How to use this Page

Thirteen Reasons Why author Jay Asher and The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things author Carolyn Mackler have signed a deal with Penguin’s Razorbill imprint for a young adult novel they co-wrote.

The Future is Us will come out in November with an initial printing of 500,000 copies. Publisher Ben Schrank negotiated the deal with two literary agents, Laura Rennert of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency and Jodi Reamer of Writers House.

Here’s more from the release: “The Future is Us is set in 1996, when less than half of all American high school students have ever used the internet. Facebook will not be invented for several more years. Emma just got a computer and an America Online CD-ROM with 100 free hours. When she and her best friend Josh log on to AOL they discover themselves on Facebook … fifteen years in the future. Everybody wonders what life has in store for them. Josh and Emma are about to find out.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

Actress Jenny Slate and film director Dean Fleischer-Camp will turn their award-winning film, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, into a picture book. The video embedded above showcases the entire animated movie.

The children’s title will have an initial print run of 100,000 and is set for November release. Razorbill publisher Ben Schrank negotiated the deal with William Morris Endeavor agents Erin Malone and Kirby Kim.

Here’s more from the press release: “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On: Things about Me will feature oil paintings based on photographs of Marcel in his home environment and will be aimed at readers of all ages. Razorbill will simultaneously publish an enriched, interactive digital version of the picture book, and an audio version of the text, recorded by Jenny Slate, will be available as a digital download.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Add a Comment

That's how he felt when he read Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why. How he felt when he read that dream story manuscript. And how he felt when he read Suzanne Young's debut "The Naughty List" (yes, Suzanne Young of our very own SCBWI Team Blog), which comes out this week!

Add a Comment

All the factors that went into success of "13 Reasons Why" (Jay Asher's amazing YA debut, which has sold nearly half a million copies!)

"Strong package" good image, nice tape branding of cover, great backcover copy

Jay the author is great, charming, with an enormous ability to promote himself

House - Ben's imprint, recognized word of mouth building and supported that with appropriate marketing.

Book hits the NYTimes list 20 weeks in... and stayed there.

Marketplace where issue of bullying very much in consciousness - this book came at it in a strange way - book and national consciousness hit at same time.

Even after you get everything right - the change of a book hitting at this level, where he feels the book with be the "Go Ask Alice" of it's generation, like "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson will be the book of its generation.

The odds of something like that happening are like 1 in 100,000.


--Posted by Lee Wind

Add a Comment

Ben Schrank is the publisher of Razorbill, and he's sharing the true dream story of why he acquired a book...

what grabbed him:

he loved it - original opening, emotionally riviting, keeps him still reading. There's no time for it, but he's still reading.

started sharing with colleagues.

knew it was big. special.

started sharing it with more.

he finished it at home that night.

phone messages from others - we loved it. fantastic.

called agent. He was first, but it wasn't necessarily "his."

Ben offered to pre-empt it (to agree on an amount to keep project to go for auction) And in addition to that, explained his vision for how he wanted to publish the novel.

They negotiated a deal to get it.

And he got it. That all happened Tuesday - Thursday.

The writer wrote it, critiqued it online with other writers, she did all the right things. When she was absolutely ready (and not before), she reached out to 30 agents - signed with one she liked. Did a revision with the agent,

Submitted to him.

He bought it.

Wow - that's the dream all right!

The dream story continues: Ben sold the book to Razorbill in the U.K., sold in German, France, Spain, and it continues...

He went to ALA midwinter and a scout for a film company approached him. "I know about the book."

The moral:

The writer sat on it in her small town until it was ready. And once it was ready, she put it out there and it's going to be HUGE.

There's gotta be something special in the book. And that book had it.

--Posted by Lee Wind

Display Comments Add a Comment

Exclusive SCBWI TEAM BLOG Pre-Conference Interview: Ben Schrank...

Visit Suzanne Young's Blog for the first in our series of exclusive SCBWI TEAM BLOG pre-conference interviews with SCBWI Winter Conference speakers and keynoters.

To kick us off, Suzanne interviewed Ben Schrank, president of super cool Penguin imprint Razorbill.

I'll direct you to more pre-conference interviews in the weeks to come--and you'll find a few in this space.

To register for the SCBWI conference, click here.
To read more from Ben Schrank, click here for my 2007 interview with him.

Add a Comment

The first of our SCBWI TEAM BLOG series of pre-conference interviews with Winter Conference speakers and keynoters is up on Suzanne Young's blog.

Suzanne interviewed Ben Schrank, president of Penguin Group, USA.

Click here to read the interview with Ben. We'll direct you to more exclusive TEAM BLOG interviews during the coming weeks leading up the conference!

Click here to register for the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City where you can see Ben Schrank in person.

Add a Comment

New CWIM Listing: Razorbill...

Penguin YA imprint Razorbill has not previously appeared in CWIM. Below is information on the imprint. (See my interview with President and Publisher Ben Shrank here.)

RAZORBILL
Penguin Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York NY 10014. Imprint estab. 2003. (212)414-3448. Fax: (212)414-3343. E-mail: [email protected]. Web site: www.razorbillbooks.com. Specializes in fiction. Acquisitions: Laura Schechter, Editorial Assistant; Kristen Pettit, Lexa Hillyer, Jessica Rothenberg. Publishes 10 middle readers/year; 30 young adult titles/year. "This division of Penguin Young Readers is looking for the best and the most original of commercial contemporary fiction titles for middle grade and YA readers. A select quantity of nonfiction titles will also be considered."
Fiction Middle Readers: adventure, animal, contemporary, graphic novels, fantasy, humor, problem novels. Young adults/teens: adventure, animal, contemporary, fantasy, graphic novels, humor, multicultural, suspense. Average word length: middle readers--40,000; young adult--60,000. Recently published Spud, by John Van de Ruit (ages 12 and up, South Africa's fastest selling book); Thirteen Reason Why, by Jay Asher (ages 14 and up, a suspenseful psychological thriller); Those Girls, by Sara Lawrence (ages 13 and up, a peek at the privileged lives of fabulous private school seniors).
Nonfiction Middle readers: activity books, arts/crafts, biography, cooking, health, how-to. Young adults/teens: biography, concept, health, how-to.
How to Contact/Writers Submit outline/synopsis and 3 sample chapters. Responds to queries/mss in approx. 8 weeks. Publishes a book 1-2 years after acceptance. Will consider e-mail submissions and simultaneous submissions.
Terms Offers advance against royalties. Authors see galleys for review. Catalog available online at www.razorbillbooks.com.
Tips "New writers will have the best chance of acceptance and publication with original, contemporary material that boasts a distinctive voice and well-articulated world. Check out www.razorbillbook.com to get a better idea of what we're looking for."

Add a Comment

I'm still working on getting the Manitoba teachers' audio released. I'll post that episode soon. I promise. If you are looking for past podcast episodes keep scrolling down this page or click on the past/previous shows button. I've had a busy but eventful weekend. I spent Sunday and Monday of this week in [...]

Add a Comment