Fun stop at Cal State Fullerton’s Pollak Library for a presentation to bright-eyed college students and teachers to be. More proof positive that EVERYBODY gets swept up in stories when given the chance. Here’s the scoop in the school newspaper:
http://www.dailytitan.com/2013/03/childrens-author-visits/
Just back from the wilds of Redlands, CA where the students and staff of Mariposa Elementary School serenaded me with a welcome I’ll never forget. Before my morning assemblies, all the 3rd grade students took the stage and performed for their parents and for me (such creativity!) Their teachers Judy and Tandi had scripted a re-cap of my life and writing career which students sang, rhymed, and rapped to live, spritely piano accompaniment. Thank you, Lisa McCarty who coordinated the whole visit, and to all the honorary Jazz Bugs who adorned the stage and cafeteria with artwork based on my books. (What are you trying to do, give me a big head?) Here are some links to media coverage that appeared in the local press:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_22476721/jazz-fly-author-visits-mariposa-elementary-redlands
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIcKGx-3o5w&feature=player_detailpage
Like many creative souls, Laura Presno has a dream. This 3rd grade teacher at Terry School in Selma, CA, has written a sci-fi novel for kids. Over a staff lunch in the teachers’ lounge (a welcome break for me after 3 assemblies), she posed questions about publishing with such focus and insight that I immediately identified her as a fellow writer. A week or so later, she followed up with an email:
“I have one huge question for you! I haven’t been seeking actual publishers… I’ve been spending all my time trying to land a literary agent… am I going about this all wrong? All the research I’ve done claims that chances are pretty slim to none to get a publisher to even look at your work without an agent.”
Here’s my take on this age-old question of which comes first in the world of commercial publishing. Many writers (myself included) find their publisher first then their agent. Since agents stand to make only a 15-20% commission of what a writer earns (used to be 10%), they tend to be insanely picky about whom they’ll represent. They also want to know that the writer they invest in with their time and contacts is a committed writer with more than one book contract likely, so when approaching agents and presenting your manuscript, by all means talk about your plans for future books! Publishers also want to deal with writers who aspire to publish more than one book, though they tend not to nurture writers along through their careers the way they seemed to in decades past. Too many conglomerates, now, and too little job security for editors. These trends have encouraged shorter and shorter term thinking.
The bottom line is if you can get a publisher interested in your work first, it becomes very easy to enlist an agent. (Around 90% of the agent’s job will have already be done!) A writer with an interested editor or two, who mainly needs help navigating prospective book contracts, is suddenly VERY interesting to agents, so there’s nothing wrong with approaching small to mid-size publishers first (the big ones usually won’t give you the time of day without an agent). Sometimes, the small to mid-size publishers actually prefer that you not enlist an agent; they’d rather deal with you directly. If you ever wind up in this situation, it’s perfectly OK to hire a publishing attorney instead of an agent (for a flat professional fee rather than a percentage of royalties). The publishing attorney will look over your contract and help you avoid pitfalls but, unlike an agent, will not collect future royalties on your behalf from the publisher. Another more economical option is to join the Authors Guild in NYC and ask for their guidance in negotiating your contract. They used to assign lawyers straight out of law school to go over your contract with a fine-toothed comb, copiously noting suggestions and bargaining points. I imagine they still offer this service to members for free or for a small charge.
So there you have it: no hard and fast rules. Could be the publisher first, could be the agent. Regardless of whom you deal with first, understand the rules of their game and what their particular service involves!
Writer Alexa Russell got me thinking about the PRACTICAL value of an English degree in today’s online work environment. More than ever, she says, students are able to put their degrees to work remotely in order to spur social change and communicate internationally. Check out her noteworthy article below, and you may think twice about writing majors! Enjoy:
There has perhaps never been a better time to be proficient in written English. English is undisputedly the primary language of the Internet, and is increasingly required for international business, as well as most jobs in the telecommunications and IT support sectors. Though for much of the world it serves as a second, third, or even fourth language, its ubiquity makes it something of a gold standard. Employers around the world put value on employees with demonstrable English language skills. College students pursuing the English major—long seen as being something of an easy course of study—may find their vindication as more and more jobs give preference to those with literature or composition degrees. A robust knowledge of English is also increasingly important to international social change movements, from social networking campaigns to grassroots efforts over Twitter and text messaging.
