Book Banners Are At It Again

A book I really liked is being banned - Looking for Alaska by John Green. Here's John ranting very reasonably about the banning:

Even Meg Cabot (The Princess Diaries) had a little banning episode recently.

Princess on the Brink was banned on the grounds of it being “immoral” and having “untraditional values.”

It’s true: The Princess Diaries series does encourage young girls to be strong, independent thinkers in today’s society. At one point, one female character in Princess on the Brink directly instructs another not to accept the traditional gender roles that have been thrust upon them for centuries by men.

If that’s what someone considers immoral and embracing untraditional values, ALL my books can be banned for all I care. Hey–I’m PROUD to be BANNED IN THE USA!

If folks want to control what their kids read, I suppose that's up to them. But when these same folks decide to control what the rest of the world reads. Well ...

The Kindle: What's it All About Amazon?

So is this future? I have to admit it's tempting. Wonder how long before the UK takes this up.



AND if you fancy self-publishing your novel, it's just a matter of click and upload.

Hmmm.

How authors can help each other on the net

Today was my concentrate-on-writing-
and-stay-off-the-internet-day. But I had to blog when I heard about author Patry Francis.

Patry Francis was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer just as her debut novel The Liar's Diary was going out in paperback. Which meant she would not be able to do the publicity work that makes or breaks most novels.

In response, author bloggers have rallied to do Francis' publicity for her, naming January 29 as Patry Francis Blog Day, with more than 300 bloggers mentioning and reviewing The Liar's Diary. The creativity and breadth of this effort is mind-blowing and inspiring. Read about it here — and look at the how well things are going on technorati!

Literary Agent Kristin Nelson comments on her blog:

Don’t ever let anyone convince you that publishing is “an every person for him or herself” industry because it’s not. There is a real community of writers and if you haven’t got connected, ask yourself why not?

Indeed. That's the power of the web for you and it's down to us authors to harness its potential.

The Patry Francis situation brings to mind YA author Siobhan Dowd (photo, left by G. Morgan) who died last year and wasn't able to promote her magnificent A Swift Pure Cry (buy it you guys!) as much as she would have liked because she was so ill. A Siobhan Dowd Trust has been set up to help disadvantaged children with their reading skills (donations are welcome here). Siobhan's next book Bog Child - which I hear is a cracker - will be published posthumously in February.