You come to writing from the world of filmmaking. Did you bring any of the skills you learned in telling a story cinematically to how you told the story of Orr and his family?

Writing screenplays has definitely informed my prose—I am much more interested in having characters do things than in telling people what they are like, which you have to do in cinema. But the question of voice—who is speaking and to whom, and what are they not saying, etc.—all of these are more interesting questions in a novel, and afford a writer more space to play with (and rope to hang himself).

When we first meet Orr, it’s in 2012 Belfast and he’s about to embark on an affair that pits his faith against his desire. The setting is so specific—is there something about Belfast where this story could only have taken place there during that particular time?

There is undoubtedly a strong, problematic evangelical religious tradition in Northern Ireland. There are many men who—if not like Orr exactly—nonetheless engage their faith with the kind of visceral, unwavering commitment. And Belfast right now inhabits an in between space—the troubles of the recent past abandoned but the future as yet very much open. I have no doubt that similar affairs must be embarked on in lots of places—but my own interest in and commitment to Belfast (and my history here) made it a natural setting for me.

The setting of the second half of the novel takes place roughly thirty years in the future in New York, where we follow the life of Orr and Anna’s son, Sam. Even though this part is set in the 2040s, it has a certain out-of-time quality, with none of the typical signifiers to show us how the world has changed. What appealed to you about writing about the future in this almost timeless way?

This idea came during the process; I hadn’t intended to do this from the start. It’s partly an exploration of what theologians call teleology—the idea that history is moving in a direction, following a line. “The arc of the universe bends towards justice” said Martin Luther King Jr, which is a lovely sentiment but ultimately bullshit. There is no inevitability—one thing follows another, and then another, and then another. I think whatever meaning we want must be made by ourselves—created—rather than inherited. The playing with the future, without creating a ‘futuristic’ novel—is a small formal approach to reminding us that the question is a live one.

Anna is a Beckett scholar, and his words impact many of the characters throughout the novel. How has Beckett been influential to you as a writer?

It seems to me people tend to fall into one of three approaches to life and meaning: repressed (there is a meaning and I must find it—God, nationalism, whatever); tragic (there is no meaning and that’s fucking awful); or comic (there is no meaning—haha, let’s go make some). I learned a lot from Beckett about the last two, but especially the latter—the necessity of finding joy, or even just humour, in darkness. The novel feels to me less about finding meaning than making it, or perhaps finding that you need to make it.

One of the many intriguing aspects of the novel is discovering the identity of the narrator. Without giving anything away, can you talk about how you arrived at telling the story through this person’s point of view? What were you able to explore through a first person narrator that you couldn’t accomplish through an omniscient one?

I’m naturally sceptical of omniscient creators—I’m unfortunately too modern to not be—but I’m also sceptical of writers wanting to impress us with how they know this, constantly reminding us of it. So I needed to find a voice that was sufficiently limited, but also wide enough, compelling enough, truthful enough to tell the story convincingly. And of course, the narrator’s limitations, as the novel progresses, become more important, more revealing.

At the end of the book, one of the character’s comments on his inability to “step fully into [his] life,” which seems like a struggle many of the characters in the book face. What draws you to these characters who, for whatever reason, can’t get out of their own way?

That’s a great way of putting it. I’ve never met anyone who absolutely avoids getting in their own way—if there’s a definition of the human animal as opposed to other animals, it must be that we are the self wrecking creatures, but also the creatures who can laugh at this, explore this. And of course the two must be connected. I’m endlessly fascinated by our capacity to frustrate our own desire, and to hand over authority to people or ideas that will ultimately demean us. And that spatial metaphor—imagine ‘stepping into your own life’, implies a space which is at our disposal, which is available to us, but which we are somehow incapable of occupying. And both the space, and the ways we close it down—or permit or even force others to close it down—this is the relentless human drama.

And finally, what role has the library played in your life?

When I was a kid I would go to the library every week and stock up on books—often, in the early days, Tintin and Asterix comics, then the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. The books have changed—for the most part—but the appetite for reading I developed then has never disappeared. Reading is still a vital, vibrant part of my everyday. I don’t know who I’d be without it.

The post Phil Harrison on Finding the Joy in the Darkness of his New Novel first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The post Authors Bounce Back first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The stories in Big Lonesome all concern the West in some aspect, and I wanted to start off by asking what drew you to write about that area of the country?

I went to grad school at New Mexico Statue University, which is in Las Cruces, way at the bottom of the state. I was there for three years and then I moved to Pennsylvania to be with the woman who’s now my wife. I really missed the Southwest when I left and it started showing up in my work. I felt this urgency to get my experiences that I’d had in the Southwest on the page and figure out what they meant to me by doing that.

But my interest in the West started before that. I grew up with my mom always playing these Golden Era Western serials with Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. When I got a little older, I started watching the more strange, genre-bending Westerns of the 60s and 70s—the Spaghetti westerns and the Sam Peckinpah films that were just as much about the Viet Nam War as they were about the West. Everything’s really sweaty and violent and strange. I fell in love with that.

And in some other sense, it’s all connected to my love of mythology. Myth was my first love. It’s what I always go back to reading when I need to recharge myself. So when I left the West, all of those things began to converge—my sense of the mythological west, my desire to somehow on the page approach American mythologies. And all these cowboys started showing up in my stories. It took me a couple of years before I realized I was trying to write a collection that was about that.

What is it about reading mythology that recharges you?

I think what I love most about mythology is how it’s a narrative that’s in the shape of a story but it moves like a poem. The myths that I love to read, the sentences are simultaneously incredibly assertive and concrete but also very mysterious and abstract. There’s this confidence in myth that’s so magnetic to me, confidence in this mysterious world. As a kid I read tons of Greek mythology, where I think a lot of people start. More recently I’ve read African mythology, Native American Mythology, Norse mythology, and then just about anything else that comes my way.

You’ve talked in the past how this collection of short stories is akin to a concept album. Can you talk about what you meant by that?

