STATUS: Heading out of the office right now and won’t be back for a week.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? DIDJITAL VIBRATIONS by Jamiraquai
Hey readers. I’m out on a small medical leave for a week so there won’t be any blogging but I absolutely couldn’t leave without posting Plot Device! It’s a little long but if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s time well spent!
Enjoy!
Plot Device from Red Giant on Vimeo.
STATUS: Even though I look absolutely ridiculous doing a happy dance, I’m doing it anyway! White woman overbite. Here I come.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? THE LOAD OUT by Jackson Browne
This is just getting impossible. If I keep hitting crazy milestones, what will I have to look forward to? Last year, I had 3 authors on the New York Times bestseller list at the same time.
Then it happened twice in one year. Fabulous. Where to go next?
How about 4 authors on the NYT list at the same time? And 3 of them on the top 150 USA Today Bestseller list at the same time as well.
Yep! That’s the news that hit my inbox about an hour ago. And here they are.
At #19 on the Trade Paperback list and #146 on USA Today
At #9 on the Children’s list
At #11 on the Mass Market paperback list and #109 on USA Today
At #13 on the eBook listand #59 on USA Today
When I got into this biz, this wasn’t something I ever imagined so the reality is not quite real. Maybe it will sink in tomorrow…
Status: RWA. Day Final. Tomorrow I go home to Denver. Squee
What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? JOHNNY B. GOODE by Chuck Berry
We’ve known for months but couldn’t say anything. I guess if Hollywood Reporter is going blast it out there (with nary a heads up I might add), I’m going to shine a spotlight on it.
Congrats Ally on having Drew Barrymore attached to direct HEIST SOCIETY and even more fabulous?
Having the sequel, UNCOMMON CRIMINALS, debut at #3 on the New York Times Children’s Bestseller list this week!!!
Status: Giddy with excitment!
What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? nothing at the moment
I usually get the weekly NYT list around 6 in the evening but alas, it didn’t hit my inbox until 9:30 tonight but whoa, a huge surprise was waiting for me.
HUGE CONGRATS Courtney Milan!
You, my dear, are now officially a New York Times Bestselling author as well. Today, not only did your novella UNLOCKED hit the USA Today list coming in at #36, you also hit the NYT eBook bestseller list coming in at #6.
And sheesh, right during RWA 2011. That’s timing. I couldn’t be more thrilled for you.
Status: It’s raining. Again!
What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? ROSANNA by Toto
Yesterday, Brian headed home to Denver with Chutney in tow. The poor man has had nothing but bad luck with air travel and yesterday was no exception. Brian and Chutney’s plane was delayed by almost 5 hours.
Security lines were also a mess. Over an hour to get back into the gate area if Brian exited the terminal. In short, the two of them were stuck between a rock and a hard place.
And here’s where Southwest Airlines gets my vote for best airline ever.
Although you can’t quite make out Chutney (as she’s behind that gray ladder), here is the shot Brian took of the cluster of southwest employees trying to get Chutney to go to the bathroom out on the tarmac before boarding the plane.
Needless to say, Chutney was too freaked out but kudos to the employees of Southwest for going the distance. They really tried!
Status: It was already in the 90s by 9 a.m. this morning. Poor Chutney was not happy with her walk in Central Park.
What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? SHE BOP by Cyndi Lauper
Even though I have a healthy ego in regards to my agenting, I really do think that this a once-in-a-career opportunity.
I found out this week that Jamie Ford’s Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet is in the running for One Book One Denver!
Always the last to know….
But I’m so excited at the possibility I can barely sleep. I really don’t know if I’ll ever have another book in the running (although one never knows what the future will bring)!
As many of you know, Jamie is not a Coloradoan but his wife is and her family still lives here. They visit Colorado often so even though he’s not a local author per se, he’s an honorary or sometimes local. Either way, he is a writer of the West.
So what is this blog post about? I need your help! The title is in the running but I need Denverites to vote.
Here’s how it works. You go to the voting website here. Of course they are going to want you to register (sorry about that!) because they are collecting info for Denver Events eMailing list. You can always unsubscribe later
Then you’ll see the three titles and I won’t mince words. The competition is tough. I personally enjoyed The Art Of Racing In The Rain and my book club is scheduled to read The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks in just a few short months. I’m not disparaging these titles at all but I still want HOTEL to win!!
