Winter 2070 BULLETIN

State of the Industry: The Book Business Gets Even Tougher

Guild, Publishers & Google File Amended Settlement

Random House Goes Retroactive

What's Hot and What's Not in Children's Books: A Symposium

Roy Blount on What a Book is Worth

TETTER TO THE EDITOR-l-hu Summer/Fall 2009 Bulletin reported the deathI of Santha Rama Rau at the age of 86. In a recent

memoir published in the Cape Town literary magazineChimurenga (www.chimurenga.co.za), I recalled a

meeting with her father in 1941 and a long-distancetelephone conversation with Santha in 2008.

One Sunday in7947, Sir BerregalRama Rau came toIunch at our homein Muizenberg, justover the road fromthe old woodenfootbridge acrossthe Vlei. He andmy father sat chat-ting on the green

The Guild encourages nrembers towrite to the Bulletin. Letters should be

sent to "Letters to the Editor." TheAuthors Guild. 3l East 32nd Street.7th Floor. New York. NY 10016. Theycan also be faxed ro (212) 564-5363.or sent via e-nrail to staff@authorsguild.org (type "Letters to the Editor"in the subject line). Letters may be ed-ited for length, grammar and clarity.

It was not often that a r"ron-European sat on ourfront stoep, let alone joined us at the dining table for a

family lunch. The non-Europeans I knew worked forus in the kitchen and the garden and lived in quartersat the back of the house.

Sir Benegal was52, eight years older than my father.He had been India's Deputy HighCommissioner in London before ar-riving in South Africa in May 1938 as

Agent-Ceneral. After the war he wasto serve as his country's first Am-bassador in Tokyo and later inWashington, D.C. He wound up hiscareer as Governor of the ReserveBank of lndia.

I can no longer tap my late par-ents' memories and none of my sib-

wicker chairs on the front step. My mother flit-ted in and out, from stoep (veranda) to kitchen todining room. I looked on in awe. I was five.

lings recalls details of this visit. ln fune 2008, I phonedSir Benegal's younger daughter, Santha (b. 1923). She

Cotrtintted on paga 53

ALONG PUBLISHERS ROWBv CeNapeELL GEESLTN

Jn a Page 1 article in The Nezu York Times, MotokoI Rich wrote. "For more than 500 vears the book hasbeen a remariably stable entity: a coherent string ofconnected words, printed on paper and bound be-tween covers.

"But in the age of the iPhone, Kindle and YouTube,the notion of the book is becoming increasingly elasticas publishers mash together text, video and Web fea-tures in a scramble to keep readers interested in an ar-chaic form of entertainment."

In October Simon & Schuster released four"vooks," which combine video and electronic text andcan be read and viewed online or on an iPhone or iPodTouch.

Author Walter Mosley told the Tinrcs, "As a novel-ist I would never ever" allow videos to substitute forProse.

"Reading," he said, "is one of the few experienceswe have outside of relationships in which our cogni-tive abilities grow And our cognitive abilities actuallygo backwards when we're watching television or do-ing stuff on computers."

SLANG: Any writer today who is trying to produce di-alogue for a contemporary novel is faced with a majorproblem. For dialogue to seem fresh and authentic, itneeds to include slang.

The life span today of a slang word or phraseseems "to shorten with every click of the mouse." Thequote is from an article inTlrc Nezu York Tirres with theheadline: "Dude, You Are So (Not) Obama." Mean-while, books still take almost ayear from the time yourmanuscript is delivered to the publisher until it ap-pears in a bookshop.

"What's a hipster (hepcat?) To Do?" the Tirnrs asks."Keeping up with the latest slang is at once easier andharder than ever. The number of slang dictionaries isgrowing, both online and off, not to mention socialnetworking media that invent and discard words,phrases and memes at the speed of broadband."

Slang dictionaries have been around for more than200 years, but online resources such as slangsite.comare updated hundreds of times daily.

Authors G uiltl B ulle ti n E w i n t o, 2010

Continued on page 34

THE AUTHORSGUILD BULLETIN

PresidentRoy Blountlr.

EditorMartha Fay

Assistant EditorIsabel Howe

Senior ContributingEditor

CampbellGeeslin

Layout and DesignSusan Livingston

Copy EditorPaula Glatzer

All non-staff contributors to theBulletin retain copyright to thearticles that appear in thesepages. Guild members seekinginformation on contributors'other publications are invitedto contact the Guild office.

Published quarterly by:

The Authors Guild, Inc.31 East 32nd Street7th FloorNew York, NY 10016

T/re Bulletin was first pr.tblished in1912 as The Authors kagueNezosletter.

WINTER 2O1.O

Articles

State of the IndustryBy lsabel Howe

Page 5

Random House's RetroactiveRights Grab

Page 8

Amended Settlement Filed inAuthors Guilil a. Google

Page 9

How the Google SettlementReads Across the Pond

Page 11

If You Want SomethingDone Right...By Ellis Weiner

Page12

Platform ChallengedBy Andy Ross

Page 13

Why Authors Skip HardbackBy Teddy Wayne

Page 14

Contracts Q&ABy Mark L. Leaine

Page 15

Overheard

"When I was a book publi-cist, the worst part of my jobwas having to read a Kirkusreview over the phone to anauthor. 2 cigs before,2 after,'recalled LawaZigmaln, €ul &lr:thor and former book publi-cist for Alfred A. Knopf, in aTwitter post."

-From a piece on the

closing of Kirkus Reviewsn The New York Times

December 11,2009

SymposiumWhat's Hot and What's Not:

Current Trends in Children's Book PublishingPage 19

Departments

Along Publishers Rozo. . .. . .. ...2LetterfromthePresident......,........4Legal Watclt ...........16Censorship Watch ....18Bulletin Board .........44Books by Members. ....47Members MakeNezus .........51

Copyright @ 2010 The' Atrthors Guild, Inc.

About the Cover Artist

Keain Sanchez Wnlsh is a freelance artistin Neu York Citv.

Autltors Gutlti ButletmSl wrrtq zurt

From the PresidentBv Rov BlouNr Jn.

hat is a bookworth? Exceptfor people who

find it essential to shopin an actual physicalstore whe.re someone islikely to know one bookfrom another, the stickerprice is a fiction. Afi29.95book, in e-form, may gofor $8.99 these days inWahnart-cheaper than,

I don't know, a six-pack of tubesocks? On Arnazon, thenotion that all e-books should cost $9.99 is regarded bysome people as guaranteed in the Bill of Rights some-where. Then too you may be able to get a brand-newactual paper-and-ink book through Amazon for lessthan that-fell off a truck or something. That's where Igo when I've run out of copies of my books. It'scheaper and quicker than ordering through the pub-lisher at the author's rate, and at least I've taken onenon-royalty-producing copy off the market.

Then of course there is the school of thought thatbooks shouldn't cost anything, because "informationwants to be free." One thing wrong with that notionis that just as a pie is more than its ingredients (anddoes anyone other than a child living at home expectpie, or even pie ingredients, to be free?), a book is morethan information. It's someone's-several people's-work.

Another thing wrong with "information wants tobe free" is that it is espoused, it's my impression, bythree categories of people:

One: People who are paid by universities to teachoccasional seminars and write books that not manypeople would want to buy anyway if they could helpit. To send one's child to one of these universities costs(say) an author maybe $50,000 a year. How aboutCollege wnnts to be free?

Two: People who have invented a high-tech gim-mick that has enabled them not to need any moremoney the rest of their lives. How about H1g/r-tcch girtt-micks wnnt to be free?

Three: People who live at home with their parents.Another thing about information: it wants to be

wrong. For instance, in Robert Darnton's critique of theGoogle settlement in The Neu York Rat,ieut of Books, hestates that "Google will make it possible for consumers

to purchase access to millions of copyrighted bookscurrently in print." That is wrong. The Google settle-ment gives access to copyrighted books nof currentlyin print.

It does seem sometimes that books don't want theirauthors to get any molley out of them. British author|ohn Gribdin's book Gct n Grip ort Physics, was all overthe Web recently because photographs of Tiger

It does seetn sometimes that books

don't want their authors to get

an! money out of them.

Woods's smashed-up car showed a copy of the bookon the floor amid shards of glass. A famous book!People had to have it! It shot from 396,224th onAmazon to 2,268th. Copies were going for $73.

"l am delighted that anybody is reading mybooks," said Gribdin. "l just wish it was one that is stillin print."

If the Google settlement were in place, Gribdincould be getting some income from that book. i

Libel Tourism LegislationGaining Ground

On the heels of New York State's May 2008 pas-sage of the "Libel Tourism" legislation, which pre-vents New York courts from enforcing foreignlibel juctgments that are inconsistent with the FirstAmendment rights embedded in the U.S. Con-stitution, California recently passed its own legis-lation, which renders foreign libel judgmentsagainst U.S. magazines and newspapers Llnen-forceable in the state of California. As we have re-ported in the past, the need for this legislation wasreinforced by the libel judgment obtained bySaudi Prince Khalid Salim Bin Mahfouz in a

British court against author Rachel Ehrenfeld forher portrayal of him as a financier of terrorism inFturdirrg Ezril. Ehrenfeld defaulted in the Englishaction and subsequently failed in her attempts toobtain a declaratory judgment that the libel rulingin Britain would be unenforceable by New Yorkcourts, which implied it was the state legislature'sduty to address this issue.

Arr t ltors cuilLi Bttll ct i n E win n' ztn o

State of the IndustrvBy Isasgr Hows

an Brown's latest book, The Lost Symbol, wasreleased on September 15,2009. The first print-ing of 6.5 million was the largest ever for its

publisher, Knopf Doubleday Random House, and itmet expectations when it sold two million copies ofhardcover, audiobooks and e-books in the week fol-lowing its release. It exceeded expectations when, ac-cording to an Amazon spokesman quoted inThe WallStreet lournnl September 17, Kindle e-book editions"outsold hardcover editions on the book's release day,excluding pre-orders." By mid-November, Crain's wasreporting that e-book sales of The Lost Symbol hadboosted Random House's e-book revenues by a whop-ping 400 percent.

But it was business as usual by the followingmonth, and the tea leaves were being sifted through-out the book world. "According to Nielsen BookScan,which tracks about 70 percent of retail sales in theUnited States," reported Motoko Rich in The Neztt YorkTimes, "the number of copies the book sold last weekfell by 47 percent, to 214,000 from 401,000."

After an auspicious debut, Senator Edward M.Kennedy's memoir, True Compass, also took a dive,from 69,000 to 39,000 copies in the space of a week-a43 percent drop.

Overall, Rich noted, "book sales were down about4 percent compared with the same week last year, sug-gesting that neither of those titles or any of the otherbig fall books from heavyweights like Mitch Albom,Pat Conroy, E. L. Doctorow and Audrey Niffeneggerwere helping booksellers to overcome the sludgyeconomy." In the end, bookstore sales were indeed upby 7 percent for the month of September, explained bysales of The Lost Symbol and college books, but it's notenough to turn around the figures for the year, whichremain down from 2008.

Marketing professor Albert Greco, quoted in TheNeut Yorker's October 19 publishing issue agreed: De-spite Tlre Lost Symbol, despite continued sales of theTwtligltt series, the market for adult trade books wouldprobably decline 4 percent in 2009. The article alsopointed out how differently blockbuster books can af-fect the overall numbers. "Last year alone, twenty-seven and a half million Meyer books were sold in theU.S.-seven per cent of all young-adult sales. Meyer'ssuccess largely explains why sales of children's booksare likely to be up five per cent this year, whereas adult

trade publishing is experiencing diminishing rev-enues."

The bad news continued to pour in. Wal-Mart be-gan selling select new hardcover books for $10, withfree shipping-around 60 percent less than the usualcost. In response, Amazon.com reduced its prices forthe same or similar titles to $10. "Wal-Mart's an-nouncement suggests a broad, sustained race for cus-tomers at prices few can afford to offeg" saidThe NeuYorkTimes, and a week into the price war, the Ameri-can Booksellers Association sent a letter to the JusticeDepartment requesting an inquiry into the discount-ing combatants"'predatory pricing. "

While the publishing industry struggles to stem

While the publishing industry struggles

to stem /osses resalting from the

recession . . . it also confronts

the digital world, as potentially lucrative

as it is potentially ruinous.

losses resulting from the recession and a cultural shiftin how books are written, purchased, distributed andthought about, it also confronts the digital world, aspotentially lucrative as it is potentially ruinous. Thestrengths and drawbacks of e-books are only now be-coming clear. As Randall Stross wrote in TIrc New YorkTimes in October, "[E]-books won't stay on the periph-ery of book publishing much longer. You can buy The

Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown, as an e-book for $9.99 atAmazon.com. Or you can don a pirate's cap andsnatch a free copy"-from one of the multitude of file-storage sites proliferating online. "Until now," Strosspoints out, "few readers have preferred e-books toprinted or audible versions, so the public availabilityof free-for-the-taking copies did not much matter." Butwith a sleek new Kindle or Nook in hand, "will bookbuyers avert their eyes from the free copies only a fewclicks away that have been uploaded without thecopyright holder's permission? Mindful of what hap-pened to the music industry at a similar transitionaljuncture, book publishers are about to discoverwhether their industry is different enough to be spareda similarly dismal fate."

Everyone agrees that the industry is in transition.

Authors Guild Butietin|E wi,,tr, zolo

The recession has both inflated fears and heightenedthe stakes economically, but with migraine and stom-achache giving swine flu a run for its monet publish-ing houses are banking more than ever on bestsellers,keeping their fingers crossed for the next unexpectedblockbuster.

It's a familiar pattern, but reports of the news thata few books wouldn't be saving the industry this timearound shouldn't have surprised anyone. The problemis that in a year when so much more seems to be atstake, unrealistic hopes soared higher than usual.

Moreovet coverage of the book industry in the ma-jor news outlets, not to mention Amazon's reports

The news that afew books wouldn't be

soving the industry this time around

shouldn't have surprised anyone,

about the Kindle's success, seems to suggest that thepublishing industry is crumbling, e-books are con-quering the world, and that creativity is a thing of thepast. The reality is more complex and consistently be-yond predicting. We all know the story of HarryPotter: the much anticipated next volume, the mid-night releases, the slumber parties at Barnes & Noble.Certain books capture the zeitgeist, whether unexpect-edly or intentionallf ; The Netu Yorker recently chroni-cled the history of young adult series packaged bycompanies, often brilliantly, with plots devised in mar-keting meetings. A famous person tells a compellingstory, a beloved author comes out with a new book.The industry has long relied on them, and certainlythis is true now more than ever.

Blockbusters become problematic, though, whenthey affect the way the book business runs. A perspec-tive that is missing from national news coverage, butcan be found in industry magazines like PublishersWeekly and Poets €t Writers, on conference panels, andin private conversations, is that publishers have beenacting as slaves to the chain bookstores and, in doingso, have abandoned a tradition of creativity, innova-tion, and support for good books. When the emphasisis overwhelmingly on popular taste and boosting ini-tial orders, the process of selecting good books-defi-nitions of which vary, of course-gets muddled. Huge

amounts of money and time are thrown behind a fewbooks, while the rest of the list suffers. Publishinghouses lose sight of their overall focus.

Chris Doeblin, owner of Book Culture, an inde-pendent bookstore in upper Manhattan, agrees. Wal-Mart, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, he says, havecome to "command an enormous amount of leveragein conversations" about bookselling, which points tothe "evident fact that publishers have made a mistake.They have given up ih" po*et of control over theirmedium. A healthy publishing industry needs to havean enormous choice of options in terms of where to re-tail" books-online, in person, print, e-book, inde-pendent, chain.

Doeblin adds that, while "the Google issue proba-bly doesn't have a huge amount to do with the bottomline, it has brought into stark relief how the discussionof the ownership of and distribution of and control ofthis media, this art" will develop. "The sales of booksonline and the [presence of] e-books has also, more orless, pointed to where this can possibly go as opposedto really changing the game."

How well independent booksellers will do nowand in the future is an open question. Doeblin hopesfor a scenario in which booksellers experience theequivalent of the organic and local food craze: just as asmall, yet critical percentage of the population hasturned away from factory-issued produce and meatsand joined in a nationwide trend in support of farm-ers markets and grass-fed beef and free-range poultry,

How well independent booksellers

will do now and in the future is

an open question. Will they become

the equivalent of organic food shops?

readers and book buyers will eventually-perhaps al-ready have-become frustrated with the limitations ofshopping at the big chains and return to independentbookstores. As Doeblin puts it, "We're at the absolutelimit of becoming so rare that we become a choice."

Such utopian thinking is also emerging from pub-lishing heavyweights. Poets & Writers recently profiledfonathan Karp, editor in chief of TWelve, a Hachette

Authors Guilit Bulletin E wintr, 2010

Book Group imprint that he started in 2005 after leav-ing a successful career at Random House. Karp ac-quires, edits and helps publicize each of the 12 booksthat he publishes every year-just one per month.Fifteen of his first 30 books hit the bestseller lists. AsP€tW put it, Karp "has managed to unite the dreams ofany publisher's disparate constituencies: writers (whowant nothing so much as a publisher's attention andeffort), literary agents (who encounter fewer and fewereditors who are experienced, credible, and essentiallyautonomous), booksellers (who complain, rightly, thattoo many books are published with too little care), themedia (which can only cover so much and is happy tobe steered toward the few books that are important),and readers (who are, for the most part, blissfully un-aware of the mad sausage making that goes on behindthe scenes but knows a good thing when they taste it)."

Publishers, take note.It may also behoove publishers to take note of the

way independent bookstores are reacting to changes

in the industry: the American Booksellers Associationis helping independent bookstores set up e-book mar-ketplaces on their websites. The Independent Book-sellers of New York City held their first IndependentBookstore Week in November. Doeblin suggests thatpublishers can help booksellers in small ways by un-derstanding that genres should be handled differently.Certain nonfiction books are perfect for the e-bookformat, whereas literary fiction will continue to bebought and read in print. Forcing every single title tosell the same way through the same venue is unwise.Using the example of the literary novel, he explainsthat a publisher can work with booksellers by makingsure the title is available in the independents, delayingthe e-release, and arranging for author appearancesat the smaller stores, rather than just Barnes & Noble.In doing so, they would also be taking advantage ofthe access independents have to the small percentageof the population that loves print books-and buysthem.1

Senate Press Shield Bill Approved By fudiciary Committee

There has been significant movement in the attemptto establish a nationwide law to protect journalistsfrom being forced to reveal their sources by sub-poena or other court order. Currently, any right a re-porter may have to protect her confidential sourcesand information obtained during news gathering isset by state law. Shield laws have been enacted in 36states and the District of Columbia. The laws are not,however, uniform and statutes vary in scope. Thereare differences as to which kinds of writers are per-mitted to shelter under the laws (e.g., newspaper re-porters vs. book authors vs. bloggers), and in whattypes of cases the shield can be invoked (e.9., crimi-nal vs. civil proceedings).

The House of Representatives passed its versionof a federal press shield bill in March, and the Senate

Judiciary Committee approved the Senate's versionon December 10. This version may now be put be-fore the entire Senate for a vote. The Senate bill, "TheFree Flow of Information Action of 2009," is the re-sult of negotiations by the Senate sponsors of thebill, the White House, and the |ustice Department.The bill would provide qualified protection againstcompelled disclosure of confidential sources and ofpublished information received in confidence. Thereporter would not have to be employed by a mediaorganization in order to be covered by the law. This

means that freelancers and unpaid bloggers wouldbe entitled to protection.

One major source of contention was over thescope of press shield protections in matters involv-ing national security. If a criminal case involves aclassified information leak, the government wouldbe required to show by a preponderance of the evi-dence that the information it seeks poses a potentialdanger to national security. If the government canshow that disclosure of the confidential informationis necessary to stop or mitigate a terrorist act or toidentify a terrorist, then a judge will not be requiredto balance the importance of the public's need toknow the information against the government'sneed to pinpoint the leak.

In ordinary civil cases, the judge would apply abalancing test and the party seeking to compel thereporter to turn over the information would havethe burden of proving why the need for the testi-mony outweighs the public interest in being in-formed. In ordinary criminal cases, the reporterwould have to show clear and convincing evidencewhy she should not be required to divulge the infor-mation, and why disclosure would do damage to thepublic interest.

-Anita Fore

Atrthors Guilit BulletittZ wirtr, 20t0

Random House'sRetroactive RightsGrabAdapted from nn e-mail sent to nrcntbers December 15,2009.

n Friday, Random House CEO Markus Dohlesent a two-page letter to many literary agentsregarding e-books. Much of the letter is de-

voted to Random House's efforts and investments tomarket traditional and electronic books.

On the second page, Mr. Dohle gets to the point.After noting that most of Random House's backlist ti-tles grant the publisher electronic book rights (weagree, since most backlist titles are from the past tenyears, a period in which authors have generally li-censed electronic rights in tandem with their printrights), he writes that, "there have been some misun-derstandings concerning ebook rights in older backlisttitles." He then proceeds to argue that older contractsgranting rights to publish "irr book form" or "in alleditions" grant electronic rights to Random House.

The misunderstandings reside entirely with Ran-

dom House. Random House quite famously changedits standard contract to include e-book rights n 7994.(We remember it well-Random House tried to securethese rights for royalties of 5 percent of net proceeds, apittance. We called it a "Land Grab on the ElectronicFrontier" in our press release headline.) Random

We strongly suspect e-royalty rates

are at a low-water mark.

House felt the need to change its contract, quiteplainly, because its authors did not grant those rightsto it under Random House's standard contracts priorto L994.

A fundamental principle of book contracts is thatthe grant of rights is limited. Publishers acquire onlythe rights that they bargain for; authors retain rightsthey have not expressly granted to publishers. E-bookrights, under older book contracts, were retained bythe authors.

There's no need to take our word for this, however.A federal court in 2001 examined this precise matter in

Excerpt from a letter sent to liternry agents by RnndontHouse CEO Markus Dohle, December 11,2009

The vast majority of our backlist contracts grant usthe exclusive right to publish books in electronic for-mats, as well as more traditional physical formats.At the same time, we are aware there have beensome misunderstandings concerning ebook rights inolder backlist titles. Our older agreements often givethe exclusive right to publish "in book form" or "inany and all editions". Many of those contracts alsoinclude enhanced language that references otherforms of copying or displaying the text that mightbe developed in the future or other relevant lan-guage that more specifically reflects the already ex-pansive scope of rights. Such grants are usually notlimited to any specific format, and indeed the" forrr." of a book has evolved over the years to in-clude variations of hardcover, paperback and otherwritten word formats, all of which have been under-stood to be included in the grant of book publishingrights. Indeed, ebook retailers market, merchandiseand sell ebooks as an alternate book format, along-

fISE

BERTELSMANN

side the hardcover, trade paperback, and mass mar-ket versions of a given title. \A/hether physical or dig-ital, the product is used and experienced in the samemanner, serves the same function, and satisfies thesame fundamental urge to discover stories, ideasand information through the process of reading.Accordingly, Random House considers contractsthat grant the exclusive right to publish "in bookform" or "in any and all editions" to include the ex-clusive right to publish in electronic book publish-ing formats. Our agreements also contain broadnon-competition provisions, so that the author isprecluded from granting publishing rights to thirdparties that would compromise the rights for whichRandom House has bargained.

AAtnhh

R,ANDOM HO

Authors Guild Bulletirr|E wintq zoto

Random House v. Rosetta Books. judge Stein of theSouthern District of New York was unequivocal in his10-page decision: authors did not grant publishers thee-book rights in the old book contracts at issue. fudgeStein specifically dismissed notions, raised by Mr.Dohle in his letter to agents, that the non-competeclauses of these old contracts in some manner acted togrant Random House electronic rights to the works,saying that this "reasoning turns the analysis on itshead." The court pointed out that the license of rightscomes solely from the contract's grant language, notfrom the non-compete clause, and that non-competi-tion clauses, to be enforceable, have to be narrowlyconstrued. Using the non-compete clause to secure fu-ture rights is unsustainable. An appellate court af-firmed |udge Stein's decision.

We are sympathetic with the difficult position thepublishing industry is in at the moment. The recessionhas been tough on book publishing, as it has been onmany industries. And everyone with knowledge of thedynamics of the industry properly fears that Amazon'sdominance of the online markets for traditional andespecially e-books will give it a chokehold on industryprofits. Difficult times, however, do not justify this at-tempt at a retroactive rights grab.

Amended SettlementFiled Ln AuthorsGuild a. GoogleAdnpted from the text of an e-nnil sent to mernbers.

ovember 13,2009. We've filed the amendedsettlement in Attthors Guild u. Google. The offi-cial documents will be available at google-

booksettlement.com at some point over the weekend.In the meantime, here are the big changes:

1. Smaller Class; Representation of Foreign Countrieson Registry Board. We've narrowed down the class toauthors and publishers of works registered in the U.S.and authors and publishers of works published in thethree other countries that have contributed the largestnumber of English-language works to American li-braries: Australia, Canada, and the U.K. Each of thesecountries will have an author and a publisher seat onthe Book Rights Registry board.

2. Independent Fiduciary for Unclaimed Works. An

It's regrettable and unhelpful that Random Househas chosen to try to intimidate authors and agents overthese old book contracts. With such a weak legal hand,it would be well advised to stick to its strength-theadvantages that its marketing muscle can provideowners of e-book rights. It should also start offering a

fair royalty for those rights. Authors and publishershave traditionally split the proceeds from book sales.Most sublicenses, for example, provide for a 50/50split of proceeds, and the standard trade book royaltyof 75% of the hardcover retail price, back in the daysthat industry standard was established, representedabout 50 percent of the net proceeds of the sale of thebook. We're confident that the current practice of pay-ing 25 percent of net on e-books will not, in the longrun, prevail. Savvy agents are well aware of this. Theonly reason e-book royalty rates are so low right nowis that so little attention has been paid to them: saleswere simply too low to scrap over. That's beginning tochange.

If you have an old book contract in which youhaven't granted e-book rights, patience is likely to payoff. The e-book industry is still young-there's noneed to jump in. And we strongly suspect e-royaltyrates are at a low-water mark. I

independent fiduciary approved by the court rvill besolely responsible for decisions regarding unclaimedworks.

3. Unclaimed Funds Held for up to L0 Years, Witl GoOnly to Charities and Finding Rightsholders. TheBook Rights Registry will now hold unclaimed fundsfor 10 years, instead of five. (After five years, one-

A cardinal rule in the negotietions was not

to disturb the marketfor in-print books.

quarter of the unclaimed funds can be earmarked forfinding rightsholders.) There will be no distribution ofany of the unclaimed funds to claiming rightsholders.Instead, unclaimed funds will go to charities in theU.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia as determinedby court order after 10 years.

4. Elimination of "Most-Favored Nation" Clause,Restrictions on Discounting. The so-called "most-

Atrthors Guilrt Bulletin|Il wnrtu zoto

favored nation" clause is out (if you don't know whatit is, no need to get up to speed on it). Also out are var-ious restrictions on discounting by Google. Authorswill get their cut, regardless: Google's discounts stillcome out of its own pocket.

5. Well-Defined Future Potential Business Models.Future business models have been pared down tothree: individual subscriptions, print-on-demand, anddigital downloads. None of these business models canbe implemented by Google without approval of theRegistry's board, and none can be implemented with-out notice to all claiming rightsholders, who will havethe absolute right not to participate. (The UnclaimedWorks Fiduciary, of course, will determine whetherunclaimed works will participate in any future busi-ness models.) Nofe: this doesn't ffict the prmiously zuell-

defined business models that get the green light on approttalof tlrc settlement--nd-snppor t ed preaiezus, consumer onliileeditions, page-fees for print-outs from public access termi-nals, and instittrtional aftscriptions.

