BEA 2012

by BEA first-timer Danielle Barthel

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This year marked the first time that I was able to experience the awesomeness that is Book Expo America.  If you have never gone, let me tell you exactly what you’re missing.  Enormous lines for book signings by both well known and debut authors.  Manic book lovers trying to get the latest ARCs of some of the most highly anticipated books of the year.  Flying elbows, judgmental stares, huge bags of books getting swung into your shoulders.

It.  Is.  Fantastic.

I knew going in that it was going to be packed, but nothing can prepare you for the sheer masses that you will see at BEA.  There are so many people milling in and around booths that it is impossible to move without running into people.  Which meant that when I bumped a coworker of mine in passing, I didn’t think a thing of it until her client called my name and let us know what had just happened!  I’ll be honest…I was definitely in a book coma the day that I went.

This is just one example of the many stacks of books available.  You'd be in a book coma, too!  This happens to be our very own Altered, by Jennifer Rush, coming to you in January 2013:

Featured in the Little Brown booth

Another client, Dan Haring, had his book Oldsoul on show in the Pendrell Publishing booth:

Probably one of the coolest parts of attending BEA was knowing that several Nancy Coffey Literary clients would be doing signings!  I was lucky enough to attend Megan Powell’s signing for her upcoming debut, No Peace for the Damned, where she had a steady line of people waiting for her book for the whole hour!  She even had two of New York’s finest ask for her to sign their books.

On the other side of the Javits Center (a massive, behemoth of a building), Sarah Fine signed copies of her debut novel Sanctum.  She even spent time hand dying the incredible map from her book with tea bags before coming (to see teasers of it, visit Sarah's blog).  She was out of them within minutes!

Later in the afternoon, Veronica Roth had a joint signing with her other Dark Days Tour authors, Liz Norris, Bethany Griffin, and Aprilynne Pike.  The line for this signing stretched all the way across the Javits Center and around the corner.  They signed every book that was available, before having to turn to bookmarks!

After that, Dan Krokos signed his upcoming debut False Memory.  He had some hardcore fans waiting in line, and his book hasn’t even come out yet!

Kody Keplinger attended the Expo, too.  Her third novel, A Midsummer's Nightmare came out during the week of BEA, and she celebrated with her agent and Super Diaper Baby:

Between all the excitement of the books, the authors, the fans, and the weight of the bag brimming with ARCs I had managed to score, I was pretty exhausted at the end of the day.  But it was such a fascinating experience (and everyone says your first BEA is your best), and I can't wait to do it again.

Deadlines

Deadlines are tough. Deadlines are inevitable. They loom there, in the distance, and grow closer and closer as the days tick by.

Most authors and illustrators I know don't write/illustrate full time, and even the ones that do have other things on their plate, like, I don't know...family? Friends? PTA? Church? Dr. Who? Whatever it is, these other aspects of life are important, and are often higher priority. So how do authors do it?

Honestly, I don't know. I'm in constant awe of my clients who turn manuscripts in to me or their editor on time (or mostly on time) despite having a baby (or two), teaching full-time, coaching their kid's baseball team while working full-time, running a household, getting married, driving across the country, being terribly sick, etc. (All of these things and more have happened--my clients are freaking SUPERHEROES).

Other people working with writers are on deadlines, too. Editors, publicists, art departments, etc...all have deadlines. Deadlines that are directly related to writer deadlines. It's like this amazing house of cards that just keeps building and building...though, these are pretty sturdy cards. If one slips, it doesn't mean they all come crumbling down. Maybe one or two fall with it. Or if it's really bad, maybe a whole level. But your publisher has such a strong foundation, that most of the cards stay in place. (So don't worry!)

Agents have deadlines, too.

And speaking of deadlines, this has been my life the past 2 weeks:

6:00, Wake up (sometimes 5am, depending how backlogged I am on edits)

Mmmm. Cofffeeeeeeeee.

Sit down to read manuscripts/take notes/work on line edits.

*make sure iphone is charging!

7:15ish, PeeWee wakes up and finds me if Joe hasn't found him first

-Let PeeWee out

-Administer PeeWee's medicine (poor old guy....)

