Bad Blurb Tuesday - LURE

Welcome back to Bad Blurb Tuesday, where we attempt to write the worlds suckiest a back cover blurb in mere minutes to show you just how easy it is to muddle it all up difficult it is to convey the core of a book in only few paragraphs. 

Since we're fast approaching our ONE YEAR anniversary here at GotYA, I thought I'd take you back in time to the days before GotYA when a handful of YA writers who met on Absolute Write's Old People Writing for Teens thread thought they'd get together and start a blog. 

One fellow blogger back in the old days was Stephanie Jenkins.  Steph recently took a giant leap and published her YA book, Lure, on Amazon.  (No fair cheating - don't clink the Lure link until you read my crappy blurb- k?)  Below, I'll attempt to write a blurb for Lure - AND GIVE AWAY 5 LURE E-BOOKS!

Here's my attempt at a blurb for LURE:

Charlotte Brewer is in over her head--literally--when she hears a song calling to her from the ocean and almost drowns.  Now all she has to do is stop disappearing into the water, and maybe dead men will stop washing up on the beach.  Throw in a siren and a war between the gods, and Charlotte has more than just the cute Summer Boy, Wyatt, to distract her from her sucky job serving up fish to the tourists in Gloucester.


And here's Steph's from Amazon:

Charlotte Brewer is sure she’s crazy when she hears singing drifting from the ocean—normal people don’t have arias playing on repeat in their head. When she gets wasted at a party and investigates the ethereal tune, she almost drowns. Charlotte comes to with an overwhelming thirst for salt water, a new desire to eat fish, and a heartbeat of only seven beats a minute. She wakes up by the sea almost every day and dead men wash up hours later.



But then Charlotte meets Lorelei, a siren. Lorelei reveals she saved her from drowning with the “Siren’s Kiss”—a curse that made Charlotte a soulless immortal. Her role as a siren is simple: guide the souls of the dead at sea. Too bad taking care of the dead means being stuck in the middle of a war between a fertility goddess and the sirens . . . and losing her soul. If Charlotte wants to regain her mortality, she must find love with a mortal. And if she fails to secure it, she risks becoming a puppet to the gods.

AHHH, yes....much much better! 

NOW A CONTEST!!!!

Spread the love for Stephanie Jenkins @stephniejenkins LURE on Twitter or your blog and let us know in the comments!  Winner will be picked at random* next Tuesday!

*Co-worker Dan will pick a number and I'll count the comments to find the winner!  Co-worker Dan is helpful like that.

Writing/Reading YA: Obsessed Since 2007

Okay, so there have been times when I didn't leave my house in like a day or two, simply because I was absorbed in writing or reading. My husband thinks I've become completely mental, because I really only become a full-fledged writing/reading book nerd back in 2007. Before I became a writing hermit, I was a shopper, a mover, an always on the goer, now all my free time and energy is put into the literary world. My husband, poor guy, can't fathom this "unnatural" obsession with "imaginary" people, and to be honest, before I became addicted I couldn't either.

I was such a bad kid in school. I liked to skip class (missed 32 days my senior year. Yeah, I know. Shhhhhh Don't tell. That's our secret.)  I copied my homework, and I NEVER read a full book. I was a cliff notes kind of girl when I couldn't get one of the smart people to just tell me what the book was about.Yes, I was one of those annoying people who would say things like, "Why read? I'll just wait for the movie to come out." *gasp* The horror. I know.

What caused the change you might ask. Well, I have nieces that are teens (No I'm not that old, my parents are and so are my siblings. I was an oopise baby.) and we pal around a lot. When I took my niece, Kim, to buy her 14th Birthday present in 2007 I nearly fell over at the mall when she told me she wanted a book. I was like, "OMG WHY?!?!?! I'm offering to buy you clothes and you want a book. Who are you? You can't be related to me!" But she rolled her eyes and dragged me into Waldons Bookstore. I followed with no clue my life was about to forever change.

She looked around, while I was bored out of my skull, until she found the book she wanted. ECLIPSE. It was expensive, near thirty bucks if I remember correctly, and thick.