6. Plenty of Time. There's extra time to make claims forthe $60 to $300 per book digitization payments-it'sbeen extended to March 37,2017. There's also plentyof time to remove your works from Google's database:You can ponder this until March 9,2012. (Remember,we don't recommend removal, since it's irreversible:You'Il remove yourself from this market forever.)

What hasn't changed? Almost everything else.The settlement still provides these benefits to au-

thors:

Find new readers. Out-of-print books need no longerbe relegated to the used book market. The settlementwill make out-of-print works available to hundreds ofmillions of readers, through ad-supported previews,sales of online editions, and institutional subscrip-tions. If a book catches on, there will be sales data toprove it, which may create an opportunity to bring thework back into print in traditional form.

In-print books are unaffected. A cardinal rule in thenegotiations was not to disturb the market for in-printbooks. Titles that are in print won't be made availablethrough any of the means described in the settlement,unless the author and publisher expressly want themto be.

A Book Rights Registry to protect rightsholders. Anonprofit registry governed by authors and publish-ers will oversee the settlement on their behalf, to helpmake sure rightsholders receive the benefits they're

entitled to. (Sign up for the Registry by filing a claimat googlebooksettlement.com. )

A fair share of revenues. 63% of gross revenues go toauthors and publishers; Google keeps 37%. The fundswill be paid to the new Book Rights Registry, whichwill pay authors and publishers after retaining a mod-est administrative fee. If rights have reverted to au-thors, they will receive 100% of the rightsholderrevenue.

Unprecedented control for authors and publishers.Authors and publishers will manage their rightsthrough an account management page at the BookRights Registry. Authors who control rights to theirworks, for example, may choose to allow Google to dis-play ad-supported previews of books, sell online edi-tions (authors may set the price or let an algorithm doit for them), and license the work to colleges and uni-

Authors may choose to allow Google

to display ad-supported previews of books,

sell online editions (at a price the author

chooses), and license work to colleges

and aniversities, or they may choose

to block all display uses.

versities, or they may choose to block all display uses.Authors can change their minds, at any time, with rea-sonable notice. What if a book comes back into tradi-tional print? The rightsholder can then simply turn offall display uses, if it chooses, and permit the publisherto sell the work through standard retail outlets.

Authors' estates, too. Authors' estates exercise thesame rights as authors.

At least $45 million in payments for unauthorizedscanning. Any of Google's digitizing of in-copyrightbooks done before May 5, 2009 is considered unautho-rized under the settlement. Google will pay to obtaina release of these copyright infringement claims.Under the settlement, Google will pay at least $60 andas much as $300 to rightsholders for each book that itscanned without authority, for a total payment torightsholders of at least $45 million. *

Autlwrs Cuitd BullelitrlEl Wirtu ZOIO

How the GoogleSettlement ReadsAcross the Pond

iterary communities in the UK and Europe havebeen following the Coogle Library debate asavidly as their American cousins, anticipating fu-

ture battles on their home turf and the more immedi-ate effects of a U.S. settlement on non-U.S. authors andpublishers. In a recent series of articles, the LondonTirnes looked at the issue from a variety of perspectives,two of which we reprint here, with permission.

The reader's viewTona Garrr

Increasingly, we expect knowledge and entertain-ment-highbrow or low-at our fingertips. If we arestruck with a burning desire to read, say, RobertBrowning;'s verse novel The Rirrg nnd the Book, we don'twant to have to hunt through our shelves in search ofthe battered OUP edition that we bought secondhandat university, only to remember, after overturning thesitiing room, that we lent it to our sister last year, andnow she is in Thailand, and the nearest library is onlyopen on Wednesday afternoons, and the Waterstone;son the high street got rid of its poetry section inl997.

Google Books, in scanning the entire text of out-of-print works to be read onscreen or in some cases down-load, is undoubtedly doing readers a favour. In a fewseconds, a few clicks, we could be tucking in to 21,000-line Victorian poems-or whatever takes our fancy.

This ultra-convenience can only be a good thing,right? Well, yes. But let's not get too excited. For astart, this new deal affects only U.S. readers. Stuck inBlighty, for the foreseeable future we have to make dowith the current Google Books set-up, which has ahuge database but very little readable content.

Second, many out-of-print and out-of-copyrightbooks are freely available, and have been for years,through Project Cutenberg-a heroic enterprise set upin797I, in which volunteers type up whole works andmake them freely available online in plain text form.

Third, my choice of the arcaneThe Ring and the Book

was not pure flippancy: the majority of titles coveredby this deal are likely to be pretty obscure.

Tom Gatti frequently reviews books for the LondonTimes.

If you're picturing an online Utopia in which youcan freely graze Dan Brown's latest opus, or evenMartin Amis's 1973 debut, you need to adjust your set.

In the long run, readers will benefit from GoogleBooks. But it is not the only project spreading onlineknowledge, nor is it likely ever to be the one-size-fits-all, one-stop-shop global library that it aspires to be.

The writer's viewRocEn Bovns

One outraged publisher uses an elegant simile for theGoogle bonus. It is, to paraphrase him a little,like aburglar cleaning out your flat and letting you knowlater that he was flogging your Bang & Olufsen soundsystem.

Not for me it isn't. The resuscitation of out-of-printbooks is more like a thick burglar taking that raggedflea-bitten sofa left behind by your ex, putting it in theback of his white van, selling it to a sucker on eBay andsplitting the profits with you. Bring it on,I say. Bringon Google, the deaf-and-dumb larcenist.

The fact is, some books are doomed from the outsetto go out of print. They are the publishing equivalentof the yesterday's newspaper-as-fish-and-chip-papersyndrome. Everybody in the business knows this themoment that the ink is dry on the contract. Don't askme about the publishing economics that underpinsuch deals; perhaps they are just about establishing a

presence/ showing the world that you haven't fallenasleep in the club.

Thirty years ago I wrote a not-bad book withSimon Freeman called Sport Behind the Iron Cttrtain.ltquickly landed in bookshop Siberia, just below 1001

Best GoI.f lokes. A few years later I wrote a book aboutthe transition from communism to capitalism that, ifpublished six months earlier, would have beenprophetic but which actually came out in 1990 wheneveryone had revolution fatigue.

Both books, needless to say, are out of print andapart from a few quotes in academic works-I trackthem down on Google Scholar, on wet Sunday after-noons-may as well be pulped and made into biofuelfor the Third World. They have been, until this specialday, dead paper. So please can I sign on the dottedline? There may yet be some life in the mangy worksyet. And the sign-up fee will pay for a subscription tothe TLS. Note to burglar: the garden door is always leftoff the latch. *

Roger Boyes has recently published Meltdown lceland(Bloomsbury) about the financial crisis.

Autlnrs Gnild BulletinV wirtu zoto

If You WantSomethingDone RightBv Er-r-rs WsrNen

Hi, Ellis-Let me introduce myself. My name

is Gineen Klein, and I've been broughton as an intern to replace the promo-tion department here at PropensityBooks. First, let me say that I ab-solutely love "Clancy the Doofus Beagle: A LoveStory" and have some excellent ideas for promotion.

To start: Do you blog? If not, get in touch with Krisand Christopher from our online department, al-though at this point I think only Christopher is left. I'llbe out of the office from tomorrow until Monday, butwhen I get back I'll ask him if he spoke to you. We useCopyBuoy via Hoster Broaster, because it streams re-ally easily into a Plaxo/Linkedln yak-fest meld. Whenyou register, click "Endless," and under "Contacts"just list everyone you've ever met. It would be great ifyou could prost at least six hundred words every dayuntil further notice.

If you already have a blog, make sure you spray-feed your URL in niblets open-face to the skein. Welike Reddit bites (they're better than Delicious), be-cause they max out the wiki snarls of RSS feeds, whichmeans less jamming at the Google scaffold. Then justDigg your uploads in a viral spiral to your social net-works via an FB/MS interlink torrent. You may havegotten the blast e-mail from Jason Z"pp, your acquir-ing editor, saying that people who do this sort of thingwill go to Hell, but just ignore it.

The vi-spi is cross-platform, but don't worry if youthink you're not on Facebook, because you actuallyare. Jason enrolled you when you signed the contractlast year, or at least he was supposed to, and he toldSarah Williams he did before he had to retire and

Ellis Weiner is the author of the comic mysteries DropDead, My Lortelll andThe Big Boat to Bye-Bye, and coau-thor with his wife, Barbara Davilman, of Yiddish WithDick and lnne, Horu to Profit from the Ctttrtirtg Rapture, andother works. His latest book, Oy! Do This, Not That!,hasjust been published by Rrrnning Press. This piece wasoriginally published as a Shouts&Murmurs piece in theOctober 19,2009 Nett, Yorker and is reprinted here withthe permission of the author and of The New Yorker.

Sarah left for nursing school. You cur-rently have 421 Friends, 17 PendingRequests, 8 Pokes, 5 Winks, and 3

Proposals of "Marriage."I've attached a list of celebrities we

think would be great to blurb yourbook, so find out their numbers andcall them up. Be sure to do all this byMonday, because Sales Conferencestarts Tuesday. We come back Fridayand then immediately on Saturday (!)all of editorial (Janet, plus probablyMichelle, her assistant) and I go to theFrankfurt Book Fair for a week. Duringthat time the office will be closed. al-

though to help cover the costs of the Germany trip itwill actually be sublet to the John Lindsay ElementarySchool P.T.A. as a rehearsal space for this year's fund-raiser production of "The Music Man." I'm told thatthis was one of the things that Jason didn't understandand which contributed to his "condition."

Once we get back from Frankfurt, we'd like to see

yoLr on morning talk shows like the "Today" show and

We'd like to see lou on morning talk

shows. . . so please get yourself booked

on them and keep us "in the loop."

"The View," so please get yourself booked on themand keep us "in the loop." If I'm not here-which Iwon't be, since after the book fair I go on vacation fortwo weeks-just tell Jenni, my assistant, when she getsback from jury duty.

Remember in your blog to tabskim your readers'comments. You can use Twitter, Chitt-chaTT, or Nit-Pickr. When you reply to comments, try to post at leastone photo per hour of you doing everyday tasksaround the house, such as answering comments andposting photos. Please make sure they're pre-scorched.Let me know, when I get back from Retreat a week af-ter my vacation, if self-surging is a problem.

As re: personal appearances, to cut down on travelexpenses we're trying something new this seasoncalled RAP, or Readings by Author by Proxy. We'reasking authors in certain key areas of the country tostay "close to home" and give readings at local book-

Autltors Guiltt Bttlletitt E wintr, 20t0

Continued on pnge 55

Platform ChallengedBv Anov Ross

eah Komaiko is a marketing con-sultant who specializes in building

l-Jplatforms. Her client list includeshuge iconic corporations like Disney,DreamWorks and Saks Fifth Avenue. Butshe also works with writers who need todevelop a platform at a time when a plat-form is usually what is needed to get a

book published.Leah was the author of 20 children's

books by major publishers; several werebought by Hollywood. I suspect that she still harborsa soft spot in her heart for writers and for books.

ANDY ROSS: Leah, we hear a lot about platform inthe publishing business. As in: "This is a brilliant book,a groundbreaking concept likely to change the world.It creates a genuine paradigm shift in consciousness.That said, we feel that the author's platform is weakand not likely to reach a large enough audience. GoodIuck somewhere else." Why can't publishers just makedecisions on the merits of the book?

LEAH KOMAIKO: Good question. I think it's becausethe good old days of publishing, like the good olddays of so many things, are behind us. The editor whodiscovers great material for a book no longer has thebiggest decision-making voice at a publishing hor-rse.

Most often it's the marketing team. First you need thegood material. Then if there's no market, the market-ing department sees no merit regardless of the mate-rial, because they're afraid they won't make anymoney. Most publishers are struggling to stay afloat. Itused to be a business that prided itself on taking bigchances. Now they're trying and needing to changetheir ways. And they're not doing it flawlessly.

ROSS: When writers ask me to define platform, I gen-erally say: "It means that publishers are too stupid,lazy and cheap to promote your book. So you will

Andy Ross, for 30 years the owner of the independentbookstore Cody's Books in Berkeley, is now a literaryagent in Oakland, Calif. This interview is adaptedfrom an entry on his blog, Ask the Agent: NightThoughts about Books and Publishing. [andyrossagency.wordpress.com; Leah Komaiko can be found atwww.leahkomaiko.com / index.html. l

have to do it yourself." Okay. That is pretty glib. Youtell us exactly what they mean by platform.

KOMAIKO: Glib, yet eloquently put! I'dadd to that that publishers up until a

decade or so ago were not focused on be-ing marketers. They knew how to publisha book but not how to sell it. The outletsfor selling were easier-the venues forgetting material, entertainment, infor-mation, were not like they are today.Between blogs, social networks, self-publishing, webcasts, podcasts, informa-

, tion and entertainment you can get on# yoll. cell phone, hundreds of cable TV

f stutions, books on tape, books publishedo on demand, magazines (although they're

crumbling), newspapers (although they are dying),and so much more, face a lot more competition forbuying dollars and publishers are counting on you tohelp them catch up and get them into the marketingbusiness before it's too late. What's a platform? As Isee it, an existing audience. Whether that's on TY, ra-dio, a heavily visited blog (l've heard now publisherswill be interested if you have 3,000 regular visitors atyour site), a police record, etc.-you are known to peo-ple who'd be interested in reading your book. That is,in addition to your family.

ROSS: Hmm. I'm starting to get close to 20,000 hits onthis blog. And I used to steal hubcaps. Maybe there isbig money for me. But let's keep on subject. I believethat publishers are anxious to look at worthy bookseven when authors have a weak platform. But gettingthem to contract is an unbelievably difficult challenge.What exactly can a writer do to build a platform? Drug-addled Hollywood starlets with a cellulite problemdon't need to work on platform. Scholars with en-dowed chairs at Harvard already have platform. Butthe rest of us are platform challenged. What can we do?

KOMAIKO: You would know better than anyone.Editors have got to be frustrated as hell because theycrave worthy books and they need a platform to sellthem. Not everybody is a starlet but plenty of starletsdon't have a platform that can sell a book. RememberVanna Vfhite? What did she get for an advance for herrnemoir-I think it was $3 million plus somebody'shead after it was chopped off and they lost their job. Tobuild a platform we start by looking at what we al-ready have. I've worked with people who had an au-dience they didn't even know they had. Theiraudience looked too small to make a difference, but

Authors Grrild Bulletirt|E wint* ztllo

Continued on page 53

Why Authors SkipHardbackOne noaelist's decision to gostraight to paperback

Bv TEpov Wevrus

n December 2008, at the height-or nadir-of thefinancial crisis, and at a time of massive bloodlet-ting in the publishing industry, I got lucky and sold

my first novel, Kapitoil, to HarperCollins (NWS).Perhaps I owed something, ironically, to the very

recession that made selling novels so difficult: Thestory is set in the New York financial industry in 7999,revolving around a computer program that predictsoil futures and a Muslim protagonist who narrates ina hybridized American business-jargon voice. All any-one could talk about then-and now, for that matter-was the economy. Knpitoil was suddenly hotly topical.

Yet HarperCollins wanted to publish it under itsHarper Perennial imprint, which releases originaltrade paperbacks-no hardcovers. My agent receivedoffers from other houses, too, at least one of which saidit would not rule out a hardcover publication, as thebook should appeal to men in finance, to whom $25 isa pittance (unless they'd worked for Bear Stearns, orLehman Brothers, or . . .). Nevertheless, we went withPerennial and a paperback release.

Had I written thebook in 7999, it almostsurely would have beenpublished as a hardcover,historically the moreprestigious medium anda potentially far more lu-crative one. But howreaders consume bookshas changed, and paper-backs now make mostsense for many books, es-pecially debut novels likemine-and they're likelythe future of publishing.

Hardcover list pricesare usually $22 to $27,whereas paperbacks tendto be $13 to $15. The roy-alty rates for the authors,

however, are where the greatest discrepancies arefound. For hardcovers, the standard royalty percent-age paid to authors is 10% on the first 5,000 copies,72.5"h to 10,000, and 15'l" after. (This full-price rate, bythe way, holds true even if Walmartdecides to deeply discount the hardcover.) For paper-backs, which are usually published one year after thehardcorrer release, it's typically a flat 6"/r, to 8%.

So let's say a $25 novel sells 5,000 copies in hard-cover-strong sales for most debut novels that don'thave the words "Twilight" or "Harry" emblazonedacross their covers. This comes out to $i2,500 in royal-ties paid against the author's advance. Tack on an-other 2,500 in eventual $14 paperback sales at a 7"/"royalty, and it comes out to $14,950. An original paper-back release, then, would have to sell 15,256 copies tomatch the hardcover-plus-paperback royalties-a 2.03-to-1 ratio. So why did I willingly sign on for whatpromises to be lower royalties? Book sales, especiallyfor novels, have declined precipitously, for reasons weall know about--competition from other media, the re-cession, the always-impending death of the novel.

"We're seeing a lot of success with the trade paper-back format, especially over the last few years," AmyBaker, director of marketing for Harper Perennial, ex-plained. "At a lower price-point, we feel that readersare coming to more books. It's a great way to introducenew writers to readers. For a book llke Kapitoil, whichfeatures a young protagonist and is written by a youngdebut author, we felt trade paperback was the formatthat would appeal most to its readership."

A paperback release should result in higher totalsales but probably less money, though this means thewriter has found a larger readership and can poten-tially build off that for a hardcover release of the nextbook. And by choosing a hardcover release, publish-ers risk potential sales cannibalization by e-readerslike the Kindle, which charges just $9.99. The only realproblem with the paperback is that pesky flat royaltyrate.

According to my literary agent, Rosalie Siegel, it'sproving difficult to overturn.

"ln negotiating a contract, whether for a trade pa-p'rerback original or as a follow-up to a hardcovet I al-ways try to get the royalty to escalate after a certainamount of copies sold," she said. "But it's never easy.I have had informal conversations with publishersabout the need to escalate the trade paper royalty ifincreasingly in the future this is the format in whichfiction is published."

Still, a few weeks after the bliss of the sale to

c

-co

Teddy Wnyne's nouel,Kapitoil ( Hnrper Perenninl),

will be publislted in April.He is tlrc recipient ofa 2010 NEA CreatiaeWritittg Felloruship.

Authors cuild Bulletin|E wintr, 20ttl

Cotrtiruted on page 53

CONTRACTS Q&ABv Menr L. LEvrws

Q. I rnrite nnd illustrttte cltildren's books. My contracts saythat the pthlisher is "not responsible for the loss or damageof any material" submitted by me. That's okay for my man-uscript since I hnae a copy on my computer, but zuhat csn Ido about original drawings and watercolors that I submit?

A. Publishers that still have such unqualified, ante-diluvian language in their contracts should be embar-rassed (though I'm not holding my breath). What theypresumably mean to say is that if something happensto your artwork that is not their fault (the buildingbums down, a messenger taking it to another locationis mugged, etc.), they are not responsible. That may beacceptable to you. But if an employee takes a piece ofyour artwork home to hang in his living room orsomeone inadvertently uses it as a placemat when eat-ing lunch at h/h desk, there is absolutely no reasonwhy the publisher shouldn't be responsible

Virtually every publisher recognizes this and, ifasked, will readily qualify the clause you quote with"provided Publisher has exercised reasonable carewith respect thereto" or, at the least, "other than in thecase of Publisher's gross negligence or willful miscon-duct." Although these-especially the first-can beokay, better yet would be "other than in the case ofnegligence, willfulness or reckless misconduct byPublisher, its employees, agents or freelancers."

The reasons why this alternative protects you (andyour work) more than the first two are:

1. A "gross negligence" standard doesn't provideyou much protection. Essentially, it means a majorfoul-up-bordering on either incredible stupidityor intentional recklessness-and isn't always thateasy to prove. "Negligence" (without the adjec-tive), however, is more likely to be the type of(mis)conduct that leads to the damage or loss ofyour artwork. Negligence is "the failure to act as areasonably prudent person would under similarcircumstances" or, briefly speaking, carelessness.Quite simply, the basic question involved iswhether the publisher or you should bear the "riskof loss" for the carelessness of one of the pub-

Mark L. Levine is the founder of BookContracts.com,a site devoted to legal issues related to book publish-ing, and the author of Negotiating rt Book Contract: AGuide for Authors, Agents and Lnzuyers (Asphodel Press,2009).

lisher's employees or freelancers. Even publisherswho are intransigent on other issues should see thevalidity of your position if you phrase it this way.

2. Although mentioning only "negligence" shouldsuffice to encompass standards of conduct that areworse-such as recklessness and willfulness (neg-ligence is by definition unintentional; recklessness,though often bordering on being intentional, isgenerally not either)-specifically mentioning will-fulness and reckless misconduct alongside negli-gence should eliminate any attempt by apublisher's lawyer to argue that negligence meanscarelessness only.

3. Ordinarily speaking, referring solely to conductby "the Publisher" should include any action (orfailure to act) by its employees, freelancers andagents even if those groups of people are not listedin the clause we're talking about. In some situa-tions, however, a company might successfully ar-gue that it acted with proper care in hiring theindividual involved and, as such, is not responsi-ble for certain acts by that person (e.g., ones that itcould not foresee). Listing those groups of individ-uals in the damages clause should eliminate thatpossibility.

Q. I am considering signing n contract directly with anoaerseas publisher, but it refuses to change the clause thatsrys any Inzusttits-whether brottght by it or me-rnust be

conducted exclusiaely in its country. lf it sues me, eaen spu-riottsltl, tlrcre is no way I could traztel there to defend my-self. Any suggestions?

A. This is a provision that publishers frequently refuseto budge on, but here are several alternatives you cantry.

1. Provide that any suit by you against it has tobe in the publisher's country but any suit by itagainst you has to be where you live. Thisshould discourage spurious lawsuits while notpreventing a local lawyer (in whichever coun-try) from being hired to pursue valid claims.

2. Choose a third location that is convenient forboth of you or one that is mutually inconven-ient. Either would put you and the publisher onequal footing, which is what you are presum-ably trying to accomplish.

3. Keep the clause but delete "exclusively." Itgives the publisher a significant part of what itwants but, from your viewpoint, doesn't make

Auflnrs Guilti Bulletirt Bl wi,rtr, 20lo

Continrrcd on pnge 54

LEGAL WATCHHot Packs lced

Bl acku ell P ublishin g, In c., Els ea ie r, ln c., O xfor dUniuersity Press lnc., Sage Publication, lnc., €t lohttWiley €t Sons,Inc. o. Excel Resenrclt Group, LLC

U.S. District Court, Eostern District of Michignn,Sonthern Diaisiott

f,xcel Test Preparation, Coursepacks and CopiesIj("Excel") is a business owned by Norman Miller inAnn Arbor, Mich. It provides three business services:test preparation, ad hoc copying and student coursep-acks.

At issue in the case was Excel's provision ofcoursepacks to students. At the University of Michi-gan, when a university professor needs a coursepackprepared, he or she brings Excel photocopies of thecontent to be included. Excel assembles the contentsinto a "master copy," numbers the pages by hand, andmaintains the master copy at the copy shop. Exceltakes steps to ensure that the master remains a goodquality copy, and occasionally has to send employeesback to the original sources to recopy pages. Studentswho need coursepacks go to Excel and fill out severalforms, including an affirmation that they are purchas-ing the coursepack for academic purposes. Excel thenprovides the students with the master copy, which thestudents must photocopy themselves. Excel pays nofees to the original publishers of the materials in thecoursepack, which, by Excel's own admission, enableit to charge a lower copying fee to the students. Sinceeach student was personally required to make a copyfor individual nse, Excel believed it had the right to en-gage in such practice without paying royalties to pub-lishers who held copyrights in the the coursepackmaterial or to otherwise obtain permission from thepublishers for the use of the material.

Blackwell Publishing, Inc., Elsevier, Inc., OxfordUniversity Press Inc., Sage Publication, Inc., & |ohnWiley & Sons,Inc. all filed copyright infringement ac-

tions against Excel, claiming it violated their rights ofreproduction and distribution under 17 USC $106 ofthe Copyright Act by providing copying services for33 specific coursepacks to students at the Universityof Michigan, Ann Arbor, without paying the publish-ers who owned the rights in the materials copied orotherwise securing permission from them before do-ing so.

In evaluating the publishers' copyright infringe-ment claims, the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of

Michigan, Southern Division, noted that the publishersmust prove ownership of the relevant copyright-protected materials as well as actttal copying of saidmaterials by Excel. In this case, the publishers asserted33 copyrights in Works copied by Excel, and Excel didnot dispute the publishers'copyright ownership inter-ests in such. However, Excel asserted three separate ar-guments to support its claim that it did not wrongfullycopy the Works. Excel first alleged that all of the pub-lishers have authorized copying of their copyrightprotected materials, including the creation of thecoursepacks made at Excel's premises by the students.It next claimed that the publishers did not contend thatthe students or professors are infringers, which Excelasserted would be a prerequisite to finding Excel liablefor copyright infringement. Finally, Excel claimed thatits activities fell within the fair use provision of theCopyright Act. The court considered Excel's argu-ments in tum.

In evaluating whether the publishers authorizedthe reproduction of the materials for coursepacks, thecourt noted that agreements were in place between theuniversity and the publishers that specifically allowedfor accessing and copying the relevant materials by"authorized users." However, the contracts limited the"authorized users" group to students and other mem-bers of the university, as opposed to an independentlyrun off-site copy shop like Excel. The court found thatonly four of 33 works that were included in thecoursepacks fell within the scope of the licensingagreements. Moreover, the licensing agreement madeit clear that students could print and download mate-rials only on university presses, using university facil-ities-not by going to an external third party copyshop and paying it for the right to copy the materials.Coupled with the fact that Excel made money fromstudents copying coursepacks at Excel's shop, thecourt concluded that the publishers did not authorizeExcel to act as caretaker and copy outlet provider ofthe materials at issue.

The court also rejected Excel's allegation that to befound guilty of copyright infringement, the studentsand professors would have to be found guilty as well.The court noted that the publishers do not contendthat the students or professors were infringing theirrights. Rather, since Excel was the source of reproduc-tion, having control over the copying process fromsupplying paper to controlling how and where themaster copy was reproduced, the court held Excelresponsible for the unauthorized reproduction. More-

Arrtlnrs Cuitd Butlctin|El wi,,tr, 2utt,t

over, the court held that Excel's delivery of the "mas-ter" to students to copy was in violation of the pub-lishers' Section 106 rights under the Copyright Act,which makes the right to lend a work an exclusiveright of the copyright holder or proprietor of the ex-clusive rights. The court also noted that Excel engagedin unauthorized distribution when it gave course-packs to students to copy and again when studentspaid Excel to copy the material.

Finally, in regard to Excel's claim that its activitiesconstituted fair use under Section 107 of the CopyrightAct, the court found that prior case law held that for-profit copy shops like Excel could not lawfully repro-duce copyright protected material under the "fair use"provision. As such, the court noted that Excel wouldhave had to obtain permission from the publishers andpay their required fees before it could rightfully en-gage in coursepack distribution.

Ultimately, the court found Excel liable for copy-right infringement and liable to pay the publishers'damages, which are yet to be determined.

Domain Strain

TRS Quality,Inc. a. Gu BeiWIPO Arbitration nnd Mediation CenterAdm i n is t rnt iu e P anel D ec ision

\[/nen TRS Quality Inc. (TRSQ) learned that GuV Y Bei, a Chinese citizen, had registered the domain

name "radioshacksucks.com," it was none toopleased, since it licenses its highly distinctive and fa-mous trademark, "Radioshack" (and other derivationsof said term), to RadioShack Corporation, the well-known electronics retailer and service provider. OnAugust 7,2009, TRSQ filed a complaint with the Worldlntellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against GuBei, alleging trademark infringement over the useof the domain name "radioshacksucks.com," whichTRSQ believes is misleadingly similar to TRSQ's"Radioshack" trademark and "Radioshack.com" do-main name. TRSQ further asserted that Gu Bei was notusing "radioshacksucks.com" as a site for genuine crit-icism, but to lure Web browsers to a different websitehosting pay-per-click links that generated revenues forGu Bei-thereby exploiting the Radioshack trademarkfor profit as opposed to functioning as a noncommer-cial or fair use of the domain name. The case washeard by a one-person panel, with neither a responsenor an appearance by Gu Bei.

