Virginia Hull Welch's Blog: BooksontheBeach, page 6
March 22, 2013
Brussels Sprouts & Barbies
Years ago when my four children were small, I was adamant that the first books in their hands were “good” books, the classics, preferably. Call it the Brussels sprouts approach to reading: It’s good for you. Finish the icky green stuff and you get a Popsicle. I believed that if you consistently put quality reading material in front of children, over time they would recognize its inherent literary value and intuitively reject the junk, sort of like a jeweler who easily spots a fake because he’s handled so many samples of the genuine.
Likely my thinking was influenced by many factors, but I think of my father, who deplored the consumption of comic books (I surreptitiously read my coveted Betty and Veronica “trash” at my Cousin Margie’s house). Never mind that as a high school, college, and graduate student I deplored nearly all my required reading titles―they were classics! Like the Brussels sprouts, surely they supplied some literary nutrition. And even if they didn’t, reading the great masters made me feel righteous, and more important, dropping their titles into dinner conversation made me sound educated.
I desperately wanted my kids to be big-time book readers, so in typical type-A fashion I devised a strategy. I researched age-appropriate lists of classics. I sought out the public library’s summer reading recommendations. I picked up used books—whatever looked righteous and educated—at garage sales and flea markets. The Welches weren’t a normal family. For a season our refrigerator wasn’t covered with magnets like all our neighbors. There was no room. Our poster board chart, a weekly reading list with little foil stars affixed for short books, a Barbie doll or some other incentive for so many chapter books—took up the whole frig door.
Then one day as I watched my youngest son search for books in the children’s section of our local library, it hit me that all my strategies were wrong headed. My approach was way too complex. I had focused entirely on getting my kids to like particular titles. I was steering them when I should have been gently leading them, working with the desires of their hearts instead of imposing my own. I could have made all our lives much easier by simply focusing on introducing them to the love of reading, not necessarily lofty titles.
What changed my mind? On that day of revelation I watched my little boy pass over many titles until he came to the love of his life: big, manly trucks. My son would pick up a book, any book, if there were trucks on the cover. Light bulb moment! Kids will pick up a book if they’re interested in its subject. Reading: A magic door that leads to more good times with the things they love. More times with trucks.
As years pass and kids mature, one subject is cast aside to make way for another; chapter books replace easy readers, novels replace chapter books, newspapers become a daily must. The love of reading has been established. It starts with trucks. Or ballerinas. Or bugs. Or dinosaurs.
Summary: You don’t have to push a “good” book into your child’s hands. Start with age-appropriate books on subjects they find fascinating and they’ll start turning the pages on their own. You do have to get them to the library. But if you’re reading a book blog, indubitably a trip to the library sounds more like the Barbie doll prize than the Brussels sprouts.
Likely my thinking was influenced by many factors, but I think of my father, who deplored the consumption of comic books (I surreptitiously read my coveted Betty and Veronica “trash” at my Cousin Margie’s house). Never mind that as a high school, college, and graduate student I deplored nearly all my required reading titles―they were classics! Like the Brussels sprouts, surely they supplied some literary nutrition. And even if they didn’t, reading the great masters made me feel righteous, and more important, dropping their titles into dinner conversation made me sound educated.
I desperately wanted my kids to be big-time book readers, so in typical type-A fashion I devised a strategy. I researched age-appropriate lists of classics. I sought out the public library’s summer reading recommendations. I picked up used books—whatever looked righteous and educated—at garage sales and flea markets. The Welches weren’t a normal family. For a season our refrigerator wasn’t covered with magnets like all our neighbors. There was no room. Our poster board chart, a weekly reading list with little foil stars affixed for short books, a Barbie doll or some other incentive for so many chapter books—took up the whole frig door.
Then one day as I watched my youngest son search for books in the children’s section of our local library, it hit me that all my strategies were wrong headed. My approach was way too complex. I had focused entirely on getting my kids to like particular titles. I was steering them when I should have been gently leading them, working with the desires of their hearts instead of imposing my own. I could have made all our lives much easier by simply focusing on introducing them to the love of reading, not necessarily lofty titles.
What changed my mind? On that day of revelation I watched my little boy pass over many titles until he came to the love of his life: big, manly trucks. My son would pick up a book, any book, if there were trucks on the cover. Light bulb moment! Kids will pick up a book if they’re interested in its subject. Reading: A magic door that leads to more good times with the things they love. More times with trucks.
