Our weekly trip around the field of YA with stops at the most helpful, interesting or otherwise entertaining news.
This Week In Writing
- Author Libby Koponen rejects the idea that children's books are the training wheels of writing
- Author Malinda Lo presents a five part series on avoiding LGBTQ stereotypes in fiction.

- Agent Mandy Hubbard on effective opening pages
- Why You Suck and I Don't: How to use fundamental attribution error, at Plot to Punctuation
- Agent Jessica Faust suggests you create a style sheet now to avoid issues later.
- Basic advice on choosing a book title, from Pimp My Novel
- Author Vee Roth has an amazing post about shame and genre.
This Week In Reading
- The New Yorker looks at the recent rise in YA dystopians.
- Stephenie Meyer's new novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, sold 79 copies PER MINUTE the day of its release. Good news for the Red Cross, which will receive a portion of the profits
- And for those of you who suspect Bella suffers from a mental disorder, psychiatrists at the University of South Carolina agree. Also, Piglet clearly suffers from generalized anxiety disorder, and there are some phallic issues in Harry Potter. (via Bookninja)
This Week In Getting Published
- Author Maureen Johnson's manifesto on social media and branding... or not
- The Query Tracker blog has tips for providing better critiques, including my favorite: the stream of consciousness method.
- Really interesting look at the change from pre-to post-publishing culling, by agent Nathan Bransford. (Pimp My Novel will have a rebuttal next week and the pre-game trash talk on Twitter has been entertaining.)
- Agent Mary Kole on agents' editorial suggestions
- @EgmontGal (Elizabeth Law) hosted an #AskYAEditor chat last weekend, and will do another this Saturday if she reaches 3000 followers! You can find an overview here.
- It wouldn't be Field Trip Friday without a little @kortizzle. She has a good post about why agents are finicky about submission requirements, and why it would behoove you to, you know, FOLLOW them.
This Week In Contests
- Check out Adventures in Children's Publishing: Our girl Kirsten Hubbard, along with our friends Tahereh Mafi, Cole Gibsen and Michelle Hodkins, will critique the finalists in their Line-by-line Novel Opening Contest.
This Week In Other Stuff
- I sent author Heather Trese's post "You Might Be Married To A Writer If..." to my husband, who read it and immediately asked, "Do you know this girl? You guys should meet." (Sadly, I don't know Heather, but I assured him the points listed were not limited just to her and me.)
- The Intern wonders what an author's responsibility is to publishing as a whole. (My favorite part: "...the market is prone to the doing of thangs.")
- High school senior Jamie Keiles has an amazing experiment going on: The Seventeen Magazine Project. To critics who think we should write girls in YA as some kind of vapid brainless morons: GO READ THIS.
This Week In The Random

HARRY POTTER TRAILER ZOMG.
and in preparation for Eclipse:
(click the Eclipse link to see jorts in action.)~ Kate Hart
Oh, I love field trip Friday :)
ReplyDeleteAnother awesome linkage fest - Thanks :)
Confession: jorts? I don;t even know what they are - but the graph cracked me up anyway :)
Harry Potter! Harry Potter! Harry Potter!!
ReplyDeleteNow that I got that out of my system, the Pattinson pic made me lol!
Thanks for the links. They'realways fantash!
Just a little plug for a new, awesome blog that should be spotlighted: Laura Fitgerald works in the Tor Digital Marketing department and has a new blog at http://inkinallforms.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteHer first post is an AWESOME giveaway where the winner will snag A DOZEN YA books! Contest ends June 18.
Her most recent post is Mythbusters: Publishing Editor and worth a read!
I think it's great that someone who isn't in editorial has started a blog, since there are few out there.
And, of course, thanks for shout out YAHighway!
~K
Um, I'm with Claire- OMG HARRY POTTER!! lol
ReplyDeleteI should have known better than to click on that eclipse link.
ReplyDeleteOH MY GOSH. This is what I get for not having cable! I didn't even know the DH trailer was out! Looooooooove it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shoutout! Great updates in this post :)
ReplyDeleteSo much awesomeness here! Thanks for rounding all these up.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what a jort is, but I'll be sure not to wear one. Fantastic roundup, and thank you very much to linking to my writer's block article. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mentions girls! And thanks for letting us borrow Kirsten to help out. You guys are awesome! Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteM&M
What is a jort?!?!
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone! Kathleen, I added them to my RSS-- thanks for the suggestion.
ReplyDeleteAnd to everyone wondering what jorts are: It's the shortened version of jean shorts, which you can see in action if you click the Eclipse link. :D
Great RTW this week! & I'm not just sayin' that 'cause of the HP trailer. :D
ReplyDeleteHey guys, thanks for the link! Due to the linkage, I've now discovered your awesome blog, so thanks for that too.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great compilation of links! I just found your blog and I am loving it already!
ReplyDelete