Year-End Wordle

Hello readers!

As far as I know (unless other staff members have something up their sleeves) this is the last blog post of the year. Since the privilege of LAST POST OF 2009 has been bestowed upon me, I thought I might take a look back at the year on this blog. I considered numerous options including re-reading every single post to come up with clever nine word summaries of each post. Two-thousand and NINE, get it? Get it? I gave up at 6/9/2009 with this summary: New OED words proclaim, “Muggles get crunk while ego-surfing.” It was getting a little ridiculous.

Instead, I decided to look at trends on our blog and stumbled upon wordle.net, a fun site that creates word clouds based on text that you input. The size of the text denotes the frequency of use. I entered the entire text of everything we’ve posted this year, and surprise, surprise the most commonly used word on our blog is book, with the second most common word being books. Wordle, friends, has got us pegged.

Though it’s largely for entertainment purposes, this tool could be a fun way to look at revision of your next book. When you complete your next masterwork of literature, input your entire text. If one adjective comes up in 100-point font, consider tracking down a thesaurus. I would expect your main character’s name to come up larger than, say, the word “bathroom,” unless of course, your main character is a plumber. You might also realize that you use the same verbs far too often, and have an opportunity to fix it before your editor comes at you with red pens (or MS Word Track changes) blazing. Finally, at the risk of rambling about various book scenarios, I would like to take this moment to sincerely thank those of you who have been a part of the BookPros family this year, from authors to interns to staff to readers. On behalf of those of us at the office, I wish you a joyous holiday season, and a bright start to the New Year.

FOFFAM -or- Fabulous Online Finds for Author Marketing

I have been doing a lot of research lately on the best ways for authors to market their books. Social media and online applications can be huge assets when it comes to marketing your book, but finding those gems out of the thousands (well, probably millions) of options can be difficult. Here are some of my favorite web site finds for author/book promotion in alphabetical order.

Amazon Author Central is an ideal networking device for authors to find new readers while also promoting their books on a well-known web site. Author Central profiles let authors edit their own bibliography, biography, photos, and even a personal blog. Additionally, your profile is linked to related authors, so readers of a particular genre or author will be able to find similar works and writers more easily. Anyone with a book on Amazon can create an Author Central page.

BookBuzzr is a free tool that allows authors to upload an excerpt, chapter, or an entire book, along with book information (reviews, media mentions, purchase links) into a widget (a stand-alone application) for your web site that actually lets readers “turn” the pages of the book. It’s more dynamic than a static cover image and is easy to share between sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and blogs, which normal web site excerpts are not. The site calls the widget a “portable author web site,” which is a good description.

BookTour is a directory of events in the literary world. Book signings, author appearances, and the like are documented and publicized on the site. The layout is simple and makes it easy for readers to find events either by location or author. As soon as you have events lined up, add them to this site to gain more visibility.

FiledBy: This web site is a collection of author profiles to help authors easily make information about their book available to readers. It uses various media like YouTube to help you promote your book, and also integrates social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace into your profile for further exposure.

LibraryThing is a tool for both readers and authors to catalog and share books they like. It’s particularly useful for authors in finding an audience that enjoys genres or books similar to your own. The community is ever growing, and encourages readers to join, so a lot of potential fans exist in this realm.

Redroom is another author profile site. It is best for authors to join after their books are published, as it is easier to network then. The profile comes equipped with a blog to update and stay connected with readers, and also allows authors to promote reviews, interviews, and other media hits.

Ripple Reader is a site that allows anyone to read a book aloud and have it recorded so it can be played back for children. This is a great tool for authors of children’s books to reach a wider audience of adults looking for a fun way to share books with the children in their lives. All the author needs to do is add their book to the site’s library. Visitors to the site will do the recordings. This is an easy way to extend your reach in the competitive children’s book market.

SlideShare is another great tool for authors, but one that isn’t built specifically for them. Using this site, anyone can upload PDFs and audio files to share with a particular audience or group. Your slides can also be added to the search engine so potential readers can discover your work and learn more about you. It’s a great way to reach new audiences. If you are a speaker, this site is even more relevant. Upload your presentation after your event and send the link to your attendees or anyone else who might be interested. Linking to your presentations from your web site also helps bulk up your site and adds credibility.