This is something that I heard from Keven McIlvoy, who I studied with at New Mexico State University, and it’s just stuck with me ever since. I feel that there’s this continuum of story collections, where on one side there’s the concept album and on the other side there’s the greatest hits collection. The greatest hits collection is where the writer puts the best stories they’ve written at that time in their life in the collection. And there are going to be thematic resonances and through the revision process the writer will try to bring those up. But on the concept album side, generally it’s something that you have in mind earlier on. That you’re consciously trying to write stories that belong together and resisting each other, that have resonance and dissonance. I love both kinds of story collections, but my very favorite story collections to read are on the concept album side. So that’s what I found myself trying to write.

Your book is divided into three sections: Old West, New West, and Post West. Were those categories you discovered when you finished writing the stories or did you ever find yourself writing to fulfill a specific category?

When I first started writing the collection I was just trying to cover as many aspects of the myths of the West as I could—the way that the West exists in our imagination because of cinema, the myth of the cowboy hero, this masculine myth. So I wanted to write about that in that mythological zone. So the stories that take place in The Old West are exploring the West in that mythological zone, stories like “Five Episodes of White Hat Black Hat” and “Cowboy Goodstuff’s Four True Loves.” So I wanted to explore that myth in that mode, in that zone.

I also wanted to explore how that myth lingers today and how it affects us today. So I feel that there’s a connection between “Horseman Cowboy,” which is very much about that dangerous masculinity, and a story like “Dead Dogs,” which takes place in Rogers Park, Chicago, and there’s a character who’s in some ways choked by his conception of what masculinity is supposed to be. So I kept trying to approach the West in all these different ways.

When I finished a draft, I was working with my editors. We tried to organize the book. They had some really good suggestions about story order. I changed it a lot of times, then those categories became clear to me afterwards. So I guess I was trying to do it as many ways as I could early on, and then I sorted out the mess with the help of my editors later.

Since you were introduced to the West through cinema, what was it like seeing the actual west in grad school?

I still miss it, man. It was really wonderful. I had these huge feelings in this big space. It was somehow way more than what it is in cinema. It just covers so much more. I think when I went there the myths of cinema were busted by the experience of actually being there. It’s like people who move to Chicago thinking Chicago’s going to be one way and then they realize that the city’s a much huger thing than its myth and encompasses so many different kinds of lives.

And then also I just lived in one tiny town in New Mexico, which is one slice of what is considered the West. Although I did live in Houston for one year. And even that’s totally different. Houston is basically Florida. Humid. There was a banana tree in the courtyard of the apartment complex where I lived. So you’d see the banana trees of the Wild West (laughs).

Knowing your background as a professor and as someone who’s lived in the area, it’s tempting to think that you’re writing about actual life experiences. Did you base your stories on things that actually happened in your life?

I would say about half of the stories in the book are in some way based on some experience that I had. But I’m a very big proponent of fictionalizing away from a place that you know, so beginning with some impulse or something that you’ve seen and then just going way way away from that. It’s strange but I’m able to write about the initial experience more truly by fictionalizing myself away from it.

The stories have a very lyrical quality and I was wondering what influence music has on your writing?

I’ve always loved music, but I don’t listen to it when I write because I fall into the song instead of what I’m doing. But it’s had a secondary influence. I recently wrote a piece for Largehearted Boy where I made a playlist for my book. I included artists who I think have an overlap in aesthetic sensibilities. And some of those people have influenced me—Modest Mouth, Neko Case, Tom Waites, Caliphone, Andrew Bird—writers who are either writing about the West or they’re writing about loneliness.

And finally, what role has the public library played in your life?

An enormous one. I grew up in Western Springs with the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. I was always there as a kid, checking books out. In junior high I worked there as a page and led things in the kid’s program. Just the way that a public library creates a space that makes it okay to love books—it’s this doorway to wonder. You know that you can go in there and read books and talk to book people and everything will be okay.

The post Joe Scapellato On Fictionalizing Away From A Place That You Know first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The book is told in a series of overlapping chapters, where Andrea will often revisit an event she has already described to the reader and share new information that casts it in a different light or reinforces its impact on her. Did you write this book linearly or did the structure of the book come when you were assembling the disparate pieces?

I didn’t write it in a linear fashion at first. I came up with this list of topics that I wanted to talk about, and stories started forming around them. Initially I was just letting myself write them all as short stories and then altering them as it became more of a novel, and I could see how there was a bigger picture to it. And they were never really in a linear order. I think that’s because when we think about the most important things in our lives, they wouldn’t necessarily be in a chronological order. So it felt kind of true to the way life works to do them that way.

The book takes place in 2016. What was it like writing a character who existed in the exact same moment you were living in?

To me, it felt very invigorating. Even though she’s not necessarily responding to real life news stories, there’s just a lot of themes that people were talking about—in particular during the election—that have made their way into the book. Even if it’s not an entire plotline, there’s just little mentions here and there. There’s conversations about race and there’s conversations about economic inequalities and there’s conversations about rape culture that filter their way in. And I was just really responding to the world around me in a very natural way. These things felt urgent, and I felt glad that I was able to write and turn things around quickly enough that people would be able to read it. I finished it last summer, so it’s a pretty quick turnaround time.

Since your last book Saint Mazie took place in the 1920s. Was there something refreshing about being unburdened by historical research?

I certainly had to do some research for the book, but not a lot. The research that I had to do for Mazie at the very beginning was just so I could know what every room that she’s in looks like, and what the streets looked like, and things like that. So there was an extra layer and then fact-checking it at the end to make sure I got it right as well. Whereas with this I really knew the landscape, and even some of the stuff that happens earlier in her life, because there are some stories that are set in the past obviously. I didn’t feel like I was inventing too much. I didn’t feel like I had to go and watch two hours of YouTube videos.

A lot of the book is Andrea’s struggle with her relationship with her art, and how her artistic pursuits fit into her life. As someone who has written so prolifically throughout her career, what was it like writing about an artist who seems so creatively stuck?

I have a friend who read this book who said, “It’s sort of like your worst nightmare (laughs).” I just was trying to figure out what would make her happy or unhappy. I don’t know, because I’ve never not been able to not make things. Even when I wasn’t actively pursuing a career as a writer, I was still making zines and everything came out of me in a really organic fashion. And it was always the thing that saved me.