One of the main reasons both native and non-native English speakers pursue English degrees is to tailor their understanding of the language, and hone in on the elements of it needed to find success in a global marketplace. “The current shortage of talent with the aptitude to speak, write, present, sell and service customers in English has become a high performance dilemma for individual companies, and even countries,” Mahesh Ram, CEO of the Global English Corporation, told Forbes in an April 2012 article.
Global English is a think tank focused on the use of English in businesses throughout the world. It recently released survey data showing that international companies are a full 7 percent worse at communicating in English today than they were ten years ago. Against this backdrop, an English degree can be remarkably attractive in the right setting.
Online and web-based jobs utilizing English come in many shapes and forms. Many resemble standard office jobs, except that they are done at home from virtually any location. These include writing corporate blog posts, managing and answering executives’ e-mail communications, and managing official Twitter feeds. Many of these jobs can be done remotely, often from any Internet connection. Today’s workforce is truly more global than ever, as employees who might once have shared an office or seen each other in the elevator may now populate different continents and hemispheres.
Enterprising English grads may also be able to find interesting and profitable work as web copywriters, creating and editing articles for a variety of websites. In many cases, this sort of work can be tailored to individual interests: sites for disciplines as diverse as gardening, medical knowledge, and math skills all need writers to craft engaging content. Sites geared to English-speaking audiences of course need content in English, but the same is also usually true for international sites. Because English is so well-known, many web hosts want content in this language in order to reach the widest possible readership.
Increasingly, English majors—particularly those from international backgrounds or with global aspirations—find a language-based degree program useful for social justice work, too. English-language tweets sent by Iranian protesters in the election uprising of 2011 were one of the main reasons that the event, known now as the “Arab Spring,” drew the sort of international audience it did. The United States was one of the major players in that conflict, both in terms of diplomacy and media coverage. Knowing English and understanding how to effectively communicate in that tongue helped activists of all nationalities publicize and shed light on the conflict.
The effects of English social media use are widespread. “In the past couple of years, social media have played a significant role in breaking news on sensitive topics, including official corruption and civil unrest,” a National Public Radio article on the rise of Twitter use in China reported. China’s government has long been criticized for being secretive, authoritarian, and censoring. Posting messages and descriptions of government action in Chinese can be effective, but a wider audience can often be reached by using English. Those with English proficiency, both in and outside of China, can dramatically help leverage the use of new resources to shed light on injustices, and hopefully bring about change.
Social media can also be indispensable when it comes to public health. Those interested in spreading the word about HIV/AIDS prevention, crisis response, or basic health care for impoverished communities may find that English-based social network messages are the most effective means of communication. The World Health Organization, a Switzerland-based non-profit, has been utilizing social media now for several years with overwhelmingly positive results.
“News is breaking on Twitter. Citizen journalism is becoming as valuable as paid journalism. Clicktivism is a new way of campaigning for many causes. Social media has become a new bridge that connects people,” Sari Setiogi, a WHO social media officer, said in an article about Twitter and Facebook use on the WHO website. “WHO talks to a broad range of people on our social media channels: Everyone from a ministry of health official to the parents of a premature baby.” A firm grasp of English is absolutely essential for this job, for although the WHO is an international organization, English is, predictably, its main operating language.
Investing in an English degree in today’s Internet-driven world is not nearly as risky as it may have been decades ago. No longer are English majors limited to jobs in publishing or teaching. Many of the most cutting-edge jobs with the biggest possibilities for positive change are based on the ability to communicate clearly and effectively. Majoring in English can be an excellent way to get a foothold in one or more of these up-and-coming sectors.
Alexa Russell is a freelance writer from the Northwest and currently considering graduate school at UC Berkeley where she wants to study English and communications. She is also a writer for http://www.onlineenglishdegree.com/ where you can check out more of her writing.
