How to use this Page

Do you spend too much time worrying about publishing trends and not enough time writing?

On today’s edition of the Morning Media Menu, we spoke with Leah Konen, the author of The After Girls. She shared writing advice for aspiring YA novelists. She also explained how a Mediabistro writing course helped her get published. Here’s an important tip:

My first piece of advice would be to really write YA because want to write YA. It’s become very popular now and sometimes people think commercially it will do the best. You have to have a passion for the voice and the tone and this idea of going back to childhood and your teenage years. You should pursue it, if that’s why you’re doing it. Not just because it happens to be the genre with the most movie deals.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

During last night’s Movie Awards show, MTV revealed the first teaser trailer for Catching Fire, the second installment of The Hunger Games film franchise.

We’ve embedded the video above–what do you think? The trailer has already drawn more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.

The trailer offers the fans glimpses of several major events in the story and a first look at Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman as Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. This adaptation of Suzanne Collins‘ young-adult novel won’t be released until November 22, 2013.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

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…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

I recently read both of these books and realized they had a common theme: guilt. Both of the main characters in these YA novels have had a horrible situation placed on their shoulders -- of which neither are truly at fault -- and they have to work through the guilt they ultimately end up feeling. I recommend both!

Thanks to both Abrams and Clarion Books for the review copies.

Display Comments Add a Comment

The 2013 finalists for the Children’s Choice Book Awards have been revealed. Kids can vote from March 19th to May 9th.

The winners will be announced live at the Children’s Choice Book Awards gala on May 13th. Nominees have been divided into four groups classified by different school grades.

In the Author of the Year category, middle-grade fiction writers and young-adult novelists dominate. The nominees include The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 7: The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney, Wonder by R.J. Palacio, The Heroes of Olympus 3: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, and Insurgent by Veronica Roth.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

Hollywood screenwriter Stuart Beattie will write the script for the Daughter of Smoke & Bone film adaptation.

In the past, Beattie wrote the screenplays for Collateral (2004), 30 Days of Night (2007), and the forthcoming I, Frankenstein (2013). As we previously noted, Palak Patel and Joe Roth will produce.

Author Laini Taylor endorsed Beattie and the entire film-making team with this statement: “It’s been fantastic to delve into the world of the book with a screenwriter of such insight and experience. Between Stuart, Joe Roth and Universal Pictures, we’ve got a team with massive epic flair, and I can’t wait to see what unfolds as we move toward bringing Karou, Akiva, Brimstone and the world of Daughter of Smoke & Bone to the screen.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

In recent years, young adult books have driven a surge in sales for publishers. Besides increasing the revenue streams of these companies, it also seems to have uplifted the popularity of short fiction. The YA authors who have contributed to this trend tend to set their short fiction pieces within the universe of a popular book series.

For instance, Beth Revis recently concluded the Across the Universe trilogy and celebrated by inviting her fans to download a free novella called “As They Slip Away.” Ally Carter incorporated characters from two teen series, Heist Society and the Gallagher Girls, for “Double-Crossed: A Spies and Thieves Novella.”

As we previously reported, HarperCollins established HarperTeen Impulse as a digital imprint dedicated to solely publishing short fiction. But, even before this venture came along, Divergent series author Veronica Roth penned a short story called “Free Four” and Delirium trilogy author Lauren Oliver wrote a piece called “Hana.” What do you think?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

I have been saying for years that teen books provide great reads and fit into my life style so much better, because they are a quick literary fix. They remind me of buying a delicious gourmet frozen dinner – Pop it in the Microwave and voila you are happy and fed.  They are shorter, faster-paced, and designed to appeal to discriminating readers.

Apparently, I am not the only one who feels this way, because many of the readers buying books aimed at the teen market are no longer teenagers. But the numbers are more dramatic than we may have guessed. According to the Bowker study, 55 percent of customers who buy young adult books are 18 or older. In fact, the largest group of readers purchasing titles labeled “young adult” are actually 30 to 44 years old – not the target demographic for the books.