2006 (Near the time of the Story)
Standing: Kim, Annie, Tasha
Bottom: Alicia



Needless to say, because I love her, I bought it for her. On the way home she was telling me about the story and about how YA books are for teenagers. I didn't even know books had subsections. LOL She told me about all the books she already had at home and I showed a little interest  just to appease her. When we got to her house she shoved four books in my hands and made me promise to read them. I'm pretty sure I crossed my fingers behind my back when I told her I would.

That same night my husband and I was going out to a comedy club with a group of friends. While I waited on everyone to come over, I picked up one of the books that had stared at me from my coffee table for the past twenty minutes. It was MARKED by PC Cast. Before I knew it was 20 pages in and my friends had arrived. I asked my husband if I could take the book, and he was like WTF, why? I didn't realize that was the start of an obsession. One that is still going strong in 2011 with the YA genre.

From then on, I've read every YA book I could get my hands on, and after I went through a couple hundred I had the urge to try my own hand at writing. I'll be honest my first novels were practice ones. I surprised myself that I even finished the things. LOL But now, after three years of solid learning about the publishing world, my writing is finally coming together. It clicks now a little more. I kinda feel like I might have a small clue of what I'm doing now. But I didn't get to this point on my own. When I got serious about writing I started with finding other people who wrote YA for their guidance, and then, I moved on to find an actual critique group that I meet with twice a month (FICTION FLURRY) here in Ohio. 

My point is, if you are new to the YA world. Welcome. The people in this genre are super cool. Most are warm and welcoming and are very supportive of each other. Whether your a reader or a writer, YA can inspire you. Hell, look at me. It made me a die hard reader and it inspired me to try and contribute my own stories to share with readers.

I wanna hear from you guys! What is it about YA that hooked you? How long have you been addicted? Shout out we'd love to hear from you.

Happy Read and Writing!

For YA Book Reviews: Reading, Writing and Waiting

Bad Blurb Tuesday: Some Girls Are

*NEWSFLASH* Before I get to the blurb, just a head's up. You've probably heard it already, but there's an auction for disaster relief in Japan going on at Write Hope featuring all writing-related items, like ARCS and critiques. I'm offering a full manuscript critique, followed by a full manuscript read by my agent, Taylor Martindale. That package will be up for bids on Thursday, so please, check it out if you're interested!

And now back to our regularly scheduled blurby badness.

It’s Bad Blurb Tuesday! This is where we create a seriously awful blurb for a well known YA book to prove that, yes, bad blurbs/pitches/queries can make even the most awesome stories sound lame. It’s actually one of my superpowers. And here I asked for the ability to make chocolate chip cookies out of broccoli. Oh well—can’t win ‘em all.

This week, I decided to pick one of my all-time favorite contemporary YA novels: Courtney Summer’s Some Girls Are.

Here’s my blurb:

Some Girls Are mean. Regina, the main character, sure is. She was mean to her ex-best friend and this one guy—which is a bummer, because she kind of likes him now—and a bunch of other people too. Now her current friends are being mean to her, both in person and on Facebook. Basically, it’s one big circle of meanness.

Seriously, doesn’t that profound gem make you want to jump out of your chair and speed to your nearest bookstore? Doesn't it scream 2011 ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults (one of the book's numerous awards)?

No, you say?

Luckily, the clever folks at St. Martin’s Griffin came up with something MUCH better. Here’s the real blurb:

Climbing to the top of the social ladder is har--falling from it is even harder. Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students at Hallowell High... until vicious rumors about her and her best friend's boyfriend start going around. Now Regina's been "frozen out" and her ex-best friends are out for revenge. If Regina was guilty, it would be one thing, but the rumors are far from the terrifying truth and the bullying is getting more intense by the day. She takes solace in the company of Michael Hayden, a misfit with a tragic past who she herself used to bully. Friendship doesn't come easily for these onetime enemies, and as Regina works hard to make amends for her past, she realizes Michael could be more than just a friend... if threats from the Fearsome Foursome don't break them both first.

