Yellow school buses have started rumbling down my street. Across the country similar scenes are playing out. Another school year is awakening. Children are making memories that will stay with them throughout their lives. What do you remember about your school years? Betcha there’s a teacher or two entwined in those memories.
There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies. – Robert Frost
Because we’ve all had experiences with teachers who lifted us or quashed our dreams, literature about the teacher/student relationship resonates. How many of these notable books featuring memorable teachers have you read?
Fiction Villette – Charlotte Brontë Anne of Green Gables – Lucy Maud Montgomery Goodbye Mr. Chips – James Hilton Good Morning, Miss Dove – Frances Gray Patton To Sir, With Love – E.R. Braithwaite The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark Up the Down Staircase – Bel Kaufman A Lesson Before Dying – Ernest J. Gaines Dancing in a Distant Place – Isla Dewar The Woman Upstairs – Claire Messud
Non-Fiction The Water is Wide – Pat Conroy Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi
If we believe that children are our greatest treasures and we entrust most of the hours of their formative years to teachers, perhaps we should offer teachers exceptional salaries, thereby attracting more of the best and the brightest.
For a great quote about the lifelong impact of teachers and books, check out this week’s Book.ed Blog Quotable.
I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. – John Steinbeck
The acclaimed author Pat Conroy, who died earlier this year, was a teacher before he became a published writer. He chronicled his teaching experience in the award-winning The Water is Wide, which became the basis of the 1974 feature film, Conrack. Here is a lovely piece he wrote about the lifelong influence of teachers and books:
The world of literature has everything in it, and it refuses to leave anything out. I have read like a man on fire my whole life because the genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language. Because of them I rode with Don Quixote and danced with Anna Karenina at a ball in St. Petersburg and lassoed a steer in “Lonesome Dove” and had nightmares about slavery in “Beloved” and walked the streets of Dublin in “Ulysses” and made up a hundred stories in the Arabian nights and saw my mother killed by a baseball in “A Prayer for Owen Meany.” I’ve been in ten thousand cities and have introduced myself to a hundred thousand strangers in my exuberant reading career, all because I listened to my fabulous English teachers and soaked up every single thing those magnificent men and women had to give. I cherish and praise them and thank them for finding me when I was a boy and presenting me with the precious gift of the English language.
Note to Readers – Every now and then, I will re-post a blog entry that has withstood the test of time. Whether you missed it the first time ‘round or read it years ago, I feel it’s worth sharing again. I choseKeep Your Day Job from October 2014 because every author I’ve met (a few whom I selected for BOOKS ‘n’ BOTTLES™) faces the challenge of putting his or her book in the hands of readers … and profiting from the effort. This post explains budget factors for every writer to consider. Also, check myQuotable post for thoughts about publishing from notable authors.
Who doesn’t have the great American novel waiting to be written? Or maybe it’s a collection of poetry begging to spill on to pages of a book? Nearly everyone I talk to confesses at some point to harboring the dream of being a published author. Writing groups are gaining in popularity, with members ranging from the pure dreamers to ambitious authors who have prepared a manuscript and are searching for the path to publication. Are you one of these writers?
The dream of having your book published is accompanied by the expectation that it will be purchased to be read; that fortune will accompany fame, or at least cover your publishing costs. This hope exists whether your book is published traditionally or self-published.
With traditional publishers, production, distribution and related professional costs are born by the publishing company but authors have become more responsible for their own promotional efforts; and the book’s “life” is under the control of the publisher. Self-published authors bear total responsibility and costs but maintain total control of every step.
Whether you go the traditional route or self-publish, keep your day job. Until your book sells in the several thousands of copies, the only riches you will receive will be the knowledge that some people are reading your work. How can this be when hardcover books sell for $25 and up, a paperbacks sell for $15 and up, and eBooks run $7 and up? Where does the money go?
Welcome to “trickle down income” in the publishing world. If your book is published traditionally, you will periodically be paid a royalty for books sold after the publisher deducts all its costs plus its profit. If you self-publish, you pay yourself … after you pay anyone you employ to get your book into the hands of readers: editor, proofreader, technical formatter, cover designer, printer, (possibly) a warehouse, distributor, marketer, (maybe) a web designer, administrator.
Production is not necessarily the most expensive factor. Authors can expect a wholesale discount of 40 percent to be taken off the retail price by major book stores and big box stores. Libraries typically take a 20 percent discount. Distributors take 15 percent on top of those discounts. Sellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble act as both distributor and seller, taking 55 percent off your retail price. If you use an agent, expect 10-15 percent off the wholesale price to be collected for services.
Ongoing promotion is a book’s life insurance. Regardless of how a book is published, authors are expected to oversee this job. Maintaining websites, arranging book signings, giving talks and doing interviews are some of the recommended promotional activities.
Some expenses occur once while others will be recurring. Every responsibility you handle yourself rather than hire out is more money in your pocket … if you know what you’re doing and you don’t mind spending your time on it … time you could use to write your next book.
