All of your cover designs were so great that it was hard to choose just one. Ultimately I had to envision myself perusing the YA section of the book store, not tough since it’s one of my favorite past times, and ask myself which cover would inspire me to pick the book off of the shelf. The winner of our contest looks like a bona fide YA novel straight from Barnes and Noble. And the winner is…

talshannon (aka Xarles Boivin) for PALE! I actually really liked both of the covers. Each one stirs up a completely different concept of what the story might be, which just goes to show how important the right cover is.

Of course there were some very close runners up. HWPetty‘s cover for FORCE was compelling and MarcyKate‘s TRAVERSE had me giggling.

Thanks to everyone for participating and congrats to talshannon for winning a copy of Alyson Noel’s best-selling novel BLUE MOON! Please send us an email with your mailing address so we can get your prize to you.

CREATE YOUR DEBUT YA COVER

1 – Go to Fake Name Generator. The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to Random Word Generator. The word listed under “Random Verb” is your title.

3 – Go to FlickrCC. Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop, Picnik, or similar (I use Snagit Editor) to put it all together. Be sure to crop and/or zoom in, as desired.

5 – Post it to your site along with this text.

Mine’s above. What’s yours? Link to it in the comments. And just to make it interesting, Intern Jenny will pick her favorite cover to win a copy of Alyson Noel‘s #1 New York Times bestseller Blue Moon.

Let your inner artist shine forth!

Levi’s got the charm, the looks and the right amount of naughty to get Jess into illegal sorts of trouble when the heat is sweltering by the grill-side.

Congrats to ChristaCarol, whose full piece is on her blog here. ChristaCarol, send me an email at daphne.unfeasible@gmail.com with your mailing address and your choice of a book by one of my authors.

But let’s not make this all about me, and my thoughts. What did you guys think? Did you like the exercise? Did you enjoy reading each other’s pieces? Which ones were your favorites?

And finally, a shout out to Alyson Noel, whose eagerly anticipated novel Blue Moon, the sequel to her #1 New York Times bestseller Evermore, is in stores today!

The genius librarians at YALSA have nominated Ellen Booraem’s The Unnameables to the 2010 Best Books for Young Adult list. Blog readers may recall that I sat in on the discussion of the 2009 list at ALA earlier this year, and I’m thrilled that The Unnameables is a nominee. The latest version of the list of nominated titles is here, and ALSO includes fellow kt literary client Matthew Cody’s debut novel Powerless!

Matt’s had a bunch of good news lately — the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC) has also selected Powerless as one of the ABC New Voices Picks for spring, and will feature it at their New Voices luncheon at BEA later this month. In addition, Knopf, which is publishing Powerless in November, is also including Matt’s book as one of only 6 titles published by Random House Children’s Books included in their “Fresh Fiction from New Voices” promotion.

Meanwhile, you may have heard that Evermore by Alyson Noel is a nominee for YALSA’s Teens Top Ten list, which is voted on and decided by teen readers during Teen Read Week in October.

And I have more good news to share about Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French, but I have to hold off on it for another week.

That should be enough for now, right? Do any of you have good news to share?

But what should you buy? Well, the paperback edition of Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson is available now, as is S. Terrell French‘s debut Operation Redwood. And don’t forget Band Geeked Out by Josie Bloss, the sequel to Band Geek Love! Or #1 New York Times bestseller Evermore by Alyson Noel.

But say — for whatever reason — you want to expand the possibilities beyond kt literary clients. Well, then, why don’t you do as kt lit client Stephanie Perkins is, and take today as an opportunity to pick up one or more of those books you keep meaning to read, and haven’t gotten to yet. You know — the ones that embarrass you to admit you haven’t read yet.

What’s on MY list? To make it worse, they’re books that I already own, but haven’t read yet. Books like Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, and Extras by Scott Westerfeld.

*hangs head in shame*

So today, when I head to Tattered Cover to pick up City of Ashes and City of Glass by Cassandra Clare, keep me company and let me know what’s on your May reading lists, or what you’re going to buy today!

But about that week in Italy…

There’s been a lot of talk online and among publishing folk as to how Bologna was quieter this year, and I guess others would know more than I — as it was my first year, I couldn’t really judge its relative size. There were very few US editors in town, but it certainly seemed as if most of the Europeans were there. Partly that’s because the European markets are, for the most part, not feeling the same recession we are. I’ve certainly sold Alyson Noel‘s Evermore around the world — 8 territories so far, with offers in two more, including one that came in at the fair (Very exciting!).

