by Claire Bidwell Smith is already one of the most talked about books of the upcoming season. (Penguin/February 2012)

The book trailer really captures so much about this extraordinary memoir.

 The Rules of Inheritance Trailer

It’s been a busy week here with lots of congratulations going around.   Claire Bidwell Smith‘s amazing memoir THE RULES OF INHERITANCE (Hudson Street/Penguin- February 2, 2012) has been named a B&N Spring 2012 Discover Pick.  Claire wrote this very moving post on her blog:   With Gratitude From New York City

Wade Rouse‘s hilarious and heartwarming memoir IT’S ALL RELATIVE is a finalist  for 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards in the humor category.   Be sure to vote for Wade!  Goodreads Choice Awards 2011

And Dr. Tony Youn‘s memoir – I’m going to say hilarious and heartwarming again – IN STITCHES was nominated in the ‘first book’ category for the 16^th Annual Books for a Better Life Awards. Winners will be announced Monday, March 12^th 2012 during an awards ceremony at The New York Times Center in Manhattan.

Congratulations to all!

-WS

One of my favorite things about our business is the people I get to work with.   Smart, interesting, creative and dedicated to the same things I care about, namely excellent writers and books that inspire and excite me.  After many years in publishing  -  both as a publisher and as an agent – it is easy to get comfortable within a familiar group of editors whose taste I know and whose lives I’ve  shared through various jobs, relationships, marriages, children, etc.

But it’s really important to reach beyond that inner familiar circle and get to  know a new generation of editors who are filled with fresh perspectives, and with the kind of excitement that only comes from being young, fearless and hungry to buy.   I’m thrilled to have met many of these young (ish) editors over the past several months.  It has allowed me to see the business in a whole new light and feel their fresh sense of ‘any thing is possible’ even when the day-to day can feel all too familiar.  These editors represent the future of our business and I’m happy to say that from where I sit the future feels ever bright and hopeful.

-WS

“Tiger mom” Amy Chua has nothing on my dad. I’m talking traditional old-school Asian father. He was strict and uncompromising and raised me the way he was raised. Without having a Tiger Dad, I wouldn’t be the man, husband, father, or doctor that I am today.

My dad grew up on a tiny rice farm in rural South Korea with his parents, six siblings, a dozen chickens and a pig. Their home consisted of three small huts, one for sleeping, one for gathering and one for cooking. Their stove was a metal grate over an open fire.

My grandfather made his living farming a small plot of land, mainly growing rice and collecting eggs from the chickens that served as both food and pets. My grandmother raised all seven children, cooked, cleaned and cared for the animals. They spent almost all their earnings on food and repairs on their primitive home. The little money they had left over, they put in a jar to save for my father’s education.

As the eldest son, the hopes of the entire family rested on my father. My grandparents planned to use their savings to put my dad through medical school, after which he would move to America, become a successful doctor and pull his family out of poverty.

Like many Asian immigrants of his generation, my dad persevered through extreme hardship in order to move overseas. Ultimately, he arrived outside of Detroit, a penniless foreigner speaking almost no English, having no friends, and with only the rudimentary skills of a foreign physician. But he also brought a dogged determination to better his life and the lives of his family. He also defined success in the old Asian way: Success did not mean happiness. Happiness was something you didn’t have time to worry about .

As an Asian American, born and raised in Michigan, my Western culture emphasized “happiness.” This was the opposite of what my Tiger Dad said. Forget happiness. I had to be a success. My dad decided I would be a doctor the day I was born. I often wished my dad weren’t so strict. But now I see why: Being a doctor paid for the education of all six of his siblings, and pulled his entire family out of brutal poverty. I once asked my dad what he considered to be his role in the family. He said he saw himself as a stepping stone: one who knelt in the dirty water of the river to allow his family, and children, to step over him to reach the other side.

Dad has retired with grandkids to enjoy and enough financial security to relax. My wish for my Tiger Dad is that he has found not only success but also happiness.

Anthony Youn, MD, is author of In Stitches, a memoir about growing up Asian American and becoming a doctor.

Originally published on USAToday.com

…There’s another writer in town who can make them laugh and cry and wish they had what she has. And she’s one of my authors.

I was delighted to witness Jen Singer, author of five books and creator of MommaSaid.net, deliver a brilliant, funny and illuminating keynote address this weekend at the 40^th annual conference of the ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors) in New York City. On Twitter and Facebook, attendees have since called her speech “humorous” and “inspiring.”

I first met Jen when her first book, 14 Hours Til Bedtime, was featured in the New Jersey section of the New York Times. I don’t often see my hometown and the word “author” printed in the same sentence, so it caught my attention. I tracked her down, and was delighted to discover that she was interested in working together (and wanted to hire my daughter for babysitting) . We’ve since sold four books together, You’re a Good Mom (and Your Kids Aren’t So Bad Either) (Sourcebooks) and the Stop Second-Guessing Yourself series of parenting books (HCI).  MommaSaid.net, now boasts more than 120,000 page views a month.  Jen also created Please Take My Children to Work Day, a holiday for at-home parents that has been officially declared in a dozen states.

