Sunday, December 18, 2011

Another Silly Song— by demand!

Jack Sprat could eat no fat
His wife could eat no lean.
And so between the two of them
Mealtime was a scene.

The act for which the two are known,
For licking clean the platter,
Is a lie the missus spun:
Jack stuck his tongue out at her.

this is copyrighted.


p.s. did you know the original was pub'd in 1639?

Monday, November 21, 2011

a Silly Song!

There was a crooked man
And he walked a crooked mile.
He met a crooked lass and said— what else?
I like your style!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Janis Repka is Not Clueless!

originally Janis titled this book Counting Frog Feathers. her publisher, Penguin, concluded Too obscure. so the title became Aphrodite Figures it Out, then The Difference Between Hair Roots and Square Roots, then Wiz Kid and Twirl Girl. while THE CLUELESS GIRL'S GUIDE TO BEING A GENIUS does not rightly express Janis's regard for her characters, whom she would never call clueless, it has that commercial patina we now more than ever pin our hopes on.
the  hardcover ofJanis's debut The Stupendous Dodgeball Fiasco sells steadily; but only its place on several state reading lists precipitated the need for a softcover edition, to pub next year. 

We love Janis!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Boogie Monster

Check out author Josie Bissett (of ABC's The Secret Life of the American Teenager) talking about her picture book BOOGIE MONSTER, illustrated by our own Kevan Atteberry!



                                   



BOOGIE is the follow-up to Josie and Kevan's TICKLE MONSTER.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

A Silly Song!

The sky is falling!
The sky is falling!
Chicken Little said.
The moral is how easily
Rumors sometimes spread.

And yet you have to wonder:
Did they jail that false town crier?
To tell the truth, 
I half suspect
She wound up roaster-fryer.

Printz on Our Minds

And why shouldn't it be when we have Pat Hughes's superb (we say it again!) FIVE FOURTHS OF JULY, an historical, which the Printz people typically acknowledge. just to prove our evaluation is impartial, even though Pat is our client and this is our book, take a look at this!

Go Pat!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

A Silly Song!

do you readers like these? let us know.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children she didn't know what to do.

In fact, she had two.

Great big brats the old woman had.
They vexed her and perplexed her and they drove her fairly mad.

They tell us she beat them and sent them to bed—
Not that she woke up next day with no head.

GO, SLEEPING BOOTSIE, GO!

Read it here, The Children's Book Review calls Maribeth Boelts's fractured tale "delightful" and "perfectly suited for children reading on their own in grades 1-3". Can't argue with that.

Philadelphia Inquirer Loves FIVE 4ths of JULY!

Don't take our word for it, Pat's novel is one of the very best historicals in years. Read it here, folks. This is a gripping, original account, including horrific, little known aspects of the Revolutionary War. One example, 11,500 Americans died on British prison ships anchored in  in New York harbor, whereas only 4,500 Americans died in all Revolutionary War battles combined. Surprising, right? The novel's even greater achievement— besides setting the record straight by correcting the preposterous conceit of Johnny Tremain— is Pat's creation of relate-able teens, flesh-and-blood people not so different from teens today. A stupendous book— with two starred reviews, so far! (But who's counting?)

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

A Silly Song

Skip to the loo
With Sally and Sue
Remember: Wash your face!

Time to skidoo
Tell Sally, take Sue
And skip to another place!

Boy + Bot

oh, do avail yourselves of the preorder opportunity to own Knopf's DEBUT of picturebook author Ame Dyckman. we like to tell authors seeking agents that we snatched Ame at a conference after expressly announcing we were not signing picturebook author-only clients. Ame proves the adage, cream always rises to the top. call us skimmers, if you must.

Ame's SECOND picturebook will be coming from Viking, sometime in 2012 we imagine.

go Ame!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

WIENER WOLF #1 Bestseller!

in Austin, anyway, BUT beating out The Hunger Games, Judy Moody, and Super Diaper Baby 2 is no cinch, and it sure bodes well for Jeff Crosby's cute-cute critter. here, look. (you have to scroll down for the Children's List.)

Of course you want to know more about Jeff (who wouldn't?). Quell your curiosity here.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

A Silly Song (our occasional feature)

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall—
Or so the story goes.
The real event he underwent
No one really knows.

So just suppose. . . 

Humpty Dumpty lay on a chaise,
Humpty Dumpty soaked up some rays,
Humpty Dumpty looked at the pool,
Humpty Dumpty acted the fool.

As an egg, of course, HD could not swim.
He sank to the bottom— and everyone forgot him!
Too, too late was the King's lifeguard:
When they fished him out, he was boiled hard.

this is copyrighted.

Acknowledged: the last line uses (in order to scan) the popular convenience of the plural pronoun, which we generally deplore.

Monday, July 4, 2011

W I E N E R W O L F

Dachshund picturebooks abound, the classics being Noodle by Munro Leaf and Pretzel by Margaret and H.A. Rey. BUT only inspired author/illustrator Jeff Crosby's WIENER WOLF takes you inside the soul-stirring secrets of the hot dog breed. We see another Skippy Jon Jones here, folks— hint: buy extra copies for friends.

Illustrations! (a taste what's on our tabletop)

• • • Janie Bynum • • •
    J. C. Phillipps  

====Ricardo Barahona====
                            Jan Jutte  

°°°°°J e f f  C r o s b y °°°°°

R i c h a r d   H u l l 

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A Silly Song (our new incidental feature)

Old Grandpappy says a word to the wise,
Grow extra apples if you want extra pies.

Grandpappy says, Eggs get cold, no sense hollering—
excepting for to make colder eggs for swallowing.

