Publishing Industry Lowdown (Feb. 13-17)

By Susan | Published: February 17, 2012

It’s that day again–time for Sooz’s YA and MG Publishing Industry Lowdow. The general idea is that I share all the deals I know if in the young adult and middle grade publishing world each Friday.

My source for deal news is Publishers Marketplace, which requires a paid subscription. As such I’m only sharing part of the information here–basically, just author names and pitches. If you want to know deal sizes (e.g. advances), editors, publishers, and agents, I highly recommend you sign up for PM–it’s totally worth the cost!

Now, let’s get started, shall we?

Deals

Jennifer Lyne’s middle grade CATCH RIDER, not a “horse book” but a book about horse people, about a scrappy, lonely 14-year-old girl in a poor Virginia mill town, who dreams of working with horses and her uncle, a legendary horse trader battling demons of his own, who helps her take on the elite world of horse show riding; as she struggles to fit in and tackle every obstacle between her and the life she wants, including her own rebellious anger, she succeeds in a way that surprises her, for publication Spring 2013.

Marie Rutkoski’s young adult THE WINNER’S CURSE, set in a new world, The Winner’s Trilogy tells the story of masters and slaves, a warmongering empire, prison camps, spies, duels, rebellion, aristocrats living in luxury, ballroom dances, wicked rumors, dirty secrets, and games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart, THE WINNER’S CRIME and THE WINNER’S KISS.

Author of BREAKING BEAUTIFUL Jennifer Shaw Wolf’s next dark young adult mystery, SHARDS OF GLASS, about the mystery surrounding the death of a teenage girl and the message she left for her best friend.

Luke Reynolds, ed.’s young adult BREAK THESE RULES, an anthology of first-person accounts from leading authors for teens (including Sara Zarr, Kathryn Erskine, A. S. King and Gary Schmidt, and many others), from which all royalties will be donated to the Children’s Defense Fund.

Stephanie Kuehn’s young adult CHARM & STRANGE, about a sixteen-year-old boy stuck at a remote Vermont boarding school who’s convinced his destiny is to transform into a violent wolf, just like his father before him, and who has perfected the art of shutting people out — until the truth of who he really is comes to light as he forms an unexpected friendship with a young woman with her own troubled past.

ALA Best Fiction for YA pick & Cybil Award-winning STUPID FAST Geoff Herbach’s young adult EVEN IF IT HURTS, in which a dork-turned-athlete must choose a path between responsibility to others and his own desires to find firm ground from which to leap to a future that is his own.

(Source: Publisher’s Marketplace)

Other Stuff

Finally, publishers are taking legal action against illegal file-sharing sites. I mean, not that the war on pirating hasn’t been going on forever…and won’t continue to rage, BUT, I appreciate these 17 publishers at least trying.

UH-OH, the Author’s Guild has declared Amazon’s pricing anticompetive… They claim Amazon uses predatory pricing, or “a means of using superior capital resources not to innovate nor to provide better service, but to weaken or eliminate competition.” I can’t deny, the Author’s Guild is probably right on this one…

Kat Zhang has revealed her cover today! I gotta say, it is AMAZING. The story is about people born with two souls, and you’ll notice there are TWO FACES ON THE COVER! It’s so clever, my mind is blown.