We received an incredible phone call today from the folks at American Idol Camp. I told Andrew that when he appeared on The Today Show, things would start to happen. My prediction came true.
One of the people watching that day was Arthur Mitchell. For those who are unfamiliar with dance history, he is the first African-American man to join a major U.S. dance company. He's also the founder and director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Mr. Mitchell offered Andrew a full scholarship to attend the company's summer intensive. He will first spend 10 days at American Idol Camp then be take to New York City for six weeks. That's a long time for someone so young to be away from home, but it will be an extraordinary opportunity.
May 8, 2007
May 7, 2007
On the Value of Book Reviews
Much has been made recently of the demise of the book reviewer position and possibly the book review page at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, ostensibly because of the rise of availability of reviews on the Internet. First, let me explain that most newspapers haven't really had the luxury of a dedicated reviewer. When I was at The Indianapolis News and The Indianapolis Star, we had an individual who was responsible for unpackaging the book -- or sometimes the glorified galley -- and putting it on a shelf or in a box for the taking of his colleagues. If we had time and felt particularly moved, we wrote a review. Otherwise, he coordinated the Sunday books pages using wire service reviews and photos. There was no rhyme or reason as to what got reviewed, though many of us gave preference to books about Indiana or written by Hoosiers.
There are several reasons why I am less alarmed than many others appear to be at what the industry makes out to be an enormous loss:
There are several reasons why I am less alarmed than many others appear to be at what the industry makes out to be an enormous loss:
- Newspapers are businesses that are losing ground to the Internet and are trying desperately to find ways to remain competitive. Yes, I was president and avid supporter of The Star's Newspaper Guild Local for a short while, but I don't believe in protectionism. I fully believe in letting the market run its course. And newspapers often conduct studies to determine how best to serve their readers ( read get them to spend their money). The newspaper review may just be a feature that's run its course -- at least in the print format.
- Some have expressed a concern for the loss of the literary voice to the newspaper. That's not necessarily so. Writers can be quoted and their works mentioned in the course of regular reporting. In fact, the first day we arrived at the Algonkian Pitch Conference, presenter Sally Koslow, author of Little Pink Slips, arrived late because she had been doing media interviews about Rosie O'Donnell's departure from The View. The talk show host/comedian figures in Koslow's book, making it a timely release.
- As I've been writing my thriller The Nubian Codex, I relied on reviews to avoid the pitfalls faced by other popular books. What I found as I perused the reviews was that the media reviews were less useful because they failed to be critical. For instance, with a couple of exceptions, a survey of reviews of Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian on Publisher's Marketplace reveals mostly positive comments. However, looking at the reviews on Amazon.com, I think we get a little more honest assessment: it was long on pages and short on vampires. I looked through reviews of books, including Labybrinth, The Rule of Four and The Book of the Dead, at several sources. The real readers always were more candid.
May 6, 2007
Racism in Publishing
I've allowed a week to pass so that I could digest a particularly negative -- and wholly unexpected -- experience I had at a recent writer's conference. I wanted to make sure that I felt the same way as before, and I wanted to run the issue by a few people first to make sure my comments would be fair. This nasty experience has led me to understand why nine times out of 10, African-American writers bypass the traditional publishing system altogether and publish their work themselves.
The basic set-up of the conference is to write a pitch and have it critiqued by a team leader and fellow writers who likely are writing in the same genre. That part of the process works relatively well because there are multiple ears who listen to the pitch and multiple voices to debate its merits and shortcomings.
The first pitch with a bona-fide editor is something of a practice pitch. It's generally not expected that anyone's pitch will result in a manuscript request, though we did have one writer we dubbed "Rock Star" who made it through the gauntlet. As an aside, however, this particular person had written screenplays and presumably knew how to work the pitch from experience in Hollywood.
