kt literary » pub day

Happy Release Day, ANNA!

Kate — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:00:45 +0000

At long last, I’m thrilled to celebrate with Stephanie Perkins the publication day of her fabulously delicious novel Anna and the French Kiss. As fellow kt literary client Maureen Johnson blurbed, it’s “Very sly. Very funny. Very romantic. You should date this book.”

Anna is available now from all your favorite bricks and mortar and online bookstores!

And to make the day even more special, if you purchase a copy and link to a picture of you and your book in the comments below, I will pick one random commenter to win a kt literary tote bag — perfect for hauling books around!

In the meantime, I’m curious — have you ever studied abroad? I took a short semester in London when I was in college, taking a course called “Art, Culture, and [something] in London.” It was basically an excuse for a group of 25 or so of us to tour the city, go to museums, shows, pubs, and historic sites. In other words, awesome. I couldn’t wait to go back afterwards, and I moved to London shortly after I graduated college to spend another six months there. Have you ever lived or worked in another country?

Happy Pub Day, Powerless!

Kate — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:00:59 +0000

Happy literary birthday to Matthew Cody and his debut novel Powerless, which officially launches today! Check out this fantastic description:

Twelve-year-old Daniel, the new kid in town, soon learns the truth about his nice—but odd—new friends: one can fly, another can turn invisible, yet another controls electricity. Incredible. The superkids use their powers to secretly do good in the town, but they’re haunted by the fact that the moment they turn thirteen, their abilities will disappear—along with any memory that they ever had them. Is a memory-stealing supervillain sapping their powers?

The answers lie in a long-ago meteor strike, a World War II–era comic book (Fantastic Futures, starring the first superhero, Johnny Noble), the green-flamed Witch Fire, a hidden Shroud cave, and—possibly, unbelievably—“powerless” regular-kid Daniel himself.

Superhero kids meet comic book mystery in this action-filled debut about the true meaning of a hero.

Borders, which has been awesome about supporting the book, features it on the front kids page of their site, with a sample chapter to boot! If you prefer to do your shopping on Amazon, you can get the hard copy or a Kindle edition, for instant gratification. And of course, please feel free to support your local independent bookstore (like Colorado’s own Tattered Cover, my store of choice) by shopping online with Indie Bound.

And in honor of Powerless AND Halloween, I want to know — if you could have any ONE superpower, what would it be? I’m going to go with flight.

I may have been a tad bit premature…

Kate — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:31:53 +0000

In announcing on Monday that I was “back.” Suffice to say, my meetings on Tuesday and travel on Wednesday kept me a little too busy to sit down and craft a blog post.

Which I’m truly sorry about, what with Maureen Johnson’s “Blog Every Day in April” initiative, at which I ALREADY failed! But unlike some authors who need to create an internet phenomenon just to keep them blogging, I already try to blog every day (well, every work day), and feel bad when I don’t.

If it’s a consolation, I had some brilliant things I was going to blog about, like a wonderful book I read on the flight home to Denver (which I will pull out in a Recent Reads post following this one), some of the hilarious posts Tor.com threw up for April Fools Day, and #agentfail, which others have already discussed in more detail. Given Elana’s reaction, and others that I’ve heard, I’m not going to sit and read the full comment thread on the original post. I know I do my best every day to be the best agent I can be, knowing that that “best” isn’t going to be right for every author. And honestly, I’m fine with that.

And how could I have let the pub day of Band Geeked Out slip by! What if Josie Bloss got another tattoo and I missed it?

I’d be heartbroken, that’s what.

So I just won’t let that happen again. What else have I missed while I’ve been AFK?

Ask Daphne! From the Commenters

Kate — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:06:51 +0000

Despite the fact that many schools out here in Colorado started up again a week or more ago, the day after Labor Day is ALWAYS going to feel like a “back to school” day for me. And since it is a back to work day after a luscious three-day weekend, I’m inspired to tackle a number of questions in a special post-Labor Day speed round. This time, a number of questions from the comments of various posts. Starting with… the Booklady! Caryn asks:

Lately I’ve noticed that every new book except, perhaps, for occasional long-anticipated new releases by big-name authors, comes out on a Tuesday. Why is that? What’s so special about Tuesdays?

This is partially a guess on my part, but I’m thinking it’s an educated one. The publishing world is trying to keep up with other forms of entertainment, like CDs and DVDS, most of which ALSO release on Tuesdays. It’s like how most new movies hit theatres on Fridays. I think it’s so by the end of the week, newspapers have enough time to collect the information necessary to come up with bestseller lists and hot new releases. It probably also has something to do with trying to get authors on talk shows when they’re not being shoved aside by movie stars with weekend releases. Maybe?
Moving on to something I know a little bit more about, Kathy writes:

I’ve heard the term “plot points” bandied about. Can you give us a definition and a “how to use” column?

