I’m still at ALA, and let me tell you that librarians rawk! We’re having a great time and meeting lots of excellent people. More about them later.
Because, of course, while I’m here away from computer and internet connections, The Big News has finally appeared!
From this week’s Variety:
As they prepare “Eragon” for a Dec. 15 release, 20th Century Fox and producer John Davis have bought into another young adult fantasy book series with “Uglies,” the Scott Westerfeld novel that hatches a trilogy.
Davis will produce with his wife, Jordan. Futuristic tale taps into teen angst over conformity and acceptance. Kids are called “Uglies” until they reach 16 and get surgically transformed into the attractive “Pretties,” who move to the glamorous part of town. A precocious teen is threatened with being denied the procedure unless she spies on a pal who skipped the operation and joined a rebellious group. Studio has bought the three-book series for a potential franchise. The second novel, “Pretties,” is near the top of the young adult bestseller lists; the IPG-repped Westerfeld’s third installment, “Specials,” was also released this year.
The producers were plugged into the tale by their daughter, who read the book in school. Studio has begun the search for a scribe to adapt.
Okay, actually, that’s only part of The Big News . . . more later, when I get back to my own computer!
Cool how the producers were clued into the books by their daughter. See? Word of mouth works!
Update: My agent has hard copy of the issue of Variety in hand, and it turns out the article was on page one. This is ego-boosting if nothing else.
For more discussion, the wheels are spinning here on westerboard.com.
So those of you who live in the greater NY Times-reading metrosphere can see the listing of Specials finally committed to paper.
You see, although it’s been five weeks since I made the list, the Times only puts its children’s bestseller list on papyrus every 4-6 weeks! Because Specials listed right after the children’s list had been printed, I had to hang on for five weeks to see my name in newsprint.
Well, mission accomplished:
Note that newsprinty goodness. (It’s on page 16.)
Okay, enough about that.
On Friday, Justine and I head off for New Orleans and the ALA Annual Conference. I’ll be posting my schedule tomorrow for the librarians who read this blog. Can’t wait to see you guys there.
In New Orleans, I’ll be photoblogging a bit. I visited NOLA in 1991 and 2000 and had a great time, but I haven’t been there since Katrina. Can’t wait to discover what one of my favorite cities looks and feels like these days.
I’ll let you know.
A bunch of Westerfeldian forums have sprung up all over the place lately, and have been mentioned in the comments, but I thought I’d link to them from here.
Westerboard.com just appeared and has been rocking, with discussions on all my books. [Update: This one has moved to this new link due to high demand. Update your bookmarks!]
This forum has been around a while, and is specifically about Midnighters.
Here’s the Westerfeld Fans Myspace site.
And the Westerfeld LiveJournal community.
Have I missed any? Let me know.
In other news, Simon & Schuster, publishers of Uglies, have created a free sampler of their fantasy authors. It includes an excerpt of Specials and nine other books:
SWASHBUCKLING FANTASY features excerpts from 10 series by bestselling and critically acclaimed authors such as Margaret Petersen Haddix, author of the Shadow Children series, D.J. MacHale, author of the Pendragon series, Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies and Holly Black, author of Valiant. This online sampler also highlights six debut series from rising stars in fantasy, including Kai Meyer, Jane Johnson and Obert Skye. This fantasy sampler is the perfect way to introduce middle grade through teen readers to alternate worlds, distant pasts and fantastic creatures!
You can either take a look at the sampler or go straight to downloading.
Also, enjoy this lovely piece of fan art from Refrigerate Kate, which shows Tally hanging out in Diego.
I love the use of lighting to show that Tally’s sort of freaked out and alone.
And finally, for those of you who want to know what a tridecagram looks like, here’s one from . . . Alissa! And it came from the fan art section of Morgan’s site. Kewl.
So we lost the internet for two days thanks to a certain phone company being unspeakably lame. Sorry if I haven’t been posting, commenting, and answering email to your satisfaction.
Plus . . . moving!
We just left the Sydney flat, which was sadly empty and smelling of cleaning chemicals. We’re staying at the in-laws’ for two days before flying back to NYC. And now it is time to reminisce.
Sure, Specials may be at number 5 now. And yes, there’s that big news I’ve been promising you and not delivering, because I am a bad, bad man who drops hints and then is told by his agent that certain news is not public yet (grinds teeth).
But instead of discussing these things, I’m going to pause a moment to list all the things I’ll miss about Surry Hills.
The arched-tree promenade of Hyde Park, a mere five minutes’ walk away.
The glorious AMP Tower, seen at sunset out the glorious big window.
The telescope, which is staying here, alas. No more shall the moon be this cratered disk—orbalicious, blinding. Back to the mercury-vapor-pink skies of Manhattan.
The carnivorous plants of the nearby Botanical Gardens. You ate bugs so we didn’t have to, and yet we hardly knew ye.
The mighty Chesterfield, where much of Specials and The Last Days was penned. Plus, I loved that 6.4-meter ceiling.
Goodbye.
