Judging A Book By It's Cover

Ooops....totally missed my fun Friday fact two days ago.  It's been one of those weeks (update coming soon!).  But work has been going well (and keeping me busy!).

One of the most exciting tasks I’ve been doing for my job lately is filling out “cover summary” forms.  These detailed documents are written by editors outlining their thoughts for the cover of upcoming books.   While others (especially marketing and publicity) also have a say in what the cover of a book will look like, the editor’s comments get the ball rolling.  We fill out suggestions such as who or what we want on the main cover, what the main character looks like, and who the potential audience for the book is.  A lot of thought goes into the cover look, and it’s exciting to have a say in the process.  

Recently CBS came out with a news clip about the process, which you can view here.

  

Some of my recent favorites include, Savvy by Ingrid Law, The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, Halo by Alexandra Adornetto and Torment by Lauren Kate.   I read the first two based on how appealing I found the covers and nothing else.  And while I have not yet read the last two, the iconic and beautiful images are what many YA paranormal covers aspire to look like.

What makes you pick up a book? Glittery images and embossed text? A pretty girl? Something iconic?  There are so many great options out there, but some covers are just meant to stand out! 

Giving My Regards to Broadway

One of my favorite parts about living in New York City is that Broadway is at my doorstep.  Having participated in musical theater growing up, I have a huge affinity for the theater.  Those show-stopping numbers in classical musicals keep me smiling for days on end and I can’t help but wish that my neighbors would start singing as I walked down the street a la Avenue Q or RENT, even though I live further north (perhaps they do really sing in Alphabet City?).

Keeping up with theater trends, lately I have noticed how many musicals, and especially those for children, have found their source material in books.  This obviously isn’t unheard of, although many book-based musicals are actually book-based-movies-turned-Broadway-show, like Mary Poppins or Spider Man.   However, there are a few new shows out that have skipped the movie step and gone straight to stage (although perhaps in off- and off-off-off Broadway). 

The most famous of these (and VERY VERY highly recommended by moi) is Wicked, adapted by Gregory Macguire’s novel of the same name.  While it is technically a book for adults, and the storyline of the novel is bogged down by political commentary*, at the  heart of the musical is a story of acceptance and finding out who you are.  Elphaba’s journey, along with G(a)linda, the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion are something every teenager can relate to.

For the younger crowd, Freckleface Strawberry: The Musical, based on Julianne Moore’s picture book recently opened.  I got the inside scoop on this book while interning at Bloomsbury Children’s Books and if the musical is anything like the book, it’s a gem.   I only wish I had a few kids to take to see the show, so I wouldn’t be the only adult unaccompanied by a kid in the theater.

In London, Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvelous Medicine recently opened, and perhaps it will make it’s way to New York like so many shows do. 

And Scholastic just announced the traveling show, Clifford the Big Red Dog: A Big Family Musical, which will be performed in sixty cities around the country. It’s just in development stages, but it’s something exciting to look forward to!

So, for kids young and old, there are plenty of choices for a theater experience.  Read the book, then see the show.  It’s a match made in musical heaven.

* And for the record, although Wicked wasn’t my favorite ‘fairytale’ adaptation of Gregory Macguire’s, the strongly plotted sequel, Son of a Witch, makes reading the first one worth it.

Awards!

Today some of the most prestigious awards in children's books were awarded today at the ALA Midwinter Conference in San Diego.  Read the press release with the winners.


Special congrats to Sir Terry Pratchett who won the Edwards Award, and his editor, Anne Hoppe (my boss!).  


And if you want to read the award winning books- I know I have a lot of catching up to do- use this link to start selecting which ones will make it on to your To Be Read list.  Enjoy, and congrats to all the winners!

Reading Roundup

All of you now know that I am VERY happily employed at HarperCollins Publishers, which means I have two little bits of information to add before getting to December’s Reading Roundup.

Disclaimer #1: All opinions on this blog are my own and not representative of HarperCollins.

Disclaimer #2: That being said, the majority of the books I’m reading nowadays are published by HC.  And that may not always be clear.  But keep in mind that I may be biased, as I do have a personal stake in the success of certain books and the company.  That isn’t to say, though, that I will fabricate a good review on a HC book if it’s bad, because HC publishes SUCH good books it’s unlikely there will be a so-so one.  And if you check out the New York Times’ Bestseller list, several HC books are always there, and that’s part of what drew me to the company. 

So yeah, just keep those two things in mind as you continue to read the blog.

