Connect
Search

Thoughts on Books, Writing, and the Industry

 

Click to Browse the Blog Archive

Entries in YA (6)

Monday
Mar152010

Magical March Madness

I seem to have found my new favorite website, since I'm doing two posts in a row featuring Indexed. But I thought this was particularly hilarious and appropriate for us here in the publishing field. 

courtesy of Indexed (thisisindexed.com)

Now, I have a feeling if this were the bracket for YA trends, vampires would beat out zombies and take the championship, and fairies would have made it a little bit farther. But I won't lie that I kind of wish the zombie apocalypse beats out the vampire trend eventually...

Would these be your picks?

~Elana

Thursday
Jan212010

Happy Pub Day Undead Much! 

Undead Much is officially in stores today. Run to your nearest Barnes & Noble, Borders, or Independent bookstore or order your copy off of Amazon. But go get it!

Monday
Nov022009

Hit Me

In lieu of anything profound, I'm just going to put the call out today for a list of things I would like. A wish list, shall we say? Here goes.

  1. Middle-grade novels. I have been reading a ton of awesome MG novels lately. When You Reach Me is perfect. I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President (which I guess some people are calling YA, but the kid is in 7th grade, so dammit, I'm calling it MG) is cracking me up. So send me something with a strong hook and a great voice, and make it good. Think big. 
  2. Non-paranormal YA. I've had so many "I see ghosts" books cross my desk, that even if you are reinventing the hook, I can't see it anymore. I don't mind fantasy, or sci-fi elements, but bear in mind, I like my YA reality-based with a splash of those things. Go read CANDOR if you really want to get a sense of my taste.  So give me a twisty YA, give me a voice I haven't heard before, a vision of the future I haven't seen yet, a POV that hasn't been touched on (I'm still waiting for the YA version of the movie SAVED! to cross my desk). 
  3. Conference invitations. I am sorely lacking in 2010. What happened? Invite me to your regions! I'm funny, I swear. Even if I'll yell at you for pitching me in the bathroom. You deserve that. 

Okay, go.

~Elana

Tuesday
May262009

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Book Endings

Confession. A YA novel recently came out that I was beyond excited to read, since the buzz around it has been pretty much inescapable. This buzz is largely due to the fact that publishers were bidding on this book, written by a completely unknown author, in sums close to $1 million. That's kind of unheard of.

Click to read more ...

Monday
Apr202009

The Lost World of Middle Grade

Thanks again to the Twittersphere for contibuting ideas for today's blog post.  The topic: YA v. middle grade, and is there really a difference in volume of what publishers are seeing and therefore publishing? Maybe. 

Click to read more ...