It’s here - Banned Books Week, celebrated from September 26, 2009 through October. The first Banned Books Week organized by the American Library Association (ALA) was celebrated in 1982 when there was an increase in books being challenged is schools, libraries, and stores.

Censorship continues to be a serious problem in the U.S with the ALA reporting an increase in book challenges. In 2008 the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom recorded 517 challenges, up from 420 in 2007. While most challenges are unsuccessful, they are a violation of the First Amendment and intellectual freedom.

What is intellectual freedom? The freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular, and is the foundation of Banned Books Week. As an author I’m celebrating Banned Books Week by reading a banned book.

A friend has been helping me get my mother organized and one of those projects is finding a new home for her many books, both hard cover and paperback, all recent titles. Before starting her own business in getting people organized, this freind used to work at the area literacy council and suggested we donate the books to local libraries.

As an author, I thought this was a great idea. In tough economic times, cash-strapped libraries in our area are having to cut hours and the number of books they purchase. So we donated 112 paperbacks and 54 hardcover books, to a most grateful library staff. On our end it helps clean up my parent’s house, while providing strapped libraries with an influx of new titles, all in very good to mint condition.

Interested in dontating your own books? Contact your local library and find out where to drop off books. While there, be sure and get a receipt detailing the number of books (split out hard covers and paperbacks) which you can then show as a donation at tax time. It’s win-win - you’ll have more space and put books to good use and the library will appreciate the donation.

It’s a good idea for authors to keep track of what’s being said about their work on the Internet, or what’s not being talked about that should be discussed. New tools are always being developed and there are two I’ve found beneficial.

As Google increases its dominance, most writers are probably familiar with “Google Alerts”. The alerts are e-mail updates on a certain topic, be it a developing news story or information on your latest book or you, the author.

The second site is “Who’s Talkin” a social media search tool, again monitoring the blogs, reviews, articles, etc. regarding your latest work or activity. Of the two, www.whostalkin.comcurrently works better than Google Alerts.  Here’s why.

If I enter “Catherine Johnson author of Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace” as a Google Alert, I receive every alert containing any one of those words. So I can get a completely unrelated alert regarding Catherine Watson, author, simply because it matched my first name. The same is true of the title - I receive matches for any book title having any of the words in the title.

Using the same information, Who’s Talkin’ appears to synthesize information better providing more relevant results. For example using Who’s Talkin’ I’ve discovered blog post regarding Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace in French and Spanish, and discovered my own postings written on topics relating to the novel disseminated across the web.

Both options are a good way for authors to monitor the Internet activity their work(s) are generating.

ABC News carried a story on a very different type of book. Scheduled to be released Thursday, May 21st The Obama Time Capsule recounts President Obama’s historic campaign and election with one distinct difference - each book is personalized with the buyer’s photographs and text. No two copies of the coffee table book will be alike because each copy is printed one at a time, after the book is ordered.

What the book does is weave together the story and photographs of the Obama campaign with those of the buyer/author. Publishing insiders believe such books herald the new wave of publishing, where books are personalized to the unique end user.

On Tuesday a partnership between national libraries and the United Nations Education Agency launched the World Digital Library.

The web site is in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian leads readers through a treasure trove of rare finds from more than a dozen countries. The goal is one every author can appreciate - to pique young readers’ interest and get them reading books.

The web site for the Library of Congress also offers a wealth of digital collections online. I’ve checked out both sites, and they are habit-forming (in a good way) to say the least.

Earlier this week, I posted about purchasing books online. I’d tried it after reading David Streitfeld’s article “Bargain Hunting for Books and Feeling Sheepish About It”. Streitfeld was able to purchase a pristine copy of a hard-to-find book he was searching for, paying a quarter for the work.

I tested this out, purchasing two books, one from Amazon and one from a book reseller. The results: The first book, Old Flames by Jack Ketchum arrived directly from Amazon and that copy was brand new. The second book, Angels and Demons by Dan Brown was to be a birthday gift for my husband.

Both books arrived promptly - Old Flames in three days and Angels and Demons in five. The copy of Angels and Demons was carefully packed (a bomb could detonate next to the package and it would have remained tightly taped inside the delivery envelop) so no complaints there. The book itself was unmarked, but clearly it was used and smelled a bit musty. Had the book not been intended as a gift it would have been perfectly fine. It turned out my husband had a new copy he’d purchased over a year ago, so I found another birthday present.

