When Isabel Wilkerson, author of the Indie Lit Awards Non-Fiction winning book The Warmth of Other Suns (which is a great book!) agreed to answer some questions, I was thrilled. Isabel graciously sent some amazing answers to my questions from the airport in Celeveland where she was stranded because of a blizzard — we have those often in the Midwest — after being on the road for two weeks talking about the book. I’m really honored she’d take the time to do that, and excited to share her responses with you. Enjoy!
Yesterday a romance novel author who blogs at Authors Helping Authors wrote a post called “Authors beware of unprofessional reviewers” in which she called out two bloggers who reviewed her book in a way she deemed “unprofessional.”
I don’t normally like getting drawn into debates about authors versus bloggers versus whatever, and I don’t want to just pile on more kindling to fuel the fire, but the more I thought about the post last night the more frustrated I got about two things. First, I think the author’s characterization of bloggers is unfair and plays on stereotypes that are just not true. And second, I think most of the advice she is giving authors about how to work with bloggers is bad advice.
Last Friday the Indie Lit Award winners for 2010 were announced. I was lucky enough to be the judge for the Non-Fiction panel, so I’m excited about the awards.
Of the five books on the nonfiction shortlist, The Warmth of Other Suns and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks were both well-liked by everyone on our panel. I was most interested in the similarities between the two books. Both are histories, written by authors who spent a considerable amount of time researching their subjects and trying to get the complete story. And each addressed the ways in which the United States and out citizens mistreated African Americans in the past.
What happens to a small press when they need to start producing ebooks?
That’s always been one of my questions as I read stories about the impact of ebooks on booksellers and consumers, and I finally got a chance to get a perspective on that issue when I interviewed Krista Coulson, the electronic publishing manager for the University of Wisconsin Press, for the books column I write for a local newspaper.
I love doing book stats posts. Nerdy, I know, but it’s just so oddly satisfying. There’s something fun about quantifying books and writing that I can’t quite explain.
Anyway, this year I did stats posts at 20 books, six months, and again at nine months. Since it’s finally the end of 2010, here’s a year in review of book stats.
While I’m not always sure how interesting year in review posts are, I think it’s a good thing to go back over and year and see where you’ve been. It helps give a direction for where you decide you’re going. So here’s a look back at 2010 at Sophisticated Dorkiness, including my favorite books of the year each month.
This is a story that I wrote for the magazine I work for in my real life, a trade magazine for design engineers. Since the story is full of great books — many that I’ve recommended to people who are not engineers — I decided to post it here too. You can read the article in its original form here (and as a bonus, see my silly editorial headshot).
Engineers ‘Just Think Differently’
It’s hard to find presents for engineers. If you need help, here’s PD&D’s holiday guide to great books for even the pickiest design engineer.
I mentioned last month that I was working on the Independent Literary Awards, which is a series of new book awards given out by literary bloggers. We’ve been soliciting nominations from book bloggers for the last couple of months of some of your favorite reads from 2010.
Guess what? Today is the very last day to nominate titles, and we could really use your help, book bloggers! I’d especially love more non-fiction nominations, since that’s the panel I’m the judge for.
I’m finally back to blogging, woo! But instead of posting here, I’m over with a guest post for Sheila at Book Journey while she’s having fun in Honduras.
If you head on over to Book Journey to read my post, you’ll learn which of these stylish young ladies, circa the mid-1990s, is me and what we’re doing. Plus, there’s a recipe for my favorite cookie in the entire world.