-Give PeeWee treat and a snuggle

-Back to work

8 - 8:40, shower, brush, do hair, pack bag, get dressed, run out to the car, realize I forgot my charging iphone, run back in for it, rush to the train station

8:44, park blocks away and curse myself for not just walking from home, run to the train with Joe carrying my third cup of coffee in a to-go cup (he's the best), barely catch the 8:48 as the doors shut on my heels

8:49, settle into a seat, take out my laptop and/or iphone and either continue editing and/or start answering emails while Joe reads a book/the paper

9:35, arrive in Penn Station, kiss Joe goodbye, join the ranks of commuters walking to work

9:50, arrive in awesome new office (post to come about said new office!)

10:00 - 12:00, emails (lots!), phone conferences, paperwork (lots), checking in with Nancy/Kathleen/Suzie

noon - 2:30, lunch meeting w/an editor or other industry professional (yes, these are most days), or eat at my desk while reading.

2:30 - 6, more emails (lots and LOTS of emails), phone conferences (usually 2 or 3 of them), sometimes an afternoon meeting, more paperwork, in-office status updates (and perhaps a discussion of a new project from one of us)

This is where the day changes. About half the time it goes like this:

6:30 - meet an industry person (editor, agent, book scout, etc) for drinks, or go to an industry event since there are many this time of year

9:08 or 9:52, catch one of these trains home (eat a hot dog in Penn Station for dinner...sorry, Mom)

10:00 or 10:30, Joe picks me up at the train station, PeeWee on his lap--go home, wind down and watch TV with my boys for about an hour.

12:00, catch up on email (still lots), read and edit until I fall asleep.

The other half of the time it goes like this:

6:13 or 6:39, meet Joe at Penn station to catch the train home

7-9:00, get home, take care of PeeWee, eat dinner, wind down and watch TV with my boys for about an hour, an occasional client/film call during this time.

9:00 - midnightish, catch up on emails, read and edit

There have been a few almost all-nighters in there these past weeks, too. After all, it's deadline time! (Heck, look at the timestamp on this post...I've been up since three!).

But guess what? I get to read things like the second installment in both the Something Strange & Deadly series, and the Ever Afters series. And the second book in The Shadow Reader series, too! I get to work on Kody Keplinger's latest project, and read through the final revisions on Insurgent. I get to drool over the ending of Erica O'rourke's trilogy, and laugh at the twisted humor in Allan Woodrow's latest, and feel a chill down my spine from one of my newest projects by Gemma Cooper. I get to be transported back to the Progressive Era, or 200 years into the future. And I even get to play around with illustrations and text by author-illustrators like this one and this one.

When I get to do all of that, isn't all the hectic running around worth it?

Hells yeah it is!

And what especially keeps me going, is knowing that all of my clients are running around the same way (well...not the same way, but they've got other jobs and other lives outside of writing, too!). And they never complain.

We're all in it because we love books.

That's a rush that's even better than coffee.

Good luck on your pre-holiday deadlines, everyone!

Awesome Agency News

Happy post-Labor Day madness, everyone!

I don't know if you know this, but after Labor Day starts one of publishing's Busy Seasons.  Lots of subbing projects to editors, lots of networking events, lots of submissions received (though, this is kind of all the time), lots of meetings with foreign publishers pre-Frankfurt Book Fair, etc. etc. And usually, there are also a number of books coming out at this time.

Between Labor Day and New Year's Day, NCLit has 13 books coming out--!!!  (see the complete list below) And we're starting it off with a bang.  Yesterday, on Labor Day, we had two books launch:

Kirk Scroggs' Tales of a Sixth Grade Muppet

Kody Keplinger's Shut Out

In addition to these Announcements of Awesome, there is even more good news for our very own Kirk Scroggs.  Wizard Hat Productions has optioned his first series, Wiley & Grampa's Creature Features, to develop an animated comedy series for boys 6-11 yrs old.
Read more about it here!