Last photo by Justine, all others by me.
Here’s an interesting question: Is Uglies a “girl book”?
Well, okay, if you put it that way, it’s a stupid question. It’s just a book, and it has as much supposedly “boy stuff” (things exploding, hoverboard chases, science fiction) as it does supposedly “girl stuff” (relationships, plastic surgery, things not exploding).
So the first thing I’ll say is, I’d hate for this post to suggest to anyone that these books aren’t for them. I write for everyone. (Except for boring people.) And I’d especially hate to suggest to any male readers that reading Uglies will “un-man” them. (Snorts derisively.) But it’s still a really interesting question about how readers see themselves, especially teens.
For example, I’ve seen the following in email and comments over the past few months:
A) Girls saying that they couldn’t get male friends to read the series.
B) Boys wondering if they’ll get hassled for carrying the books around.
C) And people of all genders saying the whole question is silly, of course.
It hasn’t been a huge thing. Most people who post here are pretty much into discussing the characters, themes, and imagery—which is as it should be. And no one seems to worry about Peeps, Midnighters, or So Yesterday. But there’s been just enough gender questions about Uglies to make me curious, and I’d like to hear from you guys. Because you’re all really, really smart.
So please answer whichever of these questions feel relevant to you:
1) When you suggest Uglies to friends, is it easier to get girls interested?
2) Do boys ever go “Nah, that’s girly!” if you suggest the books to them?
3) If so, do you think it’s the covers? The beauty themes? The titles?
And some other questions:
4) Do you think that girls read more than boys in general?
5) Do any of you boys feel weird talking about/carrying/liking Uglies?
6) Have I made you paranoid just by bringing this up?
Of course, my ulterior motive for doing this research is my next book, which is called:
Hah! Just kidding. But I had you going there, didn’t I?
Yes, I did.
Well, that headline pretty much says it all.
This morning (it’s Thursday here) my editor emailed me to say that Specials has appeared at number 6 on the New York Times chapterbook bestseller list!
I believe the word is . . . w00t.
Thanks to all of you who told your friends and librarians, made your parents drive you to the store, and forced some poor bookstore employee open a box early (you know who you are). You have been counted! Thanks to Rodrigo Corral for his ace cover designs. Thanks to S&S for being an excellent publisher.
Oh yeah, and thanks to J.K. Rowling, who single-handedly forced the Times to create a set of children’s bestseller lists. Because, like, they got sick of Harry Potter books getting all up in Salman Rushdie’s and James Patterson’s face. (Hah! YA rules!)
That little story reminds me to mention that all bestseller lists are mysterious and kind of fake. No one really knows what books are selling everywhere in the country (much less the world), so it’s all done by polling a hundred or so bookstores. And every list picks stores that tend to sell the kind of books that they like. And of course putting things into categories is always fraught; like, Specials is a chapter book and the latest Potter is a series book? Huh? The USA Today list doesn’t even bother with categories, just goes by raw Bookscan data, which misses non-bookstores like Target and K-Mart.
But you know what? I’ll take it. Because the NY Times is the list everyone’s HEARD OF! And that’s all that really matters, this big fat banner of credibility:
What’s REALLY annoying is that it’s not online yet, because the Times has this crazy system where they don’t publish lists until a fortnight after the end of the week in question. (Why? Why?) This news came from my editor (who must have some sort of Secret Publisher Decoder Ring) leaving me half wondering if a Terribly Embarrassing Mistake has been made.
But probably not, so once more . . . w00t!
Also, Midnighters fans will note that Specials is my thirteenth novel! Trideca-liscious!
(By the way, this little surprise is STILL not the big news I’ve been talking about. Soon, baby, soon.)
UPDATE: I have proof! (Thanks, Shana.)
First off: We had a great time in the Blue Mountains, which are exceedingly beautiful. Thanks to Justine for a view-tastic birthday!
So I’ve been getting a lot of mail asking about the infamous Uglies series format shift. The first two are in paperback, but due to the great success of the books, Specials is in hardback. See, it’s your fault for telling your friends about them.
Granted, most people don’t care, but some folks don’t like the extra expense and some collector types really seem to hate the inconsistency. (Me, I love small hardbacks, and the more money is nice too. But it wasn’t my idea, yo. Me write words only. Publisher all else do!)
Fortunately, there is a solution, at least for the collectors among us. The Canadian and Australian version of the book is soon coming out in trade paper, in an edition that exactly matches the first two USian books. It’s a bit cheaper too, but probably not after getting it shipped to America. That depends on your source.
This non-US paperback comes out on June 1. The only place I’ve found it available online is Amazon.ca. But I know that at least one Canadian bookseller reads this blog, so comment away, and I’d be happy to update.
Now if you live in Canada or Oz, of course, this is all moot. Moot, I say! And if you live in the UK, mootness also graces your shores. Because you will eventually have a lovely trio of books with entirely different covers in totally matching format. Same goes for all translations. It is only us Americans who suffer, so it probably has to do with the metric system, writing our dates wrong, or affordable health care.