SpeakerSite gives authors who are already or want to be speakers an outlet to promote themselves. It has a database of available public speakers so that event planners looking for a speaker on a specific topic can easily find an appropriate person. If you are open to speaking engagements, add yourself to this database to increase your exposure.

*A tip: don’t try to use all of these at once. Pick one or two at first and if you can handle more after those, go ahead. Some of these sites contain one-time-only setups. Others are more similar to typical social media sites (Twitter, Facebook) and should be updated frequently. If you won’t have the time for it, skip those.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. It’s just a sampling of what I have found online and believe to be perfect for authors. Are there any others you want to recommend? Please add them in the comments.

From Bestsellers to Blockbusters (Or, Books That Made It Big on the Silver Screen Due to an Extremely Good-Looking Cast)

With the holidays right around the corner, I’ve already started a list of must-read books and must-see movies. Kicking back to enjoy a book or movie is always a top priority for me when it comes to free time. You just can’t beat some good ol’ R & R! This time last year, I gave into the Twilight madness and contributed to the first movie’s success (er, four times). The loss of all social skills quickly followed as I read the whole series over the holiday break (envisioning Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart all the while). Seeing the movie first really helped, as I had no idea how much the story had been cut down. Had I read the books first—well, I probably wouldn’t have been a fan of the big screen adaptation. Good thing the cast is ‘kind of beautiful.’

So I thought I’d ask the BookPros team to share their favorite books that have been made into movies—a double whammy!

Erin
I'd have to say my favorite movie based on a book is the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice (you know, the Colin Firth one). It's one of the most faithful adaptations of a Jane Austen novel I've ever seen (and I think I've seen them all). The Andrew Davies screenplay is terrific, and nearly every role was perfectly cast. While no movie could do full justice to the near perfection of Austen's masterpiece, this one comes pretty close. I watch it a couple times a year, which is high praise, considering it's five hours long!

Peggy
I'm really excited to watch The Lovely Bones, which I read for one of my book clubs in anticipation of the movie. We read it a couple months ago, and the movie just came out. I generally expect movie renditions to be disappointing. It's hard for a movie to match the vision in my head, and I realize a lot of cutting has to be done so the movie doesn't last ten hours. However, Peter Jackson directed this one, so my expectations are definitely higher than usual. I read Lord of the Rings before the movies came out and was not disappointed by the movie at all. He did an amazing job. But Tolkien gave him some great stuff to work with.

That's definitely the exception to the rule for me, though. I've found that it's best for me to leave at least a month between when I read the book and when I watch the movie. Otherwise I get overly upset when tiny details (or sometimes bigger plot twists) are left out or changed. If it's been a while, I've probably read a handful of other books in the meantime and forget those things.

Katie
My favorite movies that were adapted from books are, in no particular order, Bridget Jones's Diary (based on the Helen Fielding book, which I liked a lot), A Room with a View (based on the E. M. Forster book, which I loved), and Clueless (admittedly a very loose adaptation of Emma, but still good). A more recent book-turned-movie that I really enjoyed was Fantastic Mr. Fox. On the flip side, I loved Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. The movie? Not so much.

Caitlin
Well, if you were to ask my mom, the librarian, the book is always better than the movie! For me, a lot of the time, there's a gap of a year or two between when I read a book and see a movie, so I often can't remember if the book is better than the movie or vice versa.

Here are some of my top picks:
The Time Traveler's Wife: Loved both the book and the movie.
Julie and Julia: Enjoyed the book and thought the movie was entertaining.
Gone Baby Gone: Haven't read the book, but thought the movie was very well done.
The Blind Side: Just saw the movie and am now inspired to read the book.

Cody
The type of material I enjoy reading is different than the type of movies that I watch, so I don't think I've ever read a book and then watched the movie based on it. I enjoy watching action/adventure and science fiction movies, but only really read nonfiction material. Even if I wanted to, I would probably try to avoid reading a book before I watched the movie based on it. It seems that every person who does this is always disappointed with the movie, since the movie will inevitably change and leave out some things. I think it's better to read the book after you watch the movie; that way, it's like getting the backstory to the movie after having watched it.

