Michelle Cooper's Blog, page 36

Letters of Note

One very nice (and unexpected) result of becoming a published writer has been that I now receive letters from readers. Yes, actual letters, written in pen or pencil on pieces of paper, sealed inside fancy envelopes and delivered by my friendly postie. Of course, it's lovely to receive readers' e-mails, too, and I must admit it's much easier and quicker to reply to e-mails – but there's something special about a personal letter, perhaps because they're so rare now. When I open my letter box these days, I generally find electricity bills and reminders about dental appointments and pamphlets from politicians who are desperately seeking my vote in the upcoming State election – but hardly ever do I receive letters.

That's why I so enjoy browsing through Letters of Note, an on-line collection of letters to and from famous people. It includes adorable letters from J. K. Rowling and Dr Seuss and to fans; an indignant letter from Enid Blyton to Robert Menzies demanding that he stop calling her books 'immoral'; a completely illegible letter from King Henry the Eighth to Anne Boleyn; a hilarious 'personal letter' from Steve Martin; a letter from an exasperated schoolboy to President John F. Kennedy and much, much more. Go and have a look, it's fascinating. It's like finding a dusty box of letters in your attic – assuming you'd lived the same house as Albert Einstein, Yoko Ono, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf and Freddie Mercury.

P.S. As much as I adore receiving letters, I can't answer them unless they include a return address. Harriet, thank you so much for your lovely letter, but you forgot to include your address. If you contact me by e-mail or post, I promise I will write back.

Happy Birthday, Jules Verne!

Happy birthday to Jules Verne, the author of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (or Twenty Thousand Legs Under the Sea, as one of my friends used to call it). To celebrate, go and have a look at the best Google Doodle yet! A little submarine that you can manoeuvre up and down and across the sea! Check out the treasure chest on the sea bed, and the shark, and the divers! So cool.

(If you missed it on the 8th of February, you can still read about it at The Guardian.)

Look At This Cover!

The people who design my book covers have consistently come up with thoughtful, attractive designs, but I think this one is the most gorgeous yet:

'The FitzOsbornes in Exile', North American hardcover, released on April 5th, 2011

It's so glamorous! It's such a great depiction of the mood of the book! And isn't that model the perfect Sophie? She's doing the Queen Matilda chin tilt! And her facial expression! Is she sad, or bored, or calm, or curious, or defiant, or all of those things at once? She's even wearing the pearl drop earrings Aunt Charlotte gives her for her seventeenth birthday. At first, I thought the dress looked more 1950s than 1930s, but it's an actual photo from a 1930s edition of Vogue. (The dress is probably more daring and fashionable than Sophie would wear, though – and she must have just had her hair done by Monsieur Raymond, the hair artiste.)

Sitting next to Sophie is Toby. It can't be Simon, because the figure has fair hair, and it can't be Rupert, because he seems to be smoking a cigarette. In the background is Veronica, dressed in mourning and dancing with . . . someone. He's probably not Daniel, not at a Society ball. I guess it could be Simon – in which case, they're stomping on each other's feet, out of range of the camera.

I love the colours of this cover, too. I don't know if the designer planned it, but it brings to my mind the red, white and black of the Nazi flag – a chilling hint of what's in store for these characters.

Then there's the beautiful title, written in a lovely 1930s Art Deco font.

Oh, it's all so very pretty . . . and if you live in the United States or Canada, you can buy your very own copy in two months time! (Actually, I guess you could buy a copy wherever you live in the world, as long as you don't mind paying a large postage bill.)

I should also mention that the paperback edition of A Brief History of Montmaray is out next month in North America. The cover looks like this:

'A Brief History of Montmaray', North American paperback, released on March 8th, 2011

It's quite different from the North American hardcover, which featured a photo of a castle perched on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean. That hardcover design seemed to polarise readers – some thought it was really striking and interesting, others felt it made the book look boring. Which just goes to show you can't please everyone. This paperback cover does look a bit more 'fairy-tale princess', which could be a good or bad thing. I mean, FitzOsborne princesses don't tend to hang around on tower balconies waiting for a prince to rescue them, but on the other hand, it is a very nice photo of a castle on a moonlit night. (And is that a full moon, hidden by clouds? Watch out for werechickens!)

