Catching Up With Authors

Back in January, I wrote about Nathaniel Lachenmeyer, an American author whose book, Broken Beaks was published by an Australian publisher and distributed in this country by a Canadian distributer. Books that follow a traditional path to publication in this country have a hard time getting reviewed simply because of the large number of books seeking attention and the relatively small number of reviewers to give them attention. An out-of-the-loop book such as Broken Beaks is facing a very up-hill battle.

Well, Broken Beaks, which was published back in December, was recently chosen by the Washington Posts's KidsPost as The Book of the Week. Keep in mind folks, that books have a shelf-life, much like movies. You know how Mission Impossible III had less than 48 hours to bring in enough business to be declared a hit or a flop? It's not quite that bad with books. Still, you only have a couple of months to get much in the way of reviews. Then everyone is on to something else. Broken Beaks has done well to get this kind of attention six months after publication, particularly since it doesn't have an American publisher to promote it.

And then back in February I told you about Leda Schubert's Here Comes Darrell Well, Leda has a new book out, Ballet of the Elephants. In addition to being reviewed in the usual places, she just got a review in The New York Times Book Review.

Leda does have an American publisher, but she lives in Vermont, which is a long way from New York, right?