Here are some silver screen titles to keep an eye out for:
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (learn more)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (learn more)

Twenty Must-Read Editing Tips

If you want editing tips from true masters of literature, you need look no further. I’ve traversed the vast plains of the Internet to bring you back helpful hints from Margaret Atwood (author of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Year of the Flood) and David Foster Wallace (the recently deceased author of Infinite Jest and Consider the Lobster). If you’ve ever read anything by either of them, you know that their writing advice could prove invaluable. If you haven’t read anything by either of them, it’s time to take a trip to your local library.

Atwood’s ten editing tips range from smaller issues like keeping your subjects and verbs in agreement to larger issues like writing a good beginning. My favorite tip is about heightening suspense and drama. As Atwood puts it, “Drop the hankie early, but make ’em wait for the opening of the kimono.”

Wallace’s tips are little more finicky, to put it lightly; he wrote ten sentences, each of which has a grammatical error for you to find. Wallace’s former student, Amy McDaniel, who posted the tips, describes him as “the most obsessively precise user of English” she’s ever known. Here are the sentences. See if you can find the errors, then check your answers here. Don’t feel bad if you don’t get a perfect score. Language Log’s post on the subject uses the label “Prescriptivist Poppycock,” and this editor certainly won’t fault you for mixing up “if” and “whether.”

What's New In the World of E-Books

By Katherine Allen, Publishing Assistant

During a recent trip to Publishersweekly.com, I came across an article about Kindle, Amazon’s e-reader child. Apparently, after some alleged fistfighting and hair tugging with Canadian telecommunications companies, Kindle finally made it north into Canada. So now Canadian publishers are—at long last—hitched to the e-book bandwagon, just as many U.S. publishers are dragging their feet when it comes it releasing their titles as e-books. One Canadian school is really embracing the e-book revolution, deciding to drop traditional textbooks all together in favor Sony Reader Digital Books.

If you’re not totally caught up with what a Kindle is, here’s the breakdown of the most recent model, Kindle 2: it’s lighter and thinner than a paperback, downloads top books and newspapers, can hold up to 1,500 non-illustrated books, and works off wireless networks. Even I, a book-loving troglodyte who still relishes reading printed newspapers (I know, take a moment to laugh), must say it’s pretty impressive.

Kindle, of course, is not the only reader on the block. Enter Apple on the scene. Currently, they are hard at working trying to improve their own e-reader apps, which are available to the approximately 50 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners.

So here are some of the pros to each:

E-reader apps for smartphones
• Equipped with a 3.5” screen
• Touch and full-color screen
• Multifunctional
• Full internet access

Kindle
• Real-size pages, comparable to a book
• Screen is softer and gentler on eyes
• Books delivered within 60 seconds from Amazon
• Holds over 1,500 books
• Over 350,000 titles available, ranging from newspapers, magazines and books

The pricing for the iPhone depends on the app downloaded, so the numbers are a little bit sticky. For Kindles, most books cost $9.99 from Amazon. If I had to choose, I would go with the Kindle because it seems like Apple is gearing their equipment to those who want to catch up on a few pages of Twilight while standing in line at Starbucks. Kindle’s simplistic model is geared to those who just want to read.

What do you think? Should we just stick to paper?

Staff Holiday Picks

The holiday season is upon us (hello, December!). Do you know what you’re giving the bibliophiles and writers on your list? Below are our staff’s picks for holiday giving.

Cody
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene
(This book details the continuing search for a single theory that accurately describes the universe. It pays special attention to string theory, describing its strengths and weaknesses as an all-encompassing theory. Most interestingly, the book describes what the ramifications for science might be if string theory is eventually proven true. This book was also the basis for a PBS miniseries.)

Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos by Michio Kaku
(This book, written by a popular physicist often seen on The History Channel's The Universe, describes the possibility of parallel universes. It even goes so far as to speculate how humans might escape from this universe into another when our universe finally “dies.”)

Peggy
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell
(There was an excerpt available somewhere when this book first came out. I read it and really liked the author’s style and where the story was going. But I always have at least ten unread books on my shelves, and I was waiting for it to come out in paperback, so I haven't bought it yet. I wouldn't mind someone else adding it to my pile!)

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
(I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for one of my book clubs a few months back, and it was a great book. I'm looking forward to reading the second and third in the series. Plus, I LOVE this cover.)


