The next big thing

[Fuchsia Groan]

WTNV is how I get myself to go running. I'm not allowed to listen anywhere else.

I'd love to write about a small town where a same-sex relationship raises fewer eyebrows than things like wheat byproducts, pens, and mountains do. Hard to do without ripping it off wholesale, though.

 

[IdrisG]

Not necessarily. WTNV has a very Addams Family feel to it. I think that's something that can be replicated without being a rip-off. Besides, a book is going to come across quite differently than a podcast. For one, you don't have to use the radio show as conceit for a frame story. You can just tell your tale from as many perspectives as you think necessary. The town will be different, so will the characters and mysterious occurrences. I say go for it if it's something you're interested in.

 

[Sage]

ETA - Sage, you can listen on the road when you're not writing! (otherwise, no.)

You know me so well.

 

[Roly]

Okay, on the superhero front, turns out Marissa Meyer is writing one for NanoWrimo It's expected out fall of 2016 and will be a trilogy. Check out here pinterest page here. Don't know what this'll mean for the market or editor's reception to superhero books, but given the fact that Marvel is currently 99% of every tumblr post I see, the case can definitely be made that young girls may be interested in YA superhero stuff. But who knows.

 

[Windcutter]

I noticed RED QUEEN being mentioned here again. I have been reading Victoria Aveyard's interviews because she's my new role model: not only she has a big series, she also sold an original screenplay! This is pretty rare but this is what I also would love to do. Anyway, I was reading them and I realized that RED QUEEN had been pitched successfully before it was written and I wondered what kind of changes were put in it

" I wanted to write blockbuster, popcorn, gotta-see-it-at-midnight movies. And for some reason, a television pilot I wrote landed me a general meeting at Benderspink. (LUCK). After I pitched another TV pilot and a dumb movie idea, I heard luck whispering in my ear. Screw it. Pitch what you've been thinking about. So I told them I wanted to write the next big YA novel. I knew it was cocky to say, but that's what I wanted and I was mid-meeting, so I was firing on all cylinders. Turns out, Benderspink had just sold the rights to Dan Krokos' The Planet Thieves, so books were on the brain. I pitched writing a YA novel to them at exactly the right time."

and what it meant for Next Big Thing as a conceptual process. Were there changes made after the pitch to turn the novel into a "next big one" according to the potential publishers' wishes? Are we heading into the era of pre-made hits?

 

[Chazemataz]

I noticed RED QUEEN being mentioned here again. I have been reading Victoria Aveyard's interviews because she's my new role model: not only she has a big series, she also sold an original screenplay! This is pretty rare but this is what I also would love to do. Anyway, I was reading them and I realized that RED QUEEN had been pitched successfully before it was written and I wondered what kind of changes were put in it

and what it meant for Next Big Thing as a conceptual process. Were there changes made after the pitch to turn the novel into a "next big one" according to the potential publishers' wishes? Are we heading into the era of pre-made hits?

Unless these book publishers are confirmed psychics (and if they were, they would be retired and living in Costa Rica with their lotto winnings), they have no way of predicting this. Remember the "next big thing" that happened a few years ago? Something about Greek mythology? I believe it was EVERNEATH. Well, it didn't sell badly, but it didn't anywhere near recoup its six-figure deal. Nobody really remembers it much now.

There are others too, like DINNER WITH A VAMPIRE and so on which was hailed as "The New Twilight" and didn't even make the NYT list. HALF-BAD wasn't half bad and sold decently but is it some big blockbuster hit several months later? Not that I know of, and it was allegedly destined to be the next big thing upon its release.

I'm totally calling it now: nobody will see the NBT coming. My guess is it'll probably be a well-written sci-fi with a lovable cast of characters and fantastic worldbuilding, but we'll see. I was really pulling for TALON because I love me some Julie Kagawa but it was... less than stellar (heartbreaking, I know).

 

[IdrisG]

Until you listed those titles I'd forgotten all about them. It's funny how quickly books can go from being the project NBT to a footnote. Dawn Metcalf's INDELIBLE comes to mind and Lisa M. Stasse's FORSAKEN trilogy. The former had a lot of hype if I recall correctly but didn't go as far as expected whereas the latter had a decent start and it was seemingly downhill from there.

TALON was not what anybody expected, I don't think.

