Alcatraz News

[Jelly_Belly]

Wow, now I wish I'd read it while it was needing reviews (not that I didn't want to, but someone else always had it). Way cool, Brandon.

[stacer]

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.

Depends on who you're talking to. The YA market is huge right now and only growing, and Scholastic is actually a mover in that world, and in the middle grade world, not just elementary. Like I said, they have teacher and librarian contacts that many other publishers would kill for. Some kids do skip over YA, but that's really opening up right now, and I wouldn't poo-poo it.

[MsFish]

Techinically, sixth graders are in middle school.  A school that is just seventh and eighth is a junior high.

[EUOL]

Ah, good point.  I keep forgetting that is the case some places.  In Nebraska, we only had k-6 grade schools.  However, in a lot of the country, 6-8 are together, aren't they?

[Tekiel]

As a school teacher, I should let you know about something called Accelerated Reading.  It's a good/bad (depends who you talk to) program that assigns reading levels and points to books.  These books are then highly sought after by teachers so that their students can earn "points."  Points that, in the summer, will all be erased and the students have to start earning them all over again in the fall.  
Anyway, I'd find out who's in charge of that program and go with them.

[Sigyn]

I think most books with a big publisher can get an accelerated reader test. The school librarian just has to request a copy of it for her school. If a test doesn't exist, the librarian still has the option of writing a test for the book herself, though few school librarians are willing to go to this effort since they are already overworked and underpaid.

[Spriggan]

Ah, good point.  I keep forgetting that is the case some places.  In Nebraska, we only had k-6 grade schools.  However, in a lot of the country, 6-8 are together, aren't they?

After we graduated Lincoln moved 6th grade into the Junior highs.

[Fellfrosch]

I've heard of a lot of 7-9 schools, but no 6-8. Why can't everybody just do things the right way (i.e., the way I did them)?

[Spriggan]

Well up until I graduated my Highschool was 7-12.

[EUOL]

So, I had a nice conversation with a Scholastic editor today.  She spent a good deal of it begging me to choose her publisher, then the rest talking about her editorial vision of the novel.  (Which, coincidentally, was very impressive.  Also, it was nearly identical to what Stacer had to say on the book.)

Anyway, now SHE'S sending me some free books.  Garth Nix, Keys to the Kingdom.  

[stacer]

Hah! This reinforces my feeling that I have found my true calling.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

"When publishers compete, you win!®"

[Lanternpost]

Don't do it!  Don't doo-OO-oo-OO-oo it.  Go with Harper Col-LINS!  Or Houghton.  The art is pinnacle!  But money is nice.  And Garth Nix is a very good author.  But there is enough YA fiction in the world, darn it!

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Um, did HarperCollins even offer?

[EUOL]

And, finally, we have the Little & Brown offer.  They want four books, like Scholastic, but they're offering three times the original Tor offer per book.  In money, that puts them equal in advance to Houghton, but for fewer books.  (That's good, in a more per book way, but bad in a committed to fewer books way.)

They also gave us a very impressive marketing plan.