Avert Your Eyes
In honor of the imminent release of The Faker’s Guide to the Classics: Everything You Need to Know About the Books You Should Have Read (But Didn’t), I will now disembowel some of the greatest of the greats, highlighting their tragic endings with pithy commentary. (Spoiler: Scroll down to see how you can win a copy of Faker’s!) Moby Dick Cap’n gets it when Moby drowns him and the rest of the crew—except Ishmael, who chills in a floating coffin in the middle of the ocean until he can hitch a ride. No,...
read moreMore than romance
This was originally a comment I made on the HuffPost article “Lovesick and Tired: Unnecessary Romance in YA,“ but it encapsulates my thoughts on romance and relationships within YA that I’m reposting it here. YA literature is, at its heart, about relationships. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be romantic ones. Some of the most beautiful YA I’ve read didn’t center on romance. One of my faves in recent years is The Sweetness of Salt by Cecilia Galante, and the core relationship in that book...
read moreCopyright
Timeline of Copyright Anything before 1923: Public domain for all! From 1923 to 1963: Go forth and research: Catalog of Copyright Author had to refile for copyright after 28 years. If they didn’t, have at it. Their copyright has since expired. If they did refile, it extended copyright for an additional 67 years, for a total of 95 years. From 1964–1977: Copyright was automatically renewed for an additional 67 years, so these works automatically get a term of 95 years. From 1978 to present: Author’s life + 70 years...
read moreNew Adult
Update (4/23/13): In the three months since I originally wrote this post, New Adult has progressed significantly to the point where some of this information is obsolete or opposite from what I wrote earlier. So I’ve revised the post below to reflect new changes in how NA is developing. And this info might well go another 180-degrees within the next three months. If you participate at all in the online YA writing publishing community, you’ve undoubtedly heard the term New Adult (NA) bandied about. For those unfamiliar with...
read moreLiterary matchmaker
For some odd reason, every time I try to come up with a title for blog posts, a related song pops into my head. Today’s edition? Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match . . . Why this song? you might ask. Because I consider one of my most important responsibilities as a literary agent to be a matchmaker between a writer (or more specifically, their manuscript) and an editor. After facing so much rejection and uncertainty when searching for an agent, writers can easily fall into the trap of I don’t care who edits and publishes...
read moreWhy YA needs strong female characters
I’ve kept largely quiet on the commotion surrounding comedian Daniel Tosh and a woman in the audience who said he joked about how funny it would be if she were gang raped. The resulting debate is disturbing in many ways,* as the (largely male) negative response shows the pervading rape culture is going strong and perhaps even assimilating into some aspects of society where it hasn’t previously flourished. More than that, women are given the role of victim and forced to play the part. Any woman who doesn’t must be ostracized...
read moreAm I doing enough?
I would consider myself a fairly accepting individual, with friends from various places around the world, but every single time I get a bit cocky and think, “Pshh, I know how to be color-blind. No need to lecture me,” something happens (either that I stupidly did or saw in the world around me) to make me rethink just how inclusive I really am. I’m going to assume you’ve heard or seen news stories about the tragic killing of Trayvon Martin. As you’re reading this online, I’d say that’s a fair...
read moreALA, ARCs, and the blogger dilemma
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read moreLetting it go
In which I ramble about the emotions accompanying the release of my first book Facing the release of my first book into the world, my emotions are different than I thought they’d be. I’m a bit surprised, actually, as I’ve seen the publication of many titles that I edited and worked on, but this is the first time that I’ve sat on this side of the desk, not knowing what will happen with my little book. I anticipated anxiety and nervousness to accompany the release, but I never realized there would be this almost...
read moreA crappy trailer
I should mention that 1) that’s not me on the front cover, and 2) my last name is pronounced “witty,” though that isn’t a big deal. Hey, at least it’s closer than “White.”
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