Last Saturday, I had the privilege of presenting (for the 3rd or 4th year) at the Stockton Record’s Family Day in the Park, an annual public celebration in Stockton, CA. I had three 20-minute performance slots, one in the enclosed King Arthur’s Court (a tent) and one with a mic on an open stage. Engaging 60-80 people of different ages at once requires a great deal of energy and enthusiasm–particularly when most people are passers-by. Some performers on the open stage sang to danceable pre-recorded music. Others offered candy to volunteers. Meanwhile, high school bands and drill teams marched by occasionally, and surrounding booths offered everything from free goldfish to face painting. Amid all the competing excitement, however, I wondered if I as a performer had it wrong. Instead of presenting stories with ever greater animation, perhaps my “invitation” to books would have been more realistic had I modeled the quiet enjoyment of reading. Of course, I would have lost much of my audience immediately. But perhaps those who stayed would have concentrated more and, in turn, modeled to others the focus that reading (and listening to) stories really requires. Therein lies the irony of using excitement to inspire young children and families to read. While drumming and animated delivery works in public, my hope is to inspire the QUIET appreciation of books (!)
Last week, in a tiny farm town near Dinuba, CA (Tulare Co.), I was privileged to lead a writing workshop for around twenty Migrant students. The students ranged from grades 4-8th. My goal was to get them to write with vivid, sensory details about a work or life experience unique to their own background. First, I soon realized, I needed to impress upon them that outside of their community–Monson-Sultana Elementary School, a rather isolated, self-contained K-8 campus, surrounded by orange groves and apple orchards–many people would regard their Migrant experience as interesting. Perhaps in a 95% Hispanic school where most families, though not officially classified as “Migrant,” seem to have experienced farm labor at some point, it’s easy to grow up assuming that EVERYONE takes part in agricultural production. Maybe since wages for such work are low, the conditions hard and the work only seasonal, it’s also easy for Migrant students to feel ashamed of their families’ status. So I started the workshop by quoting, Cesar Chavez:
“Your [parents'] sweat and sacrifice put food on the table of millions of people across the nation and around the world.”
Silence. The joking, the horsing around came to an abrupt halt. I went on to explain that many people in the broader society simply have no idea of what goes into agricultural production. “Take me, for example. I’m from a city way up in the Bay Area. We think oranges come from the supermarket. We see milk that comes in containers, cheese in plastic wrappers, and we don’t give it a second thought. And you’re going to meet more people like me in the years ahead. When you go to college, you will meet lots of people from the city, people from other states, even people from other countries like Korea and China. They will take an interest in the work your family knows. For them, it will seem exotic and unique. So never feel ashamed of your family. Feel proud of your contributions to society!”
That seemed to do the trick. They were hooked, intent on learning how to describe–in English–what it’s like to so agricultural work. We considered describing work in a field or orchard. Finally, we settled on an orange-packing plant for our setting. We brainstormed details that readers could see, feel, taste, smell and hear. The students described for me the hairnets and rubber gloves that workers are required to wear, the high or low temperatures inside the plant, the hard cement floor, the smell of over-ripe oranges sticking or smashing up against the well-shaped ones. They described the oranges rolling by on the conveyor belt, how workers were expected to separate them according to size, to crate them, then lift and carry the heavy crates. I asked them how workers got paid, and they knew: either by hourly wage (around $8) or by “contrato,” i.e. according to pieces, weight or crates processed. They described the smells of meals coming from the break room, the smell of beans, home-made tortillas and the machacudos that the workers brought with them. I told them that although I speak Spanish I needed them to define machacudo (a “smashed” combination of egg and beans). We talked of ways to present Spanish words in their writing, how to italicize foreign words, how to define the terms by paraphrasing them or using footnotes, asterisks or even glossaries.
I asked them to describe to me the thoughts on the workers’ minds. “They wanna work faster!” a boy suggested, “if they’re getting paid by contrato.”
“When you’re doing that work, you just wanna get paid, so you can go buy groceries for your family. So you can buy the stuff that’s on sale at Wal-Mart.” The preteen girl who chimed this comment had burgundy tinted hair.
