STACKED

books

Exciting News & A Pep Talk To Readers

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In between tackling some challenging social media related shenanigans, I’ve been working really hard lately on my anthology, as well as some other writing for work and non-work reasons. It’s been fabulous, all of this writing, as has been the incredible honor I’ve had to edit essays for Feminism for the Real World. I’m going to have a very exciting announcement soon with the second part of my contributors (!!) but in the time before that, I have my own exciting announcement which is this: I am now represented by literary agent of wonder, Tina Wexler at ICM.

I cannot express my excitement for how well Tina and I clicked from our first email to our phone calls. I have let her in on all of my secrets and it’s really neat to have someone who not only gets it, but who is excited about helping me find a home for the projects I’ve got in my pocket. I even shared some (gasp!) YA fiction I’ve toyed with, a project I have toyed with and put away because of more pressing work, and she was receptive and excited by it.

A little back story: I’ve done this entirely backwards, upside down, and in my own way on my own terms. Most writers begin with an idea, then they write the manuscript, then they query agents, then they work with the agent who sends their work off to editors who might be interested. I jumped around. I wrote and sold a book to VOYA entirely on my own, and I did the same with Feminism for the Real World with Algonquin Young Readers. One of my editors there suggested I think about agents while going through some of the paperwork aspect of the project, and her suggestion really made me sit back and think about what I wanted for a career out of writing — and it was and is clear to me there’s more than this in me. Suddenly, I had five million ideas and wanted to find an agent who’d be open to trying these things, as unconventional as they may be.

There’s little to nothing out there for writers who aren’t going into straight fiction or even narrative non-fiction in terms of what they should be doing to find an agent. So I asked around — I asked writers I knew who loved their agents why they loved them, what made them stand out, and whether they knew anyone else who might be open to talking. I had it in my head to just talk, and I had fantastic conversations with two great agents. After talking, I knew this was something I not only wanted to do, but that I needed to do.

I have been taking an online course about dreaming for the last four weeks. I did it for me and me alone, and it’s been about an hour a day I get to spend thinking about possibilities and ideas and making my life more creatively adventurous and fulfilling. I might write about the course in more detail when it’s done, but a few of the big takeaways from it so far have been really impacting my thinking. I can’t just sit on ideas. I have to let myself pursue them as I have them or at least write them down to pursue when I’m ready. In a lot of ways, this was “divine timing.” And this was a leap and a risk I was more than ready to take.

I’m thrilled to keep writing, to keep building this unconventional and exciting and fun and fulfilling career. Last weekend marked four years since I walked out of a job that left me depressed and miserable and feeling awful day in and day out. I had no plans when I left, just that for my own sake, I needed to get out.

Four years back, I couldn’t have envisioned how much that decision radically changed my life in the best possible ways.

If you’re reading this, take that leap. You and your life are worth it. There will be super crummy times. There will be things that truly test the limits of all aspects of your life and your relationships.

But you only get to do this whole thing once, so take the chances as you can.

“Yes” is just as important as “no.”

Maintaining Privacy and Safety Online: Tips & Tools To Use

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stackedbooks.org

 

Last fall, I shared 7 tips for maintaining your safety online. That post was really well-received and made its way onto BlogHer. Because this has become a topic I’ve fixated on over the last year as my own work has become much more public online, I thought it’d be worth revisiting and offering up another series of easy-to-implement things you can do to protect your privacy and safety online.

First and foremost, I need to recommend a book.

smart girl's guide to privacy

Violet Blue’s The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy was recommended to me by numerous people and I’m really glad I bought it. Swapna talked about it over on Panels, and I echo her sentiments: this is a book that anyone who does work on the internet or invests in social media on the internet needs to read. While it’s geared toward women, anyone can walk away with really valuable tips and tricks. There’s a privacy checklist in here that I plan on revisiting on a regular basis to ensure that things don’t slip under my radar. The checklist, as well as other tools and resources, are available on Blue’s tumblr, too.

Many of the following tips, tricks, and tools I am going to recommend came up as I worked through her book. I discovered and tried a lot of these on my own with solid results, based on what Blue suggested checking for. In other words, she suggested paying attention to what you’re allowing on your Twitter timeline, and I tried out a handful of tools to see what worked best for me and my level of comfort. So, your mileage may vary, depending on your needs, but these were all good bets for me.

