Suzanne's YA novel The Treatment is #10 on the New York Times Young Adult Bestseller List for May 18, 2014!
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Suzanne's YA novel The Treatment is #10 on the New York Times Young Adult Bestseller List for May 18, 2014!
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From Goodreads. Charlotte’s best friend thinks Charlotte might be psychic. Her boyfriend thinks she’s cheating on him. But Charlotte knows what’s really wrong: She is one of the Forgotten, a kind of angel on earth, who feels the Need—a powerful, uncontrollable draw to help someone, usually a stranger.
There have been others before who’ve felt the Need, but they’re gone—erased from the memories of everyone whose lives they had touched. It's as though they never existed. This is the fate that awaits Charlotte. But the last thing Charlotte wants to do is disappear, to be Forgotten. She wants to stay with her best friend, whose life is spiraling out of control. She wants to lie in her boyfriend’s arms forever. She wishes she could just ignore the Need, but she can’t. And as everyone important in her life begins to slowly forget her, she has to decide if she’ll fight the Need in order to remain herself—no matter how dark the consequences.
Welcome back to my dear friend Suzanne Young, whose hot series about cheering spy girls is showing no signs of stopping! SO MANY BOYS (sequel to THE NAUGHTY LIST) is out for the summer and promises to be snuggled up on a ton of beach towels this month.
Here's a pic of Suzanne and me at the 2nd annual Kidlit Blogger Con (which I highly recommend, by the way, because bloggers are very cool people).
Without further ado, say hello to Suzanne!
*****
SO MANY BOYS picks up three months after THE NAUGHTY LIST. Tessa has stopped cheering and spying. But there’s a copykitten on the loose and she’s far more naughty than nice. Plus there’s a new guy in Tessa’s life…
Holly Cupala: So, Suzanne, tell us your secrets: how did you come up with an idea to follow THE NAUGHTY LIST? (And I admit, I just like saying NAUGHTY. Naughty, naughty, naughty.)
Suzanne [probably rolling eyes]: Oddly enough it was the title COPYKITTEN (the original title for the sequel) sparked the idea. I just thought, What if someone took over the spy society and used it for evil??? And I loved hanging out with the squad again...
Find out more of Suzanne's secrets here...
~Holly Cupala
I jumped at the chance to come to this breakout! First, I'm a huge fan of Jill Alexander who I met just this weekend. She is LOVELY.
But she's not a chicken. This is the cover of her fabulous book, The Sweetheart of Prosper County.
Then, to make the workshop even better, her agent, Michael Bourret is speaking too. He's okay, I guess.
Kidding! Michael is fantastic with three exclamation points!!!
Before they started, Aaron Hartzler spoke about how Jill and Michael met each other at a conference. The room was laughing and immediately drawn in to listen to these two charismatic speakers.
Jill's tips to prepare for publication:
*Have a web presence.
*Think about your office hours and how much time to dedicate to writing, whether you have an agent or not.
*Get a calendar system because you might need it for school visits, conferences, etc...
Michael says that writers have a lot of work to do even once the book is sold--and it isn't just to write. For example, think about the types of interview questions people will ask.
Jill shared a great story about a speaking engagement. She felt overwhelmed by the jumbotron, the microphone, and the sheer size of the crowd. Jill is so funny! The crowd is just cracking up!
They spoke about edits and how they'll be more than you might expect. You should prepare by studying up on copyediting symbols and get familiar with the process. Expect to read your manuscript ANOTHER 6 to 10 times.
Jill knew that Michael had repped Sara Zarr, so she knew she'd love to work with him. She says to find an agent whose client list is something you're interested in.
There was a great question from the audience, "What happens when it's time for the second book?"
Jill said that with her background as a creative writing major, she's always writing. Plus if she stopped now, her husband and son would throw pencils at her and make her get back to work. Michael said that it's different for every writer. "And for some, like the person in here blogging this, they already have 800 things ready to go." :-)
This was an amazing workshop!! Perfect mix of information and humor!
-Suzanne
Arianne Lewin is a Senior Editor at Disney Hyperion. She edits an eclectic list, that emphasizes YA novels and fantasy. She’s currently looking for new voices in all genres.
