Author Vince Flynn died last year after a battle with cancer. At the time, he was only two chapters into his next Mitch Rapp book The Survivor.

Author Kyle Mills has stepped in to complete the story of the famous undercover CIA counter terrorism agent. The Vince Flynn Estate has signed a three-book deal with Mills and Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books to complete The Survivor and deliver two new books in the series. Emily Bestler, the editor of all of Flynn’s books, will edit the new works.

In a note posted on VinceFlynn.com, Mills explained his own connection with Flynn and his plans for the books. “My goal with The Survivor is to stick very closely to Vince’s style and to try to capture Mitch exactly as he did,” he wrote.  ”I’m lucky that The Last Man included a lot of clues as to where Mitch’s story would go next.  The hope is to create a book that even lifelong fans will have a hard time differentiating from the rest of the series. Not an easy task, but I’m working hard to get as close as I can.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Simon & Schuster has launched a new video series to tell the story of how books are made. The new “Behind The Book from Simon & Schuster,” series includes video interviews with book editors and publishers telling about the making of specific books.

The videos are available on the publisher’s website, as well as on the company’s YouTube page. The series launches with five videos on of which we have embedded above. The video features Simon & Schuster editor Ben Loehnen talking about The Boom by Russell Gold.

The series is produced by the publisher’s Studio4 video production facility.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Simon & Schuster has formed a sales and distribution partnership with Judith Regan’s new imprint Regan Arts, a new division of Phaidon.

Under the terms of the agreement, Simon & Schuster will take care of the world-wide sales and distribution for Regan Arts titles in both print and electronic media. Regan Arts spent the spring hiring staff and working on new titles and is gearing up to launch its first books this fall.

“We are delighted to welcome Regan Arts and its authors to Simon & Schuster,” stated Steve Black, Vice President, Client Services for Simon & Schuster.  ”Our sales and distribution infrastructure are poised to provide them with the best possible service and help them to reach the widest possible audience.  We look forward to a very productive partnership.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Simon & Schuster is expanding its eBook library lending program, after testing a successful pilot program with more than twenty library systems nationwide.

Now all of the publisher’s frontlist and backlist titles that are available as eBooks are available for public libraries across the United States to acquire for their collections. Each title acquired by a library for lending can be used for a year. These digital books can be checked out one at a time, in the same way that a print title can be.

Simon & Schuster is also using the service to help sell eBooks. Here is more from the press release: “In order to help support libraries, and for the convenience of patrons who might not want to wait until a popular new title is available, Simon & Schuster’s ebook program includes a ‘Buy It Now’ capability, which gives the patron the option to purchase a copy of Simon & Schuster eBooks through a library’s online portal, with a portion of the proceeds from each sale going to the library.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Simon & Schuster is introducing a new summer reading series this year in the Hamptons. The theme of the series is "power, perseverance and resilience of women." The content includes lectures from A House In the Sky author Amanda Lindhout, Life By The Cup author Zhena Muzyka and Brain On Fire author Susannah Cahalan. The talks kick off on June 26th and run through August 18th. The series will take place at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center (WHBPAC) located in Westhampton, New York. Books & Books Westhampton Beach will be selling books at the event. Follow this link to check out the entire schedule.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Simon & Schuster has launched an online portal for its authors to connect with other authors called S&S InkedIn. The feature, which is currently only available to Simon & Schuster authors, allows writers to connect and have one-on-one or group discussions. The tool is accessible through LinkedIn and through the publisher's recently redesigned author portal. "Simon & Schuster’s authors are a talented and knowledgeable community that, using S&S InkedIn, can come together for the purposes of sharing information, advising each other, and enjoying the unique, only-an-author-would-understand camaraderie and inspiration of their peers in a private,  professional social network," stated Ellie Hirschhorn, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of Simon & Schuster.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Thank you, PiBoIdMo participants, guest bloggers and illustrators. Do you know what you did?

You helped me raise $433.62 to donate to RIF, Reading is Fundamental.

Your purchases via the PiBoIdMo CafePress Shop made it possible.

With Carol Hampton Rasco, CEO of RIF

For every $10 donated, RIF is able to distribute four books to a child in need.

FOUR BOOKS!

So last month I made my way down to RIF Headquarters in D.C. I toured their offices and talked with RIF staff about the important work they’re doing.