But I’ve worked in environments with people where I was the freelancer, and that was the thing I was doing on the side and the writing was really what I was doing for a living. And I’ve met people who’ve been like, “You’re a real writer,” even though we were doing the same thing—we were freelance copywriting or something like that. And they had at some point turned that [artistic] part of themselves off for very adult reasons—like they got married or they had kids or they had a mortgage, those really traditional grownup reasons, which are discussed in the book. I think it was a way of me understanding how you could stop being that person. I couldn’t do it. There’ve been moments when I’ve been like, “I should really try to get some more financial security,” but I really like doing this a lot

Andrea has a very distinctive voice, she can be simultaneously breezy while also being very frank. Since you’ve published so many essays about your own life, I was wondering if your experience writing personal essays had any effect on developing Andrea’s voice?

Well, it was meant to be memoir-istic. I read a lot of memoirs when I was writing the book.

Do you remember which ones?

When I began the book I was reading M Train, the Patti Smith book, and I’m also a really big fan of Just Kids.

And Patti Smith makes an appearance in the book, where Andrea goes to see her on New Year’s Day at St. Mark’s Church.

That’s such a New York thing. I’ve never done that, but it’s always the thing that people are doing on New Years Day. I’m always too lazy to go, but it always seems like the thing that cool people do. I’m going to make it one of these days.

I also read Eileen Myles’ Chelsea Girls. At the very beginning of the book I was reading Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts and I was like, “I don’t want to read this right now, not when I’m writing a book about someone who doesn’t want to have babies.” But then at the end I picked it up again. I saw it in a different way, and it all came together for me. So all of those memoirs, they all have their charms and they all read very differently. I took a little bit from each one of them.

As for writing essays, I don’t write a lot of essays anymore. I have in the past and I’ve basically run out of things to say about myself. I’ve kind of mined everything. There’s not much left, or maybe not much left that I’m willing to talk about. But Andrea’s very open. I think it would be the only way this book would work. I couldn’t write this book with a closed-off character—what would be the point of that?

Reading the book, it’s such a gutpunch when she drops pieces of information that make you re-evaluate what you thought you knew about her.

The other thing I was trying to think about was the way people read now, the way people consume information. It’s different now, just because there’s more information, there’s more things to read, and people are basically just scanning now. So I thought, I better just tell that story right up front.

Andrea’s very forthright about how she doesn’t want to have babies and is ambivalent about being in a monogamous relationship. What was it like to write a character who was so at ease with living with herself?

I mean, she’s totally neurotic, too, though (laughs). She’s very troubled in her own way. There’s lots about her life that she feels uncomfortable about, but those are the things that she knows from the get-go are not appealing to her and basically haven’t ever been appealing to her. So I wanted to see what that character looked like.

She’s not a role model necessarily as a human being, but that part of her is sort of a model. I wanted to see that character exist, to see somebody who was, as you say, “at ease.” I just felt like I never see that. I always see people—not necessarily even in real life but certainly in movies and television and books—the female characters can be as gutsy and independent as they want but people are always trying to slide them a romantic happy ending. I thought, “Well what if that wasn’t even on the table? What does that look like?” That felt important to me.

Even all the guys that she’s interacting with, it’s not like there’s one you’re rooting for.

No, but I like them all, in their own way. But there’s not one for her, no.

And finally, what role did the public library play in your life?

I went to Indian Trails Library when I was growing up and my mom used to take me there and I loved it. I would stay there for hours and hours and it was really important to me. I could just lose entire afternoons at my public library. I read really really fast, as most writers do when they’re children, and just consumed everything and I was glad to have what seemed like an unending supply of books at the library. I’ve had the opportunity to read at Indian Trails several times. But its always wonderful to go and read in my home town go and spend some time there. It’s a wonderful library.

The post Jami Attenberg On Writing Her Worst Nightmare In “All Grown Up” first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Public Libraries Online: How did you first get inspired to write about the relationship between this Wall Street executive and his chauffeur?

Imbolo Mbue: At the end of 2009, I was working for a media company and I lost my job. I had been unemployed for about a year and a half when I went for a walk one day. I was in front of the Time Warner building in mid-town Manhattan and I noticed the chauffeurs waiting next to black cars. And I also noticed the executives. They come out of the building wearing suits, they get into the cars, and the chauffeurs drive them away. So I was very intrigued by what that relationship would be like between a chauffeur and the executive he worked for.

The chauffeurs looked like African immigrants, like me. I was very curious about two men from very different worlds—the dynamics between them, the ways in which their families might intersect, and the ways in which the recession might affect them. So I started writing a story about a Wall Street Executive and his chauffeur and the way the recession affected their lives.

PLO: What was it like writing the novel in the midst of the recession?

IM: Well, I started writing in 2011, and at that point the recession was officially over. (laughs) It was still very fresh because I remembered the anxieties I had that I might lose my job and then how it felt to actually lose my job. And there was a lot of talk in the media about how people were dealing with the recession. There were stories about people staying married because they didn’t want to get divorced because it would be too expensive to take care of two homes, people looking for new jobs, the high rates of unemployment. That was all still very fresh in my mind.

And also [fresh in my mind was] the collapse of Lehman Brothers. I had read a lot of news stories about Lehman Brothers and what went on behind the scenes. Could it have been prevented? Could the people at Lehman Brothers have had better foresight and been able to avoid this collapse?

PLO: Besides reading the insider account of the financial crash, what other research did you do for the novel?

IM: My main research, as far as what happened at Lehman Brothers, was I read the document that was entered by a court appointed examiner. As far as the Cameroonian characters, they are from my town. I’m from the town of Limbe in Cameroon, so I know that town. I grew up there. And I used to live in the same neighborhood in Harlem [that they do in the novel], so I know that part.

But I didn’t have to deal with what they deal with [regarding citizenship]. I’m a citizen right now and I came here at a younger age. But I had met many immigrants over the course of my time in America and we talked about what it’s like to be an immigrant in America. We talked about the price we have to pay and what it’s like to be far away from home. At the time I wasn’t thinking, “Oh, this is research,” because these conversations happened years before I started writing the novel. But when I started writing the novel all of those conversations came back. I used them as inspiration to write about the lives of these immigrants.