In acquisitions, she sends the pitch to all the departments. They will rarely take on a book that sales is not behind.
Part of the offer is based on sales projections and possible marketing plans. Sometimes Hyperion will buy books that they feel can win awards because it helps the overall list and also attracts other authors.
Placement is everything in sales. So when a book is to be acquired, they must envision where it will live on the shelf. Arianne also let us in on some secrets about the books that are face-out or on endcaps and tables in the bookstore.
Stephanie Owens Lurie is Editorial Director of Disney Hyperion.
Ginger Clark is an agent with Curtis Brown LTD. She reps science fiction, fantasy, paranormal romance, literary horror and young adult and MG fiction. She also reps the British rights for the agency and attends the Bologna and Frankfurt Book fairs.
Ginger Clark said that of the queries she receives; only about 30% are usable for her. In the queries she prefers business format with one paragraph for plot. Mention any publishing credits you may have, address her by name, and include all of your contact information.
Industry recognizes the need to be as visible as possible on the internet. When asked about how many clients an agent takes on in a year, she said that so far this year she’s taken on about 3 clients out of thousands of queries.
Amazing author Rachel Vail is having a fantastic workshop on Seeing Your Characters: Creating Adolescent Characters from the Inside Out. And when I walked up, I couldn't believe the crowd! All the seats were taken and people even spilled out into the hall. I was so glad I got there early! What an amazing session! Make sure if you get a chance to hear Rachel speak, you take it!
She offered some great techniques on how to "get into character" and how to develop a strong unique voice. She even offered tips that she learned in theater training. (I've totally used them before!)
Here are some of Rachel's books and she'll be signing here on Monday!
Lisa Grubka is an agent at Foundry Literary and Media. When talking about what she was looking for in the current market, I was really interested when Lisa said that she had a strong interest in international stories for teens. She also said she liked grounded contemporary with a character she could identify with. Lisa also mentioned that there is a strong push to find MG books for boys.
There are so many great opportunities when you attend a SCBWI conference. One of the most helpful of those being the professional one-on-one critiques. Every year countless stories float around the floor of an author being "discovered" during a critique. Have one coming up? Author Cynthea Liu has a great post on how to make the most of your conference critique HERE.
Suz
Peeking in at Josh Adams who runs Adams Literary--I was lucky enough to hear his descriptions of Preempts and Auctions. It was fascinating to see the differences, when one is the better path. He also told us how anytime he goes on vacation or goes for a drive, the offers seem to come in :-)
Suz
Michael Reisman is the author of the middle grade Simon Bloom series. He’s been working for over 11 years as a story analyst for various movie and TV companies.
Eddie Gamarra is a literary manager/producer for The Gotham Group.
I'm so happy that I was able to attend this breakout! It was like my own insider look at the movie industry. And that means I can't really share some of the secrets. But at the next conference, this is a session you don't want to miss!
They provided an awesome handout that described the elusive term "High Concept" as an easily-described an easily-grasped concept. Then the paper went into Suggested fate of a book/script/treatment in coverage, Movie deal scenarios and the definitions of various terms that deal with the industry.
It also had a ranking of book adaptations with their studio and lifetime gross.
And to pull it all together Michael and Eddie were like a comedy duo up there. They had the room in hysterics. Can I go again tomorrow?
Suz
I'm so excited to sit through publisher and writer Francesco Sedita's breakout session on writing mass market fiction. His resume is truly impressive!! Including Saturday Night Live!!!!!!! He's currently works at Grosset & Dunlap and Price Stern Sloan, two imprints at the Penguin Young Readers Group. Oh, and he's awesome.
Francesco mentions that he feels like the words "mass market" aren't very fair. Just because it's mass market does not mean it's lower quality. Some great examples of their series are:
Frankly Frannie
George Brown Class Clown
Bedeviled
In mass market, think about what will interest the modern child. How can you appeal to them, whether it's through unauthorized biographies of pop figures or movie tie in books. There are so many different directions an author of mass market fiction can go. And Francesco's imprint is always looking for new writers to keep the voices fresh.
Check out the books above! I personally loved Bedeviled!!
