The Raven Boys book trailer

Once again I'm incredibly impressed by Maggie Stiefvater's talent and skill when it comes to making her own book trailers. I mean, holy crap, just watch this thing, just listen to it:


Gorgeous, yes? Did I get anyone's curiosity piqued? If so, you'll be happy to know that sharing this trailer with your peeps may lead to an ARC of The Raven Boys. Either way, tell me all your thoughts. Is this an effective book trailer? And what about book trailers in general? Legitimate sales technique or waste of time? Let me know in the comments!

5 nifty, homemade bookmarks

I'm pretty sure that we can all agree that books make awesome gifts. But if you've ever given a book someone, you've probably noticed that it's not the most personal present. Especially if they specifically requested the book. So, I was thinking . . . why not throw in a homemade bookmark?

In the spirit of this idea, I've put together a list of some of my favorite bookmark tutorials on the internet. Just in case you're feeling a little crafty. Check it:

Page corner bookmarks

Bow-tie paperclip bookmarks

Scrap saavy bookmarks

Easy-peasy ribbon bookmarks

Jumbo clip bookmarks

See, don't those seem like they'll make your gift-giving a little more exciting? A lot of them look pretty easy too! But if you're interested in even more bookmark tutorials, check out this list at Tip Junkie . . . it's a bit intensive.

Have you ever given anyone a book (or a bookmark) for a gift before? What book was it and why did you pick that book for them? Also, do you have a hefty bookmark collection like me? Tell me in the comments.

Printz award book challenge

ETA (01/09/12): Well, after some more digging around, it looks like there isn't a year-long challenge specifically for Printz award books. So . . . I'm going to host one just because I want to. :) Go to the tab at the top of the blog or click here to check it out.

Haha, so I had this brilliant plan to host a reading challenge, and throughout all of my research on the matter I didn't succeed in finding a challenge that overlapped my own idea until about two days ago. Sigh.

Anyway, the challenge I was going to create was about Printz award books. In simple terms, the Michael L. Printz award is named for a librarian who was super active in the Young Adult Library Services Association and is pretty much THE young adult book award. If you read YA, you've probably see the seals before--they're giant, metallic P's:

Now what does this have to do with my reading challenge that isn't?

Well, I've only read three Printz winners (Ship Breaker, Going Bovine, and Monster) and six honor books (Stolen, The Monstrumologist, The Book Thief, The House of the Scorpion, The Body of Christopher Creed, and Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging). As of right now there are 12 winners and 45 honor books. I obviously need to read some more of them. And if I need to read some more, there's a good chance that YOU should too.

I'm not hosting it anymore, but if you're interested in tackling some of the Printz award books too, check out The Printz Project. It's a perpetual challenge instead of a year-based challenge, but it definitely deserves a little attention.

So, have you guys read any Printz winners or honor books? If so, which ones and what did you think about them? Also, what kinds of reading goals are you planning to tackle in 2012? I'm planning on reading some more Printz books, but the only definitive challenge I'm going for is the Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge. Tell me what you're up to in the comments!

Regarding the National Book Award fiasco

After a long night of critique partnering, today's post was going to be a quick rant on the unrealistic expectations of the internet writing world and why it is a problem. Instead, the National Book Award debacle has ballooned to the point where I'm finding it difficult to summon the proper amount of ire to write about anything else. We'll save it for Wednesday.

Now, I usually don't tackle the ebbing and rising dramas of the YA lit world. They tend to involve people ranting about how YA has no merit or how it's too dark, etc etc, and there are already enough brilliant reactions to that ridiculousness. However, this fiasco is embarrassing for everyone in the book community.

And thus, everyone in the book community needs to know about it. So if you haven't heard anything about the National Book Award disaster, check out Libba Bray's fantastic post on the matter. She gives you the necessary details and says pretty much everything I feel, so I'm not going to repeat her. Just go read her post. :)

But what do you guys think? Had you heard about this? And what do you think about how the National Book Foundation handled their mistake? Tell me in the comments.

The Scorpio Races book trailer

So, if you don't know, Maggie Stiefvater makes her own book trailers. They are gorgeous. She composes the music and draws all of the art and films them and I can't even explain how amazing I find the whole thing.

Yesterday Maggie uploaded the trailer for her upcoming book, The Scorpio Races. I've decided to share with you guys because, not only is it beautiful, but there are ARCs involved. So enjoy:


Isn't it lovely? *super shallow* So what do you guys think about book trailers? Do you think they help sell more books, or not? And do you have any favorites that stand out in recent memory? Tell me in the comments.

The Great Indie Summer Read Giveaway

Free things are awesome. We all like free things. As long as they're good, free things. Better yet, we all like to win good, free things. Because that's exciting. Unfortunately, I'm too poor to host a giveaway. It's true. However, I figured I could direct you guys to one of the most impressive giveaways that's going on right now. Because, as we've already covered, free things are awesome.

I desperately love the promotional banners for this thing.

The Great Indie Summer Read Giveaway is about what the title implies it to be. It's great, it's during the summer, it involves indie books, and it's a giveaway. Simple, yeah?

Here's the dirt you really want to know: Katya over at CoffeeMugged is the lovely hostess and her giveaway is quite impressive. Over 100 different indie books are involved and it's super easy to enter. Fill out the entry form and bam, you're in. Better yet, there are a crazy number of ways to get more entries in the pot and new opportunities are posted every day. The giveaway is only running until July 31st though, so you better head on over and get your name in.

Do any of you know about any other super sweet giveaways that are going on right now? Or have you ever been the winner of anything particularly exciting (like my Across the Universe water bottle)? Tell me about it in the comments!

I like water, you should too

I know for a fact that we writers all want one thing in our lives: awesome. Yes. That's right. Awesome. We want to write awesome books, we want people to think those books are awesome, and we'd really love it if people thought we were awesome too.

Starting tomorrow (aka: March 31st), Kat Brauer over at The Flighty Temptress is going to show you all what awesome means via her Crits for Water Campaign.

Super official banner goodness.

Yup, this is a charity thing. For clean water. For $5000 worth of clean, sustainable water for an entire community. If you want some heavier details, Kat lays them out nicely.

Now if the idea of donating money to charity makes you squirm, fret not. Also, re-read the title of the fundraiser. If you donate to charity: water something awesome will happen: your writing will get critiqued. Be it by Kat or by someone from her intensive list of guest critiquers (which includes published authors, agents, and all sorts of fun people). There are also "Super Sekrit" giveaways.

Remember when we were talking about awesome-ness? Yeah.

I don't expect you all to run over and throw your money in Kat's direction. Some of us can't really afford to do that, no matter how much we want to. But, if nothing else, tell someone else about it. Tell your writerly friends, tell your blog readers, tell everyone on Twitter until they're begging you to shut up. Let's promote the hell out of this thing!

Now go forth, spread the word!