As years pass and kids mature, one subject is cast aside to make way for another; chapter books replace easy readers, novels replace chapter books, newspapers become a daily must. The love of reading has been established. It starts with trucks. Or ballerinas. Or bugs. Or dinosaurs.
Summary: You don’t have to push a “good” book into your child’s hands. Start with age-appropriate books on subjects they find fascinating and they’ll start turning the pages on their own. You do have to get them to the library. But if you’re reading a book blog, indubitably a trip to the library sounds more like the Barbie doll prize than the Brussels sprouts.
March 19, 2013
Book giveaways - the other side
BooksontheBeach – ‘Cause that’s my idea of a dream vacation
Indie authors and publishers beware! E-book giveaways, even of short duration, make you a spicy target for e-book pirates. All e-books are easy to share if you have a little technical finesse, but free ones are the target of choice of e-book pirates, because they are not interested in buying books, ever, no matter how deeply discounted. These thieves troll the Internet looking for e-book giveaways. Download they go, and within hours your book is uploaded to various sites to be distributed as freely as candy at a holiday parade. Worse, auxiliary sites act as guideposts, pointing freeloaders to e-book host sites, though the auxiliary sites don’t actually upload/download your book nor host your file (a specious practice they hide behind to stay one step ahead of copyright infringement law).
My copyrighted romantic comedy, The Lesson, was pirated within 24 hours of being released for sale. I offered it free for a short time to spur reviews. I am rethinking this practice now that I’m about to release a historic romance, Crazy Woman Creek. Call ME crazy, but I was looking forward to making a profit off my years of hard work. I offered The Lesson for just $2.99—cheaper than a skinny vanilla latte grande—so that price would not be a barrier to a sale. Amazon sells e-books for as little as .99, so this is not about saving a buck. Neither is this about the glories of the written word. It smacks more of anarchism, that all-things-should-be-free-for-everyone mentality that benefits some and penalizes others. I believe in the freedom of information and wholly support an expansive, liberal approach to the distribution of knowledge. But a book you spend years (yes years) writing and researching is a product you offer for sale in the marketplace and the rights of the creator pertaining thereto should be respected.
If you discover that your work is being offered for free at pirate Web sites, there are steps you can take to get them to pull down your file short of hiring an attorney to send a cease and desist letter. Many thanks to author Stephanie Lawton for spelling out the details in her very informative blog post:
http://stephanielawton.com/2012/06/24...
Stephanie provides a list of freeloader and pointer sites, how to use search engines to find out if your book has been uploaded to any of them, and straightforward language to use when you contact them.
Indie authors and publishers beware! E-book giveaways, even of short duration, make you a spicy target for e-book pirates. All e-books are easy to share if you have a little technical finesse, but free ones are the target of choice of e-book pirates, because they are not interested in buying books, ever, no matter how deeply discounted. These thieves troll the Internet looking for e-book giveaways. Download they go, and within hours your book is uploaded to various sites to be distributed as freely as candy at a holiday parade. Worse, auxiliary sites act as guideposts, pointing freeloaders to e-book host sites, though the auxiliary sites don’t actually upload/download your book nor host your file (a specious practice they hide behind to stay one step ahead of copyright infringement law).
My copyrighted romantic comedy, The Lesson, was pirated within 24 hours of being released for sale. I offered it free for a short time to spur reviews. I am rethinking this practice now that I’m about to release a historic romance, Crazy Woman Creek. Call ME crazy, but I was looking forward to making a profit off my years of hard work. I offered The Lesson for just $2.99—cheaper than a skinny vanilla latte grande—so that price would not be a barrier to a sale. Amazon sells e-books for as little as .99, so this is not about saving a buck. Neither is this about the glories of the written word. It smacks more of anarchism, that all-things-should-be-free-for-everyone mentality that benefits some and penalizes others. I believe in the freedom of information and wholly support an expansive, liberal approach to the distribution of knowledge. But a book you spend years (yes years) writing and researching is a product you offer for sale in the marketplace and the rights of the creator pertaining thereto should be respected.
If you discover that your work is being offered for free at pirate Web sites, there are steps you can take to get them to pull down your file short of hiring an attorney to send a cease and desist letter. Many thanks to author Stephanie Lawton for spelling out the details in her very informative blog post:
http://stephanielawton.com/2012/06/24...
Stephanie provides a list of freeloader and pointer sites, how to use search engines to find out if your book has been uploaded to any of them, and straightforward language to use when you contact them.
BooksontheBeach
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