By David Marshall

For decades, authors have been playing the branding game. Knowing their next peanut butter sandwich depends on enough readers buying their next book, they’ve carefully put their names “out there” as “top authors.” Today, this means working at all the social networking sites, writing blog entries on a regular basis, and turning up at conventions and other events, say organized by local bookstores. They need to keep the fan base loyal.

Now ask whether those same loyal fans know who publishes their heroes’ books. Consumer surveys consistently find only about 10% of readers can name the publishers and the imprint. The other 90% buy based on their authors’ names. Amazon has realized this and is now working to cut the publisher out of the equation.

This ever-lovable online store is seducing “top authors” away from their publishers, packaging many of the services provided by agents, reviewers, and marketing departments. Amazon gives their chosen books high visibility. When you use the site, the search engine displays the results of key word searches, there are recommendations, there are emails and newsletters, people post reviews on the site, and so on. Naturally, Amazon charges publishers for giving their authors this exposure. Because the rates rise fast, this makes authors less profitable to the publishers.

So now, Amazon Publishing is offering full contracts. It started with the self-published authors and now spreads to established authors. With the launch of 47North, Amazon lays down the gauntlet in publishing science fiction, fantasy and horror titles from both new and established writers. Because it’s undercutting the established bookstores, more people will turn to Amazon to buy. With greater volume comes the power to offer more competitive royalty rates, particularly on e-books. The traditional publishing industry offers 25% for digital rights, which Amazon can easily beat. The publishers will have to rethink their royalty structure should Amazon extend the list of titles it publishes.

In all this, the most interesting questions are whether Amazon will go for full distribution of their titles, and will the brick-and-mortar bookstores display them on their shelves? Amazon can probably afford to not distribute. This will further undermine the traditional stores if they cannot sell desirable titles. In all this, Amazon is acting like a monopolist, trying to dominate the market in both publishing and book retailing. If it can cut out the publishers and drive the bookstores into bankruptcy, all it needs are authors.

About David Marshall

He’s one of these guys who’s always made a living from words, written and spoken. He started off conventional. Training as an attorney, he combined tenure as a professor with some private practice. Except, in moments when no one was watching, he was broadcasting, acting and writing, always under stage names and pseudonyms so his two worlds wouldn’t meet up. Later, he set up his own business consultancy and ran a small press. Now he’s retired, he can look back on a life misspent, always doing stuff that was interesting and never getting too caught up in the career development rut. Except he’s just as busy. He still picks up consultancy work when something interesting comes along, he’s paid for about a million words of fiction and nonfiction a year, and continues writing for his own amusement. Someone told him staying active keeps the brain going longer. So this is his plan for immortality. He’s very conscientious. If he plans enough work to last him into next year, he’ll be around to do it. His blog.

Here’s a smattering of books that our reviewers felt were among the best they read in 2011. We’d like to hear what YOUR favorite reads were this year.

The Big Juice: Epic Tales of Big Wave Surfing

By John Long and Sam George, editors
Falcon Guides, $18.95, 301 pages

Surfing is a combination of balance, strength, nerve, intuition, and hard-won knowledge of the sea. A sport to some, a religion to others, there is nothing quite like it on Earth. And for surf enthusiasts who need more adrenaline and challenge, the final frontier is big wave surfing. Whether paddling in or being towed, the potential of conquering a wave stories tall is where it’s at.

The Big Juice chronicles the highs and lows of big wave surfing, as told by the men and women who have come to define the sport. From wipeouts so brutal they’re life-threatening, to the discovery of secret surf spots a hundred miles offshore, from waves that have swallowed entire neighborhoods, to the friends and heroes lost to the unforgiving ocean, the stories in The Big Juice are exhilarating, heartrending, and fascinating.

Punctuated by absolutely stunning photography of these monstrous waves — and the intrepid souls who embrace the challenge of taming them — this is a glimpse into a totally alien world, and the incredible force nature brings to bear. It’s a celebration, a warning, a tribute, a memorial, and a historical document all at once.

Reviewed by Glenn Dallas

Men with Broken Faces

By James Ostby
Dog Ear Publishing, $14.99, 251 pages

In this engrossing novel, we meet Morgan Feeney, an epileptic, drunken, and out-of-work shepherd. He suddenly finds himself enlisting in the United States Army during World War I, and for the first time in his life, Morgan discovers his strength as a leader of men. Morgan’s camaraderie with his fellow soldiers gives him a sense of belonging, while also filling him with dread that he must risk losing them.  After witnessing the horrific deaths of his friends, Morgan’s epilepsy is now compounded by shell shock, which haunts him for years after surviving the war.

Morgan thinks, “If I could be a man in war, I can be a man always.” Unfortunately, he finds himself labeled a lunatic, rather than a hero. Only one person understands him, Genevieve, a nurse who also served in World War I.