Grandpappy, like as not, will add for the record,
No call for polka dot— when you're wearing checkered!

this is copyrighted.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

A Publishing Industry Glossary

by our own Rick Walton...

(a brief sampling)

Advance - the best proof your project is moving forward.
Author - the costume a writer puts on when he goes to a cocktail party.
Backlist - books still in print, but which the publisher hides behind his back so they are hard to see.
Cover letter - a letter designed to cover the weaknesses in your manuscript.
E-book - E stands for everyone, as in everyone now will think they can write a book.
Graphic novel - a comic book that went to college.
Hardcover - the best kind of book to use as a murder weapon.
Mass-market - a type of book that most of the time the masses, with great enthusiasm, ignore.
Typewriter - the best writing device ever to use as a murder weapon.
Vanity press - a variation of "van o' depressed." So-called because you end up depressed with a van full of books.
Young adult - the average age of editors today.

Monday, June 20, 2011

From our collection of Silly Songs

She sells sea shells by the seashore—
Should she sally city-side, she'd sell more!



it's copyrighted, fyi.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Congratulations, You're Half-Pregnant!

a ms came in over the transom* and got a very positive reader report. we requested minor-to-medium items be addressed in a revise, and now the revised ms has arrived. although we could submit it now (shows we love it), we reigned in our enthusiasm. our new client is refining the remaining rough parts so the ms we show editors will (we hope) wow them. even if an editor does not make an offer, the editor will remember our client's talent and promise.

* a colorful metaphor of yore

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Have We Bragged?


if so, then we have not bragged enough. illustrator Kevan Atteberry's TICKLE MONSTER has been kicking butt since 08. Kevan also designed the Tickle Monster Tickle Mitt, which has also sold umpteen thousands. all we have to say is, Local Boy (outside Seattle) Makes Good! keep your eyes open for BOOGIE MONSTER, coming soon to an airport, K-Mart, Target, and hundreds of other outlets near you!

Kevan is also illustrator of FRANKIE STEIN and FRANKIE STEIN STARTS SCHOOL.

We love Kevan!

How to Sell a Picturebook

in her second picturebook WINK: THE NINJA WHO WANTED TO NAP author/illustrator JULIE PHILLIPPS takes WINK into a toystore. to make things look toystore-like, on a display shelf in the background of one picture, Julie stacked units of a made-up toy Monkey Ho HO. Her editor asked, What is that monkey character in the background? then she offered a contract for Julie's third picturebook: MONKEY HO HO, due next year.


we almost forgot to ballyhoo our beloved Maribeth Bolt's new easy reader. we love our Step Into Reading titles: they sell like mad! we particularly love the surprisingly epic SLEEPING BOOTSIE— so much happens! and how about the cover, eh? that's what we call commercial.

Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire!

we can scarcely brag enough: Art Slade's steampunk-tacular THE HUNCHBACK ASSIGNMENTS (about which we have raved for sometime, as our followers know) won France's most prestigious award for non-French teen fiction. that's right: the top award!

the French edition of Book #1 translates to The Agents of Mr. Socrates: The Brotherhood of the Clock, which would have captured our attention, middle-schooler reading demons that we were.

if you have not read THE HUNCHBACK ASSIGNMENTS. . . why the heck are you doing reading our blog? you need to prioritize your reading. (put smiley face here.)

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

AN HISTORICAL!











Our

very

own

Pat
Hughes wrote the anti-Johnny Tremain story of the Revolutionary War. This smart, shocking, and gut wrenching novel posits the experience of real 18th century teens, no more likely to be cock-eyed patriots than teens today. then, as now, teens preferred freewheeling pleasures. but POOF! their lives exploded upon attack.

so far Booklist and BCCB touched FIVE 4THS OF JULY with fairy wands, rewarding the novel with those all-important STARS!

Pat rocks hard! this is a must-read. we are looking for the Scott O'Dell Award. start buzzing.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Mark Your Calendars!

NOTICE: We will be suspending submissions for the Bologna Book fair, March 25th - April 4th.

Thanks for bearing with us!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Arthur Slade is Lighting Up the Web

HUNCHBACK ASSIGNMENTS author Art Slade is all over the web this week.

Followers of his blog (arthurslade.blogspot.com) and twitter feed (twitter.com/arthurslade) may have heard about his new short story STUBB, available on YARN (the Young Adult Review Network). You can read it here.

Not only that, but Art Slade titles of yesteryear are back— as ebooks, thank you very much. Fans worldwide can now purchase DRAUGR while English readers everywhere-but-in-Canada* can download the Governor General's Award Winner DUST to their e-readers.

More to come? We should say so!

*We tell you, electronic rights are tricky!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Wisdom from the Author's Guild on E-Book Royalties

Must reads for authors, agents, and publishers alike:

"So, everything else being equal, publishers will naturally have a strong bias toward e-book sales. It certainly does wonders for cash flow: not only does the publisher net more, but the reduced royalty means that every time an e-book purchase displaces a hardcover purchase, the odds that the author’s advance will earn out -- and the publisher will have to cut a check for royalties -- diminishes. In more ways than one, the author’s e-loss is the publisher’s e-gain."

&

"Here's a solution that won't cascade through countless backlist books: soften the e-bias by eliminating the author's e-loss. That is, negotiate for an e-royalty floor tied to the prevailing print book royalty amount."

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Monday, January 10, 2011

Submissions Reopened

It's January 10th, and that means STNY Submissions are officially reopened. The Kindles are charged and ready, and we can't wait to read your stuff!

Hope you all had a lovely Holiday! We sure did.

-JMC

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