, and--wait for it--nothing at all in any way related to vampires.

My last news bit links to PW's piece on an upcoming children's literature documentary called Library of the Early Mind. Check out the trailer below. It's pretty cool.

13 Tips For Actually Getting Some Writing Done (HuffPo)
One of the challenges of writing is...writing. Here are some tips that I've found most useful for myself, for actually getting words onto the page:

Pew: Gen Y to remain active social networkers (cnet)
Generation Y is using online social-networking tools now and will likely continue to do so for the next 10 years, Pew Internet Research found in a recent study. According to Pew, which surveyed technology experts on the future of social networking, 67 percent of respondents believe that those born in the 1980s and 1990s will be "ambient broadcasters" on social networks in 2020. They will continue to "disclose a great deal of personal information, in order to stay connected, and take advantage of social, economic, and political opportunities." Just 29 percent of respondents said that by 2020, Generation Y will have "grown out" of social networks, finding other interests to entertain themselves.

Brown Named President of Klutz (PW)
Scholastic has hired Matt Brown, co-founder and “play czar” at strategic innovation company big BOING LLC, to head up its Klutz division. Brown joins Scholastic as president of Klutz and a senior v-p at Scholastic Inc., a new role occasioned by the recent retirement of Klutz co-founder John Cassidy, and the departure earlier this summer of Debra Lande, who joined Klutz as publisher last year. Brown will be responsible for the creative direction and strategic development of the Klutz division.

An Ode to Sales Reps Josie Leavitt (Shelf Talker)
After another delicious breakfast meeting yesterday, (with Deb Woodward, one of the best reps around) I am reminded again how important sales reps can be to an independent bookstore. A good sales rep can act as an extension of the store with the publisher acting as an advocate for you with all publishing departments.

PW Launches New News Blog (PW)
Today PW launches PWxyz, a new blog dedicated to up-to-the-minute publishing news, information about authors and publishing houses, e-books and e-readers, and analysis of book news from all over the Internet.

Anne Frank story published as graphic novel (AP)
AMSTERDAM – The Anne Frank House Museum launched a graphic novel version of the teenage Jewish diarist's biography Friday, hoping to bring her story and death in a Nazi concentration camp to a wider audience.

The Trouble With Amazon (Nation)
Jeff Bezos loves numbers. In a speech in May to graduates at his alma mater, Princeton University, he recounted a childhood memory: when, driving with his grandmother, a heavy smoker, he calculated by how many years her addiction would reduce her life expectancy. Announcing the result from the back seat, he expected praise for his deft math. But his grandmother just burst into tears.

Finalists announced for 2010 Canadian Children's Book Centre Awards (CCBC site)
The winners of the English-language awards will be announced at an invitation-only gala event at The Carlu in Toronto on November 9, 2010. The winners of the Prix TD de literature canadienne pour l’enfance et la jeunesse will be announced at an invitation-only gala event at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal on November 2, 2010. Overall, $110,000 in prize monies will be awarded.

Twitter Conversation #dearpublisher Address eBooks (eBook Newser)
Yesterday The HarperPerennial Twitter feed started a conversation on Twitter with the hashtag Dear Publisher #dearpublisher, starting a conversation between readers and publishers. Today eBooks have come up a lot. Topics have included everything from pricing and distribution to design and agents. Here are a few:

Study: teens spending seven hours a day in front of TVs, computers (Globe and Mail)
For parents who fret about the amount of time their kids devote to electronic media, consider this: In Ontario, hundreds of thousands of teens spend nearly seven hours a day staring at a computer or TV screen. The number surprises even researchers familiar with this growing trend and is likely to take a serious toll not only on adolescents' physical health, but on their emotional and mental well-being as well.

Apocalypse now? No, but we've lost our cultural way (guardian)
Last week I wrote about Lee Siegel's provocative suggestion that the novel is dead, and loads of you wrote to take issue with the idea. Quite rightly, in my view. I've been thinking about those reactions to that blog, and reflecting on the apocalyptic tone of so much current cultural commentary, typified by Siegel. At the moment, the dominant note is usually strident, and all-or-nothing: "The novel is dead", "The book is history"; "The movies are bankrupt"; "The sky is falling"; "We are all doomed", etc. That's a caricature, but it captures the mood of many interventions about "the condition of literature" question.

Authors: Where Do I Sign? (WSJ)
When "Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough" was published earlier this year, its Los Angeles-based author, Lori Gottlieb, nabbed the brass ring: an appearance on "The Today Show." Far more problematic was securing a slot for a book signing at one of the Manhattan branches of Borders or Barnes & Noble.

New Film on Children's Book Authors and Illustrators (PW)
Jean de Brunhoff’s Babar stories, or more specifically Adam Gopnik’s interpretation of them as part of the common language of childhood in the New Yorker in September 2008, serve as both title and inspiration for an upcoming film on children’s literature, Library of the Early Mind, directed and produced by Edward J. Delaney and co-produced by Steven Withrow.