Teachers often wonder how their students will turn out, what the future will hold for them. Todd Canterbury, a Migrant coordinator who has worked with Tulare County Schools for many years, had this to say about their life trajectory. “Some of these Migrant kids grow up driven and really hungry to succeed. They wind up at colleges like UC Merced, Cal State Bakersfield, even Berkeley or Yale. I’ve seen some of them enter professions and come back to this area. Some of them now earn a lot more money than I do. It’s as if their experiences growing up made them that much more determined and focused.”
Looking around the room at the present crop of Migrant students, I wondered which ones would go on to do what. A smiling 8th grade boy, I later learned, had been exposed to environmental lead poising in Mexico. His prospects weren’t good as he still struggled to master basic arithmetic and language. The 5th grade girl with the glasses, on the other hand, had a maturity and quiet wisdom about her–and writing skills–that suggested she was college bound. The bright-eyed 4th grade boy was shaky when it came to spelling, but conceptually he understood everything I presented, and he contributed verbal insights as keen as any I’d heard. Future labor lawyers, teachers, psychologists? Migrant kids do bring special insights to the table. There’s a reason U.S. colleges consider their circumstance in the admission process. These kids, I’m hoping, will be that much more effective at describing their Migrant experiences to the broader world.
Last week, in the wake of two back-to-back bilingual family night talks–each very well attended–I understood something that politicians must know instinctively. Namely, when addressing large audiences of widely divergent backgrounds, it’s necessary to speak in easy-to-digest terms. Not quite soundbites, but basic concepts that most everyone can walk away with. The same goes for sound effects and interactive drumming. A packed house of 200+ plus people may not hear the rhythms of a hand drum, at least not loudly enough to really snap to attention. But timbales, or tom-toms, played with drums sticks cut through the murmur. When drumming or speaking for large multilingual audiences, big, bold statements carry the day. Here’s a link to a write up in the local paper in Manteca, CA: http://www.mantecabulletin.com/section/42/article/33462/
Again, I’m wowed by the creativity and dedication of school librarians in south Texas. Ada Mendoza, the librarian of North San Juan Elementary School posted this mash-up of an author assembly I just presented last week at her school. Keep your speakers on to enjoy to swingin’ sounds! Matthew Gollub at North San Juan School
School librarians lead by Moses Castillo pose as Jazz Fly characters based on Jazz Fly books.
One day after Thanksgiving, as I resist the urge to fight the crowds of Black Friday and procure an operational DVD player, I feel THANKS for my work encouraging young people to read. Specifically, I feel THANKS for my recent tour to south Texas–an 11-school march through the Rio Grande Valley town of Weslaco, capped by a family evening event at the Horizon Montessori School in McAllen. Even more specifically, I feel THANKS for the school librarians in Weslaco, who devoted such energy and creativity to their District Wide Evening Literacy Event. Here’s what they did:
They mobilized hundreds of parents and children to attend, despite the unexpected circumstance of the two local high school football teams making the playoffs. One of the teams, apparently in the playoffs for the first time, had their game fall exactly on the night of this event. In small town Texas, such a conflict normally would torpedo the attendance at a family reading event. They say that attendance took a hit compared to past years. Still, families still turned out in droves. The librarians dressed up at as characters from my books–Patty Avila as Farmer Beth of “Gobble, Quack, Moon;” Karen Boward as a Oaxacan villager wearing in a beautiful hand-embroidered dress; Eddie Cavazos as one of the monigotes from “The Moon Was at a Fiesta,” etc. Then each librarian lead an activity station to help children and parents create simple art projects based on the books. This gave chlidren a chance to tell their parents about the books, while fashioning Mixtec Cat masks, miniature taiko drums, Jazz Fly wings, etc. I signed books while this went on for an hour or so leading up to my short presentation. Engaging the public in book content while giving them something to do with their hands–brilliant! My THANKS also to librarian Moses Castillo for sending these charming photos!
Librarian Eddie Cavazos helps families create "papel picado" based on "The Moon Was at a Fiesta"
Librarian Angie Hinojosa leads families in making dark glasses based on "Three Blind Mice" from the book "Wooleycat's Musical Theater."