In its decision, the panel noted that the UniformDispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)-a set of rules thatgovern the recovery of wrongfully registered domain

Legal Services Scorecard

From August 2 through December 2,2009, theAuthors Guild Legal Service Department handled389 legal inquiries. Included were:

34 book contract reviews

4 agency contract reviews

10 reversion of rights inquiries

109 inquiries on copyright law, includinginfringement, registration, duration andfair use

13 inquiries regarding securing permissionsand privacy releases

20 electronic rights inquiries

199 other inquiries (including literary estates,contract disputes, periodical and multi-media contracts, movie and televisionoptions, Internet piracy, liability insur-ance, finding an agent, and attomeyreferrals)

names-required TRSQ to prove the following beforethe panel could take action to reclaim the domainname on behalf of TRSQ: i) that the domain nameradioshacksucks.com, registered by Gu Bei, was iden-tical or confusingly similar to the domain name"radioshack.com"; ii) that Gu Bei had no rights or le-gitimate interests with respect to the domain name"radioshacksucks.com," and iii) that the domain name"radioshacksucks.com" had been registered and usedin bad faith by Gu Bei.

In regard to whether the domain name "radioshacksucks.com" was identical or confusingly similarto the domain name "radioshack.com," the panelfound ample evidence that TRSQ owned a number ofderivations of the trademark "RadioShack" and thatthe domain name "radioshacksucks.com" is confus-ingly similar to TRSQ's "radioshack.com" since itutilized the entire trademark "RadioShack" in the do-main name. While the panel noted that there are anumber of conflicting prior decisions as to whether theaddition of a descriptive term like "sucks," a deroga-tory word, would make it unlikely that Internet userswould be confused as to source and affiliation, thepanel took the position of those earlier decisions,which held that some people may overlook the term"sucks" in the domain name and that not every user

Attthors Guitd BulletitrE wi,rtq zoto

Cotiinued on page 50

CENSORSHIP WATCHBanned in China, Published in Hong Kong. Twentyyears of research and writing came to fruition for oneChinese academic this fall thanks to the greater free-doms enjoyed by a Hong Kong publisher, NewCentury Press, and its activist editor, Bao Pu. HongKong remains unencumbered by some of the restric-tions on free speech prevalent in mainland China, a sit-uation often referred to as "one country, two systems."The difference is so pronounced that at least one book-store, the People's Recreation Community bookstore,specializes in the sale of Hong Kong-published booksbanned by the mainland govemment. Chinese Cioilisa'tion Reuisited, a critical exploration of 5,000 years ofChinese history and culture by journalist Xiao Jian-sheng, had originally been scheduled for publicationin 2008 by a mainland Chinese publisher associatedwith the government's social sciences academy. The

Florida Nails a Flim Flam ManOn September 3, 2009, after receiving over 175

complaints from around the world, FloridaAttorney General Bill McCollum filed a lawsuitagainst Robert Fletcher, the owner of Writer'sLiterary Agency, as well as a host of other ficti-tious literary agencies that operated solely on theWeb and are all alleged to be run by Fletcher.Specifically, the lawsuit claims that Fletcher oper-ated more than 20 websites, all of which pur-ported to be legitimate literary agencies, but inactuality functioned to collect money fromprospective authors by charging fees for a host ofservices that were never rendered, including edit-ing, critiquing, and marketing services. Fletcherhas already admitted he had no background as aliterary agent and used at least 10 different aliasesto scam potential authors. The lawsuit seeks in-junctive relief against Fletcher and his businessesand seeks to prohibit him from pursuing furtherbusiness activities as an agent or in publishing.The lawsuit also seeks full monetary restitution onbehalf of all of his victims. in addition to civilpenalties of $10,000 for each violation of theFlorida Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.We will continue to follow this story and reportany further developments.

manuscript was edited, and the book was being adver-tised for sale when it was cancelled. Although thebook does not contain detailed commentary on the po-litical situation in China after the 1949 Communisttakeovet it appears that the government pulled theplug on publication. Nor does the greater freedom ofthe Hong Kong press mean that publication is withoutconsequence for either its author or publisher. Govern-ment officials reportedly came to Xiao jiansheng'sworkplace to exert pressure on him after leaming thatthe publication was timed to coincide with the October1 National Day holiday celebrations. The Hong Kong-based Bao Pu, son of an aide to Zhao Ziyang, a Com-munist secretary who fell out with party leaders-inparticular over his sympathizing with the 1989 Tianan-men Square protesters-and who lived under housearrest until his death, is already under constant policesurveillance and at the mercy of Beijing officials whenit comes to obtaining visas to visit his family on themainland.

Europe Tells Turkey to Straighten Up and Fly Right.Turkey isn't doing itself any favors in its efforts to jointhe European Union by levying billion-dollar finesagainst media companies, or by bringing and allowinglawsuits against journalists and writers such as OrhanPamuk, the Nobel Laureate who is now being sued formaking a remark about the number of Kurds and Ar-menians killed in Turkey. In its annual progress reportissued on October 74,EU officials identified variousactions taken by the Turkish government, including at-tempts to suppress free expression, as creating a bar-rier to EU entry. The report paid particular attentionto the government's irnposition of a tax penalty equiv-alent to $3.9 billion dollars on Turkey's biggest mediaoutlet, Dogan Yayin, which is critical of the rulingparty. Apparently; the amount of the fine is as much as

the company's annual income, a fact that led the EU tocharacterize the penalty as something that "feels like a

political sanction." The report did praise the Turkishgovernment's recent efforts to ease hostilities withArmenia and improve relations with the Kurds. How-evet the continued objections of France and Germany,along with the criticism of Turkey's actions as threatsagainst free speech, make it appear as though EU mem-bership is unlikely to be granted in the near future.

Atfthors Gttild Bulk'titt|El wi,rtu, zrnrl

-Anitn Fore

SYMPOSIUM

What's Hot and What's Not:Current Trends in

Children's Book PublishingWhat's selling-and what's likely to be selling next year-was the subject of lively dis-cussion at the Children's Book Panel sponsored by the Authors Guild Foundation |uly8 at Scandinavia House in New York. The panel brought together five well-versed chil-dren's book veterans: Kim Brown, Bames & Noble's Vice President of Merchandise atthe time of the panel, is currently VP for B&N's Sterling Innovation imprint; LisaDesimini is the author and/or illustrator of 30 children's books, including the award-winning My House, I Am Running Atuay and Loae Letters; David Levithan is both a chil-dren's book author and the Executive Editorial Director of Scholastic Press Fiction,multimedia publishing and the PUSH imprint; Marcia Wernick is a children's book lit-erary agent at Sheldon Fogelman Agency, representing award-winning authors and il-lustrators including Katherine Applegate, PegW Rathmann and Mo Willems. CouncilMember Rachel Vail, the author of more than 30 young adult novels and children'sbooks, including the award-winning Wonder and Do-Oaer and the "Friendship" and"Mama Rex and T" series, served as moderator.

RACHEL VAIL: Thank you all for coming out on thisbeautiful night, to this beautiful space. I'm detghtedto see so many people here, but not surprised, because,as authors, we tend to be alone in a room. It's hard toknow what's going on, and yet it's vital for an authorto know what's going on, what's new, what's hot andwhat's not. Not that you're going to write vampirebooks because vampire books are on the top of thebestseller list right now; when your love is picturebooks for two-to-four-year-olds that have to do withpuppies, you don't have to make the puppy a vam-pire! It's not about following the trends. But one of thethings I've learned from being a part of the AuthorsGuild is that it is important as an author to take full re-sponsibility for your work, and that doesn't just meanyour sentences-it means the business of the work aswell. So I'm delighted to be joined here by all of you inpursuing this part of our "what's going on in the field"sessions, and certainly by the esteemed panel mem-bers you see before you. I'm going to let each of them

speak for a few minutes, and then we're going to openit up to your questions.

Kim, do you want to start?

KIM BROWN: I'd like to outline what we're seeing inretail. We have two basic things that are selling verywell. Anything that's pink, purple, gold and sparkle,and anything that's dark purple and black and has anytype of vampire on it. I'm sorry, but that's really what'sselling. You could throw some wimpy kids in there,anything in the diary format, and that pretty muchwraps up what we're seeing customers responding toright now.

The economy affects us all, and while kids'booksare a little more protected because, I think, parents arestill committed to buying books for their children, theystill look at price point and it's very important that wedon't really push that envelope. \A/hat we're seeing inthe price resistance category big time are toddler andpreschool. Holiday books, picture books and classics.

Attthors Guild BuIIetinE wirrtr, 2an

A customer comes in and picks up a picture bookthat's eighteen or nineteen dollars and she's going toput it back down and pick something a little less ex-pensive. So unless it's offering something with someperceived value or something that's very unique, likeWorkman's Waddle, Swing books or the "ologies," cus-tomers really aren't paying the extra one, two, threedollars for their books.

A couple of areas where we see less price resistanceare some of the nonfiction books-again, if the cus-tomer perceives the value-and teen. Teens have in-credible buying power and they've had this buyingpower for the last ten years. Every year I say, "It can'tcontinue, it really can't. The pace is ctazy, you know,one of these years it's going to stop." But it hasn't. It'sbeen incredible to watch this growth. It's absolutelyastonishing. And it's everything from Dark Romanceto Zombies, and, you know, misery has its foothold asalways in the teen category. And if we can figure outhow to get teens to recommend books to other teenson the Internet, I think it's a surefire way to keep thissales trend going. We're using a lot of Internet promo-tions and publicity, with authors recommending otherauthors and that really is working. I don't know themagic formula. I wish I did.

,t!r Lirl* I1r _;t fl-

VAIL: That's fantastic. Right there I got my money'sworth. Lisa?

LISA DESIMINI: I needed to hear that too. I am oneof the author/illustrators who sits at home by myself,working in my pajamas, wondering what's going to bethe next hot thing out there. But for the most part, I fol-low trends when it's kind of something I want to doanyway. Being invited to be on this panel made mestop and think about it a little bit and I went andlooked at all the books that I've published over the lasttwenty years and I said, "Hmm, okay, which ones arestill selling, which ones am I still making royalties for,"and I realized that it was the folktales and a collectionof poetry that had a really interesting hook. And thenthere's this one book that my editor asked me to write.She said, "You know, my son really loves firemen andfire trucks," which most kids do, both boys and girls.But she said, "He's really interested in fire dogs andthere are really no books on the market. Would you beinterested in doing a book about a fire dog?" I reallyhad no interest in doing a book about a fire dog. But Iwas really excited about the idea of having a chal-lenge, and of having somebody almost give me an as-signment, because I loved school and I loved being a

Authors Guild Foundation President Sidney Offit with panelists Kim Brown, Lisa Desimini,Daaid Leoithan. Marcin Wernick and moderator Rachel VaiI

Authors Guitd Btilletin@ win n zoto

student. So I said, "Well, I'm going to take that chal-lenge on."

My first love is fantasy and magic, which alwaysseems to be very populaq, which I'm happy about. So Ifirst thought Okay, I'll give my fire dog wings, or I'llgive him some magic powers. But it wasn't quiteworking and I shifted to more of a straightforwardchildren's book, like a day in the life of a fire dog,which was hard for me to do, it was against my nature.It took me a while but I finally found a voice, a muchyounger voice, and I really enjoyed writing this book.So it's kind of fun to be brought to a subject in a differ-ent way. It wasn't so much what was popular, it wasmore like talking to a mom who said, you know, "Myson is looking for this and he can't find it. Would yoube interested in doing it?" Well, I have to say, that bookhas sold more than all of my books put together. So, ofcourse my husband's like, "Will you write Dot the FireDog Number lI?"

After that experience I started opening up mymind a little bit and asking other friends, "What kindof books does your child Like?" Or asking my nephewswhat kinds of things they like to read. I have to say, it'spretty varied, from monsters and fantasy to rhymingbooks to books about family. For the most part, I'vefollowed my heart and soul. When my heart and soulis in something,I will do anything to make it work. Ofcourse I pay attention if my editor says to me, "Well,maybe simpler books or younger books are doing a lit-tle bit better." Then maybe I'll take the subject I'm in-terested in and maybe simplify it a little bit.

But I still find that I'm obsessive. A lot of artists are.Obsession and passion is a nice mixture, so if I gethooked on something I'm interested in I won't let it gountil I can figure it out and work it into a story.Sometimes it has to go on the back burner and sit for a

while and it maybe won't sell until the next year or sixmonths and I'm working on something else that mightsell sooner-you know, always working on a fewthings at once.

Talking about vampires I had to laugh, because Iactually do the covers for the Charlaine Haris books,the Tiue Blood series. These are adult books-I just dothe covers. And for eight or nine years I've been doingthese books and I've seen them become huge and pop-ular all over the world. And I go visit schools and I'mtalking to fifth- and sixth-graders, and the kids ask me,"Well, do you like vampires?" And I say, "Yeah, youknow, I love vampires and magical creatures andstuff." And then they ask me about this book, and I al-most was speechless, because these books are not forfifth- or sixth-graders. They are filled with vampiresex. I mean some rough vampire sex! I was in shock.My art style is brightly colored and stylized, and what

"My philosophy is, you never know

when your book that is not

following a trend, will start one.

So, I like to keep things open."

-Lisa Desimini

it made me realize is that kids that age simply love thesupernatural and vampires. I've seen it work its wayall the way down to picture books. I just did an illus-tration for a possible picture book called GummyBaby, the Toothless Vampire. So I see that the super-natural is so popular, in all the different age groups,which is thrilling for me because that's what I love.

Also, it seems that biographies are getting popularfor picture books, and I like them a lot. Books likeDizzy and Frida, I love those books. I just finisheda book about Bettie Mae Tiger fumper, a SeminoleIndian who became the first woman chief of her tribe.And she also wrestled alligators, that's the reason I il-lustrated the book, because it was just wonderful. Butthat was a beautiJul biography written in a very poeticway. An unusual picture book: it's a forty-eight-pagepicture book for older kids, which I'd never seen be-fore. I was very shocked. I think it's for third-, fourth-,fifth-graders. The last thing I wanted to say is that myphilosophy is, you never know when your book thatis nof following a trend, will start one. So, I like to keepthings open.

VAIL: Lisa, there are two things I want to mentionabout what you said. One is,I like the idea of roughvampire sex, as opposed to the other kind. And also, I

Anthors Guild Bulletin E wintr, 2010

think it's very interesting what you're highlighting. Ithink sometimes we as artists get very stuck in, "No,I'm going to stay true to my vision." The opposite of,"I'm gonna follow any trend and just be blown by thewind." But I think what you're highlighting is the ideathat we can be true to ourselves and to our creativityand still be open to a suggestion and to the world. Andif somebody says, "But what about a day in the life ofa firehouse dog-?" That might not be your thing-until you try it.I think you made a good point, to stayopen to the suggestions of the world-which clearlyyou all are because you wouldn't be here otherwise.David.

DAVID LEVITHAN: Two disclaimers: The first is thatI am here as an individual. I am a writer who doeshave a day job, my day job happens to be for a pub-lisher, but you're about to get my take on things, notnecessarily Scholastic's take on things. So don't blameScholastic for anything I say. The second disclaimer isthat, because of where we are, the rest of my remarkswill be in Swedish. I remember Victor Borge from theMuppet Show-that's what that was. There are somany ways to tackle the subject of where we are now.What I feel is remarkable about right now is how littleright now matters, and how profoundly things areabout to change.I think looking at right now, and try-ing to figure out what you're gonna do or where pub-lishing is going, isn't what you should be doing. Ifyou're trying to catch a trend, by the time you get tothe trend, it's already left the station. That has alwaysbeen true of children's books and teen books. What-ever makes the trend is the book that is the best-sell-ing. None of the other vampire books will ever sell aswell as Twilight. None of the other magic books thatcame after Harry Potter would sell as well as HarryPotter. Etcetera. You can catch a little bit of a wave. butnow that "vampire" is cresting, by the time you gotthere it's already pretty flooded. It's selling, absolutely.I'm the author of a vampire parody book, so ['m cer-tainly on that wave too, but again, that's not what mat-ters. If you're interested in children's publishing and ifyou're interested in book publishing, what matters isthe sea change that is about to occur.

We are exactly where the music industry was eightor nine years ago. Everything is about to change andthe question is, what's going to happen because of it?We'll be recognizable ten years from now, but the waythat we read, the way that we write, the way that wepublish will absolutely have changed. If you don't be-lieve that, you're in for a rude awakening. So the ques-tion is, how will we adapt? I wish I had all the answersand I'm sure you all have come up with theories, but Ithink what's really interesting is to see that we are all

sort of going-not blindly, but in some very goodfaith-forward, and realizing that we have to adapt tothe reading environment that we are now in. It seemsthat it's the wonderful strange bedfellows of scaryand exciting, because I think the possibilities are bothextraordinarily scary and extraordinarily exciting. Ex-ploring that-getting over the scary part and gettingto the exciting part and figuring out how to make surethe work remains ascendant even if the delivery de-vice is going to change-is the challenge before us. Aspublishers, as retailers, as authors. We're all in thesame boat and we all want the same thing. We wantthose words to continue to go out there in all sorts offorms. I think the future is not about replacement; it'sabout options, and I think the sooner you realize thatthe less scary it is.

I think people are very attached to books, as theyshould be; the book is a beautiful device. The book is-n't going to go away anytime soon or anytime ever.Howevet there are going to be more options for read-ing. And as authors, the question isn't, "Are we allbook writers?" but "Are we writers of stories, peoplewho string words together?" I think if you think ofyourself in the way of the story and not in the way ofthe book, that opens you up greatly to what is about tohappen. That's the most profound thing right now. Weare going to digitize, with a huge asterisk here, becauseI feel like I'm talking to half the audience here. I do notthink the picture book industry is going to have as rad-ical a change. I absolutely think there are going to bemore options, but my authorial concern is novels andthat's really where I'm coming from. So yeah,I think ifyou're looking at the present, it is really exploringwhat's going on by looking at the apps on the iPhones,by looking at the way retailers are selling books andreally shaping their stores to be community centers.And also, the way that they're selling books in othernontraditional ways. That's the best thing that you cando to prepare yourself for what's going to happen.

VAIL: Just one thing to add. The best way that you canparticipate in this change, know what's happeningand make sure that your contract rights are being pro-tected as platforms change is to join the Authors Guild.It's the most cost-effective way to protect yourself. TheAuthors Guild has been doing a tremendous amountof work on the Google lawsuit and all kinds of otherthings to protect authors' rights as things change. AndDavid is absolutely right, we have no way of knowingexactly what the delivery mechanisms will be. Thingsare changing like crazy and over the next ten yearsthings will be sort of ironed out. But your contract isgoing to last longer than that. The contract that yousign tomorrow-you want the Guild to look over it,

Atihors Guilrl Bulletin@ win,n zolo

"It took radio 38 years to reach

an audience of 50 million people.

It took TV 13 years to reach

50 million; the Internet, four years;

the iPod, three years and Facebook

two years. Those are not trends;

those are absolute changes.

And publishers are afraid."

-MarciaWernick

you want to be a part of what the Guild is doing. So ifyou're not a member, sign up.

Finally, Marcia Wernick. . .

MARCIA WERNICK: To follow up on David's com-ments, yes, I think a major change will be occurring. Iread a statistic recently that it took radio thirty-eightyears to reach an audience of fifty million people. Ittook TV thirteen years to reach fifty million; theInternet, four years; the iPod, three years andFacebook two years. Those are not trends; those are ab-solute changes. And publishers are afraid. And pub-lishers are being very cautious. The wonderfulenthusiasm for YA's is, I think, going to slow down.And yes, Kim said, "It can't keep going, it can't keepgoing." I think, between demographics and publish-ers being more cautious, that it will be tougher to getas many YA's published as there have been. I thinkacross the board publishers are being more cautious

and will be publishing less. So what does that do foryou? You can't follow trends in any way, shape orform. Yes, I think the next trend is the dystopian novelbut the other day I was talking to an editor who hadforty-five novels submitted to her in a month. Theywere all dystopian novels. She already had one on herlist so she didn't buy any of them. The competition isfierce. But it's really exciting out there. There's somuch creative force, so much competition to do thebest. As an agent, my feeling is that content is king.And yes, what David is saying about the story, aboutbeing a storyteller-that's what you do. That is yourjob. You need to be looking at characters, you need tobe looking at stories, and creating the most powerfulstories and characters that you possibly can. It's alsoIooking at and being aware of the market and findinga hook. Yes, the fire dog. There is an unusual market.Kids like fire trucks. So that's a hook. Curriculum-based stories. That has a natural hook. So you have tobe true to your creative muse, but you have to beaware of what the retail market can wrap itself around.And you can't think about the trends, you have towrite the best book that you possibly can.

VAIL: Thank you. That really sums it up: Be aware ofthe trends, but don't be blindly following them, right?Okay, let's open it up to questions.

AUDIENCE: I have a question for all of you, but in re-sponse to something that Marcia said. I've heard re-cently that the YA market is slowing down, but what'scoming up is the middle grade and 'tween, and Iwanted to know, first, what your opinion is of all that,and second, if you could articulate what exactly thedifferences are between teen and 'tween. Where does'tween end and teen begin?

VAIL: They're hard, right? I mean middle grade-Ialways hated that term because to me it sounded likea value judgment. "You write good books?" "Well, sortof middle grade books." Or else like a porn category-It's not hardcore, it's more, you know, middle grade.So I always hated that and young adult. I started writ-ing when I was twenty-two or twenty-one, and youngadult? I wasn't sure I was yet a young adult. At thatpoint, I knew I wasn't a teenager, I wasn't sure if I wasa kid anymore, but certainly it was clear to me that Iwas not any brand of adult. I figure, noru l'm finally ayoung adult. So I'm just going to clutch onto that andkeep thinking that.

WERNICK: I think that it's the age of the protagonist.So if you're writing for a young adult, it's usually atleast twelve, thirteen and up and generally targetedfor readers twelve and up. In middle grade novels theprotagonist is younger, nine to twelve, and it's geared

Authors Guittt Bulletin @ wi,rtr, 2oto

for those readers, often referred to as 'tweens. There'sa younger range of books as well, called early or be-ginning chapter books, or young middle grade novels.Publishers are definitely looking for these youngerbooks, targeted for readers ages seven to ten. And theprotagonist,like a Clementine, is a third-grader. Thethings that happen to a third-grader are very differentfrom what happens to a seventh- or eighth-grader. It'salso less dramatic, but it has to be a really strong read.But what happens to a third-grader is much simpler. Ithink one of the reasons that it's so difficult to writethe younger age group is because as adults our memo-ries of that age group are less vivid.

AUDIENCE: What is that called, if it's about a third-grader? Is that middle grade?

WERNICK: Young middle grade. Or early or begin-ning chapter books.

AUDIENCE: fust to clarify,I thought kids generallyread protagonists that are two to three years older, soif the character is fourteen. . .

WERNICK: Yes they do, but not always. There's anumber of books,like the Clementine books and JudyMoody, where the protagonist is in third grade and thereaders of that can range from second to fourth grade.They will be a little younger/ but they can also be ofthat age. Kids, at that age, will read a broader range ofbooks.

AUDIENCE: Can you define the dystopian children'snovel?

WERNICK: Bad timesl Hunger Games, by SuzanneCollins, Gone by Michael Grant. It's about bad times.It's a trend in full swing. Publishers have them, pub-lishers have bought them, they're coming out, there'sa lot of competition. You have to create something thattakes your novel a step further or in a diJferent way, toadd your own personal and original hook to it. Bear inmind that years ago everyone said about HistoricalFiction, "You can't get it sold." And, if you had said, aHolocaust novel, "Oh please, not another Holocaustnovel." But Markus Zusak, The Book Thief, did it insuch a different way. That is what you as a creativeperson have to think about, how to take the tried andtrue format and make it your own. Come at it differ-ently; make it unique.

VAIL: I have a follow-up question to that. We're in arecession, a pretty big one, and it Iooks like it will con-tinue at least for a few years. Historically, when timesare hard economically, have we seen more dystopiannovels or do we see a lot of light reading? When I thinkabout the Depression, the popular entertainment of

the time was not so much dystopian stuff, but a lot ofhumor.

WERNICK: Humor always sells.

VAIL: Okay. Does anything correlate to the economic...?WERNICK: No. I think we're in a very different eco-nomic place than children's books have ever been. So Idon't know I don't see a correlation.

BROWN: What we're seeing is Romance. Since lastyear, Romance works for adults have really started tosell for kids. But "end-of-the-world" type children'sbooks really started with the adult trend. We saw a lotof sales increases in adult and then teens started look-ing at them. People read up. So teens are reading theadult, horrible, tragic books and now they want theirown.

VAIL: So do you see that children's book trends tendto follow adult book trends to some extent?

BROWN: I think there's a lot of crossover, especiallynow with the teen reader. Sometimes it's hard to tellwho the book is really for, if it's adult or if it's teen. Ialso wonder sometimes if adults aren't picking up teenbooks because they're more affordable.

VAIL: Interesting. Okay, next.

AUDIENCE: Has the economic situation led to fewerhardcover sales and more paperback ones?

BROWN: Trade paperback has been the format ofchoice for many years now but we're also seeingbooks for young readers coming out in hardcove{, andthat's actually working. So I guess there's really norhyme or reason.

VAIL: Kim, when you say it's the format of choice,what do you mean by that?

BROWN: I meant for adultbooks. Trade paperback hasreally risen over the last five, eight years. Mass markethas gone down some and trade paperback has takenover mass market and hardcover, all across the board.And you're seeing a lot of that in kids'books as well.

WERNICK: I also think that publishers are gettingmuch more creative in the packaging of their books.That they are thinking individually about the bookand-whether paper or board-keeping the pricepoint down. I'm seeing more unjacketed paper-over-board picture books at a lower price point.

VAIL: (to audience) Do you know what paper-over-board means? Do you want a definition? Kim couldyou define that?

Atttlrcrs Cuitd BulletinEl wi,rtt z0l0

"We're in a recession, a pretty big

one, and it looks like it will continue

at leastfor afew years. . . .When

I think about the Depression,

the popular entertainment of the time

was not so much dystopian stuff,

but a lot of humor."

-RachelVail

WERNICK: It doesn't have a jacket. [Holds upStddenly Supernntural,by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel.l Sothis is priced at $10.99 and it's a hardcover. It's an orig-inal hardcover. It's a first in a series of paranormalmiddle grade books, and again, it's taking a trend ofthe supernatural that was established for YA andbringing it down to middle grade in a very acceptableformat.

VAIL: If you've seen A Series of Unfortunate Eaents,those have beautiful packaging of paper-over-board. Iknow my kids liked the books. They liked them likethey did lots of other books, but the series looked sogood on the bookshelf that missing two out of the thir-teen was unacceptable. Even though they had alreadyread them, they needed to fill in their set. So that's a

nice marketing thing too.

AUDIENCE: I was wondering about marketing andprint runs. When I started publishing there were a lot

of regular runs and now I don't think publishers giveany money to keep a book in print unless they run a

hundred thousand up front. Do you have any com-ment on that?

WERNICK: There's a big space between ten thousandand one hundred thousand, so . . . not all books are onehundred thousand copies.

VAIL: \A/hat's a typical print run?

WERNICK: I don't think there is a typical one.

