STATUS: TGIF! I have to say that today’s news is a totally new experience for me.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? FAITHFULLY by Journey
OMG! I’m speechless.
And to quote Marie, “Is that my head in Times Square?????”
Uh…yep.
STATUS: TGIF! I have to say that today’s news is a totally new experience for me.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? FAITHFULLY by Journey
OMG! I’m speechless.
And to quote Marie, “Is that my head in Times Square?????”
Uh…yep.
STATUS: Okay, two days without sunshine is one day too many here in Colorado. *grin*
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? LET’S STAY TOGETHER by Nick Driver
I finally get to talk about the excitement unfolding here at NLA. What a way to kick off the year.
Huge Congrats, Marie, as the news hits Deadline Hollywood and Variety and of course, this blog! Since we don’t have cover art for the first book yet, you’ll just have to look at a picture of Marie Lu instead.
Notice the articles don’t mention the literary agent or film co-agent who actually brokered the deal. LOL. Hollywood. We are so unimportant.
STATUS: Even though it’s Friday, I’ll probably be a little late in getting out of here tonight.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? THE GREEN ROOM by Wayne Gratz
Although this isn’t a “funny” per se, it’s more like a cool item. One of NLA’s Australian clients, Cheryl Hingley, had her novel LA CREOLE adapted into a musical.
Here are excerpts from the performance at the Comedy Theater, Melbourne, Australia.
We are also happy to report that Cheryl’s application for a grant from the New Musicals Australia was accepted. How cool is that? Now the musical will go through workshops and a 40-minute fully-funded performance in Sydney this March 2011.
If you live Down Under (and I know I have plenty of readers in that country), you might want to check it out.
STATUS: Today is MLK holiday! I’m only in for the morning and then heading out to do a nice hike as the weather is good here.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? VALENTINE by Kina Grannis
Hey readers. Sorry about the blog silence starting on Wednesday. I had to go out of town unexpectedly for a funeral and there really was not time to write. I actually didn’t even open my computer except on the plane ride to and from.
On a MUCH lighter note. Jamie Ford attended the Pulpwood Book Queens 11th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend Author Extravaganza!
I pretty much think this picture says it all!
Jamie (on right) with Sam Barry of Rock Bottom Remainders
Need more great shots? Click here.
And if that costume wasn’t enough, we just found out on Friday that Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter and Sweet made the USA Today’s Best-selling Books: The top 100 for 2010 list.
Hotel came in at #84. Huge Congrats Jamie!
For that, I’d put on an Alice and Wonderland costume….
Status: Winter finally decided to show up in Denver. Eight inches of snow and boy is it cold.
One of the things I love the most about repping titles in the children’s world is the very different expectation children’s editors have for a debut author.
In the adult world, sometimes a new writer is treated via the spaghetti test. Let’s throw it out there and see if it sticks. If it doesn’t, time to move on.
The difference is that they understand that an instant success is the exception to the rule rather than the norm. And this is what makes today’s news so cool.
Finally we can share some big news out of the UK.
THE PAIN MERCHANTS (the US title is The Shifter) has been shortlisted for the 2011 Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize. This is a big deal. We’ve known for 2 months but couldn’t say anything until today.
We also found out that in the U.S., THE SHIFTER is a nominee for the 2011-2012 Truman Readers Award for the state of Missouri.
The coveted state reading lists—landing on one is usually a sign that a title/series is starting to penetrate the reading market—especially for teachers and librarians.
So huge news—and coming quite a bit of time after initial publication. I’m thinking this spaghetti strand is definitely going to stick!
STATUS: I’m working at home again tonight. Ah, the glamorous life….
What’s playing on the iPod right now? THE SOUND OF SUNSHINE by Michael Franti and Spearhead
Jana’s announcement from yesterday has produced a couple of positive results:
1. Kobo immediately removed Jana’s titles from their site and contacted Jana with the news. They also are willing to set up an agreement with her so she can directly sell her titles through their venue.
2. Dorchester informed me that they have submitted the requests to have the titles removed from the various ebook sites. Currently though, they are still available on some sites such as Amazon and BN.
3. RWA (Romance Writers of America) and SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America both sent out emails to members regarding this issue and asked that members contact them if they are facing similar from Dorchester. Both organizations are looking into it.
4. Many valuable discussions have unfolded on blogs and twitter regarding it.
In general, this avenue is not what would have been preferred, and I do think it could have been avoided altogether but one can’t deny the results.
STATUS: Getting this entry in late as you can see.
What’s playing on the iPod right now? NOT THE GIRL YOU THINK YOU ARE by Crowded House
Well, if you were plugged into the publishing world via the internet, you might have a little sense of how my day unfolded.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m referring to, you might want to take a moment to click on this link. My author Jana DeLeon, fed up with Dorchester and the fact that they were illegally selling copies of her ebooks long after her rights had reverted back to her, decided to take that news public.
I only have one thing to add. Despite no response to my previous calls demanding they cease and desist what they were doing, I still called Dorchester to warn them. I did not receive a return call—that is until today after the news broke.
STATUS: It’s noon so I don’t have one yet.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? Nothing at the moment
In honor of literary agent Ralph Vicinanza.
I did not know Ralph personally but he’s been a force in SF&F for so long, I just wanted to take a moment to recognize that. I was very sorry to hear the news that he passed away over the weekend.
There aren’t a lot of agents doing SF&F, and this is a big loss for the genre.
STATUS: I’m not sure I believe all this good news but it is, indeed, all true.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? THE MODERNIST by Steve Davis
Yesterday I didn’t get a chance to blog because I did a guest blog over at thelitcoach. All of my blog readers are super savvy on all this query pitch paragraph stuff but maybe some new readers might want to check out the post.
And even if you are an old pro at query letters but generally hate them, this post teaches you the shortcut on how to write a terrific pitch blurb in your query letter. Always worth repeating I think.
But now on to the amazing news of the day!
Back in April, I blogged about hitting an Agency milestone by having 3 authors all on the NYT bestseller list at the same time.
Well, guess what? It’s happened again and even more delightful, it’s the same 3 authors. How wild is that? But very cool.
So huge congrats to Jamie Ford (48 consecutive weeks on the NYT list and at #19 this week), Gail Carriger (coming in for the second time this year at #20), and Simone Elkeles (also coming in for the second time this year at #6).
Color me happy!
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STATUS: So thrilled today.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? THIS IS THE DAY by The The
Actually, I’m not exactly sure what that means except to say that Ally is still young and it sounded like a great title for this blog entry.
All I really want to say is CONGRATS ALLY! On coming in at #6 on the New York Times Series bestseller list and your best out of the gate sales numbers ever!
If any of the reviews on Amazon and BN are to be believed, this is the best Gallagher Girl book to date! We heartily agree.
