I <3 E-books

As a book lover, I’m always completely puzzled when I read criticisms of e-books, such as this. I would think anyone who is passionate about words, stories, and the potentially life-changing perspectives books afford us shouldn’t be anything but enthusiastic about books in any format. E-books make leisure reading more accessible and extra appealing for many people. That’s certainly true for me. How so? Mostly, it’s because:

1. E-books are convenient. I always have my phone with me—and I use it to do almost all of my reading. Just like I want the music I love to be with me at all times, I want my books to be available whether I’m on the bus, at a café, or snuggled in bed before drifting off to sleep. My books and music are a part of me in a fundamental way. Why would I want to leave them on a shelf?

2. E-books are searchable. While I was editing Lerner’s Steve Jobs biography, I was also reading the Walter Isaacson book on Jobs on my trusty phone. At work one day, I was reviewing the Jobs layout when a question came up about how to spell Jobs’s sister’s name. Was it Patty with an i or a y? I pulled my phone out of my purse, did a search on my Isaacson e-book, and knew in an instant—y it was.

3. E-books are instantly available. Say I’m reading a newspaper article (again, probably on my phone) and it mentions a book that sounds fascinating. All I have to do is visit the online catalog of my awesome neighborhood library, or click on a favorite e-book retailer, and presto! The borrowed or purchased book is in my phone.

4. E-books don’t require storage. This is a big one for me. I live in a lovely but tiny home. Open almost any drawer or closet at my place, and you’ll see books, books, books. Now, I love those books and there’s no way I can part with them (which is why they are everywhere). But I’m also a neat freak engaged in an Epic Battle against Clutter. I’m certainly not going to add to that clutter if I don’t have to. Enter the e-book.

I could go on about why else e-books work well for me, but this gives you a pretty thorough picture. So, readers: Are you as addicted to e-books as I am? Or is a book just not a book unless it’s printed? Let me know what you think.

No pressure

I’ve had to write a fair amount of back cover copy lately (it’s that time again), and it’s a task I always hate. Think about it. You’ve not only seen the manuscript—you hope—reach its full potential, but you’ve also seen the jacket through its awkward early stages into something everyone is proud of. And now it’s all on you to tie a textual  ribbon a round it all. No pressure.

Sometimes I watch movie trailers to get my head in the right space for enticing brevity. Sometimes they just end up being cautionary tales. I just watched this one, for one of my favorite gangster movies:

Get Carter, the original, not the Stallone crap.

Oh, this is a disaster. Get Carter is a tricky movie. The voiceover is right—Carter is an assassin and he does come home and things do get personal—but that’s not what makes the movie great. It’s all the things outside of the plot—Michael Caine’s portrayal of Carter, the wonderfully spare cinematography, the extraordinary score—that make it much more than a movie about an uncommonly well-dressed maniac. But you’d never get that from the trailer. The last line--“Get Carter before Carter gets you”--is the worst because at no point in the movie are you scared of Carter. The trailer sets up all the wrong expectations.

Then I moved on to another trailer for another great movie that’s really tough to summarize:

When I was a kid and my father would come across this on TV, he’d always stop to watch it, and I swear, it was always as long as the rest of the afternoon.

This one does a little better, but it still manages to get in its own way. Not only does it misidentify which character is bad and which is ugly, but it manages to make the movie sound like a Civil War epic but tacking “the blue, the gray” on to “the good, the bad, the ugly.” Look, when you’ve got a Morricone score and Leone visuals to play with, you don’t have to write much. In fact, your goal should be to write the absolute minimum possible. (And if you can’t see that saying “the gold” when the gold coins spill out of the bag is a unnecessary, then I can’t help you. No one can.)

And this is where writing BCC turns into karmic payback for query letters. You have to write just enough but not too much, and then you have to get the hell out of the way. Much harder than it seems.

If memory serves, the copy on the back of this jacket was spot on and worthy of an extraordinary book with a great jacket. It helped that it was the author’s own words: “I am here, Master. Command me.” Perfect.

(Hey, look at that, from bottom to top we have good, bad, and ugly.)

Minnetonka Technology Institute Tour

On Thursday of last week a number of Lerner employees were treated to a technology visit of the Minnetonka Public Schools. The day started out in Deephaven, Minnesota which sounds like a good spot for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Fortunately, the only scary creatures I found in the Minnetonka Community Education Center were pre-caffeinated teachers.

After a light breakfast and introduction by our hosts, we were bussed to our first location; Excelsior Elementary School. I should preface this story by stating that despite working the past 10 years in the educational publishing industry, I have not set foot in an elementary school since the 1980's. Unsurprisingly, a lot has changed since the days of the sideways ponytail, though I may have spied a few slap bracelets. 