One staff member had just returned from a county in Appalachia, where 28% of the schoolchildren were officially homeless, and where even more lived in crowded trailers with multiple families apiece.

The school Principal told RIF that amazingly, their test scores rose from 9th percentile to the 22nd percentile in just one year. To what did they attribute that growth? RIF! Now that these children have books of their own, they’re able to continue learning at home and over the summer break instead of being left behind. Books are AMAZING. But you already knew that, right?

As part of my trip to RIF, my publisher, the Aladdin imprint of Simon & Schuster, donated 100 copies of THE MONSTORE to the children at Bancroft Elementary in Washington, D.C. I was honored to appear at the school to talk to the children about writing and to personally sign every copy.

The best moment of the day? When I told the children they’d each be going home with a copy of my book. They cheered and hoorayed, and two besties in the front row hugged each other so tight they tumbled over in joy. Now that’s a great day for any author. Thank you, Aladdin and RIF!

I have something else important to tell you.

RIF’s donations have taken a plummet in recent times. The economy has hit them hard. So please consider donating directly. Remember $10 = 4 books!

Donate here. Or here.

And again, thank you for making the PiBoIdMo donation possible!

Continued from Part 1 (Prep, Angst, Anticipation) - Part 2 (Meeting Michael Ian Black, B&N event in NYC)

After the B&N event, I had lunch with Ginger Knowlton at a nearby café. So great to catch up! I was supposed to get together with Ginger back in February, but I cancelled my trip because of the Judy Blume illustration project.

When I arrived at Simon & Schuster for the meet-and-greet, there were NAKED! and I'M BORED signs and books on display in the front lobby of the 4th floor, yay!

Dani Young came out to greet me, and took me to Justin Chanda's office to dump my coat and bags. Justin was still in a meeting. It's always fun hanging out in Justin's office when he's not there; not only do I get chance to check out his book collection but I also have such interesting conversations. And Justin, if you're reading this, don't worry -- we never talk about you, really. Or snoop through your stuff.

This time, Laurent Linn came by to chat!

And then while we were catching up, Jeff arrived. He had dropped off some of his luggage at a friend's place but had trouble finding a cab in the rain, so ended up walking all the way to S&S. :-(

Happily, though, we were early enough that Laurent could take Jeff on a quickie tour of the offices. I trailed along, of course. And I got Jeff to take this photo of us in the lobby:

And LOOK! I was excited to come across this display of the revamped Judy Blume books with my illustrations on the cover (designed by Lauren Rille):

And OH MY GOSH, I spotted hardcover versions of the chapter books I illustrated!!! It was the first time I had seen the final version.

Laurent showed Jeff his office. I love Laurent's office. Look, he has hanging art! Not just mine, but I also spotted art by my friends Kevin Sylvester and Eliza Wheeler:

And look! Laurent (who used to work for Sesame Street) won a Daytime Emmy award in 1994 for Outstanding Achievement In Costume Design for Sesame Street. And check out his signed Sesame Street poster:

He is also a Totoro fan, and I took this photo for my friend Errol Elumir:

But then it was time for the Meet & Greet. Check out this example of the cool Naked!-themed cups they had at the event:

Justin and Laurent talked about how much fun it was to work on NAKED!:

After Michael said a few words (including nice stuff about me *blush*), it was my turn. Because I was nervous, I had some notes written down:

I started by saying how I wish I could take a snapshot of this moment to send to my younger self and (this wasn't planned) Jeff jumped up and took this photo, heh:

Aw, so many friendly faces!

I mentioned I was nervous so had to use notes, right? Well, turns out I accidentally skipped one of the lines in my notes and FORGOT TO THANK LAURENT LINN FOR BEING SUCH AN AMAZING ART DIRECTOR ON THE PROJECT AAAAAAAAUUUGGGH. I apologized to Laurent afterward.

At the end of my mini-speech, I mentioned that earlier this year as I was posting about the Judy Blume illustration project as well as NAKED! coming out, someone asked me if I had a fairy godmother. Yes, I told them, and my fairy godmother's name was JUSTIN CHANDA! If you don't know why, I encourage you to read my Thank You To Justin Chanda and Simon & Schuster Children's as well as the story of how I became illustrator for the Judy Blume books.

