A recent study by the National Endowment for the Arts showed that fiction reading is on the rise, especially among 18- to 24-year-olds.
–Newsweek
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May 14, 2020 by Diana Urban
With schools closed around the world, kids now depend on their parents and virtual learning for their education, and many parents are splitting time between their jobs and 24/7 childcare. During this time, authors, publishers, bookstores, and libraries have been providing support in a variety of ways — from offering free educational books to creating events to keep children entertained (and give their parents some time back).
In today’s post we’re highlighting some of the ways the publishing community is helping children and their parents impacted by COVID-19. We’ve been inspired by this groundswell of bookish support — and we hope this inspires our readers who might be wondering how they can help as well.
1. Bookstores are soliciting donations from customers to give books to children
On March 23, Roxanne J. Coady, founder of RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut, posted a letter on their store website asking customers for donations to distribute books to children. This initiative would help her 70 employees keep their jobs while also aiding local families in need. “Let’s help families who are coping with unprecedented hardship have the spark of wonder, escape, and adventure,” she wrote. “Books provide the motivation to dream, to learn, and to believe. Even a small step saves someone, makes a difference, and shows our humanity to each other.” Below the letter, customers could select a donation amount in $50 increments.
4. Publishers are providing free digital content for students
Several publishers are also providing free content to help students continue their education remotely, and to enable parents, teachers, and librarians to easily get the tools they need to enable virtual learning. Lerner Publishing Group has added a section to their website to foster distance learning by providing free digital resources. According to this website, “To help enable librarians, teachers and educators helping students with remote access and online learning, a selection of our digital products are now available for free through June 30, 2020.”
7. Publishers are offering steep discounts on parenting books
Many publishers are also dropping the prices of their parenting titles to make them more accessible to readers during this challenging time. HarperCollins dropped the price of The Call of the Wild + Free, a nonfiction title on how to homeschool your kids.
9. Authors and publishers are launching virtual kidlit book festivals
Many of the season’s biggest book festivals have been canceled, but thanks to video conferencing technology, authors and publishers have started launching virtual conferences to bring panels to readers at home. Authors Ellen Oh, Christina Soontornvat, and Melanie Conklin collaborated to create Everywhere Book Fest, a virtual children’s book festival that was held May 1-2. They created a website where readers could peruse the agenda, packed with more than 50 authors and illustrators.
We Need Diverse Books has also created a helpful page of COVID-19 resources, including a section of resources specifically for parents and educators.
How the Book Community Is Helping Children & Parents During COVID-19
As I write this, our family has just entered our seventh week of sheltering in place. Gone are the days when I saw my husband off to work and my kiddo off to school before enjoying eight hours of uninterrupted solitude.
by Anne R. Allen
One of my personal writing issues is I tend to pack my books and stories with way too many characters. If a fascinating person walks into one of my stories, I feel it would be rude not to let them join the party. I suppose my inner Manners Doctor takes over. 🙂
This drives my editors batty. They think confusing the reader is worse than being rude to fictional people. And of course they’re right. They usually tell me I need to consolidate minor characters or eliminate them altogether. Someone even told me there’s a “rule” that a novel should have seven characters or less.
I’ve always been annoyed by all this. But this week I saw a thread in a readers’ Facebook group that helped me see the reader’s point of view.
Someone had put up a post saying they hate “when there are a million characters in books and it’s hard to keep track.”
A long thread ensued. Seems a whole lot of readers agreed with her. Many said they have to take notes to tell characters apart. Others brought up a number of books that have “too many” characters. George R.R. Martin got several mentions, and big sagas like The Thorn Birds and Peyton Place. British mysteries and 19th century novels were the biggest culprits. Especially the Russians, who not only have too many characters, but each character has too many names. Continue reading
Improve the action and get your characters moving!
by Meghan Ward
Page-turners aren’t the only books that employ action. In every story the characters’ actions drive the narrative forward. Without action, a book would be a series of scenes full of dialogue and description, a literary Dinner with Andre that would put the reader straight to sleep. Writing Action, a book I co-wrote with my colleagues at the Writers Grotto, outlines several ways to infuse your short story or novel with action:
1) Evocative Verbs Improve the Action
The easiest way to improve the action in your story is through verb selection. Forget is and does and seems and feels. How about rattles and shakes and leaps and destroys? Forget was and did and appears and smells. How about hobbles and shimmers and carouses and spins?
3) Engage the Senses
Don’t confuse static “sensing verbs” (I feel sad, It smells good, You sound angry, She looks tired) with their dynamic counterparts (I feel the scalding water on my feet, I smell the loamy earth, The siren sounded throughout the town). And don’t confuse the use of sensing verbs with the use of sensory details in your writing. You should always aim to engage the senses in your writing.
Note how Sonali Deraniyagala uses dynamic verbs like hissed and rustled to engage the sense of sound in this passage from her memoir Wave:
“I moved on to make sinister noises when the phone was answered. I hissed, I rustled, I made ghostly sounds. The Dutch man spoke with more urgency now. ‘What is it you want?’ he said time and again. ‘Tell me, please. What is it you want?’”
Here’s a line from an LA Times article by Philip Caputo that engages the sense of smell. Note the use of the dynamic verbs overwhelmed and burned to convey the putrid odor of war:
“Their putrefying flesh overwhelmed the odors of smoke and diesel fuel and burned tanks, trucks and armored personnel carriers.”
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| Examples of Patronage in a sentence
“He received enough patronage from the art gallery owner to be able to quit his day job and focus on painting.” “I love to go out to eat, but I try to give my patronage to locally owned restaurants.” |
Technology has made it easier to read on the go, but it has also shortened our attention spans. With more people reading literary journals on mobile devices, most literary editors are leaning toward accepting short stories that are 3,500 words or under. If your short stories tend to run longer, you may have a harder time finding readers and editors who are interested. To boost your odds of getting an acceptance and ensure that your short stories are short enough, Writer’s Relief has a few tips for you.
Keep the scope small. In other words, condense the time frame. Think of it this way: For a short story, you don’t want to write about Joe Lucky’s life from the time he was born until his death. You should focus on when he finds a winning lottery ticket in a jacket he bought at the thrift store, and what happens as a result.
Set the perfect pace. Pacing is essential to every story, but especially in a short story. But be careful: Overly fast pacing isn’t necessarily better, because your story will then feel too rushed. Finding the perfect pace is a big part of getting the reader hooked and getting your short story published.
Read More
In this book, you’ll get:
You’ll also get a separate resource sheet that will give you links to other places to find ideas about what to post, share and bring book buyers to increase your sales!
This book was created in mind for the Author needing a way keep them on track to promote on social media every month without excuses.
Still need ideas? Schedule an empowerment session! Contact me!
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“I can edit my work.”I hear this all the time, and while it may be true for your blog posts, it’s definitely not the case for your books. Some fellow writers claim they don’t have to worry about edits such as misspellings, grammar mistakes, or even plot-holes because once their book is accepted by a
In this book, you’ll get:
You’ll also get a separate resource sheet that will give you links to other places to find ideas about what to post, share and bring book buyers to increase your sales!
This book was created in mind for the Author needing a way keep them on track to promote on social media every month without excuses.
Still need ideas? Schedule an empowerment session! Contact me!
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Register >>>https://www.eventbrite.com/e/plot-twist-writing-an-engaging…Sun, May 31, 2020
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
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