A quick bit of Random Bits on a Tuesday - we look at new books coming from Hot Key Books and the new cover for Darren Shan's Zom-B from Simon & Schuster. And for good measure, because I adore this book so much, the paperback cover for Daughter of Smoke and Bones.
Hot Key Books have announced their debut list to all the world and there are some corkers. I'm particularly excited about there three titles:
I love anthologies and Under My Hat has every one of my favourite authors in it. Charles de Lint!!! Jane Yolen!!! Garth Nix! Holly Black! Jim Flipping Butcher! Tim Pratt! Delia Sherman (I love her) Tanith blinking Lee! *points at the picture* Just look at them all! The list is so incredible, my eyes have started watering. This anthology should win awards purely going by the names of awesome contributors. These guys and girls are the who's who of writing speculative fiction for younger readers and older teen readers and adult readers too. *muppet flail* My friends, I think I'm in heaven.
I have no idea what this book is about. From the cover I get a bit of Howl's Moving Castle and Avatar with a bit of Stardust. Ah, but cleverly, I've gone and read the write-up about this one and I'm loving it even more:
Set in an imagined world where water has run out and the Cloud Hunters take to the sky to harvest water from the clouds.
In a world where water is scarce and jellyfish swim through the sky, mollycoddled teenager Christian dreams of excitment and danger. When he meets the exotic and alluring Jenine and her family of Cloud Hunters, he becomes determined to fulfil that dream...
I do like Gareth P Jones's writing - he constantly surprises me with brilliant books and just lets his imagination run wild:
Sam Toop lives in a funeral parlour. While his dad buries the dead, Sam is haunted by their constant demands for attention. Trouble is afoot on the "otherside" and there is a mysterious disease imprisoning ghosts into empty houses, leaving Sam caught in the middle.
I mean, come on - who in their zombie-loving mind won't like this? From Amazon: Zom-B is a radical new series about a zombie apocalypse, told in the first person by one of its victims. The series combines classic Shan action with a fiendishly twisting plot and hard-hitting and thought-provoking moral questions dealing with racism, abuse of power and more. This is challenging material, which will captivate existing Shan fans and bring in many new ones. As Darren says, "It's a big, sprawling, vicious tale...a grisly piece of escapism, and a barbed look at the world in which we live. Each book in the series is short, fast-paced and bloody. A high body-count is guaranteed!"
I have no words. I have grabby hands looking at this cover. I didn't think Hodder would have been able to entice me into buying my fourth copy of the same book, but they have. Here's my review I did for it all that time ago.
Novelicious.com launches writing competition in association with Avon (HarperCollins), Books and the City (Simon & Schuster UK), and Literary Agent, Diane Banks
Popular Chick Lit and Women’s Fiction website Novelicious has launched a writing competition in association with Avon Books, Simon & Schuster UK’s Books and the City initiative and Literary Agent, Diane Banks.
Novelicious Undiscovered, which kicks off today (February 14th), invites aspiring commercial women’s fiction writers to submit the first 3000 words of their novel to undiscovered@novelicious.com before April 3rd.
The top twenty entries, as chosen by the Novelicious.com team, will be showcased on the site during May and put to a public vote in June. From these top twenty entries two winners will be chosen.
The People’s Choice award winner (the entry with the highest amount of public votes) will win:
·A full manuscript critique with Avon Commissioning Editor Caroline Hogg over tea and cake in their London offices
·A £50 voucher for writersgifts.co.uk
·An introduction to and entry critique from Literary Agent Diane Banks of Diane Banks Associates Ltd
·A selection of 10 Avon Titles
·A Kindle
The Books and the City Choice award winner (chosen from the top 20 entries by the Fiction Editorial department at Simon & Schuster UK) will win:
·A full manuscript critique from a member of the Fiction Editorial team at Simon & Schuster UK
·Author Mentoring and meeting with Sunday Times Bestselling author of RSVP, Helen Warner
·A £50 voucher from writersgifts.co.uk
·A Selection of 10 Books and the City Titles
Maxine Hitchcock, Fiction Editorial Director at Simon & Schuster UK says:
“We're thrilled to play a part in the brilliant Novelicious Undiscovered competition. Simon & Schuster / Books and the City prides itself on finding new talent and in recent years has discovered wonderful new voices such as Jane Costello, Milly Johnson, Helen Warner and Ali Harris who have gone on to hit the bestseller lists. We're honoured to be working with Novelicious, such a supporter and champion of female fiction, to find potential new stars.”
Diane Banks of Diane Banks Associates Ltd says:
"I'm delighted to have the opportunity to critique the winner of Undiscovered and the option to offer them representation. A competition which is judged by readers is a promising way to discover new talent and I'm excited about seeing the shortlist"
Caroline Hogg, Commissioning editor at Avon says:
“It’s such a pleasure to be involved with the Novelicious Undiscovered competition. For years Novelicious has been championing fantastic women’s fiction and the team there sum up everything that’s best about publishing: a genuine love of good writing and the boundless energy and good humour it takes to keep trying new things. At Avon we’re always on the look-out for brilliant new voices to add to our list of stellar authors – among them bestsellers Miranda Dickinson, Trisha Ashley and Claudia Carroll – so who knows what we might find through Novelicious Undiscovered!”
Kirsty Greenwood, Founding Editor of Novelicious.com
“I am so excited to able to extend such an amazing opportunity to Britain’s aspiring writers. Novelicious is passionate about women’s fiction, and we are hopeful that the ‘Undiscovered’ competition will unearth some sparkling new talent in the genre.”