So.... I presented Justin with a labelled Fairy Godmother wand and then gave him a big hug. Apparently Justin has taken the Wand to several meetings at S&S since. :-)

After the speeches, Michael and I were ready to sign some books:

Everyone was incredibly friendly and welcoming, and I loved meeting so many of these behind-the-scenes S&S types who help create such fantastic books.

It was also so great to meet people in person I was mostly familiar with on Twitter, like Rachel Stark (@syntactics on Twitter):

One of the people I had been hoping to meet was Christian Trimmer, who is @MisterTrimmer on Twitter. However, it didn't sink in until later that I DID meet him, but just hadn't connected his face/first name with his Twitter id. Gah! I emailed him after the event to apologize for not recognizing him.

With Veda (digital marketing coordinator), Isa Caban (marketing assistant) and Teresa Ronquillo (marketing coordinator):

And thanks to Angela Zurlo of Simon & Schuster's Production department for this copy of the UK version of NAKED!, which comes out TODAY. According to my British friends, "pants" means "underwear" in the UK.

When we finished the signing the last of the books (thanks to those who waited in line until the end), we closed up the room and headed out:

Because Jeff had had so much trouble trying to flag a cab in the rain, we decided to take the subway to Penn station instead. Jeff wasn't coming with me for the rest of the book tour, but he wanted to help me get to the train. I'm so grateful for his help, because lugging stuff through on the NYC subway during rush hour was not fun, especially in my somewhat zombie-ish state...It had been a wonderful day, but I was dead tired. Then I thought of Michael, who was doing a literary-themed comedy event with Parker Posey later that night! 

Jeff bought me this Naked granola at Penn station. :-)

At Penn Station, we had some challenge trying to figure out where I was supposed to get on the train (again, rush hour crowds didn't make this easier). Then we discovered that my train was late. :-( We said our good-byes when the train finally arrived, and Jeff wished me luck.

I ended up not getting to my hotel in Cambridge, MA until after midnight. I was soooo braindead at that point; I am so not a night person, and it had been a crazy (crazy WONDERFUL) day. Happily, though, my Royal Sonesta Boston room was super-comfy:

As tired as I was, I needed to reorganize my stuff so that I'd be ready for the next day's presentation. By the time I felt prepped, I had less than six hours until I had to get up again.

The bed was soooo comfortable that I fell asleep almost immediately.

Next up: Talking to kindergarten and grade one classes at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA!

Demetria Lucas' first claim to fame came from her uber-successful blog, A Belle In Brooklyn, which chronicled her dating adventures in New York City a la Sex and the City. After scoring a gig as the relationships editor at Essence, Lucas' friends convinced her to write a book based on her blog. After all, she started her career editing romance novels for Harlequin and BET Books. She ended up not only writing one book, but two, and is currently a life coach and one of the stars of Bravo's reality show Blood, Sweat and Heels. In our latest So What Do You Do interview, Lucas talks about the moment she knew she had to write her first book, titled A Belle in Brooklyn: The Go-to Girl for Advice on Living Your Best Single Life: I was fortunate to land a spot on Let's Talk About Pep on VH1, which was another story about four black women dating in New York. I realized I had a really big platform and I should do something with it. That's when I pitched my book. Coming from a book editor's background, I knew that you could have a great story, but if you didn't have a platform to sell it on, nobody was going to know about it. Simon & Schuster took it. After the book came out, I was all over social media and started doing my 'Cocktails with Belle' events because I wanted to meet my readers. I wasn't really looking at it as a marketing strategy. For more from Lucas, including her thoughts on being labeled the "black Carrie Bradshaw," read: So What Do You Do, Demetria Lucas, Writer and Reality Show Star?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

TED Conferences LLC and Simon & Schuster will partner together to publish a 12 title series called TED Books. Renowned book designer Chip Kidd, a past TED speaker, will create the cover art for all of the projects.

The publisher plans to release one book every one-to-two months beginning in September 2014. Some of the books set to be published include The Virtue of Stillness by Pico Iyer, How We’ll Live on Mars by Stephen Petranek, and Follow Your Gut by Rob Knight.