PLO: You’ve said in a past interview that the idea of the American Dream needs to be redefined. What did you mean by that?

IM: I think there’s a big element of the price that you have to pay for that dream. For me and the characters in this novel, we came to America and thought, “Oh, this promised land. We’re going to have this wonderful life.” The image we have of America back home is nice cars, nice houses, and good looking people. But there is a very high price to pay. The poverty in America is very brutal. People say, “Oh you didn’t grow up with a lot of comfort [in Cameroon].” But I think it’s still easy to have a good life with very little in the community in which I grew up, whereas in America when you’re poor, you have to work longer hours.

And then there is the price you pay to hold on to that dream, which is a challenge for the Edwards family because by all accounts they are living the American Dream. And the novel shows how much they are struggling to hold on to their dream.

PLO: I wanted to talk about the Edwards family. The characters of Clark and Cindy turn out to be much more layered than we first think they are when we meet them. How did they evolve over the writing of the novel?

IM: When I first met them, I think I judged them a little too harshly, which I think is common for many people. When you think of a Wall Street executive you don’t think, “Let me have empathy for this rich man” or “let me have empathy for this woman who on the surface is very materialistic and a bit entitled.” The truth is writing this novel forced me to become empathetic. I had to work on my empathy to say, “This not just a Wall Street executive. This is not just a rich woman.” They are people. They are people who have dreams, who have concerns, and they have virtues also. We want to think they are bad people, but I wanted to explore the wonderful things that they have. Even when I explored the not so wonderful things about them, I wanted to consider them as humans who have dreams and who are trying to hold onto their dreams, who make good choices and bad choices to hold on to their dream life.

PLO: And it seems like you extend the same empathy to Jende and Nene in terms of the good and bad choices they make

IM: People are flawed. I believe I am flawed. We see Jende and Nene going in directions where we think, “Why would you do that?” But the truth is that sometimes when you believe in your dream so strongly you start compromising yourself. Nene especially believes so strongly in the American Dream that she is willing to do anything she can because she wants her children to have the wonderful life that she never had. Which is at the root of the American Dream—we do a lot of work so our children can have this dream life. All four of the main characters, that is what they have to deal with.

PLO: You studied business administration at Rutgers and got a MED in Psychology in Columbia. How did you come to writing?

IM: I never studied writing, I never took any writing class. When I was in school in 2002 I read Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. I was just so in awe of how wonderful the book was that I started writing. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was so inspired by that book that I wanted to write just to experience the joys of writing. I wrote for nine years before I started writing this novel. Even after I had written Behold The Dreamers I didn’t think very much of publication. It wasn’t until I had a first draft that I thought, “Ooh, I should get an agent.” Then I got an agent, I got many rejections, and I kept on getting better and better.

From when I started writing to when this novel came out is actually a fourteen year journey. Because part of not having studied writing is that I had to teach myself a lot. I had to sit down and master a lot of things because writing is a craft. I had to master the craft of dialogue, plot, pacing and all that. There are a few books I read, like Stephen King’s On Writing. But just having been a lifelong reader and being surrounded by great books was mostly how I learned to write.

PLO: What were some of the books that inspired you?

IM: Toni Morrison’s The Song of Solomon. Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections is a book I love very much. Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible. I’m also a big fan of Jhumpa Lahiri, Junot Diaz, Gary Shteyngart. They write about immigrants also. Roberto Bolano, Isabelle Allende, Ha Jin, Kazuo Ishiguro. I know my writing is nothing like those writers. It’s just a matter of reading excellent work and being in awe of what excellence looks like.

PLO: What’s it like to have admired all those writers and then for your first book to be praised by authors like Jaqueline Woodson and Jonathan Franzen?

IM: It’s a great honor. I loved Brown Girl Dreaming and I loved The Corrections. But when you’re sitting in your little corner writing, you don’t think anyone’s going to care about what you write. You write because you love the story and you want to write it. And then one day when it comes out and somebody actually cares, it’s a privilege.

PLO: You talk about writing for the joy of writing, which extends to your characters. Clark has this unexpected love of poetry and Jende uses the journal that Cindy makes him keep almost as a creative writing exercise.

IM: For Clark, it’s a matter of stress relief. For Jende even though what he was writing wasn’t something he would have chosen to write, it was still an opportunity to write, something he doesn’t get to do normally. For me I think that was how I started writing. I had been reading for so many years, but I never thought about the people behind the books or what it’s like to write. I still think of myself as a reader who writes because I came to writing because I loved books so much. It was such a joy to read and I wanted to experience more of the joy of the written word in another way.

PLO: What role has the library played in your life?

IM: The library has been a humongous light in my life. My journey as a writer actually began in a public library. It was in the Falls Church Public Library where I borrowed Song of Solomon and that specifically made me start writing. That was how my writing journey started. When I first came to America I was very homesick and I spent a lot of time in the public library in Chicago, which was where I first lived. When I moved to New York City to go to graduate school, I didn’t have a computer. I spent a lot of time in the public library. I used computers there to look for a job.

Even now I still go to the public library just because the libraries are so special to me. I didn’t grow up around public libraries. I was born in a little village where there wasn’t a public library. So being able to be in these places that just had all these books and being inspired by them was a big part of my life. Every town that I’ve lived in I’ve always had a library card.  A lot of the books I’ve read were borrowed from public libraries. Back when I couldn’t afford a book I knew I could go to the library to find it. In many ways my writing journey was shaped by public libraries.

PLO: I have to imagine that public librarians will love the book from the beginning because the first page shows the main character using library services to write his resume.

IM: That is just another thing I would do, I would use their services. You move to a new town, you don’t know your way, but there’s the library! I will still never forget the first time I walked into a library, and that is how I became a writer. That was pretty much how my story started.

