Book Pigs/lucythereader

Author of The Paper & Hearts Society, out in June 2019 from Hodder Children’s Books. Brontë obsessive, Jane Austen lover, Victorian lit fanatic and I also read some YA.

[cair--paravel]

Roses Farm, a cottage dating back to around 1285 (via).

[bookpigs]

I’ve been reading @chronicintrovert’s Heartstopper comic since it was first uploaded online and so it was such a joy to receive the physical edition today! It is a thing of beauty and I can’t wait to re-read it in its entirety.

Alice is such an inspiration to me as a young author and I love all of her books, so it was a pleasure to support the @heartstoppercomic Kickstarter and finally hold the physical book in my hands. Go Alice!!!!

[skatingsplits]

my moodboards: Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables; L.M. Montgomery

‘There’s such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I’m such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn’t be half so interesting. ’

[yaliteraturebookshelf]

Hachette Children’s Group has acquired a three-book teen series from founder of #UKYAChat, blogger and YouTuber Lucy Powrie in a pre-emptive deal.

Yes @bookpigs!!

[literally-studying]

Women Writers (8/?) - x

↳ Sylvia Plath: “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born again.”

[whatsinsideawritersmind]

“So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.”

— Virginia Woolf (from A Room of One’s Own)

[m-l-rio]

when will 'if we were villains' be available to free dowload? xx

Sigh. 

Not in our lifetime, because my publishers bought the rights so they could sell the book. If they start giving it away for free, they are not recouping their investment (and a lot of people aren’t getting paid for their work). The only way publishers can afford to keep printing books is if people keep buying them. 

Here’s why this question is not okay: whether this is what you intended or not (intent and impact don’t always align), what you’re essentially saying when you ask an author how you can get their book for free is, “I want to enjoy this piece of art you made but I don’t think it’s worth ten dollars.” That is hugely insulting and hugely demoralizing, not only to the person who wrote the damn book, but to the agents, editors, copyeditors, designers, publicists, and everyone else who worked on it for (literally) years. The age of streaming and $1.99 eBook deals has fostered the idea that we should have all the art and media we want at our fingertips without spending any more for it than we would for a cup of drip coffee at a high school bake sale. It’s really important to keep in mind–especially on Tumblr where a lot of art circulates without the artist’s knowledge or permission–that art is not charity. An exceptionally fortunate artist who doesn’t need the money may choose to give their art away, but you should never assume that art is charity or treat it as such. Art is work, you’re not entitled to it, and not paying artists (or not paying them enough) for their work not only jeopardizes their livelihoods, but it perpetuates the idea that art is (or should be) cheap. 

The art-is-cheap mentality is actually (ironically) why things like movie and concert tickets have become so prohibitively expensive; because people can stream everything with Netflix or Spotify and no longer pay to own movies or albums, the entertainment industry has had to compensate for that lost revenue by jacking up ticket prices, so a concert ticket that would have cost about $30 forty years ago often costs ten times that now (yes, I adjusted for inflation). What you have to remember about books in particular is that authors don’t do stadium tours. They don’t get paid for book tours; they just hope it helps them sell the book. Most authors are not Stephanie Meyer, runaway bestsellers, or billionaires. Most have to have two jobs at least just to make ends meet. Most authors do not make enough to give their work away for free. Moreover, book sales are often what enable an author to publish another book and (1) continue to make art and (2) continue to provide for themselves. 

The good news is, that means most authors understand what it’s like to be broke. They know exactly what it’s like to want that hardcover and know there’s no way you can afford it. They sympathize. They’ve been there. If you can’t afford a book, get it from the library or wait until you can. The world is not ideal and we’d all like to be able to afford to buy whatever book we want as soon as it hits shelves, but that’s not the case, and pressuring or guilt-tripping artists to give their work away for free or telling them in so many words that their work is practically worthless is not the answer, because that kind of stuff makes us not want to make art at all.

[tilthe]

““I want so to live that I work with my hands and my feeling and my brain. I want a garden, a small house, grass, animals, books, pictures, music. And out of this, the expression of this, I want to be writing (Though I may write about cab-men. That’s no matter.) But warm, eager, living life — to be rooted in life — to learn, to desire, to feel, to think, to act. This is what I want. And nothing less. That is what I must try for.””

— — Katherine Mansfield, The Journal Of Katherine Mansfield 

[pemberlaey]

my kink is melodramatic declarations of love from 19th century novels

[bookpigs]

Happy birthday, Charlotte Brontë! 202 years ago in Thornton, Bradford, Charlotte was born and the world would never be the same again. She continues to inspire me every day, whether it be through her fictional worlds and words, her personal letters, or stories about her life. She’s often portrayed as the “mean” Brontë: it’s rumoured she destroyed Emily and Anne’s writings after they died; she kept The Tenant of Wildfell Hall out of print. But in her I see someone who was incredibly brave, who grieved for five siblings and her mother, who may have looked unremarkable but held in her a talent and voice that rocked the foundations of Victorian society. Whether she’s your favourite Brontë or not, it cannot be denied that Charlotte was an incredible force of nature, someone who would go on to write one of the most popular books in the English language.

[thewritingrealm]

If you're reading this...

go write three sentences on your current writing project.

[ezzydean]

# my favourite part about this post # is that nowhere does it say to reblog this # but we’re all reblogging it # because if we have to suffer # so do other writers

[bookpigs]

Saba and Baby Maud have their Easter TBR piles perfectly organised! But where to start?!

[bookpigs]

Happy Easter from all the guinea pigs at Book Pigs! Here is the appropriately named Emily, posing with her very favourite books - those by the Brontë sisters!

[bookpigs]

Happy Easter from all the guinea pigs at Book Pigs! Here is the appropriately named Emily, posing with her very favourite books - those by the Brontë sisters!

[bookpigs]

Happy Easter from all the guinea pigs at Book Pigs! Here is the appropriately named Emily, posing with her very favourite books - those by the Brontë sisters!

[gracedraws]

[terpsikeraunos]

ancient greek word of the day: δρυμοχαρής (drymocharēs), delighting in the woods