My colleague, fellow agent Bookalicious Pam (far right), signed two anthologies and read selections of her writing at Keplers Books in Menlo Park on Halloween Eve. She must have come as a GHOST-writer! Notice Magical Mayhem in front of her! Pick up a copy for Halloween.
Here’s a great article from Shelf Awareness about the potential merger of Random House and Penguin, comedically referred to as either Penguin House or Random Penguin. I even like the logo they came up with as a spoof. But they make a variety of good points to consider. Well worth the read: http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=1857
O.M.Golly. Today I just read that Random House is in discussions with Pearson, owner of Penguin, on a possible merger. I keep telling everyone who will listen that I believe Amazon is going to buy either HarperCollins or Simon & Schuster. This totally blindsided me. Wowza. Wonder if it will really happen. Can you see a “Random Penguin” in your future?
Here’s the press release:
For Immediate Release
Disney Channel Options Awkward by Kensington Author Marni Bates
Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY – October 23, 2012 – The Gersh Agency in Los Angeles today announced that The Disney Channel has optioned the teen novel Awkward by Marni Bates to be made into a television movie. Awkward is published by Kensington Books’ KTeen imprint in New York.
Awkward is a romantic teen comedy featuring a girl whose embarrassing moment is captured by her high school classmates and goes viral on YouTube. Suddenly dubbed “America’s Most Awkward Girl”, Mackenzie Wellesley soon finds herself dodging both the paparazzi and the popular girls at school, even as America’s hottest boy rock band, ReadySet, transforms her moment of humiliation into a hit music video! But when Mackenzie’s rise in notoriety only pushes her farther away from the guy she’s falling for, she’ll find out just how steep the price of fame can be…
“Marni Bates brings a youthful breath of fresh air to young adult novels with her delightfully humorous, yet authentic portrait of high school life. We know Disney viewers will be as charmed as her legions of readers,” said Alicia Condon, Editorial Director, Kensington Publishing.
Marni Bates recently graduated from Lewis & Clark College and has four YA novels under contract with Kensington Books’ KTeen imprint: Awkward and Decked with Holly are currently available, with Invisible and Notable coming in 2013. She also has penned a nonfiction teen book with HCI called Marni.
Brandy Rivers of The Gersh Agency in Los Angeles who brokered the deal said, “Marni is hands down one the greatest new voices in YA and we are thrilled that this is going to be a fabulous new movie for the Disney Channel!”
###
About Marni Bates
Marni Bates is the author of four young adult books for Kensington Books KTeen line of teen novels. She also penned an autobiography entitled Marni. She grew up in Ashland, Oregon and currently lives in Los Angeles. When not writing, she can be found rollerblading, drinking frappuccinos with extra whip, reading romance novels, and watching copious amounts of TV—strictly for artistic inspiration, of course.
About The Disney Channel
The Disney Channel is a cable and satellite television network owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of the Walt Disney Company headquartered in Burbank, California. The channel specializes in television programming for children through original children’s television series and movies, as well as third-party programming.
About Kensington Books
Kensington Publishing Corporation is the last remaining independent U.S. publisher of hardcover, trade and mass market paperback books. Headquartered in New York, NY, KTeen is their young adult imprint.
For more information contact:
Brandy Rivers
The Gersh Agency
310-205-5818
brivers@gershla.com
Karen Auerbach
Director of Publicity Kensington Books
(212) 407-1551
kauerbach@kensingtonbooks.com
Laurie McLean
Larsen Pomada Literary Agents
650-747-0796
laurie@agentsavant.com
Oh my. Look at the masquerade-ball-throwing YA authors from Louisville, Kentucky!
www.whas11.com/great-day-live/video/Local-women-authors–174588971.html
Digital Book World broke the story today that new eBook subscription service, Oyster, has received $3 million in funding to become the Spotify for eBooks. With a monthly subscription to Oyster, you could read as many books as you wish from their catalog. There are more details here on this exciting announcement!
Of course there are many questions still to be answered like how will publishers and authors be compensated from this type of subscription model. But with co-founders from many tech industry heavyweights like Google and Apple, I suspect they will figure it all out.
I especially like this line from the Digital Book World story where they compare Oyster to the “grandaddy” of eBook subscription services, the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library: “Unlike KOLL, Oyster would be all you could eat.” And eBook readers have proven that they can be very hungry indeed.
An interesting point was made earlier this week by Little Brown’s publisher Michael Pietsch. Yes, J.K. Rowling’s first adult book, The Casual Vacancy, has exceeded their sales expectations, selling 375,000 hardcover copies in six days, which he believes will make it the bestselling hardcover in 2012. Then the other shoe dropped. Since Nielsen BookScan reported 157,000 print copies sold in the first four days, the math suggests that half of Rowling’s sales right out of the gate were, gasp, EBOOKS! That is an enormous swing and heavily underscores the notion that eBooks are saving the butts of traditional publishers just as they’re giving tremendous opportunities to new authors in the area of self-publishing. Wow, it’s a great time to be a writer!
At Digital Book World’s Discoverability and Marketing event yesterday in New York City, ISBN powerhouse Bowker had this to say about how people buy books:
“Last year, nearly 50% of consumers altered their book-buying behavior, according Bowker’s v-p of publishing services Kelly Gallagher, who estimated that 39% of books are sold online and “people discover new books in up to 44 different ways,” DBW reported, adding that despite the ongoing upheaval in the book trade, one constant remains–‘in-person, personal recommendations are the No. 1 way people discover books, no matter who they are or how they read.'”
You can read the whole article courtesy of bookseller authority Shelf Awareness.
There’s also a nice little squib about how poet and writer Lawrence Ferlinghetti started City Lights Books in San Francisco back in the 60s.
I am so pleased to finally be able to announce that fast-growing Spencer Hill Press has bought the rights to publish the first two books in my client Alex Kahler’s series: The Hunted. MARTYR and MENDED follow gay teen protagonist, Tenn, as he uses his chakra magic to fight an assortment of new and horrible used-to-be-human monsters to rescue his mentor and first love, Jarrett. Working with a group of heroes that include twin teen witches, a woman who used to be Jarrett’s lover, and other misfits, Tenn not only has to learn all that his powers are capable of, but he has to face new challenges at every turn in the unique and terrifying world Kahler has created for his characters. Can you tell I really love this series.
Kahler used to be the assistant to Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, so you know he picked up some valuable writing tips from these two YA powerhouses! He’s also a circus aerialist and part of the infamous YARebels Vloggers on YouTube.
Look for THE HUNTED series starting in 2014. And find out more about Alex at arkahler.blogspot.com/. Oh, why wait! Here’s a photo of him doing his circus act in Scotland!
Alex in Chains
In a letter to agents, Amazon Publishing’s VP Jeff Belle shared how its imprints 47North (fantasy/horror/science fiction), Thomas & Mercer (mystery/thriller), and Montlake (romance) are doing saleswise. No big surprise, Kindle sales account for the bulk of their numbers. Also not a big surprise is that a handful of bestselling authors are blowing the doors off their former traditionally published book sales numbers.
Read it all here.
