At Guide to Literary Agents: How to BackUp Your Blog and Save Content
I missed posting this back when it was first up, because I was hiding out in Australia with zero internet access. If you’ve been wondering how to back up your blog, head on over for the details for Blogger, LiveJournal, & both WordPress options.
Blogging is hard work. Once you’re set up, there’s idea generation, writing, proofing, posting, and interacting with your readers, usually two or three times a week. And if you spend at least an hour a post (I spend an average of two), that’s, say three hours of work per week, twelve hours of work per month, and 156 hours per year—or thirteen twelve-hour days. If something happens to your blog, that’s an awful lot of work to lose.
Read more @ Guide to Literary Agents.
Read MorePlaying With The iPad Comes Easily To A 10 Month Old
Over the weekend, I had a chance to play with an iPad in the Apple store. The selection of apps available was limited, though I did spend some time reading (tiring on the eyes) and typing (surprisingly easy, though I spent a lot of time watching my fingers). One kids’ book app had a demo: Dora the Explorer Coloring Adventures (pictured left). From the iPad app store:
“It’s time to explore and color in “Dora the Explorer Coloring Adventures!”. Kids can go on adventures in creativity with a combination scene creation and coloring book designed specifically for the iPad.”
The app’s use is fairly intuitive–tap Dora to bring her to the fore, tap colors to select, finger slide Dora around to place her in the scene. Unlike real coloring, everything produced is perfect: kids can’t color outside the lines, and even the most garish hue selections are glossy and pretty, eerily coordinated on the iPad’s shiny new screen. Although fun for a moment or two, I found the app a little soul-destroying–the neat lines and finger taps strip away creativity at the deepest level.
Of course, a child interested in Dora the Explorer may be too young to care about the difference between playing with real finger paints and tapping away with Jobs’ virtual ones. Several children at the store were engrossed in reading books (pausing to shout “look, mom, I’m reading on an iPad and I like it!), coloring, and playing with piano software. Curious, my husband lifted helped him reach an iPad.
Baby, unsurprisingly, wasn’t up to the Dora app. But at 10 months old, he was able to make the iPad go in much the same way he makes his musical cube and piano table go–by tapping and flailing and squealing with joy. Using Magic Piano by Smule, a virtual piano app with a no-fail option, he played one of his favorite songs, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, and was able to recognize the melody (no doubt thanks to our regular attendance at Jeff Jam singalongs at Twinkle Star in Cambridge). Unforunately, we didn’t capture the piano playing, as he was playing with me.
Already, Baby is one of the new Apple generation of kids, comfortable with technology and touch screens in a way I’ll never be. Is this a good thing? I’m not sure. Crazy-new-parent Peta screams no, though more rational anti-luddite Peta reasons yes. Historically, familiarity with technology has led to better education, better language acquisition, and better job placement (ah, Ned, you were just a stone’s throw away from a book deal and a COO position at Armani!). That said, television was once a new technology, and the so-called idiot box can have effects on child development, particularly language acquisition, if allowed in excess.
The key? Moderation. Some studies have shown that educational television a la Sesame Street, in moderation, can be helpful. Joe and I have strict-ish limits on television, just in case–Baby watches a Baby Signing Time DVD for, at most 15 minutes twice a week (usually just once a week). Occasionally, he sees some incidental television, but we’re pretty quick to distract him. That said, the Baby Signing Time DVDs are having a positive effect–the kidlet can now sign for more, milk, all done, drink, eat, and dog. Milk, eat, and more are particularly useful, and are eliminating a lot of frustration in our household.
Dora the Explorer Coloring Adventures isn’t Baby Signing Time, and, if we had an iPad in our house, I’d probably skip it. But limited access to educational apps and encouraging Baby to be comfortable with technology may be prove to be more useful than I’d previously reckoned. We’re still a long way away from getting a household iPad, though.
Do you let your kids watch tv? Would you let them use an iPad, or other gadget (assuming the cost weren’t prohibitive)?
Online Presence Linkage for Writers
This Saturday past, I facilitated the Online Presence Special Interest Group at the New England Regional SCBWI (#nescbwi10) conference in Fitchburg, MA. The group was filled with marvelous people with great questions, and we talked about everything from Twitter lists through the difference between LiveJournal and WordPress. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing up articles based on the things discussed, but in the meantime, here’s a collection of links for folks still sorting out how to fit into the blagosphere.
My articles on blogging at Guide to Literary Agents:
Facebook:
Twitter:
- Useful writing chats with schedule
- Creating Lists
- Hashtags
- Writers to follow
- Writer’s Guide to Twitter
My posts on Twitter & social networks:
- If teens aren’t tweeting, why are we?