You are absolutely welcome to share this, print it, whatever you want. I appreciate credit, but it’s not required. These are simple things you can spend 10 minutes doing and I highly recommend not only doing them for yourself, but recommending these things to others looking for help being more private and safe online.

A Quick & Dirty Primer to Safety and Privacy Online

 

  • Get Out of People Finder Websites: Opt out of things like Spokeo. Search ALL of your names and nicknames, including maiden names or full names if you go by initials, and pull them all out. Look up all of the places you’ve lived before and cross check. You can opt out of Spokeo here: http://www.spokeo.com/opt_out/new. Do this with as many people finder sites as possible. I found myself listed under multiple states, under multiple names, and I pulled it all off. The process takes about a day, but then it’s gone. 

 

  • Make a Burner Phone Number to Give Out: Created a Google Voice phone number. This is free. You can forward it to your real phone. Perhaps you want to pick a number no where near where you live. I made one for a large metropolitan area and it will forward to my real phone. I’m comfortable sharing this one online. Bonus: doing this will save you from those inane sites or apps which require a phone number or which use your phone number for innumerable data mining reasons. 

 

  • Make a Burner Email To Give Out: Set up a burner email account. You can forward it to your real inbox. I created burner emails for Kimberly and I to have individually through our domain, but we share an inbox for Stacked, too. Anything worthy of our real email addresses we’ll reply to from them. This makes me feel good giving out my email on social media, to enter contests, to sign up for anything. Basically, anyone you don’t want having your direct line, give them this. 

 

  • Your Address: Get a PO Box. I noted this last year, but it’s become incredibly worthwhile this year, as it’s cheap and let me give an address out to people and places without ever feeling insecure. PO Boxes are tax deductible if used for business (freelance writing counts!). Check with your post office for forwarding options, as sometimes you can set up a PO box to come to your home. Also, you can, I believe, set up a PO box in a town you don’t live in.   

 

  • Check Who Has Your Address: If you own a domain, especially through a place like GoDaddy, your address is out there. A quick Google search for me turned up all of my information very publicly. Change the WHOIS info for domains registered to you to include as little identifying info as possible — this is where a burner phone number, a burner email, and a PO Box are invaluable. Do the same thing with TinyLetter (which will publish the address you enter at the bottom of each email, so make sure it’s your PO Box), MailChimp, or anything else that requires a public-facing mailing address. GoDaddy will let you pay a fee to keep this information totally private, too, if that’s preferable.

 

  • Deep Dive On Google/Yahoo/Other Search Engines: Google your phone number, address, date of birth, social security number, screen names, logins, and email address — with multiple variations. See where these things are and ask for them to be removed where possible. If you can, delete as many comments on blogs or websites with that information as possible. In the earlier days of blogging, many required an email address in the comments to be entered into contests. Go back and delete those comments. You’ll also want to do a Google image search of these same bits of personal information and remove anything you don’t like or aren’t comfortable with people having. Delete any social media profiles you no longer use or want available, too. You’d be surprised what pops up. 

 

  • Create Multiple User Names: If you have accounts around on different sites or social media and you want to keep some things private/unfindable, have multiple user names. My Etsy user name, for example, has nothing to do with my name or the user name catagator, which I use in most places. I don’t want people finding me on there because it’s none of their business what I’m buying or looking at. You don’t owe people your information, even if you love them and trust them. Sometimes it’s your business and yours alone.

 

  • Unsubscribe From Email Lists: The best thing I did for myself over the last year or so was unsubscribe from every pesky email list I don’t want to be part of. Why do I need eight emails a week from my eye car provider? Why do I need eight emails a day from B&N telling me about deals? Why am I on some publisher’s email list that I don’t care about? Unsubscribe when anything pops into your inbox you don’t want or don’t care about shows up. Those companies are profiting by having your information and giving you little or nothing in return. After doing this, I no longer struggle with my inbox. I used to wake up in the morning to 40 or 50 emails, but now, I wake up to 4 or 5 at most, and they’re almost always things I need to take care of or from people I want to talk with. If you can’t part with some of these lists, use your burner account for them!

 

  • Tape Over Your Computer Camera: This one is straight from Blue’s book. She has good reasoning behind this, as cameras can be hacked quite easily. If you need to use your computer’s camera, you can simply untape it. I used a small piece of a post-it note and taped over that, which will keep the lens from getting sticky.

