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The GennY Award recognizes best practices of those who have applied new and innovative techniques to connect and communicate with youth. The 2012 award will be given to one exceptional marketing campaign at the Millennial Mega Mashup next week, but... Read the rest of this post

Before her meteoric rise to the top with Gossip Girl, Cecily von Ziegesar worked as an editor for Alloy, a book packaging company, and knows too well what authors experience getting their titles onto shelves.  So what are her thoughts on allegations that the company takes advantage of its writers?

“You know what you’re getting into when you work with that packager,” von Ziegesar said in mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do? interview. “I think if you honestly looked at a lot of the series where the writers have worked with packagers, they just wouldn’t have happened otherwise, because it takes that many people to get something in that quantity out that quickly — to a certain quality, too, because it’s a big endeavor. And they’re able to make it all happen well and fast.”

For von Ziegesar’s tips on conquering writer’s block and to find out how she got Gossip Girl on TV, read the full interview.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

You’ve probably heard of Lauren Oliver, author of Before I Fall (I loved it) and Delirium (I couldn’t believe that people would ever agree that love was a madness that needed to be cured).

But Lauren Oliver’s real name is Laura Schechter. And she’s formed a book development company with former Harper Collins editor Lexa Hillyer. Business Week reports, “The duo have so far sold 20 young adult novels and struck a deal with Fox 2000 Pictures that gives the production studio first dibs on optioning their titles for films.”

Here are three of their deals from Publisher’s Marketplace:
August 25, 2011
Debut author Lanie Bross's FATES, the story of an Executor sent to earth to bring about human destinies, who finds herself unaccountably experiencing human emotions, leading to an epic romance set across multiple worlds, to Wendy Loggia at Delacorte, in a significant deal, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Stephen Barbara at Foundry Literary + Media, on behalf of Paper Lantern Lit.
 
March 16, 2011
Ellie Rollins's ZIP, pitched as an Odyssey-inspired magical realist story of an eleven-year-old girl who sets off on her scooter on a cross-country quest to save her childhood home, to Laura Arnold at Razorbill, in a two-book deal, for publication in fall 2012, by Stephen Barbara at Foundry Literary + Media on behalf of Paper Lantern Lit (NA).
 
February 14, 2011
Debut author Fiona Paul's VENOM, first of the DARK WATERS young adult trilogy, set in Renaissance Venice and following a 15-year-old girl who gets swept up in a seductive underground world of bohemian artists, grave robbers, and murderers, pitched as a cross between Philippa Gregory and Edgar Allan Poe, to Jill Santopolo at Philomel, in a major deal, at auction, by Stephen Barbara at Foundry Literary + Media on behalf of Paper Lantern Lit (NA).

Business Week reports: “Schechter and Hillyer come up with ideas—or “sparks,” as they like to call them—and sell the finished product to publishers. The writers, whom they find through friends or sites such as Craigslist, get a flat fee and bonuses based on sales.”

Click here to read more about this side of the business that isn’t that well known.

And over on Wired, you can see the Simpsons episode that spoofed Alloy (it was called Allied in the episode). There were so many in-jokes that someone on the writers’ staff must be in the know. I kept clicking the pause button to look at the titles of the books on the shelves and at a book fair. You can see it here: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/11/neil-gaiman-simpsons-2/ , at least for a while.

Every time ‘Hunger Games’ content hits the Web, the Internet goes into a frenzy (which happened overnight when promo posters of the film’s stars were released. Fans may have been critical of the movie’s casting originally, but we doubt they... Read the rest of this post

The New York Times seems forever fascinated by Alloy, the company which packages YA like “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” The latest article looks at the TV series they’ve adapted from their books. into a prolific producer of television series adapted from the company’s books.

“One of the things we do really well as a company is identifying properties in our library that are right for our time,” said Mr. Morgenstein, who has overseen the revival of once-dormant book titles like "The Nine Lives of Chloe King" and “The Secret Circle” as new television series. As television shows, “Gossip Girl,” “The Vampire Diaries” and “Pretty Little Liars” have captivated the elusive 12- to 34-year-old female demographic with a combination of mystery, high-stakes romance, luxe lifestyles and, often, a touch of the supernatural.

[Teen’s not into any of these - she’s kind of more of An Always Sunny in Philadelphia girl (And yes, I know it’s crude. But it is pretty funny.)]

Read more about Alloy here.

Today we bring you our weekly sampler of cool youth media and marketing gigs. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to join the Ypulse LinkedIn group, if you haven’t yet, and post there for... Read the rest of this post

Insights continued to flow Monday afternoon at the Youth Mega Mashup. Nickelodeon, Alloy, and Disruptor Beam discussed how youth has evolved and changed in recent years. Each presenter noted that sharing and connecting with others is important to... Read the rest of this post

I’m always interested in stories about book packagers. Over on Daemonbooks.com there’s a post about them that says in part, “Alloy Entertainment, a book packager, actually owns the rights to the Vampire Diaries as well as a few other of the hottest franchises in Young Adult literature like Gossip Girl, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Pretty Little Liars.

