Best of 2009 in the Writing Industry

We here at Fuel thought it would be pretty cool to do some research and see what 2009 had to offer as far as the most awesome writing-related events. I had a hard time narrowing down to only the top ten, but I managed…barely!

Fuel Your Writing Launch

Even though it didn’t happen until the middle of the year—June, to be exact—I have to put the Fuel Your Writing launch first on the list. (Hey, I’m allowed…) Fuel started out great this year with the fantastic Michelle in charge, leading to an award as a Top Ten Writing Blog! Congrats to Michelle and all of our writers. It’s a new addition to the group, but the following is already strong and devoted. I’m so glad to be a part of Fuel! It’s going to be exciting to see where the site goes next year, and where it ends up.

Going Rogue: Sarah Palin

Jumping ahead a few months, the politics of last year spilled over into this one. Sarah Palin released her book just last month but it has already become a bestseller on all the lists – The New York Times, Borders, Barnes & Noble – everyone is eating this story up. She was so intriguing last year and it’s obvious that hasn’t worn off much, even though she isn’t even the governor of Alaska anymore. I love how real life spills over into any and every type of writing.This is a great book that everyone should be checking out—wait, everyone already is….

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

Sticking to the end of the year for now, I’d like to mention NaNoWriMo.

Such a great challenge and site. Some people I know even finished two novels in just a month. The challenge is to write 1,667 words every day to equal fifty-thousand at the end of November. That should leave you with a good novella or a large skeleton of a novel. My area alone wrote over six million words! So many people joined together to cheer each other on and reach their goal. I love seeing comaraderie within the writing world. Leaves me feeling warm and fuzzy just in time for the holidays.

Kindle from Amazon

Here’s something else for the holidays. This one goes back a few years—at least it was released a couple years ago—but Amazon’s Kindle has become an even bigger deal this year. There are now over 360,000 books available and even self-published, first-time novelists are able to sell Kindle books. A simple Google search for books published in 2009 brings up the Top Ten Kindle books as the second result, showing how big electronics have become. People are reading on their iPhones and Blackberrys and love not having to carry books around with them all the time. Whether it’s an idea you love or hate, you have to agree that it seems to be working out quite well. The great thing is that these top Kindle books are not all the same as the physical books that have sold. So different books and authors are getting exposure through this new media, and that can never be a bad thing!

The Individual Writer

One of the coolest things I’ve found recently is that writers are more important than they used to be. Especially journalists. The individual writer is being typed into a search engine, rather than just the institution or company s/he works for. This is a given for novelists, but not necessarily journalists. This is a new trend that seemed to start this year. I’m not sure exactly what it means for the future, and neither does my source, Journalism.org, but it might be pretty interesting to see what comes of it. One of our writers might even become a big deal…you never know!

Authonomy.com

For fiction writers who are attempting the task of completing a novel, there’s a site out there that might just help you if you’re looking for some feedback. HarperCollins’ site, Authonomy.com, started as invite-only last year and went live later in the year, but grew enormously in 2009. Many people have many different opinions about the pros and cons of this site, but there’s no denying that the reviews and criticism of your peers can be helpful. And, if you make it into the top five books, you get a professional HC review. At last check, there were approximately fifteen thousand books on the site. That’s a far cry from the few thousand that were available to read in the earlier months of ‘09.

Adult Education and Family Literacy Week

It would be impossible to appreciate all of these great things being mentioned if you don’t know how to read in the first place. In early October of this year, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to declare the 18-24th of the month as Adult Education and Family Literacy week.

There is a long list of the resolutions of the designation, stating things such as “literacy and education skills are a prerequisite to individuals reaping the full benefit of opportunities in the United States.” Facts like these are well-known to everyone, but are rarely thought about by those of us lucky enough to be able to read. It’s phenomenal that so many people work for, and get involved in, this cause. Even we can do our part in differnt ways through Proliteracy.org, or The National Institute for Literacy.

The Pulitzer

If we didn’t mention the Pulitzer Prize recipients, “honoring Excellence in journalism and the arts since 1917,” the list would not be complete. Every type of writing, from the local reporting of journalists to history to music, was considered. Twenty-one individual winners were announced, some working for the same institution, leading to multiple wins for publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post. All of the categories and winners can be found at Pulitzer.org, as well as the finalists who wrote such amazing work. Congratulations to everyone who received a nomination, and to the winners.

Great Summer Reading

As much as we appreciate all the great journalists and novelists of our time, it’s also great to do some fun, summer reading. A year is not over unless you have spent a summer by the pool or even precious, quiet minutes away from the office, fitting in a great read you just can’t put down. I found a site that polled readers for their favorite books, and, after 136,000 votes, npr.org offers you the opinions of sixteen thousand readers as to what is the best summer reading. Their list of the 100 Best Beach Books Ever has everything from the Harry Potter series to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Summer is over now, but I’ll bet one of the books listed would be just as good under a warm blanket with a cup of eggnog while you’re waiting for cookies to bake this holiday season. Give it a try!

Google Fastflip

Last, but most certainly not least, goes back to the Kindle, and the future of reading.
Fastflip is a new way to experience your headlines and popular stories of the day. Google has come up with a faster way to see everything you need to in news with a great online site that has a mobile version for your phone. You can choose the most viewed or recent headlines and scan them quickly and easily from the comfort of your office, home, train, wherever you might be. The idea for this began simply because it takes too long to read online media. As The Official Google blog states, “what we need instead is a way to flip through articles really fast without unnatural delays, just as we can in print.” So the company released the site in September and it has been going strong since.

Reading and its media will (thankfully) never be going away, but the way we access it most certainly will be changing. 2009 proved that undoubtedly. Here’s hoping the rest of the year is great for you, and happy writing!

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