The History of the (Whole) World

my progress in writing, revising, sending to my editor, re-revising, fact-checking, galley-reading, and promoting a four-volume history of the world

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When the book was the new technology

September 1st, 2010 by Susan
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In preparation for those Vancouver lectures, I’ve been reading lots and lots of different takes on Marshall McLuhan’s aphorism, “The medium is the message.” (I think he’s wrong, by the way, but you’ll have to listen to the lectures in November to find out why.) From critiques of McLuhan, I took a rabbit trail into the early days of print and the effect this had on the reading process. And while I was reflecting on how the book changes words, I came across this.

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A note from an Australian reader

August 31st, 2010 by Susan
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I wanted to pass on this email from a reader…both because I enjoyed it and because it demonstrates just how books get sold. (Not primarily through ads in the New York Times, in short.)

Dear Susan,

I live in Australia – which is probably the antipodes to Charles City, VA. Three hours ago I hade never heard of Susan Wise Bauer, nor had I any intention to buy a book on medieval history, and yet here I am, three hours later, having ordered “The History of the Medieval World”, and very likely to order some of your other works as well.

I thought you might be amused to discover the chain of chance circumstance that led to the sale of one of your history books in a very crowded marketplace – especially a sale to a buyer on the other side of the Earth. This event might even qualify as a manifestation of the famous theory of the “Six Degrees of Separation”, or at least something like that…

Anyway, you can thank an author by the name of James Wood for your sale. This is the same James Wood who is described as “…the author of 14 best-selling books of fiction and non-fiction…former CEO of United Press International and managing editor of the Sunday Times (London)…etc”. It is also the same James Wood who you tore into in a critical review of one of his books last year on Amazon.com, which has probably meant that you won’t be invited to a BBQ at James Wood’s place any time soon…

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a CD of an MP3 audio version of Wood’s book “How Fiction Works” from Blackstone Audio (USA). My decision was made solely on the basis of Wood’s credentials, and, because essentially I just wanted to find out from an informed source…well….“how fiction works”!! After all, why wouldn’t I buy this book when Publishers Weekly declared that :

“Arguably the pre-eminent critic of contemporary English letters, [Wood] accomplishes his mission of asking a critic’s questions and offer[s] a writer’s answers with panache. This book is destined to be marked up, dog-eared and cherished.”

The audiobook had to be shipped all the way across the Pacific at extra expense to me, because Amazon-Audible won’t sell MP3 downloads into the Australian market for recently published books (yours included). This is due to quaint 19th century geographic distribution restrictions in the publishing industry – but they are quite happy to sell a physical version of the same thing!!

Wood’s book turned out to be a complete waste of my time and money – so much for Publishers Weekly’s beat-up. I was so infuriated that I decided to have a belated look at what the reviewers on Amazon had to say – and that is where I found you. I can see that you are a no-bull lady who calls a spade a spade, and I wish I had read your review first. I have said as much in my own just-added customer comment to your review, which you will find on Amazon.

Clearly this reader has excellent literary judgment. But I digress.

The forthrightness of your review left me a little intrigued, so I followed the trail to your website and when I read your quote from Barbara Tuchman, I realised that, in you, I had stumbled across what seems to be a rare species – an historian with integrity and a great writing style. As Clint (Eastwood) would say, this has just made my day! For many years Australia has been beset by “history wars”, where some of the local academic & political class have been only too happy to bend historical fact to support their pet ideologies, and that has got right up the noses of a lot of people !

Having discovered that you write history books, I then had a look at what you had up on Amazon. After reading the first page of “The History of the Medieval World” (about the Constantinian shift), I knew that this was one author whose books I just gotta have…

Sooo, if you have ever copped any flak from the James Woods of this world about your no-nonsense book reviews, then just remember that you are probably triggering a widening circle of book sales out of them…

Best regards…

That made my day. Thanks, Australian Reader!

