Book Blogger Appreciation Week is September 14-18: it will be devoted to spotlighting blogs that talk up books and promote reading. Plus, there will be giveaways and awards. You can vote now for your choice to win categories like Best Speculative Fiction Review Blog and Most Chatty.
Tweeting writers will want to use this Twitter guide for writers, which includes a great tip for easily finding out whether a person you follow is also following you, as well as a discussion about how much you should share in your tweets, (among other tips).
Harry Potter: 44. Hamlet: 7. How much are your favorite books worth? This essay on the much-used Accelerated Reader school program laments the uneven approach to getting kids interested in reading.
Those handwritten notes stuck to bookstore shelves can influence buyers to pick up certain books. Publishers Weekly’s “Shelftalker” herself gives some interesting tips on how to use shelftalkers. Most notable to me: hand-written shelftalkers may work better than printable ones that come from outside sources (such as writers’ websites).
The New York Times spotlights something that could have come straight out of a futuristic novel: vertical farms. Global warming and population increases may end up severely limiting our farmland, but no problem–we’ll just build tall structures that make use of hydroponics to grow food year-round. From a distance, these leafy towers would look like “gardens suspended in space.”
Just when you were thinking the prolific James Patterson should take a vacation comes the news that he has signed a deal to write 17 books by 2012, including both adult and YA novels. No word yet on how this is humanly possible…
HarperTeen has launched a new interactive books series for readers aged 13 & up: read an excerpt of The Amanda Project: invisible I. You can take part in the search for Amanda both by reading the novels and by participating online. Some readers will even have their online writing published in the books or the e-zine.
And if you’re itching for some free books, remember to enter our current giveaway of THE AMETHYST ROAD and THE NAVEL OF THE WORLD (ends Sep 21), and the Fantastic Book Review’s giveaway of 3 urban fantasy books of one winner’s choosing (ends Sep 13).
Parker Peevyhouse
Oh, James Patterson’s 17-book deal is possible…because by “book” he means “outline,” and because by “write” he means “order interns to write.”
*snort* I’m actually surprised they released this information, as this has to be the logical conclusion that most people come to…
Ditto what Beth said. That’s what I’d heard, too.
Great roundup, Parker!
Yeah, I figured. Maybe he has chimps and typewriters set up in his basement?