Favorite Banned Book Blogs

Banned Books Week is September 25 - October 2, 2010. This annual event, sponsored by a host of bookseller, library, and publishing organizations, celebrates the freedom to read and highlights the harms of censorship.

This year's slogan is "Think for yourself and let others do the same."

Like a number of other blogs, Redlines and Deadlines will celebrate Banned Books Week on Thursday, September 30, by asking people to post reviews of their favorite banned/challenged books. Post in Comments here, post on your own blog if you have one. Please participate with us.

You can find a list of the top 100 banned or challenged books of the last ten years on the American Library Association website:
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/2000_2009/

If you've never looked at this list, you'll be stunned by what some people think you should not be allowed to read.

Punctuate the Day!

By Raelene Gorlinsky

Gasp, I don't know how we almost missed this! Today, September 24, is the seventh annual National Punctuation Day.

They have their own website with lots of fun and informative stuff:
http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/

You can submit an entry to the NPD Punctuation Haiku Contest by September 30. You can see the woman who baked a meatloaf in the shape of a question mark. (Why?) You can see hilarious and heart-wrenching examples people have sent in of punctuation bloopers.

Tired of getting emails with dozens of exclamation points? (Or for editors, submissions where the writer clearly believed the story was more exciting if all periods were replaced by exclamation points.) The advice of mega-selling thriller author Elmore Leonard: "You are allowed only three in every one hundred thousand words of prose."

The most common punctuation error? The apostrophe. So many people don't bother to learn plurals versus possessives--and plural possessives. And let's not even discuss its versus it's and lets versus let's.

Doggone Good Staff!

by Raelene Gorlinsky

Here at EC, we try to provide employees with opportunities to expand their skill sets, move into new areas. So as Randy has taken on more responsibility for maintaining our computer systems, he needed help with things like building security and maintenance. Luckily, there was a highly skilled and motivated candidate available. And cheap--will work for treats!

Here's Phantom (Caamora Phantom Lad, TD) demonstrating his job.

It's important to watch the door and check out those mailmen.

Of course, despite my vigilance, sometimes some very strange people make it into the building.


Here, let me show you how to work the copier.


Wait a minute, no one told me about cleaning the snake cage!

Brilliant Bookcases

http://www.incrediblethings.com/lists/20-brilliant-bookcases/

Wow, the imagination of some people amazes me. What fun ways to store your print books. I want the Cave, the Butterfly, the Bed Case, the Yin Yang, the Circle Sofa, the ... Oh, wait, maybe I better start by getting a bigger house.

Me Time - If You Don't Like It...

Editor-in-Chief Kelli Collins bitches about whatever’s bothering her this time.

I’m not embarrassed by what I do. I’ll just throw that out there right now. If I’m not afraid to tell my 82-year-old mother that I edit erotica, why would I care about anyone else’s opinion? If I was at all uncomfortable about working with erotica authors or editing erotic material, I just wouldn’t do it. End of story.

But plenty of people who abhor erotica continue to involve themselves in the genre. To say that pisses me off is putting it mildly.

I heard two horror stories last week, one from an author whose assigned editor told her she hates erotica, including said author’s story. (By the way, this was the author’s first book; nice intro to the industry, right?) The other was from an author whose erotic novel was reviewed by someone who hates the genre and had no issue sharing that fact in the review. (The review of the plot was positive, but when you start a review by telling all and sundry how much you hate the genre, it rather takes the shine off any positivity. Duh.)

I’ll keep this simple: If you don’t like erotica, DON’T EDIT, PROOF, CRITIQUE OR REVIEW IT.

Reviewers, I’m not so worried about. The plain fact these days: Anyone with enough time to register a blog page can declare themselves a reviewer. And I’ll take certain ones more seriously when they stop misspelling every other word and stop getting their jollies by passing off insults as “critique”.

Editors…you get the bulk of my ire. Why would you suffer through something you hate? You don’t eat food you don’t like. You don’t see movies you don’t like. Why would you read books you don’t like? Do you enjoy ruining an author’s publishing experience? Are you on a power trip? Or is it simply about keeping your job? After all, plenty of epubs assign books to their editors instead of letting them acquire their own…

You know what? Quit. Seriously. If your employer assigns genres you don’t like or don’t respect or are morally/religiously opposed to, or whatever, find another job. There’s a new epub starting every other day; surely one will be a better fit. When you hate what you do, you make the editing process miserable for yourself and the author; you deprive them of your best work and the chance to make their novel shine. You can’t give authors the full benefit of your talent, can’t help them develop theirs, if you don’t enjoy their work. It’s a simple no-brainer.

In the publishing industry at large, there’s a massive bias against romance authors. Literary snobs turn up their noses despite the fact romance sales account for more than half of the genre paperback bottom line. In the romance industry itself, there’s a bias against erotica authors. It’s been a struggle for authors and publishers to gain recognition from RWA, and I’ve heard more than one romance author opine that erotica isn’t a “legitimate” form of fiction, despite the fact it’s been around for centuries. Worse, some tell me they’d be “embarrassed” to write erotica. Good thing no one’s forcing you to write it then, huh?

Erotica authors face enough challenges without being additionally deflated by the person who’s supposed to believe in their talent the most—their editor.

Erotica authors are, in my opinion, bold, daring and brave, with a passion for writing that extends beyond the pages of their novels. They’re willing to try harder, revise more and suffer longer to get their break. They’re smart, savvy and, in the case of some of the earliest and biggest names in the genre, took a calculated risk on a largely unknown and untried format. Amassing fans and laughing all the way to the bank long before the big boys in New York began scrambling to catch up in the digital game.

