Mandy Hubbard's Blog, page 15

Squee-worthy news about RIPPLE!!

From Pub Marketplace: 

PRADA & PREJUDICE author Mandy Hubbard’s RIPPLE, about a teenage siren who accidently kills the only boy she's ever loved—and then meets a new guy she can't seem to resist, despite the life-or-death consequences, to Brianne Mulligan at Razorbill, in a two-book deal, by Zoe Shacham at Nancy Yost Literary

It should be an August, 2011 book!

I am so BEYOND thrilled to continue working with Razorbill, my publisher for Prada & Prejudice and You Wish. RIPPLE (Link goes to blog...

AHEM

Y'all, go visit sjmaas   blog and congratulate her!

 

She sold her debut novel, QUEEN OF GLASS, to Bloomsbury. I could not possibly be any MORE Excited for her than I am already. Sarah and I started on the same little site, fictionpress, years ago. (Her in 02, me in 03.). I read the entire epic trilogy (like, 500K-600K words), and never got it out of my head.
 
Cannot WAIT for y'all to read the finished product!


SQUEEEEEEEEEE!!

9 Rules to break when writing a book

In honor of Sarah MacLean's romance debut, 9 Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake, I thought I'd share 9 Rules to Break when writing a book. It doesn't rhyme, I know. And it doesn't come with a shiny new cover:
Before I get to the 9 rules part, let me just say, you should ALL be running out to buy this when it hits shelves next week. The hero is a twin (What? Girls can have that fantasy too) and he PLAYS PIANO, PEOPLE. That alone should make you fall in love with him. Did I mention he was...

Kim Derting's Launch

I made it to Kimberly Derting's launch party yesterday. All I gotta say is that the girl is a rockstar. no idea how many books she sold, but i suspect it was around 200.

The afterparty at Mazatlan was just as much fun! Here's a picture I stole from Heidi's facebook (Thanks, Heidi!):


Here's author Heidi Willis, The lady of the hour Kim Derting (The Body Finder is now in stores!) and me.

Congrats, Zoe!

D'oh! I totally missed blogging this! Yesterday was the official release of BALANCING ACTS.



It's written by my insanely talented agent, Zoe Fishman (now known as Zoe F. Shacham to those in query land).

According to theHuffington Post, it's about, "the struggles that all women face to feel "good enough," to be brave enough to open up to a new friend or a new love, and to somehow balance career, love, family, friendship, and self while maintaining such hectic lifestyles."

Who doesn't identify...

First Month's Query Stats

Queries read: 643
Rejected: 594 :-(  
Requested: 49 :-)
Request rate: 7%
Fulls read: 42.
Fulls rejected: 38
*Is Tired*

My Slush Pile Wish List....

I thought it might be fun to post some projects I would really, really love to find right now. Please note that this list is not all-inclusive-- I'd be happy to find amazing projects that don't fit this list.


1) A truly hilarious middle grade, whether for boys or girls. So many people are looking for this right now-- but humor is really freakin tough to pull off. 

2) A really dark, issue-based, voice-driven YA book. Think HATE LIST by Jennifer Brown, WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson or LI...

LTWF post!

I posted today over at LET THE WORDS FLOW, with my snarky guide to being an agent. Hope you enjoy it. :-)

Just Keep Swimming-- Guest Blog by Stacey Jay

Hi All! Today I have a guest blog from Stacey Jay, author of YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME and the brand new UNDEAD MUCH, as well as the hot-off-the-pressses middle grade MY SO CALLED DEATH.



Here's what I hope you'll get from this:

A) This industry is hard! For everyone. But it is ALWAYS worth it, in the end. We keep trucking (or, yanno, swimming) because we love it.
B) If you're being rejected or having troubles on your road to publication, consider it training! You'll be a pro by the tie you get t...

Reading, Rejecting, Revising, Representing.

Queries read: 472
Rejected: 434    Requested: 38
Request rate: 8%
Fulls read: 26. Fulls rejected: 22

I've rejected 22 full manuscripts now, and I wanted to take a moment to give you an idea of what leads to a rejection and how I approach my stack of full manuscripts.

For starters, I'll give every book a minimum of 10%. That means, generally, 25-30 pages. If I've requested your full, I've already decided you're a good writer and I like the concept. You've got 25 pages to reel me in.

Unfortunately,...