LEVITHAN: It really depends on the book. It dependson whether it's primarily for institutions, for the li-brary, or whether it's more of a trade book.

AUDIENCE: It seems that publishers are dependingalmost entirely on trade sales because they've dis-missed all the direct marketers and sales people inconnection with the school libraries. The school librarydoesn't seem to be as much of a factor.

WERNICK: It used to be that the school library mar-ket was probably, I don't know, 78 percent of sales.That's not the case anymore. But there's still a marketfor school library sales. We all know that funding hasdropped, but that doesn't mean it's not there.

AUDIENCE: How much are awards and critical re-ception related to sales?

DESIMINI: I've had books that have gotten a lot of at-tention and won a lot of awards and the sales were justnot great. And then I've had books like the one I wastelling you about, Dottg the Fire Dog.I actually got theworst review of my life for that book. It sold tremen-dously and I had parents telling me, "I have to hide thebook because I'm tired of reading it." So that just per-plexed me and I thought, basically, I just want to tryand write, do the best I can, do the best book I can doand then whatever happens, happens. You just neverknow.

VAIL: It's true that if you win the Newbery if you winthe Prince award, you're going to have a big bump insales. But what about state awards? I've heard that ifyou win the Texas award or even if you get on the list,you sell. They're state reading awards and, I think, ifyour book is on the list, Texas or Tennessee is going tosell a big truckload of your books.

So that's a way that awards make a difference. Doyou see a difference with the Lambda award, or any-thing like that?

LEVITHAN: Somewhat. I think the Newbery andCaldecott are in a category of their own, the Prince notas major yet. It gives you a bump, but not quite asmuch as the Newbery or the Caldecott. I think the state

Arithors Guild BulletinEl wintu zlto

"One of the few things we know

concretely about Kindle is that the

primary demographic for their

readership is over 60. This is because

you can make the words bigger.

So we have not been seeing a huge

number of teenagers running out

and buying Kindles or

Sonv Readers. Yet."

-David Levithan

awards are hugely influential for authors in thosestates. Reviews matter not so much. I think that theyaffect the institutional buy a lot and certainly if you geta lot of rave reviews and a lot of star reviews. thatmakes a lot more people pay much more attention. Soa huge mass of good reviews helps; I don't think onereview will make or break your book unless it's byStephenie Meyer, then it can.

VAIL: If the review is by Stephenie Meyer.

LEVITHAN: Right. Or if she blurbs it on her website.I think authors are doing a great job of blurbing otherauthors on their websites now and we are seeing thatthat does have concrete results-that if you trust anautho{, if you love an author, and that author says youhave to go out and read this book, it's really going to

help. Especially if it's Stephenie Meyer, the Oprah ofyoung adult marketing. But she uses her power forgood. So I think ihat we are seeing that. Because ofFacebook, because of websites, because of the commu-nication, not only are teens listening to other teens,they're listening to other authors as well. So those rec-ommendations mean much more than a good review.

AUDIENCE: My question is about new platforms. Iread that the fapanese have invented a new readingdevice in full color spectrum. And I wonder to whatextent the book industry is starting to feel the effectsof downloads of books, print on demand, and if thegraphic novel, for example, which seems to span theold and the new media, has had an impact on chil-dren's books?

VAIL: Last year a friend of mine who does videogames asked me what platforms I had and I said,"Some metallic ones . . ." I thought he meant shoes!Platforms, for those of us who are a little behind thecurve, is what you're reading something on or whatyou're playing it on. Is it on Wii on the computer, onthe Kindle? So that's the question about platforms and,apart from this, this lady says that the Japanese havealready invented a Kindle-like thing that has full color.How has the children's book industry already been af-fected?

LEVITHAN: I would say that the children's book in-dustry, so far, has not been affected. But man, we'reabout to be.

VAIL: Brace for impact!

LEVITHAN: Exactly. One of the few things we knowconcretely about Kindle is that the primary demo-graphic for their readership is over sixty. This is be-cause you can make the words bigger. So we have notbeen seeing a huge number of teenagers running outand buying Kindles or Sony Readers. Yet. Personally, Ibelieve that when Apple releases a tablet-a tablet be-ing a big-screen iPod or big-screen iPhone-whenteens and kids can read their books on a device thatthey already own, then it's going to cross over and theeagle take off. Hopefully we'll be right there with itand prepared. We have not converted yet and we arenot overly dependent upon the other platforms yet be-cause our readership is not there yet, but part of it isgoing to be soon.

VAIL: Do you anticipate a big shift in the textbook in-dustry for example? I have a fourteen-year-old whosebackpack weighs twice what he weighs, and I'm won-dering if that will change soon. Also, textbooks are ex-pensive, they need io be updated constantly. I'mwondering if you foresee a big market for that?

Atttlnrs Guild Bulletin@ wintu, 20t0

LEVITHAN: I think it depends on how quickly thestimulus money comes. I don't mean that facetiously. Ithink education is so strapped right now that the oddsof all but the most elite schools reformatting and sud-denly giving all their students readers are very small.They're still struggling to get kids laptops. So I think,for the foreseeable future, that that transition is goingto happen in more fortunate schools only. I think that'swhere it's going to go eventually, but I'm not-andagain this is me, personally-I'm not seeing that thatswitch over is going to happen nearly as quickly as itwill for airport reads and books that you're reading forpleasure.

WERNICK: We grant permission to textbook compa-nies to use selections of books. And they always askfor the ability to create an electronic version as well.But the numbers that they're doing in an electronic for-mat are minuscule compared to the number of printtextbooks. For some reason, at this point, the educa-tional industry, particularly the textbook market, hasnot yet transitioned to electronic and it's not being em-braced by students. That's the only concrete evidencethat I have, other than the Kindle being embraced byolder readers. So, I don't know. It may change, but sofar it hasn't.

VAIL: Writers, make sure what rights you've beengiven in your contract. Which platforms have yougranted to the publisher and which have you retained,and is your agent working on those or is there a mar-ket for those? And know that that might change overthe next few years.

WERNICK: Those rights are usually controlled by thepublisher because it is a selection right. What we usu-ally try to do is have approval over the licensing of therights and that's how we get involved.

AUDIENCE: Has there been any change in interactivebooks, like coloring books or books that involve activ-ities or that the reader put something into it?

LEVITHAN: Not yet, no.

VAIL: \Atrhat about The 39 Clues?

LEVITHAN: The question was referring to coloringand activity books, for a younger age. Have there beenmulti-platform applications? So far the answer is no.Being able to go to a website for fun things to do-thathas occurred, but not in place of the book. It's more asupplement to the book. For older kids, we've been re-ally diving into multi-platform apps the last few years.We've been serious about The 39 Clues, which is forkids roughly aged thirteen years old, where the booksdo stand alone, but they pretty much unlock a whole

Web game online. That was our way of expanding thenotion that you don't have to confine yourself to thepages of the book. Basically, you read the books-which are about two kids going on this hunt aroundthe world for 39 clues-and then go to the website andyou are one of the members of this family looking forthe 39 clues. You're basically playing alongside thecharacters.

AUDIENCE: About a year ago, The New York TimesBook Reaiew said they reviewed a book-I can't re-member the name of the book, I think it was calledBIue Star?-and it started out by quoting the authorwho said it was a children's book for adults. And thatstruck me. Have any of you ever heard of this concept?Is ii a viable category within publishing?

LEVITHAN: Absolutely. That was Tony Earley's bookand it was the sequel to lim the Boy, which was a reallyfascinating book. If you haven't read it, it's a greatbook. Which is interesting because it is pretty much a

kid's book content-wise. It's about a young kid livingwith his bachelor uncles and in the second one he's be-come a teenager. But it was really interesting to see theway it was published-as an adult book, for an adultreadership, but is was also one of the rare adult booksthat was used on our Scholastic Book Club. Because,content-wise, you could read it. There was no profan-ity, there was no sex, no violence. It was incredibly ap-propriate for a fifth-grade reader, but it happened tobe published for adults. So I think that just highlightshow blurry the line is.

Most of the classics we think of that are teen werepublished as adult: The Catcher in the Rye, A SeparatePeace, more recently The Loaely Bones.Its first serializa-tion was in Seaenteen magazine. It was published as anadult book and sold, I've heard, very well for adults,but teens read it as well. I knew that Twilighf had be-come a phenomenon because I'd see these forty-year-old male stockbrokers on the subway reading it. I justwanted to be like, "Dude, that's a romance!" That'sgreat, but we used to do it one way, where adult bookscould be read by teens. Now, it's totally blurring bothways. Teen books are being read by adults, and viceversa, which is great. If you ask97 percent of authors,especially those who write for teenagers, they will saythey're not thinking about who they're writing forwhen they're writing the book. They just write the bestbook that they want. They're not saying, "Oh! I have ateen audience, I must constrain myself." They're justwriting the story. And more often than not, it's some-thing that adults can read just as well.

AUDIENCE: This is a question that is posed mainly toDavid. I wondered, not only at Scholastic but at other

Authors Guild Bulletin@ wirr* zoto

publishing companies, how open do you find they areto un-agented submissions?

LEVITHAN: Not very open. I think the climate haschanged so much that we are almost entirely reliant onthe gatekeepers, and agents really are the gatekeepers.Most of us do have policies. Scholastic doesn't acceptunsolicited manuscripts. We haven't for seventeenyears now. Occasionally editors go to SCBWI or otherconventions. They send things to me. But that's per-sonal, that's not corporate. I personally never do that.I think we really rely upon the agents to recommendthe best work. And I also think-and I'm genuinelynot saying this because Marcia is sitting next to me andhas water that she can throw on me!

WERNICK: It's empty!

LEVITHAN: A typical agent trick! One of the most fre-quently asked questions I get, especially in rooms fullof authors, is, "Do you need an agent?" Four or fiveyears ago and earlier, I would waffle. I would say,"Well, no, if you have the right organization behindyou, if you have the right wherewithal, if you thinkyou have a good lawyer, that's great, go for it. But asof four or five years ago, I've changed my answer andI say, "Yes. You need an agent." Because the times arechanging so much, and because there are so many un-certainties, having an advocate is key. Also, having anagent's recommendation will get you in the door thatyou could not get past now. I think agents have seentheir roles change radically.

WERNICK: In that respect, children's books havegone the way of adult books. Because adult publish-ing hasn't taken unsolicited work for forever. And chil-dren's books have become more of a business. It usedto be a quiet little sidebar. But then we started to makemoney and the corporations said, "Oh! Children'sbooks! Let's pay attention!" So it's become more of abusiness and it's a tough business. It really is. And, asI said before, there's enormous competition and it'shard to get in the door.

VAIL: I'm trying to remember the person who de-scribed children's book publishing as a bunny-eat-bunny world.

AUDIENCE: For anyone who has hasn't had a bookpublished yet, you can get books published in abunny-eat-bunny world. I don't want anyone to getdiscouraged. My question is about green trend, non-fiction books for kids, or even storybooks on the trendof recycling or helping the environment. \Atrhat do youthink about that?

VAIL: Such a big trend, are we seeing a lot of sales inthat in children's books?

"Since last year, Romance works foradults have really started to sell for

kids. But' end-of-the-world' type

children's books [also] started with

the adult trend.. . . So teens are

reading the adult, horrible, tragic

books and now thev want their own."

-Kim Brown

BROWN: No. I think that there's a certain niche mar-ket. We do promotions for Earth Day. We'll sell earth-friendly gifts, we'll sell some books, but they're nothuge. We're seeing a lot more recycled paper beingused, which we find encouraging. I think it has to startthere. But we do a lot of proprietary books too, so I'veseen the costs. And you know, it's really a tough decision on what one should do. So we try to do as muchas we can.

AUDIENCE: No, I mean more as a market for kids, be-cause it's such a trend in the society. A lot of people-parents and schools in particular-would beinterested.

BROWN: Again, I think it's a niche market and I thinkthat schools and libraries are also promoting thosebooks. Tfuee Cups of Tea,I think, is a great success story.That book was a teen title as well.

VAIL: I have a follow-up question to what you just

At$hors Guit d Bulletin Bl W intr, 20t0

said. How much does self-generated author publicity,going to bookstores and giving talks, going to schools,matter? Is that a big thing? Is that a big help? Having ablog, whatever else authors might do. Does that im-pact sales?

BROWN: It does for us. There are multiple online re-tailers and having the author connect to all of them re-ally helps increase sales too. We see a lot of goodpublicity pushes when authors go into the schools. Ithink itiust helps increase the awareness of the title forboth parents and kids. So I think it's very importantthat authors do as much as they can and do as muchpublicity online as they can. It makes a big difference.

DESIMINI: Coing to schools is also really great feed-back for an author, because we sit at home by our-selves and even though we all feel like we have a

strong child inside of ourselves-that's why we wantto do this-I'm as inspired as the children are when Iread at a school. I'm filled with ideas and I feel greatabout what I do.

VAIL: When I was a kid I thought all the writers wereat least old if not dead. It never occurred to me thatthat's something that a real person could do. I'll sharewith you a story about Dav Pilkey, who wrote the veryvery successful Captain Underpants books. He never in-tended to write those. He was doing a school visit andhe would tell the kids that, when he was a kid, hewould get in trouble in school because he was con-stantly doodling. And his favorite made-up characterhe named Captain Underpants. And the kids lovedthis story. It cracked them up. So he thought, "Huh,maybe I should hamess Captain Underpants." And heharnessed it right to the stars. So you really do getpretty great feedback. They're not gonna jerk youaround. If it's funny, they'll let you know, and if it'snot-they'll let you know!

WERNICK: To that end,I think that having a websiteis absolutely mandatory. A blog is helpful and so is aFacebook page. In 2007, thtuty-eight debut middlegrade and YA authors banded together to create a web-site and they did a brochure and they did appearancesto market themselves from one place, to the book-sellers and the schools and the libraries. And it was soeffective that there are now classes of 2008 and 2009.All debut novelists, because on their own, they could-n't necessarily get the same attention. If all of you arein a group and you keep bringing all the people to-gether, you get more attention. It spreads the wordmore effectively. Kids can go on the websites and thenthey contact their friends. The Internet is a massiveforce that cannot be ignored by either authors or pub-lishers. In fact, publishers now have printouts, direc-

tions on how to use social media. It's something thatthey encourage.

VAIL: And podcasts as well?

WERNICK: Yep.

AUDIENCE: I build websites for authors and film-makers. But, you know, oftentimes authors come to mewanting to start their own publishing company, andthey've never done the publishing side or they're afilmmaker and want to get into books and so they'veprobably put a lot of money into this by the time theyreach my door. My instinct is to say, 'We'd like to startyou at square one again, because we know you've put

"The person who made my Facebook

page vtas 12. I updated my status to

thank her and jokingly called her my

new publicist. My editor immediately

contacted me, through Facebook, and sai.d,

'Make sure your publicist is working

through our publicity department

so we don't mess stuff up."'

-RachelVail

a lot of money into this." Is it possible to take a bookthat's already printed, and is going nowhere becausethey're not doing it right and bring it back to you, tomainstream publishers, again, instead of being self-published? Would you take a book like that?

LEVITHAN: If it was a great book we would. Again,that's where the agents come in. If an agent said,"Look at this book. It was ignored. This person made500 copies and ended up giving 450 copies to hismother." Then we're not going to be interested. But ifthe agent says, "Really, look at this. It made me cry.You should read it, it'll make yoluc\," that's how thewheat and the chaff are separated for us. We do not in-vite them to be sent directly to us, but we do invitethem to be sent to agents, and the agents pass the beston to us. That's the hope. Having the right advocate isthe way to do it.

Authors Guitd BulktinlEl Wirtu zolo

AUDIENCE: I'm interested in how to use Facebook,because it's really supposed to be for ages 18 and up.Who do you reach out to on Facebook for books foryoung children?

VAIL: The person who made my Facebook page wastwelve. I updated my status to thank her and jokinglycalled her my new publicist. My editor immediatelycontacted me, through Facebook, and said, "Make sureyour publicist is working through our publicity de-partment so we don't mess stuff up." And I said,"Well, she's preparing for her bat mitzvah, so I don'tknow, she might be very busy." The kids are on Face-

"I had an euthor-to remain nsaslsss-who was six months late with her book

and on Facebook, she challenged me

to a game of Scrabble. I believe 'Writeyour effing hook!'was my response."

-David Levithan

book. Don't think it's only eighteen and older. It's peo-ple who are getting reacquainted with their highschool and college friends, sure, but also the eighth-graders. Their presence online is incredible.

AUDIENCE: My nephew's online. I see him all thetime on Facebook. But I'm thinking, how do you reachout if you're oriented to ages three to seven.

VAIL: To the parents. To the teachers, librarians. Li-brarians, I've heard, are out in force on Twitter!

LEVITHAN: I can't think of anything more fascinat-ing than reading a librarian's TWitter.

WERNICK: It can help build buzz.I work with MoWillems and one of his characters, The Pigeon, will betweeting from ALA, The American Library Associa-tion convention next week. He hasn't tweeted yet, butThe Pigeon has 270 followers already. And these fol-lowers are, probably, all librarians. They are fans whowill help create buzz through the library system.They're rabid! They're fabulous!

VAIL: They're freedom fighters, they're early adopters.Librarians are very important. They're on Twitter,they're on Facebook. I'm encoutaged to hear that you

find that it affects sales because sometimes I feel likeI'm spending time on Facebook and my blog andthinking, "Am I talking to myself?"

LEVITHAN: And also the libraries themselves usuallyhave, not just Facebook, but MySpace. It seems like adead dog now, but it does have a huge, huge follow-ing. And most major libraries have MySpace pagesand they will friend authors. The children's roomwill have a MySpace page, the teen room will have a

MySpace page. They're using that as a portal to lookand say, "Oh look who's friends with us here." Youhave to take down all the nude drinking pictures thatwould be up on your profile, but once you've donethat, it's safe to start friending the libraries.

WERNICK: Or you can switch so that only some peo-ple can see those photos.

VAIL: Don't you feel that twelve-year-olds will knowhow to access that? My nine-year-old showed me howto add parental control filters. He said, "You might see

some disgusting things on there, Mommy, I'll showyou how to put it on." That's the reason they call itParental Controls, it's so that they can control us. I al-ways say to my fourteen-year-old-my nine-year-oldis not on Facebook yet-you guys are there as a publicperson and if you wouldn't want someone seeing youthat way on Broadway, dor.'l'put it on Facebook. AndI think that's a good rule of thumb. If you're going tobe on Facebook as a public person, it's different than ifyou're just friends with those people you went outdrinking with every Thursday night in college. So, beaware that the ten-year-olds and the twelve-year-oldswill be looking.

AUDIENCE: Okay, I Tweeted about coming heretonight, so I just thought you'd want to know that.

LEVITHAN: That's how everybody else in the audi-ence knew about it. That was you! These are your fol-lowers!

AUDIENCE: \A/hat I said was, "I'm going to this thing,What's Hot, What's Not," and I said, "Oh man, I'mhope I'm hot!" I can't wait to go home and see. I feellike I'm Tweeting into a vacuum, but we'll see. So thisis part of my question. As an author with some newbooks out, I am spending so much time on Twitter andFacebook and blogging and now I'm going to have todo MySpace. I need to be reassured that you guys aregoing to figure out what's going to happen next. I havethis vision that you go into the conference room andyou put on your special hats and you say . . . No seri-ously, I'm asking, what are you guys doing to try tofigure out what's happening next so that we can justkeep writing and Tweeting and Facebooking and

Anthors Guild BultetinE[ wirtg zoto

MySpacing? And you'll also be figuring out about theplatforms and the formats and the trends.

LEVITHAN: Yeah that's a great question. I think we'relistening to our interns a lot and most of us think likesixteen-year-olds. I listen to the interns, yes. I person-ally think Twitter is kind of worthless. We're jumpingthe shark with Twitter. I think Facebook is much moresubstantial and MySpace is. And I think honestly youhave to choose your battles, because you could spendall day on all of these platforms and never write an-other word for a book again. I always say I had an au-thor-to remain nameless, and who is not in theroom-who was six months late with her book, and onFacebook, she challenged me to a game of Scrabble. Ibelieve "Write your effing book!" was my response.

So I think you do have to be careful, and we aremonitoring which things work, which things don't. Wec€rn see what gets feedback. We are doing a lot of Web-based advertising. The great thing about Web-basedadvertising is, you can see where they click in from. Soif we have a Hunger Games website and we put in adson all these different sites, whether it's a Twilight fan-site or Seventeenmagazine.com, or MySpace, we canactually see how many people click that ad to go to theHunger Games site. We can create this body of knowl-edge. And every publisher,I'm sure, is doing this. Youcan tell. As authors, you can tell the kind of feedbackyou are getting on Facebook and MySpace, and if it ismeaningful or just random. And you have to act ac-cordingly. I think what Marcia said was true, as far asissuing guidelines for working on social networkingsites. I think we are very actively-"we" being edito-rial and publicity and marketing-looking at what isvaluable and we will advise our authors as to wherethey should be and what they should be doing. Ninetimes out of ten authors do much more. Again, thisgoes to being at home all day, not talking to people.Social networking is a great way to talk to people. ButI think usually there's this initial burst of activity andthen there is a pullback period where you say, "Okaywait. I4trhat am I doing? I'm actually a writer, I'm not aTweeter."

LEVITHAN: It'll prevent early onset Alzheimer's I be-lieve, but for your writing,I don't think it's going tohelp very much.

WERNICK: And the best way to promote your back-list is with a new book.

AUDIENCE: But what are you guys doing? Do youhave special people who are looking into this?

WERNICK: We are establishing contact with people. Ijust met with Amazon to see what the latest thing

they're doing with the Kindle is. Each of us has to bekeeping track and sharing notes. And we talk a lot!About what's going on. This is not something that allof a sudden is going to say, "Whap! Now we under-stand." It is changing as we speak. We don't knowwhat it's going to be. All we can do is be very aware ofit, and be reading and finding out as much as we can.The publishers are gathering a lot of information usingtheir websites, Facebook pages, advertising through-

"The industry is very tough but there are

brilliant books coming out, from[novels] to picture books that . . . function

for the child and entertain the adult

who's reading it as well. It isa stellar time for great books.

Children's books-thev rock ! "

-MarciaWernick

out the website, and getting feedback.It's immediatefeedback and it's fabulous. We have to be looking atthe hardware, talking to the different companies aboutwhat they're tryi^g to do, and read between the lines.

AUDIENCE: You mentioned Amazon.I have a bookon Amazon for which the hardcover comes up at $59but the paperback does not show. I have spoken to mypublisher-it's an academic press-and they're bang-ing their heads against the wall, but nobody seems tobe able to make a difference. They say it's happeningto a lot of books and that loses sales. Incidentallv it'snot a children's book.

WERNICK: Well, you probably know more than I do.I know that things do get corrected, but sometimes itcan take painfully long.

AUDIENCE: How do you do it?

LEVITHAN: There is a way for authors to contactAmazon. You click that button, "I am the author." Forthat particular problem, it's not solvable. When thereare two versions of a book on Amazon, the one thathas historically sold the most for Amazon appearsfirst. There's no way to circumvent that. We've had

Anthors Ctrild BulletirtGl wintu ZOIO

problems where library-binding editions happen to bethe primary one.

AUDIENCE: I have published several children's pic-ture books. I wrote one and illustrated it and I illus-trated several others. This was about fifteen years ago.Now I'm trying to get back into the business. My agentis retired, so my question relates to finding an agent-who handles an illustrator slash author. I have a bookready to go if you want.

WERNICK: I handle everything in children's books,from very young picture books to young adult au-thors.

LEVITHAN: The question was, basically, how do youfind an agent for an illustrator or a writer? This isthe usual time to plug SCBWI, the Society of Child-ren's Book Writers and Illustrators. Their website isscbwi.org. They are a huge, huge resource. The Writer'sDigest book also has listings.

WERNICK: I think SCBWI is the most active interna-tionally. They have conferences all over. They havepublishers, agents, always speaking.

LEVITHAN: They update their index of editors andpublishers-it feels like-almost daily. So they are themost comprehensive resource/ even more than theWriter's Market or The Writer's Handbook because theyreally update their site. If somebody switches a job, it'sup there.

AUDIENCE: This is a follow-up to what Marcia said.You said you handle all ages. So do you recommendthat an author specify, This is a picture book or this isa YAbook? Would that be helpful for you in that situa-tion?

WERNICK: No, no,I think the author has to know ex-actly what they're pitching.

VAIL: Yeah, and in a pitch you need to make it clearthat this is the best thing you ever wrote, right?

WERNICK: Absolutely.

AUDIENCE: I wonder if we could end with one posi-tive thing about the future of children's books.

WERNICK: I think that the industry is very tough butthere are brilliant books coming out, from The HungerGatnes, a brilliant novel, to picture books that are so so-phisticated, that function for the child and entertainthe adult who's reading it as well. It is a stellar time forgreat books. Children's books-they rock!

LEVITHAN: I think technology is both the scary thingand the exciting part, and I think I hit the scary a littleharder than the exciting earlier. What's incredibly ex-

citing is that we are going to have Alexandria. Kidswill have every book out there at their fingertips-again, as an option. I do not think it's going to replacebookstores, I don't think it's going to replace libraries,but as an option. Here in New York City, that's notusually a problem. You can walk to Barnes & Noble,you can go over to the library, you can find just aboutany book. But I hear all the time from kids, especially

"My hea.d has been spinning from the

economy andfrom changes in technology.

So I'm taking another writing course and

experimenting even more with rny artwork

and illustrations. Just pushing things and

trying new things and getting back

to what I love."

-Lisa Desimini

teenagers, who can't access the books that they needbecause they don't have a credit card for an online re-tailer, or the best bookstore they have near them is aWalmart. So the notion that it is going to be the mostdemocratic it has ever been is exciting. The fact thatthe way of getting your words out is going to be somuch easier, that is exciting. The freedom that that en-ables . . .

In a digital world, at least I like to think, the wholeconcept of a banned book goes away. You can't pull adigital book off a shelf for everybody. There are alwaysaccess points. So I think the possibilities and the rolethat words and writing can have in our society and inreaching every member of our society, that's amazing.As scared as I am about losing some paper books andthe fact that we are going to have to muddle throughthis together, as Marcia said, we're all on the sameside. It's been amazing to see the retailers, the publish-ers, the authors, the agents, the librarians, everybodyinvolved. Our goal is always to get books into thehands of readers. To sell books to those readers and tosupport our authors. And I think everybody is work-ing in tandem in a way that was absolutely not thecase in the music industry. I think we are going to havea much better transition, and what will come out of itis a stronger industry, more options, and again, this

Authors GuiIcI Bulletin 3L wintr, 2010

amazing freedom of writing that has never existed be-fore. So that's the exciting part for me and that is worththe scary.

DESIMINI: My head has been spinning from theeconomy and from changes in technology. So I'm tak-ing another writing course and experimenting evenmore with my artwork and illustrations. Just pushingthings and trying new things and getting back to whatI love and staying connected to getting better andopening up more and more. It's so exciting to feel likeI'm a professional, yet also a little bit of a studentagain, just trying to get better at both my crafts.

BROWN: I guess I would say that the demographicsare in our favor. There's a whole lot of kids coming upand we're going to be able to introduce them to read-

ing and it's exciting. All of us in this room do goodwork, and it's fun.

VAIL: I'll just say that it's pretty exciting on a beauti-ful night like this when you all could have been sittingat a cafd sipping a glass of wine, you're here, andyou're passionate about what you do. So that meansgood work is coming out in the next couple of yearsbecause passion is the starting point. Also, we had a

panel like this a year and a half ago and it was so in-teresting. I just reread the transcript, which is full ofinformation. If you want to read it, you can get itthrough the Author's Guild website. And you're go-ing to want this one as well.

