Now when James Joyce wrote that sentence he approached it very differently. Here is what he wrote. ‘LILY, the caretaker’s daughter, was literally run off her feet. Hardly had she brought one gentleman into the little pantry behind the office on the ground floor and helped him off with his overcoat than the wheezy hall-door bell clanged again and she had to scamper along the bare hallway to let in another guest.

See how much more information we are getting and how there is atmosphere been built into sentence. Lily was not just a maid she was the caretaker’s daughter.

‘Run off her feet,’ gives the impression of everything happening at a speedy pace. It’s not just workers, or customers, or salesmen who are visiting the office Joyce is been specific it is ‘gentlemen.’ And it is not just a pantry, or kitchen, that they are been shown into it’s one ‘behind the office on the ground floor.’ Joyce could have written that when the door bell rang again she had to answer it. But it was a ‘wheezy hall-door bell,’ and Lilly didn’t just hurry to answer it she, ‘had to scamper along the bare hallway.’ What’s going on?

Joyce is painting a picture for us he is not just telling us and that is a skill we want-a-be writers must struggle to develop; we must learn to show rather than tell.

Are Librarians Obsolete? Ms. Johnson has often been asked if librarians are obsolete in the Age of Google. Her answer is “Are you kidding? Librarians are more important than ever.” She points out that there are many people who do not have computers, do not know how to do research on the Internet, and do not know how to compose and send e-mails. When they show up at the library, they have to be taught how to do those things. Most librarians are busy keeping up with changing technologies so they can at least be a step ahead of their patrons. Some librarians are way ahead of others, thus the author’s use of the term cybrarians in the subtitle to her book.

The author shows how many of the Web sites that we use or should use when we go on the Internet are library related. WorldCat.org (www.worldcat.org) connects to more than 10,000 libraries worldwide. It tells you which libraries have which books. The New York Public Library Web site is humongous. The British Library brags that it has 10,000 pages on its Web site (www.bl.uk).

She Does Her Research. Marilyn Johnson went all over the country (and also to Rome, Italy) to research her book. She attended annual conventions of the American Library Association, interviewed directors of regional library consortiums, visited the library of the American Kennel Club, and even toured the library in Deadwood, South Dakota. On the subject of blogs by librarians, Johnson first read a number of such blogs and then interviewed some of her favorite bloggers, such as Free-Range Librarian (http://freerangelibrarian.com/). In a chapter about a virtual-reality Web site heavily populated by librarians (“Second Life”), she tells how she actually gave herself a name, became an avatar, and flew into the immersive environment, where she conducted interviews with avatar-librarians. In preparing to write her book, Johnson seemed game for anything library-related, and readers are rewarded with an entertaining, but educational work.

Too Elitist? One point that the author Marilyn Johnson makes near the end of her book is that The New York Public Library might be going in the wrong direction in making its 42nd Street main library more accessible to the masses. Administrators have shut down some of the specialists’ areas (such as the Asian and Middle East Reading Room) in order to make room for offices, general circulation, and study tables for average Joes. I know what she means, since the Slavonic Reading Room, which I haunted in my graduate student days, no longer exists. Its books (as well as those of other specialty departments) are now integrated into the regular book stacks. No more special treatment for scholars there. The New York Public Library has good reasons for making these changes to its flagship library. It has a limited amount of money, and its leaders felt that it had to shut down a large branch library just blocks away from the main library (and integrate the books and services within the main building). Don’t regular patrons have just as much right to use the beautiful building on 42nd Street as scholars do?

One in six primary school pupils think Fagin – famously brought to cinematic life by Ron Moody in the 1968 musical Oliver! – was a footballer who played for Manchester United.

Moby Dick? Well, he was a pop star or explorer, according to eighty per cent of eight to ten-year-olds.

And one in ten think Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea is Simon Cowell’s autobiography.

The results of a new survey commissioned by Asda suggest that the books which so many of our parents treasured are being almost completely ignored by today’s youngsters.

The adventures of Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver – which first came to life in the imagination of a young Robert Louis Stevenson in his Heriot Row home – and Edinburgh-born Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows it would seem are destined to be largely forgotten. Their place in the literary pantheon is being taken by another city writer, JK Rowling, whose ubiquitous Harry Potter books have been read by one in three youngsters.

The research also suggests, slightly depressingly, that one in two children know David Beckham’s memoirs are called My Side.

Dewi Williams, spokesperson for Asda, says: “The children’s bestseller list is dominated by modern literature. Books like Oliver Twist and The Wind in the Willows, which have been must-reads for generations, are getting dangerously close to extinction.”

Vanessa Robertson, who owns The Children’s Bookshop and The Edinburgh Bookshop, both in Bruntsfield, recognises the trend towards more modern writers, although sales of classic books have remained “fairly steady”.

