As if I don’t already have enough to do…
I am really excited about the newly announced Whitney Awards finalists. I have not personally read each of the finalists, but I’m planning to do so as fast as I can. I’m very interested to see if I agree with the Whitney committee on what makes a good book. I look forward to seeing the winners in March.
This effort is really inspirational, in fact, it inspired a new blog:
This is an interactive, reader-participation blog that allows you to comment and rate individual books.
Any book that is eligible for the 2008 Whitney Awards can receive a spotlight post on this new blog.
Please help me get started on the 2008 list by sending me book referrals as they are released.
I will continue to post the list of eligible books in the sidebar here as well.
Being a convert to the Church certain
LDS-confined realities take a while to sink in. We are a relatively small segmentof the US population, with a larger percentile of highly educated folks than the overall citizenry, highly sociable/articulate and, of course, with much to say. So, we tend to write way to much for our own good but there are not enough publishers or readers to buy the books we produce!! Brother, what a nightmare. No wonder in desperation folks just try and print a copy or two just to say: “look ma’ my book!!”
I’ve had similar thoughts before regarding books in general. There are a heck of a lot of books out there–more than anyone, even the fastest reader, could ever possibly read. Think of how many books have ever been written. Why do some become “classics” while others which are just as good or maybe better never even heard of, or in some cases never even published? I have a sister-in-law who has written several children’s books and has yet to get any published, and they’re good. I’ve read some of them, and they’re a lot better than a lot of the junk I’ve seen in libraries and bookstores. It makes no sense, really. How do such dumb books manage to get published and other really good ones don’t? I know this is more in reference to novels, but what do you know about publishing children’s books? I actually have 2 sisters-in-law trying to do that.
Thanks.
🙂
Tami Gooch