 

  • Use A Blocking Tool on Twitter: Go beyond Twitter’s blocking. Use a tool like BlockTogether, which lets you create block lists and share them with other people. This is useful if, for example, you blog with many people and you all deal with spam periodically. You can share the block lists and save time. This is free. You can also use it to set up parameters on blocking — so you can have young Twitter accounts blocked, those who have Tweeted fewer than X-times, etc. You can go through and unblock anyone who falls into these block parameters because sometimes you accidentally block someone who you don’t mean to block. 

 

  • Delete Old Tweets: There’s a great tool out there called Tweet Deleter which you can use to bulk delete your Tweets. You pay $15 a month, but you can cancel after one month if you do this smartly. When you pay the $15, you’ll upload your Twitter archive, and you can search it, choosing tweets to block. You can delete entire months or entire years — don’t want people to find your Tweets from 2009? Delete them all. Do a search for any info you don’t want public, like emails, town names, family member info, etc. This does auto-renew, so remember to cancel the service when you feel comfortable.

 

  • Remove Fake Followers: Neat thing I learned, and by neat, I mean, annoying — you can get follow spammed on Twitter. Someone can pay to have hundreds or thousands of fake Twitter accounts follow you; this looks fishy on Twitter’s end, and when they think you’re paying for followers, they will block your account. I recommend seeking out and blocking fake accounts following you on Twitter. Pay $15 for https://fakers.statuspeople.com/ to delete all of the fake followers you have. This doesn’t auto-renew, so keep it just for a month.

 

  • Check Privacy Settings Everywhere: Go through all of your social media accounts and make things private where you can and completely delete the apps from which you can’t rid yourself of public-facing information you don’t want public. You don’t NEED LinkedIn if you don’t want it. Same with Pinterest or any other social media account. Check Twitter’s privacy settings to see what apps have access to your account and make sure you’re okay with what they have access to. Revoke as needed. I ended up deleting LinkedIn because it was spam most of the time, but more importantly, it did not let me delete some information I REALLY wanted deleted. So, I just got rid of the whole thing. If I need it again in the future, I’ll make a new one. 

 

  • Make Yourself Unsearchable On Facebook and Check Facebook Privacy Settings Everywhere: Change your Facebook name if you don’t want to be searchable. You need a real name, but you can shorten your real name or use a first and middle name only. To adjust your Facebook privacy settings, go to the dropdown menu on the upper-right corner. Select “privacy.” Under “Who can see my future posts?” select Friends or Friends Except Aquaintances. Next to “Review all your posts and things you’re tagged in,” select “Use Activity Log” and remove any posts where you’re tagged and don’t want to be. Under “limit the audience for posts you’ve shared…” select Limit Past Posts so your past posts are no longer public. Go through each other setting and select the option best for you, and check back in once per quarter because FB’s privacy settings change often.

 

  • Don’t Be Location-Enabled: Turn off ALL location-enabled options in all social media. If you don’t care, someone you may be with might care. Do it for their privacy if not your own. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other places do this for you — take away their ability to know where you are. I keep nothing on location except one private account for me which tracks my walking (and which I would never share with anyone, even people I know and love). 

 

  • Audit Your Social Media Photos and Locations: Go back through your Instagram feed and remove any pictures that give clues to where you live (neighborhood signs, street signs, your mailbox, house number, etc.) or that include the license plate on your car. You’ll be surprised how often your car sneaks into pictures you’re trying to take of snow or your kids playing outside. *This tip came from someone else and isn’t mine, but it’s fitting with the ones above, so I’m leaving it! 

 

Any other tips you’d add to these or the ones linked to in the post from last year? I’d love to hear them and share them with readers who are interested.

One of the things Violet Blue says over and over in her book and I want to reiterate here is: once you start doing this, you might find yourself overwhelmed and freaked out. This isn’t bad — it means you now know what you can do to make it stop, right now.

 

Defining “Debut” in Young Adult Novels

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A couple of years ago, Rachel Hartman was a Morris Award finalist, and she went on to win the award in early 2013. The Morris award, for those unfamiliar, is given annually by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), which is a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The award, which started in 2009, honors “a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature” (from the award’s webpage).

When Hartman’s novel was named on the short list, I wrote about how it raised some questions about what the word “debut” really means. Hartman had self-published a book a couple years prior, meaning that in the purest sense of the word, Seraphina wasn’t really a debut novel. For the purposes of the Morris, that self-published book didn’t infringe on the eligibility of Hartman’s novel being recognized. Since self-publishing is still relatively new — relative the key word there — these sorts of technicalities were still being considered when it came to award eligibility, and now it’s made much clearer in the official policies for the Morris. A debut novel is the first book by an author that’s been available in print or made available through a US publishing house.

