U.S. Media Revenue Set for Historic 2009 Decline - LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Not only was last year's Media 100 revenue growth the lowest since 1991, this year it's on track to show the first decline since Ad Age began ranking top media firms in 1981. [Advertising Age Latest News]

After nearly two years of intermittent work on it, I have completed the first draft of my novel. It's been a very long road, fraught with frustration over finding time to write, overflowing with joy over putting words on the screen, and replete with discovery as I learned more about the writing process, even at this stage in my experience.

In the end, I have a 405-page double-spaced manuscript with 1-inch margins all around, and typed in 12-point Courier. I chose Courier just because it's the closest I could come to the way old-fashioned typed manuscripts were formatted, and it made the old-fashioned manuscript word count process (250 words per page) easier to track. I realize that style of word count isn't as important in publishing as it once was, but it did make my math easier as I wrote and kept track of the size of my manuscript versus the length of the book when it's eventually typeset.

All-in-all, I feel rewarded by having completed this process. And I will be rewarding myself by taking a few weeks off from the novel before I begin the rewrite process, which, as any would-be novelist learns, is the part of the process where the story really comes together and all the nuts and bolts are tightened. It is my hope that the time away from the manuscript will refresh my perspective on it, and help me polish it into the most perfect novel it can be when the process is complete.

I think it will ultimately be a couple of days before I can actually put the manuscript out of my mind completely for this break. I can't seem to prevent these three words from cycling through my brain right now: "I did it!"

From NPR, this may be one of the greatest "learning to love to read" stories I've ever read.

Olly Neal grew up in Arkansas during the 1950s. He didn't care much for high school. One day during his senior year, he cut class — and wandered into the school library.

 

Bookmark/Search this post with:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

ALA's Top 10 list of "challenged" books of 2008 (AP) - AP - Here is the American Library Association's list of top 10 most frequently challenged books of 2008, their author and the cited reasons: [Yahoo! Books and Publishing News]

I was floored to discover Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark among the titles on the American Library Association's 2008 Banned/Challenged Books list. The book was the first in a folklore series first published in 1981. I happened to purchase it and its sequel, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, at a library fund-raising book sale a month ago. According to Wikipedia, Scary Stories is a frequent addition to the list. 

Authors, banned books part of 1st Amendment salute (AP) -

AP - "The Grapes of Wrath" was labeled vulgar and pornographic, a dangerous depiction of class hatred. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" was removed from school classrooms and library shelves after its 1969 publication, deemed inappropriate for its depiction of author Maya Angelou's rape as an 8-year-old girl

Discovered via Victoria Strauss:

Even Dan Brown can't break the e-book 5% rule

When Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" was released on Sept. 15, Amazon's rankings revealed that Kindle sales outstripped sales of the hardcover. This led some ebook enthusiasts to herald the dawning of a new era. FastCompany asked, "Could Dan Brown's new book be heralding the e-book age?" CNet wrote: "The possibility that the Kindle version of 'The Lost Symbol' -- which follows Brown's wildly popular 'Da Vinci Code' and 'Angels & Demons' -- is outselling hard copies on Amazon could be a monumental moment in the e-book industry."

Writers take note:

November Short Story Contests - November brings some great opportunities, including the Roanoke Review Fiction Contest (Nov. 1), the Story Prize (Nov. 14), and the Ramble Underground Short Fiction Contest (Nov. 15). And that's just... [About.com Literary News]

How Google Wave could transform journalism - LATimes.com
Mark Milian shares "a few wild ideas" for using Wave, including live editing, smarter story updates, and smarter story updates.  [Poynter Romenesko]

Rick Edmonds at Poynter.org says the surge in coupon clippers brought about by the current economic crisis has been good for the inserts side of newspaper advertising.

The New York Times was the latest to note the trend in a feature Monday. I especially liked the photo of "coupon queen" Susan Samtur sorting her clippings into an accordion file case. The picture suggests that there is a tactile appeal to clip-and-save, plus a sense of planning and control, quite different from being the passive recipient of a random barrage of online ad messages.

 

Indeed, the Times article, like one in the Wall Street Journal and a Biz Blog post of mine in February, suggests that online start-ups are trying to grab a piece of the action but make up only a tiny half a percent share of redemptions, so far.

Marian Schembari at Publishing Trends details how she landed a job in publishing, but not by sending out resumes and cover letters.

Of course, advertising yourself to get a job is a little weird, I have to admit. It’s one of those stories you hear about people wearing their resume on a T-shirt or taking cookies to an interview. No one wants to be that person.