The second pitch of my thriller, The Nubian Codex, was from a woman whose unpleasant attitude and demeanor reminded me of Mrs. DeVie, my first grade teacher. Mrs. DeVie, who probably was in her 50s or 60s at the time, looked, dressed and carried herself a bit like Mrs. Drysdale from "The Beverly Hillbillies." But in spite of her urbane look, she was a definite product of her time. She placed me in special education classes even though I could read, write and speak two languages at about a fourth-grade level. In addition, I knew how to do third-grade math. But this woman also made it clear that she did not approve of my parents' mixed-race marriage.
The editor, in spite of her New York area address, had none of Mrs. DeVie's style. While the other editors met us halfway at the door to shake our hands, lending a feeling of partnership, this woman sat behind a table waiting on us to come to her. She exuded a bitterness that became even more apparent as she practically interrupted my pitch to tell me she didn't believe the premise. She also told me that I had no business basing a thriller on racial themes.
For the uninitiated, The Nubian Codex is about a woman who searches for her brother who has disappeared after finding a Nubian tomb in the Honduran rainforest. I've had my best friend read it because she loves thrillers, and she has been my editor, so she would tell me if there were problems; I've had several others read it, and they keep calling me for more; and I had the first half professionally edited by a person I definitely would have expected to tell me if my premise seemed shaky.
This editor, however, doesn't know me and clearly had no desire to get to know me. She had made up her mind before I finished the pitch that she wanted no part of it. She was the one who went into The DaVinci Code comparison to say that clearly there was an enemy of the grail issue but that I had no discernible enemy. I guess the white supremacists I'd mentioned in my pitch aren't formidable foes to white people, but as far as I know, they scare the dickens out of Black people. She went on to say that if someone -- I think she meant herself -- didn't want to believe the premise, they just wouldn't believe it. Since she brought up The DaVinci Code, I pointed out that the same could be said for it. I know many people who refused to read the book because they did not accept the scholarly premise that perhaps Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus. And as I recall, those people didn't hurt the sales of the book. I also should note that this particular editor asked for no one's manuscript and was inappropriate for our group because she represents cozies, not thrillers.
I guess I was rather surprised that this woman actually could utter that race was not a reason to kill. As a former police reporter, I can tell you that anything can be a reason to kill. Sure, the most common motives are sex, drugs and money. But I've actually seen reports of people killing others over chocolate chip cookies on Christmas. That may not sound like the motive for a thriller, but the cover up for that murder could be.
As for the issue of race, what planet is this woman from? It wasn't that long ago that a man in Texas was dragged behind another person's car for being Black. And why are there hate crimes laws and state task forces on hate crimes? I remember when I first started writing about being biracial 20 years ago, people came up to me and told me how brave I was. That came as a surprise to me because I never felt endangered. But obviously, many people are aware of the pitfalls surrounding the discussion of race.
And who is this woman to decide whether race is an appropriate subject for a thriller? I think anything is up for grabs by any writer as long as he or she can pull it off. This woman had no idea whether I actually managed to do this effectively because she chose not to see the manuscript. She reminds me of all the other people who have told me what I would not be able to do, and I've proven every one of them wrong.
A few years ago, I took a class on public relations campaigns. We had to dissect the campaign and write a paper on it. I remember reading our textbook in which it erroneously stated that the first campaign involved a railroad incident in the 1800s. I disagreed. There have been persistent campaigns of persuasion since the beginning of communication. So I decided to write a paper on how the Counter Reformation was a public relations campaign. The teacher was doubtful about my ability to pull it off, but he was intrigued. In the end, my grade was an A+, and he said I should use it to write my master's thesis.
People like this editor are precisely why I chose the thriller as my vehicle. It is one that people are willing to read, and it allowed me to present important information in a format they could digest. I think all editors should heed the general advice to readers: "Don't judge a book by its cover" -- or its jacket copy.
The basic set-up of the conference is to write a pitch and have it critiqued by a team leader and fellow writers who likely are writing in the same genre. That part of the process works relatively well because there are multiple ears who listen to the pitch and multiple voices to debate its merits and shortcomings.
The first pitch with a bona-fide editor is something of a practice pitch. It's generally not expected that anyone's pitch will result in a manuscript request, though we did have one writer we dubbed "Rock Star" who made it through the gauntlet. As an aside, however, this particular person had written screenplays and presumably knew how to work the pitch from experience in Hollywood.