And to top it all off, I came in today to find a fantastic review for Erica O'Rourke's Torn in my Inbox, from School Library Journal, see (totally bolded the best parts!): 

Gr 7 Up–It’s an increasingly common premise: a magic world coexisting with the non-magic, one chosen individual possessing special powers, an ambiguous prophecy, and an urgent need to save the world. Except in this novel, the protagonist isn’t the chosen one. In fact, she is murdered before the book even begins, leaving behind her best friend, Mo Fitzgerald, who doesn’t even know that magic exists. Mo has always stayed below the radar and in theshadow of Verity. But even she could tell that the creatures that killed her friend weren’t human, and she’s determined to figure out what happened. Her journey takes her into a realm filled with magic-users called Arcs, demonlike Darklings, and a power struggle that threatens all stability. In addition, Mo’s family may or may not be involved with the mob, so it’s not just supernatural baddies that she has to watch out for. O’Rourke’s heroine is refreshing: determined, spunky, and unpredictable. The two requisite love interests are more formulaic, but Torn should still satisfy readers with an insatiable thirst for well-written, fast-paced fantasy and leave them eager for the next installment in the series.–Eliza Langhans, Hatfield Public Library, MA

Thank you, Eliza Langhans for this awesome review!

Now, if you want to keep up with what NCLit Books are being pubbed in the next few months, make a note of this list:

9/5/11 - Tales of a Sixth Grade Muppet by Kirk Scroggs (Disney/Little Brown)

9/5/11 - Shut Out by Kody Keplinger (Poppy/Little Brown)

9/20/11 - Just Before Dawn by Rochelle Alers (Arabesque/Harlequin)

9/20/11 - Bride for a Night by Rosemary Rogers (HQN)

10/18/11 - Capital Wives by Rochelle Alers (Kimani Press/Harlequin)

10/25/11 - The Shadow Reader by Sandy Williams (Ace/Berkley)

12/6/11 - Surrender ~A Haunting Emma Novel~ by Lee Nichols (Bloomsbury Children's)

12/27/11 - The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless 2: The Stench of Goodness by Allan Woodrow (HarperCollins Children's)

12/27/11 - Living Violet by Jaime Reed (Dafina/KTeen)

1/1/12 - Sanctuary Cove ~A Cavanaugh Island Novel~ by Rochelle Alers (Forever/Grand Central)

Also newly packaged and coming out in mass market paperback:

10/1/11 - Pieces of Sky by Kaki Warner (Berkley Sensation)

11/1/11 - Open Country by Kaki Warner (Berkley Sensation)

12/1/11 - Chasing the Sun by Kaki Warner (Berkley Sensation)

I think we've kicked off this latest season nicely. :-)

One Hawt Book Trailer

Buy SHUT OUT at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or IndieBound now!

And there is an awesome audio version performed by Kate Reinders, too!

Roaring Twenties

Kody Keplinger, author of THE DUFF and the soon to be released SHUT OUT, turns twenty today! To celebrate, we wanted to share some awesome moments from our twenties.

Kathleen:

So way back when I was an intern, I had the super awesome experience of being in the office when Joanna closed a deal. The deal was for a book called THE DUFF. I hadn't been around to read it, but I was still super excited for her and the Nancy Coffey team!

Some time later, I was given an ARC and read it overnight. Started following Kody on Twitter, chatting back and forth, getting all squee-er-ific over the fact she has a fantastic sense of humor and is just TOO CUTE for words. And a couple of years later, we still chill and when we do, I still have moments of shock at the fact she's a teen!

But not today.

Today she is no longer a teen. And she enters the realm of the 20s!

Amy Lukavics said it best: being in your 20s ROCKS! (*ahem* I'm still in them and holding on with a death grip that would put any Zombie to shame). But being specifically 20 is awesome, because:

- You're officially around for TWO decades. Just something cool about saying that. (ask me again when I'm at 3 decades)

- You're officially a YEAR from being 21.

- No one can call you a teen. You're an adult. Period. And while you may have some nostalgia, this will come in handy when dating.

- If you visit Japan, you can legally smoke (BOO), drink, and vote! You can also bet on horse racing.

- You officially make me feel not as ancient when I hang out with you.

When I was 20, I had my first official editorial job -- and I never looked back. For me it was a turning point, and it's only been better from there.

So Kody -- here's to you and your fabulousness, all two decades of it! <3

Joanna:

Well, this will have to be the moment other than my wedding :-)

It was when I first moved into my own apartment, without a roommate. It was a fair-sized 1-BR. Due to the fact that I didn't own much (and just enough OCD) I had finished unpacking by the day after the move. Then I made myself a bowl of noodles and sat on my futon to eat.

I was 23. Before this, I had only lived with roommates, and before that was the communal living of college, and before that I shared a room with my sister for 17 years. I wasn't used space that was only meant for me.