- 3 ways Twitter can make you a better writer
- Your online presence–getting started with social networking and blogs
Anything I missed? Any other links or lists you’d like to see? Drop me a line!
Read MoreTeam Book-Book vs. Team E-Book: reading deeper, experiencing less?
We love them, we hate them, we’re frightened of them. Some think they’ll kill the book. Others think they’ll save it. Team E-Book & Team Book-Book may regularly clash, but I think one thing is clear: e-books aren’t going away anytime soon.
Lately, I’ve been reading several books at once–Shades of Grey (Jasper Fforde; my latest review title) and Dreamsongs II (George R.R. Martin) in print, The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) and The Thief (Megan Whalen Turner) on my Kindle. Much as I love reading print novels, I’ve found that I finish e-novels sooner.
Team Book-Book: A Sensory Experience
For me, reading print books is about more than the written word. I love about the feel of the pages beneath my fingers and the slightly acidic new book smell that lingers long after I’ve cracked a title. For many books, especially those with enticing dust jackets, I’m constantly waiting for the a-ha! moment, the moment when I realize the significance of a cover illustration or untangle the clues in a book’s back cover copy.
I read quickly–pre-baby, I could finish up to three books in a day, particularly since I’m happy to lose sleep when there’s a good story to be had. Now, I read in short snatches of time–when the kidlet has dozed off for a while, when I’m stirring something on the stove (the book rests in a cookbook holder lest I drop it into a pot). When I read with the kidlet on my lap or snuggled onto my chest, I have to balance the book on the arm of a chair, or against propped up knees. (If I get my knees positioned just right, Mir’s feet hold the pages open for me.)
Each time I pick up my latest book, I scrutinize the cover for a moment, then riffle through to my spot. As I read, I’m very aware of the book itself, and I pay attention to grammar, spelling, sentence construction, plot reveals etc., making mental notes as I go, and summarizing them later, when I can reach my MacBook (no, I didn’t add the caps–Pages did it for me). Enjoying the story is still a big part of reading, but I have trouble letting go of work, particularly since most of the books I read inform my reviewing or writing in some way.
Team E-book: Words Alone
I resisted reading on the Kindle at first. I hate animated page turns, I hate the coolness of most metals (I love to be warm), and I hated the idea of losing my beloved new book smell. But when I did start reading on it (about 2 hours after Joe pressed it into my hot little hands), it was warm, light, and, best of all, easy. Within moments, I was lost in The Obernewtyn Chronicles.
At first, I missed all the sensory details paired with reading a print book. But the longer I read, the less I noticed the lack of pages and scent. In fact, the more I read on the Kindle, more absorbed I become–I can’t flick back to the cover or be distracted by drawing parallels between the synopsis and where I am in the story. Grammar, sentence construction &c. fall away in favor of the plot, and the plot alone–I make many fewer notes, even though it’s easier to do (the Kindle, like most e-readers, has an easy-access annotation function). All that remains are the words, the story, and the characters–my interpretation of the characters, that is. In the absence of cover art (some Kindle books have covers, but I haven’t seen any so far) I’m forced to imagine more, and I find I’m quite enjoying it.
It’s possible that Kindle reading is making me lazy and single-minded (insofar as a new mother can ever be single-minded). After all, it’s harder to rouse me from reading on my Kindle, and, while turning pages isn’t exactly a calorie-scorcher, it does force me to move more than the thumb clicks required by the Kindle. And, as a writer and reviewer, it’s important I continue note-taking and analyzing what I read. That said, it’s pleasant to relax into a book, and read for the sake of reading. So far, I compromise my reading “me” books on the Kindle, and everything else in print.
Of course, the immersion that comes with reading on the Kindle only works for simple, word-only e-readers. App-books like those Penguin recently demoed for the iPad are far too interactive for focused reading–the temptation of reading someone else’s margin comments or stopping to chat with a friend will be far too great for most readers (myself included). It’s likely that the iPad will also feature video content (along the lines of Barnes & Noble’s vook), providing ready-made-no-need-to-fire-up-the-imagination-muscles characters.
Younger Readers
Few teens I know have access to a Kindle or other e-reader (though the Cushing Academy may be changing that). Many do read online, though, as easily as they read in print. Do they find e-books easier to read?