The post Imbolo Mbue on Being A Reader Who Writes and Redefining the American Dream first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The E-Book and Right of Use

It used to work like this: the publisher (i.e. one of the Big Five or their subsidiaries) bought the author’s manuscript. The author signed a contract to collect a certain amount of royalties from each sale. Different sales yielded different royalties. Sales to a bookstore or a library resulted in different royalty amounts, with library sales earning less than bookstore sales. If a book was popular enough, libraries often bought books by the case, but that type of popularity was rare, and not every author saw their books in a library at all. Then came the e-book. No longer is it something that takes up shelf space. But at the same time, a library cannot just copy the file and let multiple people borrow a single copy at the same time. That would be a violation of copyright, just like it is with physical books.

However, the model was not even that simple. If it had worked like hard copies, a library could buy five e-copies and loan them out at will. But they don’t. Because they don’t own the e-copies. In fact, if you have a Kindle or other reading device, you don’t either. When you buy an e-book, you buy the right to use the content under the terms of the retailer.[1] When Barnes & Noble closed the Nook store in the UK, readers lost sometimes hundreds of books they had paid for.[2] Those books did not make the migration to Sainsbury’s, the replacement platform for Nook. The same holds true for many digital products like MP3 files, movies, and more. You purchase the right to use the content under certain conditions, but you don’t own it. Does the artist still get paid?

Self-Publishing and Small Press

Enter the self-publishing author or small press. They too can offer books to libraries through Overdrive and other services, and many libraries are implementing Self-E programs,[3] another way for authors to get discovered, recognized, and paid for their work. These self- and independently published books can include print and e-book titles. However many of these titles are not as popular as those released by major publishers, so will not be borrowed as frequently. In the case of print books, low circulation means wasted shelf space, and in the case of e-books, it means squandered money in the acquisitions budget. Of course, many self-published authors may donate their books to libraries, at least in the case of physical books. But then their earnings drop from the pennies they get from library sales to zero.

The Global Book Economy

Library books are not free. They are pre-paid, usually from some kind of tax base. Often there is an opposite effect to the need of the community: when the economy takes a downturn, the need for libraries grows just as budgets decrease. It is uncertain what effect Brexit will have on the British economy, but the tax base is sure to be affected in a country where libraries are already underfunded,[4] making getting books into libraries and paid for even more difficult for an author. The UK is just one example of this precarious state of libraries. Many libraries are reinventing themselves and thriving, while others are struggling with declining visits and borrows. This is tough news for authors as well.

Making a Living

Making a living as a writer is tough enough. Most writers have a day job of some sort, and while skills they gained from getting a liberal arts degree are in demand in any number of professions,[5] working full time at what they love is a true challenge for writers. An author can be as artsy about their book as they wish; however, the finished product must be marketed and distributed like any other product. Libraries offer authors two things. They can buy their books, which nets the author some royalties. They can also offer exposure, allowing the author to gain a new audience who might buy their books the next time rather than just borrowing them. For libraries to survive, authors must keep creating books. For them to keep creating books, they need to get paid. When libraries buy authors’ books, everyone comes out ahead.

References

[1] “Survey of Ebook Usage in U.S. Public Libraries” (fifth annual survey by Library Journal and School Library Journal, Place of Publication, 2014), 83–84.

[2] Stuart Lauchlan, “B&N nukes the NOOK with a 15 March deadline for customers to save content,” diginomica, March 7, 2016.

[3] “SELF-e: Connecting Self-Published Authors, Libraries, and Readers,” Library Journal, May 20, 2014.

[4] “The Global Political Implications of the June ‘Brexit’ Decision,” Master’s in Political Management Online, George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, July 26, 2016.

[5] “Why Liberal Arts Skills Are Important in Every Profession,” Marylhurst University, n.d.

The post Getting Paid: How Do Authors Make Money from Library Books? first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Public Libraries: Librarians probably know you best from your work writing and illustrating children’s books, but you have also illustrated jigsaw puzzles, birthday cards, a box of fish sticks, and an iPad popup book. Can you tell us about some of your most unusual work assignments?

Troy Cummings: One of the coolest projects I’ve ever worked on was a series of lightly animated illustrations for an opera—Maurice Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges (The Child and the Spells). I designed crazy animals/characters/monster clocks/etc. to be projected onto a screen to coincide with the nightmare fantasies of the protagonist (who was a naughty little kid.)

PL: How is writing for kids different than writing for an adult audience?

TC: I’m not entirely sure — I haven’t written for adults yet! I think, when writing for kids, I need to try to avoid references to things that they may not have experienced yet. And for early readers, I try to steer clear of vocabulary/syntax that’s complicated to decode. But on the same hand, I never want to “dumb down” anything. Even if these young readers are just starting out, they’re still smart. They want to be surprised, and they want funny jokes.

PL: The book you illustrated, Little Red Gliding Hood written by Tara Lazar, came out in October. How is it different illustrating someone else’s work versus illustrating your own work?

TC: The cool part is that the book ends up being something entirely different than what either of us would have cooked up on our own. (SELFISH BONUS: It ends up making me look smart, even though Tara’s done the hard part of creating a fantastic world full of funny characters.) And if I’m doing my job right, I’ll draw things that reinforce/complement her text, without being redundant and stepping on toes…

PL: How did you come up with the idea for Notebook of Doom? Did you ever imagine that you would be about to publish book #9 in the series?

TC: I think the original idea for Notebook of Doom goes back to 5th grade or so… I would draw these crazy monsters on my long bus ride to school, and make up little stories to go with them. And no: I can’t believe how lucky I am. (I’m actually making plans now for books 11, 12, and 13!)

PL: Rumble Of The Coaster Ghost comes out in early 2016, correct? What can you tell us about it? Did you have to do any “research” at an amusement park?

TC: Coaster Ghost takes place at an amusement park called “Safety Land”, which is the safest place on Earth. All of the rides are extremely safe, to the point of them being no fun. (For instance: The Barely-go-round is a horseless carousel. You sit on benches with seatbelts and airbags, while the ride slowly rotates.) The kids are bored at first, but then danger comes to Safety Land when a ghost seems to be on the loose.

My kids helped me do extensive research for this book by dragging me to a couple of real amusement parks. (Oh, the sacrifices we make in the name of writing!)