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-29

August 29th, 2010 by Susan
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  • My head is full of fourteenth-century German kings and non-restrictive clauses and SAT prep classes and uncleaned stalls. #
  • My head is full of papal monarchies and Augustinian dichotomies, Postman and McLuhan, outlining exercises and home-made pasta. #
  • I seem to be adrift in a sea of sloppy thinking. Doesn't anyone study logic any more? #
  • Multiple anecdotes do not an argument make. #
  • Happy seventeenth birthday, Ben! #
  • Baking anniversary/birthday cake and watching news. Very weird day in U.S. politics. Fortunately, can improve mood by eating more frosting. #
  • We have too many dogs. #

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Rites of passage

August 28th, 2010 by Susan
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This was a big week for life events: we delivered Christopher to his freshman year at college, and Ben turned seventeen.

The college trip came first…after a last goodbye from the youngest.

(Wait, one last visit from the brain-sucker…)

Arriving…

Picking up dorm keys…

And moving in.

Right after I took that picture, Pete and I realized that two perfectly healthy young men, aged eighteen and nineteen, were completely capable of unpacking and organizing all their own stuff. So we left and went out for a great lunch and a movie. Just the two of us. All alone.

And then back home to give Ben his much-anticipated birthday present.


“Wait, I know I can get this thing louder…”

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-22

August 22nd, 2010 by Susan
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  • DS13, back in the house after gathering eggs: "A big snake was strangling one of the chickens. I whacked it with a shovel until it let go." #
  • Embarking on the Fifth Crusade this morning. #
  • If the kids make any more noise, my head might just split open like a ripe cantaloupe. #
  • Today's fun fact: Conrad IV of Germany was also Conrad I of Jerusalem & Conrad II of Sicily. Because just one name would be way too simple. #
  • Simultaneously reading "You Are Not a Gadget" and "The Book in the Renaissance"-2 pages of one, 2 pages of other. Fascinating juxtaposition. #
  • Remember that snake that Dan found wrapped around the chicken? Ben just caught it. And brought all 6 feet of snake up for us to see. #
  • Running this morning: it's starting to look like fall. Corn is full of morning glories, river mist in ribbons all across the fields. #
  • Getting ready to drive Christopher & all his stuff to UVA. Way easier than putting him on a plane to South Africa. #
  • Christopher all installed in his dorm. Now he can start learning to say things like "The Lawn" and "I'm a First Year" and "The University." #

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Hey, Mom, look what I caught!

August 20th, 2010 by Susan
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Tuesday night, Dan (thirteen) came charging upstairs after his nightly visit out to the chickenhouse to gather the eggs. “There was a huge snake wrapped around one of the chickens,” he announced, “but I whacked it with a shovel until it let go.” (And then he said, “The snake freaked me out so I need to play some computer games before bed to calm down.” But that was another conversation.)

We have the chickens fenced off from foxes, eagles, and stray dogs, but it’s impossible to keep snakes out of the nesting boxes. Black snakes slither up in there and eat the eggs. When I was a kid, we had what seemed like HUNDREDS of chickens, and it was our job to feed, water, collect eggs, clean and grade eggs, and sell eggs. If you weren’t careful about sticking your hands into nesting boxes, you’d find yourself patting a snake. In fact, one of the enduring memories of my childhood is putting my hand under a sitting hen to check for eggs and discovering that she was SITTING on a blacksnake which was busy swallowing the eggs in the nest while she was laying more.

Chickens are not so smart.

I never saw a snake do anything to a chicken, though, so this snake clearly has delusions of boa-constrictor grandeur. Apparently the chicken in question survived the shovel-whacking and staggered off to recover, so the squeezing was ineffective anyway.

Last night Dan came thundering back upstairs again (these snake emergencies always happen after Pete and I are in bed, I’m not sure why) and announced that Ben (nearly seventeen) had caught the snake. Turns out Dan had been tracking the snake’s habits and figuring out when it visited the egg buffet every night, and last night he dragged Ben out to help him catch it. “And he’s got it downstairs!” he finishes up. “It’s HUGE! Come see it!”

