Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is this week (September 27 through October 4). Observed since 1982, this annual American Library Association event reminds Americans not to take this democratic freedom for granted.

BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion, even if that view might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. The BBW stressed the importance of ensuring those unorthodox or unpopular views are available to everyone who wishes to read them. The ALA notes that intellectual freedom can only exist where these two essential conditions are met.

BBW is sponsored not only by the ALA, but by organizations committed to the freedom to read, the freedom to express oneself, freedom of the press, and the freedom to learn. Organizations include: the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers, Foundation for Free Expression, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Association of American Publishers, and the National Association of College Stores.

Read a banned book and celebrate the freedoms to read, learn, and express.

A new school year is upon us and earlier this month more than 100 college presidents signed a statement, Choose Responsibility, to lower the drinking from 21 to closer to 18.  Like many they believe the current drinking age is a massive failure leading to huge number of under-age drinking, drunk driving, accidents, sexual assaults, etc.

Not everyone thinks lowering the drinking age will solve the problem or is even that intelligent of an idea. Steve Chapman, a syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune, argues that for all the problems of under-age drinking associated with the current age, there have been marked improvements: “It’s bizarre to blame the higher age for today’s staggering undergraduates. According to Monitoring the Future, an ongoing research project at the University of Michigan, binge drinking h as not risen since 1988, when 21 became the minimum drinking age throughout our country. Among college students and other college-age Americans, the rate is lower today than it was then, and the decline has been even higher among high-school students.”

Since 1988, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports drunken driving deaths have decreased across the board, but most noticeably in those younger than 21. In that group, the number of alcohol-related fatalities has dropped by nearly half, even as the number of traffic deaths not involving alcohol has remained stable.

This is an argument that is not going to disappear any time soon.  If anything, Chapman suggests that rising the drinking age to 25 might have a better chance of solving the problem. From the perspective of a recovering alcoholic, I can’t help but wonder that if the drinking age were higher when I was a teenager (it was 18 at the time), would I have experienced fewer detrimental problems with alcohol dependency that nearly ruined my life and that of several family members in adulthood?   

Now that the 2008 election is finally in its last 10 weeks, news abounds regarding the candidates vice presidential choices. Of particular interest to authors is the story from 1996 when Sarah Palin, newly elected mayor of Wasilla, Alaska asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books. The Wasilla librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, replied that she would definitely not be all right with banning books.

While Palin never actually banned books from her local library, the story should be a reminder to writers everywhere that there is always the potential for books, perhaps even one you’ve authored, to be challenged. A recent example is J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, which came under strong attack into the 2000s. The American Library Association also notes the Harry Potter series is the number one most challenged book series of the 21^st Century.

In 2006, there were 546 attempts to remove books, and more than 9,200 attempts since 1990, when the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom began to electronically track and publish information on book challenges in 1990. Again, according to the ALA, throughout history there have been people who don’t want information to be freely available.

But it’s more than that. As we prepare to elect a new president and vice president, we would do well to remember the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which protects freedom of the press and freedom of speech: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech; or of the press; . . .” Every writer should understand their rights and challenges.

Note: This is the second part of a two-part article on authors and their rights when entering contests.

Some authors may not wish to sell their complete rights, which is understandable. That makes it even more important to recognize when a contest isn’t really a contest and what the rules actually require, saving writers both the expense and aggravation of entering a contest they were better off ignoring. Signs to keep in mind when considering a contest include:

• Everyone is a winner. By definition, a contest isn’t really a contest if every entrant wins. Make sure the entries are actually judged; and approach with caution if the sponsor will not provide who judges entries. The entry fees are outrageously high. Moira Allen of Writing-World.com provides costs for a typical contest. Be very wary of contests that charge an entry fee of $20 for a grand prize of $50. However, this does not guarantee that a contest is, in fact, legitimate.
• Average entry fees for legitimate poetry, novel, and screenwriting contests range from $5.00-$50.00.
• Just the opposite is true - the entry fee is very low, or there is no cost to enter at all. The question to research is this: Without any entry fee, how does the organization pay to administer the contest, from judges to prizes?
• Every entry is considered for publication. Make sure that the “entry fee” isn’t really a “reading fee.
• The prize is publication in a low-quality periodical, with no respect in the writing or literature community.
• The author of a winning entry has to pay for a copy of the publication.
• The prize actually depends on the number of entries.
• The competition is run by a private individual. According to Moira Allen most legitimate competitions are run by organizations such as literary groups and publishers.

It’s worth noting that while there are a lot of contests posted on the Internet, by the same token there are also a number of resources on the net dedicated to keeping authors aware of contests that are scams and those that are legitimate. Moira Allen of Writing-World.com and Victoria Strauss who oversees the Writer Beware section of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) both offer helpful tips and resources to assist writers in avoiding writing-related scams.

Legitimate contests do exist and they have the potential to get an author’s work noticed. What is crucial is that writers do the necessary research and be sure that they are not giving away their rights for free or getting taken in outright scams.