PL: What other projects do you have in the works?

TC: I’m illustrating a picture book series called Mighty Truck, written by Chris Barton. (A friendly, muddy work-truck turns into a superhero monster truck when lightning strikes a car wash at bath time.) The first book comes out March 29. I’m also working on a few jigsaw puzzles for Crocodile Creek, and some illustrations for Highlights High Five.

PL: This blog is going to be seen by lots of librarians, many of which will be interested in having you visit their libraries. Do you do a lot of visits to schools and libraries and if so, what is the best way to arrange a visit with you?

TC: I love visiting schools and libraries! Currently, the best way is just to email me at troycummings@gmail.com. (I’m working on a SCHOOL VISITS page for my website, www.troycummings.net , but it’s not up yet.)

PL: What tips can you give public librarians to help them work with authors and ensure a successful author event? Or what are some things that they should avoid doing?

TC: Author events go best when the students already “know” the author beforehand, so anything the librarian can do to introduce that author ahead of time is super helpful. Maybe read a couple of the visiting author’s picture books at story time. . .Or even activities connected to that author’s books. For instance: since a lot of my books are about monsters, maybe have an activity where readers make up their own crazy monsters the week before I arrive. Younger readers can just draw monsters, and older readers can write small descriptions, or even stories. Then when I roll into town, the readers are already invested—they’ve put work into this! And we can start from a point of talking about that work.

The post An Interview with Troy Cummings first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

To prepare for the publication of these books, 1000 trees have been planted in a forest outside of Oslo for the sole purpose of providing paper to print the books. As noted on the Future Library website, “Tending the forest and ensuring its preservation for the 100-year duration of the artwork finds a conceptual counterpoint in the invitation extended to each writer: to conceive and produce a work in the hopes of finding a receptive reader in an unknown future.”

One author we know will be in this library is Margaret Atwood, who was chosen to be the first author to provide a manuscript for the project. She presented her manuscript to the library on May 26^th in a ceremony that included a walk through the Future Library Forest and a conversation with artist Katie Paterson, who created the Future Library concept. Atwood is a natural choice for inclusion in the Future Library as so much of her writing deals with what will happen in the future. “In the case of the Future Library, I am sending a manuscript into time. Will any human beings be waiting there to receive it? Will there be a ‘Norway’? Will there be a ‘forest’? Will there be a ‘library’?” wrote Atwood in an essay for the project. Another futurist author, David Mitchell, was chosen shortly after Atwood’s ceremony to write the second work for the Future Library. His manuscript will be added in 2016.

For $1000, collectors can purchase a printed certificate that functions as a piece of art until the Future Library opens, at which point the certificate entitles the owner to a complete set of the 100 works in the library

Paterson’s other artworks have involved broadcasting the sounds of a melting glacier live to a visitor on a mobile phone, mapping all the dead stars, compiling a slide archive of the history of darkness across the ages, custom-making a light bulb to simulate the experience of moonlight, burying a nanosized grain of sand deep within the Sahara desert, and sending a re-cast meteorite back into space.

Sources:

Future Library – Framtidsbiblioteket – Katie Paterson. Accessed June 9, 2015. http://www.futurelibrary.no/.

“KATIE PATERSON: Future Library Certificate.” James Cohan Gallery. Accessed June 9, 2015. http://www.jamescohan.com/editions/2014-09-05_katie-paterson-future-library-certificate.

“Margaret Atwood 2014.” Accessed June 9, 2015. http://www.futurelibrary.no/Future_Library_Katie_Paterson_Guide_2015.pdf.

The post Opening in 100 Years: The Future Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

El Deafo Book Cover

Public Libraries: You’ve written and illustrated a number of picture books. But what made you want to write for older kids with your Newberry Honor book El Deafo?

Cece Bell: I really felt like a graphic novel was the perfect format for this particular story—a picture book would not have been able to show all I needed to tell. And the story I wanted to tell involved a lot of the same issues that middle grade kids are experiencing now, so it just made more sense to write this book with middle grade readers in mind.

PL: What was the best and hardest part of writing/illustrating this book?

CB: In general, the hardest part was just the sheer amount of work involved in making the book. So much drawing! So much figuring out! More specifically, the chapter about sign language was extremely difficult to write. I am not proud of the attitude I had about sign language when I was a kid, but I wanted to be honest about it in the book. I worked very hard in this chapter to balance my own negative feelings with the more positive facts about sign language that the sign language teacher shares with me during this chapter.

PL: Were you a library user when you were young? Do you use the library now?

CB: I definitely used the library when I was young. I was lucky because I could walk to our local library—it was just four blocks from home. I confess that I did a lot more looking at pictures than I did actual reading. I soaked up the picture books and disappeared into the enormous collection of Winsor McCay’s Sunday comic strip, Little Nemo in Wonderland, which was so big you weren’t allowed to check it out.

I use the library today as a quiet place to get some writing and illustrating done. I still love to soak up the pictures in the picture book section, too.

PL: What do you enjoy most about library and school visits?

CB: I really enjoy answering the kids’ questions, and then getting to spend a little bit of one-on-one time with them.

PL: If you weren’t a children’s book writer and illustrator, what would you like to be?

CB: There’s nothing else I’d rather be! But I occasionally wish that I was a jazz pianist. How cool would that be?

The post I Was Lucky Because I Could Walk to Our Local Library: A Conversation with Cece Bell first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

United for Libraries has created Authors for Libraries, giving authors and libraries an opportunity to connect via the Internet. This innovative website gives authors a way to feature their books in a searchable database that can be accessed by libraries nationwide. For the relatively low cost $39 annual membership fee, authors get:

• A link to the author’s or book’s personal website where library staff or Friends of Libraries groups can research information and make contact.
• A subscription to the “Voice for America’s Libraries” newsletter, with information on how to become a better advocate for libraries.
• To add a personal quote about libraries to the Library Quotes database for Friends of Libraries to use in their publicity and marketing materials.

The program not only connects authors and libraries but also informs authors about library issues. United for Libraries could not recruit better advocates.