Men with Broken Faces, with its gripping scenes of warfare and philosophical insight, is an excellently crafted novel. The reader finds in Morgan a sympathetic character, and we follow his transformation from a ne’er-do-well, to hero, to town crazy, and to hero again. Ostby’s visceral scenes and compassionate insight into Morgan’s mind reveal in Ostby not only a great writer but a humanitarian.

Reviewed by Kerry Lindgren

Scorpia Rising: An Alex Rider Misson (An Alex Rider Novel)

By Anthony Horowitz
Philomel, $17.99, 400 pages

In this final and epic conclusion to the Alex Rider series that has been eleven years coming, Scorpia Rising announces its debut. To those who approach the Alex Rider series for the very first time, they are young adult novels known for their breakthrough in spy literature. The combination of swerving plots and a wealthy, rather encyclopedic knowledge of espionage have kept readers on their toes for more than a decade. To those who have followed Rider through thick and thin (mostly thick), will know the worth and weight of this book. I am one of the latter, a follower of Alex since the very beginning, and I was partially dreading and greatly coveting Scorpia Rising.

In the waters of Venice, a founder of Scorpia is found dead with an encrypted phone, $350, and a severed spinal cord. Retrieved by MI6, the phone is interpreted to be a plot to corrupt the Cairo International College of Arts and Education. Alan Blunt, who has the creeping suspicion that he might be forced to “retire,” makes the move to incorporate Alex Rider into his plan for investigation. This is immediately shot down by several authorities, but is realized as a solution when a shooting, whose target is Alex, happens at his local high school. The book follows Alex into the desert lands of Cairo where, like a ticking time bomb, an old enemy, and a terrifying new one, await. More is at stake than Alex could possibly imagine as he unknowingly steps into his own trap.

So, does Scorpia Rising live up to its predecessors? A plot that must constantly ride along with a new generation of readers and with expectations that grow each day are hard not to be worn thin. And yet, Horowitz does the impossible. He constantly delivers and this book is no exception. It will be hard to say goodbye.

Reviewed by Alexandra Masri

Heads You Lose

By Lisa Lutz, David Hayward
Putnam, $24.95, 320 pages

Author Lisa Lutz can always be counted on to deliver a highly entertaining, laugh-out-loud tale, chock full of zany characters and unusual scenarios. I have to admit I was a little concerned to find a name penned under hers (albeit in much smaller font) on the front cover of her latest offering Heads You Lose. Further digging revealed a collaboration between Lutz and her ex-beau, prize-winning poet David Hayward.

But don’t think for an instant this is your typical collaboration. Instead the pair take turns, chapter by chapter crafting an unusual narrative about twenty-something pot-growing siblings Lacey and Paul Hansen. When someone dumps a headless corpse on the siblings’ Northern Californian property, the two have no choice but to get rid of the body. But the corpse just won’t stay gone–turning up time and time again. With an interesting mystery, a never-ending cast of off-beat characters and the even more offbeat notes between the two authors, readers will torn as to which is more entertaining- the bickering siblings or the bickering co-authors.

Reviewed by Lanine Bradley

America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation

By David R. Goldfield
Bloomsbury, $35.00, 632 pages

From the onset, Goldfield asks his readers if there is anything that can be added to the enormous volume of literature about the Civil War that has not already been written.  Indeed to those students of American history, the procession of events is well known. However, Goldfield provides details about religious sentiment throughout the North and South, and how inept the elected politicians were at handling the real issues plaguing the nation — details seldom addressed in much of our post-modern texts.

The sheer volume of work Goldfield arranges constitutes a staggering undertaking, and yet this narration flows easily from the earliest religious and political conflicts to its bloody conclusion. “The Fugitive Slave Law, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, the Dred Scott decision, and the Lecompton fraud convinced many Northerners that slavery society bred despotism.”

A Robert E. Lee Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Goldfield arms his work with a plethora of minute details that time and distance have all but erased; for example, the exquisite ironies employed by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the effects of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on both Northerners and Southerners. All in all, this excellent book displays the irreconcilable differences that won us the distinction of being the only civilized country in the world to require a war to abolish slavery.

Reviewed by Casey Corthron

Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way)

By Sue Macy
National Geographic Children’s, $18.95, 96 pages

Wheels of Change is a must-read for young women and anyone who loves bicycling. Author Sue Macy and publisher National Geographic Society did superlative work pulling together the early history of the bicycle and its impact on women.  When horses and wagons were the mode of transportation, bicycles became what automobiles are today. Bicycles brought women freedom of movement. They brought change in fashion, from uncomfortable, restrictive clothing, to bloomers. Women raced — and won! — against men. Women rode bicycles around the world. In 1896, Susan B Anthony believed, “bicycling … has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.” This well-researched, lively narrated book is both inspiring and empowering for young women.