The second pitch of my thriller, The Nubian Codex, was from a woman whose unpleasant attitude and demeanor reminded me of Mrs. DeVie, my first grade teacher. Mrs. DeVie, who probably was in her 50s or 60s at the time, looked, dressed and carried herself a bit like Mrs. Drysdale from "The Beverly Hillbillies." But in spite of her urbane look, she was a definite product of her time. She placed me in special education classes even though I could read, write and speak two languages at about a fourth-grade level. In addition, I knew how to do third-grade math. But this woman also made it clear that she did not approve of my parents' mixed-race marriage.
The editor, in spite of her New York area address, had none of Mrs. DeVie's style. While the other editors met us halfway at the door to shake our hands, lending a feeling of partnership, this woman sat behind a table waiting on us to come to her. She exuded a bitterness that became even more apparent as she practically interrupted my pitch to tell me she didn't believe the premise. She also told me that I had no business basing a thriller on racial themes.
For the uninitiated, The Nubian Codex is about a woman who searches for her brother who has disappeared after finding a Nubian tomb in the Honduran rainforest. I've had my best friend read it because she loves thrillers, and she has been my editor, so she would tell me if there were problems; I've had several others read it, and they keep calling me for more; and I had the first half professionally edited by a person I definitely would have expected to tell me if my premise seemed shaky.
This editor, however, doesn't know me and clearly had no desire to get to know me. She had made up her mind before I finished the pitch that she wanted no part of it. She was the one who went into The DaVinci Code comparison to say that clearly there was an enemy of the grail issue but that I had no discernible enemy. I guess the white supremacists I'd mentioned in my pitch aren't formidable foes to white people, but as far as I know, they scare the dickens out of Black people. She went on to say that if someone -- I think she meant herself -- didn't want to believe the premise, they just wouldn't believe it. Since she brought up The DaVinci Code, I pointed out that the same could be said for it. I know many people who refused to read the book because they did not accept the scholarly premise that perhaps Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus. And as I recall, those people didn't hurt the sales of the book. I also should note that this particular editor asked for no one's manuscript and was inappropriate for our group because she represents cozies, not thrillers.
I guess I was rather surprised that this woman actually could utter that race was not a reason to kill. As a former police reporter, I can tell you that anything can be a reason to kill. Sure, the most common motives are sex, drugs and money. But I've actually seen reports of people killing others over chocolate chip cookies on Christmas. That may not sound like the motive for a thriller, but the cover up for that murder could be.
As for the issue of race, what planet is this woman from? It wasn't that long ago that a man in Texas was dragged behind another person's car for being Black. And why are there hate crimes laws and state task forces on hate crimes? I remember when I first started writing about being biracial 20 years ago, people came up to me and told me how brave I was. That came as a surprise to me because I never felt endangered. But obviously, many people are aware of the pitfalls surrounding the discussion of race.
And who is this woman to decide whether race is an appropriate subject for a thriller? I think anything is up for grabs by any writer as long as he or she can pull it off. This woman had no idea whether I actually managed to do this effectively because she chose not to see the manuscript. She reminds me of all the other people who have told me what I would not be able to do, and I've proven every one of them wrong.
A few years ago, I took a class on public relations campaigns. We had to dissect the campaign and write a paper on it. I remember reading our textbook in which it erroneously stated that the first campaign involved a railroad incident in the 1800s. I disagreed. There have been persistent campaigns of persuasion since the beginning of communication. So I decided to write a paper on how the Counter Reformation was a public relations campaign. The teacher was doubtful about my ability to pull it off, but he was intrigued. In the end, my grade was an A+, and he said I should use it to write my master's thesis.
People like this editor are precisely why I chose the thriller as my vehicle. It is one that people are willing to read, and it allowed me to present important information in a format they could digest. I think all editors should heed the general advice to readers: "Don't judge a book by its cover" -- or its jacket copy.
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