I didn't have a TV and couldn't even afford to get cable internet (no smart phones then either). But I had an old boom box that I had gotten when I was 10. So I turned on the radio. Relaxed into my futon. Ate my noodles. And I was grinning the whole time. I had never felt so independent! It was the first time I ever truly felt like an adult. And I *loved* it.

Sara:

I transferred my sophomore year of college. It was one of the first big decisions I had to make on my own, and I was still hoping it was going to be a good idea the day I moved in.

I was living in the dorms, in a triple that was connected by a bathroom to another triple. It was tight living.

And as I was walking past the bathroom, I saw a person moving around in the other room.

"Hello?" I called.

The girl popped back into view. "Hi!" she said.

"I'm Sara." We shook hands over the toilet. If you have not done this, and I hope you haven't: most awkward handshake ever.

And then we stared at each other for a few seconds.

"So. I walked past this frozen yogurt place called 21 Choices. I'm thinking it must be a bad rip-off of 31 Flavors, and I feel the need to test that," I said. Because awkward handshakes should ALWAYS lead to awkward friend-date invitations. Obviously.

"Oprah says froyo is the next big food trend," said my new suite-mate. And then, "Uh, you'll soon discover half the things I say starts with 'Oprah says...'"

Thus began a beautiful friendship.

And also the realization that I would meet people in this world whose experiences, lives, and sense of humor could (and would!) change my point of view and my outlook on life in more ways than I could imagine.

It seems like a silly thing to realize, almost like it's common-sense. But though I'd KNOWN such things could happen while I was a teenager--that I would go to college somewhere else besides the small town I'd spent my entire life in and meet people who would help me grow--the year I turned 20 was the year I actually felt it.

So! Here's to all the experiences YOU will have this year. I hope they're as awesome as you are.

You can read other fab twenties moments at Erica O'Rourke's, Loretta Nyhan's, Amy Lukavics's, and Lisa and Laura Roecker's, just for starters.

Help Write Now

I'm sure many of you have already heard of Help Write Now, a project being spear-headed by the amazing Kate Hart.

If you haven't, here's what you should know: following the devastating April 2011 Southern storms, writers like Kate Hart and NCLiterary's own Kody Keplinger got together to find a way to help with relief efforts. Help Write Now has made available for auction bidding: query critiques, signed copies of books and ARCs, manuscript reviews, line-edits, etc. All the money from the auctions is donated to the Red Cross.

Joanna is donating a phone critique, so keep your eye out for it. But in the meantime, if you are able to donate, please go to Help Write Now--they have a good array of items to bid on, and if you'd prefer to donate directly, you can do that, too.

Good News and Winner!

Hey guys,

Starting off the new year has been rocky. First, I had the flu--woohoo. Then I had to contend with THE APOCALYPSE THAT HAD HIT MY INBOX. Seriously. So. Many. Emails. And that was not including queries. I don't want to even go there (beginning of a new year there is always a tidal wave of submissions). And now we have a snow day, which would normally be awesome!awesome!awesome! except we're already so behind, this just makes it worse. Feh.

So if it seems like we haven't been around as much on twitter or on the blog, there you have it.

But I can't delay some good news and announcing the winner to our first giveaway of the year!

Good News: Kody Keplinger's THE DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) has been chosen byYALSA as one of the Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Yaaaay!!! This is such awesome news, and so well-deserved. Congrats, Kody!! Read her own announcement about it here.

Winner of first 2011 giveaway: Stefanie Kramer! Please email PeeWee to claim your prize at PeeWee (at) nancycoffeyliterary (dot) com.

And if you don't know who PeeWee is...read here.

Queries That Work

Susan Dennard recently discussed her query process on her blog, and we thought we'd add our two cents in here! We loved her query for THE SPIRIT-HUNTERS. Here's the original:

I read in an interview that you seek strong female leads as well as steampunk. As such, I thought you might enjoy my 90,000 word young adult novel, THE SPIRIT-HUNTERS.

After her brother is kidnapped, Eleanor Fitt – a sixteen-year-old with a weakness for buttered toast and Shakespeare quotes – must leave the confines of corsets and courtesy to get him back.

It’s 1876, and Philadelphia is hosting the first American World Fair, the Centennial Exhibition. It’s also hosting rancid corpses that refuse to stay dead. When one of those decomposing bodies brings Eleanor a hostage note for her brother, she resolves to do anything to rescue him. But to face the armies of Dead that have him, she’ll need a little help from the Spirit-Hunters.