Helen Warner was Head of Daytime for Channel 4, where she was responsible for shows such as Come Dine With Me and Deal Or No Deal.Previously she worked for ITV where she launched the daytime talkshow Loose Women and was editor of This Morning. She lives in East Anglia with her husband and their two children. RSVP, her first novel was a Sunday Times bestseller. Her second novel, IOU is published in March 2012.
For all further enquiries about Novelicious Undiscovered 2012 please contact kirsty@novelicious.com
We've had some bits and pieces come in from various publishers over the past few days so I'm starting a new Random Bits series for 2012 where we'll showcase videos and press releases.
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First up, from Egmont we have a video for one of their new book releases this year "Codename Verity" and it looks very interesting indeed!
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From Orbit: An Ian M Banks title is on the list for World Book Night books to hand out and request if you are a giver or registering as a giver.
Last year there was a big bruhaha about so few genre (none) books on the list, that this year the organisors have listened and we are proud that they have chosen Ian M Banks / Tolkien / Neil Gaiman / Terry Pratchett and a handful of others, but also, more importantly from my point of view, some ace kids' titles!
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Some exciting news from Faber and Faber about a new project they are setting up:
FABER AND FABER LAUNCHES THE SPARK - A PLACE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TO SHOWCASE THEIR CREATIVE SKILLS
Faber and Faber has launched THE SPARK www.facebook.com/thesparkpage, a place for 13 - 16 year olds who have an interest in creativity and reading.
During 2012 THE SPARK, hosted on Facebook, will invite young people to take part in some exciting projects around acting, film-making, writing and music, each linked to and inspired by a Faber Young Adult title. Whilst students aren’t obliged to read the books to take part, we hope that they will not only be inspired to produce some creative work, but will also be encouraged to engage with the related books, and develop a greater interest in reading generally. Our aim is that THE SPARK will become a vibrant community where young people who love reading and creating can meet, talk and share. We have been extremely impressed by the entries for our recent project, run in association with the GUARDIAN, to find a talented young artist to create a new, iconic cover image for William Golding’s LORD OF THE FLIES and we hope that we can discover a similar level of creativity in each of the new projects to be launched this year.
Launch Project
ACTING – THE GLIMPSE by Claire Merle publishing June 2012
Launching in January 2012, we’re looking to find a young actor to play one of the characters in Claire Merle’s debut YA novel, THE GLIMPSE, in a series of web films. Entrants are invited to film themselves performing one of two audition scripts available at www.facebook.com/theglimpse and all entries will be showcased on THE GLIMPSE You Tube Channel.
The competition is open to anyone aged 13-18 years old (see terms and conditions) and the winner will be announced in March 2012
Coming soon…
Over the next few months we’ll be launching further projects for musicians/composers, film-makers and writers.
Music – THE CREWEL by Gennifer Albin publishing October 2012
We’re calling on musicans, band-members and singer-songwriters to produce an original music track inspired by Gennifer Albin’s novel CREWEL, to feature in the official book trailer. Launches February 2012.
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From Hodder & Stoughton a batch of titles to indulge in for some fun Valentines reading in Feb!
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Pan Macmillan launches first phase of new website
Pan Macmillan has launched today its new website – www.panmacmillan.com – designed for consumers, trade and the media.
The new site at www.panmacmillan.com delivers a web infrastructure on which to build and develop a growing range of direct-to-consumer platforms to support Pan Macmillan’s established and evolving brands, including picador.com and mykindabook.com.
The website was designed by design agency Root, selected after a four-way pitch for their original and striking design. MMT Digital was selected after a five-way pitch for the technical build.
A content-rich Home Page enables visitors to find out about new titles, featured authors and books, with carousel Showcase, Brand New and Featured bars which spin and highlight particular themes and subjects guiding readers to relevant books and authors.
A stand-alone Children's Home Page takes visitors directly on a journey through Macmillan’s wide range of bestselling children’s titles.
News and Events pages with regular updates about author readings and events, and a host of other Pan Macmillan-related activity, take visitors straight through to comment and trailers.
A range of subject pages such as 'Crime & Thrillers', ‘Women's Fiction’ and ‘Science Fiction’, drive visitors to other content and titles around the site. A new “Books You Might Like” feature encourages readers to explore new authors.
The site is e-commerce enabled but also features links to a range of retailers.
Sara Lloyd, Digital Director, Pan Macmillan said today:
‘We’re delighted to launch this important first phase of the new panmacmillan.com. We’ve created a hub for our authors, readers and trade customers. We wanted to demonstrate our passion for our authors and titles, and create an environment where readers can find the best information and conversation about our books and authors. The site will act as a place for readers and writers to come together to talk about books when we introduce additional social features into the next phase, and it also delivers us a modular toolkit for quickly developing a dedicated web presence for any campaign or author.’
For trade and media, there is a comprehensive “one stop shop” section, offering sophisticated online resources for sales customers, media and rights’ buyers.
In this section customers and media can view book pages for forthcoming titles and high resolution book jackets, download book catalogues, order forms, translation and rights’ guides, check rights’ availability for specific titles and, if registered for a bookseller account, access advance information sheets.
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That's all for now! I'm not sure if this is a feature that appeals to everyone, but it's something for us to showcase some of the PR we receive through from various publishers.
