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June 26, 2008 by Betsy Bird

Fusenews: Cupcakes! . . . and other stuff too, I guess

June 26, 2008 by Betsy Bird   10 comments


  • A recent post on Read Roger that mentioned how media producers are shutting out professional reviewers intrigued me. One of the reasons perhaps may be that, "the considerable majority of those who regularly review films in Britain are . . . white males over the age of 40 who tend to prize originality over repetition and realism above sentimentality. These demographics and values are completely the opposite of cinema’s main target audience: 15-24-year-olds." Roger wonders how this may be reflected in the increased commercialization of children’s literature.  It’s an interesting dichotomy.  I mean, when you’re talking about movie reviews you’re talking about something that a large segment of the population may have an interest in reading.  Children’s book reviews are of interest primarily to parents, gift-givers, teachers, librarians, and educators in the field.  Will there come a day when a publisher decides that an author or series is so big that they don’t even need to send it to professional reviews?  Does this already happen?  If so, who has done it?  I mean if, say, the next Eragon book is potentially going to get cruddy reviews and the publisher knows it, why would they send it to professional publications for review?  On the off chance that they can get a good quote for the paperback’s bookflap?  There is so much I continue to not know about this industry.


Speaking of film, can I brag about my husband a little?  He’s a screenwriter and last night he signed with a big, big, BIG BIG manager. We are so very excited.  Sorry.  Just wanted to gush a bit.  Yay!

  • He’s not a children’s book agent (YA, pah) but he’ll do.  Agent Nathan Bransford with Curtis Brown has a blog.  I rather like his bit on This Week in Publishing.  Here’s hoping he keeps it going. 


  • The book nap.  It’s not for wimps.  Caution advised.  Dangers abundant.  Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.


  • Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast does so many cool interviews that I usually eschew pointing out one over another.  Everyone there is a brilliant professional, after all.  But I doubt that anyone is going to object when I say that David Small is an exceptionally good "get".  This interview is remarkable for all the usual reasons (plenty of images, cool topics discussed, etc.) as well as the fact that it offers a glimpse at some of the pages of his upcoming graphic novel Stitches.  There’s also a very interesting mention of how Steven Kellogg helped David out early in his career.  Oh, it’s just fabulous.  Go see.


  • Daily Image:


The Achockablog recently posted some images from The Royal Society Science Book Award.  Must be nice to have royal societies.  *sigh*  There’s a junior category which was won by The Usborne Big Book of Science Things To Make & Do by Rebecca Gilpin and Leonie Pratt but even better were these delicious cupcakes at the tables.

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Let it never be said that I cannot spot a cupcake at thirty paces.

Filed under: Fusenews

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About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

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About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kelly Herold says

    June 26, 2008 at 12:42 pm

    Congrats to the husband, Betsy! Great news 🙂

    And, yes, that David Small interview over at the Imps was just fantastic.

  2. Jules, 7-Imp says

    June 26, 2008 at 1:53 pm

    Congratulations to your husband! Thanks for the nice comments, too.

  3. Dan Blank says

    June 26, 2008 at 2:29 pm

    Congrats to your husband!

  4. Jennifer Schultz says

    June 26, 2008 at 2:48 pm

    Congrats to your husband!

    That cupcake is almost too pretty to eat.

  5. mhg says

    June 26, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    Congrats on the big new Betsy and hubby! Enjoy Cloud 9, do you need a plane to Anaheim?

    Also, don’t forget that retail bookstores read the reviews too.

  6. eisha says

    June 26, 2008 at 7:09 pm

    ooh, fab news, fuse! congrats to your husband (and you, ’cause i know what it’s like to be the wife of someone in the performing arts. i’m sure you’re just as over the moon as he is).

  7. Kathleen says

    June 26, 2008 at 11:20 pm

    *your automatic email reply led me here

    Hello,
    Unless you are edson.financial.group on ebay.com, I believe that that user has stolen your review for “Good Masters, Sweet Ladies” and posted it as their own. I’m a fellow Amazon.com reviewer (K. Gilligan) and found one of my reviews word for word under that user’s name. I’ve reported the matter to ebay but have gotten no response. A quick google check of some of the user’s other reviews brought up the Amazon.com reviews- including yours. I just thought you would want to be aware of this issue. I’ve also left you this message on the amazon product page (it has the url to the copied review since I can’t leave it in this comment)

  8. Fuse #8 says

    June 27, 2008 at 4:15 am

    Well, I doubt there’s anything a person can do. Anytime you submit a review to Amazon.com you’re agreeing that they own the rights to sell that review to other sites. It could well be that this company has worked out a deal with them. If you’ve let Amazon know about this then there’s not much more that can be done. Thanks for letting me know, though.

  9. janeyolen says

    June 27, 2008 at 5:44 am

    Give the husband a big hug and thumbs up from me.

    Jane

  10. Jennifer A. Ray says

    July 2, 2008 at 10:22 pm

    Actually, you can report it to eBay. I know of one review house who has successfully had some of their stolen reviews removed by eBay tonight.

    If enough victims report it to eBay, they just might take more definitive action against this thief.

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