Tall book critic prefers short novels

The Northwest is rife with readers, writers, and those of authority called published authors.

Besides the obvious college and adult education classes, there are more than a dozen organizations, clubs and bookstores with monthly events aimed at improving the craft of writing and getting that writer promoted to published status.

Being published is not the end of the journey, though. Before the book is hot off the press or fresh from the Internet, the job of marketing ensues. Blogging, social media forays, speaking engagements, workshops, and waiting with tying fingers crossed for the platinum review keeps the author on a virtual roller coaster.

A balding, unassuming, yet tall, man can make that roller coast ride worth it or almost worth it.

Jeff Baker, The Oregonian’s book editor, launched the fifth season of the Northwest Author Series hosted by the Wilsonville Public Library and The Friends of the Wilsonville Public Library. Baker told the audience, which consisted mostly of writers and subscribers to The Oregonian, that he weighs the merits of a bad review against the benefit of introducing Oregonian readers to a book they might actually buy. Baker believes there’s got to be a good reason for a bad review.

“Sometimes I pick up stuff I don’t like,” he said. When that happens, “Let ‘em have it, but don’t be mean.”

Baker writes the reviews, writes and features, assigns everything else, and edits while blogging and tweeting and juggling an ever constricting budget. If one reviews the comments left on the online site it would appear to be a thankless job.

The upside for Baker is that he gets to choose what he wants to read and farms out the rest to freelancers who write 500 word reviews for about 30 cents a word. When his budget is depleted (hello, December!) he pulls stuff off the wire.

Baker receives about 500 books a week. That equates to an hour a day of unpacking and organizing before one book spine gets cracked and perused for possible review. Those most likely to be chosen for one of the five weekly review slots include local authors, books that have a Northwest setting, or authors booked for a local appearance.

Baker offered his insight on how to write a review offering this short list:
1. What’s the book about
2. Do you like it
3. Why
4. Include a quote.
“You want to give people a feel of the writing style,” he said.

Currently, Baker is reading Hemmingway’s Boat, by Paul Hendrickson which he will review soon. Expect a very positive review. Other authors he mentioned included graphic novelist Craig Thompson, Karl Marlantes who wrote Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, and Justin Torres with his 144 page book “We the Animals.”

You can judge a book by its cover, says Jeff Baker, and you can also judge it by its page count.

“250 pages is better than 500 anytime.”

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Upcoming events for the Northwest Author Series

The Northwest Author Series takes place at the Wilsonville Public Library once a month on these Sundays, 3:30 p.m. DIRECTIONS

October 23
Emily Chenoweth, Memoir or Fiction? Make The Most of Your Choice




December 4
Christina Katz, The Writer's Workout: Whip Your Literary Ambitions Into Shape




January 29
Karen Karbo, Passions Into Paychecks: Make A Living Without A Brand




February 26
Bill Johnson, A Story Is A Promise: The Essential Elements of Storytelling



March 18
Pamela Hill Smith, For The Love of Research: How To Write Biography




April 15
Kevin Sampsell, The Book World: From Reader To Published Author




May 6
Heather Vogel Frederick, Much Ado About Middle Grade: Mastering Setting, Character & Plot




The Northwest Author Series 
Wilsonville Public Library
8200 SW Wilsonville Road
Wilsonville, OR  97070
503-682-2744

Sundays 3:30 p.m.
DIRECTIONS

Tips for blogging everyday

Keep it in motion.

Yesterday, I disclosed my genius idea to take down Google by offering free ads on my blog. The disclosure was made mid-stream on a post about choosing to be a consistent blogger.

Before I began my 'daily blogging' journey I was actually on a different path. I had planned to write a post to help other people blog. A few ideas had been percolating. The first one was to create a great check-off list from ideas I'd gleaned around the web.

Tips for Bloggers:
1. Start with clear objectives
2. Develop a strategy
3. Keep content focused on a topic
4. Have an editorial calendar
5. Measure based on objectives
6. Integrate social tools, allow logins from social networks
7. Encourage for word of mouth (WOM), integrate into all you do
8. Most effective blogs are conversational or controversial
9. Treat your site (and you) as it's own company or brand
10% for fun, stuff you ♥

I never posted my list.

I decided to live it.

My objective would be to test the theory that posting with consistency changes the world. I wasn't sure how it would change my world, but I knew that it would.

My strategy was to post for thirty days in a row. It was June 18 and that month I'd only posted sporadically. Exactly nine times. I began with earnest on July 19.

360 Convos had its incubation when I wanted to write about business topics, as opposed to blogging on fiction writing and life themes, the center point of my other website. When I was building the strategy for this daily blogging adventure for 360 Convos, I considered a wide array of topics. In staying with item three on the above list, I decided to keep the content focused on business.

I did not keep the content focused on business. (I'm practicing, not shooting for perfection). I did, however, learn a few lessons while blogging everyday:

Jot down blog ideas whenever they occur. Do not use paper for this.

The best place a blogger can jot down ideas is somewhere online. I chose a Google calendar. No, I haven't taken Google down, yet. I still find most of their products useful. In keeping with item four on the list noted above, I dubbed my Google amenity Editorial Calendar and made it public.