Read more about the business behind some young adult novels.

Today we bring you another installment of Youth Media Movers and Shakers. We've culled through industry publications looking for the recent executive placements we think you should know about. If you have executive news that you want us to highlight... Read the rest of this post

Alloy relaunches Teen.com (the celeb news site is newly pumped up with social and content-sharing features, and an original web series featuring pop star Charice) (MediaPost, reg. required) - Snooki as a case study for Millennials? (Not exactly,... Read the rest of this post

I'm always fascinated by stories about Alloy Entertainment.

Business Week reports, “Alloy Entertainment (ALOY), is one of the creative forces behind hits like the television show Gossip Girl and the novel and movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”

It also has its fingers (or possibly tentacles) in many different pies.

Millions of girls “watch Alloy's Twilight knockoff, The Vampire Diaries, and Huge, the critically acclaimed show about teens at a fat camp. They read Alloy books like the best-selling series Pretty Little Liars, which was conceived as Desperate Housewives for teens; eight such products have been on The New York Times best-seller list this year. Nearly 21 million teens logged on to Alloy's websites in September, according to tracking service comScore (SCOR), and 6 million see Alloy's ads on its in-school television network, Channel One News. Private, Alloy's first Web series, got 14 million hits and convinced Bank and the other executives that their digital future had arrived.”

Read the whole article here.

Recently I met an author who had written for Alloy. From her perspective, it sounded like a very bad experience.

Jimmy Fallon, 'Glee' and Betty White (made for an "energetically hilarious" start to last night's Emmys. As for the rest of the show? Critics at USA Today and the New York Times, reg. required, gave the former SNL star mixed reviews. Plus... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you another installment of the latest youth research available for sale or download. Remember, if your company has comprehensive research for sale that focuses on youth between the ages of 8 and 24, email me to be included in the... Read the rest of this post

Alloy's first official digital slate (Newly formed digital division Banks & Reed announce three original teen web series coming this summer and fall. This includes an adaptation of YA book Hollywood is like High School with Money [pictured here]... Read the rest of this post

Turning mallrats into bookworms (as simple as relocating your local library to a storefront? PSFK explores the success story behind Bookmarks, the newest branch of the Dallas Public Library. Brilliant) ZooBurst (In other innovative reading news, a... Read the rest of this post

I love stories about how book covers are designed. And I am always fascinated by stories about Alloy Entertainment, which packages about thirty books a year for publishers, and also generates ideas for TV shows and movies.

You can get an inside peek as they create a cover for a new series from the author of Pretty Little Liars, another Alloy-generated series.


What’s amazing is that the article says this photo shoot probably cost more than $25,000! No wonder so many publishers use stock photographs.

'Avatar,' 'The Hangover,' 'Glee' (take home the big wins at the Golden Globes. Also "Avatar" gets pulled from movie theaters in China by propaganda officials and replaced with a documentary on Confucius) (THR) (Los Angeles Times, reg. required) -... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you our weekly sampler of the cool youth media and marketing gigs you can expect to find on our Ypulse Jobs Board. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to post there. Post a... Read the rest of this post

Mobile social networks (like MocoSpace and the growing number of young people replacing PCs with smartphones, open up some considerable possibilities to marketers. Plus SuperGlued launches an iPhone app to harness the mobile potential of the concert... Read the rest of this post

I’m sure this will be free to read soon, but in the meantime, just reading this abstract in the New Yorker about Alloy is fascinating.

“Alloy Entertainment packages about thirty books a year for publishers, and also generates TV shows and a growing number of ideas for feature films. Ideas are generated in weekly development meetings and are fleshed out into a short summary by an editor. A writer is asked to create a sample chapter on spec. If Alloy is happy with the sample, they put the writer on contract. The writer then hashes out a plot with Bank, one or two other editors, and Sara Shandler, Alloy’s editorial director. Last year, eighteen of Alloy’s twenty-nine new titles hit the Times children’s best-seller list.”

You can lead the rest of the (fairly lengthy) abstract here. . And this is a post I did about Alloy earlier.

Today we bring you another installment of Youth Media Movers and Shakers. We've culled through industry publications looking for the recent executive placements we think you should know about. If you have executive news that you want us to highlight... Read the rest of this post

Bored teens = higher web traffic (ComScore breaks out the biggest gainers online this summer with a paragraph devoted to kids/toy sites and teen sites that have seen an uptick in traffic – Alloy ranked #1.) - BTS sales for teen retailers... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you our weekly sampler of the cool youth media and marketing gigs you can expect to find on our Ypulse Jobs Board. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to post there. Post a job... Read the rest of this post

The unsinkable 'SpongeBob' (The Atlantic explores the enduring appeal of the decade-old franchise. Plus, the full-length HD trailer for 'Princess and the Frog') (The Atlantic) - Threadless Tees (the crowdsourced t-shirt design site talks about... Read the rest of this post

Alloy's web series (more details on the lineup in store for Teen.com including an online reality competition and show based on "Private," the boarding school mystery series. Also tween "American Idol" voters are called out) (New York Times, reg.... Read the rest of this post