Things are changing so fast that I think in abouteighteen months, we'll have to do it again. Thank youso much for coming. i

The Red Phone Box that has Become

Cunning villagers have found a novel way to copewith the shortage of libraries in their area by turningan old red phone box into a book exchange.

The former BT phone kiosk has been trans-formed from a telephone exchange to Britain'ssmallest library by cunning residents and nowstocks around 100 titles.

Villagers rallied together to set up the book boxafter their mobile library service was cancelled.

The parish council purchased the box, a GilesGilbert Scott K6 design, for f7, and residents in theSomerset village of Westbury-sub-Mendip put upwooden shelves inside and donated their ownbooks.

The phone box now houses titles from cookingbooks to the classics and blockbusters to children'sbooks.

"It has really taken off," Parish councillor BobDolby told The Guardian.

"Turnover is rapid and there's a good range ofbooks, everything from reference books to biogra-phies and blockbusters."

Meanwhile resident Angela Buchanan was alsofull of praise for the book box.

"It's such a brilliant idea," she said. "Our nearestlibrary is Wells, four miles away, so if you don'twant to go into the town but have run out of some-thing to read, it's great you can use this.

Reprinted with permission of the Daily Mail Onlineand Solo Syndication.

Britain's Smallest Library

"All sorts of interesting books turn up-manu-als, picture books, good literary novels."

The phone box library is open every day for 24hours and is lit at night. There is a regular check onit to see if some titles are not moving. These are thenshipped on to a charity shop to keep the phone boxcollection fresh.

BT has received 770 applications for communi-ties to "adopt a kiosk" and so far 350 old boxes havebeen handed to parish councils.

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Authors Gttilit BulletinEl wirrtg zoto

Along Publishers Row

Continued from page 2

There are now 2,500 words forthe word "drunk." How do youchoose one?

Pamela Monroe, a UCLA lin-guistics professor, said that peoplewho learn slang secondhand tend touse it incorrectly. "l feel that yourgrandmother would have a realhard time sounding like Lil Wayne,"she said.

REWRITE: Ernest Hemingway'sposthumous memoir, A MoaeableFeast, came out in a new edition inAugust. The editor this time is SethHemingway, a grandson of Hem-ingway and his second wife,Pauline Pfeiffer.

The Neu York Times said that this"restored edition" adds passagesfrom the manuscript "that Sean be-lieves paint his grandmother in amore sympathetic light."

Hemingway, 42, said, "I thinkthis edition is right to set the recordstraight."

The news was followed by anop-ed page essay by Ernest Hem-ingway's friend and biographer A.E. Hotchner, who commented: "Allpublishers, Scribner included, areguardians of books that authors en-trust to them. Someone who inheritsan author's copyright is not entitledto amend his work."

TEARSWANTED: Ring Lardner, fa-mous for his humor, once quipped:"How can you write if you can'tcry?"

GREAT EXPECTATIONS: ATV nar-rator on NBC's Today show referredto Dan Brown as "the rock star offiction writers." And that was just afraction of the hysterical hype lead-ing trp to the publication of Tlrc LostSynfuolon September 16.

Tl-re guards at the printing plant

were shown keeping potentialthieves at bay while the five millionadvance copies rolled from thepresses.

Thc Lost Srlmbol was going tosave publishers and booksellers,suffering from the economic down-turn, everywhere. It was declared "aglobal financial stimulus."

Amazon's chief, feffrey P. Bezos,told Web-page viewers the bookwas "one of the most anticipatedpublishing events of all time."

On the big day, Dan Brown him-self appeared in "a rare, exclusiveinterview" on the Today show. It hadbeen filmed in his home in a book-lined room (complete with a secretpassage) that looked like a movieset.

Brown told interviewer MattLauer that he began his research onSrlmhol by taking tourist bus tours inWashington, D.C. He then con-structed a 200-page outline. He saidthat he wrote his first book when hewas five years old, dictating it to hismother. He did the illustrations forthat book himself.

Brown explained that when hefinds himself witl-r a plot problem,he hangs upside down in gravityboots to find an answer. And "Ispend my life now with a lot ofimaginary friends."

On its first day out, Syrrbol soldmore than one million copies inhardcover and e-books. It was "thebest-selling adult fiction title" everand went straight to the top of thebestseller lists.

QUICK READ: "History's shortestbook would have to be Elbert Hub-bard's Essny orr Silence, which has nowords." That gem comes fromTlrcLitarnrrl Life nnd Otlrcr Curiosities, byRobert Hendrickson.

READER: Novelist Larry McMurtrywas interviewed for the RiceUniversity magazine. He said hehopes he doesn't have to write morefiction. "Eventually all novelists get

worse," McMurtry said. "Writinggreat fiction involves some combi-nation of energy and imaginationthat cannot be energized or realizedforever."

FULL PEDAL: Jonathan Lethem'snew novel is Chronic Citt1.7n an in-terview with Nczu York magazine, hesaid, "I put both pedals to the floorat the same time, which is my signa-ture and maybe my folly."

Later, he added, "I always think,Do tlrc thing tlnt only I cnn do. And Idon't mean this in any boastfulsense, but as a descriptive word: It'sthe most unprecedented work I'veever done."

In the full-page photo, the au-thor has the dark intensity of theyoung J. D. Salinger.

ATTACK: Alice Hoffman's latestnovel, The Story Sisters, was re-viewed in Tlrc Bostort Clobc by a

freelance critic, Roberta Silman.Hoffman didn't like the review andposted her reaction on Twitter,where she called Silman a mororland asked, "How do some peopleget to review books? And give theplot away." Hoffman posted Sil-man's phone number and e-mail ad-dress and asked fans to "Tell herwhat u think of snarky critics."

A day later Hoffm'an deleted hercomplaint and provided a statementvia her publisher that included: "Ofcourse, I was dismayed by RobertaSilman's review, which gave awaythe plot of the novel, and in the heatof the moment I responded stronglyand I wish I hadn't. I'm sorry if I of-fended anyone. Reviewers are enti-tled to their opinions, and that's thename of the game in publishing. Ihope my readers understand that Ididn't mean to hurt anyone, and I'mtruly sorry if I did."

LAST LAUGH: David Sedaris's cur-rent best-selling paperback is W/rcrrYou Are Engulfed in Flnntes.If you be-lieve that humor doesn't pay, con-

Att thttrs C u iltt Bullet in EEl lV i u to, 2tl t tl

sider this: PW said his books havesold more than four million copiesand been translated into 22 lan-guaSes.

SHE SAID: Jimmy Santiago Boca isa poet and author of a memoir (.4

Place to Stand) and a short story col-lection. His first novel will be pub-lished in October. The title is A Glassof Water.

Boca wrote in PW that he had tofind a woman's voice "and that was-n't easy. I rewrote the opening scenedozens of times until she came alive;eventually, I discovered that shewas distinct, vigorously present, aperson outside of myself who brokeaway from my imagination's umbil-ical cord and became a real person.Naturally, this changed the entireplot I had been working through allthose years-she drove the storyand I followed."

HE SAID: Evie Wyld's After thc Fire,n Still Srnall Voice is written from a

male perspective, and PW askedWyld why.

She explained: "From quite a

young age, when I started writing,I've always leant toward a moremasculine voice. It was quite a nicething to do to sit at my desk andhave to physically imagine myselfas a man and sort of stomp aroundthe flat a bit. It's a nice mask to puton. It's just different, writing as a

woman-you don't think about thephysicality as much when you'rewriting as the opposite sex. You canalso really mess up. Quite oftenyou'll come across some not-so-good writing done by men about be-ing a woman, and about those linesabout your breasts and your bra,and that throws you a bit."

ADVICE: Atul Gawande is a sur-geon in Boston who writes articlesabout medicine for The New Yorkcr.In Haraard Magazine, he is quotedfrom a commencement speech. Hetold the graduates to write: "By put-

ting your writing out to an audience,even a small one, you connect your-self to something larger than your-self. . . . An audience is a community.The published word is a declarationof membership in that community,and also of concern to contributesomething meaningful to it."

BIG CLUE: Mary Roberts Rinehart,a mistress of the genre, observed:"The mystery story is two stories inone: the story of what happenedand the story of what appeared tohappen."

NO SEER: Dorothy L. Sayers, a

British mystery writer in the 1920sand'30s, created a detective namedLord Peter Wimsey. She died in1957. She was once quoted as say-ing, "There certainly does seem a

possibility that the detective storywill come to an end, simply becausethe public will have learnt all thetricks."

So far, the good ones keep com-ing up with new tricks.

E-BOOK THEFT: Randall Stross isan author and professor of businessat San Jose State University. In an ar-ticle for the business section of TheNewYorkTimes, he wrote, "Thebookindustry has not received cheerynews for a while. This year, sales ofhardcover books in July were down15.5 percent from last year."

His article asked, Will Books BeNapsterized? "E-books won't stayon the periphery of book publishingmuch longer," he predicts, and e-books are being pirated at Rapid-Share, Megaupload, Hotfile andother file-storage sites. Adam Roth-berg of Simon & Schuster wasquoted: "Everybody in the industryconsiders piracy a significant issue,but it's been difficult to quantify themagnitude of the problem. We knowpeople post things but we don'tknow how many people take them."

Katharina Scheid, spokes-woman for RapidShare, told pub-

Iishers that if they are unhappy thather company's users are distribut-ing e-books without paying thecopyright holders, they should learnfrom the band Nine lnch Nails. Thatmusical group markets itself "bygiving away most of their contentfor free." Stross commented, "I willforward the suggestion along, assoon as authors can pack arenas fulland pirated e-books can serve as

concert fliers."

BUSY: Terry Goodkind's latest isthe best-selling The Law of Nines.During the past 15 years, his 11

Sword of Truth novels have soldmore than 25 million copies in 20languages. PW said he also is a

wildlife artist and a cabinetmaker,and has done restoration work onrare artifacts and built a house inMaine.

TRANSITION: Attica Locke's firstnovel, Black Water Rising, turned outto be a different-and perhaps bet-ter-book than the author planned."I intended to just write a slick littlethriller," Locke told The Neu YorkTinrcs, "but then my unconscious ledme to the soul of the book, and it gota lot better." The locale is Houston,Texas.

The book replaces the paranoiaof the cold war that used to occupythrillers with the paranoia of race re-lations.

Locke said, "I think this bookcould only be written by someonemy age. It's about a country in tran-sition, moving from being a segre-gated America to an integratedAmerica. If you think about it, therehave been three great moments inthe psychic history of race relationshere. The first was Emancipationand Reconstruction. The second wasthe civil rights movement. And thethird great moment we're living inright now."

VAMPIRES PLUS: PW noted thecurrent popularity of vampire and

Art tlnrs G r.riltt Btrllefin El W i,,t r, 201 0

other paranormal novels, and saidthat despite the tough economy,they continue to sell-and they havebecome more erotic. "The demandfor a blend of sex, romance and theparanormal continues to find eagerreaders with nearly every incarna-tion of the supernatural the authorsinvoke, not just vampires."

SHORT STORIES TOO: lefferyDeaver's paperback bestseller is The

Body Left Behind. PW said he haspublished 22 novels, but he also"knows a thing or two about theshort story. He's the editor of TheBest American Myste ry Stories of2009," out in October.

Deaver has published two collec-tions of his own and more than 30 ofhis stories have been anthologized.

SEQUEL: Vikram Seth is writing a

sequel to his best-selling A SuitableBoy, published in 1993. The title willbe A Suitable Girl and it is slated for2013 publication. Seth told Reuters,"I suddenly got the idea not of tak-ing up the story in7952, where I hadleft it, but rather to take it up in thepresent. That allows me in a sense tobring a whole lot of post-independ-ence history to bear on the novel. Itallowed me to live in the present."

BANNED: A federal judge ruled infavor of J. D. Salinger and bannedthe publication in the U.S. of 60Years Lnter: Coming Througlr the Rye.The author is a Swede, Fredrik Colt-ing, writing under the name JohnDavid California. The book has beenpublished in Britain, but the U.S.judge found that the new novelhewed too closely to its inspiration,The Catcher in the Rye. [Summer/Fall 2009 Bulletinl.

Colting told The New York Tirnesin an e-mail message, "I am prettyblown away by the judge's decision.Call me an ignorant Swede, but thelast thing I thought possible in theU.S. was that you banned books."Colting said he would appeal.

NEW PROJECT: James Frey becamea notorious victim of Oprah's irewhen he was accused of creating fic-tional details in his memoir (AMillion Little Pieces), which she hadpraised on TV. Now the author hasbeen signed up for a series of youngadult novels. Tlrc Nezu York Timessaid, however, that most of the writ-ing will be done by Jobie Hughes, arecent graduate of the creative writ-ing program at Columbia University.

The first book is about a group ofalien teenagers who hide out onearth after their planet is attacked.DreamWorks Studios has alreadybought the screen rights.

RIP-OFF: Poor fane Austen. SethGrahame-Sm ith' s Pride and P rej ud ice

sntl Zotnbies made money so Austengets trashed again in Septemberwith Ben H. Winters's Sense andSensibility snd Scn Mansters. JasonRekulak, a Quirk Books editor, toldPW that the book was inspired by"fules Verne novels to Losf to lausto SpongeBob SquarePants."

NOTED: SharedBook is the pub-lisher of Nurture Shock: New ThinkingAbout Children by Po Bronson andAshley Merryman. Twelvebooks.com, the website of the publisher,invited readers to highlight a word,a sentence or a paragraph and addnotes that will be included as foot-notes on the text.

jonathan Karp, publisher andeditor, told Tfte Neu YorkTimes, "Wethought this would be a great wayto go deep into the text and literallyargue with it sentence by sentence,collectively."

SharedBook will incorporate thefootnotes with the three chaptersinto a supplement that readers canbuy for $2.95.

DISMISSED: In 2006, Donald Trumpsued author Timothy L. O'Brien for$5 million after he wrote in TruntpNation: The Art of Being tlrc Donaldthat Trump's fortune was only $150

million to $250 million. Trump saidthat he had $5 billion. A New |erseyjudge ruled that Trump had notdemonstrated "clear and convincingevidence to establish malice." Thesuit was dismissed in July. O'Brienis now editor of The Neru York TintesSunday business section.

BIG E-STORE: Barnes & Noble is of-fering more than 700,000 books thatcan be read on Apple's iPhone, theBlackBerry and various laptop ordesktop computers. The Neut YorkTimes reported that more than500,000 of the books now offeredelectronically on BN.com can bedownloaded free.

A further one million books canbe ordered from BN.com in theprint-on-demand format.

Amazon.com offers about330,000 titles for its Kindle device.

BULL'S-EYE: "In publishing circlesTarget has long been known as aplace that can move many copies ofdiscounted bestsellers," accordingto The Neu York Times. "Through itsbook club, as well as a program itcalls Bookmarked Breakout. . . thecompany has highlighted largelyunknown writers, helping theirbooks find their way into shoppingcarts filled with paper towels, cerealand shampoo."

Target carries about 2,500 titlesin each of its 1,700 stores. These in-clude diet books, children's picturebooks, young-adult novels and ro-mances.

Jacqueline Updike, director ofadult sales at Random House, toldthe Tilrrrs that Target "can sell hun-dreds of thousands of copies of a

book that is virtually unknown inthe rest of the marketplace."

The books are chosen by a panelof Target employees who meetmonthly to review submissionsfrom publishers.

Sarnh's Key, a novel by Tatianade Rosney, sold only 2,000 copies.Then Target got a special edition

Au tltors G u ild Bullet itt @ w i,rtr, 2rn o

from St. Martin's Press and sold145,000 copies. The ordinary paper-back edition sold 200,000 copies.

FOR KIDS: Years after his death, theMexican painter Diego Rivera hasillustrated a children's book. Thepictures come from 13 of his paint-ings and murals that feature chil-dren. The bilingual text is by his lastsurviving child, Guadalupe RiveraMarin, and the title is My Pnpa Diegoand Me/Mi Papn Diego y t1o.

MYSTERY: Deepak Chopra haswritten more than 50 books. includ-ing many bestsellers. His latest,Reinrrenting the Body, Resurrecting the

Soul,was published in October.As part of a special PW section

on health books, Chopra wrote: "Aclue on why I write came on the daywhen I walked into the room wherestudents need a cadaver for the firsttime. My scalpel incised a thin linein the parchment-yellow skin, cut-ting from the breastbone down tothe belly, and in one stroke the mys-tery of the human body was re-vealed. Yet another mystery wasdestroyed at the same time. The sa-credness of the body disappeared as

organs and tissues came to light. Myentire writing career has been an at-tempt to regain that mystery-notfor the sake of its beauty or inspira-tion but to be useful, to heal and toopen a new vision of what lies be-hind the mark of materialism."

LONG WINDED: William T. Voll-mann is the author of nine novels,three collections of stories. a

seven-volume, 3,000-page history ofviolence, a book-length essay onpoverty and a travel book. His novelEurope Centrsl won the NationalBook Award in 2005.

His latest novel is Intperinl,which is 1,300 pages long and costs$55. Tlre Neru YorkTintes said that hiseditors asked him to cut his manu-script, brrt he resisted. He said, "We

always go round and round. Theywant me to cut, and I argue, so theycut my royalties, and I agree neverto write a long book again."

He admitted that the length ofthe book might cost him readers andsaid, "l don't care. It seems like theimportant thing in life is pleasingourselves. The world doesn't oweme a living, and if the world doesn'twant to buy my books, that's myproblem."

JOKER: Comedian Richard Belzerhas written (with Michael Black) hissecond crime novel about a NewYork police detective named RichardBelzer. Belzer plays a detective in a

Law & Order TV series. The title ofthe book is I Attr Not a Psychic!

Belzer told PW, "fust beingaround all these stories from copswhile playing Munch (the name ofhis TV character) and being a fan ofDashiell Hammett and RaymondChandler, the idea of a mystery-comedy hybrid seemed right up myalley."

Asked if his books might beadapted for TV the comic said,"They have been optioned for TV."And who will play Richard Belzer?"Don Cheadle could play me, but Ihope they just go with the obviouscasting choice."

SHIFT: Chick lit is growing up andbecoming "hen lit." These are nov-els written for women over 40 whoare facing up to the current eco-nomic recession. The pursuit ofGucci is gone.

Jonathan Segura, a deputy edi-tor at Ptrblishers Weekly, told TheNeztt York Times, "It would be impos-sible to write contemporary glltzywomen's fiction without taking therecession into account." He added,"By next spring, publishing willhave fully caught up. And by sum-mer, you're going to see a flood ofnew fiction dealing specifically withthe big meltdown."

ACCUSATION: |ordan Scott was a

teenager when she wrote a little-noted novel called The Nocturne in2006. Now she is claiming that herversion of a vampire romance wasplagiarized by Stephenie Meyer inher best-sell rng Tu il i gh t series.

Meyer's publisher called the ac-cusations "meritless," according toReuters. Hachette said that Meyersdidn't know about The Nocturue andthatThe kuilight Saga is her work en-tirely.

GREENE FAN: Nick McDonellpublished his first novel, Tzuehte,

when he was 18. His third novel, AnExp ensiae Ed uc nt ion, was publishedin August.

The author, who is now 25, toldThe New York Times that GrahamGreene was a model for him-notiust Greene the novelist but Greenethe traveler and observer. "I don'tthink writing is the be-all and end-all," McDonell said. "I don't knowexactly what I'm going to do next,but I have ideas about where I wantto go and what I want to see. I likebeing out there. I like the longreach."

SPOTO'S MOTTO: Donald Spoto isthe author of many biographies. Thelatest is High Society: The Life of Grace

Kclly.Spoto told PW, "The years have

not been kind to Grace. We live inmean-spirited times, and there is atendency among some writers tofabricate reasons to destroy rep-utations. I have a motto: 'The biog-rapher is obliged to tell the truth

-even at the risk of saying some-thing good about someone.'Sometimes this has made me un-fashionable to some critics, but I cansleep at night."

HAPPY TALK: "It's really a bookabout nothing," author MelanieGideon told The Nezu York Timesabout her memoir The Slippery Year:

Arrtlnrs Crulrt Butletur|El w,rtr, Iultl

A Meditation on Happily Eaer After.Or, she added, the book is about"everything. What I discovered isthat writing about nothing, I waswriting about everything."

The book is described as "smallepiphanies of everyday life: taking a

trip to Trader Joe's on her 4l4th birth-day, waiting in the car-pool line ather nine-year-old son's school andspending thousands of dollars tobuy a mattress that both she and herhusband of nearly two decades cantolerate."

Motoko Rich of the Timrs staffseemed to think it remarkable thatthis memoir wasn't about "divorce,death or abuse. . . . Nor does [the au-thor] write of recovery from cancer,drug addiction or even a miserablechildhood."

But humorous memoirs havebeen a publishing staple since MarkTwain picked up his pen/ or maybewe should salute Francois Rabelais,who wrote Pantagruel in 1532.

TRAVELING MATE: RichardRusso's latest novel isThnt Old Cape

Magic. [t's a bestseller, and the au-thor toured the Northeast promot-ing it. His wife was with him on thetour, and he told Steve Inskeep onNPR, "My wife really wanted to goon this particular book tour to as-sure people that I was not writingabout our marriage."

ANOTHER DOCTOR: Sanja Guptais a neurosurgeon, often seen onCNN as its chief medical correspon-dent. His book is entitled CheatingDenth.

PW asked Gupta which was bet-ter: People magazine naming himamong the sexiest men alive in 2003,or getting the |ournalist of the YearAward from the Atlanta Press Clubin 2004.

Gupta replied, "Joun'ralist of theYear was better, for sure. My wifewas really giggling at the sexiestman alive thing. No one thought Iwas sexy until I was on TV."

In MemoriamMarcelle Michelin Alsop

Jim CarrollCatherine Gaskin Cornberg

Melvin DaskalDominick DunneElizabeth FerneaThomas Froncek

Richard HallPeter HuchthausenBeverly facobson

John KeelKen Macrorie

Norma Fox MazerMilton MeltzerWayne Myers

Budd SchulbergLeonard Shlain

Lisa SwazeyNancy WechslerRynn WilliamsSarah Wright

CO-WORKERS: W.E.B. Griffin haswritten more than 40 novels, PWsaid, with some 45 million books inprint in more than 10 languages.

William Butterworth IV is hisson, and he has worked as an editorand writer for 25 years. The twomen share cover billing on Griffin'slatest bestseller, T h e Tr afficke rs.

TRAVEL BOOK: Nobel Prize winnerfose Saramago's new novel, T/reElephant's Journey, will be publishedin fall2010. The publisher toldTheNeu, York Tinrcs that the novel was"based on the real-life epic journeyof an Indian elephant from Lisbon toVienna in the 16th century."

NEW VERSION: Marty Appelwrote an "autobiography" of Yan-kee catcher Thurman Munson 31

years ago. Munson died in the crashof a private jet 30 years ago. Appeltold The Nezu York Times, "It wasThurman's book. He was free to

leave out whatever he wanted. Henever said, 'l'm not going there,'but my questions weren't MikeWallace-like either, because I wascooperating with him and tellingthe story he wanted to."

Appel's new biography is Mun-son: The Life and Denth of a Yankee

Captain. The author interviewedThurman's brother and sister, whodescribed the grumpy baseball star'sdysfunctional childhood. Appel saidthat he didn't believe he had be-trayed Munson. "I think he'd cometo recognize that his story was an ex-ample to people that you can breakthe cycle, that you can live a won-derful family life even if everythingin your background says you can't."

WAR SELLS: War and military his-tory books sell. PW said "the mostobvious reason . . . might simply bethe sheer number of Americans whoare associated with the military.

"According to the Department ofDefense, the number of people serv-ing in the U.S. armed forces stood at7,402,227 as of December 31,2002.The Department of Veterans Affairslists the number of living veteransat23,442,000. Add family membersand friends of current or retired mil-itary personnel, and it's no wonderpublishers find a market for their ti-tles."

THREATS: Ronald Kessler hasdone a lot of talk radio to promotehis In tlrc President's Secret Scruice.One of the most discussed facts, PWsaid, was that threats against thepresident have risen 400 percentsince Obama took office. AII the talkradio must have paid off-the bookis a nonfiction bestseller.

PRETTY IS A PLUS: The Writerhadan article entitled "Hot Shots: TheMarketing of an Author's lmage."

An editor at HarperCollins saidthat attractive authors "get a littlebit of an advantage."

Sharon Steel is quoted fromThe

A t t I I ttt rs G t r r t tl B r t t t e t u r El W,,, t r, 2(11 r I

Bostorr Phoenix: "The publishing in-dustry has made a point of effec-tively courting good-looking maleauthors."

Salon.com's Rebecca Traiserinterviewed young author Ben-jamin Kunkel and wrote, "Kunkel,dressed in a dark suit jacket andwhite shirt, has a small frame anda handsome face-covered withdowny blond beard and moustache.\Alhen I arrived at the restaurant, hewas drinking single-male LaphroaigScotch."

The Writer's Chuck Leddy asked,"Did Kunkel's good looks help himreceive more (and more positive)media attention? Probably." The ti-tle of Kunkel's novel: lndecisiott.

A MYSTERY AIOY: Verlyn Klink-enborg writes about nature on hisfarm (and just about anything else)on the editorial page of The New YorkTimes.In August he wrote about hissearch for the right book to read atthe end of summer. He said, "Itmightbe a big book-like William T.Vollmann's Imperial or Nabokov'sAda. Or it might be a small book-perhaps a stack of small books, likethe novels of Ross Macdonald. ButI know that what I want it to do isdistract me and, at the same time,free me from distraction."

Later he describes the book he islooking for as "a vortex. When Ilower my eyes to it, I'm sucked deepinto a place more plausible than theone that surrounds me. \Atrhen I lookup, I want the actual life around meto look strange and original, like abrand new page in a pop-upworld." With the right book, he said,"The traces of uncertainty vanish.So, somehow does the ink on thepage, and I realize that I'm lookingthrough the book as if it were trans-lucent. This remains, after a lifetimeof reading, a mystery and a joy."

FOR CHILDREN: The late RoaldDahl wrote for a publisher's pam-phlet (which was quoted in The

Writer): "The prime fr"rnction of thechildren's book writer is to write a

book that is so absorbing, exciting,funny, fast and beautiful that thechild will fall in love with it. Andthat first love affair between theyoung child and the young bookwill lead hopefully to other loves forother books and when that happensthe battle is probably won. The childwill have found a crock of gold. Hewill also have gained somethingthat will help to carry him mostmarvelously through the tangles ofhis later years."

TITLE: facob M. Appel teaches atthe Gotham Writers' Workshop inManhattan. He wrote an article inWriter's Digest on how to get a per-fect title for your fiction.

"I tell my students to approachnaming a story as they do seeking a

mate. . . . I suggest making a list ofat least five different titles before de-ciding on one. There's also much tobe said for asking family and friendswhich title they prefer."

CONFESSION: In an unpublishedmemoir that the late William Gold-ing wrote for his wife, the authorsaid that he had tried to rape a 15-year-old girl when he was a youngman. Golding won the Nobel inLiterature in 1983.

The account of the incident wasdiscovered by John Carey, chiefbook reviewer of The Sunday Timesof London. Carey found the infor-mation when he was researchinga forthcoming bio: Willinm Goldirrg:The Msn Who Wrote "Lord of theFIies."

TOP EDITOR: "Kate Duffy nevercared much for demure Englishgovernesses, shy young nurses orwomen in bodices, ripped or other-wise. So Ms. Duffy simplychanged the rules, helping to usherinto print a new kind of romancenovel featuring strong, capablewomen, contemporary settings and

bracing sex scenes unfettered byVictorian euphemism."

Duffu, who died at 56 in Septem-ber, "was by all accounts one of theprime movers behind the explosionof romance publishing in the late1970s and early '80s."