Once in a Full Moon (ARC 1/11) by Ellen Schreiber

Ellen Schreiber is the author of the bestselling Vampire Kisses series; her new book begins a series about werewolves.  And one of the most appealing aspects to her writing is that although they’re paranormal romances about violent creatures, the stories themselves are blood and gore free.  It’s fluffy and refreshing rather than moody and disconcerting.  And the cover to Once in a Full Moon is breathtaking.

 

Shade's Children by Garth Nix

This book was first published in 1998 as a sci-fi book for adults.  Yet HC sees the possibility to jump on the YA dystopian bandwagon and republish it with a new look.  Since I helped write the flap copy (the blurb on the back of the book), I needed to know what the book was about.  As I’ve said before, sci-fi isn’t a genre that I like, and it’s true that this book has a lot of sci-fi elements.  Yet, the characters were strongly portrayed and there were fantasy elements (they have special powers) that were intriguing and something a non-sci-fi lover could grasp on to. 

 

Angelfire (ARC 3/11) by Courtney Allison Moulton

I’m really excited about this debut novel.  It’s a paranormal romance about angels and demons…but so much more.  When Ellie discovers tidbits of truth about her past- turns out there’s about two millennia of it- she has to confront what she knows about God and fallen angels and demons…especially when she discovers that her love interest/tutor, Will, is one of them.  She must fight the creatures who stalk the Grim, even if she doesn’t yet know who she really is or how she fits into the larger universal plan.  Angelfire has made it onto lots of blogger’s “Books I’m looking forward to in 2011” lists, so grab a copy as soon as you can!

Old Habits: After Ink Exchange (ebook 1/11) by Melissa Marr

This is a short story eBook available to readers eager to read more about the world in which Wicked Lovely and Melissa Marr’s other bestselling novels are set.  Her world-building is fantastic, and this will help tide readers over until her next books are published.

Immortal by Gillian Shields

When Evie is sent to a historic boarding school in the moors, she has to deal with far more than snotty girls and harsh mistresses; there’s a secretive boy that she meets by moonlight, a potentially deranged student, and the mystery of Evie’s past.  When all three collide, Evie realizes she is in danger…but discovering the truth about what happened centuries ago is the only way to make it right.  Followed by Betrayal and Eternal, Immortal reminded me of a contemporary, lighter Rebel Angel by Libba Bray.  Great for anyone who (like me) enjoys slightly gothic boarding school stories.

           

What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

This book was recommended to me because I was also reading a manuscript for an upcoming novel-in-verse, and I had never read one before.  This one is excellent; it was a quick (about one hour) and exciting read.  Great for those who are reluctant to read poetry because the story itself is so vivid, you forget…until Sones does something so brilliant with the formatting or language, you appreciate it all over again.

Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs

I was so excited to read this book; it’s a paranormal romance about mermaids.  And I LOVE mermaids.  Mermaids never really caught on fire like vampires, werewolves and then angel/demons, but just a little while ago a bunch of mermaid books suddenly were on the market.  This one is a light, fluffy read told from the point of view of a mermaid who spends much of her time on land in order to understand her mother’s people and snag a mermate.  I look forward to seeing what happens to Lily and her choice in the sequel, Fins Forever.

The Fire Opal by Regina McBride

I picked this book up because it was on one of HC editor’s shelves and every time I walked by it caught my eye.  Turns out, this wasn’t my favorite book ever; every time the character was confused I was really confused, too.  Yet the use of Celtic mythology was interesting, as was the creative ice barge setting in the last third of the novel.

Plus five manuscripts for exciting books in HC’s future.  I know you’ll hear more about them later.

Literature and the MTA

 Here is a fact for Friday, but today it is not fun: starting more or less immediately, literary placards on the subways will be replaced by ads.

As stated in the New York Times article from 12/20/10, the program called Train of Thought, which had replaced Poetry in Motion, will be discontinued.  These two programs have been running for a combined eighteen years.  Train of Thought shared literary quotations from Kafka and T.S. Eliot.  It was a great relief from the ads for bunion doctors and immigration lawyers that decorate subway cars.

The rational behind this change?  The MTA needed space for their promotional campaign.  And while it’s true that the MTA needs to do everything it can to make New Yorkers happy with the public transportation system, more advertisements do not provide the respite that a bit of poetry or quote might provide to someone traveling home after a long day.

I guess now we’ll just have to rely on the subway musicians to brighten our day…

Children's Book Trends for 2011

This will be my last post (I promise!) about wrapping up 2010 and book trends and what’s going to be hot in 2011.  But a post by authors Ally Carter and Jennifer Lynn Barnes was so interesting, I just had to share.  Their notes are in the normal font, mine are in italics.