Me, I blame soccer.
And so to add visual interest to the most boring post in the history of this blog, I present the SOCCER PLAYING ROBOTS of MR. SOCCER!
(Oh, and that really, really exciting news? Yeah, it’s coming. Any. Day. Now.)
Zane or David? Ugly or pretty? Wild or city?
Special or sane?
How does it all end?
Well, the final volume of the Uglies trilogy is available now, and this is the place to discuss it. That’s right, it’s the Specials . . .
WARNING: Do not read the comments of this post
until you have read all three Uglies books.
Unless you really want to know about Dr. Cable dying on page 596.
(No, wait . . . that’s Dumbledore.*)
Let the spoilage begin!
*I slay me.
UPDATE: Most of the conversations here have moved over to westerboard.com, the forum for all things westerfeldian.
Okay, this isn’t the big news, but it is big:
Specials, the final volume of the Uglies series, is shipping from Amazon right NOW!
Tell your friends! Tell your cats! Tell your friends’ cats!
It was “officially” supposed to go on sale May 9, but there’s always some gun-jumpage in the crazy world of bookselling. I’m still in Australia, so you guys have to do the in-store spotting for me. Anybody seen a copy of Specials in the wild yet? (I hope they have them in stores soon, because it’s just not fair otherwise.)
UPDATE: Copies of Specials have been spotted in stores, at least in Canada. They should be everywhere in Canada and the US soon, and in Australia in a month-ish. Just call ahead! (The UK version comes out in October, but you guys don’t even have Pretties yet.)
And yes, this is the hardback edition of Specials. I don’t know when the paperback will be out, or if hardbacks of the other two books will appear. I’m only in charge of the words! UPDATE ENDS
Also, I will be putting up a Specials Spoiler Comment Thread soon, for those of you who’ve read the book and want to divulge and discuss. BUT THIS IS NOT IT! Do not engage in spoilage here.
And in celebration, here is some fab fan art, a hoverboard-a-rific illustration by Kate:
I love the blue lines and faded math homework in the background, the true sign of fan art direct from study hall. (Um, because nobody draws in class, do they? Unless it helps you listen, of course.) The crash bracelets are bigger than I imagined, but I kind of like the hugeness of them. These look big enough to actually work, and maybe even help you guide your way through the air, sort of like wings.
Check out the rest of Kate’s work, including headshots of leather-jacketed David, slightly gothoid Zane, pretty vacant Tally, and ugly-befreckled Tally.
In the meantime, rest assure that the previously alluded to news will be announced here . . . shortly (-ish). And apologies to anybody whose fan mail I haven’t answered yet: I’ve been snowed under with work.
Now go and read.
One More Update: Specials got to 393 291 224 today on Amazon! (I know, looking at one’s Amazon rating is pretty lame, especially as independent bookstore sales are really more important. But some days it’s all we authors have got, okay?) That’s the best rating any of my books have ever achieved, even Evolution’s Darling the day it was reviewed in the NY Times way back in June of 2000, which was merely 692-ish. Let there be w00ting, and let it be loud.
Hey, sorry it’s been so long between posts. Justine and I were at Conjure up in Brisbane over the weekend. It was the Australian national sf convention, and a great time was had by all.
The most hilarious thing was the Juvenalia panel, in which Justine, Kim Wilkins, Sean Williams and I all read from our childhood and teenage writings. And oh, my, god was it funny. For the audience, at least. A friend of ours later said, “You guys’ body language got all teenagery as you read, as you madly shifted in your seats and rolled your eyes.”
And with good reason. Maybe I’ll post some of my juvenalia here some time. For any of you young’uns writing now, it will be eye-opening as to how much better you can get.
Kim’s stuff was very sweet and earnest, including a traffic safety guide penned when she was seven(ish). Sean, of course, had planets blowing up (his excellent novel Geodesica: Ascent also won the Ditmar Award at the convention—it is highly recommended). And Justine’s 15-year-old work was eerily like her current stuff.
It was a cool experiment. Yay to Kim for having the idea.
Upon our return to lovely Sydney, we discovered a cover mock-up for the Italian version of Uglies! Here it is in very rough form:
What’s interesting is that the face is pulled around from the back of the book, so there are two eyes instead of one. The face is also flipped, and, of course, the title’s on top now. Hmm. What do you guys think?
In Bologna, our Italian editor said she was having trouble with the title. She didn’t think that Brutti was as sonorous as Uglies, but couldn’t think of anything else that would make sense in Italian. But like I said, this is still a rough draft.
By the way, can anyone translate the tag line? Something about “Two rebels, two heroines . . . “?
Due ribelli, due eroine
in lotta per la liberta
in un mundo dove
essere belli e “legge”
The Uglies series has been adapted into graphic novel form, with the events of the trilogy told from Shay's point of view in three volumes.
The first one comes out March 6, 2012!
Click here to contact Scott Westerfeld.
Jill Grinberg
Jill Grinberg Literary Management
info@grinbergliterary.com