 

[bethany]

Do we even want a next big thing? Sometimes I mull over the differences between mediums, and Movies are very much on the look out for the Next Big Thing. But television with the rise of cable programming has become more diverse. Certainly there are hits and mega hits (I was floored when a friend and I were interrupted during a conversation about Game of Thrones by someone who had never heard of Game of Thrones). But, for example (and I admit I don't flip through channels much these days) Are there a bunch of Walking Dead wanna be shows out there? TV seems to be truly diverse in a way movies will never be, and books could be, possibly...

I like speculating about the Next Big Thing as much as the next person, but what if we go along without a Twilight or Hunger Games or even a Divergent for a few years. Will it hurt anything?

I believe Harry Potter did huge things for YA as a 'bookstore category', but...I'm not sure Twilight and even HG did the same. I'm afraid that their popularity narrowed the market in unfortunate ways. Twilight made publishers hungry for books that would appeal to 9 year olds through 90 year olds, pushing plenty of good contemporary and certainly books that were edgy YA and NOT appropriate for grandmothers to buy, read and then give to their elementary aged grandchildren, to the sidelines.

So what do we see right now. Contemporary with good hook= possibility of making waves. Different types of fantasy selling, some selling very well. Horror finally making a come-back, and hopefully back in circulation for awhile (forever?). A few historicals. Dystopian and Paranormal, particularly paranormal romance = only selling if they are touting as next 'big things' or from established authors. A few science fiction titles.

I think diversifying, can only be good for the readers, who do not all like the same things, and good for authors because there is more room for creativity, rather than clones of the Juggernauts.

With that being said, I'll keep watching for the next big thing, with the same level of curiosity as anyone else.

 

[Fuchsia Groan]

I think diversifying, can only be good for the readers, who do not all like the same things, and good for authors because there is more room for creativity, rather than clones of the Juggernauts.

Yes. I would like publishing to be more like TV, where it's possible for something like "Breaking Bad" to have five seasons and slowly, slowly build an audience, and less like studio filmmaking, where everything has to be a known property and the Next Big Thing Right Now because so much money is poured into it.

I've been reviewing movies for seven years, and they depress me right now. I don't mind superhero movies or YA adaptations or found-footage horror, but sometimes it feels like there aren't many other choices unless you leave theaters and explore the realm of video on demand, where things get diverse and interesting again.

Not really related: I picked up an award-winning YA magic-realism title from 2000 (because I know the author), and it's just different somehow. Despite a great hook, it starts with a load of backstory and zero action, which seems way less likely to fly in today's market. It reminds me of the YA I read when I was a kid: slower than today's books, less movie-like, "quiet," but compelling in a fable way. I wonder if there's still a place for that — maybe more in MG?

I like how YA has changed since then (I probably wouldn't have started reading or writing it without those changes), but it's interesting to see what's been lost, as well.

 

[wampuscat]

I noticed RED QUEEN being mentioned here again. I have been reading Victoria Aveyard's interviews because she's my new role model: not only she has a big series, she also sold an original screenplay! This is pretty rare but this is what I also would love to do. Anyway, I was reading them and I realized that RED QUEEN had been pitched successfully before it was written and I wondered what kind of changes were put in it

and what it meant for Next Big Thing as a conceptual process. Were there changes made after the pitch to turn the novel into a "next big one" according to the potential publishers' wishes? Are we heading into the era of pre-made hits?

Aveyard has a degree in something film related from USC, I think. I might be misremembering, but didn't she have an agent for movie-type things before she even started writing her book? I'm probably 100% screwing up the details here (and I have 0% understanding of the film or tv indsutries), but it seemed to me that her case was "who you know" + talent. Awesome for her! It's fantastic to see someone who is both capable and highly motivated make things happen, and I'm excited to read her book.

Do we even want a next big thing?

No because we want to be able to write whatever we want to write without fear of missing a trend or hitting a saturated market or whatever.

But yes because it seems like The Next Big Thing, regardless of what it is, gets people reading and talking about reading.

At least, that's my very uneducated opinion.

 

[Sage]

We want a Next Big Thing if it's going to be our books

 

[IdrisG]

We want a Next Big Thing if it's going to be our books

Bingo! We have a winner.

 

[Becca C.]

I like being on the lookout for a Next Big Thing because I love discovering awesome books. I want the hype to be real and well-deserved because I love reading!