The Spirit-Hunters, a three-man team hired to protect the Exhibition, have a single goal: return the Dead to their graves. Yet, what began as a handful of shambling bodies has escalated beyond the team’s abilities, and time is running out. Whoever rules the Dead is losing control, and when the leash finally snaps, Philadelphia will be overrun with ravenous corpses.

Now Eleanor must battle the walking Dead and deal with her growing attraction to the team’s inventor, Daniel, an exasperating but gorgeous ex-con. From the steampunk lab of the Spirit-Hunters to the grand halls of the Exhibition, Eleanor must follow the clues – and the bodies – to find her brother and stop the Dead before it’s too late.

Though the novel has been written as a trilogy, it can stand alone. I believe it will appeal to fans of Libba Bray’s GEMMA DOYLE trilogy or Cassandra Clare’s CLOCKWORK ANGEL. I’m an active member of RWA, SCBWI, the Online Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop, and YALitChat. I live in Germany and am working full-time on my next YA novels.

In Susan's words: "I spent a loooooooong time honing my query letter. Like, I took workshops, read books, and got feedback until my eyes bled. A few rules I kept in mind:

1. Be brief, be brief, be brief! Your goal is to snag the agent’s attention immediately and only share enough information so they want to read more. Keep the story summary under 250 words.

2. Do not tell the ending! The purpose of a query is to show an editor/agent that you can tell a story from beginning to end, but you want to leave the end unknown. This is much like the back of book – you want to sell your story and entice them to read more.

3. You must lay out the MC’s goal, why the MC is choosing to act, and what’s at stake if the MC fails."

What we loved about this query started in line one. When Susan mentioned how she found and came to query Joanna, it was obvious she'd done her research. She goes on to very concisely state who the MC is, and who she must become before the end of the story. And from there, the story grows: what starts out as a story about one character suddenly involves that character's brother, her city's safety, and an intriguing relationship with a group that sounds a lot like the 1800s version of the Ghostbusters (who Joanna and I love--there's no way Susan could have known that, but it caught our attention).

Actually, when Joanna and I pitched this novel, we said it was Ghostbusters meets Cassandra Clare meets Libba Bray. Susan's comparison books were spot-on for her story and her writing style, andthat made it easy to see not only how we could pitch the novel, but who we could pitch it to. Susan actually has some good news about THE SPIRIT-HUNTERS over at her blog...

Another good query example? Kody Keplinger's query for THE DUFF. Joanna and Kody did an interview about it over at YA Highway. One of the most quoted lines from the book is from the cover copy--the description of Bianca's relationship with Wesley is "enemies-with-benefits." That line first showed up in her query letter, and it wound up on the book!

Having a strong, clever line like that makes it easy for an agent to start picturing how he or she would pitch the book.

Here's Kody's original query for THE DUFF:

Seventeen-year-old Bianca knows she’s the Duff (the designated ugly, fat friend). So whenWesley, a notorious womanizer, approaches her at a party she knows he wants to score with one—or both—of her hot friends. God, the man-whore’s arrogance really pisses her off! But Bianca needs to escape from some personal drama, like her mom’s abandonment and her dad’s denial, and a steamy fling with Wesley seems like the perfect distraction. Bianca makes it clear she’s only using Wesley, as if he cares. He’ll sleep with anything that moves after all. Unfortunately, the enemies-with-benefits plan totally backfires.

When her mom files for divorce and her father stumbles into a downward spiral of drinking and depression, Wesley proves to be a surprisingly good listener, and Bianca finds out that his family is pretty screwed up, too. As sickening as it sounds, she has to admit that she andWesley are a lot alike. Soon she becomes jealous of the pretty girls he flirts with and his cocky grin begins to grow on her. Suddenly Bianca realizes—with absolute horror—that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated.

THE DUFF, my contemporary YA novel, is complete at 53,000 words. The manuscript is available upon request. Thank you for your time and consideration.

In the interview on YA Highway, Kody said, "I went through about a million rounds on this query, changing things and then changing them back and cutting and adding. In the end, I went with my instinct and kept a few of the lines that others suggested I take out. For example, the 'enemies-with-benefits' line is my favorite in the query, and a few critiquers thought it didn't work. but I stuck to my guns and kept it - and that line made it into my flap copy! Other lines people suggested I cut went on the floor and will never be seen again. The first draft of this query was HORRIBLE and it never would have improved without the fresh eyes that helped me polish it."

