Publishing Industry Lowdown (Nov. 7-11)
It’s that day again–time for Sooz’s YA and MG Publishing Industry Lowdow. The general idea is that I share the biggest news in the young adult and middle grade publishing world each Friday–big deals, important changes, etc.
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!!
Deals
Author of THE OWL KEEPER Christine Brodien-Jones’s middle grade THE GLASS PUZZLE, a fantasy novel about 10-year-old Zoe and her cousin Ian, who use a mysterious glass puzzle to transport them back in time to an ancient Welsh town.
Tessa Gratton’s young adult OF STARS, and two more books in her SONGS OF NEW ASGARD series, an alternate history of a USA founded on the tenets of Norse religions, in which two teens take a road trip to find a missing god and encounter small-town zealots, trickster gods, and sadistic field trolls, as they discover who they are to each other and who they want to be, for publication starting in Summer 2013.
Creator of the ESCAPE FROM FURNACE series Alexander Gordon Smith’s young adult THE FURY, about a group of teens who one day find parents, friends, and complete strangers turning against them with bloodthirsty abandon, for publication in Fall 2013.
Cat Winters’s young adult IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS, the story of a teen girl mourning the loss of her first love in 1918 California, where a flu has turned deadlier than a world war, and spirit communication has became a dark and dangerous obsession, illustrated with early-twentieth-century photographs.
Screenwriter, novelist, playwright, and New Yorker humor contributor Paul Rudnick’s untitled debut young adult novel, a modern fairytale with a twist, in which a cynical teenager meets a fashion Svengali who promises to make her three dresses to transform her into the most beautiful woman in the world, after which she is launched on a romantic international adventure and must decide–is beauty everything, or can she be just as happy without it? in a two-book deal.
Twenty-three-year-old Betsy Cornwell’s debut young adult TIDES, about eighteen-year-old Noah who moves to New Hampshire’s remote Isles of Shoals for a marine biology internship, where he learns of his grandmother’s romance with a selkie woman, falls for the selkie’s daughter, and must work with her to rescue her siblings from his mentor’s cruel experiments, in a two-book deal.
NYT bestseller Lisa McMann’s third book in the middle grade UNWANTEDS series, for publication in Fall 2013.
Winner of the 2011 PEN-Naylor Work-in-Progress Award Lucy Frank’s young adult TWO GIRLS STARING AT THE CEILING, a novel-in-verse about two very different girls in parallel hospital beds who form a life-sustaining bond.
Kate Bridges writing as Kate Maddison’s young adult THE INCREDIBLE CHARLOTTE SYCAMORE, a steampunk mystery about a 16-year-old girl in Buckingham Palace, daughter of the Royal Surgeon to Queen Victoria, wanted for high treason when, unbeknownst to her father, she secretly trains herself to become a ‘Robin Hood’ surgeon, stealing medicine and knowledge from the rich to treat the poor – along with a band of teenage friends and first love.
Tara Fuller’s young adult INBETWEEN, in which a young reaper who falls in love with a girl whose soul he’s been sent to take not once, but twice, must sacrifice everything to protect her from the evil he unknowingly unleashed by altering her fate, in a three-book deal, for publication in Summer 2012.
Bonnie Shimko’s young adult THE VOICE IN MAGGIE FEIGENBAUM’S HEAD.
David Kelly’s middle grade Books 6 through 9 in THE BALLPARK MYSTERIES chapter book series, in which two kids visit a city or ballpark (with their sports journalist mother) and become enmeshed in a mystery or suspicious event.
RAYMOND AND GRAHAM series author Mike Knudson’s middle grade ZEKE WILSON’S GUIDE TO MIDDLE SCHOOL, the first four books in a new series, a humorous look at middle school and the rules of coolness seen through the eyes of quirky kid Zeke Wilson.
(Source: Publisher’s Marketplace)
Other News
Need NaNo help? GalleyCat shares seven free, downloadable books on writing. It’s hard to pass up FREE!
It’s the book of the future. Seriously, HOW COOL IS THIS COVER? I wants one.
As I’m sure everyone has heard by now, Barnes & Noble unveiled their latest Nook. With a $249 price tag and some serious mud-slinging against the Kindle Fire, I would say B&N might just have a competitor… Plus, they’ve lowered the price of their old Nook color to $199, and the Nook Touch to $99–and unlike Amazon’s Kindles, the Nook has no advertisements built in.
A debut novel has been cancelled after the author was found to have done some major plagiarism. Ouch for the publisher–Little, Brown…but seriously, it IS bad. You can see all the “stolen” passages here.
Publisher’s Weekly shared their list of best 2011 children’s books. It ranges from YA to picture book, and there are a LOT of titles on there I haven’t read. (Yay! More reading fodder!)