The way I use the term, it refers to the major highlights or turning points in a novel. Your book may include lots of scenes of your characters sitting around in the cafeteria talking, but a plot point might be when one of them comes out to the another. That’s a turning point. Plot points are especially useful to be aware of in, perhaps, putting together a treatment or synopsis for your book. Maybe a note of the major action scenes or reversals, and try to convey the action of your story in a few short pages. The important information you need to include to actually tell what happens are the plot points. That’s what moves your story along, and separates it from other books about high school kids, for instance.
Ok, time for one more. Not actually from the comments, but I’m tackling it anyway, ‘cuz I don’t play by the RULEZ!! Ahem. Bill writes:

I have noticed a trend for shorter literary novels in the bookstore especially foreign translations. Is a 215 page, 50,000 word novel too short for serious consideration?

I wouldn’t think so, Bill, but I can tell you it depends on so much more than just length. While 50,000 words sounds about right for a teen or MG book, I can see how adult editor may think it feels a little short — but others may disagree. This is an important point to end on, so let me be emphatic: Don’t let yourself be bogged down in trends. Are you seeing lots of novels getting published tipping the scales at over 200,000 words? Don’t worry. There always needs to be a counter-balance. A perfect gem of a 50,000 word literary novel is going to find a home, even if it does seem like the midget cousin of a literary giant.

Going through with it

Kate — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:44:23 +0000

Over on her blog, Josie Bloss shares her top secret pub day plans for Band Geek Love: a tattoo!
I love this idea, and have seen it before on authors. What a fantastic way to celebrate the culmination of years of work! I even know another one of my authors has made a similar promise to herself.
So here’s my question for you before the long holiday weekend: if your WIP or totally imaginary book’s publication day was tomorrow, what would you do to celebrate?
I’ve thought in the past about a tattoo to celebrate a life’s milestone, but I think I’m too indecisive when it comes to my personal appearance. I mean, I change my hair color with the seasons, and I have long hair precisely so I can wear it lots of different ways. And my clothes run the gamut from preppy to classic to trendy to stay-at-home (step)mom. I did have one idea for an image that has several meanings to me, but where would I put it?
No, too many decisions to live with for the rest of my life.
So I think I would go shopping. I like the idea of a small piece of jewelry that I could wear to remind myself of my accomplishment, that I could change if I wanted to wear something else. Something like a small diamond earring.
What about you?
In other news, I’m going to do my best to get through all my queries before the long holiday weekend, in case you’re waiting on a response from me. I’m hoping to read partials over the weekend, so will have responses on those for some people next week.
Have a great Fourth of July!

Band Geek Pub Day!

Kate — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:10:18 +0000

It is the official pub date for Josie Bloss’s debut novel BAND GEEK LOVE, and in celebration, I’m sharing tales of my high school geekiness. Oh yes.
Unlike the classic high schools you read about in teen fiction (or, if you were a child of the 80s, saw in a plethora of John Hughes films), my high school wasn’t huge. Didn’t have hundreds of people. Didn’t even have boys, actually — we were an all girls Catholic school in the New York suburbs, just down the road from a giant high school in a gorgeous gothic styled building that was all those things I saw on the movie screen. And for about half a semester my senior year, myself and four of my best friends walked the two and a half blocks to that giant high school every day to take Calculus.
Our school was closing, you see. The writing was on the walls. No freshmen had enrolled, all the girls who would be juniors left to get in two full years somewhere else, and most of the sophomore class had also bailed, leaving just 41 seniors in an echoing building. So no, the administration wasn’t about to bring in a specialized teacher for those of us who had advanced beyond their teaching capabilities. Thus — the walk down the road to the public high school.
Now, every public high school has its geeks — band geeks, drama geeks, science nerds, etc. But this is nothing — nothing, I tell you — to five plaid-skirted girls coming to your high school just to take Calculus.
I could tell you I was also a cheerleader, helped organize a fashion show, drove a red convertible on ring day and gave speeches on class day, but this does nothing to balance out my Calculus-taking geekiness.
Eventually, someone caved to pressure and they brought us back within the confines of our school’s walls and found us a teacher. And after passing that class (thanks to a sister who retaught me every principle of Calculus at home each night while I struggled over my homework), I never had to take another math class again.
That’s me. How were YOU a geek in high school?

May Day!

Kate — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:13:31 +0000

Sure, we could run around all day singing a song from “Camelot,” or you can head over to Maureen Johnson’s blog to celebrate Publication Day of SUITE SCARLETT with giveaways and a very informative video about New York. Enjoy!

It’s Check-In Time!

Kate — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:11:31 +0000

Just got a VERY excited email from my author:

THE HOPEWELL HOTEL IS READY FOR YOU NOW.
I am extremely pleased to announce that Suite Scarlett is now on sale. It can be purchased online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s, and several other online retailers. It’s appearing in stores as well . . . rolling out all over the place. If it’s not in your local store yet, it should be very shortly.
Want to know more about the hotel? Scarlett? Spencer? Hamlet? The unicycles? Mrs. Amberson? Read more here!
Scholastic will be launching the BIG SCARLETT CONTEST on May 1st! In the meantime, I’ll be giving away books and swag on my blog!
Go on! Your room is ready! It’s time to check in!

Please, won’t you help me keep Maureen calm? Go buy the book, and I’ll try to keep the exclamation points away from her.