The editor, who worked at sev-eral publishing houses, was quotedin The Neut York Tinrcs obituary: "llove romance novels because they'reentertaining, they're informativeand they make pots of money formy publishing house."

IN RESIDENCE:Alain de Botton isauthor of How Proust Can ChnngeYour Li.fe and The Art of Traael. Hespent a week last August seated at adesk in the middle of London'sHeathrow Airport. His typing ap-peared on a screen behind him anda placard explained that he wasHeathrow's "writer in residence."

De Boiton interviewed passen-gers, baggage handlers, airline exec-utives and others. The plan was toturn his findings into a book, AWeekat the Airport: A Heathroru Diary,scheduled for a quick publication inSeptember.

Why was Heathrow paying deBotton to write this book? An airportspokesman told The New York Times,"If we funded a brochure that saidhow wonderful the airport was, peo-ple would switch off because they'dthink they're being marketed to."

De Botton said, "If I find a cock-roach in the restaurant, if someonedrops dead at the airport, I'm goingto write about it. . . ." No matterwhat the author observed at thebusy terminal, the plan was to dis-tribute the book free to 10.000Heathrow travelers.

OH: In a column labeled "Humor"in Writer's Digest, Bob Woodiwissquotes an imagined literary agenton what that agent really wants.

Brandon M., superagent, said,"What am I looking for? Well, theshort answer is I'm looking for

Authors Guiltl Bttlletin @ wi,rtg zoto

authors who aren't you. It's true I'venever met you, never read a wordyou've written, but believe rr.e: I'rnNot. Ltroking. For You. How can I besure? Because you are looking forme. And if I'r,e learned anything in2O-plus years in this business, it'sthat nothing interests an agent lessthan an agentless writer."

MESSY ART: Literarv scholar andcritic Richard Poiiier died inAugust at the age of 83 (See Deaths,page 44.) The Rutgers professorhelped create the Library of Amer-ica, but he once wrote that "works ofart are not required to exist. There isnothing outside of them that re-quires their existence. If Shakes-peare had never existed we wouldnot miss his works, for there wouldbe nothing missing."

But Poirier believed that litera-ture mattered enormously, because,at its most potent, it insisted that wenot take ourselves or our worcls forgranted. Poirier was quoted inTlrcNew York Times, "We ought to begrateful to language for making lifemessier than ever."

Poirier often quoted WallaceStevens, the poet: "Speech is notdirty silence/Clarified. It is silencemade still dirtier."

GIFT: The papers of Octavia E.Butler, a science fiction writer whodied in 2006, went to the Hunting-ton Library in San Marino, Calif.Butler won two Hugo Awards, twoNebula Awards and the firstMacArthur genius grant given to ascience fiction writer.

The library has 39 cartons andeight file-cabinet drawers contain-ing manuscripts, correspondence,school papers, notebooks, holo-graphs and other materials. Butler'sbest-known novel was Kindred. Sheonce wrote, "My writing can be akind of therapy for me."

BIG DEAL: The New York Timesbreathlessly reported, "If over the

next few months you see smokecoming from the direction of famesPatterson's house, it might be a re-sult of the author's burning off hisfingertips as he types theHachette Book Group announcedthat it had signed a deal with Mr.Patterson that would cover 77books." The contract covers booksthrough 2012.

RESEARCH:Authors Michael andElizabeth Norman spent 10 yearstraveling to Japan, the Philippinesand around the U.S. to write Tenrs inthe Darkness: The Story of the BataanDeath March and Its Aftermnth.Theyinterviewed more than 400 peopleand collected 2,800 books, docu-ments and other sources.

Senior editor Paul Elie at Farrar.Straus and Giroux, told PW,"Michael Norman is a reporter bytraining and what they've done isdifferent from historical research. . . .

They report this story as if it hap-pened yesterday."

The book was a nonfiction best-seller.

SOURCE BOOK: To write Euertl-thing I Need to Krrow I Lenrned front a

Children's Book, author Anita Silveyasked 100 people to answer thequestion: "What children's bookchanged the way you see theworld?"

PW quoted from Maurice Sen-dak's reply: "Crockett Johnson'sHarold and the Purple Crayon is justimmense fun. Harold does exactlyas he pleases. . . . Books shouldn'tteach. They shouldn't give lessons.Kids should feel that they can dowhat they want and no one willpunish them. They can just be kidsand enjoy reading and looking at a

book."

PROMOTION: A serialized versionof Transition, a novel by Iain M.Banks, was released the day beforehardcover publication in September.The abridgment was divided into 23

episodes, available Tuesdays andFridays for 12 weeks. This was a freepodcast with a total running time ofsix and a half hours. According toThe Neu, York Times, the hope was"that listeners become so enamoredwith what they hear that they willpay for more." Hardcover and e-book editions were advertised at theend of each podcast.

SHEEHAN'S NEW ONE: NeilSheehan's ABright Shining Lie wonboth the Pulitzer and the NationalBook Award in 1989. His new bookis A Fiery Pence in a Cold Wnr, ahis-tory of the arms race.

Sheehan told Charles McGrathof The Neut York Times, "I'm a slowresearcher and a slower writer. I'venever been able to use a research as-sistant. If I don't do my own report-ing, I don't get a feel for the subject.You miss insights that way. Youneed the detail. When you write, ittakes a lot of mash to make goodwhiskey, or that's what they say."

Later, Sheehan added, "Whenyou write a book about a major sub-ject, it's like getting another univer-sity education."

PET POWER: A PW cover story en-titled "Publishing's Best Friend"had the subtitle: "Pets of all stripesinspire reader loyalty and a steadystream of books."

The article began: "A furryfriend's work is never done-just ask Marley and Dewey. First,each starred in a heartwarmingmemoir . . . which had maior runson national bestseller lists. Thenboth properties spun off children'sbooks, followed by movies. It's notsurprising that those wildly success-ful titles continue to inspire an en-tire genre of pet memoirs."

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ex-ecutive editor Susan Canavan said,"I find [readers of books aboutdogsl a discerning audience with lit-tle tolerance for mediocrity. Elegant,original prose is a must."

Authors Guild Btrlletin@ wi,rtn, zoto

She added, "A manuscript mustcapture an animal/human bond in afresh and memorable way." Andlater, "There is a real art to entering[an animal's] world convincingly.And it's essential to the success ofthe book."

SELF-CRITIC: Lorrie Moore's newnovel, A Gate at the Stairs, hit thebestseller list. The Nezu York Times re-ported that the book got "some ofthe most extravagantly positivereviews of any work of fiction pub-lished this year." Last year, an arti-cle about Moore in the LondonGunrdinn quoted the author as say-ing about her work, "Too manybirds and moons."

TECH: Aptara, a developer of con-tent conversion systems, is workingwith iPhone to transform books intointeractive e-book material for theiPhone.

DOG GUARDS: Nicholas Sparks'slatest novel, The Last Song, is a best-seller. The Nezu York Post reportedthat the author "has sold so manybooks he worries about the safety ofhis wife and children. So he has twoGerman shepherds, Rex and Laura,who have been trained from puppy-hood as guard dogs."

Sparks told a friend that the dogsare so well-trained that if he says, "'Attend,'they'll hold any intruder atbay without biting."

IN THE LIONS'DEN: fon Krakauerwent to West Point to read from hisnew book, Wlrcre Mett Win Glory,and sign copies. The book is aboutPat Tillman, the former pro footballplayer who joined the infantry andwas killed in Afghanistan. Krakauerwas uncertain about his receptionbecause the book is about theArmy's cover-up of the fact that Till-man died from friendly fire. Kra-kauer told The New York Times, "Thiskind of deceit is endemic in the mil-

itary and goes to the highest levelsof government."

The Tinres reporter observed:"The officers, to their credit, seemedattentive, and the questions weregood. One suggested that the prob-lem might be that the military, likeso many American institutions, hadbecome wedded to a certain percep-tion of success."

IN LOVE: Philippa Gregory is theauthor of The White Queen She wasquoted on barnesandnoble.com:"Although some people think I ama romantic novelist I have alwaysthought of myself as a rather grittyradical historian. For instance, Ihave never believed that there isonly one person for each person inthe world. lt doesn't make the leastsense to me. However, in reality, Ifell in love at 45 and I am absolutelycertain that my now husband is theonly man in the world for me, a

truth I find both ridiculous and up-lifting."

DIARIES: Former President fimmyCarter's diaries will be published inOctober of next year with commentsadded from the vantage point of30 years later. The diaries containabout 5,000 pages and cover theyears from 7977 to 1981. The book isexpected to be about 512 pages andwill include photographs.

SAD SUCCESS: Author Stieg Lars-son died in 2004 but his trilogy, theMillennium Series, has just beenpublished. The Girl with the DragortTnttoo and The Girl Who Plnyed ruithFlre were international bestsellers.Knopf will pubtish the third, Tfte

Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest,in 2010. PW said more than 12 mil-lion copies have been sold world-wide. Larsson was the secondbest-selling author in the world in2008. According to AbeBooks' staffblog, Khaled Hosseini (The KiteRunner\ was first.

EXHIBIT: "Double Dutch" was thetitle of an exhibition presented bythe Hudson Valley Center for Con-temporary Art this fall in Peekskill,N.Y. Among the works was Sanctu-ary by Dutch artist Job Koelewiin. Itwas a life-size gas station (pumpsand roofl made from more than3,000 books from the artist's library.The Nezu York Times asked if such awork of art invited "us to reflect onwhat it is that fuels the world: Is itoil, or is it ideas, specifically the dis-tilled wisdom that books have his-torically possessed?"

TV MAN: Glenn Beck has a dailyTV show that stirs controversy. Italso sells books. H\s Contmon Sense

is a best-selling paperback with 1.75

million copies in print. Arguittg zuith

Idiots came out in September witha 1.68 million first printing. The

Christmas Sztteater, a picture book,was published in October.

FASTER, FASTER: Tina Brownthinks publishing is too slow. Theformer editor of The Nert, Yorker andbiographer of Princess Diana nowheads an online magazine calledTheDaily Beast. She is joining with Per-seus Books Group to form a new im-print, Beast Books. It will publishtitles first as e-books and then as

paperbacks. She expects writers toturn out a manuscript in threemonths. Then Beast Books will needjust one month to produce the e-book edition.

Brown told Thr Neu York Times,"There is a real window of interestwhen people want to know some-thing. And that window slams shutpretty quickly in the media cycle."

Writers will receive low five-figure advances from Persens, thensplit profits from the sale of both thee-books and paperbacks with Per-seus and The Dniltl Beasf. DavidSteinberger, chief executive of Per-seus, said authors would receive"meaningfully more" than the typi-

Autho rs Gttiltl B ull efhr 3l w i,, t r, 2ol 0

cal 15 percent of the hardcover pricethat authors currently receive asroyalties.

The imprint's first book is sched-uled to come out as an e-book inDecember and a paperback inJanuary. The title is Attack of theWittgttuts: How the Lunatic Fringe lsHijacking America, by fohn P. Avlon,who often writes for The Daily Beast

about political groups.

JUST PICTURES: ferry Pinkney hasillustrated more than 100 children'sbooks in the last 45 years. The Lionand the Mouse, a bestseller, is his firstwordless book. It's an adaptation ofthe familiar Aesop's fable.

Pinkney told Children's Bookshelf ,"What child doesn't respond to thelion-there's something magic abouta lion, the majestic king of the jun-gle. Then on the other side, there isthe mouse. A mouse is tiny butwhen one scurries across the floor,everyone goes running! I'd say thatif you ask people to name their fa-vorite fables of all, many times thisone lands in the top five."

PW said that Little, Brownprinted 75,000 copies.

NEW HOME: Poets House has a

new home in Manhattan's BatteryPark City. Lee Briccetti, executivedirector, told The Neru York Times,"The goal of the place is to makeeveryone feel that poetry belongs tothem. Anyone can come and experi-ence poetry in a new way that willdeepen their relationship to lan-g\age." The glass facade is as sharpas a ship's prow.

Marie ffowe, a poet and profes-sor at Sarah Lawrence College, saidshe planned to take her students toPoets House. She said, "They shouldhave a huge sign outside: 'Rest ishere. Safety is here. Nourishment ishere.' It's the water of life, but sorarely do we get to drink from it. It'sthe song of the human soul."

COOKS TOO: Children's book au-

thor and illustrator Tomie dePaolahas a new book, Strega Nona's Har-uest, on the bestseller list. PW re-ported that dePaola celebratedhis 75th birthday at a party his pub-lisher threw at a New York res-taurant. DePaola proved that hisfictional Strega Nona is not the onlycook. He made French Napoleonsfor the partygoers' dessert.

NEW IMPRINT: Simon & Schusterhas formed Gallery Books to housePocket Books and small imprints.Pocket Books will again publishonly mass market paperbacks.

Simon & Schuster CEO CarolynReidy told PW she forrned Gallery"to withstand the vicissitudes of themarketplace and respond rapidlyto changing market preferences."Pocket Books and Simon SpotlightEntertainment will emphasize fic-tion for women, pop culture, andentertainment.

TAILORED TEXT: An advertisementin The Neu York Tinres promised,"We will print a story book aboutyour child" for only $9.99. "The chil-dren you love will be thrilled to seetheir own names printed in theseunique, personalized story books."A child can share a story bookwith SpongeBob, Spider-Man, Dora,Elmo, Disney Cars and others. Ship-ping and handling is an additional$2.99. Delivery is promised in 21days.

BACKCROUND: Anita Shreve's Foro Chnnge in Attitude is a bestseller.The author said in an interview thatthis was the only novel she's written"about a place where I've actuallylived. It's really about how a singlemoment in time can completely al-ter the course of someone's life."

The book is set in Nairobi.Kenya, where Shreve lived in thelate'70s.

COLLABORATION: Fifty years agoNorton fuster and Jules Feiffer col-

laborated on The Phantom Tollboth,which became a classic.

Now they are working togetheron a new book,The Odiotrs Ogre, forMichael diCapua Books at Simon &Schuster. It will be published in thefall of 2010. Feiffer does the illustra-tions.

PW said the 80-year-old men arealready planning another joint ven-ture. Feiffer said, "Watch for ThePhnntom Ogre, or maybe The OdiousTollboth coming n 2060."

PRICE WAR: In October, just as thebig books of the year were beinglaunched, Wal-Mart and Amazonstarted a price war. Wal-Mart an-nounced that the price of 10 best-sellers, including Stephen King'sUnder the Dome, with a retail price of$35, would be $10 each on its web-site. Amazon followed suit. Wal-Mart then dropped its price to $9.Amazon matched that price. Wal-Mart cut its price again to $8.99.

The New York Tinrcs reported that"booksellers, agents and authors,meanwhile, fretted that the battlewas taking prices for certain hard-cover titles so low that it could fun-damentally damage the industryand the ability of future authors towrite or publish new works."

James Patterson, whose l, AIexCross was also included in the top10, told the Times, "Imagine if some-body was selling DVDs of thisweek's new movies for $5. Youwouldn't be able to make movies. Ican guarantee you that the moviestudios would not take this kind ofthing sitting down."

DEATHS

Jim Carroll,60, died September11 in Manhattan. He was a poet,punk rocker and author of TheB aske tb ttll Diar ies (797 8).

Forrest Church, 61, died Sep-tember 24 in Manhattan. The Uni-tarian pastor was the author ofnearly two dozen books, including

Aulhors Guitd ButtetittE wi,rtt llltl

God snd Other Famous Liberals (1997),

Life Lines: Holdirtg On (and LettingGo) (1996) and Lifecraft: The Art ofMeaning in the Eueryday (2000).

John Colburn,94, died August 8in Bedford, Mass. The Episcopalbishop was the author of manybooks, including Prayer and PersonalReligion (1957), A Diary of Prayers,Personal and Public (7975) and Anneand the Sand Dobbies: A Story AbolttDeath for Children snd Their Parents(1964).

Dominick Dunn, 83, diedAugust 26 in Manhattan. He was theauthor of The Tu,o Mrs. Grenailles(1985), An Inconaenient Woman(1990) and The Way We Lived Then,Recollcctions of a Well-Known NanrcDropper (1999).

Raymond Federman, 81, diedOctober 6 in San Diego. He was theauthor of Double or Nothing: A RealFictitiotts Discourse (7977), The Voicein the Closet (7979), The Twofold Vibra-tion (7982) and Smiles on WashittgtottSqunre: A Loae Story of Sorfs (1985),which won the American BookAward.

Edward Goldsmith, 80, diedAugust 21 in Siena, Italy. He hadhomes in London, Italy and NewZealand. He was the author or edi-tor of The Great U-Turn (7978), TheSocinl and Enttironmental Effects ofLarge Dnns (1984) and The Way: ArtEcological World Vieu (1998).

Edward Hall,95, died July 20 inSanta Fe, N.M. The cultural anthro-pologist was the author of The SilentLangunge (7959), The Hidden Dinten-siott (7966) and The Dance of Life: The

Other Dimension of Time (1983).

E. Lynn Harris,54, died l:u/.y 23in Los Angeles. His home was inAt-lanta. He was the author of a dozenbooks, including Inaisible Life (7997),

lust As I Am ('1.995), lf This WorldWere Mine (1998) and a memoir,What Becomes of the Brokenhearted(2004).

fane Aiken Hodge, 91, died June17 in Lewes, England. The daughter

of Conrad Aiken, she was the au-thor of 40 novels, including Maul-eaer Hill (7964), The Adttenturers(7966) and Saztannah Purchase (7970).

She also wrote a study, Tlre DoubleLife of lane Austen (1972), and a biog-raphy, The Priaate World of CeorgetteHeyer (2006).

Stuart M. Kaminsky, 75, diedOctober 9 in St. Louis. He was theauthor of more than 60 crime nov-els, including Bullet for a Star (7977),Murder on the Yellozu Brick Rond(7977), To Cntclt a Spy (2002) andLeiberman's Folly (7997). His nonfic-tion books included Clint Enstwood(1974),lolm Huston, Maker of Mngic(1978) and (coauthor) Basic Filnt-rnaking (i981).

Elmer Kelton, 83, died August22 in San Angelo, Texas. He wrotemore than 60 books, including Bll-falo Wagons (1956),The Good OId Boys(1978) andTlrc Day the Coztrborts Qttit(7977).

Jack T. Kirby,70, died August 6in St. Ar,rgustine, Fla. He was the au-thor of Mockingbird Song: EcologicalLandscapes of the South (2006) andMedia- Mad e D i x i e (197 8).

James Krenow, 88, died Sep-tember 9 in Fort Bragg, Calif. Thecabinetmaker was the author of fivebooks: A Cabinetmnker's Notebottk(1976), The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking(1977), The Impract icnl Cabinet rnaker(1979), Worker in Wood (1981) andWith Wakened Hands (2000).

Irving Kristol,89, died Septem-ber 18 in Arlington, Va. He was theauthor of several collections of mag-azine articles written over a long ca-reer: On the Democratic Idea inAmcrica (7972),Tiuo Cheers for Capital-ism (\978), Re.flections of n Neoconser-aatiue (1983) and Neoconseraatism:The Afiobiography of an ldea (1995).

Karla Kuskin, 77, died August20 in Seattle. She was the author andillustrator of more than 50 books forchildren. Titles include In tlrc Middleof the Trees (1958), The Rose on MyCake (7964), Soap Soup nnd Othar

Verses (1,992) and Near the WillozuTree (7975).

James Lord, 86, died August 23in Paris. He was the author of NoTraoeler Returns (7956), The loys ofSuccess (1958), Alberto Giacometti:Drau,ings (1971) and Picasso andDora: A Personnl Memoir (1993). Hismemoir, My Queer War, is scheduledfor publication in June.

Sheila Lukins,66, died August30 in Manhattan. She was coauthorof The Silaer Palate Cookbook, whichsold more than 2.5 million copies.She also wrote or co-wrote The SilaerPalnte Good Times Cookbook, The NewBasics Cookbook and AII Around theWorld Cookbook. ln all, her bookssold more than seven million copies.

Norma Fox Mazer, 78, diedOctober 17 in Montpelier, Vt. Shewas the author of 33 books and re-cipient of a Newbery, an Edgar, andthe Christopher and Alan awards.Among her titles: After the Rain(1987), Girllrcarts (2002) and Out ofControl (7994). The Missittg Girl isscheduled for publication in 2010.

Frank McCourt, 78, died July 19

in Manhattan. The retired Englishteacher was the author of Angela'sAshes, a best-selling memoir, 'Tls

andTeacher Mnn.Milton Meltzer, 94, died Sep-

tember 18 in Manhattan. He was theauthor of nearly 100 books for chil-dren. Titles include The AmazingPotato (7992) and biographies ofFerdinand Magellan, BenjaminFranklin, Thomas Paine, ThomasJefferson, Andrew Jackson, Fred-erick Douglass, Theodore Roosevelt,Mark Twain, Albert Einstein andBetty Friedan.

Merrill D. Peterson, 88, diedSeptember 23 in Charlottesville, Va.He was the author of The leffersonImage in the American Mind (1960),

lefferson and the New Nation (1970)and Lincoln in American Memory(1ees).

Richard Poirier,83, died August15 in Manhattan. A founder of the

Autltors Cuikl BullctittGl wn,rt ztlltl

Library of America, he was the au-thor of The Comic Sense of Henry

lames (7960) and a collection of es-says, The Performing Self (1,971).

Nan Robertson, 83, died Octo-ber 13 in Rockville, Md. The formerNerc York Tintes reporler was the au-thor of Gettittg Better: Inside Alco-holics Anonymolts (i988) and TheGirls in the Balconrl: Women, Men andThe New YorkTinrcs (1992).

Edward Rondthaler, 104, diedAugust 19 in Cedar City, Utah. The"foenetic speler" was the author ofDictionary of Antericnn Spelling: AS irrtplifi e d Al t er n a tiu e Spel I in g .fo r theEnglish Languagc (7986), AlphabetThessurus: A Trensury of Letter De-sigrts (1960) and a memoir, Life uithLetters-As They Tttrned Photogenic(1981).

William Safire, 79, died Septem-

ber 27 in Rockville, Md. The Nezu

York Tinres columnist was the authorof Frtll Disclosure (1977), The NewLnngunge of Politics (1968) and Before

the Fall (7975).

Budd Schulberg, 95, died Au-gust 3 in Westhampton Beach, N.Y.He was the author of What MakesSamnry Run (7941), The Harder TheyFall (7947) and The Disenchatted(1e50).

Kenneth M. Stampp, 96, diedJuly 13 in Oakland, Calif. The histo-rian was author of The PeculinrInstitutiott: Slauerll in the AntebellwrtSouth (1.956), The Southern Rottd toAppomnttox (1969) and America in7857: A Nntion on the Brink (1990).

Keith Waterhouse, S0, died Sep-tember 4 in London. He was the au-thor of Billy Linr (7959), OJfice Life(7978), Palace Pier (2003) and two

volumes of memoirs: City Lights: AStreet Life (1994) and Streets Ahead:Life After City Lights (1995).

jane Weinberger, 91, died fuly13 in Bar Harbor, Maine. She wasthe author of Vittt: A Very lmportantMouse (1984) and Experience the lour-ney (2003).

Sarah E. Wright, 80, died Sep-tember 13 in Manhattan. She wasthe author of This Child's Gonna Liae(1960) and A. Philip Randolph: Inte-gration in the Workploce (7990).

Sidney Zion,75, died August 2in Brooklyn. He was the author ofRead AII About It! The Collacted Ad-aentures of a Mazterick Reporter (7982),Mnrkers (1990), Trust Your Mother butCut the Cards (7993) and Loynlty andBetrnyal: Thc Story of the AntericanMob (1994). I

BULLETIN BOARDPoetry Contests

Snake Nation Press's annual Violet Reed Haas Prizeawards $1,000 and publication to the winning manu-script. Deadline: March l,2Ol0. Previously publishedpoems are eligible. To enter, send a 50-75 page manu-script with a $25 entry fee (or pay online) to SnakeNation Press, 2920 North Oak Street, Valdosta, GA37602. snakenationpress.org / contests.html

Campbell Corner at the Sarah Lawrence CollegeLanguage Exchange is offering its 12th annual PoetryContest. Work that treats larger themes with lyric in-tensity are especially welcomed by the judges. Thewinner receives $3,000. To enter, send up to 20 pages,omitting the poet's name from the manuscript, with$25, a cover sheet with name and contact information,and a list of any poems from the manuscript that havebeen published already. Deadline: March 15, 2010. TheLanguage Exchange, Campbell Corner Poetry Contest,Sarah Lawrence College, 1 Mead Way, Bronxville, NY707 08-5999. slc.edu / ccorner.

The Malnhnt Reuieut, a Canadian literary magazine, isholding the Far Horizons Award for poetry, for poetswho have yet to publish in book form (a book of 48

pages or more). The winner will receive $500, pluspayment at the rate of $40 per printed page upon pub-Iication (payment is in CAD). Send up to three unpub-lished poems per entry, each poem not to exceed 60lines, in any style. U.S. entries should include a $30 fee,which includes a one-year subscription. Provide theentrant's name on a separate page with contact infor-mation and title(s). Deadline: N4,ay l,2010.The MalahqtReaieru, Far Horizons Award for Poetry, University ofVictoria, PO Box 1700, Stn CSC, Victoria, BC V8W 2y2,Canad a. (250) 72I-8524; malahat@uvic.ca.

The James Laughlin Award is given to honor a secondbook of original poetry, in English, by a citizen of theU.S. Only manuscripts already under contract withpublishers are considered for the award. The Academyof American Poets will award the winning poet $5,000and purchase copies of the book for distribution to itsmembers. Entries must have come under contract witha U.S. publisher between May L, 2009, and April 30,2010. The publisher must send four copies of eachmanuscript without the author's name appearing inrunning heads or on any page. All manuscripts will beread "blind." Suggested length is between 40 and75pages. Deadline: May 15, 2010. A completed entry

Autlrors Cuitcl Bultt'tinGl Wirrt Zfno

form signifying the publisher's acceptance of theseguidelines must accompany all entries. Alex DimitrovAwards Coordinator, The Academy of AmericanPoets,584 Broadway, Suite 604, New York, NY 10012-5243. (272) 27 4-0343 ; adimitrov@poets. org.

Residencies

The Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell Universityoffers the Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing toprovide an emerging writer four months to write in or-der to complete a first or second book. The residencycarries a stipend of $4,000 and lodging is on campus.The resider-rt will give a public reading of his or herwork but will not have formal academic obligations.The residency is awarded to prose writers and poetson an alternating basis; the 2010-2011 residence will beawarded to a poet and extend from late Augustthrough mid-December 2010. Deadline: February 20,

2010. Applications are available online at buck-nell.edu/x3745.xml.

The Marguerite and Lamar Smith Fellowship forWriters, at the Carson McCullers Center for Writersand Musicians, and Columbus State Unir,ersity, GAprovide semester-long fellowships for writers. Duringthe Fall 2010 semester, the Smith/Mccullers Fellowwill receive a $5,000 stipend and residence in a privateapartment in Carson McCuller's childhood home.Fellows must give readings or workshop Presenta-tions, plus a final presentation. To apply, mail threecopies of a packet containing the following: your fullcontact information; your CV including all fellow-ships, scholarships, prizes, or other honors; a writingsample of up to 20 pages; a statement describing whyyou feel that you would be a suitable Smith/McCullers Fellow, and describing the nature and ex-tent of the work you would expect to accomplish dur-ing the residence. In addition, have two referencescomplete the Center's recommendation form and mailit directly to the Center. Visit mccullerscenter.orglfellowships.htm to download the form and read thefull guidelines. Deadline: April l,2Ol0. Cathy Fussell,Director, The Carson McCullers Center FellowshipProgram, English Department, Columbus State Uni-versity, 4225 U ruv ersity Avenue, Columbus, G A 37907 .