Here’s more from the press release: “The books will be available in hardcover, e-book, and in audiobook from Simon & Schuster. The co-publishing agreement is for world rights, and the books will be published by Simon & Schuster in the United States and worldwide by its companies in Australia, Canada, India and the United Kingdom, as well as in foreign-language editions.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

My Little Magic Box by Debbie Dadey

It took me about twenty years to figure it out, but making a magic box to take with me to book events was a great idea! Okay, it’s not magic but it does have everything I need to make a book signing or school visit go smoothly. What does my little plastic container have inside? Here’s what I’ve collected for my little 6.5 by 4.5 inch box (a left-over from my teaching days):

1. Business cards (Because the minute you don’t have one, you need one.)

2. Tissues (Because boogers are not pleasant with 200 kids watching!)

3. Book plates (Someone will always cry because they forgot their book.)

4. Award winning author stickers (Which I bought in a silly moment, but kids like stickers.)

5. Sticky notes (Because kids have the strangest names these days and it’s better to write it first on a note than ruin the book-better yet have the school or bookstore do it for you while the kids are waiting in line.)

6. Tic Tacs (Bad breath is not an author’s friend.)

7. Protein bar (Let’s face it, sometimes school lunches are horrible.)

8. Candy (see above)

9. Cough drops (A coughing fit really doesn’t work well with my presentation.)

10. Hand lotion (It makes me feel better!)

11. Hand sanitizer (It keeps me from catching every illness because schools are breeding grounds!)

12. Chap stick (I am prone to fever blisters and they aren’t pretty.)

13. iPad adapter (I started taking my iPad on school visits instead of my laptop and I love it.)

14. Clips to hold up something (Just a handy thing to have for posters.)

15. Memory stick with presentations (Some schools have their computers far away. I also have a clicker to advance slides. There is an app available to advance Keynote-the iPad version of PowerPoint. PowerPoint will convert to Keynote, but there are always a few adjustments to be made.)

16. Slips for information (These are leftovers from a giveaway and everyone likes free stuff.)

17. Rubber band (These come in handy for keeping my rolled up posters tidy.)

18. Markers or ink pens (Some people like Sharpies to autograph with, but I’m not picky).

Missing from my box are my fun red Author pin, camera, book signs, bookmarks, a bottle of water, and school visit brochures. Not all of them will fit inside my box, but I have them listed in marker on the inside of my box so I don’t forget them. Something I’ve been wanting to get is a tablecloth with my logo and maybe some book covers on it. On my scheduling page (http://www.debbiedadey.com/Events/Scheduling/index.php)

I have an Author Visit Checklist that lists everything I could think of to help a school prepare for my visit. Click Here to View. 

Perhaps there is something on it you can adapt for yourself. Do you have more suggestions for my box? Please let me know, I have more book events coming up soon!

Check www.debbiedadey.com for one near you.

My newest book is Dream of the Blue Turtle (Mermaid Tales #7) with Simon and Schuster. Treasure in Trident City (#8) comes out in May. I hope you’ll like me on Facebook.com/debbiedadey. I’m hoping it doesn’t take me twenty years to get the hang of Facebook!

Thanks Debbie for sharing your idea for having a handy box that you can grab whenever you do a book event. It will definitely help everyone who has a hard time juggling everything that has to be done in our busy lives.

I love the idea of getting a table cloth made with your logo and covers. They don’t cost very much and it really adds to making you look exciting and professional.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Scott Westerfeld has landed a deal Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, for his new young adult novel, Afterworlds. The story follows Darcy Patel as she moves to New York City to establish her writing career; readers will follow both Darcy’s actual life story and the fictional one she hopes to publish.

Publisher Bethany Buck negotiated the deal with literary agent Jill Grinberg; Buck has secured North American, audio, and ebook rights. The book is scheduled to be released on September 23, 2014.

Westerfeld (pictured, via) had this statement in the press release: “Readers of YA are also lively and energetic producers – of fanfic, of original work, of reviews and blogs and manifestos. Afterworlds is an homage to all those who write to make themselves better readers, or the other way around.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Simon & Schuster has created a new website and daily email dedicated to book reviews called Off the Shelf.

The site will publish an original book review or essay about a book every day. The site will feature books that were published at least one year earlier. They must also be currently available for purchase in some format.  The site will feature books from any publisher in fiction, nonfiction for both adult and young readers. Readers can sign up to receive the daily review as an email.