But will e-books help teens read deeper, the way the Kindle does for me? If e-ink and electronic paper remain the order of the day, probably. And to some extent, publishers are betting on it. More and more titles, particularly YA titles, are hitting the virtual shelves (though some houses continue to publish e-books with a delay). According to Jack Gantos, a professor of children’s literature and Farrar, Straus & Giroux’s first teen e-book author, “We’ve reached the tipping point—the technology is in the school, the kids know how to use it. It just makes sense.”
FSG’s VP and director of marketing Laurie Brown agrees.“We think kids have less resistance to reading on their computers.”
In an October 2009 report, PW notes that,
”When we asked about their affection for a digital reading device for fun reading (not schoolwork) if the price were affordable, 46% said they preferred printed books. Another 38% said they would like one, and 16% indicated they were not sure how they felt about this.
When asked if they’d like to read textbooks as e-books, they were evenly split, with 36% saying yes, 33% saying they were not sure, and 31% saying they would not be interested.
Nearly one-quarter (24%) have read an e-book, while 27% would like to read one. Almost half (49%) said they have no interest in reading e-books.
When asked how they have read an e-book, 26% have done so on a computer while 33% used a dedicated digital reading device and 5% used another method. Seven out of 10 (71%) say they have never read one.”
Although these findings may suggest YA readers are uninterested in e-books, I think it’s important to note that these statistics are higher than the adult adoption/interest in e-readers. Moreover, with the proliferation of iPhone apps and the like for younger children, it’s likely the number of teens reading e-books will increase fairly quickly over the next few years (my kidlet does not have any iPhone apps, but he does have his own toy iPhone).
Are you on Team Book-Book or Team E-book? Do you use an e-reader? How do you read on it? Are print books just words, or a full experience?
Read more of my thoughts on the Kindle & other e-readers:
- Penguin & the iPad: Taking Books to the Next Level, or Leaving them in the Dust?
- Amazon vs. Apple: the War on E-book Pricing and the YA Market
- Book Love & the Kindle: a Match Made in Purgatory?
Image via Amazon
YA Fiction: What is Cyberpunk and Why do I Care?
Dystopias may be the hot YA trend right now, but cyberpunk (and its bosom buddy, steampunk) is on the rise. In fact, you may have read some YA cyberpunk without even realizing it–books with a high level of technobabble but a low standard of living, like The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins), Kaimira: Sky Village (Nigel Ashland, Monk Ashland), The Softwire Series (P.J. Haarsma), and Little Brother (Cory Doctorow).
What is Cyberpunk?
There’s a lot of debate over when exactly cyberpunk started, but most fans agree it began in the early eighties with the Bruce Berthke story aptly titled Cyberpunk. The genre didn’t really take off, though, until the 90s, with novels such as Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, William Gibson’s Neuromancer. (Several authors–such as Bruce Sterling and Pat Cadigan–were publishing cyberpunk in the 80s; sadly, it was largely unnoticed by general science fiction audiences).
But what exactly is cyberpunk? It’s kind of hard to pin down. Although it’s clearly a subgenre of science fiction, cyberpunk often moonlights as dystopic and post-apocalyptic fiction. Protagonists are usually misfits, smart (and precocious), anti-social (even verging on a-social), and outside the law/government in some way (anti-heroes are also popular–but that’s another post). But instead of focusing on extreme conditions in a far, far away future, cyberpunk authors tend to play with current technological ideas, bumping them up a couple of steps to ask the seminal writerly question: what if?
Cyberpunk is, by its nature, anti-utopian (William Gibson’s short story, The Gernsback Continuum digs into some of the reasons why). But instead of just setting up a dystopic world and depending on suspension of disbelief, good cyberpunk forces the reader to ask questions and scratch about for answers. Consider The Hunger Games (I’d say consider Catching Fire, too, but I haven’t read it yet)–throughout the book, Katniss articulates our questions, asking why the Capitol is the way it is, why its citizens are unhappy, why Gale rages and shouts when he’s trapped in District 12 unable to help.
Another common theme in cyberpunk is the manipulated situation–also a la The Hunger Games. In Kaimira: Sky Village, Mei and Breaker are each thrust into settings against their will–Mei because her father leaves her with the Sky Dwellers, Breaker because he has to help Riley. The story is full of mecha and tech detail, and the characters’ facility with mecha is a key plot point. Both books, though, are often labeled dystopia.
But cyberpunk shares elements with more than just science fiction novels. Unsurprisingly, it’s often very post-modernist, and some works have a very film noir feel. Matrix-like, some stories play with the connection between the mind and virtual reality, a particularly relevant theme just now.
Why Not Just Call it Science Fiction?
