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Best-selling Author Moves Into New Home As you may have heard and/or read from any number of reputable (and perhaps even non-reputable) news sources, best-selling author Barack Obama is officially moving into a new house in Washington, D.C. today. May we all wish him good luck in his new home (and that little job promotion as well). ...01/20/2009 01:01 PM Post Comment | Read More> Sour Grapes Independent of the fact that Bookexpo America, New York Anime Fest and New York Comic Con’s go-to guy and fearless leader, Lance Fensterman, is a buddy of mine, I’m really looking forward to two of those three events. Bookexpo America is probably my favorite book fair of the year, and New York Comic Con is the FIRST time the world’s capital, publishing’s capital, and the setting for many popular comic books can call stand in front of the world and announce, “here’s the place to be!”
So forgive me if I seem brash, but all the negative responses to this blog post at MediumAtLarge.net (all three fairs’ official blog), are completely out of line to me. For those who don’t want to click over and read, here’s a summary of what it’s linking to:
Main Blog: List of signings at Comic Con, including times. Explanation on how to purchase tickets, or get tickets for free for any ticketed signing.
Responses: Criticism of payment system, criticism of the job the Comic Con staff has done over the past four years, criticism of Lance as a person, criticism of the weather.
Aside from the fact that personal attacks are petty, almost all responses are out of line. Look: I’m a big fan of the Con and what it represents, so in my opinion, to be anything but grateful that we in New York finally have an opportunity to enjoy it seems unfair. That might be me being a bit too forgiving, but regardless of how the Con is set up, no one’s going to get to do everything they want. It’s all about give and take. And to say that it should be different to fit your needs is just unfair.
This is particularly true for those who don’t want to pay to get something signed by a ticketed author (ticketed meaning a ticket is required to get their signature). Understandably, you don’t want to pay extra for something that’s included. The good news is you don’t have to. NYCC offers two free opportunities to obtain tickets for ticketed authors. But immediately, everyone gets so mad that they have to pay that they don’t realize that paying is an option just for those you ABSOLUTELY MUST obtain the ticket. So the bottom line is that people who ABSOLUTELY MUST obtain a ticket now can. And those who ABSOLUTELY DON’T WANT TO PAY for a ticket don’t have to. Am I missing something?
Personally, I’d rather miss getting Bendis’s signature in New York, then fly to San Diego, not get my number picked in the lottery and miss it there. It’s give and take, so why does everyone just want to take? At least I can take solace in the fact that this vocal minority doesn't represent everyone. I hope... ...01/13/2009 01:01 PM Post Comment | Read More> Roadblock Around The Corner School Library Journal recently posted an article about a lack of diversity in Newbery winning books. Since there's so much evidence supporting this idea, I won't really touch on it. However, this article did point me to an older article that SLJ published about the declining popularity of Newbery winning books. It seems that many experts in the field of children’s books simply don’t like a lot of the books. Someone credited as “one reviewer” said the following about the books and the committee: “Recent Newbery committees seem dismissive of popularity, a quality which should be an asset.” A few years ago, Stephen King wrote an op-ed in Entertainment Weekly called “How To Bury A Book” in which he describes how labeling a book as too literary will essentially kill it.
Essentially, it seems as though “critical acclaim” and “popularity” are becoming at odds. This isn’t just the case with books either: Music for “smart people” generally has no mass appeal, and art house movies that critics love pass over the heads of the general public (although Time ran an article in its most recent issue about how that’s changed this year), but this is the first I’m hearing it applied to kids books.
With the Newbery award being announced in about three weeks, its even more interesting now to see what the winner is.
01/06/2009 02:01 PM Post Comment | Read More> |
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