 

[Becca C.]

A couple PM announcements I found interesting:

Janet Taylor's THE DIM, pitched as an OUTLANDER for teens, in which a sixteen year-old girl must travel back in time to twelfth-century England in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine to rescue her mother; along the way, she becomes entangled with a secret society of time travelers and a mysterious boy who may be the key to setting her mother free, to Sarah Landis at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's, in a very nice deal, in a two-book deal, for publication in Summer 2016, by Mollie Glick at Foundry Literary + Media (NA).

THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US author Kasie West's THE SUN, THE MOON, AND THE TRUTH, in which a post from a fake celebrity social media account sets a single-minded swimmer on a hunt to find out the person's true identity, but along the way she discovers more about herself and love than she ever thought possible, to Alison Weiss at Egmont, in a two book deal, for publication in Spring 2016 and 2017, by Michelle Wolfson at Wolfson Literary Agency (NA).

Author of OPEN ROAD SUMMER and the forthcoming THE START OF ME & YOU, Emery Lord's WHEN WE COLLIDED, about a boy who is struggling to move on after his father's death and a girl who comes to town hoping for a fresh start, and what happens when their summer love faces the troubles they've each been hiding, again to Mary Kate Castellani at Bloomsbury Children's and Ellen Holgate at Bloomsbury UK Children's, in a two-book deal, by Taylor Martindale at Full Circle Literary (World English).

THE DIM kind of has a horrible title but a really cool premise. And the Kasie West and Emery Lord deals have me excited. These are two recently-debuted authors of contemporary YA that keep getting deals. I like this a lot.

 

[Liosse de Velishaf]

Bingo! We have a winner.

Yup. I'm all for an NBT if it's me. Otherwise, I worry it might ruin the market for my weird, off-kilter tendencies.

I like being on the lookout for a Next Big Thing because I love discovering awesome books. I want the hype to be real and well-deserved because I love reading!

This. It's fun to predict things and find cool stuff.

 

[bethany]

I'm not saying it isn't fun, and somewhat useful to speculate. I just don't think the lack of a big thing is hurting anyone particularly.

But then, I'm probably never going to write whatever the big thing is, so I'm not worried about that.

 

[Roly]

I'm not saying it isn't fun, and somewhat useful to speculate. I just don't think the lack of a big thing is hurting anyone particularly.

But then, I'm probably never going to write whatever the big thing is, so I'm not worried about that.

I don't think there's anyone here fighting you on that lol. I think most people here are more interested in knowing what's currently selling and what isn't to see if what we're writing at least has a chance at being acquired. And the rest is speculating for fun as you say.

There hasn't been a NBT since The Hunger Games (Divergent was big but it was still just a book that caught the new trend wave that THG started). So we've been in a weird period I'd say since 2012 where editors' interest in dystopia was waning but nobody really know what to do next so they just started to acquire whatever. Unfortunately, there's still a sense in the industry that certain things will sell and certain things won't, but luckily the lack of a set trend means there's hopefully more risk taking going on in the acquisitions department.

 

[Roly]

Some more interesting deals. One YA Fantasy, one high concept YA Contemporary

Ruta Rimas at McElderry Books preempted world English rights to two YA fantasy novels by Sarah Fine. The deal was brokered by agent Kathleen Ortiz at New Leaf Literary, and the first book is set for spring 2016. In the novel, currently untitled, a 16-year-old who has been training her whole life to become queen finds that, when coronation day arrives, she has not inherited the magical powers of her predecessor. Ortiz elaborated: “Cast out, she’s thrust—powerless—into a world with outlaws who want to overtake the kingdom, and her only redemption is to search for the person who did inherit the former queen’s magic.”

Joy Peskin at Farrar, Straus and Giroux took North American rights to Nicole McInnes’s YA novel, 100 Days. McInnes’s YA debut, Brianna on the Brink, was published by Holiday House last year. Dystel & Goderich agent Stacey Glick, who brokered the FSG deal for McInnes, said that 100 Days is about a high school sophomore who suffers from progeria, a genetic condition that produces the effect of profound aging in the young. Agnes Delaney, Glick explained, is “trapped in the body of an 85-year-old.” When tensions flare between Agnes and her best friend, after the two become closer to the class loner, Agnes’s health suddenly deteriorates. Then, Glick said, in one ”final night together, the three of them must find a way back to connection or risk losing each other forever.” The novel, which, Glick added, has “strong adult crossover appeal,” is set for spring 2016.

