>You can buy a printer, but can you buy a clue?

by Roger Sutton
Feb 18, 2008 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
>We got a call last week asking if the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards accept submissions of print-on-demand books. Editorial Anonymous explains why not.

Clueless wannabes will always be with us but what confounds me more are stories that indulge in all the sentimentality, preachiness, lame rhyming and anthropomorphism we say never, ever to indulge a manuscript in, and yet they somehow get published, by a real publisher, anyway. (Yes, Peach and Blue, I'm thinking of you.) Let's make an award for that. (Anyone remember SLJ's Billy Budd Button and Huck Finn pin?)
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton

Editor Emeritus Roger Sutton was editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc., from 1996-2021. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his MA in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a BA from Pitzer College in 1978.

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Anonymous

>Not sure if this will be seen as I am slow to respond. But I keep wondering--

Why do we say never to indulge in anthropomorphism? Is there some connotation that goes along with that that I am not aware of, or bad associations, or is it that there is just so much of it out there already?

Very curious--
Z

Posted : Feb 20, 2008 07:23

Monica Edinger

>You have to join the yahoo group, adbooks and then go back to the 2002 posts (I think it may have been in March). As for your second question...well...I think it was a family thing.

Posted : Feb 19, 2008 11:19

Editorial Anonymous

>Is there a link, Monica? I haven't seen that post. Was it because PODs would publish his hackneyed plagerizing butt? Or was there some other reason?

Posted : Feb 19, 2008 04:38

Monica Edinger

>When I first joined adbooks in 2002, Christopher Paolini was very active on it; I particularly recollect (and just found in the archives) a post in which he explained why print on demand is better than a regular publisher. Just thought I'd try to get a few folks' hopes up.

Posted : Feb 18, 2008 07:32

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