“With Off the Shelf, we aim to bring attention to books that were bestsellers you might have read or wanted to, books that you may have missed in the often overwhelming number of titles that get published every year, or simply books that have touched us as readers, left an indelible mark on us, and become friends that we revisit often,” explained Carolyn Reidy, President and CEO of Simon & Schuster, in a statement.

Simon & Schuster employees will be writing reviews, as well as occasional guest writers.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Becca Fitzpatrick, the young adult author behind the Hush, Hush saga, has landed a deal for a new book called Sapphire Skies.

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers plans to publish this stand-alone thriller novel in Fall 2015. Executive editor Zareen Jaffery negotiated the deal with Inkwell Management literary agent Catherine Drayton. The story stars a 17-year-old girl named Stella Gordon who ends up in the witness protection program due to extraordinary circumstances.

Fitzpatrick had this statement in the press release: “I’m delighted to be writing another young adult thriller for Simon & Schuster—this about a girl who’s running from dangerous men and a haunted past. I’m drawn to stories that weave heart-stopping suspense with broiling romance, and Sapphire Skies is no exception.”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Janet Mock has known she wanted to be a storyteller since she was a fifth grader in Honolulu who escaped to her local public library to devour books by Maya Angelou, Terry McMillan and Zora Neale Hurston. ”I knew that words would be my refuge and words were where I could create a composite of the dreams and the life that I wanted to live,” she recalls.

Years later, the now 30-year-old moved to New York to pursue her writing career. And after coming out as a transgender woman in a 2011 Marie Claire article, Mock became an ardent advocate for other transgender women, especially those who are young and struggle financially. Her newly released memoir, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster) delves into the self-identify struggles that many trans people face. Mock recently spoke to Mediabistro about her book and offered some advice on writing your own memoir:

Anchor yourself in your own experience and write from that place. And you’ll find your voice. You’ll find out what you want to do. You’ll find your purpose. And I think that everything comes out of that. It’s [about] being able to sit still with yourself and really excavate those parts of yourself that were shut off or silenced or put into the dark a long time ago. I know that when I actually sat down with myself to do that work… that’s when my life began transforming.

To hear more from Mock, including what her literary idol, bell hooks, thought of her book, read: So What Do You Do, Janet Mock, Writer, Transgender Advocate and Author?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Harvard Lampoon has written a Hobbit parody entitled The Wobbit.

Simon & Schuster’s Touchstone imprint will release the book in paperback format on November 26th. A reading event for this title will take place on December 12th at the Harvard Coop.

Here’s more from the press release: “When Aaron Sorkinshield and his band of Little People embark on a quest across Widdle Wearth to reclaim the hoard of Academy Awards stolen from them by the lonely Puff the Magic Dragon, senile wizard Dumbledalf suggests an unlikely and completely unqualified accomplice: Billy Bagboy, an unassuming wobbit dwelling in terrorist-riddled Wobbottabad. Along the way, the company faces internet trolls, moblins, one really big spider that must be at least an inch and a half wide, and slightly worse.”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Simon & Schuster plans to create a new imprint specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and horror books “for readers of all ages.”

Jon Anderson, executive vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, will oversee the not-yet-named imprint. In an interview with Publishers Weekly, he revealed that this imprint will acquire books for readers of “YA and above.”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

By popular request, they’re back! Every Wednesday, I shall be interviewing illustrators from the world of children’s literature, those you know well and also introducing you to pre-published future Caldecott potentials! Today’s guest is my go to pig-me-up on FB when I need a smile and a bit of whimsy to brighten my day. Welcome to Elizabeth Rose Stanton, whose debut picture book, HENNY, will be published next January by Simon & Schuster.

[JM Illustrator or author/illustrator? 

[ERS] Author/illustrator

[JM] What’s your nationality and which and how have certain cultures/regions influenced your work?   

[ERS] I am “all” American. Multiple lines of my family go back to the early 1600s in North America, and I have a touch of Native American.  It’s probably more accurate to say that my work has been influenced more by children’s literature, in general, than any specific culture or region. That said, I admire the work of many artists and illustrators, including:  Beatrix Potter, Lisbeth Zwerger, John R. Neill, John Tenniel, Edward Gorey, James Thurber. 

I could go on and on . . . 

