It's crazy times in publishing and in the world, but here at WSA, Inc. we are glowing in our most action-packed time ever, with 9 books being published during January and February.

Love in 90 Days was launched with a huge media tour and Dr. Diana Kirschner has been on Today, the CBS Morning Show and now
has a weekly spot (every Thursday) on Fox's Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. Jonathan Fields has been owning the blogosphere with Career Renegade. Liz Funk made a early debut on Today promoting Supergirls Speak Out. Therese Fowler's Souvenir is just out in trade paperback and looks stunning with the new cover.

William Lashner is just out with Blood and Bone, his impressive first stand-alone and a departure from his Victor Carl series. Todd Johnson's fiction debut The Sweet By and By has already received glowing words from Alice Walker and Adriana Trigiani and we just got a absolutely rave review from Southern Living.

I Saw You by Julia Wertz was featured in the NYTimes Style Section last week. Alissa Johnson is out with the second in her romance series with Tempting Fate. Adrienne Kane's memoir Cooking and Screaming is off to a great start with a featured review in PW.



Whew! I'm sure I sound like a very proud mother kvelling about her children here. What a great way to start the year.



WS

Sitting in the tall white chair three feet away from Meredith Viera, I could practically hear my own heart pounding as one of the TODAY Show producers counted down, "Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one..." Despite that I was a little nervous, it was probably the most exhilarating experience of my life: on Tuesday morning at 8:19 am eastern standard time, I made my national television debut on NBC's Today Show.

A week earlier, my publicist at Simon and Schuster had sent me an email telling me that a producer from the Today Show wanted to call me to have an "exploratory" conversation about me being a guest during a segment on the pressure on girls to be perfect. I've written a book "Supergirls Speak Out: Inside the Secret Crisis of Overachieving Girls" about how the female ideal in Generation Y is more limiting and more demanding than ever before- girls want to be smart, desirable, accomplished, well-liked, and people-pleasing, but doing everything is making girls lose their sense of self and it makes them vulnerable to major mental health issues.

I had a really great hour long call with the TODAY show producer, and the next day the director of publicity for my imprint called me and told me that the TODAY Show was a go and that she'd give me more details ASAP. This meant a few things for me: practicing my talking points, making use of the box of Crest White Strips gathering dust on my dresser, perhaps getting to meet my crush Matt Lauer, and most importantly, getting to talk about my book and my hope for teen girls to be able to live healthier, happier lives on national television.

My mom and I were jazzed to have a towncar pick us up at our hotel in Manhattan on Tuesday morning and to sit in the green room in the NBC studios. I had my hair and makeup done a few feet away from Lily Allen, a very talented singer AND a Supergirl who I write about in my book.

Before I knew it, I was sitting in front of the cameras talking about my book. the segment itself was much faster and much easier than I thought it would be. Meredith Viera was so warm and nice, and because she made excellent eye contact while she asked me questions and I answered them, it felt more like a friendly conversation with an engaged and concerned mom than a news segment on a national morning show!

I feel so completely blessed to have had the opportunity to go on the TODAY Show- it's been one of my life goals since I was fifteen- and I'm so thankful for my family's support and for the amazing team behind my book who put this all together.

And in case you're curious, yes, I did get to meet Matt Lauer!

With that in mind, here's the TODAY Show clip!

Well, you know something wacky is going on when it's 57 degrees and sunny in New York City and it's 65 and rainy in San Diego. The SDSU conference was a whirlwind three days of author pitches, agent panels, presentations, and the occasional relaxing lunch with editors. The quality of participants was really high, and everyone was receptive to hearing feedback, so I think participants and industry professionals alike made good connections. It's always hard to evaluate someone's work on just a pitch, but I'm hopeful that I'll see a few good requested submissions in the coming weeks. But of course not everything is all roses and sunshine- I just got back from my weekend on the West Coast and returned to the news that Collins, the non-fiction division of HarperCollins, is being folded back into the company and some amazing editors are now out of work. This isn't good news, but hopefully it's the last major announcement we will see for a while. I'll repeat the advice that I was giving to authors at the conference: in a downturn, time is a gift. People are being picky, and the industry is in flux, so be patient and edit and revise and make your book a gem. Your work ultimately speaks for you, so now's the time for it to be the absolute focus.
-Michelle Brower