The teen readers genre, which is officially slated for readers 12 to 17, has crossed age lines over the past decade as series like “Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling,” “Twilight by Stephenie Meyer,” and Suzanne Collins’ dystopian trilogy “Hunger Game”s have appealed to adults as well as the younger readers at which they were aimed.

Just look at the first 9 months of Amazon’s “best of the month” picks. It included a young adult title in its “Top 10 list” four times – not on a separate “young readers” list but as part of its overall survey of best titles available. “Every Day” by David Levithan was selected in September, while “Shadow and Bone” by Leigh Burdago made the June list. “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green cracked the January list and “Daughter of Smoke and Bone” by Laini Taylor made it to the September roll call.

This leads us to publishers who now have coined the phrase “New Adult”. The School Library Journal has a good article with links to a number of sites that discuss how they see “New Adult” fitting into the market. http://blogs.slj.com/teacozy/2012/12/28/what-is-new-adult

New market research shows that 55 percent of those buying books labeled ‘young adult’ are in fact 18 and over, a trend that’s increasing, so it is something you definitely should be aware of if you write for teens. Five years ago, editors wouldn’t even look at a book that had an eighteen year old on their way to college or making their way out in the adult world – more proof that things are changing and with that more opportunities for writers.

10 books to read after the ‘Hunger Games’ trilogy

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Filed under: article, demystify, need to know, Publishing Industry, Young Adult Novel Tagged: Amazon, Bowker Market Research, Hunger Games, New Adult Books, Young Adult Books

Display Comments Add a Comment

Add a Comment

Figment will host a live chat with three YA authors, finding out how they managed to land a book deal for their first books.

Scheduled for February 28th at 7:00 p.m. EST, the chat will focus on the following question: “What does it take to sell your first book to the biggest book publisher in the world?”

Knopf Books for Young Readers editor Erin Clarke and three young-adult novelists will participate in this event. The trio of writers include Timekeeper author Alexandra Monir, Seraphina author Rachel Hartman and The Tragedy Paper author Elizabeth Laban. All three authors published their first book with Random House Children’s Books.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 has “won” seven Golden Raspberry Awards (a.k.a. the Razzies). The film “emerged victorious” in the following categories:

Worst Picture – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
Worst Actress – Kristen Stewart for Snow White & the Huntsman and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
Worst Supporting Actor – Taylor Lautner for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
Worst Screen Ensemble – the entire cast of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
Worst Director – Bill Condon for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
Worst Prequel, Ripoff, or Sequel – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
Worst Screen Couple – Mackenzie Foy & Taylor Lautner for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

Fox 2000 has brought on filmmaker Josh Boone to direct The Fault in Our Stars movie adaptation. Last year, Boone wrote and directed an original film called Stuck in Love.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, the screenwriting duo behind (500) Days of Summer, will write the script. Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen, the producers of The Twilight Saga film franchise, will produce this project.

As of this writing, John Green‘s popular young-adult novel has spent eleven weeks on the New York Times young-adult bestsellers list.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

Add a Comment

Planesrunner

Everness, Book One
by Ian McDonald

I decided to try a new format for my reviews. I hope this is a useful format.

Plot: Everett Singh's dad, a quantum physicist, is kidnapped off the street in view of Everett by three men in a black car. Later that night, Everett gets a message from his father containing a mysterious app, with only the note "For you only, Everett." Turns out that his dad has been working on a scientific project seeking physical proof of parallel universes, and the app is a map of all the known universes, the only one of its kind in existence. Now Everett is on the run from agents of the Plenitude, an alliance of the known universes. They want the map, called the Infundibulum, and will stop at nothing to get it. But Everett has other plans, and he uses the Infundibulum to travel to an alternate London in a daring attempt to rescue his dad.