[JM] Tell us a little of your beginnings as an artist.

[ERS] I studied art history in college, and then went on to get a graduate degree in architecture.   After I got married and had children, I decided to set aside my career as an architect to be a full-time parent.  I began to work as an artist, as time permitted, when my youngest child started kindergarten.  I did portraits, fine art (was represented by a gallery here in Seattle), some graphic design, and became a certified scientific illustrator.  It is only recently, now that the nest is empty, that I have been able to dive full-time into writing and illustrating for children.   

[JM] Do you have a preferred medium to work in? 

[ERS] I work mostly with pencil and watercolor, and sometimes with pen and ink and/or colored pencils. 

[JM] What does your workspace look like?        

[ERS] It Usually looks messy!   I have a cove in the basement lined on one side with bookshelves, and a desk at the end.  I call it “The Trench.”

[JM] Can you share a piece or two with us, maybe of a WIP, and the process of creating them?

[ERS] My process varies a little, depending on where the final image(s) end up. For my books, I work completely on paper.  HENNY was rendered in pencil and watercolor, and the final art was packed up and physically sent to Simon & Schuster in New York.    For posting on-line (such as my Facebook “daily” sketches or for blog posts), I always begin with pencil/paint on paper, scan it, then often do some touch up.  I have a very old graphics program that I use that is quite adequate for what I usually need to do—cleaning up stray lines or enhancing color here and there.  But the short of it is, I prefer to work old-school.  

Begins with a simple pencil sketch

Then I begin to paint, using a variety of watercolor, and sometimes gouache.

I go back and forth with color and pencil until I feel the picture is balanced

Then, in this case, I scan it in, clean it up a little, and send it on its way.

[JM] I know you have your debut picture book coming out in January of 2014. Can you tell us a little about the inspiration and development of HENNY? 

[ERS] Most of my ideas pop out spontaneously by way of the characters. A couple of years ago, I drew a fanciful bird with arms. He morphed into a chicken.  Then I started to think about all the challenges, and fun, a little chicken with arms might have, and Henny’s story unfolded from there.

Armed Chicks

Jacket cover for HENNY (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books)

 [JM] What’s with all the pigs?  

[ERS] The book I’m working on now is about a pig.

[JM] How do you approach the marketing/business side of the picture book world?

[ERS] Having a fabulous agent, Joanna Volpe of New Leaf Literary & Media, helps.  I couldn’t have asked for a better person to represent me. She is helpful, responsive, and she really knows the business. I also have the benefit of the expertise of the talented team at Paula Wiseman Books. Meanwhile, I’ve been working to build up my social network platform. I try and keep my blog current, as well as post sketches and little paintings on Facebook as frequently as I can.  I use Twitter occasionally, too.  Specifically for HENNY, I will be having the book launch here in Seattle the first week of January, and will then be working hard to make the rounds, so to speak, singing her praises!

[JM] What has been your greatest professional challenge?

[ERS] Staying focused. I always want to do other things (I have a pretty long bucket list).

Five Fun Ones to Finish?

[JM] What word best sums you up? 

[ERS] Quirky.

[JM] If you could live anywhere for a season, where would you go? 

[ERS] Paris–because I’ve never been.

[JM] What’s your go-to snack or drink to keep the creative juices flowing?

[ERS] Strong tea and the darkest of dark chocolate.

[JM] Cats or dogs? 

[ERS] Both!  I have an ancient one-eyed dog and two Scottish Fold cats.

[JM] If you could spend a day with one children’s book illustrator, with whom would that be? 

[ERS] Current: Lisbeth Zwerger    Past: Beatrix Potter

[JM] Where can we find/follow you and your work, Elizabeth?

http://www.penspaperstudio.com/

http://penspaperstudio.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.r.stanton

@penspaperstudio

[ERS]  Thank you for the interview, Joanna!  It’s been fun!

[JM] Thank YOU for being on Miss Marple’s Musings, Beth. To your continued success. I am looking forward to seeing HENNY when she comes out!

Louise Fury is attending the NJSCBWI June Conference and doing critiques. She is with the L. Perkins Agency that was founded in 1987 by Lori Perkins, a former newspaper publisher and editor. They specializes in many different genres. Currently there are five agents representing approximately 200 authors to the publishing industry.