(7 06) 565-4021; fu ssell-cathy@colstate.edu.

Fiction Contests

The Poetry Center at Passaic County CommunityCollege offers several awards for books published in2009, with deadlines ranging from February L to Aprill,201:0. They are the Paterson Poetry Prize ($1,000 fora book of poems), the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards

($1,000, with $200 and $100 runners-up prizes), thePaterson Prize for Books for Young People ($500), andthe Paterson Fiction Prize ($1,000 for a novel or collec-tion of short fiction). The guidelines for each prizeare online at old.pccc.edu/ poetry / Prizelindex.html.Send applications to Maria Mazziotti Gillan, ExecutiveDirector, Poetry Centet Passaic County CommunityCollege, One College Boulevard, Paterson, NJ 07505-7779. (97 3) 684-6555 ; mgillan@pccc.edtt.

Once again, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation is offer-ing the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellenceto recognize African-American writers of excellence.The recipient receives $10,000 and will give a readingat the award ceremony. Eligible books include novelsor short storv collections published in the U.S. in 2009;

the writer must be African-American. Self-publishedbooks are considered only if they have had substantialsales or been reviewed in well-known journals.Authors may submit their own work directly. Dead-line: February'I-.,2010. Download the submission format ernestjgainesaward.org, and mail along with 10

copies of the book to The Ernest J. Gaines Award forLiterary Excellence, c/o The Baton Rouge Area Foun-dation,402 N. Fourth Street, Baton Rouge, LA'70802.For more information, contact Jessica Foley at jfoley@braf.org or (225) 387-6726.

The Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender andWomen's Studies at the University of Rochester is of-fering its annual fanet Heidinger Kafka Prize for fic-tion by an American woman. A cash prize of $5,000will be awarded to a book-length work of prose fiction,whether novel, short stories or experimental writing,published in 2009. Entries must be submitted by pub-lishers. Deadline: February 1,2010. For full submis-sion guidelines, and to download an application form,visit rochester.edu,/college/wst and click on "AboutSBAL" Ianet Heidinger Kafka Prize, Susan B. AnthonyInstitute for Gender and Women's Studies, Universityof Rochestea 538 Lattimore Hall, RC Box 270434,Rochester, NY 7 4627 -4034.

So to Speak, a biannual feminist journal of poetry, fic-tion, nonfiction and art published by George MasonUniversity, is accepting entries for its 2010 ShortFiction Contest. First place is $500 and publication inthe journal; two runners-up will also receive publica-tion. Send stories of up to 5,000 words with a $15entry fee for each story. Send two copies of the manu-script, one with your name and contact informationand one without. Include a cover letter with full con-tact information, a statement that the work is a contestentry, a brief bio of up to 75 words, and how you heardabout So to Speak For full guidelines visit www2

Atttlmrs Gttitd BnlletitrEl wn tu zoto

.gmu / edu / orgl sts / contest.php. Deadline: March 15,2010. So to Speak, Fiction Contest, George Mason Uni-versity, MSN 2C5,4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA22030.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientistsawards up to five $30,000 fellowships each year to newscreenwriters who have not earned more than $5,000writing fictional work for film or television. The Don& Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting are for theoriginal work of one writer, or the collaborate work oftwo writers. To enter, send an original feature filmscreenplay of approximately 90 to 120 pages in lengthwith an application form and $30 entry fee by May 1,2010. Apply online or by mail; application forms andinstructions are available online at oscars.org/awards/nicholl. Academy Foundation, Nicholl Fellowshipsin Screenwriting, 1313 Vine Street, Hollywood, CA90028-8707.

Multiple Genres

The Binghamton Center for Writers at BinghamtonUniversity-SuNY offers two book awards. The fohnGardner Fiction Book Award honors a novel or collec-tion of fiction published in 2009. The winner will par-ticipate in an awards ceremony and give a reading atthe university. The Milt Kessler Poetry Book Awardhonors a book of poems, 48 pages or more in length,by a poet 40 or older and published in 2009. Bothawards carry a cash prize of $1,000. Full guidelinesand an application form are available online at www2.binghamton.edu / en glish /creative-writing (click onthe Binghamton Center for Writers link). Deadline:March 'l,, 2010. Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Director,Creative Writing Program, Binghamton University,Department of English, General Literature, and Rheto-ric, Library North Room 1149, Vestal Parkway East,PO Box 6000, Binghamton, NY13902-6000. (607) 777-27 1,3 ; cwpro@binghamton.edu.

The University of Pittsburgh Press offers two prizes.The Drue Heinz Literature Prize for short fiction isopen to writers who have published a book-length col-lection of fiction or at least three short stories or novel-las in commercial magazines or literary jourrrals. Thewinner receives a cash award of 915,000 and publica-tion by the University of Pittsburgh Press. To enter,send a manuscript of short stories; two or more novel-las (a single novella should be up to 130 double-spacedpages); or a combination of one or more novellas and

short stories. The manuscript as a whole should be be-tween 150 and 300 pages. Work previously publishedas part of an anthology is eligible. Include a list of thewriter's published short fiction with full citations.Include two cover pages: one with manuscript titleand author's full contact information, a second withtitle only. Omit all identifying information from themanuscript aside from the first cover page. Entriesmust be postmarked between May 1 and June 30,2010and sent to Drue Heinz Literature Prize, University ofPittsburgh Press, 3400 Forbes Avenue, Eureka Build-ing, Fifth Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 75260. The Press alsooffers the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Pfize for a firstfull-length book of poems. The winner receives $5,000and publication in the Pitt Poetry Series. Submissionsmust be postmarked between between March 1 andApril 30, 2010. Visit upress.pitt.edu/pfizes.aspx forfull submission guidelines for both prizes, or contactpress@pitt.edu.

The Barbara Deming Memorial Fund awards grantsof up to $1,000 to U.S. or Canadian poets, fiction writ-ers, and nonfiction writers "whose work addresseswomen's concerns or speaks for peace and justice froma feminist perspective." The awards are given twice ayear; 2070 deadlines are fune 30 and December 31.Send an SASE for an application and complete guide-lines. Susan Plines, Administrator, Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Inc., Grants inPoetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction, P.O. Box 630725,Bronx, NY 10463.

Translation

The American Literary Translators Association is of-fering its $2,500 National Translation Award for atranslation of literature from any language intoEnglish published by a North American publisher inthe previous calendar year. Nomination is by pubtish-ers only. The award-winning book and translator arearnounced and featured at the annual ALTA confer-ence held each fall. The award is open to book-lengthworks of fiction, poetry, drama or creative nonfiction(literary criticism and philosophy are not eligible).Visit utdalla s.edu / alta / resources / grants.html for fullnomination guidelines, including entry fee. Deadline:March 31,2010. National Translation Award, Ameri-can Literary Translators Association, The Universityof Texas at Dallas, 800 W. Campbell Road, (IO 51),Richardson, TX 75080-3021. (972\ 883-2093. +

Atfthars Guild Bulletin@ wi,rtu zoto

BOOKS BY MEMBERSDiane Ackerman: Dawn Light: Danc-ing tuith Crlnes and Other Ways to Startthe Day; David A. Adler (and |ohnWallner, illus.): Honest Abe Lincoltt;David A. Adler (with Michael S. Ad-Ier and illustrations by Matt Collins):APicture Book of Harry Hotrdini;letfreyAinis: Introduction to Neut Mtrsic; KarlAlexander: laclyn the Ripper; letryApps: BIue Shadozus Farm: A Nouel;Michael Argetsinger; Mark D onoh ue :

Technical Excellence at Speed; DavidArmstrong: Written Ouf; Linda Ash-man (and Michael Chesworth, illus.):CreakrJ OId House: A Topsy-Turay Tnle

of a Real Fixer-Upper; Ken Auletta:Googled: The End of tlrc World As We

Know It; Avi. Murder nt Midnight;

Molly Bang: AII of Me!: A Book ofTlnnks; Kate Banks (and Georg Hall-ensleben, illus.): Wlnt's Cottting forChristmttsT; Lynne Barasch: First Comethe Zebra; Molly Barrow: Malia andTeacttp: Atoesome African Adaenture;Malia and Teacup: Out orr a Limb;Hester Bass (and E. B. Lewis, illus.):The Secret World of Walter Anderson;Marion Dane Bauer (and RichardCowdrey, illus.): The Christmas Baby;Marion Dane Bauer (and Ted Lewin,illus.): The Longest Night; BonnyBecker (and Amy Portnoy, illus.): TfteMagical Ms. Pltun; Bonny Becker (andKady MacDonald, illus.): A Birthday

for Bear; Randi Beer: A Designer'sGuide to Girls' €t ltmior Appnrel; Madi-son Smartt Bell:. Deail's Dream; Eliza-beth Benedict (Ed.): Mentors, Muses €tMonsters: 30 Writers on tlrc People Who

Changed Their Liztes; Helen Benedict:The Edge of Eden; fames R. Benn: Eull

for Eoil; Kelly Bennett:. Dance, Y'AlI,Dance; Ira Berkowitzt Sinner's Ball;William ]. Birnes (and joel Martin):The Haunting of America: From theSalem Witch Trials to Harry Houdini;Karen Blomain: Hard Bargain; Eliza-beth Bluemle (and Randy Cecil,illus.): Horu Do You Wokka-Wokka?;Lisa Bork: For Better, For Murder;Kathleen Long Bostron:99 Things toDo Between Here and Heaaen; What lsthe Bible?; Who Made the World?; Bar-

bara Taylor Bradford: Breakirtg theRu/es; Carol Brendler (and Ard Hoyt,illus.): Winnie Finn, Warm Fnrmer;Cynthia Brian: Be the Star You Are!For Teens: Liaing, Louing, Laugltittg,Learning, and Leading; Sandra Brown:Rainatater; Smash Cut; Stacy Brown:lelly Roll Morton: Neia Orleans Style!Chicago Style ! K.ansas City Style! It's alllelly Roll Style!; Roger W. Brucker:Crand, Cloomy, and Pecttlisr: StephettBishop at Mattnnoth Caae; Beth WagnerBrust (and Cynthia La Brie Norall):Quirky, Yes-Hctpeless, No; PracticnlTi1ts to Help Your Child zuith Asperger'sSynrlrome Be More Socially Accepted;Robin Burcell: Tlrc Bone Chamber;Augusten Burroughs: You Better NotCn1: Stories for Christmos;

Meg Cabotz AIIie Fir*le's Rules forGirls: Stage Frigltt; Philip Caputo:Crossers; Lillian Stewart Carl:' The

Charnt Stotte; Betsy Carter: The PttzzleKing, john Cech (and Gail deMarcken,illus.; Adapt.): The Nutcracker; Mar-garet Coel: The Silent Spirit; SherrySuib Cohen (and Michael Groover):My Deliciotrs Life ntith Pattla Deen;Suzanne Collins: Catching Fire; Johnf. Conley: Adoration qnd Annihilation:The Conaent Philosoplry of Port-Roynl;Michael Connelly: 9 Dragons; feanineCornillot: Fanilltl Sentertce: The Senrclt

for My Cuban-Reaolutionary, Prisotr-Yard, Mytlric-Hero, Deadbeat Dnd;

Joseph Cowley: Jolm Adants;Judy Cox(and Omar Rayyan, illus.): TIte Case ofthe Purloined Professor: The Tails of Fred-crick and Ishbu; Doreen Cronin (andScott Menchin, illus.): Stretch; ShuttaCrum: Thunder-Boomer!; KathrynCullen-DuPont: Hunnn Trfficking;foseph Cummins: TIrc War Chronicles:From Flintlocks to Macltine Guns: AGlobal Reference of AII the Major ModernConflicts;

Alzina Stone Dale: When thc PostzuarWorld Was Netcr; Barbara D'Amatoand Mark Zubro (and Jeanne M.Dams): Foolproof; Larry O. Dean(Contributor): On the No Road Way toTomorrour; David DeKok: Fire Under-grotmd: The Ongoing Trngedy of the

Cent ralia Mine Fire ; Cheryl Dellasega(and Tyler Beauford, illus.): Bloggirls:Sistrsic92 (Mep; Yvonne Wakim Den-nis (and Arlene Hirschfelder): A Kid'sCuide to Natiue American History: MoreThan 50 Actiaities; Deborah DurlandDeSaix and Karen Gray Ruelle: The

Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of Hozu

Muslints Rescued letus During tlrc Halo-caust; David Ellis Dickerson; House ofCards: Loue, Faith, and Other Social Ex-pressiorts: A Menrcir; Patti Dickinson:Coach Tonmty Thonryson I the Borls ofSequoyah; E. L. Doctorow: Homer €.r

Langley; Tom Dolby: Secret Society;Stephen j. Dubner (and Steven D.Levitt): Superfreakonontics: Global Cool-ing, Patriotic Prostitutcs, and Wlty Sui-cide Bombers Should Butt Life Insurance;Kathleen Duey: Saued Scars: A Resur-rectiott of Magic, Book 2; Patrick Duran-tou: Logic of Hegel (La Phdnoru1nologieet Ia Logique Hdgilienne); Susan Dwor-kin: Tfte Viking in the Wlteat Field: AScientist's Struggle to Preserzte theWorld's Haraest;

Hope Edelman: The Possibility o.f

Eaerythitrg: A Memoir; Debby DahlEdwardson: Blessittg's Bead; ElaineElinson (and Stan Yogl): WherezterThere's a Fight: Hoztt Runau,ay Slaaes,Stffiagists, Imntigrants, Strikers, nndPoets Shaped Ciztil Liberties in Califurnia;Marc Eliot: Clint Eastuood: AmericanRebel; Rengan: The Hollywood Years;

Helen Epstein: Ecrire La Vie ;

Elizabeth Fackler: Mt1 Eyes Haae a

Cold Nose; T. Faron: Postcards; MikeFarris: The Altitude Experience: Success-

ful Trekking and Climbing Aboae 8,000Feet; Kate Feiffer (and Tricia Tusa,illus.): The Problem utith Tlrc Puddles;Bruce Feilerz Anrerics's Proplrct: Mosesnnd tlrc American Stonl; Muriel Feld-shuh: Cclebrate . . . Voices in Children'sBooks; Dan Fesperman: The ArntsMnker of Berlin; Barbara Fisher: Re-prising loy; Sid Fleischman (and PeterSis, illus.): The Drearn Stealer; CandaceFleming: The Great and Onhl Barnttm:The Trentendous, Stupendous Life ofShoutman P. T. Barrumt; Candace Flem-ing (and Nancy Carpenter, illus.):

Authors Guild BulletinV wirtu zoto

Intogene's Lost Stand; Thomas Flem-ing: Tlrc Intinttttt, Li-oes of tlrc FourtdirrgFnthers; Ronald Florence: Entissnrrl tt.f

the Doomcd: Bnrgaining.fttr Lit,cs in theHolocaust; Joanne Fluke: Plunr Putl-tlittg Murder; Betsy Franco (and ShinoArihara, illus.): Zero Is thc Leaztes on the

Trce; Betsy Franco (and Tom Franco,illus.): Metnnrorplrcsis: lr,tnior Yenr;

Caroline Fraser: Reutilding the World:Dispatches from tlrc Consertttttizte Rcuo-lution; Mary Ann Fraser: Pet SlutpLullnby; Helen Frost: Crossitrg Stones;

Gregory Funaro: Tht Sculptor;

Patricia Lee Gauch (and BarbaraLavallee, illus.): The kritting of EIiztt-beth Amelia; Brent Ghelfiz The VertornCable; Denise Giardina: En iltl's Gltost :

A Noael o.f the Brortd Sisters; JamesCross Giblin; The Rise snLl Fnll ofSenator loe McCarthy; Patricia ReillyGiftz Wiltl Girl; Ralph G. Giordano:Sntnn in tlrc Dnnce Hall: Rea. lolut Ronclt

Strnton, Social Dancing, antl Moralitrl itt1920s Neu York City; Perry GlasserrDangerous Places; Gail Godwin: Urt-

finished Desires; Robert Goolrick:A Relinble Wife; Linda Gordon: Doro-tlreo Lnnge : A Li-fe Beyontl Linits; MaryGordon: Reading,lcsus: A Writer's Ett-cottrtter ruitlt tlte Gospci s; MichaelGreenberg: Beg, Borrou, Stenl: AWri-tar's Life; Jacqueline Dembar Greene(and Doug Chayka, illus.): The SecrctSlnfar of Barcclorrn; Nikki Grimes (andEric Velasquez, illus.): Voices of Cltrist-rras; Nikki Grimes (and R. CregoryChristie, illus.): Ric/r: A Dyanrondc Dnn-iel Book; Michele Grimm arld TomGrimm: The Basic Book o.f DigitnlPhotograpthy;

Timothy Hallinan: Brenthirrg Water;Wilborn Hampton: Horton Foote:Americn's Stortlteller; Joy Hario (andMercedes McDonald, illus.): For n CirlBecoming; Joan Hiatt Harlow: Secret o.f

tlrc Night Ponies; Suzanne Harper (andPeter Earnest): The Real Syty's Gttide toBecomittg n Spy; Carolyn Hart: Merry,Merry Chost; Libby Hathorn (andDoris Unger, illus.): Zalnrn's Rose;

Juanita Havill (and Anne SibleyO'Brien, illus.): lnntaicu ls ThttnkJul;Florence Parry Heide (and LaneSmith, illus.): Princess Hyacinth: (TIrc

Surprising Tale of a Cirl Who Floated);

Anne C. Heller: Ayrr Rand and the

Wttrld She Made; Patricia Hermes (andRuth Sanderson, illus.): Horse Dinries:#3: Kotla; Esther Hershenhorn (andZachary Pullen, illus.): S ls for Story: AWritar's Alplmbet; Charles Higham: /nnnd Out of Hollyruood; Susanna Leon-ard Hill (and Nicole Rutten, illus.):Not Yct, Rose; Charlotte Hinger: Dead-Iy Descent; Mary Ann Hoberman (andMarc Boutavant, illus.): AII Kinds ofFnmilies!; Steve Hodelt Most Eail: The

Further Serial Murdct's o.f Dr. George HillHodel; Eva Hoffman: Time; GerelynHollingsworth: Cttntrent, A Noucl; SaraLewis Holmes: Operntiort Ycs; EllenHopkins: Tricks; Ellen Howard,: The

Crimsotr Cap; Katherine Bolger Hyde:Lucia, Sairtt o,f Light;

Donna M. fackson: Extrenrc Sciertists:Exploring Nnture's Mysteries fi'onrPerilous Places; Sid Jacobson (andErnie Col6n, illus.): Clrc: A GrnphicBiograplry; foe Jares (and CeorgeToley): Tlrc Goldert Age of College Teruds:

A USC Cosclr's Unique Cortributions totlrc Gorrre;Suzanne fermain: TIrc Secret

of the Yellotu Denth: A True Story ofMedical Sleutlting; Haynes fohnson(ancl Dan Balz): The Bnttle for Antericn2008:The Story ofnn Extraordhnry EIec-fion; LouAnne fohnson: Muchaclro;Tony Johnston (illustrated with sculp-tures by Yuyi Morales, photographedby Tim O'Meara): My Abuelita; Kayliefones: Lies My Mttther Nezter Told Mr:: AMemoir; Sandra fordan (and ChristineDavenier, illus.): Mr. and Mrs. Portly,Attd Their Little Dog, Snack; Jacquelinefules (and Kathryn Mittet illus.):Duck for Turkcy Datl;

John Keegan: The Anrcrican Cirtil War:A Militartl History; Peg Kehret: Run-autay Tlr)itl; Jacqueline Kelly: TIrcEtrolutiotr of Calpurnia Tate; MargatetKenda: Mntlt Wizardry for Kids; Scierrce

Wizordry for Kids; Liza Ketchum:Ncarsgir/; Elizabeth Cody Kimmel:Boy ott thc Lion Tln'orrc: The Childltood ofthe 14tlt Dalai Lnnm; Eric A. Kimmel(and Jill Weber, illus.; Adapt.): EttenHigher!: A Rosh Hashanah Story byl. L. Peretz; Eric A. Kimmel (and JimMadsen, illtrs.): A Spotlight for Hnrry;Stephen King. Under the Dome; ChuckKlosterman: Eating tlrc Dinosaur; Gor-

don Korman: Pop; Zoobreak; StephenKrensky (and Henry Cole, illus.):Clnucer's First Wintar; Susan Kuklin(lllus., with words by Marilyn Nel-son): Bettutiful Bnllerinn; Susan Kuk-lin: No Clnirboy: Murtler, Violence,nnd Teenlgers ort Deatlr Roar; DavidKundtz: Artnkened Mind: One-MinutcWnke Up Cal/s; Michelle D. Kwasney:Blue Plnte Specinl;

Robert Lacey: htside tlrc Kingtlorn:Kirtgs, Clerics, Modcrttists, Terrorists,ttnd tlrc Strttggle lor Srtutli Arnbin; TomLalicki (and Carlyn Cerniglia, illus.):Franrc-up orr tha Bozuery: A Houdini €tNnte MrlsterJl; Wally Lamb: Wishin'and Hopirr': A Clu'istmas Sforv; RobertLangs: Frctrd ort n Precipice: Hott,Freutl's Fate Puslrcd Psychontnltlsis Oaerthe Edge; Justine Larbalestier: Liar;Kirby Larson (and Brian Der"rnis andMary Nethery): Nr.r&s: The True Story ofa Mutt, a Marine & n Miracle; VictorLavalle: Big Machine; Ursula K. LeGuin (and S. D. Schindler, illus.): CafDrennrs; Peter Lerangis: WTF; EllenW. Leroe: Dettr Big V; Iulius Lester(and Geraldo Val6rio, illus.): Tlte Hurt-grtl Glrosts; Daniel Levin: The LastEntber; Irene S. Levine: Best FrierttlsForeter: Surz,iaitrg, a Breakup tuitlr YourBest Friend; Victoria Likes: MnnngeYttw' Renrodt'l nrttl Snuc Money; SheilaE. Lipsey: Benutiful Ugly; Into EaclrLifc; Sinsatiabla; Sally Lloyd-Jones(and Jago, illus.): TIrc lesus StorybookBible Deluxe Etlitiorr; Malinda Lo: Aslu

Jess Lourey: Septenrber Fair; PeterLourie: Wltaling Senson: A Yesr in theLife of an Arctic Wlnle Scientist;SharonLovejoy: Toad Cottages €.r SltootingSfars; Alice Low (and Jolrn O'Brien,illus.): Thc Fastest Game on Tiuo Feet:Atttl Othcr Poems About Hozu SportsBegnn; Lois Lowry (and BagramIbatoulline, illus.): Crow Call; MikeLupica: Milliotr-Dollar Tlrrow; BarryLyga: Goth Cirl Rising; George EllaLyon (and Stephanie Anderson, illus.):Vw and Me and Honrc Szueet Home;

Stan Mack (and Susan Champlin):Road to Reuolutiott; Mary Mackey: TftcWitlozu's War; lo Maeder: Whan IMnrried My Motlrcr; Ann Malaspina(and Colin Bootman, illus.): FintlingLincoltt: Leonard Maltin: Lettrnrd

Atrthors Cuild Bullctirt Bl wi,rtr, 20t 0

Maltin's 20L0 Mooie Cuide; LeonardMarcus (Ed.): Funny Business: Conaer-sntions uith Writers of Comedy; LeslieMargolis: Girls Acting Cnt ty ; MargaretMaron: Sand Sharks; Ann M. Martin:Eaerythitrg for a Dog; Eve Marx: 101

Things You Didn't Know Abottt Sex;

Jean Marzollo:. I Spy A to Z; HilaryMasters: Itt Roonts of Menrcry: Essays;

Linda H. Matthews: Middlirtg Folk:Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-

Irish Fanrily; Joyce Maynard: LaborDay;Megan McAndrew: Dreantittg inFrench; fill McCorkle: Going AwayShoes: Stories; Patricia McCormick:P rn'ple He a rt ; Idalph Mclnerny: S t ab rctl

G/ass; Robin McKinley (and PeterDickinson): Firc: Tales of Elenrcntal Spir-ifs; Patrick R. McManusl.The Double-

Jack Murders; Daniel Menaker: A GoodTalk: Tlrc Story and Skill of Conaersatiott;Chris Franchetti Michaels: Teaclt

Yourself Visttnlly Besdrtork; CharlesMicucci: The Life and Tinrcs of Corn;Bobbi Miller (and Megan Lloyd,illus.; Adapt.): Daay Crockett CetsHitched; |acquelyn Mitchard: Ntt Tinrc

to Waue Goodbye; fanet Mitch ell: The

Creepq Girl and Other Stories; MarthaMoody: Sonrctimes Minc; Heidi Mord-horst (and Jenny Reynish, illus.):Pumpkin Butterfly: Poems fronr tlrc OtlrcrSide of Nature; Toni Morrison (withSlade Morrison and illustrations byJoe Cepeda): Peeny Butter F udge; P aulaMorton: Tabloid Valley: SupermarketNezus and American Ctilture; LisaMoser (and Kathryn Brown, illus.):Kisses on the Wind; Marissa Moss (andCarl Angel, illus.): Sky High: The TrueStory of Maggie Gee;Marissa Moss: T/re

Pharaoh's Secret; Walter Dean Myers(and Christopher Myers, illus.):Loaking Like Me; Walter Dean Myers:Riot;

Donna Jo Napoli (and Gabi Swiat-kowska, illus.): The Earth Shook;

Donna Jo Napoli (with Robert Fur-row and illustrations by HeatherMaione): SIy the Slettth and the Code

Mysteries; Katherine Neville: The Fire;Audrey Niffenegger'. Her FearfulSymmetry;

Doris Ober: The Dogtown Chronicles:Our Life Ltnd Times with Sheep, Gonts,Llamas, and Other Creatures; Barbara

O'Connor: The Small Adoentures ofPopeye and Elais; Vicky Oliver: Bad

Bosses, Crazy Coworkers I Other OfficeIdiots; N Iary Pope Osborne (with Na-talie Pope Osborne and illustrationsby Michael Welply): The RandomHouse Book of Bible Stories;

Katherine Hall Page: Tlrc Bodtl in the

Sleigh; Hannah Pakula: Tlrc Last Etrr'press: Madanrc Chinng Kai-slrck and the

Birth of Modern China; Sara Paretsky:Hardball; Elizabeth Partridge: March-ing for Freedom: Walk Together, Children,and Don't You Grou Weary; KatherinePaterson: The Da11 of tlrc Pelicnn; KarenPatterson: Allies Forezter: Tlrc Life andTimes of an Anrcrican Prisoner of War;Valerie O. Patterson: The Other Side ofB/re; Richard Peck: A Season of Gifts;Stacy Perman: /n-N-Ortt Burger: ABehind-tlrc-Courter Look at tlrc Fast-Food

Clmin That Breaks All tlrc Rules; lulieAnn Peters: Rage: ALotte Story; WendyPfeffer (and Steve Jenkins, illus.): L/ein a Coral Reef; Charlene Phillips: Tlte

Sewing Macline Attachmettt Hsndbook;Randall Platt: Hellie londoe;Dan Pob-locki: T/re Stone Child; D. T. Pollard:Obnms Guilty of Being President WhileBlack; Gerald Posner: Miani Babylon:Crime, Wealth, attd Poiuer-A Dispstch

fronr the Beach; Padgett Powell: T/re

Interrogatiae Moorl; Nancy Poydar: Fish

School; Skip Press: This Is My Song: AMemoir by Patti Pnge ruitlt Skip Press;

Robin Pulver (and Deb Lucke, illus.):Neaer Say Boo!;