Over the last few years, it’s impossible not to take note of how the word “debut” has been applied liberally to books in the YA world. It’s become a marketing tool, as a way to sell a book to an audience. In many ways, this makes sense: it can be hard for a new author to gain any sort of traction in a market where there are huge, well-known names that are exceptionally popular, that dominate bestseller lists, that are seen in airport bookstores and on big displays in bookshops, and which show up in co-ops in online retail spaces. To be a new author without a huge, guaranteed audience is to look at the bottom of a huge mountain without much climbing gear and with little or no experience.

But it’s also an opportunity.

That label of debut has become currency in a way. In many ways, it’s a sort of salve to those readers who are tired of the same old same old in YA. This debut novel is a new opportunity, a change from everything that’s already out there. Rather than debut being a thing that maybe you shouldn’t know about a book, it’s instead become a means of promoting the book. It’s not a pejorative term; it’s the exact opposite.

I’m a sucker for debut novels personally. I love seeing someone’s first story on the page. I love thinking about what and how that story did and did not succeed, and if it’s been a good reading experience, I look forward to seeing what their sophomore and subsequent efforts will look like. There are authors who I feel I’ve been reading their entire careers, and there’s something exceptionally fun about watching them go from debuts to seasoned authors. To see how their styles have grown, how their ability to weave a story has become more masterful, to see themes and trends that emerge, whether they’re intentional or not (some authors write certain things in all their books even they’re unaware of it — I’ve noticed, for example, an author who always wove hand or finger imagery into her work and another who always seemed to have something with mothers in hers, even if the mother wasn’t the thrust of the story). The label “debut” to me is exciting — that’s part of why I keep track of them each month. It’s a way for me to keep track of these new voices and make note of what I should be picking up.

“Debut” has become a full-force marketing tool, and the ways in which the word has become stretched makes it near meaningless for me anymore when I see it in a catalog description or an author bio. What should mean first novel — the first book that author has ever written — has instead morphed into something more meaningless. “Debut” has been frequently put in front of the words “young adult novel” in recent years, which means that no, the book isn’t actually the author’s first, but it is his or her first novel written for young adults (and whatever that means, too, since “for young adults” is essentially meaningless as well — young adult may be a category of books, but did that author whose book is being marketed as young adult really write for that audience or did that decision get made on another level?).

In some ways, the word feels apologetic when applied like that. We’ve all read the villainization and the apologia for young adult fiction too many times for me to reiterate here.

In other ways, it feels like it’s a too-easy way to garner some buzz for the book. The author’s written other books, but this one, it’s different because it’s a YA book. They’ve done exceptionally well in other areas, so this debut into a new category of fiction is exciting since it’s their first.

The story — what the book is about — can get lost in those conversations. The story is, of course, what most readers care about. Sure, they’ll care about Big Name authors making a YA foray, but that’s double edged: sometimes that YA foray can be met with scoffs by readers who are devoted to a particular author.

Sometimes, an author changes his or her name when writing that debut young adult novel. Perhaps they’ve published prolifically within a genre and now that they have a YA story in mind, they want to build a new brand around it. That’s the case in one “debut young adult novel” that will be out later this year.

Or perhaps they did write a young adult novel but they published it under a pseudonym and now they’re publishing their “debut young adult novel” under their real name. That’s the case in one or two “debut young adult novels” I’ve seen pop up in recent years, too. Do those who have written young adult novels initially who go on to publish an adult novel have their books sold as “debut adult novels?” I’m not sure I’ve seen that. Then again, I’ve seen that sort of move happen less frequently than I have seen adult novelists becoming young adult novelists (by choice or by luck).

In one case this year, I’ve seen a novel marketed as a “young adult debut thriller,” published with the author’s initials as the first name, rather than her full name. This not only redefined what debut meant by including the word “thriller,” but it also served the purpose of looking like an actual debut novel because the author’s name changed. So while she may be trying to build a different brand around a new writing style — one the fans she’s already grown may not necessarily be into (think Nora Roberts / J. D. Robb) — the marketing of the book pulls a sleight of hand, making it look like something that it’s really not.