Wheels of Change cycles through interesting bicycle trivia, including: bicycling notably reduced the sale of cigars; and the November 1895 British Medical Journal reported morphine users “discovered that a long spin in the fresh air on a cycle induces sweet sleep better than their favorite drug.” Bicycling became the first exercise for women. Bicycles appeared in songs, literature, and advertising. Cyclists joined together with farmers to get better roads built to improve transportation. In their time, bicycles changed the world.  The book also includes how bicycles continue to change women’s freedom in third-world countries today.

Reviewed by Susan Roberts

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…But enough about what WE think. What was YOUR favorite book of 2011?

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By Hubert O’Hearn

Right at the moment, I’m actually curious to know why it is that curious has a U in it, whereas curiosity doesn’t. The word must have originated either with or without, so how did the U either get shoved inside like that extra pair of slacks you’re never going to need on vacation but get squished in the suitcase anyway, or snipped off like an unwanted wattle in plastic surgery? These are the questions that try men’s souls…

…and likely your patience. However, I do think it’s important to know what sort of mind you’re dealing with here, particularly if you’re going to follow my recommendations and start ordering in books by the crate. My theory on reviewers of any form – and in my career I’ve regularly reviewed for money the fields of television, theatre, music, ballet and books – is that you should find a reviewer whose tastes closely parallel your own and reasonably entertains you. When you find one, stick with him or her. Much the same definition applies to friendship. Right, so what time we meeting round the pub then?

The books below don’t have a lot in common with one another, but I couldn’t in good conscience stack them up against the contenders in either the Novel or Non-Fiction categories. As an example, would it really be fair to stack Oliver Jeffers’ wonderful book for small children, The Heart and the Bottle up against Dan Vyleta’s decadent Austrian Nazi collaborators in The Quiet Twin? I doubt if poor Dan would stand a fighting chance.

That wasn’t just a cheap and obvious joke by the way. The ability to tell a complete story in a thousand words (or many less in Jeffers’ book) that can teach a lesson while metaphorically cuddling the reader to sleep is a pure art form of writing unto itself. Dr. Seuss may not have written a modern-day Hamlet, but there’s no record of Shakespeare quilling out an Elizabethan Winnie-the-Pooh either. So there. Read The Heart and the Bottle to your youngest child, then loan it to your older child, then grab it back for yourself and keep it by the bedside for the lonely nights when you think No One Cares.

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Hubert O’Hearn has been a newspaper columnist and arts reviewer for the past fifteen years. From their beginning in Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada, his book reviews have grown to include ten publications across North America. He is also available to perform his lively and humorous discussion of books – A Book and a Martini Live! – in support of charitable causes. Always appreciative of comments and book suggestions, he can be reached athlohearn@gmail.com . An archive of Hubert O’Hearn’s work is housed atbythebookreviews.blogspot.com

By Hubert O’Hearn

The finest caricature of a reviewer in our times was the assistant Beaker to the scientist Dr. Bunsen Honeydew on The Muppet Show. Beaker only ever expressed one opinion: ‘Me, me me me me!’

Really, let’s be straight with each other, especially if the reader is at all involved in the soul-enriching game of arts reviewing or criticism. It is one of the very few professions left where one’s opinions are taken seriously. (If yours are in your workplace, consider yourself lucky, or should I say how long have you owned the joint?) As well, there is the schadenfreude kick of being the first on the block to have read something really worthwhile. In any group of friends, there are varying skills within the circle. One guy can fix your car, another one can make a great Halloween costume for your kid, you get to be the smart guy who makes good entertainment recommendations. Your position is solid.

Which is why I have never understood why some editors still insist on impersonal, third-person reviewing. I’ve just finished a back and forth email exchange with the Books Editor – a few still exist – of one of the largest newspapers in Canada. I like big markets. They encourage me to spend money and improve the local economy. Hiring me is not just good for you…it’s good for the country. But I digress.

Well, I may just do it for reasons of good practice and I like a good puzzle to unravel, but Books Editor is insistent on third-person and also insistent on absolutely no author-reviewer contact. Too “clubby,” he said. I’ll get to the first point, but I’m absolutely ignoring the second. On those occasional occasions when I have an interview scheduled close to a review deadline, I bloody well will take the time to chat with him or her.

It only makes sense. Certainly, I read books carefully and intensely, noting all significant passages. But I know that I can miss things. So if an author can elaborate on certain points that may have puzzled me, and refer me properly to evidence in the book, then that is going to improve the review. And a lousy interview absolutely will not transfer into a more negative review.

What always fascinates me though is this ruse of the third-person voice: The To Me or Not to Me Syndrome. I object to it for three reasons: it is morally deceptive, it is dull, and it just makes writing more difficult.

Moral deception is of course the biggie. There is an implied contract between a newspaper (both print and on-line versions) and its readers that what appears in the news stories are verifiable facts presented in objective fashion. That is, you know, absolute bull flop of the highest order. The selection of facts, the determination of what is a fact, the ordering of facts, and the placement of the eventual story – those few things alone indicate editorial decision-making and editorial is judgement. That’s not damnation, it is just reality. The only alternative would be printing or linking raw footage and documents with no context. Opinion is context.