And, love him or hate him, you can’t fail to be impressed by Christopher Paolini’s sales figures on the first day of his fourth INHERITANCE book’s release. 500K copies in a single day? Um…AMAZING.
And, as I’m SURE you’ve all noticed, I revealed my cover on Monday!! AND I GOT ARCS. Sorry for tooting that horn again, but…can I help it if I’m a wee bit excited? ::blushes::
You tell me: Is there any industry news-bite I missed? Do you have an significant news you want to share?
♥
November 11, 2011 @ 1:58 pm
Yayy, Cat Winters’ book is there! It sounds so awesome, and so do the others. Thanks again for sharing, Susan!
November 11, 2011 @ 4:48 pm
Sure thing, Elizabeth! And YAY for books from people you know! 😀
November 11, 2011 @ 2:22 pm
CHARLOTTE SYCAMORE sounds really cool!
I really cannot understand how anyone thinks they can get away with plagiarism in the digital age. Like, do not get it.
November 11, 2011 @ 4:49 pm
I know–I totally thought the same thing about CHARLOTTE. (And there we have another instance of me using the word ‘totally’, btw)
And YES to the plagiarism thing. It’s just MIND-BLOWING.
November 11, 2011 @ 5:27 pm
Wow that plagiarism thing is just beyond me. Why on earth would someone do that?
And that book of the future cover was AWESOME! How freaking cool!
November 13, 2011 @ 3:24 am
You know, I don’t know how someone could expect to get away with plagiarism so explicit in this day and age. You gotta just shake your head…
November 12, 2011 @ 8:08 am
Who does that? Plagiarize, I mean. How sad. 🙁
November 13, 2011 @ 3:24 am
Yeah, very sad. And kind of appalling that the book got THAT far before anyone realized…
November 13, 2011 @ 2:31 am
SOOOOOOOZ, Look at what I found on tumblr!
Do you see? Do you SEE? It’s YOUR FONT and YOUR BOOK TITLE :DD And, I’m not sure why, but this showed up on the Darkest Powers tag on tumblr lol So, um, yeah. I’m about to reblog it and tell everybody what that’s ACTUALLY from. But I saw it and I HAD to come tell you 😀
… Even though this is totally unrelated to the actual post.
On the other hand, have you read The Girl in the Steel Corset? I’ve been looking at it for a while, but it’s gotten some mixed reviews, so I wondered if you had heard anything about it 🙂
Loves,
A
November 13, 2011 @ 3:23 am
Wow, AMAZING catch, Adriana. Like…I’m impressed. And thanks for representing me!!
Re: GIRL IN THE STEEL CORSET. I haven’t read it, but it has an AWESOME book trailer and it’s definitely in my TBR pile…
November 13, 2011 @ 3:10 am
I think INBETWEEN sounds like a pretty interesting read.
And I heard about the plagiarism case over on AW…it’s like…holy cow, talk about plagiarism. I’d love to know how it got so far without anyone noticing anything off.
This might be better suited for email, but I wanted to ask–what are your views on self-pubbing? I’ve recently started thinking about honestly just going indie with my fiction instead of just the NF project I have going, but I really can’t make up my mind and wanted an opinion from someone I trust.
Now, off to download those free books!
November 13, 2011 @ 3:29 am
You know, I’m really torn on indie publishing. If you wanna email me, we can definitely chat about it….
I feel like for fiction–and for me personally–it’s not something I’m ready to do because I don’t have a fan base. I have no way of getting my books to readers without hardcore self-promotion (which is something I don’t have the time/skillz/$$ for). Additionally, I wouldn’t want to sell something that hasn’t been through an editor’s hands–and that means investing $$ to start. I see so many books that don’t have the proper editing, and it’s unfair to readers for those books to be available, you know?
That said, there are also a lot of books that are self-pubbed the “right way”–by people (i.e. Shelli Johannes and her novel UNTRACEABLE) who put in the time, $$, and effort to bring a great product to the public. If you can do that, then I am ALL for it. I just know it’s not something I’m capable of doing at this point in my life (though maybe later on!).
Does that help at all??
November 14, 2011 @ 7:03 am
That would be cool if animated covers started appearing more often. Rachel Vincent’s My Soul to Steal UK ebook has one as well: http://safaripoet.tumblr.com/post/11125606546/uk-ebook-cover-my-soul-to-steal-by-rachel-vincent
I love the sound of Tara Fuller’s Inbetween. It happens to have a reaper, just like My Soul to Steal, but it’s something that apart from Vincent’s Soul Screamer series, I haven’t come across. Thanks for all the info 🙂
November 14, 2011 @ 8:12 pm
ACK. That is one cool cover. Thanks for the link! Of course, now I wish *I* had a crazy digital cover… 😉