Alcatraz News

[Fellfrosch]

And of course the brothers start one-upping each other. Man, I'm glad I don't have a brother.

[Faster Master St. Pastor]

And of course the brothers start one-upping each other. Man, I'm glad I don't have a brother anymore.

Yeah, whatever happened to him anyway? Wasn't he deported?

[EUOL]

Second offer on ALCATRAZ has arrived, and it's from Stacer's old haunt.  Houghton.  They upped Tor by about 50%.  

[Parker]

Wowzers.  Let the bidding begin, then?

[stacer]

Second offer on ALCATRAZ has arrived, and it's from Stacer's old haunt.  Houghton.  They upped Tor by about 50%.  

I'm not surprised by that. They have the school empire behind them (we made the money, they had the attitude) and can really do some great things with children's fantasy that I don't see coming out of Tor. Was it submitted to Candlewick?

EDIT: Ah, I checked, and I see it went to Liz Bicknell at Candlewick. That's the house you want, truly. They'll make your book beautiful inside and out, and they've had a lot of award winners in the last 5 years or so.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Second offer on ALCATRAZ has arrived, and it's from Stacer's old haunt.  Houghton.  They upped Tor by about 50%.  

How does it compare to...your previous Tor contracts?

[stacer]

I doubt for one book alone it'd be as much, but if they're buying a series, it might be quite substantial.

[EUOL]

Ookla,

The original Tor offer was the same as their offer for ELANTRIS (per book.)  The Houghton offer is 50% more, per book, than that.  However, I think they may want World rights (my agent is still talking to them) which would pretty much make their offer worthless.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Indeed, considering Joshua's successes with Elantris...unless they mean just World English rights...considering...

[EUOL]

Offer Number Three:
Scholastic, offering the same as Houghton per book, but only for North American.  Also, they think the series should be four books instead of six, and want to rewrite it slightly to make it middle-grade and sell it in schools.

Revision on two:  Houghton upped their offer to double Tor's, but they still want world rights.  

[stacer]

Like I was telling you at Christmastime, I do think it's more of a middle-grade, except for some references of the sort I pointed out. Scholastic has a HUGE sales force behind it, and they have the ability to get it in schools, so honestly, I'd go with them. They've got a lot of power in the children's market. If they put you in the book club, etc... That's no small thing. They (like all publishers of children's fantasy) are always looking for the thing after Harry Potter, so they'll really get behind it if they believe in it.

[42]

I could be wrong, but I've heard that Scholastic is the juggernaut of the childrens and YA lit industry.

[stacer]

Well, they've had some company downturns in quarters when they weren't selling Harry Potter like hotcakes, and they have had to lay off some people. They just closed down the two book clubs they absorbed that used to be independent, Troll and something else. But they still have the main book club, and they have a huge educational market they're tapped into with libraries and teachers, so combine that with their sheer presence in the bookstores, and they do quite well, I think.

[Tage]

As we were talking about off-line, though, Scholastic is only the juggernaut of the elementary school market. I think once you even get to middle school, kids loose interest in Scholastic books, opting for more "mature" things like David Eddings and R. A. Salvatore. I think going with them would be a gamble.

[EUOL]

Which is why I noted that the Scholastic editor wants to revise the book slightly, make Alcatraz 12, and sell it to sixth graders instead of middle school students.  If I sold it to them, this is what I'd want to do too.  

Latest news:  Houghton is now the front-runner.  They dropped off their world rights bid, and are now asking for North American only, yet are offering the same amount.  

This is kind of fun.