“I don’t think the classics are dying out but some are fading a little, like the lesser known ones – for example, The Railway Children by E Nesbit sells well but the more obscure The Enchanted Castle doesn’t sell as well,” she says.

“Classic novels are such a part of our cultural heritage it would be a shame to see them die out.”

Sometimes, though, all that is needed to give them a new lease of life is a bit of fresh window dressing.

“Children are still reading classic novels, especially the ones that have a slightly fresher look. A new edition of Pippi Longstocking came out last Christmas, it’s a traditional book but it had new illustrations and kids were loving it – it gave it a new lease of life”, she says.

“HarperCollins did a new edition of Wuthering Heights. They put a Twilight-esque cover on it and it sells really well. It is getting teenagers reading Wuthering Heights which has got to be a good thing!”

Edinburgh’s Unesco City of Literature Trust has experimented with great success in this area. It has offered classic books including Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World in a variety of formats, such as comic book-style, in order to make them more appealing to youngsters.

Ali Bowden, director of the trust, says: “We have done animated versions and audio versions of books to try to put them in as many formats as possible, and that’s been successful.

“Sometimes it can be a little daunting to be given a 600-page classic and told it is a classic if you are a young kid, so maybe it’s about how you present books and talk about them.”

To get hung up on whether children are reading “the classics”, though, is to miss the point, says Ms Bowden.

“I think the most important thing is that kids read, rather than being overly prescriptive on what they read,” she explains.

“I think the classic novels are still being taught in schools and I suspect most kids are being given contemporary books rather than classics at home. A lot of kids are reading a whole range of books, including classics.

“Nurturing a passion for reading is really important, rather than giving kids a really strict book list.”

Father-of-two and avid reader Gavin Corbett is just happy to see his sons Ben, seven, and Charlie, five, enjoying books, regardless of when they were written.

“There are some really excellent new writers and I think the quality of writing for children is as high as it’s ever been,” he says.

“If kids were to only read books from yesteryear, it would suggest a real crisis in the quality of modern writing.”

With so many children still enjoying a good yarn, perhaps all Robert Louis Stevenson and his ilk need is a better marketing team.

Rod Grant, headmaster of Clifton Hall School in Newbridge, who is keen to promote reading – “whether that’s Harry Potter or Treasure Island” – says that dusty and dull old book covers can be a real turn-off to youngsters.

“There are so many books available for kids now and they are marketed well with such colourful front covers that a classic book is hard pushed to go up against that.”

Author Tracy Williams has set up a website devoted to her bonkers idea and has already bagged nearly 800 followers on Twitter.

Tracy, who calls herself The Naked Blonde Writer, said her saucy video would combine her two “talents” of writing and stripping off.

“A lot of people are saying it’s a publicity stunt but that’s an easy way of rationalising what I’m doing,” said the 38-year-old.

“The truth is I have a fascination with the female form – I’m not a lesbian but I have a fascination with my own body and how it changes over time. Any good author worth his or her salt has to bare their own soul and what I’m doing is baring my body too.

“It’s not something I even consider to be weird or strange. In fact, I will be a lot more nervous about reading and people hearing my voice than being naked while doing it.”

The self-confessed exhibitionist plans to recline on a chaise longue for the 40-minute video, which will be filmed in a studio before going online on February 1.

Her only concession to clothing, she said, will be a pair of sexy high heels.

But despite its sultry nature, Tracy insists she is making the video for artistic reasons and that the majority of her fans are mainly interested in her writing.

“People come to the website because of the nudity and a lot of them stay when they see the quality of writing and we even get the odd one who comes just for the writing,” she said.

“Most of the people who have been in touch are men but there have been a few women. I’ve been surprised by how few sleazy comments there have been, although one man did say ‘listen love, why don’t you just be a porn star?’ – I don’t think he quite understood.

“I’m equally flattered if they like both the writing and the nudity, or if they like one or the other.”

Tracy, who was born to Welsh parents but was brought up in England, began writing aged nine because “nudity was something that I had to wait for”.

Her time came when she ran away from home aged 16 to work as a part-time model with her “girl next door” looks.

After moving to Hollywood for six years but struggling to make ends meet as an actor and model, Tracey moved back to Wales and now lives near Brecon.

“The locals know all about me because my parents lived in Seven Sisters,” said Tracy.

“They know me as the girl who was in Mayfair magazine but they don’t really know me as a writer.”

For fans expecting an erotic novel to go with the video, they might be disappointed. Tracy’s book, Blackout, is “about the dark side of the valleys” and she warned: “The me who will be doing the reading will be very different from the me you see elsewhere. I will get very into it and I’ll be doing all the character’s voices – including the men.”

After airing the first naked reading, which will be password-protected but free to view, Tracy plans to charge fans to see her reading the rest of her book.

