Publishing Industry Lowdown (July4-July 8)

For those of you who missed the revealing of this new feature, Sooz’s YA Publishing Industry Lowdow, the general idea is that I’d share the biggest news in the young adult and middle grade publishing world each Friday–big deals, important changes, etc.

So, let’s get started!!

Deals

Don Brown’s middle grade THE DUST BOWL, in a series highlighting great American catastrophes, combining drawings and writing to bridge the aesthetics of traditional illustrated books and contemporary graphic novels, for publication in Spring 2013.

Tamera Will Wissinger’s middle grade GOING FISHING, the story of an eight-year-old boy’s day of fishing using a wide variety of poetic forms including quatrains, ballads, iambic meter, rhyming lists, concrete poetry, tercets and free verse, for publication in Spring 2013.

Sibert Medal-winning Sy Montgomery and photographer Nic Bishop’s middle grade THE TAPIR SCIENTIST, focusing on the tapir: one of the cutest, oddest and most mysterious large animals on earth in its amazing Brazilian Pantenal locale, the world’s largest and richest wetland, and THE CHEETAH SCIENTIST, taking us to Namibia to observe the fastest and most ancient of predatory cats in the world, for publication in Spring 2013 and Spring 2014.

All Unquiet Things author Anna Jarzab’s young adult TANDEM, in which a physics student is transported into a parallel universe on prom night.

Jennifer Armentrout’s young adult CURSED, in which a high school senior has the touch of death, and the strange people who’ve found her may help her… or take everything from her.

Iowa MFA and author of THE WIKKELING, Steven Arntson’s young adult THE WRAP UP LIST, in which high school senior Gabriela Rivera has one week to wrap her life up after receiving a death letter, which accounts for 1% of fatalities in a mostly-familiar world.

Wendy Higgins’s young adult SWEET EVIL, in which a girl was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people; she’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but it isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage as a half-angel/half-demon, and her will-power is put to the test, for publication in 2012.

NYT bestselling author of THE REPLACEMENT and THE SPACE BETWEEN Brenna Yovanoff’s young adult PAPER VALENTINE, in which a girl haunted by the troubled ghost of her best friend finds herself sucked into a darkly mesmerizing string of murders, in which a serial killer who leaves a paper-heart ‘valentine’ on his victims’ bodies draws ever closer, for publication in Spring 2013.

Natalie Whipple’s debut young adult TRANSPARENT, pitched as X-Men meets The Godfather, in which an invisible girl has to stop her dad – an infamous crime lord – from ruining her life, in a two-book deal.

Saundra Mitchell’s young adult MISTWALKER, about a local legend in a lobstering town in Maine and the girl who becomes entangled in its mysteries, and her young adult AETHERBORNE.

(Source: Publisher’s Marketplace*)

Other News

There’s a new magazine in town out to show case emerging YA writers, called Sucker Literary Magazine. Starting in October, it will be open to submissions for stories!

Have small kids?  Want to introduce them to classic literature? Then you might be interested in Baby Lit, which sounds absolutely adorable to me.

In other children’s books news, HarperCollins Children’s is teaming up with Apple and B&N to make their I Can Read series available in a digital format.  These ebooks will feature sound effects and word-by-word read-along.

Are you a fan of Beverly Cleary? The Henry Huggins books were some of my favorite in the 3rd and 4th grade–I even have a vivid memory of what that library bookshelf looked like.  If you lover her books as much as I, then you’ll probably enjoy this interview with the 95-year-old author.  (And guess what: the senior editor for the team in charge of Something Strange and Deadly is none other than Cleary’s editor!!!)

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York and the  original Fergie, has written a children’s book about 9/11, but publishers are shying away from publishing it.  Now, Ferguson intents to sell it online with all proceeds going to charity.

And finally, for those of you obsessed with George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series (as I am), you might have heard about an Amazon employee who jumped the gun on the latest book’s ship date.  A Dance with Dragons is over 2 years late (I pre-ordered it in 2007, when it was originally due out!), and so fans have literally been going crazy in anticipation for this books July 12 release date. Anyway, Martin has threatened to “mount [the employee’s] head on a spike”–and rightly so, in my opinion!

You tell me: Is there any industry news-bite I missed? Do you have an significant news you want to share?

♥

*Note: Because Publishers Marketplace requires a paid subscription, 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!