open letter to the West Hartford Public Library

[truepenny]

Dear West Hartford Public Library:

I noticed this morning (for mighty is the power of the Google) that you have my novel, Mélusine, listed as a recent addition to your YA collection. I personally don't have any objection to teenagers reading my book, but it does contain graphic sex, violence, and swearing, and I don't want you all to get in trouble with irate parents.

I have now tried three times, from two different email accounts, to send you an email about this. Your firewall rejects me as spam. Next it will be telling me my mother was a hamster.

But thank you for buying my book.

Sincerely,
Sarah Monette

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I also have been a touch nervous about YA designation on my work, for the same reasons plus some graphic violence.

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

Um. Okay. That is a weird place to put your book. I love it, mind you, but I wouldn't put it in the YA section. I wonder why it ended up there?

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I can't tell you how many times I've seen fantasy fiction end up in YA by default. (Don't you know: only pre-teens like fantasy fiction. It's all about unicorns and fairies, see.)

[mountainlaurel.livejournal.com]

OK, thou didst just make me laugh!

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

That's weird that they'd reject your e-mail as spam.

But elsewhere on this site I find this info, if you're really concerned about this:

West Hartford Public Library
20 South Main Street
West Hartford, CT 06107-2406
Phone: 860-561-6950
Fax: 860-561-6976

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Yes, I found that information, too.

It's not worth a long-distance phone call.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

I have found that my town library just sticks anything that even smells of fantasy into the YA section. They have all sorts of things there that probably shouldn't be, at least not in parents' eyes. I find the best reading there. :)

[lilithsaintcrow.livejournal.com]

Of course, if the prospective young reader is anything like I was, he or she will not bring any of this to the parental attention. I certainly read many things I am sure my parentals would not have vetted (Marjorie Morningstar and some sharon Green springs to mind) and would have died rather than reveal my secret.

The library doesn't have a "contact us" link that automatically puts you through? Huh. Weird...

You don't want to waste a stamp on them?

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

It would certainly get through.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Now that's bizarre. As someone who grew up in West Hartford and once worked at that library, I find this amusing.

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

I think Neil Gaiman has much the same problem. I regularly see his "comic books" in the YA section...

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Comics are for kids.

I did suggest to one bookshop that they might want to shift From Hell out of the children's section...

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

As a librarian I am extremely tempted to contact them for you. I may or may not be able to resist the urge.

[ericaceous.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a YA genre standard for there to be at least 2 of the following plot elements: PTSD, graphic sex, swearing, violence, drugs, self-destructive behavior. Maybe it's actually there on purpose? I do agree it's bizarre, but maybe the YA collections person knows her readers.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

A book by Wm. Mark Simmons I just requested for the Free Library of Philadelphia has, I note, been classified as "American Literature." He got a good laugh out of that.

[floatingtide.livejournal.com]

Your letter says "teen" and "sex."
That automaticly makes it spam is exactly the same way that Melusine is automaticly YA.

[jaylake.livejournal.com]

Dost tha' have a sig file? I find my sig occasionally gets seen as spam.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I tried taking my .sig off after my reply to the lovely YA librarian (who, thanks to ivyblossom did get my letter--short version: she knows what she's doing), and it seems, knock on wood, to have worked.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

The worst example of this I ever saw was Wizard's First Rule, shelved in the children's section of a bookstore.