Scared? Don’t be. Knowledge is power. Empower yourself by learning all the aspects of taking your brainchild from start to a successful finish. But, at least for now, don’t quit your day job.
I still encourage anyone who feels at all compelled to write to do so. I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all it is cracked up to be. But writing is. Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. That thing you had to force yourself to do—the actual act of writing—turns out to be the best part. It’s like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony. The act of writing turns out to be its own reward. – Anne Lamott
Publishing a book is like stuffing a note into a bottle and hurling it into the sea. Some bottles drown, some come safe to land, where the notes are read and then possibly cherished, or else misinterpreted, or else understood all too well by those who hate the message. You never know who your readers might be. – Margaret Atwood
An author who gives a manager or publisher any rights in his work except those immediately and specifically required for its publication or performance is for business purposes an imbecile. – George Bernard Shaw
BOOKS ‘n’ BOTTLES™ is thrilled to introduce booklovers to author Jessica Chiarella and her haunting debut Speculative Fiction novel And Again (Simon & Schuster, 2016) at our August 29th event in Chicago and August 30th event in Northbrook, IL.
And Again asks the question: Would you live your life differently if you were given a second chance? How much of your identity rests not just in your mind, but in your body and heart? The story, told with Chiarella’s keen imagination and soaring prose, examines the consequences when four ordinary individuals with terminal illnesses are given a chance to continue their lives in genetically perfect versions of their former bodies. Drawing from today’s headlines about advances in genetics and cloning, Chiarella develops four memorable characters who need to contemplate what it means to be human.
U.S.A. Today calls the book “haunting” and awarded it 3.5 out of 4 stars. As always, the author conversations and book signings will be complemented with equally stellar wines.
When was the last time you wondered what your life would be like if just one decision in the past had been different? When you had that thought, did you decide to make changes going forward? This compellingly human experience has launched many of our best literary stories over generations and in all settings.
Books that explore this universally human dream of alternate lives, only imagined or made real, include:
Fiction The Awakening – Kate Chopin The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck The Razor’s Edge – W. Somerset Maugham Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee
Non-Fiction Seven Years in Tibet – Heinrich Harrer Into the Wild – John Krakauer This Boy’s Life – Tobias Wolff Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
BOOKS ‘n’ BOTTLES™ is thrilled to introduce booklovers to author Jessica Chiarella and her haunting debut Speculative Fiction novel And Again (Simon & Schuster, 2016) at our August 29th event in Chicago and August 30th event in Northbrook, IL.
And Again asks the question: Would you live your life differently if you were given a second chance? How much of your identity rests not just in your mind, but in your body and heart? The story, told with Chiarella’s keen imagination and soaring prose, examines the consequences when four ordinary individuals with terminal illnesses are given a chance to continue their lives in genetically perfect versions of their former bodies. Drawing from today’s headlines about advances in genetics and cloning, Chiarella develops four memorable characters who need to contemplate what it means to be human.
U.S.A. Today calls the book “haunting” and awarded it 3.5 out of 4 stars. As always, the author conversations and book signings will be complemented with equally stellar wines.
Speculative Fiction is a fast-growing literary genre you may not have heard of but have probably read and enjoyed. The genre encompasses literature ranging from hard science fiction to epic fantasy, ghost stories, horror, folk and fairy tales, magical realism and modern myths.
As broad in plot as Speculative Fiction is, the best of the genre will:
• Introduce a memorable and relatable protagonist with human traits (whether human or alien).
• Present the protagonist with a dilemma — an antagonist (another being or a situation) — and build tension by before showing resolution.
• Make the resolution worth the journey – for the reader as well as for the main character.
• Research the “factual reality” behind the speculation to develop a firm, believable foundation before letting the imagination soar into speculative fantasy.
• Stay up-to-date on the latest news for inspiration and to keep the story fresh.
Speculation asks us to imagine “what if…?” At the heart of the “what if…” is the human connection: “What if this were to happen to me?”
A sampling of the best in this genre includes:
• The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
• 1984 – George Orwell
• Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
• The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
BOOKS ‘n’ BOTTLES™ is thrilled to introduce booklovers to author Jessica Chiarella and her haunting debut Speculative Fiction novel And Again (Simon & Schuster, 2016) at our August 29th event in Chicago and August 30th event in Northbrook, IL.
And Again asks the question: Would you live your life differently if you were given a second chance? How much of your identity rests not just in your mind, but in your body and heart? The story, told with Chiarella’s keen imagination and soaring prose, examines the consequences when four ordinary individuals with terminal illnesses are given a chance to continue their lives in genetically perfect versions of their former bodies. Drawing from today’s headlines about advances in genetics and cloning, Chiarella develops four memorable characters who need to contemplate what it means to be human.
U.S.A. Today calls the book “haunting” and awarded it 3.5 out of 4 stars. As always, the author conversations and book signings will be complemented with equally stellar wines.
Regardless of the genre, it has been said that no story is wholly original. Each one has been told before in some form or fashion. Researchers at MIT recently demonstrated the truth behind the theory that one of only six core plots form the building blocks of complex narratives. You can read the MIT explanation at the MIT Technology Review.