But there is a difference between an article on fire safety and a play or book review. If objectivity is at least a noble goal that cannot be achieved but can still be a goal, then the fire safety piece is going to be a lot closer to it than what the reviewer thinks of the 832nd local revival of Grease. But if each are written in that same, impersonal voice then the subliminal implication is that each bears as much veritas as the other.

Whereas the truth is, we’re good but we’re not that good. The one novel I’ve read this year that I truly thought was a criminal waste of great source material…is also up for one of the two top awards for Canada’s best fiction writing. I stick to my opinion. If you’re the sort of person who likes the books I like, if you get this book, I don’t think you’ll like this book. Yet clearly, other people who know books from barge poles have different ideas on the subject.

And really, hiding in false anonymity feels rather gutless. I think this is why so-called objective reviews are so much duller to read than the ones where I’s and Me’s are scattered throughout like raisins in rice puddings. In pretending to be an android, the reviewer has less fun – and fun makes for interesting things to read. Just ask Dorothy Parker. In a book review she’d more or less give you a rundown of her current emotional and romantic state of mind.

Lastly, does reading the words ‘one’ and ‘the reader’ really bring anyone so much closer to God than ‘I’ and ‘you’? One doesn’t think so.

Be seeing you.

Hubert O’Hearn has been a newspaper columnist and arts reviewer for the past fifteen years. From their beginning in Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada, his book reviews have grown to include ten publications across North America. He is also available to perform his lively and humorous discussion of books – A Book and a Martini Live! – in support of charitable causes. Always appreciative of comments and book suggestions, he can be reached at hlohearn@gmail.com . An archive of Hubert O’Hearn’s work is housed at bythebookreviews.blogspot.com

By Ryder W. Miller

From the heights of San Francisco on the west side of the city, one can look far out over the Pacific and, like others who have been caught up by this muse and the night sky, dream. Having been shipwrecked here after moving from New York City, I had to learn a new ocean. Out there in the west were Hawaii, the Philippines, Japan, Russia, and Sri Lanka. Part of connecting with this new ocean was the knowledge that Arthur C. Clarke, also an oceanographer, lived out there somewhere. Luckily, I was to get the assignment at Mercury Magazine to write about him that would lead to a book about his correspondence with C. S. Lewis, which I edited, called From Narnia to a Space Odyssey. Clarke has since passed away. Having lived the high and low of the literary life, it is interesting to think about how he will be remembered.

Born in 1917 in Minehead Beach in Somerset, England, Clarke lived to the age of 90, dying in 2008 in Columbo, Sri Lanka, as a knight of England, even though he had left there half a century earlier. He can be remembered in many ways. He was an ocean aficionado who owned a diving company. He wrote that in an earlier age, he would have wanted to explore the ocean, but because space beckoned, his interest was “deflected” into space. He won awards for his writings in science. He was an academic administrator, as well as a television personality and commentator on developments in science and space exploration. From personal correspondence, he sought to communicate to me that he wished to be remembered first as a writer. He has left for posterity many books in both science and science fiction, many of which have been widely read, so that one can start a conversation with other fans.

Many have been his fans and followers, despite the literary controversy that plagued him towards the end of his life. Clarke would admit to being a gay man. His last years also plagued him with post-polio syndrome, which left him wheelchair-bound. He can be remembered as one of the most important literary men of the century. He was considered, with Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, to be one of the top three science fiction writers of the century. The movie 2001: A Space Odessy is considered to be one of the best movies of the century, as well. I, personally, prefer 2010 and am saddened by the fact that there are not more movies in the works. We should be on our way for a Rendezvous with Rama, arguably his best book, a triple science fiction award winner, that has been optioned for a film, but there has been no commitment to make it yet.

Clarke was different from Heinlein, an impressive writer who would take the bull by the horns. Asimov was an encyclopedia who could impress the reader on a variety of subjects. His works were arguably the best of the “big three.” Clarke, however, took the daring route of writing about the near-future rather than the far-future. He usually wrote about the exploration of the nearby solar system, rather than far distances of space and the future. Recent discoveries have dated some of his work, but Clarke helped guide us into the solar system. He also explored and investigated, rather than seeking conflict. One would not consider him naïve, but rather a sometimes-optimistic guide who hoped that we would encounter others who were motivated to learn. His fictional extraterrestrials were often scientists from the stars. The Monoliths explored intelligence. The Overlords in Childhood’s End sought to prepare us for an evolutionary change and a communion with a vast cosmic mind. The Raman invited us to their home planet so they could study us.

There is some conflict in these works—Clarke having been a soldier in WW II. But if one was going to travel all the distances to meet other galactic societies, more could be gained from co-operation and mutual understanding. Unfortunately, this is not the kind of thing you see in a lot of the sci-fi summer blockbusters, which in their surly way, retell The War of the Worlds every summer—a point to be made, but there are also other possible scenarios that are believable. Clarke actually vouched for astronomers, pointing out before the middle of the last century that they would be idealistic.

