Where does your book belong?
Genres and labeling; Memorial Day; Book challenges and bans
Is knowing your genre getting harder or is it just me? At this point, I think asking a writer “Where does your book belong on the bookstore shelf?” will lead them to give you multiple answers. Which an agent or a publisher might blame them for, but genres are mingling. Lots of books are Labradoodles. Plus, the author might hate being forced into a crappy label.
What’s a crappy label?
Women’s Fiction is a crappy label. And a great number of books by women are forced into it. I wrote an article for the Southern CA News Group about how I hate that label. I’m querying my current novel as book club/upmarket fiction because that’s not so gendered. And it removes the expectation of a romantic subplot.
Publishers should think like librarians
As a reader, a librarian, and a writer, I am always asking: What’s missing from the collection? The reader in me asks for recommendations for new books and stories that deserve attention. The librarian in me purchases materials that round out the collection, making sure to include the needs of the quirky, offbeat reader. The writer in me does as Toni Morrison directed: “If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
Are you a prickly reader/writer?
I’ve come to know that when we work to fill those quirky, offbeat spaces, we sometimes inhabit a ‘prickly’ space. It’s a bit uncomfortable. I particularly found this to be true as I queried agents for my upcoming YA novel about a girl seeking to escape a polygamist cult. They enjoyed the writing. But: Was it too adult (very tough things happen to young people in this cult)? Why don’t I give the protagonist a boyfriend to interest the teen girl readers?
Allow me to rant a moment
RANT: Crap on a cracker! Guess what? Terrible things do happen to teens and seeing how a character in a novel works through those things might help them in their own lives. AND Does every book a woman writes have to have a romantic subplot? The protag lives in a cult where teen girls are forced to marry older men. They aren’t allowed to have boyfriends—and they’re highly controlled, so sneaking around is nearly impossible. And if they did and were caught, they’d be immediately married to some old goat as basically a concubine. Protag has a crush on a guy, but he’s been tossed out as a Lost Boy because—hello—this is not a book about romance. The queer characters are hiding like it’s 1692. Because this is a novel about patriarchy and religion gone feral.
Thank you for letting me get that out.
Publishing
My YA novel will be published by Inlandia next year. I plan to discuss my publication journey because I want to try some new things (new to me) to get the word out. If anything works, maybe you can use it for your work.
Here’s more on the idea of novels for teens and novels for adults crossing into each other’s space and how everyone hates the label ‘Women’s Fiction’ on TSNOTYAW, Carolyn Levitt.
Speaking of choices in publishing, Kathleen Schmidt has some thoughts.
Author Janet Fitch responded to this crisis:
Books
If you’ve always dreamed of living in a library (what am I saying—who hasn’t dreamed of living in a library), you’ll enjoy this essay from Brevity by Allison K. Williams.
William Ewart Gladstone was a four-time Prime Minister of Great Britain and a Victorian statesman. He also loooooooved books, writing, “Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books–even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome.”
Memorial Day
The Academy of American Poets’ website delivers a daily poem in your inbox if you subscribe. I’m not a poet—not a very good one, anyway—but I love to read the poem-a-day, so I make a little donation.
Since it’s Memorial Day weekend, I wanted to pause and recognize it with a poem I pulled from the website. I believe “In Flanders Fields” is the most famous poem about those who fall in battle. It’s the reason poppies are shared on Memorial Day.
In Flanders Fields
John McCrae 1872 – 1918
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Library and Book Challenge News
A Be a Cactus reader pointed out this Slate article last week, and I found it interesting. It’s about the sex-ed book for kids and teens It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, Gender, and Sexual Health. It’s a highly challenged book and has been removed from many shelves. An open-minded dad reads it in order to see what the fuss is about. He is very uncomfortable with the frank illustrations. I’m wondering about others’ responses to the article. The book indicates that it’s for ten year olds and up. I admit, I’d be uncomfortable handing it to a ten year old. But I feel it’s what a thirteen year old might need. What do you think?
I watched “book bans” happen in real time. I thought they were all hysteria. Then I opened one of the most-challenged titles.
‘Scary’: public-school textbooks the latest target as US book bans intensify
The wave of book bans sweeping the US, typically reserved for works of fiction deemed controversial, has hit textbooks used in public schools, marking the next step in Republicans’ war on education.
The board of trustees for the Cypress Fairbanks independent school district in Houston voted 6-1 earlier this month to redact certain chapters in science textbooks, including those about vaccines, human growth, diversity, and climate change.
Iowa school district banned books based on ChatGPT’s advice
Administrators input the name of the book into the same question“Does [book] contain a description or depiction of a sex act?” into the AI system, she explained to the outlet. “If the answer was yes, the book will be removed from circulation and stored,” Ms Exman continued.
An Idaho Public Library Will Become Adults-Only July 1, 2024
In what has become an unfortunate and increasing reality in America, a public library in Idaho will be restricting their entire facility to those 18 and older beginning July 1, 2024. Donnelly Public Library is unable to comply with the state’s newly-passed House Bill 710 (HB 710) due to the tiny size of their facility, their small budget, and their lack of an attorney on retainer to handle potential litigation.
HB 710 allows parents or guardians to lodge complaints against materials they deem inappropriate for minors. Once a complaint has been filed, public and school libraries have a total of 60 days to relocate the material to a section that is only accessible to adults. If they do not comply, those parents or guardians can receive $250 in statutory damages, alongside other financial relief for damages.
Free speech groups say Florida misrepresents book objection law, causing mass removals
Teachers should 'err on the side of caution' with what books they have, the state says.
Free speech advocates are accusing Florida education officials of misrepresenting state law, leading to a surge of public school library book removals.
"The overall result is unnecessary and likely unconstitutional censorship emptying libraries throughout the state," wrote the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression in a news release this week. The Florida Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment.
It's now illegal for Minnesota libraries to ban LGBTQ+ books under this new law
What I’m Reading
Nein, Nein, Nein! By Jerry Stahl. Now here’s a good example of not fitting in one place on a bookstore shelf! A depressed comedian goes on a tour of Holocaust sites.
What I’m Watching
I finished binging Big Love. It had jumped the shark for me in the fourth season, but I kept going. The end had me thinking though—for the first wife to take on a priesthood role, she needed to have her husband allow it (and die). Hum.
I binged Baby Reindeer. I highly recommend it. And I’d like to talk to someone about it.
I agree—women’s fiction is a crappy category.
Shooting for the "book club/upmarket fiction" market is wise. This is a very big audience.