I wrote down measurements to evaluate my success (item 5). I integrated social media and made sure the icons were large and easy to find (item 6):

Icons courtesy of PRLloyd

I talked about my blog (WOM). I left a screen up on my computer at work and reeled in a co-worker. I played around with style – conversational and tested controversial by using the word 'hell' in a headline. I sought a parental tone, I toyed with a touch of PR. I made a confession and made a personal disclosure that had left me dry-mouthed with guilt. I paraded a cute kitten. I preached to myself. I preached to no one else. I outed myself as a distracted parent (more than once).

I aggregated.

I fell asleep, not just once but twice.

I treated my blogging journey as a job. I treated my blog as its own company. I integrated my online presence and it became part of my personal branding strategy.

I love to write. I had fun.

I learned that when I was clueless about what to write about, I could refer to my editorial calendar and pick up exactly where my brain had left off. I learned I was in charge of the calendar and could change it when another topic felt more important. I learned I could take on a writing assignment – I could write not just for me, but for someone else as well.

Library Director abruptly retires
after correcting 360 Convos post.

After I pulled the trigger on my starting post, Literacy is the key to the internet, I received an email. A community member chose to send me a kind note, instead of lambasting me in the comments section on my disarray of facts. (I didn't know the difference between a bond and a levy). He coached me through several re-postings, so I could be accurate, mostly.

(Thank you Bruce Ziegman).

The effort to exchange those eleven emails and set me straight, apparently taxed Ziegman beyond his literary capabilities. Two and a half weeks later, he announced his retirement. Today, August 22, is my 35th consecutive post. I have no idea who will give up and retire today because of it.

Today, is my 35th consecutive post. I have no idea who will give up and retire because of it.

What I do know is that the disciplined effort to blog everyday taught me life lessons.

More on that tomorrow.

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If you'd like to read the other posts in the blogging series, try these:

1.

What I learned from Jeremiah Owyang
that allowed me to take down Google*
*Almost

2.

Tips for blogging everyday

3.

Great is the enemy of good and other
things I learned from blogging

4.

How blogging is like throwing stones

5.

How blogging for 30 days in a row
leads to international acclaim

Key to the internet? Being able to read

Looking up the wall on the first floor of the NEW Vancouver Community Library

The first key to the internet is literacy. What are you going to consume if you can't read? The community I live in holds a high value on literacy. It voted to increase taxes to support a new central library, and built it!

Sort of.

Here's what really happened — we voted three times. It almost didn't happen.

In 2004, the library received 56% yes votes. Not enough to pass the bond.

In 2005, the library received 59.4% yes votes. Not enough to pass, but enough NOT to give up.

In 2006, someone threw in $5 million of their own money to back the library's efforts. Another generous community member threw in premium property valued at $2 million to build on. Everyone crossed their fingers and another vote was cast. The results came incrementally closer, 63% yes votes.

THAT WAS ENOUGH.

The funds built a fabulous structure on the east side of town, the Cascade Park Community Library, and was the starter package for the main branch downtown.

Happy ending? Almost.

In 2009, the library district went from being conservative to ultra-conservative. Faced with the same economic downturn as the rest of the community, they eliminated 10% of the staff and the equivalent to one day a week of service.  The message was clear, we're good stewards of your investment. They also didn't give up.

Executive Director of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library, Bruce Ziegman says, "In the hopes of restoring the hours and improving our book (and other things like e-books, downloadable audio books and music, etc.) budget we ran an operational levy in 2010."

Yes, undaunted, the library went after a levy following 3 bond measure attempts. If successful a 50-year old structure would not only be replaced with a new, more useful, more relevant resource, but it would be stocked and staffed.

People read the ballot. People voted. Other people read the ballots to count them. The outcome of the election remained in doubt until every last mail-in and absentee ballot was tabulated. The local newspaper wrote about the election for a week. The tally teetered and tottered between pass-fail:

August 17  Library levy trailing, but margin 'razor' thin
August 18  Election update: Library levy fate unknown
August 19  Late ballots push levy to 400-plus vote edge
August 20  Library vote nearly a lock
August 22  Reflections on Tuesday's showdown

What happened? Literacy won.

Cascade Park Community Library

Beginning April 1, the library restored hours and started buying new reading and listening materials that had been promised during the campaign for the levy.

"Now we have new libraries in Cascade Park and downtown Vancouver that will be better stocked and serve our communities for decades to come," says Bruce Ziegman.

Fifty years into the future I'm not sure we'll need all that space for books. We'll probably be teaching classes at the library facility on how to repair your Kindle. We'll probably be checking out "Everything You Need to Read in Grade School" as an electronic device the size of your credit card that will project book holograms any place there's airspace.

Hopefully, we'll be consuming more books in whatever format we invent. For now, there's five floors of wi-fi, an in-house coffee shop, and miles and miles of words to, as the new library's interior details (pictured above), to dream, discover, contemplate, enjoy, question.

Of course, with all that wi-fi, the internet wins, too.

In the meantime, I'm happy to pay these taxes.


Photos by Kailynn via flickrSLiDR.

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Read more:
New library wows crowd | The Columbian
Library is open invitation to discovery | The Columbian