North American readers can buy this paperback next month – or they can buy the lovely hardcover edition right now. Or they can buy both!

To Respond Or Not To Respond (To Reviews)

That is the question.

When my first novel was published, I decided I would not respond to on-line reviews, ever. I believed bloggers should be free to say whatever they wanted about a book, and I thought they might feel inhibited if they knew the author was reading their review. Obviously, if a review of my book was negative, I would never, ever argue about it with the reviewer. That would be pathetic and rude. But if the review was positive, wouldn't it be sycophantic and stalker-ish for me to leave gushing thanks in the comments?

This policy was easy to follow for my first book, because a) there weren't that many book bloggers around then, and b) hardly anyone read my first book, let alone reviewed it. (Poor Rage of Sheep. She's like the plain, nerdy girl who gets ignored in favour of her younger, prettier and more charming sister.)

The author wonders whether or not she should respond to that one-star review on Goodreads

Anyway, things are a bit different now. The YA blogosphere is enormous, and growing every day, so lots more reviewers are on-line. I'm now published outside Australia, which means I have more readers and more reviewers. I've actually met some bloggers who've reviewed my books (and of course, they all turn out to be super-nice people, as well as having excellent taste in books), and personal connections always complicate matters. I have my own blog, too, and sometimes (okay, not that often) I comment on strangers' blogs about other topics – so if they subsequently mention one of my books, they'll probably suspect that I will read their opinion at some stage. Occasionally, mutual friends also draw my attention to a blogger's post featuring one of my books. And it's not only reviews – sometimes, one of my books gets mentioned in a 'favourite books of the year' post, and I feel even more guilty about not saying a huge thank you to the blogger.

So, what should I do? It would be polite to say, "Thank you very much; I am so pleased you enjoyed the book" whenever anyone posts a positive review and I get to hear about it. But if I did that, I'd have to comment on EVERY blog post that mentions my book, otherwise people would say, "How rude! She commented on X's blog, but completely ignored my post!" And, of course, sometimes I don't see reviews until weeks after they've been posted; sometimes I don't ever find out about them.

See how it would be easier to stick with my original policy? But then, sometimes bloggers post such wonderfully insightful and/or hilarious comments about my books that I can't help wanting to contact them, simply because they sound like the sort of people I'd like to get to know. For example, this librarian, who recently blogged about A Brief History of Montmaray:

"OMG MICHELLE COOPER HIJACKED MY TEENAGED BRAIN! A castle! Nazis! Ghosts! Crazy people! British nobility! NON-British nobility! NOT true love! Diary format! The only thing she left out was sym– wait, she DID include sympathetic socialists. THERE WERE EVEN SYMPATHETIC SOCIALISTS! Who IS this Michelle Cooper person, and HOW IS SHE DOING THIS?!"

Actually, I was laughing too much to comment in any coherent way on that particular post. And it was published last year, and I only read it today, so, kind of weird to comment now, anyway.

I know some bloggers love having authors visit their blogs. But I'm sure just as many bloggers hate the idea of an author butting in on their frank book conversations with friends. (Yes, I know if it's on the internet, it's out there for public scrutiny. But I still regard blogs as someone's personal space.)

So, for the moment, I am sticking with my original policy of not responding to on-line reviews. (Of course, if people e-mail me with their thoughts on my books, I always reply, usually with gushing thanks. And the same thing goes if I meet readers in Real Life.) In the meantime, I'd like to say an enormous THANK YOU to any blogger who's ever posted a nice comment about one of my books. It really is very encouraging and flattering and all-round awesome for an author to read that sort of thing. And to bloggers who didn't like one of my books: I respect your right to your own opinion, thanks for giving the book a try, and sorry it didn't turn out to be your cup of tea. (I make an exception to this for the homophobic librarian who was disgusted by A Brief History of Montmaray because it contained non-heterosexual characters. I don't respect her opinion. Although, of course, I defend her right to publish her thoughts on her own blog, just as I defend my right to pull faces at her behind her back.)

Authors Seanan McGuire and Sarah Rees Brennan have posted sensibly and eloquently about this issue. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?