Overall the experience was a very good one. The reseller contacted me via e-mail thanking me for the order as did Amazon. The customer service in both instances was stellar. Unlike David Streitfeld I felt no guilt purchasing books over the Internet versus driving to a brick and mortar store. Everything related to book publishing changed once the shopping habits of consumers changed.

Would I buy books this way again? Absolutely. Two years ago, my husband ordered a hard-to-find work from Amazon simply because that was the only place carrying the book. So in a way, changing our habits is only logical. There is no doubt there will be tough times and adjustments. We can lament these trends and try to fight them or we can accept shifting habits and patterns, integrating them into our own business and marketing plans.

“Bargain Hunting for Books and Feeling Sheepish About It” is a great article by David Streitfeld on the changing habits of book buyers and their impact on publishers, authors, readers, and traditional bookstores. Streitfeld’s aghast comes from his participation in the very habits that are changing the publishing industry forever - buying a book for little money over the Internet versus shopping at a brick and mortar bookstore.

As an author I certainly understand the negative side effects of Internet technology - publishers are laying off employees, bookstores are closing, and authors are receiving far less in royalties. Even booksellers don’t make a lot of money - there are so many copies available of the most titles pricing is very competitive. These are exactly the reasons I just purchased two books over the Internet.  From the behemoth Amazon, no less.

Without leaving the comfort of my home, I paid under $26 for both titles, which are being shipped to my front door. No wasting gas driving to the bookstore, then spending time searching for the titles, requesting help when I can’t find what I’m looking for, then making the return trip, etc. What would take an hour took less than 10 minutes. Engaging the Internet I saved time, got a decent competitive price, and had my choice of copies to choose from, some used and some new.

I don’t feel sheepish as Streitfeld apparently did. Would I like to get more royalties for my novel? Of course! At the same time, there’s no going back to way books were sold pre-Internet. As a writer, I need to let go of worrying about how many books I’m selling vs. readers who purchase the novel for less money through booksellers, love it, and spread the word.

When John Updike died on Tuesday at the age of 76, many paid tribute. One news clip was of particular interest to me - Updike expounding on his love of the printed word and books. He wasn’t talking about digitized books on the Internet or e-books, but the smell, feel, sight, and satisfaction of reading an honest-to-God bound book.

Updike gave a speech in 2006 at the Book Expo of America lamenting where books are headed with the Google concept of a “universal library”. I don’t necessarily agree with Updike but he brings valid points to the table on the vast changes in the publishing industry. How will this affect writers? Books themselves? Will traditional “bound” books become obsolete?

Reader’s habits - from how books are bought to how books are enjoyed - are part of this seismic change. Rather than creating the ability to access books on a universal scale, are we instead creating the “haves” in those who can first of all, read, and second, possess computer technology to do so, versus the “have nots” who have neither the luxury of literacy or technology?

This morning we awoke to 27.9 or almost 28 degrees below zero. No including wind chill, just a straight across the board nearly 28 degrees below. The novel talks about weather in Minnesota, particularly winter and the lung-searing cold that makes a warm to zero feel balmy. Absolutely true. Tomorrow’s temperature should rise to a positively toasty 18 degrees above.

Such weather has its advantages. There’s an old Minnesota joke that such bitter cold “helps keep the riff raff out”. That most likely depends on your definition of “riff raff”. For writers and readers however, this weather offers an ideal opportunity to indulge your passions. Herewith some ideas:
Map out your next book or article
Get some serious writing done on your latest project
Engage in Internet research for said project
Enter a writing contest
Revise your cover letter
Research literary agents and/or magazine editors
Curl up and read a good book
Catch up on all that miscellaneous reading of favorite magazines
School’s been closed the past two days - get the kids away from the TV and into books

Take heart - the arctic cold snap will end eventually, and the white quiet of winter will give way to the symphony of spring. Accomplishing some writing or reading tasks when it’s nearly impossible to be outdoors will mean less guilt and frustration when warmer days at last reappear.   

Amazon has launched Author Stores, a tool that should help promote authors and their books on the Amazon site. The Author Stores are single pages that list all the books from a particular author, as well as other features. The Author Stores launched before the beginning of the year with 2,500 pages; the goal is to have a page for every author who has books available on Amazon.

See how the feature works by searching for popular bestselling authors including Stephen King, J.K. Rowling and James Patterson. Customers access the stores thr ough the normal search box-when a shopper searches for an author who has a store, a link appears at the top of the search results next to Amazon’s Author Store logo. As an example, I’ve used J.K. Rowlings to access her page.

Apple uses a similar feature for popular artists at its iTunes stores. Amazon’s long-time goal is to have an Author Store for every author whose books are available through Amazon.