Barnes and Nobles already knows it, as does any small bookstore. Marketing 101. Getting customers in the door is half the battle. After that, it’s easy to make a sale. United for Libraries, a national network formed in 2009 from The Friends of Library and the Association of Library Trustees and Advocates, shares the same belief: libraries need users. They need people to come in the door. Libraries should be the heart and soul of social and intellectual activities in every community. Past-President Peggy Danhof explains the group’s mission. She urges library advocates to unite citizens’ voices and “strengthen all voices in support of libraries.” And what better way than to host an author talk or presentation? Author talks are a wonderful way to generate interest in visiting the library for all users—children, young adults, and adults. The Authors for Libraries program makes it easy. Authors can easily join online with credit card, via paper form, or by contacting the ALA offices at (800) 545-2433, ext. 2161 between 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Here are a few of the “Tips for Contacting Libraries to Present a Program” from the Authors for Libraries site:

1. Join the United for Libraries “Authors and Libraries” listserv that invites authors, librarians, and other interseted individuals to exchange ideas, information, opportunities for author programs, announcements of new books, and more.
2. Use http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/librarysearch/ to find libraries in your touring range or region.
3. Call or email selected library or libraries. Check the library’s website to see to whom you should address your request.
4. Introduce yourself and let them know about your book(s). Include information about your webpage, reviews, special area of expertise, and experience in speaking to audiences.
5. Discuss your idea for a program opportunity with them including all the details.
6. If the library is interested, what would you require in return?

In addition, the site offers “Tips for Booking an Author” to Friends of Libraries groups and librarians as well. Finding an author and then finding one within a library’s budget can be a daunting process. The tips for these groups include:

• Joining the “Authors & Libraries” listserv
• Plan ahead (they recommend a six month window)
• Select author based on this three prong approach—budget, author’s proximity, and subject matter.
• Contact via website, email, or publisher.
• Provide author with information about the event, the budget, the type of program, schedule, the amount of publicity that will be provided, and whether they will be able to sell books or not.
• Prepare for the event by ordering books (if needed), ensure publicity (at least two months in advance), and include notices to the community via library website, newsletter, twitter, and email blasts.
• See also United for Libraries Fact Sheet #9: Planning a Book and Author Event for more tips and suggestions.

This, of course, cements the rationale for establishing Authors for Libraries in the first place.  By bridging the needs of author and library, United for Libraries can fulfill and envision some of its mission: education, governance, fundraising, promotion, and advocacy of libraries through the formation of Friends of Libraries groups, Library Foundations, or Trustees at the local, state, and national level. Simply put: Authors for Libraries is one more reminder to the community—libraries matter.  They are vital to you.  They meet your needs. Inviting authors into the library is certainly one way of inviting the community in. It is also certainly one way of building an advocacy base in support of libraries.

Authors for Libraries is a new way for authors and libraries to connect.  Whether you are an author or a librarian, this program is well worth exploring.

The post Authors For Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Teamwork
This author event was achieved with the help of a large number of people. Ally Condie’s visit was the first author event that I have planned. As the Teen Services Coordinator, I was in charge of the event, but I didn’t do it alone. Thirty-two staff members from the Teen Services Team, Community Engagement and Outreach Office (public relations), Facilities, and Security made this day go smoothly. We also had 20 teen volunteers.

Funding
The Kirkpatrick Family Fund sponsored Condie’s fee for the day with a very generous grant, which we applied for with the help of the PPLD Foundation. Once we received the grant we had one year to find an author and plan the event. Additional funding was donated by the PPLD Foundation to, in part, pay for buses so students from area schools could join us. One teacher commented in a survey, “Thanks so much for providing the transportation. Without that, my students could not have attended.”

Schedule and Statistics:
9 am student presentation: 281 students and adults

11 am student presentation: 311 students and adults

6 pm reception: 24 winners and guests

7 pm public presentation: 417 patrons

8 pm book signing only (just waited in line; didn’t see the presentation): 75 (many more people had their books signed!  Condie signed books for 2.5 hours!)

We had 1,108 people attend the five programs associated with the event!

Promotion:
School visits for booktalks and resource classes provided us with a captive audience to promote the author event.

Partnership with Barnes & Noble: They sold books at the event, so they were willing to put bookmarks and posters up. Independent book stores also helped us promote by putting up posters, but selling books at the event wasn’t something they could do.

One of the local newspapers (The Colorado Springs Independent) had an article about the event.

PPLD’s one book, one community program is called All Pikes Peak Reads. Matched was the teen selection. This synchronicity provided another way for the event to be promoted.

Word of mouth was very important. Staff members were excited, so it was easy for everyone to talk about it. We also used social media to get the word out on Facebook and twitter.

Feedback
I put together a survey for the teachers. The comments were wonderful! Here are a few:

“Great presentation, and very motivational and engaging.”

“The day went exceedingly well. Our students enjoyed the presentation very much. Condie was well prepared for all of the questions and gave many helpful tips to aspiring writers.”

“My students liked the personal nature of her remarks. Several of them talked about wanting to write books. I think hearing her, they realized that they could write too.”

When I started planning this author visit, I was quite intimidated. To prevent myself from having a nervous breakdown, I took a lot of deep breaths, created checklists for every aspect of the day, and got help from a lot of people. Amazing things are possible and, as Condie’s characters frequently remind each other in Matched, “Do not go gentle”[1].

The line at the Ally Condie book signing (Click to expand):

Photo by Tori Sparrow

Works Cited

[1] Thomas, Dylan, “Do not go gentle into that good night,” Poets.org, Nov. 29, 2014, http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night.

Cover Photo Credit: Jeffrey Beall CC BY 3.0

The post Ally Condie Visits Pikes Peak Library District first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Public Libraries: Your book, Out of My Mind, came out in 2010. Have you been surprised by the reaction to it?

Sharon Draper: Out of My Mind has been blessed from the first day it came out.  It seems to touch the hearts and minds of people.  I received letters from parents and students and grandparents and caregivers and lots of young people who, like Melody, face the world with many challenges.  I’ve also received many letters from students in other countries, as the book has been translated into I think ten different languages now.  Yes, the book is blessed.  It changes the way we as humans look at each other.