Suz
Author and blogger Suzanne Young brings us the latest SCBWI TEAM BLOG Annual Summer Conference faculty interview. Suzanne had a chat with author Rachel Vail, who will present a keynote speech ON SCHOOL, DROOL, AND OTHER DAILY DISASTERS: FINDING THE HUMOR AND HEART IN MIDDLE GRADE NOVELS as well as a breakout session called SEEING YOUR CHARACTERS: ADOLESCENT CHARACTERS FROM THE INSIDE OUT. Here's a bit from Suzanne's post:
As part of TEAM BLOG, covering this year's SCBWI Annual Summer Conference in LA, I got a chance to chat with the AMAZING Rachel Vail!! She will be one of the Keynote Speakers and she'll also be offereng workshops throughout the conference.
Rachel Vail has written over 30 books, for kids through teens. Her most recent include her trilogy for teens: LUCKY, GORGEOUS and BRILLIANT; and her novel for kids, JUSTIN CASE: SCHOOL, DROOL, AND OTHER DAILY DISATERS.
Today, we have Suzanne Young, author of The Naughty List.
I asked her to share with us a little about her marketing and how her great blog has helped her in this industry.
Take a look!
A couple shots of the Autograph Party winding down.
Francesco Sedita--vice president and publisher, Grosset & Dunlap--is completely charming!! One of the things that he's focusing on right now is boy books for reluctant readers. Something that allows kids to say, "I can do this!" (reading)
He himself was a reluctant reader, which was why he really loves working on these types of books. And he believes that children's books are still selling, and they will continue to sell.
For the attendees, he had some advice: "Forget everything you've heard here--go home and write."
Focus on the story you want to tell. The rest will come later. All and all, he was inspiring and energetic. In fact, he really made me want to write MG!!
-Suzanne Young
I walked into a packed room to observe McIntosh and Otis agent, Edward Necarsulmer's speech on contracts. And Jane Yolen was in the crowd too!
First Edward gave us a handout with contract lingo to help us stay on top of the conversation. Some of the finer points he made were to demistify and run us through the process. He talked about foreign rights, and that he thinks that they are an import part of your book contract. He likes to hold on to them because he said, "Other than you and your editor, who better to pitch your book than your agent? And I don't have thousands of other books to push like a publishing house does."
He said having a savvy, business minded agent is crucial. They should know about print runs and price points before going into negotiations.
To be honest, I was impressed with his knowledge of contracts!! I'd never really thought out all the small print before.
My favorite line was when he said that he felt that "matchmaking" in finding a publisher was a lost art. It just showed me how passionate and respectful his was of the industry.
-Suzanne Young
The latest of our SCBWI TEAM BLOG exclusive pre-conference interviews with Winter Conference keynotes and speakers is up on Jaime Temairik's blog.
Jaime interviewed the always awesome Allyn Johnston, Vice President & Publisher of Beach Lane Books, who will be offering three breakout sessions on THE REAL DEAL ABOUT PICTURE BOOKS.
Click here to read the interview with Allyn.
And be sure to tune in *RIGHT HERE* starting Friday, for exclusive live Winter Conference coverage by our crack team of bloggers, Jaime, Jolie, Lee, Suzanne and Alice!
Click here to register for the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City where you can see Allyn Johnston in person.
The first of our SCBWI TEAM BLOG series of pre-conference interviews with Winter Conference speakers and keynoters is up on Suzanne Young's blog.
Suzanne interviewed Ben Schrank, president of Penguin Group, USA.
Click here to read the interview with Ben. We'll direct you to more exclusive TEAM BLOG interviews during the coming weeks leading up the conference!
Click here to register for the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City where you can see Ben Schrank in person.
SCBWI Summer Conference: Fantastic...
Linda Joy Singleton, author of the DEAD GIRL series with Flux, has an autographed copy of her brand new book DEAD GIRL IN LOVE to give to you! So if you're here at the conference, the first person to find Linda and tell her you'd love to read her book will get it!
Ahhh. It's not as good as being there, but following the conference blog helps me feel less bereft. And maybe it convinces me that I *must* go next year, no matter what. (My goal: sell two more books. Go to both national conferences)
Thanks for the great blog! With no way to be at all the sessions at once, this blog meets a need to help me catch up with what I missed. Thanks blog team! You're the best!
Thank you for all your great work! You guys are amazing :)