So what caught Joanna's eye here? What made this a good query? Go see Jo's answer here!

These queries have a few things in common: they're concise, they clearly state conflict, and both authors know who their audience is. But the commonality that ultimately made them shine? Both authors had good critique groups looking over the query, and they developed good instincts about their groups' responses. Yes, there are a thousand tricks you can use to describe your novel in 250 words--and many of these are good tricks! But people who have read your novel, people who get your novel giving you feedback--well, that's a resource there's no replacement for.

Woo!

Look who made the Indie Next List for Winter 2010/2011!

Click here to check out the list, and then join us in congratulating Kody Keplinger. Yay, Kody!! You totally rock.

November is here, and it's intense. And we love it.

So November is not going to be doing anything halfway, it seems. It is the first of the month, and we already have client news; we have agency news; many of you brave souls have NaNoWriMo (and we salute you. You can't see us, I know, but we are saluting); and also the temperature in New York plummeted today, and it made everyone here sad, and once we'd finished complaining about how cold it was, we made an office trip to get ice cream. *I know* eating ice cream is not going to convince the universe that it is actually summer. But it seemed like it was worth a shot.

Things That Have Already Happened This Month:

1. The School Library Journal reviewed Kody Keplinger's The DUFF, and had this to say about it: "This debut novel is a fun read and surprisingly feminist in a number of ways. Keplinger makes good points about female body image and female friendship, and discusses how both men and women use offensive terms about women as a means of social control." It's a story, the review says, that "reluctant readers" will love. Congrats, Kody!! Huge smiles from all of us here.

2. Romance Writers Report is a fantastically fun magazine, and it is a happy, happy day in the office when our copy comes in. We are just one day late on posting about this...last month's cover:

That person in the top picture on the left is Meg Cabot. And next to her is our very own Erica O'Rourke. YAY, Erica!! Erica won the Golden Heart Award at this year's RWA (Romance Writers of America) conference, held in Florida, and accepted the award from Meg Cabot. More huge smiles on this one!

3. Today is the day our query guidelines change. Haven't heard about the changes yet? You can read all about them here. We are now also accepting sample pages. Please post the first five pages of your novel in the body of your email if you are e-querying. We cannot open attachments.

4. NaNoWriMo. So impressed by everyone who has decided to participate. If you're looking for motivation, or some good advice, check out Chuck Wendig's post here. In addition to excellent dos and dont's for the contest, there are also cyborg bears in this post. And a reference to knitting a sweater for a unicorn. Please read it.

Hope your month is off to just as wonderful a start! Though no matter how it's started, I recommend ice cream.

My Clients Make Me :-)

When I find a submission that I fall in LOVE with, I don't just shoot off an email and offer representation right there. Because that is only one part of the whole package (a majorly important part, but still not the whole thing). What I do first is set up a phone call to talk (or start some sort of correspondence, stat). Why do I do this?

Well...to see if we'd work well together!

There are a ton of great projects out there to go around, and I turn down publishable stuff every day (whether just at query stage or beyond). But I think what makes a client-agent partnership work long and successfully is the relationship.

This doesn't mean you have to be BFFs or talk everyday...it just means that you have to fulfill the following criteria:

1. You both love the work (well, duh...I hope they love their own stuff!).

2. You have a revision style that meshes well (agents can typically mold their revision style just a bit to suit each client's needs, but they still have a typical style and it needs to work for both of you).

3. You feel comfortable talking to one another. Does this mean that you have to talk every day? Every week? Every month? No. But when you DO talk, it should be fairly easy to be open and honest with your questions and opinions.

4. You need to have the same goals.

This last one is important.

You may be scratching your head, thinking something like "Um, Joanna--isn't everyone's goal to get published?"

Of course it is!

But what I mean here is that your long term goals need to be the same. And what you want out from your career in publishing should be the same. At NCLit, when we sign clients, we want it to be long term. So when we go on submission or advise them in decisions, we're thinking not

only how those decisions will affect right NOW, but also how they'll affect your writing career years down the line.

