Popular children's book author Lemony Snicket, writing in the NY Times, says:
"Want Teenage Boys to Read? Easy. Give Them Books About Sex."
Actually, my YA novel "Come Sit By Me" has some sex in it, but it's also about the world as seen through the eyes of a real teen-age boy. A teen-age girl who reviewed it said,
"I felt Come Sit By Me was written by a guy for a guy."
--Christina Li, Net Galley
Give it a try.
Monday, July 31, 2017
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Group Biographies
https://qz.com/747119/an-obscure-history-book-is-now-sold-out-because-elon-musk-is-reading-it/
Elon Musk, ceo of Tesla Motors, announced that he was reading a book called Twelve Against the Gods, which is a group biography of historical figures, such as Alexander the Great, Columbus, and Casanova. The book is out of print, but online price for it on Amazon.com jumped to $99. Previously, it was about $6. This is EXACTLY the kind of book our ex-agent told us never sells. (group biographies) We published a series of eight such bios, all linked to a certain country or geographical area. They too are out of print, but maybe we can interest some publisher in returning them to print. Look for French Portraits, Italian Portraits, South American Portraits, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, African, and Italian Portraits. Good reading!
Elon Musk, ceo of Tesla Motors, announced that he was reading a book called Twelve Against the Gods, which is a group biography of historical figures, such as Alexander the Great, Columbus, and Casanova. The book is out of print, but online price for it on Amazon.com jumped to $99. Previously, it was about $6. This is EXACTLY the kind of book our ex-agent told us never sells. (group biographies) We published a series of eight such bios, all linked to a certain country or geographical area. They too are out of print, but maybe we can interest some publisher in returning them to print. Look for French Portraits, Italian Portraits, South American Portraits, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, African, and Italian Portraits. Good reading!
Sunday, July 9, 2017
The Silence of the Publisher
Well, I found an agent to represent my book THE JAIL ROBBER. (Check previous posts for synopsis.) The last adult nonfiction book my wife and I wrote, THE CRIMES OF PARIS, had a clause in the contract (standard) requiring us to submit our next nonfiction book for adults to them. So the agent did that. It was hard finding someone to send it to, because our previous editor there was fired, and his assistant disappeared. So the agent finally did find someone with a pulse and submitted the proposal. Heard nothing for five weeks, so he called and emailed. No response. Aren't publishers wonderful?
This is the same publisher whose sub rights person tried to talk the editor at Vanity Fair out of buying the serial rights to our last book. We heard that first from the VF editor, and then the sub rights person at the publisher of THE CRIMES OF PARIS admitted it was true. Her excuse? "I thought it was a different book."
Lesson for ordinary writers: Unless you publish under the name James Patterson, don't bother publishing at Little, Brown.
This is the same publisher whose sub rights person tried to talk the editor at Vanity Fair out of buying the serial rights to our last book. We heard that first from the VF editor, and then the sub rights person at the publisher of THE CRIMES OF PARIS admitted it was true. Her excuse? "I thought it was a different book."
Lesson for ordinary writers: Unless you publish under the name James Patterson, don't bother publishing at Little, Brown.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)