BERTRICE SMALL                              December 9, 1937-February 24, 2015

 

It’s with great sadness that I acknowledge on our website the passing of Bertrice Small, a great colleague and a true friend.  We enjoyed a long, fruitful relationship based on mutual respect and candor.  She was a friend and a mentor to me as an agent and I treasure both the work we did together and the companionship we shared discussing the business and our personal lives.  Her talent and accomplishments were vast, not only in the number of her books she wrote, but in their quality and their fresh and groundbreaking content.

She was a unique and special woman, full of life and intelligence and wit and she will be missed.  May she be remembered for a blessing.

 

Ethan Ellenberg

AGENCY NEWS MARCH 2015

 

I’d like to start with a number of awards and honors.

 

The American Library Association recently announced its awards and we’re delighted that two agency clients were among the honorees:

LOCK IN by JOHN SCALZI won an Alex Award, awarded for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences.

THE FAMILY ROMANOV: MURDER, REBELLION AND THE FALL OF IMPERIAL RUSSIA  written by  CANDACE FLEMING, and published by Schwartz & Wade, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books won a YALSA AWARD, awarded for excellence in publishing for Young Adult non-fiction.

And speaking of John Scalzi’s LOCK IN, it’s also up for an AUDIE award for best audiobook in the Science Fiction category.

In other news a major coup for first time novelist JUDD TRICHTER whose first SF novel, LOVE IN THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION has been recognized by PW as one of the top 10 books for Spring, 2015 in SF, Fantasy and Horror.  The book already received a number of strong reviews and we’ve sold audio and Italian rights.

 

In other news:

 

AER-KI JYR’s first novel with Harper/Voyager, APEX, was featured in PW’s Spring 2015 highlights.

We’re re-issuing 5 of Kay Kenyon’s early novels with our Agent Sponsored Publishing

Mel Odom’s new military SF series, THE MAKAUM WAR, has launched with publication of book one, MASTER SERGEANT, and it’s a Main Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club and IO9 has reviewed it.

We’ve sold a new work for Edward Willett to Daw, THE CITY MUST DIE.

March will be a big month for SHELLY LAURENSTON with the launch of her new series, CALL OF CROWS, book one is titled THE UNLEASHING.  Audio rights have been sold to Tantor.

Open Road Publishing will be releasing all of the JENNIFER WILDE backlist over the coming months, the first time any of these books have been published as ebooks.

We’ve sold two new YA books by ROBIN BRIDGES to Kensington.

We’re very excited about the May publication of BULLDOZER’S BIG DAY written by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Caldecott winner Eric Rohmann.  It’s Simon and Schuster’s lead picture book companywide for Spring 2015 and we’ve agreed on terms for a sequel.

MARTHE JOCELYN has agreed to a new picture book deal with Tundra for SAM SORTS, a sequel of sorts to her hit book HANNAH’S COLLECTIONS.
We continue our success in licensing translation rights on behalf of RIPTIDE PUBLISHING and can proudly say we have now licensed titles in Japanese, German, Italian, and French.

Senior Agent, Evan Gregory has concluded terms for the 4^th book in MARKO KLOOS’S  ‘FRONTLINES’ series, provisionally titled CHAINS OF COMMAND.

 

IO9 is featuring FLEX by FERRETT STEINMETZ, a March book coming from Angry Robot, in its 2015 preview.

 

Ethan Ellenberg

 

AGENCY NEWS—NOVEMBER 2014

 

 

We’re excited to report publication of the first two original titles under our Agent Support Publishing program.

 

We launched with DARK DIGITAL SKY by Carac Allison.  This dark suspense novel  has already garnered 66 Amazon reviews and they are overwhelmingly positive.  We couldn’t be prouder of an author we think is at the very top of this genre’s storytellers.  A book description follows below:

 

LA Private Investigator Chalk is hired to find three adult sons a Hollywood mogul fathered through a sperm bank many years before. United, the three half brothers discover they share a desire to be warriors. They plan a heist to prove they are worthy of enlisting with a paramilitary leader who has taken both a name and a mad inspiration from Kubrick’s dark satire Dr. Strangelove. General Ripper’s forces begin by robbing pharmaceutical warehouses and then mailing the stolen prescription drugs to America’s veterans. They escalate to kidnapping video game designers and broadcasting their deaths. The ensuing chaos builds toward a culminating drone attack that will forever prove Ripper’s warning that graphics have made warriors terrorists.

Chalk, the book’s main character, is an ex-FBI agent whose specializations are cults and computer forensics. The tools of his trade as a PI are a Porsche 911, an unregistered Glock, modified cellphones, radios, and an eclectic collection of computers. He suffers from bipolar disorder, lives alone and hopes to one day be able to see his son without the constraints placed on him by the courts.