Part of the allure of cyberpunk–and dystopic fiction–is the name. Science fiction conjures images of pasty, pimpled, bespectacled mole people who watch the same episode of Star Trek until they’ve nailed not just Spock’s lines, but his inflections, too. (No disrespect, Trek lovers: I’ve watched all 5 series and the movies. Undiscovered Country is my favorite. Hurrah for even numbers.) Telling your friends you read cyberpunk or dystopic fiction makes readers sound not just cool, but intellectual and cutting edge, particularly since poliitco-social themes are common in both.
Breaking up science fiction, though, means that we (authors and readers) are less likely to move beyond a core group of titles. Although readers of dystopic fic may love more cyberpunk geared titles, they’re unlikely to pick them up; post-apocalyptic fans are less likely to rifle through the dystopia shelves.
Why Cyberpunk makes good YA
Although it’s easy to get bogged down in setting, the key to cyberpunk, like most good fiction, is its characters. Characters are also, to my mind, the most important part of good YA. So why do cyberpunk protagonists make good YA?
Belonging & Rebellion
Pretty much all cyberpunk protagonists are non-conformist in some way. Some are outright rebels; few (if any–I certainly can’t come up with anything) have a sense of belonging. Many also feel manipulated (with good reason) and misunderstood. While few teens are forced into arena to battle it out with mechanical robot extensions of themselves, most will recognize parts of their lives in Breaker’s story, and relate to his emotions.
Digital Natives
This is how I think of the current crop of kids and teens, the ones who’ve grown up with fast computers and the internet. Older folk (like me–my 29 year old brain is already past it!), no matter how intent on learning, will never speak tech with the same ease as today’s kids and teens (the same will be true of their kids, and so on and so on, until we hit the Zombocalypse). Cyberpunk protagonists are usually in the same boat–they’re computer geniuses, hackers, neurally jacked, &c. &c. &c.
Inherited Suckitude
Just about everyone and their irate ferret has an opinion on climate change. And while all those irate ferrets may not agree it’s real, most of us can agree that the world has a lot of problems–problems we’re passing onto our teens. Like dystopias, many cyberpunk novels deal with very timely issues (including reality tv, climate change, and social media), pushing the boundaries and forcing readers to wonder if such scenarios could actually happen (a world ruled by irate ferrets and their Dalek minions? Totally). Most cyberpunk novels, even the hardcore tech ones, often present futures with eerie echoes of not just today, but recognizable–believable–predictions for tomorrow.
Do you read cyberpunk? YA or adult? Do you like it? What did you think of The Hunger Games, Little Brother, and Kaimira: Sky Village? If you’re looking for some good YA cyberpunk, check out my recent list.
Penguin & the iPad: Taking Books to the Next Level, or Leaving Them in the Dust?
Earlier this week, Penguin CEO John Makinson debuted a concept video demonstrating some of the ways the house is planning on tapping the potential of Apple’s new iPad. With interfaces less like a book and more like an iPhone app, it’s clear the company is taking this new platform seriously.
John Makinson, from PaidContentUK:
We will be embedding audio, video and streaming in to everything we do. The .epub format, which is the standard for ebooks at the present, is designed to support traditional narrative text, but not this cool stuff that we’re now talking about.
So for the time being at least we’ll be creating a lot of our content as applications, for sale on app stores and HTML, rather than in ebooks. The definition of the book itself is up for grabs. We don’t know whether a video introduction will be valuable to a consumer. We will only find answers to these questions by trial and error.
Directly Targeting Younger Readers
Several of Penguin’s innovations directly target younger readers–an e-version of Eric Hill’s Spot series takes lift-the-flap books to the next level. Soon, kids will be able to customize Spot’s look, help him tidy his room, and, of course, follow along with Spot’s mom as she looks in trunks, closets, and under the bed to find the mischievous little puppy. Page turns are easy, too–a simple finger swipe–making the books accessible to even the youngest readers.
Compared to the Kindle experience–text on one screen, grainy monochrome illustrations on the next–choosing the iPad as a kid-friendly reader is a no-brainer. But the $500 price tag is a lot for Baby’s First E-reader (unless you’re one of the glitterati, in which case the iPad probably costs less than Baby’s First Blanket). Fortunately, Penguin’s app-like offerings include interactive YA titles (Richelle’s Mead’s Vampire Academy features an in-text chat option), DK textbooks (with zoom, 3D view, and video), and DK travel guides (the screen switches to map view when placed on a table, then back to book view when help). DK’s Starfinder, once a go-to for learning to navigate the night sky, will navigate for users–use the compass function to help the iPad get its bearings, then point it at a section of sky and voila! detailed information about visible constellations appears onscreen.