(shudder)

It was a really big snake. A six-footer.

This morning at breakfast, I say to Ben, “Where did you free the snake?” (Black snakes drive out copperheads and eat rats, so we never kill them; we just keep moving them out of the henhouse.)

“Oh,” Ben says, “it was dark and the snake was kind of hard to hold, so I just let him go down near your office.”

(shudder) (shudder)

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-15

August 15th, 2010 by Susan
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  • Home at 3 AM. Tip for United: When reason next to "Delayed" on notice board is "Late aircraft," that doesn't really answer our questions. #
  • I think late-night flying has killed off a few brain cells that I actually needed. #
  • Getting ready to do an online seminar at 12:30. This one has a video feed. Guess I should put on lip gloss. #
  • Going off the grid to write. I hope. #
  • Perseid meteor shower hidden by clouds. Boo. #
  • Heading home from Eastern Shore wedding where DH was officiant & I was default Mistress of Ceremonies. OK, bridesmaids, GO NOW… #
  • To car ahead of us in Hampton Roads tunnel: if you hit your brakes again, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you. #
  • Back home. Shiny. #
  • When naptime is your favorite time of the day, you're either under the age of one or over the age of forty. #

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The social networking map

August 11th, 2010 by Susan
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Still immersed in piles of “social media will bring an end to civilization” books in preparation for those Vancouver lectures. Still unconvinced, although I’m accumulating a list of objections to social media that seem serious and valid and thus deserve a response.

(None of these, by the way, from Andrew Keen’s abysmal The Cult of the Amateur. Keen argues that, unless professionals and experts remain in the gatekeeping positions of publishing, music, and news companies, we’ll be flooded by unmediated dreck. His book just proves that dreck can make it past the gatekeepers–at least the ones at Crown.)

Today I ran across this social networking map from Flowtown. Click on the link and visit the original; absolutely brilliant. As those of you who’ve seen the History of the Ancient World or the History of the Medieval World know, I love maps.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-08

August 8th, 2010 by Susan
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  • Doing my best to have a day off. #
  • Updating workshops for Chicago Expo this weekend (while fielding multiple phone calls informing us that our server is down. Yeah, we know). #
  • Server recovery…blogs and forums and store and main pages all back up! #
  • Power's off in entire historic/Merchant's Square area of Williamsburg. Now it really looks 18th century. #
  • Hear rumors Northern Lights could be seen all the way from VA. Went outside: weird flashy sky. But possibly heat lightning? Wondering… #
  • After sitting on runway in Richmond in howling thunderstorm for 3 extra hours, plane finally took off. Am now in Chicago at Homeschool Expo. #
  • In Chicago for my birthday! #

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Barnes & Noble up for sale

August 5th, 2010 by Susan
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Interesting news from the New York Times…

In what might be the latest sign of trouble for brick-and-mortar bookstores, the mega-chain Barnes & Noble announced on Tuesday that its board was putting the company up for sale.

The news surprised analysts and alarmed publishers, who have watched as the book business has increasingly shifted to online retailers and e-book sales, leaving both chains and independent sellers struggling….

For years, Barnes & Noble has been battered by large shifts in the publishing industry and the retail environment. Book sales have moved toward big-box stores like Costco, Wal-Mart and Target, and away from mall-based stores like B. Dalton, which Barnes & Noble acquired in the late 1980s….

One analyst said that consumers had been moving away from physical bookstores in favor of buying books online or at other retail outlets. “They might pick up a book when they’re buying hand sanitizer or Band-Aids, rather than actually seeking out a bookstore as a destination and then buying a book at that point,” said Michael Norris, senior analyst at Simba Information, which provides research and advice to publishers. “A lot of independents are figuring it out one bookstore at a time, and that’s what the Barnes & Nobles of the world have to do.”

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