The Agency has agents in 11 foreign countries and works with an established film agency. The L. Perkins agency works hard to stay ahead of the curve and makes it a priority to help their authors stay ahead of the pack. In 2010 they broke new ground by being the first (and currently ONLY) agency to hire a literary agent who works exclusively in the digital marketplace.

Louise Fury is a senior agent at the L. Perkins Agency and specializes in romance, all kids and young adult material and pop culture nonfiction. She has sold books to both traditional and electronic publishers including Random House, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Samhain and others. Louise encourages authors to have one foot in traditional publishing and the other in the digital-first arena. Actually Louise has reported 26 deal to Publishers Marketplace during the last 12 months, which is extremely good.

Here is Louise’s Wish List.

I am looking for writers with a unique voice and an unforgettable story.  I’m particularly drawn to stories with a strong protagonist.

I want delicious adult romances with creative plots, sexy liaisons and unique characters that sweep me up in their love story and leave me smiling and sighing and longing for the romance to last forever.

Happy National Poetry Month! All throughout April, we will interview poets about working in this digital age. Recently, we spoke with New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins.

Hopkins (pictured, via) has been writing poetry throughout her entire life. She first established her professional writing career by penning nonfiction children’s books.

After Simon & Schuster Children’s Books published Crank in 2004, she became well-known for writing novels in verse. Many of her hit titles focus on dark topics including addiction, mental illness, and prostitution. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Why create a Curriculum Guide for your books?  

“A discussion guide and/or activity guide is a valuable way for teachers, librarians and parents to give a book more depth and breadth,” says illustrator Melissa Sweet who collaborated with me on SPIKE, THE MIXED-UP MONSTER. Today, there’s more interest than ever in these guides. Why? Two words: Common Core. Educators everywhere are looking for ways to incorporate this new mandate.

And once you have a guide, it’s a win-win-win situation!

• For kids, the games, crafts and activities are fun. They encourage kids to play with ideas they’ve learned from the book and to dive deeper into the subject matter.

• For teachers, the guide helps them incorporate your book into lesson plans, especially if the guide aligns with the Common Core.

• For you, the guide increases your book’s exposure and lets you elaborate on ideas you’ve introduced. It makes a dandy handout for school and library visits and can drive traffic to your website.

What are the different kinds of guides?

Activity Guides

These offer interactive activities, such as cut-out masks, holiday cards, finger puppets, bookmarks and so on. They may include directions for games, activities, songs, recipes, and crafts.

Discussion Guides

These guides have more text, fewer cut-outs.  They might provide interviews with the author and illustrator, discussion prompts, projects and extension activities. They list questions to ask kids and suggest additional books, websites and resources.  See Michelle Markel and Melissa Sweet’s Discussion Guide for BRAVE GIRL.

All of the Above 

Our SPIKE, THE MIXED-UP MONSTER Curriculum Guide has something for everyone—pages of interactive cut-out, crayon and drawing activities for kids, plus book-related questions that align with the Common Core for educators.

How do you create a Curriculum Guide?

Talk to your publisher. More and more houses are interested in developing them.  Some will work with the author and illustrator. Others will hire an outside reading specialist to write discussion questions, illustrated with pick-up art from the book.

For our book SPIKE, THE MIXED-UP MONSTER, Melissa Sweet and I agreed to work on the guide together.  I came up with the games and wrote the copy. (As the former Children’s Content Director of Nick Jr. Magazine, they were right up my alley!) Melissa did sketches for some pages and we used pick-up art from the book for other pages. We submitted the “manuscript” and later sketches to our editor and then worked with the Simon & Schuster marketing department to have the guide designed and copy-edited.  Simon & Schuster also hired a literacy specialist, Tracie Vaughn Zimmer to add a discussion guide with questions that align to the Common Core. Tracie says, “I’ve been writing guides for 10 years. My focus is to really try to find what’s unique about the book and bring that forward for teachers to use in their classroom. The new push is the alignment with The Common Core Standards, which I’ve been trained in extensively over the last two years.”

Who pays the costs?

Sometimes the publisher, sometimes you! For my book JUST SAY BOO,

I worked with my illustrator Jed Henry to create Halloween cards, masks, paper dolls, a charades card game, and more.  Jed agreed to create some original art and we used some pick-up art as well.  We both donated our time and then I hired a former Nick Jr. designer, Jennifer Starr, to put it together. This is key. Without a good designer, your guide won’t look professional or be as appealing.