Notable Characters:

• Everett Singh. Teen boy who is as good at cooking as he is at math, and not afraid to use either in pursuit of his goal. Punjabi, or at least half Punjabi (his dad is Punjabi, but I never figured out if his mom is). Authentic teen male voice.
• Sen Sixsmyth. Fearless teen girl with an attitude and a love for "bona" tech. Airship pilot in an alternate London.
• Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth. Sen's adoptive mother. No-nonsense airship captain. Strict but compassionate, not afraid of a fight.

Worldbuilding: Excellent! The second half of the book takes place in E3, an alternate universe in which oil-based technology was never developed and modern technology comes out of a coal-based heritage. More advanced than our universe in some ways - carbon nanotubes are used everwhere - but less advanced in some areas, like computing. Very steampunkish feel.

Things I liked: 

• The worldbuilding and the steampunkish feel to E3, as noted above.
• Airships!
• Hard science fiction that doesn't shy away from science and math.
• Authentic teen boy voice. A boy who's good at math and soccer and cooking, and isn't afraid to use his culinary skills.
• Sen Sixsmyth is just about the best thing about this book. She's a fantastic character. Her adoptive mother Captain Anastasia is pretty awesome, too.
• The bond between Everett and his dad. Everett is a typical teen boy, and mentally rolls his eyes at some of the things his dad does, but it's clear that they are close, and Everett literally travels to another universe to rescue his dad. 

Add a Comment

The online writing community Figment has partnered with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers to host The Kiss writing contest. 

Participants have the opportunity to win $500 in prize money and a 16GB iPad mini that contains eBooks by James Patterson. The winning story will be posted onto Patterson’s young-adult website; the victorious writer will also receive a personal message from Patterson on Facebook.

To enter, writers must write a short short story (500 words or less) “about a relationship that no one approves of” and submit it before the February 26th deadline.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

Young adult novelist Julie Kagawa (pictured, via) has signed a seven-figure multibook deal with Harlequin Teen.

Executive editor Natashya Wilson negotiated the deal with senior literary agent Laurie McLean of the Larsen Pomada Literary Agency. Wilson, who will edit the book, secured world rights.

Kagawa has also written the Iron Fey series and the the Blood of Eden series. According to the release, the series “will feature mythical creatures in a contemporary setting.” The first book is expected to come out in 2015. (via Agent Savant)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

Display Comments Add a Comment

He makes his living scaring children and has been called the Stephen King of children’s books.

“Goosebumps” author, R.L. Stine sat down with mediabistroTV to talk about how finding a typewriter at the age of nine started him on his journey to becoming one of the most successful children’s book authors in history.

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

Today we bring you the first in a series of “Top-10″ posts as part of our 10th Anniversary celebrations.  First up is a selection of “Books that Open Windows” by award-winning writer Deborah Ellis.

Deborah’s latest novel came out last month: My Name Is Parvana (Groundwood Books, 2012) is the long-awaited sequel to her acclaimed The Breadwinner Trilogy.  As well as fiction, Deborah has written non-fiction highlighting global social issues from children’s perspectives, such as war, AIDS and bullying, and giving affected children a voice.  You can read PaperTigers’ interviews with Deborah here and here.

 

Top 10: Books that Open Windows by Deborah Ellis

Jean Little is a wonderful Canadian author of books for young people. She has a special place in my heart because when I was a child, my parents were friends with a friend of Jean’s – Jane Glaves – and I would get Ms. Little’s books for Christmas. One of my favorite Jean Little books is Look Through My Window, where one character talks about looking through someone’s window into who they are and what their lives are like.

The following books are ten I would recommend to anyone interested in seeing what’s inside someone else’s window.

1.   From Anna, by Jean Little ~ Novel for young people about a German family who comes to Canada just before the start of World War 2. The youngest, Anna, has struggles with her eyesight, her awkwardness and figuring out where her place is in her family and in this new world.

2.   All of a Kind Family, by Sydney Taylor ~ First in a series of books for young readers about a Jewish family in turn of the century Brooklyn. As the girls go about the adventures of their lives – such as earning money to pay for a lost library book – the family celebrates the calendar of holidays. As a Protestant-raised small-town girl, this was my first window into a different religion, and set off a respect and fascination for Judaism that continues to this day.