I’ve been tricked before, and that leaves a sour taste in my mouth. “Debut” to me means one thing, and it means only one thing. But do I maybe care too much about the purity of the word? Then again, I wonder why it’s necessary to use unless there’s a meaning behind it.

For me, the word “debut” doesn’t skew the reading experience unless it’s been qualified. Then I judge it a little tougher. I want to know why it was important enough for that word to be a selling point or a feature, over what other things could have been played up instead. There’s a story to the story, rather than a story of the story.

So why all of the insistence on the word “debut” if it’s being used with a load of qualifiers?  Does the word really move copies of the book? Does the word “debut” offer a certain leeway with readers? What about with reviewers?

What makes “debut” a word with such sex appeal and do readers — those without any interest or knowledge of the bigger book world — even care?

A Short Update on a Policy Change

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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about why I was choosing to step down from my elected position on the Printz committee next year. YALSA changed a policy with regards to how members on committees may use social media, and it said the following:

This is all noted in my post, along with the original policy that was up for a consent vote at annual in June.

The element of the policy about not communicating electronically about any eligible titles was the cause for concern. And I wasn’t the only person who saw this and had questions. Those questions were asked of YALSA, and they weren’t answered, suggesting that indeed, the policy was clear enough.

When I wrote my letter to the executive director and to the incoming president of YALSA, I laid out that this particular element within the policy, about no communication about any eligible titles electronically, was my sticking point. The response I got to my concern was short, brief, and said thanks for considering the opportunity and whether it was a good fit for me, followed by assurance my vacancy would be filled.

No explanation. No clarification. No pointing out my interpretation was incorrect.

I took that to mean I had read this correctly, both because my question wasn’t answered about interpretation and also because the response I got following my concern being why I thought it was best to step down didn’t address a misinterpretation.

But now, the FAQ has changed.

Following annual, a new FAQ about the social media policy came out, and it’s much friendlier. The sticking point about whether committee members were gag ordered was clarified to say blogging and tweeting in non-review form of eligible titles would be fine. You can read it in full here.

It’s good YALSA followed through and clarified this policy. It makes it clear, consistent, and allows professionals to be just that: professional. They’re asked to use their best judgment in talking about eligible titles, rather than being told they can’t speak about them at all. This is a great thing, and I’m glad that members now know that writing book lists or otherwise sharing information about titles which may be eligible for their committee’s award or selection list is okay.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t change a thing for me.

It’s more disappointing than I can express that, despite multiple attempts, my concerns about this could not be addressed. That even in private communication, those in charge at YALSA chose not to discuss with me the issues I had and chose not to tell me that the FAQ could change or that my interpretation was incorrect. If anything, it feels personal, as this change came after asking and after quitting.

While I will continue to support YALSA members and the incredible work they put into the organization through volunteering, through educating, and through sharing, I will not be further involving myself with the organization. When my membership renewal is up next month, I will be spending that money in other ways.

We have to make choices about our time, our energy, and our money. At this point, it’s clear to me that YALSA doesn’t want me part of their organization, so I’m going to choose to go elsewhere.

On Girls, Girl Reading, and Girls in YA Fiction Beyond STACKED

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I’ve been talking a lot about girls and girls reading, as well as girls in YA fiction, over the last year. And while talking on the blog is important, I also think it’s important to take these conversations to other venues in order to keep the discussion fresh, vibrant, and engage new voices and ideas. 

So with that, I’m really excited to share two pieces of news. 
First, I will have an article in August’s issue of VOYA all about girls and girls reading. In it, I talk about why having this discussion is important and how as youth advocates, we can be better leaders and facilitators of girls reading. It includes a look at ten titles out in the last year that feature really interesting female main characters. I love all of the books I got to talk about and think they offer some really great ways into the conversation about girls, about female characters, and about girls and girls reading. 
My second piece of news is one I am also extremely excited about. 
The call for conference proposals for the Wisconsin Library Association meeting went out a few months ago, and I knew it was time to propose something for my own state’s meeting. The event’s only about a 2 hour drive, and I have never presented in my own state (a scheduling snafu last year meant the plans to do one before didn’t work out).
But this year, I’m presenting, and I am thrilled to be co-presenting with author Carrie Mesrobian.
We’ll be presenting on Wednesday, November 5 in the late afternoon and the title of our presentation is “Good Girls, Bad Girls, Real Girls: Teen Girls in YA Lit & In Your Library.” 
If you’re around the Dells area or you’re going to WLA this year, I hope you come and hear us talk.