How long does it take?

It depends on the scope of the guide. Our SPIKE guide is 15-pages long and includes original art so the production process took several months.  Guides that are mostly text or use pickup art will take less time. 

How does it get distributed?

You, your illustrator and your publisher post the guide as a free downloadable PDF on your websites, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts. I also take copies along to school and library visits, conferences and other venues. To keep costs down, I might copy one or two pages, do those activities with the kids, and then provide the school the link for more. Or you can email your school contacts ahead of time and have the school download the guide before your visit.

To download the SPIKE, THE MIXED-UP MONSTER Curriculum Guide, visit: www.susanhoodbooks.com

For wonderful ideas for teaching SPIKE developed by the professors of Lesley University, see http://march23rdhandout.blogspot.com/p/panel-i.html

Have more questions? To get more information about creating guides, contact [email protected].

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Simon & Schuster will now share piracy statistics with authors and agents.

The publisher has worked with Attributor since 2011, a company that searches millions of pages for pirated copies and sends takedown notices every day. Authors can report piracy by using the publisher’s Online Piracy Report Form to report piracy to Attributor. In a letter, Carolyn Reidy explained the new reports:

The reports that you will see provide information about the number of infringements identified and takedown notices sent to infringing sites, success rates in removing infringements, the types of sites where infringement is occurring, the specific urls and geographic distribution of sites where unauthorized copies are offered and more.  (We expect that in the future we will expand upon the information currently available.) We have also provided a set of Frequently Asked Questions to increase your understanding of how piracy occurs and how we are combatting it. All the information we are providing is confidential and private, but please note that we are making the same information available to agents at the Simon & Schuster Agent Portal.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Sony Pictures Animation has released the official trailer for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. We’ve embedded the trailer above–what do you think?

Here’s more from Deadline: “It’s directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn from a script by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein and Erica Rivinoja. Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Neil Patrick Harris, Terry Crews, Will Forte, Andy Samberg, Kristen Schaal, and James Caan, among others provide voices for the movie that Sony will release September 27th.”

The first movie came out back in 2009; it’s based on Judy Bartlett‘s popular picture book which shares the same title. Simon & Schuster’s Atheneum Books for Young Readers imprint published it in 1978 and also released the sequel, Pickles in Pittsburgh, in 1997. A third book entitled Planet of the Pies will hit bookstores in August 2013.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Sr. Editor Alexandra Copper at Simon & Schuster has moved over to HarperCollins as executive editor position.  She will be working on YA and middle-grade novels and some picture books.

At HMH Children’s, Mary Wilcox has been promoted to the newly-created position of vp, editor in chief.  In addition,  Adah Nuchi has been promoted to associate editor.

Christa Heschke has been promoted to agent within the children’s department, handling all foreign, domestic and subsidiary rights for children’s clients while actively building her own list.

At Penguin, Katherine Tiernan McCahill has been promoted to assistant director of the digital products group.

In Canada, former senior executives at D&M Publishers Chris Labonte, Peter Cocking and Richard Nadeau have founded Figure1 Publishing, devoted to books in the art & architecture, food & wine, lifestyle, illustrated history and business book categories. The reason I point this out is because of this quote: “Our goal is to become the premier publisher of high quality illustrated books in the country.” Think Chronicle Books, or Rizzoli.” Even though they are not invloved in children’s books, it might be a good place for illustrators to query for work. Cocking has been named creative director.

*****

Hazel Mitchel who was featured on Illustrator Saturday http://wp.me/pss2W-2pf 

has a new picture book “1, 2, 3, By the Sea” is available to buy on line.

Hazel is having a book give-a-way, too.  Use this link for a chance to win: http://tinyurl.com/c8donqt

*****

Shannon Hitchcock debut YA book The Ballad of Jesse Pearl came out in February – Published by namelos.

www.shannonhitchcock.com

*****

If you follow this blog and would like to announce a success or book coming out, please let me know.  If you sent me an e-mail and I missed it, please remind me.  I get hundreds of e-mails everyday.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

For more info about Kevin Sylvester:

http://kevinsylvesterbooks.com