STATUS: Blogging late. No particular reason other than it has been a rather busy day.
What’s playing on the iPod right now? THICK A** STOUT by Skankin’ Pickle
It never gets old. When Wednesday comes and the NYT bestseller list for the next week is released and Ally Carter is still on it, holy cow. You’d think the thrill would die down but it really doesn’t.
Jennifer was the person who started it all when she wanted to write for the YA market and asked me if I could sell it. Of course I said sure (even though I didn’t know any children’s editors at the time), and got on the phone immediately with a good agent friend who only reps children’s books to get the scoop. Then I went to New York to meet the people I needed to for Jennifer’s submission. And that’s how my repping YA began.
Her first young adult, PLAN B, sold at auction in less than a week. Thrilled, all I could think of was that I love YA and where could I get more to sell.
That inspired an email to all my current clients asking if any of them had ever thought of writing for the young adult market.
Ally immediately emailed me back with a list of ideas—which I promptly shot down (Ally tells a more colorful story on her website if you want to check it out). But it inspired her to come up with 3 more ideas and I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILLYOU was the second on the list. It hit me immediately that that was the novel she had to write so I called her to tell her so.
She did. And here we are on the NYT bestseller list for 14 weeks running.
So thank you Jennifer! I think it’s her turn to hit the list so mark your calendars for June as LOCAL GIRLS and RICH BOYS hit the shelves and these two books seriously rock. It’s her best stuff yet (and I want that girl’s abs…).
Congratz Kristen! It is amazing what turns our life takes when we least expect it. 🙂
I love the covers for Local Girls and Rich Boys. They convey that summer fun vibe.
I picked up a MTV (book publisher) recently while rolling my eyes — thinking it would be really terrible and trite writing, but was pleasantly surprised by the fresh characters and solid writing — if fact, the story was much more accessible and had fresher characters than the “A-list name authors” books I’d been reading.
Kudos to Jenny O’Connell for having TWO books coming out! Now that’s a good summer!
I saw Ally Carter on a panel at the Pikes Peak Writer’s Conference. She had a lot of helpful advice. It’s always great to see a nice person doing well.
Where on Ally’s website is her colorful story of her list of ideas?
I just thought I’d mention that I spotted both I’d Tell You and that boot-stomping book in the teeny book section of the local drugstore yesterday.