PL: You have visited many schools and public libraries, including my own (LCPL) to discuss Out of My Mind. What has been your experience doing this? Have young readers surprised or entertained you with questions during your visits?

SD: I love visiting schools and libraries!  I was that little girl who went to the library every single Saturday, who checked out ten books at a time because I just couldn’t get enough.  So I always feel at home in any library.

And since I was a teacher I always like returning to schools because I can interact with the students and teachers.   I show up at a school in jeans and sneakers.   I talk to them.  I make jokes.  I let them ask questions—zillions and zillions of questions.  And I listen to them.  I observe them—what they’re wearing, what shoes are cool, what hairstyles are in, what words and phrases and music they like.  Then I try to incorporate their essence into each story.  I make sure lots of real teenagers read sections of a new novel before I release it to them.  Their opinion is essential to the success of the book.

PL: You must be excited for your new book, Stella by Starlight, to come out in January 2015. Please tell us about it.  What inspired it?

SD: When I was a little girl, we used to spend summers on my grandmother’s farm in North Carolina, where each night I sat quietly on the front porch and listened to the elders tell outrageous stories.  They came to that porch weary from working all day, but left there energized.  I loved the rhythm of their voices, the power of their laughter.

My father and grandmother were different people on those evenings—indulgent to me rather than strict—with Grandma sneaking me cookies and Daddy letting me stay up way past my bedtime.  They were the early threads of a quilt I didn’t even know I was weaving.

I also found out, many years later, that my grandmother, when she was a little girl, had kept a secret journal of her hopes and dreams–a notebook she wrote outside, after dark, under the stars.  I was given that journal many years ago, and I promised to write her story.  I had no idea a story of my own would emerge from those summer evenings.

I blended my memories of those glorious tales with the passion of my grandmother’s hidden scribbles into the novel that became Stella by Starlight.  Focusing on strength of family, power of community, and interspersed with music, storytelling, social commentary, and history,  Stella by Starlight is my gift to young readers.

PL: How is Stella’s story different than Melody’s in Out of My Mind?

SD: Although they are both eleven-year-old girls, Stella is very different from Melody.  Stella lives in 1932 in a community filled with lots more love than money, and also quite a bit of danger.  She struggles in school with writing and reading, and how to express her thoughts on paper.  Her journey of discovery becomes the story—the discovery of evil, the strength of family, and the power of the written word.  Like my grandmother did so many years ago when she was a child, Stella writes in a journal as well.  Her story brims with courage, compassion, creativity, and resilience.

PL: Are there any lessons you hope readers will get from this newest novel?

SD: I would like for Stella by Starlight to become a starting point for lots of discussions.  I’d like for young readers to feel the rhythms of a close community, to understand how the past reflects the present, to think about social injustice through storytelling and song.  When they read Stella by Starlight, I want them to learn a larger truth about life and humanity, without ever knowing they have done so.

Thanks so much to Sharon Draper for taking the time to do this interview. Also, learn more about the author and her work at http://sharondraper.com/.

The post I Was That Little Girl Who Went to the Library Every Single Saturday: A Conversation with Sharon Draper first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Currently, there are two programs exploring the writer/library relationship. They began in this past fall and both hope to continue in the future. Both the Public Library of Cincinnati’s “Writer-In-Residence” program and the “CHP in the Stacks” residency program from publishing company Coffee House Press (CHP) plan to offer stipends to selected writers to work in libraries and publicize their available resources.

Cincinnati Public Library hopes to show support for local writers and help to highlight their work through their residency program. The chosen writer will be given a monetary stipend and in turn will be required to teach a writer’s workshop, participate in library promotions, and speak at no less than four community events representing the library. Thanks to a donation from a local philanthropist, the library plans to continue the writer-in-residence program for three years.

Coffee House Press hopes that their writer-in-residency program will inspire other libraries to follow suit and collaborate with local writers. We’d love to hear about more writers-in-residency programs hosted by public libraries. If you know of one, tell us in the comments.

Sources

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/09/industry-news/libraries-welcome-writers-in-residence/#_

The post Writers-in-Residence at the Public Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Eugie was the 2009 Nebula Award winning author of Best Novelette for the work Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast. She was also the 2011 Drabblecast People’s Choice Award for Best Story winner for The Wish of the Demon Achtromagk. Her work Mortal Clay, Stone Heart won the 2011 Aurora Award for Best English Related Work. She attended many conventions over the years, and was no stranger to JordanCon where she was a frequent panelist who discussed short stories, writing for contents, and of course, Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, a series we shared common ground with.

Few people could write short stories the way that Eugie Foster could. It was a gift; I have always admired the finesse, style and depth of her short stories and frequently wished I could emulate her success. As of this writing, she had published over 100 short stories, which is 100 more than I have ever published, and yet she remains relatively unknown among most of the greater fantasy names of the age.  In Returning My Sister’s Face: And Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice Eugie elegantly created characters drawn from Asian folklore and laced it all together with complexity, beautiful thematic elements and touches of humor that shine like starlight; hers is a loss that will be felt in the fantasy community for many years to come. I strongly recommend her works to anyone who enjoys a different point of worldview than their own. She wrote with grace and a certain sense of self-awareness, but it made her works all the more charming and appealing because of it.

Photo of the author from blackgate.com

On Foster’s blog, her husband Matthew wrote that memorial service arrangements would be announced soon, but more importantly:

“We do not need flowers.  In lieu of flowers, please buy her books and read them.  Buy them for others to read until everyone on the planet knows how amazing she was.”

Thank you, Eugie Foster, for all of your wonderful short stories, your advice on succeeding in the writing business, and for just being yourself.  I may have known you only peripherally, but your common sense approach to writing will always be with me. It was an honor to have met you, and I will not forget your many words of wisdom.

To my readers: Please read her books.  Celebrate the life of this wonderful, talented, and special person who made a mark on the fantasy community, and so many others, through her words.  You can find her works on her website, EugieFoster.com, and through Amazon.com.

The post In Memoriam: Eugie Foster first appeared on Public Libraries Online.