Erin
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
(It's about a high school student who's admitted to a magical academy, but finds it pretty boring until he learns that the setting of his favorite fantasy books is real, and his powers are put to the test in a battle against "the Beast." Publishers Weekly said, "Harry Potter discovers Narnia is real in this derivative fantasy thriller," but the sex, melancholy, violence, and loss of innocence make this adult fare.)

The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
(It's about the low-income inhabitants of a girls' dormitory in postwar London, and it got high marks from both critics and readers. It's by the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, so you can expect lots of biting wit.)

Lauren
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
(I ended up buying this sequel to Oryx and Crake for myself because I just couldn’t wait for the holidays, but it’s a great gift for anyone who likes literary sci-fi or postapocalyptic stories.)

Caitlin
Sublime Stitching: Hundreds of Hip Embroidery Patterns and How-To by Jenny Hart
(I just started to learn how to embroider, and I received the follow-up to this book—Embroidered Effects—as an early Christmas present. I’d love to have even more embroidery patterns to experiment with. Plus, Hart is an Austinite, and I love supporting local crafters.)

Quilting for Peace: Make the World a Better Place One Stitch at a Time by Katherine Bell

Subversive Cross-Stitch: 33 Designs for Your Surly Side by Julie Jackson

Andrea
Emma by Jane Austen
(My little brother gave his girlfriend a leather-bound, gold-edged copy of Emma. He wrapped it in brown butcher paper and tied it with twine. He used some textured white paper for his note to her (in some pretty impressive handwriting) and slid it under the string. She loved it! And while it might not seem like much, it sure was crafty and whimsical for a guy.)

Still not sure what to get? Here are a few other book-inspired ideas:

• Wrap a blank journal with a set of fancy pencils and pens.
• Place an auction bid to have a successful writer edit your loved one’s manuscript. Here’s an auction to have Katha Pollitt review a manuscript.
• Host a book exchange. (Instead of meeting to discuss a book they’ve all read, members of Peggy’s book club are bringing some of their favorite books—that they don't mind parting with—to exchange. This means a ton of mini book discussions, personalized recommendations, and, best of all, new books for everyone.)
• Donate to a book charity. (Here’s a great list of children’s book charities. And First Book, which provides books to children in need, is another organization to check out.)
• Give an online subscription to Merriam-Webster Unabridged or The Chicago Manual of Style.

And for even more inspiration, here are Margaret Atwood’s ten gifts to give beginning novelists and a post of vintage BookPros staff holiday picks.

Eggcorns and Easy Mistakes

Have you ever had the disconcerting realization that you’ve been saying a word or phrase incorrectly your entire life? It’s an unpleasant experience, especially for us writerly types who pride ourselves on our way with words. "You mean it’s ‘one fell swoop,’ not ‘one fowl swoop’? But my version makes perfect sense! That’s what fowls do. They swoop!" If you’ve taken a similar blow to your lexical pride, you’re not alone. In fact, reasonable errors like "fowl swoop" instead of "fell swoop" are so common they have a name: eggcorns.

The name itself is apparently a widespread misconception of the word "acorn." It makes sense, right? An acorn is planted in the ground like corn, and a tree hatches out of it much like a bird hatches out of an egg. Hence eggcorn. It was coined as a linguistic term by the popular blog Language Log, which even started an Eggcorn Database to track eggcorn occurrences. I’ve seen some of these errors made time and again ("old-timer’s disease" instead of "Alzheimer’s disease," because you get it when you’re an old-timer; "stalk still" instead of "stock still," because plants’ stalks are generally pretty stationary). Others, I must admit, I’ve made myself. I don’t think, for example, that I’ll ever be able to bring myself to say the correct "wangle an invitation" instead of the incorrect "wrangle an invitation." (Wangle?! Come on! It just sounds wrong!)

My point is that English is a complicated language with a seemingly infinite amount of irregular constructions and leftovers from archaic usages. If you have a few eggcorns in your vocabulary, you’re in good company. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t errors, and you should try to keep them out of your manuscripts, even if you know you’ll be thinking of "pustules" as "pus jewels" (charmingly poetic, yet simultaneously disgusting) until the day you die.

If you have any doubts about a bit of spelling or a certain phrase, I recommend taking a trip to Paul Brians’s Common Errors in English Usage. It’s a great resource for figuring out eggcorns, homophones, and a variety of other linguistic roadblocks. After clicking around it for a while, you’ll never mix up "pre-Madonna" and "prima donna" again.