 

Our next title is a major Science Fiction novel by a debut author, JAMES HIDER, CRONIX.   If you are looking for a brilliant new voice in the genre who tells a big story that will challenge and entertain you,  CRONIX is it.  A description follows below:

 

Recreational suicide bombings and revelers in fancy dress throwing themselves from the top of the Empire State Building: when scientists break the final frontier of Death and find a way for the soul to live forever, humanity leaves Earth with a bang, bound for a man-made paradise. On the Orbiters, supercomputers riding beyond the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, these Eternals live out their wildest dreams or build fantastic idylls, free at last from the tyranny of Evolution.

 

Back on Earth, however, the man known to history simply as the Missing Link is hiding out in the woods. Luis Oriente was the product of a brutal but successful experiment to capture a human mind and synthesize it into ultra-human form. Not quite mortal, and fearful of heaven, Oriente has spent centuries fleeing his past, living a quiet life in the woods, far from prying eyes.

 

But when a giant wolf disrupts the rhythm of the forest to deliver a cryptic message, Oriente is dragged back into the turbulent currents of the history he has tried so hard to forget. Something is rotten in paradise, and Evolution is not quite done with humanity yet.

 

In other news we are very happy to announce that two agency clients have made the BEST BOOKS OF 2014 LIST FROM PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY.

 

James Cambias’s  A DARKLING SEA is one of only 6 SF/Fantasy Books honored and Candace Fleming’s THE FAMILY ROMANOV has been honored on the YA non-fiction list.

We’re celebrating a number of new sales below:

 

MARYJANICE DAVIDSON—the ‘UNDEAD’ series concludes with books 14 and 15.

JOHN SCALZI-we’ve licensed movie/t.v. rights to LEGENDARY PICTURES for LOCK IN.

We’ve sold APEX to Avon Impulse for new client AER-KI JYR.

Mel Odom’s first book in his new military SF series, MASTER SERGEANT: THE MAKAUM WAR, is a Main Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club,

We’ve sold 3 more books in her GARGOYLE series to St. Martin’s for CHRISTINE WARREN.

We’ve sold 3 more books on behalf of LINDSAY MCKENNA to Harlequin/HQN.

EVAN GREGORY in our office has sold a 3 book Fantasy series to Tor on behalf of new fiction author MICHAEL LIVINGSTON.

 

I hope you will read DARK DIGITAL SKY by Carac Allison and CRONIX by James Hider, they are special books and debuts for two wonderfully talented writers.

 

Ethan Ellenberg

 

 

 

 

We are proud to announce that the WARSTRIDER series by Ian Douglas (originally published under his real name William H. Keith) ) will be available in electronic format for the first time. First published in 1993, the classic original science fiction series from the New York Times-bestselling author of the STAR CARRIER and STAR CORPSMAN series will soon be available for Kindle on Amazon from War Planet Press, our agency’s new imprint for e-publishing science fiction and fantasy fiction.

The six Warstrider books are being reissued with amazing new cover art by Matt Forsyth. The first book, entitled Warstrider, was released on July 8^th, while the next five books, Rebellion, Jackers, Symbionts, Netlink, and Battlemind, will be released in succession over three-week intervals.

Check out War Planet Press on Facebook and Twitter for future releases.

 

Usually where to begin sets our heads a’pondering but not this month.

We are overjoyed to announce that our long term client, cherished colleague and friend, BERTRICE SMALL has won the Romance Writers of America lifetime achievement award for 2014.

It has been a joy and an education to work for Bertrice.  Her exceptional talent, free spirit, hard work and professionalism has been an inspiration.

And there’s other news:

On behalf of JOHN SCALZI we have sold LOCK IN to Audible for audio and to his long time publisher in Germany, Heyne.  We are also considering offers to launch John in Brazil. REDSHIRTS has been optioned to Fox and we’re excited to see how that develops.

KATHIE DENOSKY has secured a 12 book agreement to continue her exceptional career with Harlequin.

IAN DOUGLAS will continue his STAR CARRIER series with Avon with a new 3 book contract and launch a new series under a 2 book agreement.

We’ve sold Dutch rights to KAREN MILLER’S THE FALCON THRONE.

SHELLY LAURENSTON’S BITE ME made the NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST, COMBINED PRINT AND DIGITAL.

On behalf of LINDSAY MCKENNA we’ve sold her entire ‘Wyoming’ series to audible for audio release.

We’re excited to announce a wonderful debut sale on behalf of CARAC ALLISON, DARK DIGITAL SKY to Exhibit A.  This is a suspense writer and a book that we expect great things from.

We’ve sold an additional book for MARKO KLOOS to 47-North and his sales continue to build.

We have also secured a 3 book deal for another debut author, MICHAEL LIVINSTGON, whose SHARDS OF HEAVEN series will be published by Tor.

Book Expo is here and we are looking forward to another convention.

 

 

Ethan Ellenberg/Evan Gregory