@bitchybisexual @russianspacegeckosexparty Just a heads up for you and any of my other friends who read YA who might be interested......you might wanna check out Rena Barron on twitter or Goodreads and put her stuff on your TBR list. She’s a debut black author with a three book Middle Grade series that sold in a pre-empt in April, with the first book MAYA AND THE RISING DARK coming out in 2020, and then she’s got another three book YA series coming out in 2019 from Harper called THE LAST WITCHDOCTOR.
Both sound awesome, but what’s especially notable is that both book deals were reported as major deals, which in publishing industry lingo means that each three-book deal was for at least $500,000 minimum. Major deals are very rare, and mean that the publisher is committing to big marketing pushes and publicity, because if they spent that much money just to buy the book they want to be damn sure they recoup that money in actual sales of the book.
YA and MG in the past have generally had more major deals for debut authors than most other categories of fiction, comparatively speaking, but in the past five years or so the number of major deals has gradually tapered down as lot of publishers who spent a lot on books they thought were going to be the next big thing ended up disappointed by sales.Â
I’d say on average there’s only half as many major deals for YA debuts these days as there were five years ago. Additionally, with racism being a big issue in the publishing industry as well, most major deals in the past have tended to be for white authors.
But like....I can’t think of EVER hearing of a debut author getting two major deals in the span of two months for two completely unrelated series. As far as I can think....its completely unprecedented. Period. That kind of thing has only happened before with YA authors who have two different new projects coming out but an established track record of massive sales and huge fanbases already behind them. For any debut author in this day and age to have two completely different publishers make major offers based just off the first book in each series, with no previous sales history is like...history making.
(Also, MAYA AND THE RISING DARK sold first, in a preempt, which means that Barron’s agent sent the book to one initial editor for a first look first. Giving them a chance to make an offer on that they think is good enough the agent and author won’t even want to look elsewhere, and thus ensure the editor doesn’t lose the book to a competing publisher. This is something that agents do when they’re fairly certain the book is something that editor would be interested enough in that they’d be willing to make a higher offer than they might have to in order to win the book in a bidding war....rather than risk losing the book to a higher bid than they can match. The author has the opportunity to turn down the preempt and then send the book out wide and take it to auction with multiple publishing houses, if they think they can do better than the preempt offer. So preempts are often in the low six figure range, which is of course still a very good offer and still way more than most debut authors or even long established authors will ever make on a book deal.....but in this case, the publisher jumped straight to offering upper six figures rather than risk losing the book to someone else.
And then THE LAST WITCHDOCTOR sold at auction, again in a major bid, which means multiple publishing houses were going back and forth with higher bids until the author picked the one she felt best about....and keep in mind, offers aren’t just about the dollar amount of the advance, but they also include other factors. Like what rights they’re asking to be included in the deal vs what stays with the author, they might include specific marketing proposals like where they present the author with a guaranteed marketing campaign they’re pledging to adhere to, stuff like that. So the offer an author ends up taking at auction might not even necessarily have been the highest offer monetarily, its the one that author and agent felt would be most beneficial to the author and her career in the long run and presented the most appealing terms across the board.)Â
Anyway, I think the books themselves sound right up both your alleys (Adam, I found an interview where Barron talks about growing up in Alabama and being interested in Vodun since she was a child, which is what inspired THE LAST WITCHDOCTOR), and just rambled on about the other industry shit because I’m a huge nerd and thought you might find it interesting as well, because its like.....I’m still just like....damn. Apparently Barron signed with her agent in December, and had 43 lit agents interested in THE LAST WITCHDOCTOR.
For comparison, an author whose debut YA sold in a three book major deal six years ago and was one of the big headlines of the time due to how much interest she had in her book....had offers from 7 lit agents.
Like....damn. I’m just....I want to read these books noooooooooooow. LOL.Â
Stephanie Stein at HarperTeen has acquired, at auction, Rena Barron's debut, The Last Witchdoctor. Set in a West African-inspired fantasy kingdom, the novel follows a girl who is descended from a long line of powerful witchdoctors, yet fails at magic, fails to call upon the ancestors, and can't cast the simplest curse. When her mother performs a ritual to conjure a better daughter, one who can wake a great and terrible Demon King, she must find a way to stop them from destroying the world. Voyager will publish in the U.K. with Vicky Leech editing. Publication is set for fall 2019; Suzie Townsend negotiated the three-book deal for world English rights. Â
Emilia Rhodes at HMH has preempted, in a three-book deal, Maya and the Rising Dark by Rena Barron. After her father goes missing, 12-year-old Maya uncovers that he is the keeper of the gateway between our world and The Dark. To find her father, she'll need to unlock her own powers and fight a horde of creatures set on starting a war. Publication is slated for spring 2020; Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media negotiated the deal for world English. Â