Uncreated Conscience

Dear me, I have been lax with updating you all about the goings-on in the office! We have been extremely busy since the new year, having acquired three new authors for our New Adult endeavor, bringing our stable of authors up to seven! The stats and projects are as follows:

Nonfiction

WORKING GIRL: How To Have A Fabulous Life on 30 Grand by Laurel House
Lifestyle and fitness guru Laurel House writes a how-to guide for post-collegiate and young professional women, including ways of making your dollar stretch to your best advantage without having to sacrifice the things you want. I have to say that as a poor publishing professional, her tips were quite useful!

THE ROARING TWENTIES: Adulthood Redefined by Hannah Seligson
Hannah is a wonderful young writer and journalist, and she examines what it means to be an “adult” in today’s society, focusing on the milestones between the ages of 18 and 30. A comprehensive look at most walks of life, it is part memoir, a large part research, part anecdotal, and entirely awesome.

DATING IN THE NUDE by Harlan Cohen
Harlan is best known for his college survival guide THE NAKED ROOMMATE, which was an extensive look at the emotional and practical aspects of going away to school. Having spoken at length with many “new adults”, he now parlays the insight he gained from talking to young people into a dating/relationship advice book.

DEAL OF THE CENTURY by Frank Sennett
Y’all know of Groupon? Y’all know how awesome it is? Wanna know about how the company got started, why they didn’t sell out to Google, and what its social media oriented business is about? This is the book for you!

Fiction

SWEET VALLEY CONFIDENTIAL: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal.
Ever wonder what Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield were like as adults in their twenties? Francine Pascal reveals all in this long-awaited novel. Released March 29, 2011.

UNION STREET by Gemma Burgess
The first in a series about six young women living together in a Brooklyn brownstone, figuring out life, love, and adulthood together. The first book features Pia, a Swiss-Indian third culture kid and a recent college graduate. (Can I just say here: HAPAS FOR THE WIN!)

THE PFEFFERNOOSE CHRONICLES by Nora Zelevansky
A young college undergraduate from a quirky, Royal Tenebaums-esque Upper West Side family gets a gig writing a blog for dazzling (and possibly magical) socialite Veruca Pfeffernoose–getting swept in Veruca’s whirlwind and glitzy life.

I won’t lie when I say fiction has been much more difficult than nonfiction to acquire. Many of the things we’ve seen have been too young without crossover potential. Thus far we’ve only acquired contemporary, but we would love to find some more genre here, myself in particular. I love me some fantasy and historical. Send me stuff!

So this blogging more initiative. It’s not being very successful at the moment, due to the fact that I simply have not had the time. La Redactora is busy enough for ten editors, not to mention things have been moving along with Cap’n Sweet Valley.

News! Cap’n Sweet Valley has acquired two more titles, this time in the nonfiction category.

1. WORKING GIRL: The Fabulous life on Thirty Grand by Laurel House
   A comprehensive guide for young women in their twenties and how to live on a very terrible salary. I found this incredibly useful. Publishing might be my dream job, but it, uh, doesn’t exactly pay millions. Included are tips on how to keep healthy, exercise, diet, what to do if you realise you need to break up with your college significant other, dating etc.
2. THE WOMEN’S PILL BOOK
   Um, this doesn’t exactly fall into the category of fiction and nonfiction for twentysomethings, but pills and pharmaceutical industries are kind of Cap’n Sweet Valley’s pet/personal interests. A reference guide to drugs on the market, specifically tailored for women: from everyday colds to hormonal therapy.

Anyway, the biggest news of all: The website is live for SWEET VALLEY CONFIDENTIAL!

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Happy Bloomsday, all! For those of you who are unabashed lit nerds like myself, June 16 is the day on which the events of James Joyce’s ULYSSES take place.

I knew there was a reason I loved Ben so. He reads Joyce as well!

I’ve been kept so busy at work assisting La Redactora that I’ve scarcely had the time to blog, but as Cap’n Sweet Valley is out of the office this week, I have a bit of a breather. Last week I asked for blog topics; surprisingly, people wanted to know about the editorial process. As we only have two titles under our belt (yes, we just acquired our first nonfiction title!), I can’t say for sure, but I promise to walk you through the editorial process of SWEET VALLEY CONFIDENTIAL soon–from acquisition to publication.

Anyway, I’m not going to blog about the editorial process today. Today I’m going to talk about this strange little saying: Rules are made to be broken.

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Pardón, estaba incomunicada la última semana porque estaba muy ocupada por mi trabajo. He ayudado una otra redactora a St. Martin’s Press con sus autores y no tuve tiempo para escribir en mi…blog? (¿Cómo se dice “blog” en español?)

Sorry, I have the habit of reverting to high school Spanish when I get a wee bit stressed. (Of note, I love that “editor” in Spanish is redactor(a). Henceforth I wish to be known as a redactor.) I’m a little rusty.

So, JJ, you might ask, what have you been up to? Oh nothing much, I might say, just running around the Flatiron Building like a chicken with its head cut off. I have been assisting another editor here with her list while her assistant is on maternity leave. Said editor is a genius, with multiple bestsellers on her list who need a lot of maintenance. I’m still working primarily with Cap’n Sweet Valley, but now I’m on another floor (but in an office!). Now that SWEET VALLEY CONFIDENTIAL is about to go into production, I’m getting my exercise running up and down two flights of stairs at least 12 times a day.

Because I myself haven’t contributed much to the publishing blogosphere lately, might I direct you to this awesome series of posts on LGBTQ stereotypes in YA fiction by Malinda Lo? Today she blogs about gender perceptions, expression, and performance and how gender identity and sexuality do not have a 1:1 correlation.

Anyway, while I’ve been buried up to my eyeballs with work, I’ve also been reading my face off, so expect to be seeing reviews of the following soon:

1. TENDER MORSELS by Margo Lanagan
2. THE ART OF SEDUCTION by Robert Greene
3. A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS by Megan Whalen Turner
4. ILLYRIA by Elizabeth Hand
5. MATCHED by Ally Condie
6. DELIRIUM by Lauren Oliver
7. ASCENDANT by Diana Peterfreund
8. THE REPLACEMENT by Brenna Yovanoff

But I do intend to talk more about craft and writing, especially now that I’m learning from Redactor Genius. So here’s my question, oh blogosphere: What writing topics would you like me to cover? Publishing business you can read about elswhere; I’m mostly here to talk editorial (redactorial?) stuff. So shoot. Leave suggestions in the comments!

How on earth did it get to be Friday again without me blogging? I AM A BAD BLOGGER ACK. It seems as though I am only able to consistently do Photo Fridays, which is pretty terrible. Anyway, this week’s theme is fashion (especially shoes). Also, Karen Healey‘s signing at Books of Wonder.

Teal with Envy

You will see a lot of these shoes in this post. Because they're amazing.

Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 400

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If you haven’t heard the news by now, Cap’n Sweet Valley has acquired his first book!

Francine Pascal’s SWEET VALLEY CONFIDENTIAL, following her iconic identical blonde twins and full cast of characters into adulthood, now in their late twenties and early thirties, “where the real world intrudes,” to Dan Weiss at St. Martin’s (who created the original series with Pascal when he was a book packager), with Hilary Rubin Teeman editing, for publication in early 2011.

Via Publishers Marketplace

Yes indeed, our first book is a nice trip down memory lane for everyone involved. My friends were obsessed with these books when we were in elementary school (I was, alas, not allowed to read them–but never fear, I am properly caught up now) and of course, Cap’n Sweet Valley and Francine Pascal have a long history together. This is an adult title, not young adult.

Official press release to follow beneath the cut.

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