Mandy Hubbard's Blog, page 11

YOU WISH movie news!

I am *VERY* excited to announce that RCR Pictures has optioned the film rights for YOU WISH.

Now, before you rush out and by your tickets, you should know that an option is the first step of many, and far more books get optioned than ever become movies.

BUT, it IS the first step, and I am so excited to work with RCR, who worked on one of my favorite teen-centric flicks: THE PRINCE AND ME with Julia Stiles. And they've also attached a great screenwriter.

*throws confetti*.

Congratulations, Jessica!

The promised details on the auction I ran a couple of weeks ago, per Publisher's Weekly:

Simon Pulse Get 'Virtuosic'
Mandy Hubbard at D4EO Literary sold Jessica Martinez's debut YA novel, Virtuosity, in a two-book deal, at auction, to Simon Pulse, with Anica Rissi taking world rights. The first book is about a virtuoso violinist whose life begins to fall apart when she gets involved in a difficult love affair and develops a nasty drug habit. Simon is planning a fall 2011 release.


It's a stunni...

Query Week Wrap-up!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the query workshop week-- the brave souls to share their query, but especially those in the comments trail providing feedback.

I think we can summarize the feedback like this:

1) Know the market, and make sure your pitch doesn't sound like something already out there.

2) Don't hurt yourself tying to be clever. Otherwise known as: Keep It Simple Stupid. (And this is not directed at anyone, as y'all are brilliant. Of course.) Sometimes we get wrapped up ...

Query Workshop: day 4

  
First up: In case you missed, it,  here are the queries from   day 1 and day 2  and day 3.


Here's today's query:

Please consider representing my 37,000-word upper middle grade novel, [TITLE REDACTED:], a contemporary "tween" coming-of-age story.

[ It has a really cute title!:]

Presley may be one of the smartest kids in her eighth-grade class, but she buckles under pressure -- or more specifically, she alphabetizes. In moments of stress, her compulsive mind is a fire hose shooting at her own face ...

YA AUTHORS?(!)?

For those YA authors on my F-list, I'm looking into arranging a group YA author signing (last year we had 9 authors) in NYC on July 17th, sometime mid-day or afternoon.

If you are interested (pending further details, of course!) please comment. Once I have a tenative list, I can arrange the location and time and then I will re-confirm with y'all.

 

Query Workshop: Day 3

Firstly,  Kristin Miller is giving away a copy of YOU WISH! Go enter to win! 

Secondly, Thank you to everyone for providing such great feedback to our queriers. I think it is VERY helpful to get multiple perspectives, and I really appreciate those of you who have taken time to critique the queries on day 1 and day 2.

Okay, here is today's query:


Dear Mandy Hubbard:

I've been following your blog ever since I saw the title Prada and Prejudice. That's the sort of playful tone I've brought to my lat...

Query Workshop-- Day 2

If you missed the first query, you can find it here.

My comments, as before, are in red.

Without further ado:

[TITLE REDACTED:] is a 51,000 word young adult novel about an ordinary girl trying to find her way in a beautiful world.

[I think I would move this line to the end. Becuase again, if you put a line up front, it needs to be a big hook.:]


Driven by her obsession with the power of the right name, the socially accepted standards of physical beauty, and the neighborhood ‘It’ girls who seem to hav...

Query Workshop: Day 1

Last week I posted an open call for queries to workshop here on the blog. It's not too late to throw yours in the mix-- I'll be selecting a new one on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I'll simply ask a random number generator to select the query of choice.

A few things first:
A) These are only my opinions. Your mileage may vary. Remember how subjective everything is and weigh all of the feedback with your own thoughts and opinions.

B) Please be exceedingly nice in the comments trail. Really,...

Friday Five

1. I get to have lunch today with my reader/intern! She's made of awesome so it should be fun. I predict lots of fun book discussions!

2. All of the sudden I have a ton of really cool full manuscripts in my To-Be-Read pile. Yay!

3. I get asked, frequently, where to find critique partners. Well, the LTWF blog has a new feature! Find a critique partner!!  I also recently posted over there with my advice on how to "Battle the voices of doom" and believe in yourself and your work, rather than the ...

Query Workshop Week Starts on MONDAY!

Hey all!

I've decided it would be fun to workshop some queries on the blog. But that means I need a few brave souls to share their query. I will post it (without your name, and with the title removed so it's not so google-able) on my blog, with a full, in depth critque of why the query works-- or doesn't.

Then I'll invite my readers to (gently) critique it as well. I'll post one every day, Monday thru Thursday. Friday we'll wrap it up with a discussion about queries.

If it works, I'm going to...