From my somewhat limited correspondence with Clarke for From Narnia to a Space Odyssey, I remember him being upbeat, pithy, topical, and witty. Clarke was a big thinker who challenged the interviewer. He also started his fair share of contention. He was deeply saddened that things had not worked out better, maybe to the point of disillusionment [what things??]. Clarke did believe that there were worthwhile possibilities on the table. He seemed contradictory at times, but he was writing in different fields for different audiences.

It is sad to see, though, that he did not get the big send-off that he deserved. In some sense he was a victim of his own success. He was one of the few science fiction writers who could write for a living, whereas others needed side jobs. He had to contend with jealousy and competition. But a lack of a send-off may suggest that he is not really gone. He has played an historical role in the field and has left classics that will remain available.

There is also a new great anthology that includes writing by many of his friends, followers, colleagues, and contemporaries, which is worthwhile even though it is hard to obtain anywhere else than on the Internet.

Sentinels In Honor of Arthur C. Clarke, edited by Gregory Benford & George Zebrowski, may be the fitting tribute to a writer who helped to fill science fiction with success and ideas. Clarke will also be remembered for arguing that we could use solar winds rather than plutonium. One can find in Sentinels the acknowledgment of Clarke’s depth of knowledge of science, his winning and entertaining personality, his friendships, and the admiration of his peers. There are also the words of his collaborators and some tales he helped inspired.

Maybe more effort was not necessary to remember him, because Clarke has not left us. Looking out over the sea at night, one can remember that Clarke is out there with us in the stars, as well as the deeps of the sea. He was there exploring before us and has left sentinels to guide us. Maybe he has already been contacted by the Ramans as well.

About Ryder W. Miller

Ryder W. Miller is an environmental reporter, independent scholar, critic, and eco-critic who writes about Nature, Astronomy, the Sea, Academic books, Art, American Literature, and Genre Literature. He also writes short stories (usually genre stories) and poems. He is the editor of From Narnia to a Space Odyssey and co-writer of San Francisco: A Natural History. He is currently looking for a publisher for a book of Nature Writing/News Columns called An Ocean Beach Diary (published in The West Portal Monthly and Redwood Coast Review), and a collection of genre stories (many already published in Mythic Circle and The Lost Souls website). He has published on the web what could be a book collection of essays about science fiction and fantasy. He is also working on a anthology of Environmental stories called Green Visions. Following the dictum of C.S. Lewis he has come to believe that it is easier to criticize than understand, but not every book is worthwhile or a contribution.

Halloween is over, but every November, people forget that it’s just not right for adults to keep on playing make-believe after the calendar rolls around.  Sadly, on November 1^st every year, tens of thousands of people decide that they want to pretend to be novelists and participate in National Novel Writing Month.  Every year, I feel compelled to speak up against it, too.

There are a lot of things I hate about NaNoWriMo as it’s been nicknamed, and perhaps that nickname is a good place to start.  No one who nicknames something NaNoWriMo is ever going to be creative enough to write a book—at least not a good one.  But that’s a trivial thing.  I suppose the thing I hate most about it is the lack of respect it shows for the craft of writing.

The presumption is that anyone can write a novel.  Writing, however, is extremely difficult, and those who are able to just sit down and do it, very likely, already have.  We’d think it preposterous to have a National Brain Surgeon Operating Month, where we all took a stab at poking around in our friend’s heads.  And of course, that’s a bit of a stretch as the object of an analogy, but the point was that we devalue the novel and the novelist when we presume that anyone can do it.

We further denigrate the profession, when we just sit down and start writing.  Some very talented writers are able to do this and put together a coherent and cohesive novel, but the fact of the matter is that most books worth reading have been thoroughly researched and outlined before the writing process has begun.  NaNoWriMo doesn’t bother with that step—which is a shame because first-time writers need the structure of good research and outlining to keep their attempt at writing a novel on track and away from meandering.  NaNoWriMo wants you to just start writing.  Don’t worry if you don’t know where the narrative is going to go.  Don’t worry if you haven’t puzzled out the intricacies of the plot.  Just write and fix it all later.  Just get to your word limit for the day.

Great writers will tell you that it’s important to write every day.  They’ll tell you that routine is important.  Many set time limits and push themselves to write—or attempt to write for a certain period of time each day.  The only purpose of a word limit—as NaNoWriMo suggests writers adhere to—is to have get the number of words needed to form a novel in as short a period of time as possible.  Quality be damned.  Just write, baby!

If that seems odd to you, then you should, perhaps, Google the phrase:  National Novel Writing Month.  You’ll come across a website that promotes NaNoWriMo.  It offers you the chance to track your progress (because apparently everyone else’s version of Word doesn’t have a word-counter on the bottom of their screen like mine does), get pep talks and support (because real novelists do their best work when they have cheerleaders—J.K. Rowling is even rumored to have hired a staff of professional cheerleaders to spell her name over and over again as she wrote the Harry Potter novels) and it allows you to meet fellow “writers” both online and in person (because everyone knows that writing a novel isn’t a personal and spiritual journey one undertakes on their own, it’s a social experience).