It’s a little confusing on the site but voters are suppose to vote on each title by ranking them with the number of stars that applies to your rating of the work.
So, it’s not a matter of the book with the most votes win but the book with the most votes and the highest ranking of stars wins. I hope that makes sense…
If HOTEL does win, trust me, Jamie will be coming to town for a variety of One Book One Denver events. NLA will hold a party and all Denverites are invited!
Status: It’s pouring rain in New York too. Is there anywhere where it’s not raining?
What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? WHATAYA WANT FROM ME by Adam Lambert
Dashing off in the next hour to head to Javits Center. It’s going to be a crazy week but I’ll try and report from the floor. I’m armed with my camera.
And some great news to kick it off. Kirkus lists the Top 26 Galleys to grab at the Fair and guess who is on it?
Heck yes!
In a totally unscientific sampling, I gave an ARC of this title to my 17 year old niece who loved it. She cajoled my 14 year old reluctant reader nephew to read it. He spent an entire day, while on spring break, away from playing his favorite video game because he couldn’t stop reading it.
There have only been two other books that did the same for him. ENDER’S GAME and the HUNGER GAMES trilogy.
This is how I know Marie and I might be on to something with this LEGEND trilogy so if you are at BEA, you might want to hit Marie’s signing on Wed. May 25 at 3 pm at Penguin’s booth #3252.
The last NLA book to be chosen as a top galley at BEA was SOULLESS by Gail Carriger.
This bodes well for us!
STATUS: You don’t want to know.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? KNEES OF MY HEART by Jimmy Buffett
I’m doing everything but laughing at the moment. Right now our ISP Server is down and our submissions database is offline. Argh! Supposedly any incoming or outgoing emails are being saved on the back up server until it’s up and running again. And I hope to goodness the database is on their backup server as well or we are going to be in trouble.
If you were planning to query or submit, hold off until next Monday, please, as we are migrating to a new ISP host on Sunday. We actually had this planned but of course was waiting for the weekend when the transition would be the less inconvenient. Go figure that our current provider would have problems this week of all weeks. Talk about bad timing.
We did a whole tech conversion in February and these are just the final pieces that we need to put in place so my apologies for the inconvenience.
So I really need a laugh on this Friday. This video doesn’t have anything to do with publishing but it did make me laugh uproariously. It’s compliments of my assistant Anita. Since I haven’t done funnies in a while, I hope it does the same for you. TGIF! Have a great weekend.
STATUS: I’m listening to Chill on XM. This station is new to me. Do I feel calmer? Hum…
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? TAMELESS by Yonderboi
Sadly, Dorchester Publishing has been in the news again recently. I’m sure most of you have already seen the headlines as it certainly is not a secret that Brian Keene called for a boycott of the publisher because unauthorized editions of Keene’s digital editions were being sold after the rights had reverted to him.
I can confirm that the same has happened to several NLA authors whose rights had also reverted.
In response, Dorchester vows to make it right.
Last Thursday, I was on a conference call that detailed Dorchester’s current financial situation where I also brought up this issue.
Currently they are paying royalties owed to what they call “currently active Dorchester authors” (ie. authors whose rights Dorchester currently has under contract and can exploit). I also received confirmation that those payments are happening on a weekly basis.
However, Dorchester owes a tidy sum of back royalties to what are called “non-current inactive authors” (ie. authors whose rights have reverted) and as of Thursday’s call, there is no plan in place to pay these past royalties owed.
I imagine that this is partly what CEO Bob Anthony is referring to when he mentions that they’ve needed to prioritize cash flow and in the end, one can hope that Anthony’s vow that “all authors will be paid in full” will come to pass.
Given past actions by the company, Mr. Keene and other authors remain skeptical.
STATUS: Plan to work most of the weekend so it doesn’t feel like a Friday really.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? FRIDAY ON MY MIND by The Easybeats
Today’s entry is compliments of my Mom. Nothing to do with publishing but it certainly made me laugh—never a bad thing to do when going into the weekend. Enjoy!