After hearing how other agents hated the look of the Rights Center last year, I had nothing to complain about this year — it was bright and sunny, with fresh flowers lining the aisle. Actually, that’s not entirely true — we discussed how they could improve the snack bar next year with the addition of more sweets, especially in the afternoon. But here’s a peek:

The best part of the week was having the time to sit and catch up with fellow agents and publishing colleagues. It sounds like it’s all fun, and it mostly is, but for us, luckily, fun is also work. That’s why I love my job.

And since I’ve been whinging lately about everything I need to do, I thought I’d share some of that with you, to give you a sense of what happens at the fair.

First of all, over the last few weeks I’ve been putting together my rights list, which contains pages on each of the books I’ll be featuring at the fair and talking about with foreign publishers. This doesn’t include all of my titles, but does have a page or more on recent releases (like Evermore by Alyson Noel) and upcoming titles (like Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French and Powerless by Matthew Cody). Because many scouts read deal reports on Publishers Lunch, I’ve also got a page for my recent deal for Hunted by Sara Beitia, though that book has a Fall 2010 pub date. Each page contains an image of the cover (where available), an author photo, a brief description of the book, an author bio, contact information for translation or dramatic rights, and any other necessary pieces of information to help make a sale. For The Unnameables by Ellen Booraem, for instance, I included an excerpt from the starred Kirkus review and an icon indicating it had been picked by the Junior Library Guild. For Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson, there’s also reviews and information for Suite Scarlett and Let It Snow. Evermore‘s page includes a burst celebrating it as a #1 New York Times bestseller, as well as a growing list of international sales.

So, that went out a couple of weeks ago to scouts and my subagents, but there’s still updates to be made. Eventually (as in, before I leave on Thursday, but probably not too much before), I will take the file to my nearby Kinko’s and have it printed out in full-color to put in a binder I can use for show and tell in my meetings in Italy.

Because I don’t want the editors I’m meeting with to spend too much time looking down or reading the material I’ve prepared, I’ve also put together a powerpoint presentation with three or four bullet points on each title, so they can see the cover of each book, get the most pertinent details, and we can have more of a conversation about them.

Then, I printed out all my submission logs so I can see where a title has sold or been submitted, hoping that I’ll have my computer with me most of the time, but knowing sometimes it’s easier to just have the information I need on a piece of paper right in front of me, rather than having to look it up each time. I’ve also got a status report on all of my titles, an extra thick stack of business cards to give away, and a brand new little notebook to make notes on all my meetings.

Again, though I’ll have them all with me on my computer, I’ve also got submission copies of the manuscripts that are ready to send out on a little 2GB flash drive. i know some of my colleagues bring CDs with teasers of manuscripts or even fulls to give out to people they’re meeting with — I’m hoping to do most of my followup when I get home, although the flash drive gives me the opportunity to get something to someone right away if need be.

There’s always the hope of a fast, frantic sale happening at a fair, though that’s less likely in today’s internet age. But still — a girl can dream!

Tomorrow, a little bit about what my days at the fair will look like. Unless you have specific questions about what goes on in Bologna?

I’m weeks away from querying agents. I checked your site and saw your authors, it seems like they all write YA, yet your submission guidelines say you like “witty women’s fiction.” Have you sold women’s fiction — is that an area you want to get into? Just curious in Chicago, with fingers crossed. (So hard to type this way).

Relax the fingers, Amy Sue. In fact, the first book I worked on with Alyson Noel was women’s fiction — her novel Fly Me to The Moon, which St. Martin’s published in 2006. In addition, Catherine Cheek‘s novel on submission is women’s fiction, with a dash of fantasy, while Katya Lezin is working on a classic women’s fiction in the Jodi Picoult vein. I even spent part of last weekend at a RWA conference, sponsored by the Indiana chapter!

The fact is, I love reading women’s fiction, and I’m finding some interesting crossover between YA romance and women’s fiction. I’m still not interested in category romance, but if you can honestly imagine your novel with a trade paperback or hardcover publication, then sure, I’d be happy to take a look at it. It’s a good question though, because “interest” doesn’t necessarily equal “experience.” In my case, it’s a little bit of experience, and a lot of interest — especially in expanding that experience!

And apologies for the lateness of today’s post. Here’s a YA themed song to make it up to you!