{"id":66,"date":"2008-06-23T17:46:04","date_gmt":"2008-06-23T22:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=66"},"modified":"2009-01-27T13:48:27","modified_gmt":"2009-01-27T18:48:27","slug":"literary-rock-stars-and-the-quills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=66","title":{"rendered":"Literary Rock Stars and The Quills"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I think nearly every industry has rock stars in it. Rock stars are usually recognizable to non-industry people and are the ones people\u00c2\u00a0want to be around. Sometimes rock stars are only known to the people that follow that genre or subject matter.\u00c2\u00a0 I think a list of author rock stars would include Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, and David Eggers.\u00c2\u00a0 This is, of course, not a complete list and your list would be different if you thought of a bunch of names in five minutes.<\/p>\n

What I’m about to reveal is really old news as it was reported in February of this year. The Quill Awards are no more! You may be wondering what exactly the Quill Awards are and with good reason. The intent was to create the literary equivalent of the Oscars.\u00c2\u00a0 Voting was done by the public after the nominees were chosen.\u00c2\u00a0 The awards ceremony was televised\u00c2\u00a0on NBC but it was taped about a week before the broadcast.\u00c2\u00a0 Other than an occasional reminder to vote I can’t remember anyone or any news publication\u00c2\u00a0really mentioning it.<\/p>\n

So how did the nominees get chosen?\u00c2\u00a0 The Quills Selection Committee included editors from Publishers Weekly<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 To qualify for selection the book needed (1) a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly<\/em>, (2) a position on the Publisher’s Weekly<\/em> Bestseller List or (3) be specially chosen by the committee.\u00c2\u00a0 After narrowing each category to five nominees the Voting Board placed their votes over several months.\u00c2\u00a0 The Voting Board was comprised of 6,000 invited librarians and booksellers.\u00c2\u00a0 The public then had one month to place votes for their favorites.\u00c2\u00a0 Categories were diverse enough to represent a wide variety of authors and books though some titles were nominated in more than one category.<\/p>\n

Now, if you’ve made\u00c2\u00a0it this far you\u00c2\u00a0are probably wondering how literary rock stars and the Quill Awards go hand in hand?\u00c2\u00a0 Writing is a mostly solitary profession and feedback from readers is generally received after a new project has been started.\u00c2\u00a0 It can be difficult for a writer to get his or her head back into the most recently published work to generate more enthusiasm among the reading audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Except for the rare\u00c2\u00a0televised book appearance on C-SPAN it’s difficult for an author to become a personality.\u00c2\u00a0 I think the Quill Awards wanted to make more authors into rock stars.\u00c2\u00a0 The award ceremony let you see the people behind the words.\u00c2\u00a0 Reading is perceived by many to be non-sexy, unglamorous and time consuming.\u00c2\u00a0 I couldn’t disagree more.<\/p>\n

I’ll take a man who reads over one who doesn’t any day of the week.\u00c2\u00a0 Books and short stories allow you to travel to different places without having to deal\u00c2\u00a0firsthand with the difficulties of\u00c2\u00a0airports, trains, boats,\u00c2\u00a0slow moving\u00c2\u00a0donkeys, hostile natives, and security restrictions.\u00c2\u00a0 How can that not be glamorous?\u00c2\u00a0 A good book makes you lose track of time\u00c2\u00a0which happens anytime you’re doing something you enjoy.\u00c2\u00a0 Wordsmiths are rock stars to me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think nearly every industry has rock stars in it. Rock stars are usually recognizable to non-industry people and are the ones people\u00c2\u00a0want to be around. Sometimes rock stars are only known to the people that follow that genre or subject matter.\u00c2\u00a0 I think a list of author rock stars would include Stephen King, Neil… Continue reading Literary Rock Stars and The Quills<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-award","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t