I read The Amaranth Enchantment last week. It is the debut novel of another Mormon Mommy Author–Julie Berry. Remember that name. We’ll be seeing more from her, I’m sure.

Yikes! This was one enjoyable Cinderella story, let me tell you. I loved it. (And I’m not alone!)

I like the book so much that it irks me that I can’t find a good picture of the cover for you. As great as the picture I have is, the actual cover is better.

If you like fairy tales, go, buy, read. You’ll shut the book with a contented sigh.

Speaking of Mormon YA authors…we’ll zoom in for a closer look, via the Salt Lake Tribune, at Brandon Mull. He’s written the MG fairy stories, the Fablehaven series.

I have read only the first half of the first book. I was so excited to buy it–the title is great and look at that cover!–and couldn’t wait to start reading it aloud with the kids. But I was disappointed with it.  The writing was sloppy in some ways, but I can get over that if the story grips me. Fablehaven didn’t grip me. It should have. The story world was a good one, the premise was interesting, and the fairies were fun.

The main characters were the ones who turned me off. I didn’t like them. I thought they were petty, whiny, and spoiled. I’m guessing the author painted them that way on purpose so he could give them some character growth. Some readers can take poorly motivated, bratty heroes. Obviously hundreds of thousands of readers have taken them into their hearts. My daughter was fine with them and wanted me to keep reading the book. She didn’t care enough to read it herself when I quit, though. And my son thought the book was OK but didn’t mind my giving it up.

So I find it interesting to read the article in the Salt Lake Tribune and to see that:

Mull has since quit his day job. He now travels five months a year pumping literacy and his books — a touring regimen that has led him to more than 550 schools in 30 states.

During the rest of the year, he writes.

He’s been on the NY Times bestseller list. But then, so has Shadowmancer.   Oh no, I’m not comparing Fablehaven to Shadowmancer. Not at all. Fablehaven was way, way, way better than Shadowmancer. My point is merely that landing on the NY Times bestseller list doesn’t mean you’ve written a great book. 

So here’s my thinking, Mull is hitting the schools like crazy, travelling five months a year. He’s hand-selling his books. He’s sold 400,000 in what?–three years? That’s not shabby (and let me say right here and now, if I could get a publisher to even agree to publish my books, I’d be giddy so I know what Mull has done is a huge accomplishment). But a friend and I were just discussing this the other day and she suggested that if you’ve sold 400,000 books and if those 200,000 readers (assuming some have bought more than one book) really love your book and tell their friends, you should be able to stop hand-selling your books. Those readers should now be selling them for you. Where’s the tipping point? It seems that if you have 200,000 readers that LOVE your books, you should be shooting up over a million in sales pretty quickly. If the readers can take or leave your stories, that’s another thing. The books will drop out of sight.  This is not to say the author will drop out of sight. He may be improving with each book and he may come out with some great new books. But will Fablehaven jump up in sales now?  The movie may give it a nice shove–though that’s not guaranteed. We’ll have to wait and see.

Of course this is all guesswork for me. But it seems to me if writers didn’t have to spend five months a year hawking their wares they’d be able to write better books. Mull has put out five book in three years. The first one was written ahead of time, and maybe even the second one was. But at the very least, I’m guessing he wrote three books in 21 months. A lot of bestselling novelists are writing faster than this. But looking at this from a wannabe writer’s standpoint, and wondering what I’ll do if I ever get a contract, I’m wondering what the better use of the writer’s time–handselling or learning to write better books? What would books be like if authors spent five months a year reading really great literature instead of selling their stuff? Oh, just think of what they’d write in the ensuing seven months. It makes me lightheaded just imagining it!

That said, Becky, from Becky’s Book Reviews, who is a discerning reader if I’ve ever seen one, likes Mull’s books. All of them. And she calls the characters I didn’t like  “an unforgettable brother-sister team.” Because she liked the books, I”m thinking of dragging book one out and finishing it and then going on to books two and three. I may just not have read far enough. I know new authors are sometimes slow getting their stories going.

So, I’m watching these books with interest. I really did want to love them. I’m always looking for new fantasy to love.

Of all the Shadow Mountain fantasy I’ve read, Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo was my favorite. I liked it enough to plunk down my hard-earned money to buy book two, Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret, even. When it first came out. In hardback! But not enough to read book two once I had it. I feel about Shadow Mountain the same way I feel about NavPress. They are putting out good books, but they are falling short of greatness by a hair. I’m anxiously watching, though, expecting them to hit one out of the park any day.

If you want to see what someone who has actually read the Fablehaven books has to say, please drop by Becky’s blog and read the reviews:

Fablehaven
Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star
Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague

I’ve long been watching those Mormon authors. I found the sovereignty of God message interesting in the first Levin Thumps book, and I was interested when Shadow Mountain jumped into the kid’s fantasy scene with Fablehaven, followed by Foo, and Far World.

And, of course, there’s always Shannon Hale. Shannon Hale who wrote The Goose Girl and Princess Academy, and Book of a Thousand Days. I don’t care what religion you are, it’d be hard to beat Shannon Hale. Her books are among my all-time favorites. The kind you re-read every couple of years.

Oh, and there’s that Stephenie Meyer gal. Who cares that I thought her first book was boring and stupid? Millions of readers disagree with me. And…she’s a Mormon writing for teens.

What is the deal with all the Mormons writing YA books?

Here’s a great article discussing the issue.

I found it interesting, anyway. They are, for the most part, just leaving religion out of it and writing moral books. It seems to be working for them.

(Although, Twilight’s not moral, regardless of what all the girls in the youth group say about it–who cares if they don’t have premarital intercourse. There are other ways to be immoral than to have premarital sex.)