The Venerable and the New...

This week the wonderful Beverley Cleary celebrated 94 years on this earth. 

In a School Library Journal Interview she reflected on her career and how she got started. (for those of you who need a little memory jogging...Ramona Quimby...Henry, Beezus, Ribsy, Ralph...)

When Beverly got started in 1950...books for kids were just moving out of the earnest educational tomes to teach the little savages into fun pacy romps that reflected the child’s world and were entertaining.

I wroteHenry Huggins (HarperCollins, 1950) because when I was a children’s librarian, there was almost nothing contemporary for boys. A little boy changed my life when he said, “Where are the books about kids like us?” All my books are still in print. 

Thanks Beverly for picking up your pen to fill the gap.

So 60 years into the future...this week the i-Pad launched and Publishers Weekly immediately picked up that 6 of the top 10 iPad apps downloaded were children’s books. This will be the game changer for children’s publishing. The most popular of the apps downloaded were picture books!

On launch day last Saturday, Apple sold more than 300,000 iPads—and users downloaded more than one million apps and more than 250,000 ebooks from the iBookstore. Parents immediately started snapping up picture book apps from Apple's online store. In fact, children's stories held six of the top 10 paid iPad book-app sales spots as of press time. Typical prices for children's book apps range anywhere from $2.99 for The Cat in the Hat to $9.99 for Miss Spider's Tea Party.

Here is a little video showing how Alice looks on the iPad.

On the marketing front Thomas McMahon of Online Marketing Blog has a great post on how to promote new blogs which can be used for other social media sites.

Darcy Pattison has a brilliant post on ten social media goals for author promotion here is number three...(It was hard to choose which one to give you a taster they are all so good.)

Long-term relationships versus short-term profits
This is an easy one for authors. We want long-term relationships with people who are interested in the stories we write, the passions that fill our days and our books. Those relationships may result in sales; but we also care about deep conversations about our passions, speaking engagements, connecting with kids, learning more about our craft and so on. Relationships – YOU – are important to me!

There is a UK website Smories offering a chance to authors to send in their up to 750 word stories for selection to be filmed and made into a downloadable app...The top five voted on by kids win substantial money and you keep all the rights. Open to submission by email from all English speaking countries.

Over at Casey McCormicks blog there is a big discussion about YA needing a love interest...and how much of a love interest should there be? and What about Boys YA? Do they care? Will they be turned off or on....Lots of comments and juicy discussion.

Over on Craicerplus (my amplify page.)

There is a link to an article on Wuthering Heights and the Twilight effect.

There is a link to brilliant (must read) article on pitching from Alan Rinzler.

And a link to an article on BlogTalkRadio. How to turn your blog into a radio station for free.

So reflecting on the last 60 years and looking forward to the next 60 years in children’s publishing...

Anyone got any thoughts as to what the child’s book will look like then?

maureen

P.S. Last week was my two year blogging anniversary....who’d a thought...Cheers Fifi.