Diana M. Raab: The Guilt Gene; AliceRandall: Rebel Yell; Karen Ranney: AHighland Dttchess; Sold to a Laird; Upotr

a Wicked Time; E. S. Redmond: FelicityFloo Visits the Zoo; Rosalind Reisner:Read On . . . Ltfe Stories: Reading Lists

for Eaery Taste; Anneld.icel. Angel Time:The Songs of the Seraphirru Ann Ri-naldi: Lelgft Ann's Cittil Wnr; HowardW. Robertson: The Gainn Odes; Traaels

in Colorado Then and Nozu; HarrietRohmer: Heroes of the Enuironment:True Stories of People Who Are Helpingto Protect Our Planet; Andrew A.Rooney: Andy Rooney: 60 Years ofWisdom and Wit; Stephen Roos: ABoomer's Gttitle to the L2 Steps; PhyllisRoot (and Helen Craig, illus.): ThirstyThursday; Robert Root: Followittg

Isabella; Mariorie Rosen: Boom Town:Hou Wal-Mnrt Transformed an AII-American Town into an InternationalCommunity; David Rosenfelt: Nezu

Tricks; Karen Rostoker-G ruber: Ban-dit; Bandit's Surprise; Philip Roth: T/ze

Hurnbling; Diana Kwiatkowski Ru-bin: Kirrg Choco, Tlrc Great; KarenGray Ruelle and Deborah DurlandDeSaix: The Grand MosErc of Paris: AStory of Hont Muslints Rescued lewsDuring tlre Holocausf; Albert Russo(and Martin Tucker): Botndaries ofExile/Conditions of Hope; Albert Russo:The Blnck Ancestor; Alberto Ruy-Sinchez: The Secret Gardens ofMogador;

John Saul: Housc of Reckoning; SamSavage: The Cry of the Sloth; DonnyBailey Seagraves: Cone from Tlrcse

Woods; Laura Vaccaro Seeger: Dog undBenr: Three to Get Ready; Tom Shacht-man: Airlift to America: How BarackObann, Sr., lohn F. Kennedy, Tottr

Mborla, and 800 East African StttdentsChanged Their World arrd Ours,' NeilSheehan: A Fiery Peace in 0 Cold War:Berrnrd Schrieter and tlrc UltimateWeapon;Deborah Shlian (and LindaReed): Dead Air; Anita Shreve: AChange in Altitude; Uri Shulevitz:When I Wore My Sailor Suit; DanielSilva: TLe Defector; Carrie Silver-Stock: Secrets Girls Keep: What GirlsHide (E Why) and fis71t to Break the

Stress of Silen ce; Marilyn Singer (andDavid Milgrim, illus.): I'm Getting a

Checkup; Carol Sklenicka: RayntondCaroer: A Writer's Life; Leora Skolkin-Smith: The Fragile Mistress; LizzieSkurnick: Shelf Discoaery: The Teen

Classics We Neiser Stopped Reading;

Jane Smiley (and Elaine Clayton,illus.): The Georges and the lezuels;Richard Dean Smith: Requient forDoctor Edzuard Browne; Zilpha KeatleySnyder: William S. and the Great Escape;

Michael Specter: Denialisnr: HowIrrntional Thinking Hinders ScientificProgress, Harnrc the Planet, snd Threst-ens Our Liues; Robert Spector: The

Mom & Pop Store: Hozu tlrc UnsungHeroes of the Anterican Econonty are

Strrtriuirrg and Thriaing; Eileen Spi-nelli (and Jerry Spinelll): Today I WiII:AYear of Quotes, Notes, and Pronises to

Attthors Gttik! BulletinE *uun ro,o

Myself; Donald Spoto: High Society:The Life of Grace Kelly; Natalie Stan-diford: How to Say Goodbye in Robot;David Ezra Stein: Pouch!; Steven L.Stern (and Lesli J. Favor): VocabularyExplorations (3-Book Series); Steven L.Stern: Building Greenscrapers; MarciStillerman: Something Terrible Hap-pened on Kenmore; Robert Stone: Flrnwith Problems: Stories; Andy Straka:Kitty Hitter; Todd Strasser:. Wish You

Were Dead; Katherine Sturtevanh TheBrothers Story; Eric Swansont loyfulWisdom;

Nancy Tafuri: The Big Storm: A VerySoggy Counting Book; Blue Goose: AClassic Board Book; Silly Little Goose;

Marcia Talley: Without a Graae;William G. Tapply: DarkTiger;},{'arkTeague: Doom Machine; MatthewTully: The Chimera Seed; KennethTuran (and |oseph Papp): Free for AII:

loe Papp, The Public, and the CreatestTheater Story Eaer Told; Pamela S.Turner: Prowling the Seas: Exploring theHidden World of Ocean Predators;

Shannon Van Roekel. Desert Fire;Carole Garbuny Vogel (and YossiLeshem): The Man Who Flies with Birds;

Ginger Wadsworth (and Karen Du-gan, illus.): Amping with the President;Wendy Walker: Social Liaes; BillWallace (and Carol Wallace): TlzafDoggone Calf; less Walter: The Finan-cial Liaes of Other Poets; losephWambaugh: Hollywood Moon; FrankWarren: PostSecret: Confessions on Life,Death, and God; Robin Wasserman:Crashed; Betty Webb: Desert Lost;Patricia Weenolsen: The Caae ofStorms; Cynthia Weill (and Quirino &Martin Santiago, illus.): Opuestos:Mexican FoIk Art Opposites in Englishand Spanish; Eugenia Lovett West:

Oa er kill ; Scott Weste fi eldl. Leaia than ;

Julie Whitesel Weston: The CoodTimes Are AII Gone Now: Life, Death andRebirth in an ldaho Mining Tozun; ReadeScott Whinnem: Tfte Pricker Boy;Barbara Harris Whitfield: The NaturalSoul; Stephanie Grace Whitson: AClaim of Her Own; Margaret Willey: ASummer of Silk Moths; Marian FrancesWolbers: Uncouering F ashion: F ashionCommunications Across the Media:Thomas Woll: Publishing for Profit:Successful Bottom-Line Management forBook Publishers; Stuart Woods: Hot-house Orchid;

Ben Yagoda: Memoir: A History; JaneYolen (and Bagram Ibatoulline, illus.):The Scarecrow's Dance; Jane Yolen (andCary Lippincott, illus.): Come to theFairies' Ball; lane Yolen and MarkTeague, illus.: Horu Do Ditrosaurs Say ILoaeYou? j

Legal Watch

Continued from page 17

of the domain name will be a native English speakerwho would understand that the term "sucks" isderogatory. As such, the panel concluded that the do-main name "radioshacksucks.com" is in fact confus-ingly sirnilar to the domain name "radioshack.com."

In regard to whether Gu Bei had any rights or le-gitimate interests with respect to the domain name"radioshacksucks.com," the panel noted that the bur-den of proof fell on TRSQ. In this case, the panel notedthat the fact that Gu Bei refused to respond to the com-plaint in any manner, thereby failing to demonstrateany circumstance that showed a legitimate interest inthe domain name, weighed in TRSQ's favor. The panelalso noted that Gu Bei's "radioshacksucks.com" redi-rected Internet users to other ad sites, not to a site con-taining complaints about RadioShack. As such, thepanel found that fair use did not apply, as there was

no relationship between Gu Bei's domain name andTRSQ's domain name. Moreover, there was no evi-dence that preparations were being made by Gu Bei touse "radioshacksucks.com" in connection with thebona fide offering of goods or services nor was thereevidence that it intended to make any legitimate non-commercial uses of the domain name. As such, thepanel concluded that Gu Bei did not have a legitimateinterest in the domain name "radioshacksucks.com."

Finally, the panel found that Gu Bei's registrationand use of the domain name "radioshacksucks.com"was in bad faith. In making this determination, thepanel noted the public history of RadioShack, whichhas been in existence in mainstream publications andmedia for 85 years. Moreover, the fact that radioshacksucks.com included links to RadioShackcompetitors,which likely eamed Gu Bei a profit, was found to mis-lead Internet users as to the source or sponsorship ofradioshacksucks.com. As such, the panel found thatGu Bei's use of the domain name "radioshacksucks.com" constituted bad faith and ordered it transferredback to TRSQ.

Authors Cuild BulletinlEl Wintt ZO'10

''i

The National Book Foundation presented the Literar-ian Award for Outstanding Service to the AmericanLiterary Community to Dave Eggers, for his work inexpanding the audience for literature and enhancingthe cultural value of literature in America. The awardwas presented at the National Book Awards dinner inNew York City on November 18. Among the finalistsfor the 2009 National Book Awards were T. j. Stiles,The First Tycoon: The Epic Ltft of Cornelius Vanderbilt,Nonfiction; and for Young People's Literature, Debo-rah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darutins' Leap ofFaith, David Small, Stitches, and Rita Williams-Garcia, lumped.

The Friends of the University of Nevada, Reno,Library inducted H. Lee Barnes into the NevadaWriters Hall of Fame on November 12. The organiza-tion also presented Charles Bock with the Silver PenAward, which recognizes emerging and mid-careerwriters.

lndependent Publisher magazine announced the win-ners of its 3rd Annual Moonbeam Awards for chil-dren's books that inspire children to read, learn anddream. The winners included Margaret Hyde, MoSmells Green, Silver, Pop-up/Cut-out; JacquelineDembar Greene (and Robert Hunt, illus.), MeetRebecca, Silver, Pre-Teen Fiction-Historical /Cultural;Chester Aaron, Gideon, Silver, Young Adult Fiction-Historical/Cultural; and fosephine Nobisso (andKatalin Szegedi, illus.), Take lt to the Queen: A Tale ofHope, Cold, Religion/Spirituality. The awards werepresented on October 10 at the West Virginia BookFestival in Charleston.

Among the USA Near Book Awards finalists for 2009were Matthew Tully, The Chimera Seed, Fiction &Literature: General Fiction, and Patricia Weenolsen,Tlrc Caae of Storms, Literary Fiction: Historical.

Shirley Brosius received the 2009 Gold Award forInspirational/Spiritual books from the Young VoicesFoundation for Sisterhood of Faith: 365 Life-ChangingStories About Women Who Made a Difference.

Roger Brucker was granted the 2009 Spelean Arts andLetters Award by the National Speleological Society.He was the winner of the 2004 Spelean History Award.The award honors a member of the society who hasadvanced spelean arts and letters by significant artis-tic expression, management or criticism.

Yvonne Wakim Dennis, with coauthors Maya Ajmera,Arlene Hirschfeldeq Cynthia Pon and the Global Fund

for Children, received a gold Moonbeam Award in2008 for Children of the U.S.A., in the MulticulturalNonfiction category. The book was also named to the2008 Best Children's Books of the Year list, sponsoredby Bank Street College of Education's Children's BookCommittee.

Patrick Durantou was given a Lifetime AchievementAward and named the Vice-Chancellor of the WorldAcademy of Letters by the American BiographicalInstitute. He also received the 2009 Ansted SocialResponsibility Intemational Award (ASRIA) from theAnsted University Foundation in England. The awardhonors individuals, organizations and corporations in-volved in socially responsible programs benefitting lo-cal, state or international communities.

Seal Woman, by SolveigEggerz, was chosen by theAmerican Association of University Women as itsfanuary 2010 book of the month. SeaI Woman was alsoa finalist for the 2009 Eric Hoffer award for short proseand independent books.

foan Frank received the 2010 Richard Sullivan Prize inShort Fiction for her story collection,ln Enuy Country.The prize is administered by the University of NotreDame's Creative Writing Program.

Jim Hornfischer's book, The Last Stand of the Tin CanSailors, was chosen by the U.S. Naval Institute's NaaalHistory magazine as one of " a dozen Navy classics."

Nancy Kriplen was awarded a Creative Renewal ArtsFellowship by the Arts Council of Indianapolis andLilly Endowment,Inc. The fellowships, $10,000, allowrecipients to focus on personal renewal, with the beliefthat the entire community will benefit through invest-ments in individuals in the creative community.

No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on DeathRozu,by Susan Kuklin, was named to the Best Bookfor Young Adults list by the ALA's Young AdultLibrary Services Association. lt was also listed as aNotable Book for a Global Society by the InternationalReading Association, a Best Book of 2008 by the School

Library lournal, aBest YA Book of 2008 by Kirkus, a 2008Stuff for the Teen Age book by the New York PublicLibrary, and a Junior Library Cuild Fall Selection.

Kim Dana Kupperman received the 2009 KatharineBakeless Nason Prize in Nonfiction from the BreadLoaf Writers' Conference for her manuscript I lustLately Started Buying Wings. Missiaes from the Other Sideof Silence, which will be published by Graywolf Pressin 2010 as part of the award.

Authors cuild ButletinE wintu zoto

The Rowing Lesson, by Anne Landsman, received the2OO9 Stmdny Times Fiction Prize. The award is be-stowed by the South African newspaper The SundayTimes and is the largest award of its kind in Africa.

Shelia E. Lipsey was named Author of the Year in theShades of Romance Magazine Readers' Choice awardsfor 2009 . Her book, My Son's Wife , w as named FictionBook of the Year, Best Book Cover of the Year, Christ-ian Fiction Book of the Year, and Christian RomanceBook of the Year. She also received a2009 BlackPearlsMagazine Top Shelf Book Award for Beautifril Ugly andwas named a2009 Official Black Web Award Nominee.Last year, she was named Author of the Year by Con-versations Book Club for lnto Each Life and Sinsatiable.

The Women's National Book Association (WNBA) se-lected The Widow's War,by Mary Mackey, to be one ofnine books featured during WNBA s National ReadingGroup Month.

George Mandler received an honorary doctorate fromthe University of Vienna in October.

fohn Moir is the Grand Prize Winner for the 2009Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition. Moir'swinning article, which was published by Smithso-nian.com, was chosen from more than 13,500 submis-sions. He received a $3,000 cash prize and a trip toNew York City with a Writer's Digest editor to meetwith agents and editors. In addition, the November/December issue of Writer's Digest magazine features aninterview with Moir and a profile of his work.

Mark Monmonier received the Mercator Medal fromthe German Cartographic Society at the Society's an-nual meeting in Karlsruhe, Germany, in September.

The American Biographical Institute inducted Jack C.Norbeck into its Hall of Fame for DistinguishedAccomplishments in honor of his work as an author,historical photographer, international photo exhibitorand his work for steam and animal power.

Alberto Ruy-Sinchez and Margarita de Orellana re-ceived the 2009 Van Deren Coke Award from Los Ami-gos del Arte Popular in celebration of their 20 yearspublishing the magazine Artes de Mexico. The awardwas presented at a ceremony in fuly in Santa Fe, NM.

Appalachian Odyssey, by Steve Sherman (and |uliaOlder, with a foreword by Edward Abbey), was

awarded Honorable Mention in the 2009 NationalOutdoor BookAwards.

Dead Air, by Deborah Shlian, received the Thriller/Adventure award from USA Book News's NationalBest Books Award competinon. Rabbit in the Moon, aLso

by Deborah Shlian (and foel Shlian) received a goldFlorida Book Award for Genre Fiction. The awardswere presented at the Miami Book Fair on November74. Rabbit in the Moon also received a silver medal fromForeWord Magazine, for Mystery of the Year, and wasa finalist in the Royal Palm Literary Awards from theFlorida Writers Association.

Sneeze!, by Alexandra Siy, received the 2008 AmericanInstitute of Physics Science Writing Award in theChildren's Book category.

Char Solomon has been chosen as a Road Scholar for2070 by the North Carolina Humanities Council.Participants in the Road Scholars Speakers Bureauprovide presentations throughout the state on varioustopics within the humanities.

Lancelot's Lady, by Cheryl Kaye Tardif, is a semi-finalist in Dorchester Publishing and TextNovel.com's"Next Best Celler" romance writing contest, rankingnumber three in the list of 21 novels, which were votedon by readers. The winner will receive a $2,000 prizeand a publishing contract with Dorchester.

James Alexander Thom was presented with the inau-gural Indiana Authors Award, for the year 2009.Established by Eugene and Marilyn Glick, the awardbestows a prize of $10,000, and $2,500 to be given tothe lndiana library of his choice.

The Utah Center for the Book awarded the Utah BookAward for nonfiction to Stephen Trible for Bargaining

for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America.The Utah Book Awards were presented at the Salt LakeCity Main Library on October 15.

Sylvia Hoehns Wright was recognized by theFreedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, in connectionwith the National League of American Pen Women(NLAPW), for her effort to "promote an understand-ing and appreciation for our country's rich heritageand unique freedoms." An excerpt of her book, APath Worn Sntooth, will be included in the NLAPW'sLincoln Legacy anthology, Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln.+

Antlnrs Guild BulletinGf| Wirrtu ZOto

Platform Challenged

Continued f'om page 13

small can build to big pretty quickly. Most authorsthink of themselves as writers, not as marketers. I startby suggesting they think of themselves as a marketer.I try to get authors to ask a basic question, a questionthat needs to be answered compellingly in any bookproposal: "Why am I the Person to Write this Book?"And the next question, which is just as important:"What's the story of my book?" By which I mean-what does it offer to people? Who do you want it to beoffered to? Why did you put your heart and soul andtime and hopes into doing this? Why should a readerbe emotionally, intellectually or psychically connectedto you? Looking at those questions, for starters, canlead us to who and how to reach the people that canbe our audience.

ROSS: As a consultant, you work with some of thebiggest names in American business: Disney, Dream-Works, Mattel. It seems to me that these companieshave platform up the wazoo. Why do they hire you?

KOMAIKO: They hire me to help them figure out thestory of their brand. I believe they hire me because Iunderstand the "voice" of writing and the voice of abusiness idea to be the same. I have seen over and overthat the best, most successful brands are based onsomeone's simple story/vision/reason for being, and

\Atrhy Authors Skip Hardback

Continued ftom pnge 14

HarperCollins had subsided, I found myself havingsecond thoughts about the paperback release. I wan-dered over to Barnes & Noble in Union Square in Man-hattan to try to confirm my decision.

The new hardcover fiction table, on prominent dis-play at the front of the store, was stacked with bigbooks from big names. But not a single customer wasbrowsing it.

The less glamorous paperbacks table was shuntedto the right. A dozen or so people crowded around,Ieafing through the lighter, smaller, less expensivebooks.

I wonder when they'll switch around the tables. i

their ability to connect with an audience unseen. Aswriters, we have the Ieg up here. This is what we donaturally. This is why I love to work with authors.

ROSS: What can you do for my clients, brilliant writ-ers who have made a difference in the world, but don'thave the big platforms that will get them a book con-tract?

KOMAIKO: If your clients have great books, I canhelp them shift into a marketing frame of mind andstill be authors. I can help them discover the story oftheir brand and build their book as a brand just like acompany-withoui all the expense and employees. Ihelp them pull from their material chapters, aspects,ideas that could resonate with audiences they may nothave thought of. This starts to build their platform. Ihelp them design worthwhile strategies fromFacebook to corporate partnerships and sponsorships,to public relations and on-camera coaches who canhelp them with media appearances, to nonprofit affili-ations, journalists and more. You have to be willing tosee your book as a small business. That is the waymany of the most successful authors have made realmoney and ancillary product from their books foryears. Knowing your audience and keeping it relevantis far more important than having a zillion "tweets."When you know your story, I truly believe your mes-sage is unique. And who doesn't want to say theyknow someone unique-someone who is not uniquelya criminal? And even then . . . fast way to build a plat-form. i

Letters

Continued frttm page 2

lives in New York and looks back on a long career as a

writer. She confirmed that her father would have beenalone. At the outbreak of World War II Lady Rama Rauhad taken Santha and her older sister back to India.

As I grew up, literary fantasies embellished mymental picture of Sir Benegal. In my imagination hewore a richly embroidered silk sherwani and a stripedturban secured with a huge pink diamond. His photo-graph suggests a more mundane reality.

-Manu Herbstein

Accra. Ghana

Authors Guild Bulletit'rGE Wirtt ZOto

CONTRACTS Q&AContinued from Ttoge 15

it exclusive so any lawsuit can still take place inyour home court (subject to getting jurisdictionover the pubiisher by properly serving it with a

complaint).

4. Omit the clause altogether, which leaves thedispute for another day (which may nevercome). The publisher may consider this a satis-factorv way to resolve the impasse. Althoughomitting an important clause is not something Itypically recommerrd, having it would be worsefor you since you're dealing with an overseassituation.

Each of these approaches (or at least the first three)deals with the issue head-on. \Mhat may also be help-ful-whether or not one of those alternatir.es is ac-cepted-is what computer-savvv people call a"workaround," viz., getting to the prlace yor"r want butby different means. Consider the following:

Accede to the publisher's position but requirethat before a lawsuit can be brought bv eitherside, both must mediate the dispute or attemptto do so (diligently and in good faith) for a spec-ified period (e.9.,90 days). Mediation is a non-binding procedure in which a skilled thirdparty seeks to work out a compromise accept-able to both sides. Civing both sides the oppor-tunity to air complaints and suggest solutionscan help to dampen emotions and overcome thekind of misunderstandings that frequently ac-company seemingly irreconcilable disputes.It can be done long distance through 3-wayphone calls or by the mediator speaking (or cor-responding) separately with each party andthen proposing solutions s/he thinks might besatisfactory to both.

This alone may resolve the problem without yourbeing required to travel abroad and without the pub-Iisher retreating from its position on location of litiga-tion.

If you do decide to sign the publisher's clause(with or without the "exclusive" language), be awarethat-if you are ever sued by the publisher in a foreigncourt-in some jurisdictions contractual provisions re-quiring suits to be brought in a foreign court may not

apply unless the clause also says that you 1) accept orconsent to that court's jurisdiction, and 2) waive rightsrelating to an "inconvenient forum" (often expressedas forunt notr conaeniens). Because of this, if languageindicating either of those things is in the contract youare asked to sign, delete them since it is possible thepublisher will be satisfied with the clause without ei-ther of them.

If you do decide to sign the publisher's clause(with or without the "exclusive" language) and areeventually sued, be aware that in some jurisdictionscontractual provisions requiring suits to be brought ina foreign court may not be enforced unless the clausealso says that you 1) accept or consent to that court'sjurisdiction, and 2) waive rights relating to an "incon-venient forum" (often expressed as forum non conue-nierts). Because of this, if language indicating either ofthose things is in the contract you are asked to sign,delete ihem. It is possible the publisher will be satis-fied with the clause without either.

By the way, you say that the publisher refuses tochange its position. Is that truly so? Have you walkedaway from the deal and the publisher not called youback? In real hardball negotiating, only if you are trulywilling to walk away do you have a chance of succeed-ing when there's an impasse on a key issue and all at-tempts at compromise have failed. The downside ofthat, of course, is that you have to be prepared to aban-don the deal.

Whether this particular clause should be that issueis a separate question. Many people would not con-sider it one to kill a deal for. However, if your pub-lisher refuses to accept any of the above alternatives orthe workaround option, you might want to considerhow reasonable your publisher is in general. And if theanswer is "not very"-which would be a valid conclu-sion since the alternatives are reasonable and theworkaround causes no harm other than to delay haul-ing you into court-then you rnay not want that com-pany or person to be your publisher in any event.

E-nmil questiotts to QandAColuntn@autlrorsguild.org.Qucstiotrs nrc often edited for reodability or to nnke themnrore broadltl appl i c abl e.

Tlta snsuters in this colutfin are genernl in nnture onhlmrd matl not include exceptions to a genernl rule or tnke intonccotrttt relnted facts that mny result itr a different ailsrL)cr.

Yotr should consult a lauyer for information about n pnr-ticular situation. No questiott snbmitted, or anszLter pro-uided, crentes nn attorney-cliertt relntiotrship tuith thecLtlunm's author.

Atttlrors Guilcl BttlletittlE wirrtt zO'to

BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD

SUSANCHEEVER

MARY HIGGINS CLARK

JAMESDUFFY

JENNIFEREGANCLARISSA PINKOLA ESTES

PETER CETHERS

JAMESGLEICKOSCARHUUELOS

THE AUTHORS GUILD,INC.Officers

President: ROY BLOUNT JR.Vice President: IUDY BLUME

Tieasurer: PETER PETRE Secretary: PAT CUMMINGS

Council

DANIELHOFFMANMCHOLASLEMANN

DAVID LEVERING LE\ IIS

JOHN R. MacARTHUR

STEPHENMANES

MICHELE MITCHELL

VICTORS. NAVASKY

DOUGLAS PRESTON

ROXANAROBINSON

JAMESSHAPIRO

JEANSTROUSEPEG TYRE

RACHELVAILSARAHVOWELL

MCHOLAS WEINSTOCK

MEG WOLMZER

SHAYYOUNGBLOOD

Ex Officio Members of the CouncilROGER ANGELL . ROBERT A. CARO . ANNE EDWARDS . ERICAJONG

ROBERT K. MASSIE . HERBERT MITGANG . SIDNEY OFFIT . MARY POPE OSBORNE

LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN . MCK TAYI-OR . SCOTT TUROW

Advisers to the CouncilSHIRLEYANN GRAU: South

FREDERIC MARTINI: WCSt ' FREDERIK POHL: MidWCSt

PAUL AIKEN, Executive DirectorJAN CONSTANTINE, Assistant Director and General Counsel

MARTHA FAY. Bulletin Editor

The Authors Guild, the oldest and largest association of published authors in the United States, works to protect nnd promatethe professional interests of its members. The Guild's forenmner, The Atdhors kague of Anrcrica, uas foundcd in L912.

The Aulhors League nozo serues the joint interests of The Authors Guild andTIrc Dranntists Guild.

The Authors Guild . 31 East 32nd Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10016(212) 563-59M o f.ax: (2I2)5&-5363. e-mail: staff@authorsguild.org o www.authorsguild.org

F.Y.l., we've migrated all the photos out of your

rryou want something Done Right. i::,1tr3;[Ti:Y*rn?i;#:il]::;,$fi:jJContinued from page 73 and the e-text more "Kindle-friendly." Sometime next

week, call Christopher over an ISDN line and say your

stores or both their own books and a rew or our other lXili; 3: xl:t#Ttr [:'J:?ill[T:ilrllffH::new releases. We can send you a list of bookstores in the podcast edition. (You may already have done thisyour area once you fill out the My Local Bookstores list for a previous book, but somehow Jason managed toon your Author's Questionnaire. You'll be reading not delete all the audio files before Security escorted himonly from your book but from "Code Blue Stat," a new from the building.)medical thriller we're really excited about, and "Fifty Don't hesitate to try to contact me if you have anyGreat Pan Sauces," a cool new cookbook. Their au- questions. I sort of have my hands full, promotingthors, Dr. Steven Rosenthal and Gail Freenye, will stay twenty-three new releases this fall, but I'm really ex-in Chicago and Boston, respectively, and read from cited about working on your book, and I look forwardeach other's book and yours. This idea, apparently, is to collaborating with you to make "A History ofwhat made |ason take his clothes off and lock himself Moorish Architecture, 1200-1492" the biggest successin a supply closet. it can be. i

Atrthors Gttiltl Bttlletirt|Eil wiutu zou)

The Authors Guild,Inc.3L East 32nd Street, 7th FloorNew York, N.Y. 10016

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PAIDAlbany, NY

Permit #370

Membership ApplicationMr./ Ms.

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How did you become interested in joining the Guild? (check one) D Invitation tr Writing joumal

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What is your primary reason for joining? tr Support and advocacy efforts D Legal services tr Health insurance

O Site-builder and other Web services D Other

Writers r'nay qualify on the basis of being book authors or freelance journalists. Book authors must have been published by anestabljshed American publisher. A writer who has a contract with an established publisher for a work not yet published may joinas an associate member. A contract with a aanity press does not qualifu a writer for menhership itt the Guilel. Freelance iournalists musthave published three works, fiction or nonfiction, in a periodical of general circulation within the last eighteen months.

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Bulletin, Winter 2010