Sounds good, right?

It gets better!  Check out NaNoWriMos sponsors!  After your second day of writing, when you realize—holy smokes, this is hard—you can take advantage of a some software you can purchase that helps you outline (remember that word?), edit, storyboard and write!  Or, perhaps you made it through without buying the software and after zombie-typing to your word limit every day you realize that your novel doesn’t make a whole lot of sense?  No worries, there’s a sponsor who offers professional editing services!

I’m sure that NaNoWriMo has only the purest of intentions though.  It’s not a Hallmark Holiday for people who hate their jobs and think that because they love to read and can construct a sentence that they can be novelists too!  It’s definitely not a bunch of companies who want to schlep their various writing-based commodities to a bunch of unsuspecting dreamers who just want a better a life and figure they have a better shot at writing a novel than winning the lottery or American Idol.

Sadly, that’s what NaNoWriMo truly is, folks.  It’s those first weeks of American Idol where all those people who are convinced they have talent stand up in front of real professionals and sing songs out of tune and off-pitch.  Then the judges laugh at them and they are shown in their most humiliating moment on television for all to see.  NaNoWriMo is a bit gentler.  You don’t get embarrassed in front of millions of people.  The sponsors just take your money by selling you on a dream that will never come true.

There is perhaps no greater cruelty than telling those who lack talent that they have it for the purposes of bleeding them of their hard-earned money.  It almost makes Simon Cowell look like a saint.  Better to have your dreams shattered by an arrogant Brit than to be bled dry by people who just want to take advantage of your dreams.

If you want to write a book, that’s great.  Do it.  Start by practicing.  If you want to be good at anything, you have to practice and learn.  Maybe you’ll find that you write best when you outline.  Maybe you’ll find that you’re one of those people who write best when it’s more a stream of consciousness.  Maybe you’ll see that your writing gets better the more you educate yourself about the topics and themes your writing about.  With practice, maybe you’ll learn whether you write best in First Person or Third.  Maybe you’ll learn if your story needs an omniscient narrator or one who is limited.  Most importantly, maybe you’ll learn that it’s simply not as easy as sitting down to do it and sticking to a word schedule.

If you need NaNoWriMo for any reason, then you are not ready to write your novel.  If you need the feedback and criticism of strangers, then you are not ready.  If you need the structure in order to keep and maintain a writing schedule, then you are not ready.  If you need to be patted on the back for reaching your daily goals, then you are not ready.

Writing a novel is an intensely personal, grinding, grueling, and intense experience.  It’s a journey.  It’s one of the ultimate forms of soul searching.  It’s not a community activity with a cute name and sponsors who are out to bleed you dry in the name of helping you reach your dreams.  If you want to write a book and you want to start it in November with all the other game show contestants, then go right ahead.  If you want your novel to be one worth reading, then dare to be different.  Take that road less travelled.  Respect the craft and the process and most importantly…yourself.  Don’t take part in a writing exercise for sheep.

I review a lot of books and I see the very best and very worst of the writing world on a regular basis.  I don’t want to have to trash your work someday because you took the easy route.  Learn.  Grow.  Practice.  Then, when you’re ready, write.  It will make all the difference, and I won’t have to say any nasty things about you in my reviews.  We’ll both be winners.

About Albert Riehle

Albert Riehle consented to step away from the blogosphere and write book reviews for us, but feels badly about using his powers for evil instead of good. Wracked with guilt over becoming a critic, he often cries himself to sleep at night wondering what his heroes Han Solo and Obi-Wan Kenobi would think of him for joining the Dark Side. Only the fact that his opinions about books (and everything else for that matter) are always right give him any comfort. When he’s not reading and reviewing, Albert is usually found working as a Sales & Marketing Manager. He enjoys long, romantic walks on the beach, but not as much as he loves short, spiteful sprints on the water. His beloved hometown Chicago Cubs have broken his heart 35 times and counting. Albert has broken far fewer television sets after learning to surround himself with soft, squishy items when the Cubs game is on so that when he throws them, he does less damage. Most of his blogs are like Fight Club; the first rule is that you can’t talk about them—or where to find them—but he occasionally remembers to update his flagship blog at http://albertriehle.blogspot.com. Finally, he’d like you to know that no animals were harmed in the writing of this bio, but if a spider had wandered across the screen, he probably would have gone medieval on its ass.

By Joseph Arellano

The late writer Norman Mailer was known to be a tough guy, and he was also quite a writer having won both of literature’s highest prizes – the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award – for his account of the domestic protests against the war in Vietnam, The Armies of the Night.  He was once asked by an interviewer to divulge the “secrets” of writing, and Mailer immediately invoked his First Rule, “Always trust your editor.”