Tensions grow and the abuse worsens as the final days of senior year march toward an explosive conclusion in this dark new tale from the author of Cracked Up To Be

So, what do you think? Will St. Martin’s be offering me a job as their jacket-copy writer anytime soon? Also, think you can do better in the bad blurb department? Go for it, and leave your version in the comments!

Going Indie: What Do You Think?

In today's sucky economy money is tight everywhere. Every industry has cut back, limiting the amount of money they spend on things. The literary world is no exception to this. A lot of agents are even putting in their query rejection letters that the economy has a direct impact based on rejections.

To combat this problem a ton of writers are going indie. What is indie you ask. An indie writer is someone who self publishes their writing or goes small press. In the past this has been, well, to put it lightly, looked down upon. But not anymore. There are several wildly popular authors out there who have gone the self publishing track. One YA indie author that has generated a lot of buzz lately is Amanda Hockings, 26. She has taken the indie publishing world by storm and showed a lot of us that is is possible to make it on your own. Here is a snip from a blog post on Amanda Hockings on Bookish by Maggie Galehouse:

She published her first two books on April 15, 2010. Since then, she has sold 900,000 copies (gulp!) of more than 9 different books.

Her novella and three of her novels are 99 cents in e-book. The other 5 go for $2.99.

Her novels are also available in paperback, for $8.99 or $9.99.

Now, let's take a moment to digest all this and do some math. Even if every single book sold went for 99 cents, and remembering that she earns 70 cents on every dollar of sales, by my estimation she has pulled in close to $620,000 already.

In her blog, Hocking says she's had an agent since last August. Even if she paid her agent $100,000 a year, she has still earned more than half a million.

You can check out Amanda Hockings on all the major online book seller sites, like Amazon, or you can check out her awesome blog, where she just announced her traditional publishing deal with St. Martians Press.

Another great indie writer is J.L. Bryan. He has several titles out now and an amazing website showcasing all of his works.

Several of my writing friends are going indie, and it's not because they aren't talented writers, because they totally are. Some of the best stories I've read over the past couple years are by unpublished authors whose manuscripts, for whatever reason, doesn't fit into the publishing houses budget plans. These are novels they have slaved on for years. For that reason, I cheer them on on their indie journey. There are a ton of unpublished gems out there and I am excited to watch their journey.

What do you guys think about going indie? Thinking about it? Done it? Shout out and Share! :)
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Visit my blog for YA Reviews: Reading, Writing and Waiting

Friday Funnies

So, excuses are like.....er, well. BUT, I promise that the Flashback Fridays segment is coming back with some homage to the classics like Anne of Green Gables & Pride and Prejudice as well as other hot topics in the industry.

You'll also want to check back in April when we celebrate our ONE Year Anniversary at GotYA!! Some giveaways are coming your way!!

In lieu of an actual post, I give you something to smile about this Friday. I know a

lot of areas are suffering through snow drifts, and I've got to s

urvive one more week before Spring Break. Help me!

Cover Love!

A new edition of Cover Love!

Let's start with The Maze Runner by James Dashner:

(US, UK, Greek)


(German, Portuguese)

From all the above the US and the Greek are my favorites. I like that the Greek cover shows the stormy sky. I don't like the German cover so much because it doesn't show the maze.

Next: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

(US, UK, German hardcover and paperback)

(Portuguese, Finnish, French)

My favorite is the UK cover. I love how fierce Katsa looks on it. I also like the German paperback with the glowing flowers and the US. Not sure about the Finnish and French though.

Next: The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

(US/UK, French, Spanish, Italian)

How can you possibily top the US cover? It's gorgeous and that dress? Stunning.

Most countries chose to have the US cover for their books, maybe the French, Spanish and Italian pubs should have done the same.

I haven't read The Luxe yet, so I'm not sure what's up with the thorns in the Spanish cover. Maybe one of you can explain it to me in the comments?

So what do you say? Have you any favorites? Are there any books you'd like to see in one of my next cover love posts?

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Just a little something to brighten your St. Patrick's Day!