2010 GENRE TRENDS

1. Dystopian

From The Maze Runner to Matched, in 2010 the search for the next Hunger Games kicked into high gear. With the Mockingjay release and a Hunger Games feature film on the way, dystopian is a trend that isn’t slowing down.

This is without a doubt true, with hard to get ARCs for Divergent proving that!

2. Angels

While established vampire series are still rocking the YA market, lesser-known or debut authors seem to be having more luck with angels. Growing series like Hush Hush and Fallen and successful debuts like Halo join with re-released older titles like The Fallen to make this a trend with major Times List staying power.

 I commented on this trend months ago when I read Personal Demons and even my non-industry friend commented on the abundance of angel YA.  And, just like I warned in my previous post, the first angel paranormal romance I’m so excited for everyone else to get a chance to read is Angelfire, published by Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

3. Spin-Off-Series

With the release of Clockwork Angel by Cassie Clare, Radiance by Alyson Noel, and The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, 2010 was the time for new series set in already best-selling worlds. With many other authors announcing plans for spin-offs of their own, this is a trend on the rise.

4. Beyond-the-Grave Fiction

This sub-genre of realistic YA has been experiencing a slow build since the release of Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why. But with the paperback release of If I Stay, and Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall debut, 2010 has taken the “death” book to a whole new level.

5. Humorous Middle Grade

There’s no denying that funny is where it’s at in middle grade fiction. Established powerhouse series like Diary of a Wimpy Kid stayed strong, and newer entries like Big Nate and Dork Diaries continued to rise, proving that funny was a valuable commodity in middle-grade in 2010.

6. Dark YA

As much as middle-grade readers love to laugh, those same books have few YA counterparts seeing equivalent success. Whether it’s a dystopian future or words from beyond the grave, a dangerous romance or a gritty look at reality (a la Ellen Hopkins), the 2010 young adult market was dominated by the dark and serious.

2010 INDUSTRY TRENDS

1. E-books

People are talking about E-books, E-readers, and E-publishing--all adding up to a very big E-year for 2010.

And yet, while YA books are regularly being read on eReaders, it’s still often adults reading those books; now they don’t have to be ‘embarrassed’ to be enjoying a kid’s book on the subway home from work.  It will be interesting to see after this holiday season how many teens got eReaders and how that will affect the eBook in the coming months.

2. Adult Mega-Stars Crossing Into YA

Young Adult fiction has been making waves for several years, so it’s no surprise that more adult superstars are hitting the YA market than ever before with authors like John Grisham, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kathy Reichs and Candace Bushnell all making 2010 debuts.

3. Growth of Book Packagers

Alloy has been book packaging for years, but lately more and more packagers are popping up and making waves. Tinderbox and the controversial Full Fathom Five and are just two up and operating now with more gaining traction every day.

4. Repackaging old titles

Sometimes books come out before their time. In 2010, publishers didn’t let that stop them, and many repackaged titles from authors like LJ Smith, Christopher Pike, and Thomas Sniegoski to take advantage of current trends.

This is exactly what HarperCollins is doing with Shade’s Children, which also ties into trend prediction #2, below.  An interesting article also talks about updating Lois Duncan’s books for a modern market.

5. Cross-promotion

Author events looked different in 2010 with more multi-author tours hitting the road. Whether they were publisher-driven like Disney-Hyperion’s “Un-required Reading” tour or author-run like the “Smart Chicks Kick It” tour, cross-promotion was certainly on the rise--a trend that could also be seen in non-tour marketing efforts such as “The Penguin Five.”

Tours like this make me sooo excited.  It’s awesome when you can hear one of your favorite authors talk, but when a group of authors (some you may know, some you may not, some that may become your new favorites) come together, the audience really benefits from their interactions, plus a fuller conversation with multiple perspectives (be that about the industry, the writing process, or specific books), can be really enlightening.  The only downside? Great tours like “Smart Chicks Kick It” and HarperCollins’s “The Dark Days of Supernatural” didn’t/aren’t coming to NYC. 

6. YA on TV

Two of the biggest shows on television today got their start on Young Adult bookshelves. In 2010, YA-TV eclipsed Gossip Girl with Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries taking center stage. If the orders for upcoming pilots are any indication, we will soon see more YA novels on the small screen than ever before.

TREND PREDICTIONS

1. Contemporary Romance

From dark and edgy to lighter contemporary fare, we’re predicting that paranormal romance readers might become simply “romance readers”. The success of Simone Elkeles’ gritty YA romances and staying power of YA powerhouses like Sarah Dessen bode well for this genre in 2011.