I’ve thought about this more and more as I come across works by newer and debut authors whose works often show promise (“There’s no heavier burden than a great potential,” to quote the wise philosopher Snoopy) but lack a unified and firm voice.  All too often, I see the debut novel that starts off like a house afire but then dwindles away from the halfway point until the ending.  Perhaps it’s because the writer’s energy and confidence faded out; more likely, some type of scheduling conflict meant that the editor involved did not have the time to devote to smoothing out the rough spots in the second half that was devoted to the first.

I think that the work of a literary editor can be fairly likened to the work of a recording engineer.  Bands make all kinds of sounds in the recording studio – some too loud, some too harsh, some too tame and quiet, some jarring, some pleasant – and it’s up to the recording engineer (for a brilliant account read Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Beatles by Geoff Emerick) to mold the sounds into something uniform.  Even more than uniform, they must be pleasing to the ear.  The human ear loves mid-range sounds, so the very best sound engineers minimize the highs and lows to produce a product that sounds unnaturally “natural.”

Buy a very expensive car today and you’ll be offered an equally expensive add-on option, a top-of-the line audio system (think an extra $5,000 to $7,000) that produces comforting mid-range sounds from any  genre of material, rock to jazz to classical or country music.  This stereo reproduction system will have a built-in mid-range limiter, a single-function computer program that mimics and sometimes even improves the sounds produced by a top-flight recording engineer blessed with perfect hearing and “golden ears.”

Similarly, the writer’s editor must take out what’s jarring, what’s unexpected, or simply not registered in the author’s best, pleasing voice…  It’s the editor who must decide, whether or not the author concurs, the answers to the questions, “What is it about this writer’s tone that is pleasing to the reader’s inner ear?  Which part of the writer’s voice is pleasingly mid-range?”

To complete his/her task, the skilled editor must edit, and sometimes brutally cut out, that which does not seem to fit.  And this is where Mailer’s advice is so important to the new writer, the prospective writer.  I will restate his advice this way, in my own words:  Don’t argue, don’t take it personally.  The very best, the most talented of writers, have found that they must trust their editors.

The skilled editor can take multiple, disparate voices and make them harmonize like the fine instruments in an orchestra.  As an example, take the short story collection about true love, Love Is a Four-Letter Word.  This compilation contained 23 stories written by just as many writers.  Yet in the hands of editor Michael Taeckens, the collection never seemed choppy or disjointed.  I found that it had a singular mid-range tone – not too loud, nor too soft – that made it seem quite enjoyable.  And it wasn’t just me.  One reader noted at Amazon that, “…this collection was pretty good…  not just in theme but also in tone.”   Said another, “…the stories flowed quite seamlessly from one to the other.  We have Mr. Taeckens, the editor, to thank for that.”  Exactly!

When a highly-skilled editor can take 23 voices and make them sound like one melodious voice, just think of what he/she can do to assist the previously fledgling, isolated writer in finding his or her natural voice.

One other quite key function is left up to the editor.  Carolyn Parkhurst wrote, “…the ending of a novel should feel inevitable.  You, the reader, shouldn’t be able to see what’s coming… you should (feel ) satisfied that there’s no other way it could have gone.”  If the draft ending of the book does not feel natural and inevitable, it’s up to the editor to tell the writer so.

In the end, it does come down to that one word: trust.  Mr. Mailer was so right.

(Note: Thank you to author and former professional editor Ilie Ruby, for serving as one of my editors on this piece.)

About Joseph Arellano

Joseph Arellano received a degree in Communication Arts from the University of the Pacific – a few decades ago – and a law degree from the University of Southern California.  He worked as a Public Information Officer for a state government agency, and also as an instructor at California State University, Sacramento.  He and his wife, Ruta, live in Elk Grove, California, with their kitten Sasha, who has already tried her paw at book reviewing.

By David Marshall

Two continuing fights have recently come to interesting points. In the online corner, Amazon announced it was backing a ballot referendum to reverse a state law requiring it to collect sales tax in California. What’s at stake, you ask? Well only about $1 billion in tax that would help reduce our state’s deficit. Just as important is the effect on competition. Because Amazon doesn’t collect sales tax, it sells at between 7.25 and 9.75% less than the brick-and-mortar bookstores (before any other discount, of course). Most of us in the book industry consider this an unfair advantage. A book is a book no matter where it’s sold. If states impose sales tax on books, every retailer should collect it.

To ensure it no longer has a “physical” presence in California, Amazon has been firing anyone and everyone it has any connection with. Not surprisingly, this has put many of its associates out of business. Amazon has even pulled the thousands of reviews this review site has posted. Why, you ask? Well, just in case the link with us meant the tax collectors could argue we were an associate of Amazon. Fortunately, we’re still in business, but the service we’ve been offering to readers everywhere has been cut to no good advantage.