3.   Obasan, by Joy Kogawa ~ Moving telling of a young girl’s experience in a Japanese internment camp in Canada during World War 2.

4.   Nobody’s Family is Going to Change, by Louise Fitzhugh ~ Novel for young people about a girl in New York who can’t make her father see her for who she is. She grows to learn about other kids in other families and their struggles.

5.   A Dog on Barkham Street and The Bully of Barkham Street,  by Mary Stoltz – Look at the same story from two points of view. They taught me how to look for more than one side of the story.

6.   Mighty Be Our Powers, by Leymah Gbowee ~ A powerful memoir of a woman who survived the Liberian civil war and won the Nobel Prize for her work to rebuild the country.

7.   Amazing Grace, by Jonathan Kozol ~ About homelessness and poverty in America and the power of the education system to hurt or help the children in its care.

8.   Shannen and the Dream for a School, by Janet Wilson – part of the Kids’ Power Book series for young activists, this is a profile of Shannen Koostachin and her First Nations community of Attawapiskat as they try to get a safe school built.

9.   Bury Me Standing, by Isabel Fonseca ~ A moving, detailed history of the Roma people.

10.   Grey is the Color of Hope, by Irina Ratushinskaya ~ Prison diaries of the Soviet poet who spent seven years in the Gulags. One of the few records we have about what that time and place was like for women.

Add a Comment

If you could send a message to your teenage self, what would you write? The Dear Teen Me anthology collects letters from more than 70 young adult authors to their teenage selves.

You can read a whole collection of letters on the Dear Teen Me site. Here’s a letter from Laura Roecker, co-author of TheLiars Society, to her teenage self:

You’re pretty quiet. You prefer to observe and take it all in and sometimes feel like you don’t have much to add to a conversation. People will often ask you, “What’s wrong?” and you can say, “Nothing!” and actually mean it, but they’ll never believe you. You’ll slip away at parties just to breathe and sometimes feel like you don’t quite fit in, even after you’re married. But you’ll put your observations to good use one day. You’ll write about the people you watch and find friends who make you feel comfortable, who’ll never believe you’re the shy one. And then you’ll have kids who are really loud and a husband who can’t survive without socializing and you’ll learn.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

Have you ever written a scary story? In honor of the Halloween season, we are interviewing horror writers to learn about the craft of scaring readers. Recently, we spoke with author Barry Lyga.

Lyga (pictured) started off writing novels for an adult audience. When those particular manuscripts did not sell, he began penning stories for a teen audience. He established his publishing career with the release of his hit young adult novel, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

Q: How did you land your first book deal?
A: I had written a couple of adult-ish novels that no one seemed to want to publish. It’s not they were bad — plenty of people liked them — they just weren’t sparking anyone’s interest. But a bunch of editors and agents who read them said, “Not yet — show me the next one.” The next one was completely different from those adult books — a YA novel about a bullied, comic book-obsessed dreamer. But I proudly showed it off to every agent and editor I could, and this time the reaction was pretty astounding. Within a few months of finishing the book, I met my agent at a writers’ conference. Within six months, she’d sold The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy & Goth Girl. It was sort of a whirlwind.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

 

Rukhsana Khan’s award-winning novel Wanting Mor (Groundwood Books, 2009) was one of the books on Corinne’s YA Top 10 posted last week (and it would be on mine too!).  One of the themes that runs through the book is the main character Jameela’s faith, and Rukhsana evokes great depth of feeling and understanding about Jameela’s culture growing up in post-Taliban Afghanistan.  Her other YA novel Dahling, If You Luv Me, Would You Please, Please Smile (Stoddart Kids, 1999) focuses on a Muslim Canadian teen Zainab’s journey towards self-acceptance in the face of peer pressure.  Rukhsana has also written  several acclaimed picture books, including Big Red Lollipop (illustrated by Sophie Blackall; Viking Children’s Books, 2010) and The Roses in My Carpets (illustrated by Ronald Himler).