2. Soft Sci Fi

Hunger Games isn’t just dystopian--it’s also science fiction. Coupled with Beth Revis’s upcoming Across the Universe, we’re predicting that these books may open the window for more YA sci fi: from space operas to tech.

See my note above about Shade’s Children, which has a ton of dystopian and fantasy elements that will help it appeal to those other than traditional sci-fi readers.

3. Gothic

Following in the wake of Beautiful Creatures, as well the general popularity of both paranormal and darker fare, we’re expecting a surge in books with a Gothic feel.

This is the trend I’m most excited about, and I hope it will come to be.  My favorite books- from Jane Eyre to Rebecca to Rebel Angels- are distinctly Gothic and I love it.

4. Thriller-Action-Adventure:

Beyond their paranormal and dystopian elements, many of 2010’s mega hits are, at their core, action-adventure-thrillers. It stands to reason that many of those readers might eventually reach out for action-based stories set in a more contemporary world.

5. Mixed Genre Paranormal

Paranormal is far too popular to go away in its entirety any time soon, so we expect this genre to hold strong in 2011...if it brings something new to the mix. Be on the look out for books which blend other genres with paranormal mainstays, in the vein of White Cat (crime fiction), Paranormalcy (government agency), or Maureen Johnson’s upcoming paranormal mysteries.

6. Commercial Historical Fiction

Lately, readers interested in complex and interesting worlds have been finding them in the paranormal, but they can also find them in the past. High concept historical fiction might be poised to make a move if, like paranormal, it has a mix of commercial elements. From crime-fighting flappers to Austenian assassins, historical might be a very interesting place to be in 2011 and beyond.

From what I’ve been hearing in the industry grapevine, this might be more wish than realistic prediction.  And a wish that I absolutely share.  I’d guess that 80% of the books I read pre-high school and 50% of the books I read in high school were historical fiction (the rest being made up mostly by fantasy, some contemporary).  I remember Little Women, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Lyddie, and The Witch of Blackbird Pond sooo fondly, yet kids today aren’t interested in straight historical fiction.  Some novels can get away with a bit of history, like When You Reach Me or Revolution, yet the fantastical elements help it sell in today’s market. But The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (which takes place in Texas, 1899) and Bright Young Things (NYC, 1929), for example, give me hope…please let 2011 bring historical fiction back!

I hope you found this as interesting as I did.  Which trends are you excited for books to follow this year?   And 360 days from now, we’ll see how these predictions fared! 

Popular Library Books

Happy New Year! 

It’s always fun with the New Year to think about all the exciting books that are coming out and to guess which ones will be bestsellers.  Yet, despite how big some books are going to be, not everyone is reading the top books.  Some people aren’t on top of the trends, others read older books because they’ve heard from word of mouth that xyz is worth reading…even if it’s a few years after the publication date.  So sometimes it’s interesting to see what the “masses” are reading, or, in this case, what the most popular books checked out of the library were for 2010.

I normally like writing about New York City, but my boyfriend is from Washington State and passed along a few articles from the Seattle Times, so I thought it was worth including them as the information is interesting and through me, we’ll show some Pacific Northwest pride (P.S. NYC is still better).

Seattle Times lists these books as the most-often borrowed from Seattle Public Library in 2010:

1.    The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2009)

2.    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (2009)

3.     The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson (2010)

4.     The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (2009)

5.     The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson (2010)

6.     Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2010)

7.     The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (2009)

8.     Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (2008)

9.     Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan (2009)

10. I Stink! by Kate McMullan, illustrated by Jim McMullan (2006)

In a follow-up article, Seattle Times lists the most-often borrowed books for the entire county, which is actually of more interest to me because there are more kid’s books on the list.  Their explanation?  Families live outside of Seattle’s city limits.

1.    The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2009)

2.    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (2009)

3.     The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson (2010)

4.     Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (2010)

5.     The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson (2010)

6.    Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (2009)

7.    The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008)

8.     The Red Pyramid by Rich Riordan (2010)

9.     U if for Undertow by Sue Grafton (2010)

10. The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan (2006)

My library usage (both from NYPL and my small library at home in CT) lines up with what Seattle Times reports, making me guess that their data might be decently representative of the country.  The titles in bold are the ones I borrowed from the library this year, and probably make up a third to a quarter of the books I checked out (like I’ve said before, I really like owning books even if it’s a bad financial idea).  My thoughts on some of those books (among others) can be found here or here.

I wonder what books will be the most often checked out this year…and how many have staying power to be on the list several years in a row!