Deals that Grab My Attention #MSWL
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Mar 30 2017
A few times a week I review new deals on Publisher’s Marketplace. It’s part of my job to keep up on what’s happening in publishing and this is one of the best ways. I can see what editors are buying (or have bought) and get a sense of the market. I also can’t help but get a little envious at times when I see books and think, “I would love that on my list.” This is a list of some of those books.
NONFICTION: Lodro Rinzler’s THE MINDFUL GUIDE TO EVERYTHING, a twist on a classic etiquette guide showing readers how to handle any situation — from a difficult conversation with your boss to a frustrating call with the cable company — in a mindful, kind, and patient way.
NONFICTION: Douglas Noll’s DE-ESCALATE: How to Calm anyone down in just minutes!, we humans are 98% emotional and 2% rational, yet we persist in ignoring and dismissing our emotional experiences; affect labeling and core messaging helps develop self-awareness of your emotional experiences.
DOMESTIC SUSPENSE and/or WOMEN’S FICTION: Rea Frey’s THE LONELY GIRLS, about a woman who kidnaps a young child from her mother in order to save her.
THRILLER: Former trial lawyer, editor of Harvard Law Review and winner of the Glamour Essay Contest, Angie Kim’s THE FLAMES OF MIRACLES, a literary courtroom thriller about a mother accused of murdering her eight-year-old autistic son.
MYSTERY: Sarah Gailey’s debut novel, following a detective without magical powers drawn into investigating a grisly murder at a secret school for young magicians, pitched as The Magicians meets Tana French. —-although I’ll be honest, this one might be better for the SFF agents here at BookEnds.
In addition to these books, I was attracted to a ton of children’s titles that would be appropriate for our YA, MG and PB agents at BookEnds, and I saw a few cookbooks I’d like to own. Maybe, someday, BookEnds will enter the cookbook market.
It’s always so exciting to see the future of publishing and build my must-read list early.
Wow. I love all your book recommendations, and have devoured some of the books you recommended already. I’m always looking forward to book talk on this blog. But a title from this list popped out at me as something I’d never touch. Namely, I’d never be interested in the book with the accused mother. Yes, these things do happen in real life. The literary world seems obstinate to raise awareness about all the pain out there, but I feel the pain is obvious as it is. I want to escape in books where I can rely on a HEA. I mean, I am fed up with Billionaire romance titles and Bad Boy romance and whatnot. But I think it would be great if someone wrote a “heavy” with a fairy tale happy end. Now that would be something.
I mean, look at The Girl on the Train (attention, SPOILER). In the end, Rachel is okay, she may even defeat her addiction, but wouldn’t it have been nice if the dead girl’s husband would’ve fallen for her instead of loathing her? Just sayin’…
Just curious, the comp for Sarah Gailey’s book is “The Magicians meets Tana French”. I’ve read “The Magicians” but haven’t heard of Tana French. What do you do if you receive a query and you don’t know the comp title/author? Is this a risk (for an author or an agent) when submitting?
It is, less because I should know what the comp is, more of a risk because you might comp something I really don’t like