How can we tell this is all working out badly for us Californians? Well, in addition to throwing website owners and bloggers out of business, we also watched the final death throes of Borders. Now it would be unfair to say the collapse of a chain that once stood toe-to-toe with Barnes & Noble was due to Amazon, but it doesn’t do your business model any good when an online retailer can consistently carry more stock and sell it for less. So this week has seen the unsecured creditors reject the offer to buy the chain by Najafi, the company owning the Book of the Month Club.

This is a surprising decision by the main publishing houses like Random House. They were apparently afraid Najafi would not buy and operate the chain as a going concern (i.e., refuse to accept all the current liabilities to pay the publishers for books already sold). That means the liquidation of this once-great bookstore chain is almost certain. Ironically, Najafi could bid in the auction for the bookstores. Once into liquidation, the unsecured creditors are the big losers. This makes their refusal to take any guarantee from Najafi look even more surprising. Ah well, who knows. Perhaps all these publishers can afford to take a haircut on the money outstanding from sales during most of 2010 and the year to date.

Frankly, I’m desperately unhappy about this trend. The monster chains like Borders have been driving the small independent stores out of business. Now, in this dog-eat-dog world, they are also falling prey as online distribution of both hard copy and digital editions takes over. The last thing I want to see is a behemoth like Amazon get any more monopolistic.

About David Marshall

I’m one of these guys who’s always made a living from words, written and spoken. I guess I started off conventional. Training as a lawyer, I combined tenure as a professor with some private practice. Except, in moments when no one was watching, I was broadcasting, acting and writing, always under stage names and pseudonyms so my two worlds wouldn’t meet up. Later, I set up my own business consultancy and ran a small press. Now I’m retired, I can look back on a life misspent, always doing stuff that was interesting and never getting too caught up in the career development rut. Except I’m just as busy. I still pick up consultancy work when something interesting comes along, I’m paid for about a million words of fiction and nonfiction a year, and continue writing for my own amusement. Someone told me staying active keeps the brain going longer. So this is the plan for immortality. I’m very conscientious. If I plan enough work to last me into next year, I’ll be around to do it.

You can read him regularly on his blog: http://opionator.wordpress.com

By David Marshall

The mailman cometh and here’s the welcome package of books to review. I say, welcome, with a slightly jaded tone. The mailman also brings boxes of the books I order, the ones I pick from the lists sent out by publishers months in advance. Those boxes contain my hopes and prayers. Some authors are tried and trusted, others have rising reputations, one or two are first-timers. I look forward to those.

But the boxes of titles for review. . .

Well, it’s a job, isn’t it. You open it up and there they sit. The hopes and prayers of the authors. They know there are picky critics out there, but it’s like building a ship. Once launched, authors have no control. Captains can take ships anywhere there’s water deep enough. All authors can do is trust their book is strong enough as they send her out into the world. These anxieties don’t just afflict the new authors, you understand. In the dark of the night, even the brand names worry their latest book may be the first in the long decline into midlist obscurity.

So I pick up the first and begin to read. Now I remember why I do this job. These may not be books I have chosen to read, but they are words on a page and that’s what’s driven me since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. Now comes the pressure part.

The publisher wants a review of so many words, in this format, by eight bells at the turn of the tide on the last Tuesday of the month of Sundays—like that’s going to be yesterday, tomorrow unless I get it done today.

So here I am, looking at a blank word processing page. I’ve got a little problem. I think the book should be taken to the cave under Mount Doom and thrown back into the fire, yet the last title from this author sold several hundred thousand copies to loyal fans—fans who might be not a little upset if I suggest their icon has feet of clay. After all, they can’t all be wrong. Think of it in music. Those that like country would struggle to find good in death metal. OK, so that’s a little extreme. But you get my drift. Authors make their money by targeting a niche market. They know who they’re writing for. So when I don’t naturally fit into their expectations, what am I to say?

Well, diplomacy in the post-Wikileaks style is the preferred route. I find points of interest to write about, reporting honestly what the book is about, but reserving my real opinions to the silences between the words. The fans should find enough to know their expectations will be satisfied if they buy this next outing. Those that read between the lines should find the omissions eloquent, confirming their prejudices.

So honor is satisfied and I pick up the next book. Hopefully, this will be a perfect fit!

About David Marshall

I’m one of these guys who’s always made a living from words, written and spoken. I guess I started off conventional. Training as a lawyer, I combined tenure as a professor with some private practice. Except, in moments when no one was watching, I was broadcasting, acting and writing, always under stage names and pseudonyms so my two worlds wouldn’t meet up. Later, I set up my own business consultancy and ran a small press. Now I’m retired, I can look back on a life misspent, always doing stuff that was interesting and never getting too caught up in the career development rut. Except I’m just as busy. I still pick up consultancy work when something interesting comes along, I’m paid for about a million words of fiction and nonfiction a year, and continue writing for my own amusement. Someone told me staying active keeps the brain going longer. So this is the plan for immortality. I’m very conscientious. If I plan enough work to last me into next year, I’ll be around to do it.

You can read him regularly on his blog: http://opionator.wordpress.com