You can find out more about Rukhsana’s books on her website and keep up-to-date with her news on her Khanversations blog; and do also read our interview with her.

 

Top 10 YA/Crossover Books with a Religious Theme, by Rukhsana Khan

1.   The Autobiography of Malcolm X — This book absolutely moved me as a teen! It’s about a man who succumbs to a sort of personality cult (Nation of Islam)—but emerges as a truly noble man! I wanted to be like Malcolm X!

2.   Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson — A real classic! Absolutely adored this book! It’s full of quotations from the Bible and there’s a really mean and sanctimonious grandmother!

3.   A Single Light by Maia Wojcieschowska — Read this as a girl and found it haunting!

4.   Mansfield Park by Jane Austen — Fanny Price is no Elizabeth Bennet! I loved that Edward chooses Fanny for her faith and good moral character.

5.   Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare — A story about tolerance but also about differences in faith. I’d never heard of the Quaker religion before this!

6.   Does My Head Look Big in This? Randa Abdel Fattah — The first book I ever read that made you root for the girl to keep wearing her hijab.

7.   Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte — Read this book as a kid and it actually confirmed my belief in Islam—Mr. Rochester and Jane would have had no problem marrying if they were Muslim!

8.   The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain — Loved how Mark Twain explored the ways in which the status quo—slave ownership—was justified by the establishment. And I wrestled alongside Huck as he struggled to do the *right* thing!

9.   The Butterfly Mosque by G. Willow Wilson — A lyrical beautiful book about a woman who falls in love with Egypt and the Muslim faith.

10.  The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham — I only recently read this book and realized how way ahead of its time it was! It’s about a guy who goes and finds himself, and particularly about him exploring his faith.

I know a lot of the books aren’t exactly kids’ books. I couldn’t help it. I do really like all these books! Although Randa Abdel Fattah’s book annoys me a little because it’s about a girl you’re rooting for, who has the courage to wear hijab, and yet she, as an author, no longer wears hijab; and there’s a spot in that book when they go to the cinema during Ramadan while they’re fasting and there’s no mention of prayer!!! *grrr*

Add a Comment

Universal Pictures has acquired the film rights to Laini Taylor‘s young adult novel and National Book Award finalist, Daughter of Smoke & Bone.

Oz: The Great and Powerful executive producer Palak Patel will serve as an executive producer. Snow White & the Huntsman producer Joe Roth has signed on as a producer.

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers released this book in 2011. Days of Blood & Starlight, the sequel, came out in November 2012. Taylor plans to conclude her series with a not-yet-titled third book.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

For the past 15 years, fans have circulated rumors about a film adaptation of Lois Lowry‘s The Giver. In an interview with studio 360, Lowry confirmed that the movie “is finally on the road.”

Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges has been an advocate for this project for many years. He will play the title character. At the moment, studio executives are auditioning young actors for the lead role of Jonas.

Lowry first published The Giver in 1993. The book won the Newbery Medal in 1994. The full quartet includes Gathering Blue (2000), The Messenger (2004) and the author’s latest release, Son (2012).

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

It's Cybils Finalist Day! The Cybils shortlists have been announced, and what a fabulous group of books! Go check them out!

Here's a list of the Fantasy/Science Fiction finalists:

Fantasy & Science Fiction (Young Adult)

And All the Stars
by Andrea K Höst

Every Day
by David Levithan

Planesrunner (Everness, Book One)
by Ian McDonald

Seraphina
by Rachel Hartman

The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories
by Brenna Yovanoff, Tessa Gratton,  and Maggie Stiefvater

The Drowned Cities
by Paolo Bacigalupi

Vessel
by Sarah Beth Durst

Click here for Fantasy & Science Fiction (Young Adult) shortlist with blurbs and links

Fantasy & Science Fiction (Middle Grade)

Display Comments Add a Comment