 

[jtrylch13]

My guess is it'll probably be a well-written sci-fi with a lovable cast of characters and fantastic worldbuilding.

Oh, please, please, please! My next book will be just this. Well, I hope it will meet those expectations!

Do we even want a next big thing?

I like speculating about the Next Big Thing as much as the next person, but what if we go along without a Twilight or Hunger Games or even a Divergent for a few years. Will it hurt anything?

Agreed. I don't really want the next big thing, although I wouldn't be amiss if my novel was the next big thing.

I picked up an award-winning YA magic-realism title from 2000 (because I know the author), and it's just different somehow. Despite a great hook, it starts with a load of backstory and zero action, which seems way less likely to fly in today's market. It reminds me of the YA I read when I was a kid: slower than today's books, less movie-like, "quiet," but compelling in a fable way.

Yeah, I've been thinking about this. I'm reading James Fenimore Cooper's LeatherStocking Tales right now, written in I think 1800's(?) and it is such a long hard read. The story is compelling but you have to force your way through it. In today's market he would have been chased away by agents with a stick. But yet it's a classic. It feels like attention spans and the flashiness of the world makes everyone compete for attention. (This goes for adults, not just teens) We writers aren't just competing with each other for the readers attention, but with iphones, Call of Duty, Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, and everything else they can do for entertainment. A lot of readers don't have the patience to sift through extraneous writing when they can get immediate gratification from Angry Birds or Netflix.

 

[bertrigby]

I've seen a few forthcoming books that are about teens without powers (the next Patrick Ness comes to mind). Interesting shift.

 

[JustSarah]

I think my issue with next big things is, I often find myself wondering about some variance of the genre that couldn't be published because it's somehow different from the one of that genre that became big.

Like for Hunger Games, why not Z For Zachariah? Then again that's a post apocalyptic. Of course that guy ended up having a fantastic movie adaptation himself I hear.

 

[stephen andrew]

I think things are are really evening out. There are some great bestsellers in all categories (many debuts) that have come out in the past few years, though nothing at a HP, Twilight, or HG scale, and I think that is great.

Great contemps like Eleanor and Park. Shadow and Bone was fantasy. Daughter of Smoke and Bone was parts fantasy, paranormal romance, etc. Miss Peregrine was... kinda it's own thing. Half Bad's a new take on witches. The list really goes on and on...

Nothing has been explosive and caused a huge influx of similar material.

I would love to see this diversification continue. I think it's better for the writing and publishing community in the long run. And unless we write the next Hunger Games, unlikely, then this would be better for all of us.

 

[stephen andrew]

We writers aren't just competing with each other for the readers attention, but with iphones, Call of Duty, Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, and everything else they can do for entertainment. A lot of readers don't have the patience to sift through extraneous writing when they can get immediate gratification from Angry Birds or Netflix.

I agree there is a lot of competition for attention, but as a teacher at a high school, I am regularly finding kids who are reading like crazy. While some are on their phones and PSPs, there are plenty toting books and reading a couple pages in the minutes between periods. Books still offer a unique experience that kids love.

 

[Chazemataz]

I agree there is a lot of competition for attention, but as a teacher at a high school, I am regularly finding kids who are reading like crazy. While some are on their phones and PSPs, there are plenty toting books and reading a couple pages in the minutes between periods. Books still offer a unique experience that kids love.

I'm going to agree with this as a fellow educator. If anything, I notice kids reading even more than when I was in high school due to the ease of access when it comes to the written word. It doesn't take a lot of figuring to realize that TV shows, video games and movies are essentially tied to and driven by writing and that books are the rawest form of that experience.

 

[Magnanimoe]

...as a teacher at a high school, I am regularly finding kids who are reading like crazy.

Yes. I'm on year 21 in my career and the number of kids I see reading has been growing dramatically over the last 5 years. This year our language arts department began "choice reading" in class and stocked up on a ton of YA paperbacks and now even more kids are reading. The other day, in order to get my history class started, I had to say, "As much as I love seeing students reading, I'd like you to put your books away so that we can . . . ." I never thought I'd ever be saying that. Of course, their writing has improved too.