Friday, September 24, 2010

The Publishing Industry Made Me Cry

So I find myself at the bookstore a lot. And I'll walk up to myself and say, "Hey! Why aren't you at home?" Then I watch myself run into a bathroom stall and hide.
 
While I wait for myself to come back out, I'm always picking up books, smelling them, snuggling them, kissing them (no tongue). Once the book is satisfied, I'll look at its spine and note the publishing house. Then I'll dive inside for the acknowledgment page searching for an editor's name.

I've actually started a spreadsheet listing editors, including their tastes, their love of eyeballs and the books they've published recently. I don't do this so I can throw out names to Mr. McVeigh, he's the brains of the industry, I do it so when we talk about editors I don't sound like Oscar the Grouch after a finding a half bottle of ripple in his trash can.

With my book on submission (CRUD - A Love Story) being a humorous YA parahomance, I'm always on the look out for something similiar so I can note the publishing house. Maybe they'd like CRUD. It's possible!

I pick up this book the other day, read the cover blurb and think, "Hey! This is a paranormal. This is humorous. This has romance. This is the perfect publishing house for CRUD. The book I'm referring to is


  MONSTER HIGH by Lisi Harrison. Published by POPPY, an imprint of The Hachette Book Group

Excited, I note the information and run out of the store (forgetting all about myself in the bathroom stall). At my computer, I bring up the Internet, search for POPPY... and my heart not only sinks, it's gobbled up by bottom feeders.

LOOK!!!



Poppy publishes paperback original series for teen girls. We have launched several bestselling series, including the national bestselling series Gossip Girl and The It Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar, The Clique by Lisi Harrison, and The A-List by Zoey Dean.

They only publish for teen girls!!!! My reaction?

 No, I'm not wearing pants.

From my research, I don't see any imprints for teen boy books. If you know of one, please tell me.

3 comments:

Emily said...

Maybe you could, like, throw a unicorn or a super sexy werewolf in the book somewhere. Voila. Problem solved.

Unknown said...

Hi Emily,

Oh... if it were only that easy. Plus... aren't super sexy werewolves cliche now. I can't win.

But thanks for the advice!!! ;-)

Emily said...

Dang, I knew I shouldn't have based my next 25 books around the premise of super sexy werewolves. Crap. I'm always late hearing these things.