But I digress. Because today I'm talking about why my clients make me HAPPY!! *twirls*

It's because they rock. It's only Tuesday and so far this week I've gotten to hang out with Amy Lukavics, Kody Keplinger and Shelby Bach (featured in my pic above, in that order, from L to R). And if you want to know what we did, just read Shelby's blog post about Monday night. Or check out a very happy-to-be-published Kody K below. Seriously...my clients make me happy, man. Who else gets to do this stuff and call it "work"?? I am more than happy to continue working like this for the rest of my life.

Don't forget to enter in the contest to win loads of DUFFiness stuff!

Happy DUFF Day, Everyone!

Omg DUFF!

Hey guys!

Busy, busy, busy return to work after the long holiday weekend. Hanging out with clients this weekend (one of my favorite things to do!) and prepping for--you guessed it--DUFF DAY!!

In case you haven't heard, we have a client named Kody Keplinger who is FABULOUS and so is her debut young adult novel, The DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend).

I promise to have a more traditional post by tomorrow, but for now...let's have some fun. Who wants a copy of The DUFF? Who wants a copy of The DUFF and DUFF bookmarks? Who wants a Copy of The DUFF and DUFF bookmarks and an 11x17 poster of The DUFF?? Hm?

Well one lucky winner will get ALL THREE of these things. And to enter, you must do four simple things:

1. Follow this blog.

2. Tweet/blog about this contest.

3. Comment here with a link to your tweet/blog post.

4. Enter by midnight Sunday night (9/12/10).

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR???

Picture of the Day

"MOMMY YOU HAVE THIS ONE!"

-Boone, 3 yrs old

*Thanks to Kathleen Ortiz and the fabulous Dawn Miller for providing this treat!

Back from the high seas (and 6 lbs heavier)

No joke. I ate SO much on my cruise that I gained 6 lbs. Joe gained 8 lbs. PeeWee lost a pound worrying over where we were (in all seriousness, he did lose a pound, which has us worried because that's 1/5th his body weight, so we've been stuffing his little doggie face all week). For those of you who haven't met PeeWee yet, check out his tiny self in my home office to the right.

Honestly, I thought I'd be upset. I mean, what woman WANTS to gain weight? Especially since I'm no stick figure to begin with. But ya know what? I don't care. The food was AMAZING. Filet Mignon AND lobster ravioli for dinner--why not? Would I like to start off with a pumpkin risotto and a guavaberry colada (my new favorite drink)--sure. Dessert too? Throw it on. I don't care. And why don't I care? Because I'm DUFF enough, and I won't let poor body image ruin my good time. (like my plug? hehe)

For those of you who haven't heard the good word on The DUFF yet, let me give you the skinny (er, whatever). It stands for Designated Ugly Fat Friend. Despite the giggle that probably elicited from you (as it did me the first time I heard the term), it's actually pretty terrible. This is a term that is being USED to degrade girls everywhere. And I remember feeling that way BEFORE it had a name...now imagine actually having a label? Eek.

So the talented teen, Kody Keplinger decided to take the term back in her debut YA novel, The DUFF, which (as I learned upon my return) is already in stores! (Although the official pub date is 9/7/10). I can't help myself...I've already bought two copies and given them away. Every girl, heck, every woman should read this if they've ever felt like the DUFF in their group of friends. And here's the thing...everyone usually has at one point, no matter WHAT you look like.

And here's a chance to win a copy on Kody's Blog in her Are You Duff Enough? contest...so head over there quick! The NCLit Blog will be doing their own double-giveaway of The DUFF and Lee Nichol's DECEPTION at the end of the month, so you'll have two chances to win.

Good Luck!

The DUFF is a Romantic Times Teen TOP PICK!

...and 4.5 stars--woot! Here's the review:

"Kudos to the 18-year-old Keplinger for writing a heroine whose complicated relationship with sex is honest and heartbreaking. This for-more-mature teens novel deftly illustrates how even consensual sex can be emotionally destructive, and captures thoughts about self-image and the many different types of relationships. Expect to be recommending THE DUFF to friends for years to come."

I love when a new writer gets recognized!

Another Nancy Coffey Literary announcement this week:

Sarah Frances Hardy's picture book, PUZZLED BY PINK was bought by Viking Children's Books. If you haven't seen Sarah's work, check it out at her website here. She is fabulousishness.

And of course, don't forget to check out the Query Log for updates!

Happy weekend all!