Right off the bat, I could tell that this was a happy place for children. Art projects adorned the walls, bright colors were everywhere, and kids zig-zagged the halls like busy bees, flitting from one space to another. I felt like I had invaded a new but all-too-familiar habitat that I no longer belonged to. Also, I felt really big. Lee Drolet, principal of the school, guided us around the facility, stopping in on several classrooms to observe the Lilliputians at work. 

The focus of the day was to "see how Minnetonka integrates technology into teaching and learning," and it was very apparent in everything they did. In a Chinese immersion classroom, the kids were broken up into small study groups. Some of the kids were working with their teacher on a SMART Board lesson, some were using mp3 players to listen to Chinese songs, while others worked on exercises on the computer. I was impressed at how effortlessly the children interfaced with technology, and how well they spoke Chinese. Throughout the rest of the day, I was exposed to various learning technologies, impressive facilities (such as the Deephaven Elementary Media Center), and educators who seemed genuinely excited about their work. Everyone was certainly proud of their accomplishments, and rightfully so.

As an Associate Product Manager for Lerner Digital, it was quite useful to see how technologies (similar to what I work on) are used by children. But not only did I gain valuable insight on the function of technology in the classroom today, it also brought back a flood of memories from my own childhood, both good and bad. For instance, in comparison to what kids are using today, the green screen Apple IIe I played on seems like a disgrace. I know that that was the best there was back then, but I can't help but feel a bit robbed!

All-in-all, it was an enlightening experience and I left feeling impressed, inspired, and a bit jealous.

Anonymity and Shoes–1

 

Hello Readers! I'm new, I'm anonymous, I wear shoes, and I talk about them.

"What?" you say? This is an independent children's book publisher blog... shoes? Really?

Yes, I'm here to talk about shoes.

Because shoes are more than just protective foot coverings, extravagant or not. They show personality. They show interests. They show activities. They give a glimpse into the personalities of those who work here. We're not just a group of quiet bookish people who only hide away behind closed doors, reading, editing, designing, promoting, producing, and otherwise creating bookish things—we have interests, activities, and quirks. Our activities give us knowledge and experiences and that can help in our bookmaking professions.

Shoes, they tell all. Or at least lots. At the minimum, things. Shoes tell things.

Things like seasons. We work in Minneapolis and so are in the middle of an upper Midwest winter. It only makes sense to kick this off with the shoe that you're probably expecting to see in this town in this climate in this season: winter boots, complete with coils.

The out of context thing of note here: bare ground. As I take this picture I'm sitting outside, on dry ground, not even wearing a coat. Were I to personify these boots in image, they'd be horribly sad. We haven't had enough snow to necessitate wearing winter boots more than a few times, and not near enough snow to make good use of the coils even once. The boots and coils have had barely a chance to live up to their winter wear potential. It has been a sad, sad winter indeed for those of us and our shoes who enjoy the usual snow.

Not to be left out, it has also been a less satisfying winter for those that don't. There has been significantly less of another winter pastime: reveling in warm comfort on the couch with a fuzzy blanket, a mug of hot tea, and good book while watching the streetlights glittering on the falling snow outside. Without wearing shoes.

Global Differences and Picture Book Illustrations

One of the fun parts of my job is working with illustrators. Last week a Minneapolis author/illustrator came to our offices for a meeting. What a treat to be able to all sit down together and talk! But other times, an illustrator we’re working with may live halfway around the world. While we’re sometimes aware of the differences between different countries, from time to time, something will catch me by surprise. Here are a few recent examples.

This sketch is from the book A Fraction’s Goal—Parts of a Whole. Brian Gable, the illustrator, lives in Toronto, Canada. Check out those mayors!

While I’d love to see Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak in a similar getup, it’s probably not very likely to happen. So we asked for a few changes. Here is how the final art turned out:

The book Watch Over Our Water was illustrated by Xiao Xin, who lives in Shanghai, China. This sketch was our first indication that we were going to need to provide a reference image for what a typical U.S. bathroom with a tub looks like:

Here is the final art:

And here is a sketch for Emma’s Easter from Constanza Basaluzzo of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Apparently not everyone around the world enjoys marshmallow-filled bunnies on Easter morning!

We gathered a few reference images, and here’s how the final art turned out:

I really enjoy working with illustrators from all around the world, and I certainly don’t expect them to be experts on all aspects of life in the United States. And sometimes, the sketches we get make me laugh at my own assumptions about what is universal and what is not.