As I’ve pointed out before, the iPad is a great halfway tool, offering teens the functionality of a laptop (and possibly more) for a fraction of the price. But will Penguin’s app model make books more accessible to kids and teens, or less?
Changing the Way Kids Read? Or Changing the Nature of a Book?
As any pediatrician will tell you, reading is a vital part of a child’s development. Reading helps form important neural connections, helps with language development and cognitive skills, and generally improves a child’s life. But the studies that support this revolve around a paper and ink model. If Penguin style app-books take off, some children could soon think Spot has always lived in Mummy’s iPad. But does this matter?
I’m not sure. I’ve always loved books–I’ve spent countless hours curled up among library shelves reading, enjoying the scent and press of musty old pages around me. My baby also loves reading–several times a day, he catches my eye, picks up a book (and yes, we have Spot books), holds it out, and waits. When I finish a page, he turns to the next one. When I finish a book, he reaches for another. Would he love books less is he swiped a finger across a screen instead of turning a page?
The iPad and Penguin’s new concept models still use the standard words on a page–they just include some interactivity. Chatting about a book while reading it is not a novel idea–school kids do it all the time (when I was in year 9, the rest of the class hated War of the Worlds so much the teacher had us each read a chapter and fill each other in). Being able to chat within a book is, as far as I can see, akin to reading cliff notes, encouraging teens to dig deeper into a text, and think about whys and hows of the story in much the same way as a good book review. This sort of functionality could even be adapted to school work, with teens reading, say, Macbeth, discussing it with their project group as they read, or leaving notes for one another on a shared meta-copy/open wiki.
Not all kids like to read–some find books boring, some are dyslexic, some just haven’t found the right book. The interactivity Penguins app-books offer (particularly the chat feature) may be the boost some teens need–where they once hung out on IM swapping thoughts about the day, they could soon hang out within a book, Jasper Fforde style. And Penguin’s app-books may be just the first of many. According to Makinson, Apple’s 30% take on app-revenue “is better than the equivalent print agency model, in which publishers let retailers keep 50 percent“.
The Essence of a Book
What makes a book a book? Much like the printing press, romances, and early novels, the iPad is forcing readers to think about what a book actually is. Although the Kindle, the Nook, and other e-readers have had their share of “you’re destroying my beloved books” rage, they’ve remained true to standard book format: words inked on a page. This is the way humans have read for thousands of years–Plato read words inked on a page the same way Baby reads words inked on a page.
But books are really just a delivery system, aren’t they? Before books, we still had information. Before books, we still had stories. Homer told stories from memory, using verbal cues to remind him of the next section, much as the original tellers of Beowulf probably did. Books simply gave us an easier way to remember what comes next, and a more efficient way to share it around. Once upon a time, if the guy who knew how to keep the wheat field alive died without passing on his knowledge died, the rest of the village would starve. Nowadays, you need to grow wheat, you run down to the library, hop on the internet, or call up your Ag. Sci best friend Jack.
When it comes down to it, I love the print reading experience, but it’s not why I read. Books are about information–getting it, sharing it, thinking about it. Although they’re a necessary tool, we’ve moved beyond books as a means to survival. And while we take books for pleasure for granted, it wasn’t an easy transition–fiction and the novel were looked down upon by the wealthy and the intelligentsia as recently as the 20th century.
The thing books–e-books, print books, any books–really do, though, is help us create experiences within our own minds. Watching a movie shows us someone else’s experience. Words help us create our own–my version of Katniss Everdeen will be different to my friend Amitha’s version, and her version will be different to Suzanne Collins’ version. They may all have the same colored hair, the same colored eyes, the same height, but they’ll still look different, sound different. Books–words–tie into our experiences, our memories, to paint a picture all our own. How the words are delivered doesn’t matter.
There’s a reason the Folio Society does old classics instead of new ones–kids and teens are interested in the story, not the cover. Sure, covers sell, but, just like we tell our kids, it’s what’s inside that counts. While the latest Vampire Academy book may not help teens learn how to catch rabbits the next time I’m lost in the woods or dropped into an arena to fight twenty-three of my peers to the death, it will give them things to think about. And while thinking about vampires may seem a waste of time, remember, the blood-suckers are people too–they think, they reason, they’re self-aware, and they face, at their core, many of the same issues as teens today. Whether they’re reading a print copy, an e-copy, or an app-book, teens will still get to the same place: a world in their heads. Would it be so terrible if the iPad let them share it?
Would you read an app-book? Do you ever chat while reading? Or are you a die-hard print only reader?