No. I’m not embarrassed by what I do. But I’m grievously embarrassed by some of my more ignorant professional peers who think I should be.

New Editorial Assistant

Over the summer, Meghan acquired a new assistant. His name is Seamus.

Seamus is horrified by your failure to adhere to our clearly stated submission guidelines.

Seamus will certainly be requesting the full of this manuscript.

Seamus is hard at work. These submissions won't just read themselves, you know.

Timeless Prose for the Romance Writer

by Raelene Gorlinsky

I enjoy the website Awful Library Books. "This site is a collection of public library holdings that we find amusing and maybe questionable for public libraries trying to maintain a current and relevant collection. Contained in this site are actual library holdings." Librarians post about books they are weeding out of the library. Many are old and no longer relevant - and hysterical.

Given I work in romance publishing, I was, umm, entranced by the 1984 Romance Writers' Phrase Book by Jean Kent and Candace Shelton. Yep, over 3000 phrases you can use to enliven your romance writing and bring variety to your prose. The section on sex scenes includes such unusually creative suggestions as:

his glance slid rapidly to her bathing suit and his mouth softened
she noticed he was watching her intently
his gaze traveled over her face and searched her eyes
there was a tingling in the pit of her stomach
he was as eager and erratic as a summer storm
her body ached for his touch
she was powerless to resist

And for a really super-graphic sex scene in 1984:
she was pleased with their initial intimacy (Oh, boy, doesn't that just turn you on!)

You can find many other helpful suggestions in the book pages displayed.
http://awfullibrarybooks.net/?p=5273

At the end of the post, it mentioned the book was for sale on eBay. Don't bother trying for it - I rushed right over and bought it. I must have this for my collection!

Contest Winners! The Great Homophone Switch

Well, these entries kept us well entertained! Kudos to Meghan for coming up with such an interesting contest concept. We loved them all, and choosing winners took up a good portion of our weekly department meeting. But winners we chose!

Ms. Snarky Pants:
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Hart of Darkness - the little-known sequel to the Newhart Show in which Bob is a serial killer.

Carla Swafford:
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - a woman's yearlong search to find who she really is after her divorce
Eat Prey Love - Jeffrey Dahmer's life story

Carla Swafford:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - a young girl discovers injustice in the deep South during the 1930s
To Kiln a Mockingbird - a young girl strives for the perfect ceramic mockingbird; Subtitle: How I Deal with My OCD

Erastes:
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Handmade Tail - After nuclear war has rendered most sterile, men make women for their entertainment.
(bonus points for using two homophones)

Eliza Knight:
The Tudors - A Tale of Henry VIII and his wives
The Tooters - about a king and his wives who have a lot of gas

Sally Painter:
That Which Survives by Ciana Stone
That Witch Survives! - the lamenting of a Salem witch trial judge

Congratulations, winners! And your prize is...a free ebook. [Boy, bet you never guessed that. ;-)] Pick any ebook from the Ellora's Cave or Cerridwen Press websites. Then email Martha@ellorascave.com, state that you are a winner of the R&D Homophone Contest, and tell her the book title and author, and the format you need (ePub, pdf, lit, rb, prc, html). She will email you the file.

8% !

"At the end of June, e-book sales accounted for about 8% of adult sales at the publishers."
(referring to Random House, Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon&Schuster, and Lagardere)

From Publishers Weekly, 9/6/10

In Praise of Copy Editors

by Raelene Gorlinsky

There are all kinds of editors, and their responsibilities and duties vary depending on the publisher's definition of their job. The editor you work with on your book is variously called a developmental editor, book editor, content editor, or just "editor". But after you and your editor have made your book as perfect as you think possible, then it goes off to the final pair of eyes to check it before publication. The last chance to catch errors--the copy editor. Far, far more than just a proofreader.

Here is the definition of the final copy editor job at EC:

The final copy editor reads the story with a fresh and critical eye to the text and basic content issues, double-checking things such as:

• Consistency (names, words, timeline, and physical descriptions).
• Coherence and choreography of physical actions.
• Correctness of facts; i.e., double-checking the editor/author on information and factual details, historical accuracy, copyright and trademark issues.
• Sentence structure, proper word usage, effective writing, clarity, point of view.
• Typos, misspellings, grammar, punctuation.
• Proper formatting per our standard Word template.
• Conformance with EC’s style and standards and with our story guidelines (taboos, inappropriate subjects, etc.)
• Appropriate assignment of genre and themes to the story.
• Appropriateness, correctness and appeal of the story blurb.

Not a simple or easy job! Every book editor has said "she saved my butt" many, many times, when the copy editor catches things the book editor and author both missed.

Publishers Weekly, Aug. 30, 2010: "A Prayer of Thanks for a Guardian Angel: From an appreciative author" by Roy Peter Clark--some quotes from his article:

"As an author, I've always felt the need for guardian angels, and these days her name is Marie Salter, an ace copyeditor [...] Marie played many roles: spell checker, style maven, syntax straighten-outer, fact checker, reader channeler, and pruner of dead words. [...] her job was not to seize control of the text, but to help me reach its unrealized potential."

"Thankfully, I am the happy beneficiary of an enlightened publisher who supports my work with a team of accomplished editors--or as I like to think of them, guardian angels."

So appreciate your copy editor--praise her, thank her, understand the tough job she has to do, and remember that she is there to guard you and your book and help present its best face to the world.