She added: “Generally, I get a good response from people, although women don’t tend to like me very much.

“I haven’t encountered any men yet who are put off by it. I find it either intrigues or annoys, and if it annoys people they are free to stay away from it.”

A bitter, escalating row over plagiarism engulfed two French novelists last week. But artistic theft has been provoking anger, jealousy and insults since Roman times

When the French novelist Camille Laurens lost her son in childbirth in 1995, she responded with a moving account of her trauma, Philippe, which touched a nerve with her public. A few years later the infinitely more successful Marie Darrieussecq published a novel, Tom Est Mort, the story of a woman whose baby dies after a terrible birth agony. Laurens, in a fury, accused Darrieussecq of “psychological plagiarism”. Ever since, these two writers have been at each other’s throats, trading elevated Gallic insults, to the scandalised fascination of Paris.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN  “THE GUARDIAN”

Getting plucked from the slush pile was always a long shot—in large part, editors and Hollywood development executives say, because most unsolicited material has gone unsolicited for good reason. But it did happen for some: Philip Roth, Anne Frank, Judith Guest. And so to legions of would-be novelists, journalists and screenwriters—not to mention “D-girls” and “manuscripts girls” from Hollywood to New York who held the hope that finding a gem might catapult them from entry level to expense account—the slush pile represented The Dream.

Now, slush is dead, or close to extinction. Film and television producers won’t read anything not certified by an agent because producers are afraid of being accused of stealing ideas and material. Most book publishers have stopped accepting book proposals that are not submitted by agents. Magazines say they can scarcely afford the manpower to cull through the piles looking for the Next Big Thing.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The Web was supposed to be a great democratizer of media. Anyone with a Flip and Final Cut Pro could be a filmmaker; anyone with a blog a memoirist. But rather than empowering unknown artists, the Web is often considered by talent-seeking executives to be an unnavigable morass.

It used to be that you could bang out a screenplay on your typewriter, then mail it in to a studio with a self-addressed stamped envelope and a prayer. Studios already were reluctant to read because of plagiarism concerns, but they became even more skittish in 1990 when humorist Art Buchwald sued Paramount, alleging that the studio stole an idea from him and turned it into the Eddie Murphy vehicle, “Coming to America.” (Mr. Buchwald received an undisclosed settlement from Paramount.)

oday, you can’t even send an e-mail to a studio. When visitors to the Universal Pictures Web site select the “contact us” option, they must agree to a waiver that frees Universal and its affiliates from liability related to accusations of plagiarism. “While we are always happy to hear from you,” the Web notice says, “it is Universal’s policy not to accept or consider creative materials, ideas, or suggestions other than those we specifically request. This is to avoid any misunderstandings if your ideas are similar to those we have developed independently.”

“It does create an incredibly difficult Catch-22 on both sides, particularly for new writers wanting to get their work seen,” says Hannah Minghella, president of production for Sony Pictures Animation.

Fending off plagiarism lawsuits has become an increasing headache for publishers and studios. “It’s become the cultural version of malpractice,” says Kurt Andersen, the novelist and host of public radio’s “Studio 360.”

Some producers make it easy: They just refuse to deal with new writers at all. Mike Clements, president of Good Humor, the production company founded by Tom Werner (“The Cosby Show”), has a personal policy against reading any sample or script that is not sent to him by an agent. “I make the occasional exception for a friend, or for my aunt,” he says. “I just make them sign a release first.”

The most obvious thing that is required to write good sales copy is that you need to be a good writer. Okay, that may be easier said than done, but it’s not impossible to learn the skill. There are some excellent books out there. But even more helpful than books is the fact that there are a number of copywriters out there who will actually take somebody under their wing if they feel they show promise as a copywriter. Take advantage of this. It will be the education of a lifetime. You’ll have to work hard and at times the work will seem thankless, but when you’re making $2,000 per copy, you’ll be glad you went through it.

But there are things beyond the obvious that are necessary to be a successful copywriter. One of those things is the ability to do research. Why? You’re going to get jobs writing copy for people with products that you have no knowledge of. Not only that, you will have little or no knowledge of the market itself. You’re going to have to research what this market is about, what their hot buttons are, why they buy things, what solutions they’re looking for, and so on. The research aspect of writing is probably the most time consuming of the whole process.

Another key to successful copy is to know what’s working in today’s market. Copywriting is not a stagnant process. What worked years ago may not work today. So you have to keep an eye out for copywriting trends. This is pretty easy to do simply by checking out the biggest selling products in the marketplace. You’ll have to check out quite a few niches as each one is going to have its own style. For example, you’re not going to write the same kind of copy for a “make money at home” product as you would for a product in the health niche.

In future articles, we’ll go into more detail in these areas. For now, be aware of these few simple things. If you concentrate on them, you’ll improve your writing greatly.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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