Around this time of year, when the temperatures are freezing in New York and we're about to take off for a much needed vacation, we like to look forward to all of the new fantastic projects we'll be working on in 2009. We usually have some specific ideas about books we'd like to see, so for the first time we'd like to share our holiday wish list with you. If you've got something for us, send it in!

Wendy Sherman
-Emotionally charged, family-oriented women's fiction. If it has a strong voice and makes me cry, I'm hooked.
- I've got a soft spot for Southern fiction, and I'd love to add another Southern novel to my list.
- A suspense thriller with a strong yet flawed female protagonist. She could be a lawyer or an ordinary woman who somehow gets drawn into a dangerous situation. I've got to want to keep the pages turning every second!

Michelle Brower
-I'm looking for a sexy, dangerous werewolf YA novel with series potential. Think Christopher Pike's "Last Vampire" as a comparison.
- Book club fiction with a strong theme of redemption. "Book club fiction" straddles that sweet spot between commercial and literary.
-I'd also like to see a dark, atmospheric thriller, possibly with some supernatural elements. It should be a personal story above all; I just don't like terrorists, conspiracies, or evil corporations. Maybe there's a serial killer, or a missing child, or an unsolved mystery. Surprise me!

Our office will be closed from December 24th through January 5th. Hopefully we'll see some wish list items in the New Year, and Happy Holidays from WSA!

Labels: fiction, submissions

Recently, there have been a spate of articles lamenting the state of publishing, and indeed we are in tough times. Money is tight all around, layoffs and reorganizations are happening, and book sales are definitely suffering. However, we think all the doom and gloom directed at debut fiction is overrated. Publishers still need to publish new voices, and eventually the industry will start to recover from this serious slump. Even now, books are selling- Michelle Brower recently sold a first novel called The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by Michele Young-Stone to Shaye Areheart Books (an imprint of Random House). The Handbook was met with great enthusiasm and we received multiple offers with the editor at Shaye Areheart Books coming in with the winning preempt. It's a story that's so perfect for the times that it had to be published; it's quirky and heartwarming, and literary in a way that keeps you turning pages to get to the end. Now it has a home with a publisher known for high quality debut fiction, and we all believe it will really find its audience. The bar may be higher for first fiction right now, and you will have to convince a wary marketing/publicity team, but there are always opportunities out there for a good story to make it big.

Here's a link to an entry on Harper's Authonomy blog that discusses some general themes we'll be seeing as the recession continues.

Good food for thought.

Labels: fiction, industry, news, recent deals