Hard on the heels of last week's entertaining news that the National Book Foundation had erred in announcing the title of one of the nominees and thus six (not five) books would be finalists in the YA category, comes the very NOT entertaining news Lauren Myracle as been asked to withdraw her erroneously announced SHINE--and she's agreed.
If this happened to one of my clients, I'd be a puddle of sizzling shark shards on the carpet. Frankly, I can't think of anything more awful in the non-lethal or non-disease category than this.
I feel bad for Harold Augenbraum executive director of the National Book Foundation. He's a very nice guy and I'm sure he didn't wake up last week and say "let's see how we can eviscerate a YA author." I don't agree with the choice the NBF made, but they didn't ask me and I'm not a member.
I feel bad for the editor, publisher and agent for SHINE. To be one of the nominees is a singular moment and my guess is more than few champagne corks popped in their respective offices.
(Libba Bray's post about being 'back stage at the clusterfuck" is brilliant)
But my heart breaks for the author. There's nothing I can say that will comfort her, but there's one thing I can DO to show my support for her gracious behavior in the face of this horrible turn of events.
I can buy her book.
You can too.
17 comments:
It's awesome that you speak out for this book and author you don't represent. It shows a boatload of class, and even though I don't usually read YA I'll chip in to support her, too.
Wonderful post. Very nicely put. I completely and totally agree with you. I have already purchased Shine, and it's a wonderful book. Lauren Myracle is a wonderful author. She definitely did not deserve to go through this whole fiasco. She is one of the kindest authors I have ever met. :-(
Just did that this morning!
The book sounds great, award or not. I bought it. Course it doesn't hurt that you've never steered me wrong.
Done. Just purchased it through Amazon. :-) From the excerpt I read, it's very well written.
Agreed. I already bought it for just this reason!
They shouldn't have asked her to withdraw: it was unnecessary. However, a bit of free press for a good book isn't a bad trade, all things considered. It is a bitter pill, though.
I read it. This blows my mind.
What an odd decision by the NBF. I hope that Myracle will make lots of lemonade from the lemon she was handed. And kudos to her for her grace under pressure.
You show more class than the National Book Award folks, who should have just made up a BS story about accidentally nominating six titles instead of five. However, this is likely going to work out all the better for the book, since the author gets a ton of publicity and also public sympathy. To increased book sales!
(And Myracle has my sympathies, as my heart would break in that situation. But she's staying classy, too!)
Bravo, Janet!
I'm with Kristin--why not just add the missing book and say, "Whoops! We forgot one! We're nominating six this year 'cause there was a tie!" Humiliating someone was unacceptable.
That being said, I'm hoping that Myracle's payback for all of this is bigger sales. I hadn't heard of this book until this hoopla, and the description sounded like something I'd like, so I bought it when I otherwise wouldn't have known about it.
This also sounds like a book that SHOULD be read. I don't read YA. At all. But I won't let this book fly under my radar ...
How painful for Myracle, but she handled the situation with such grace. I'm so impressed.
I agree with Jessica, I don't read a lot of YA, but this sounds like a book that should be read. That this happened so close to the anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death is just tragic. I'll be buying Myracle's book today.
Oh no! I missed this news until just now! (That's what being sick will get you.) And I was so happy to see Shine announced as a finalist! Well, I'm off to go buy it. A friend gave me my copy. So now I'll buy one and give it to somebody else. :)
Thanks, Janet, for posting this. I bought it yesterday and started reading this morning. Can't wait to keep reading.
-Beth M
Just ordered. Thank you for being her advocate and coming up with such a terrific idea for support.
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