Jen finished writing You’re a Good Mom while in chemotherapy for stage three non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Now in remission for 3 ½ years, Jen just launched ParentingWithCancer.com. I look forward to her next book project (soon please). Meanwhile, I will forever remember watching her with pride as she owned the room of her peers at ASJA, doling out so much wit, wisdom and insight into social media and inspiration, that even the savviest writer, author and publisher could learn a lot and have great laughs along the way.

Fowler gives Exposure to dangers of  ’sexting’. Novelists are always urged to write about what they know. Author Therese Fowler has followed that advice with her third novel, Exposure (Ballantine, $25), in stores Tuesday. The plot centers on the red-hot issue of teens sexting, and Fowler’s knowledge is hard-earned.

In 2009, Fowler’s then-19-year-old son was arrested on a misdemeanor charge for e-mailing nude photos of himself to a 16-year-old female friend.

“I was astonished that simply sharing a photo of himself with a girl he knew could be considered criminal,” says Fowler, 44, from her home in Wake Forest, N.C. (The charges were dismissed.)

Fowler used the experience to write a Romeo-and-Juliet drama set at a posh private school in North Carolina…

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2011-04-28-fowler28_ST_N.htm

In our eternal optimism, Wendy and I are constantly uttering “you
never know” to each other. What we mean is, you never know when your
next great talent is sitting in the submissions inbox and you never
know when the next bestseller is going to emerge from the barrage of
hopeful emails. But today we sold a book. It was an interesting road
to publication, but one that began in the submissions inbox with an
email from an unknown writer whose gorgeous prose leapt off the page.
I immediately brought the writer’s letter to Wendy’s attention and she
found the story as arresting and the sentences as inspiring as I did.

The query began, Bonaventure Arrow didn’t make a peep when he was born
and the doctors nearly took him for dead. That gripping first line will
now find its way into book stores. The writer went on to describe a
magical realist tale of a young boy who, though born mute, is gifted
with a rare and amazing silence that lets in sounds no one else can
hear. By the time he was seven, the boy was listening to “flowers grow,
the color blue, and the miniature tempests that raged inside
raindrops.” Then, one day, when he is old enough, he hears the “festering
sounds of family secrets.” Pitched as Flannery O’ Connor meets Alice
Hoffman and set in 1920s-1950s New Orleans, I was sold.

The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski has found a home
with the talented young editor Maya Ziv at Harper Perennial and we
couldn’t be happier. To us, this is a match made in literary heaven
and proof that “you never know.”
-KP

The front-page New York Times article “A Girl’s Nude Photo, and Altered Lives,” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/us/27sexting.html?hp is only the latest account of what’s happening to teens who share explicit photos of themselves or others.

As many of you know, one of my sons was arrested and charged with a similar crime. The events inspired me to write EXPOSURE, my third novel, which will be released by Random House on May 3rd.

I answered a recent interview question as follows:

“In some ways, the writing came easily because the scenario was so familiar and so close. In other ways it was hard, because even though Exposure is entirely fictional—the story inside the book is not my son’s, nor mine—I knew I was putting my son and myself in a position where we would be judged. All the while, though, I was telling myself, Think of what books can do.

I grew up being influenced by novels, and I fully believe in the power of story. Whether invented or true, stories have been the vehicles of lessons and warnings and inspiration for as long as humans have had the means to tell them.

So to craft a novel that might prevent even one person, one family, from having to face a similar or worse crisis was an opportunity to tell a story that reminds us all, “To err is human”–which is especially true when deep emotions are involved. I felt obligated to set aside the other book I’d been working on and write this one, to give you Anthony and Amelia and Harlan and Kim, all well-meaning people whose actions and choices add up to a cautionary tale that I hope will provide, at the very least, hours of good reading.

Everyone in Exposure makes mistakes—as we all have done at times, and no doubt will do again. It’s what happens afterward that makes all the difference.”

Early reviews have been overwhelmingly favorable, a fact for which I am grateful.

From Wisconsin public school superintendent Dave Moyer:

“Exposure is a worthwhile and relevant tale about the perils of growing up in a modern digital age where the standards of morality are ever changing. Well recommended.”

From South Carolina school media specialist Kelly Knight:

“Exposure is a very powerful book, particularly because it presents the story not only from Amelia and Anthony’s perspectives but also because it gives a look into what their parents are thinking and going through… I think this story will resonate with both teens and parents on the issues of sexting and using technology responsibly. Exposure is scheduled to be released on May 3rd, and I strongly encourage teens and parents of teens to pick it up.”

From Kathy L. Patrick, of The Pulpwood Queens book club and Beauty and the Book:

“Exposure may be a mother’s worst nightmare come true, but Therese Fowler’s new book is also a book club selection dream book come true! All I know is I could not put this book down and cannot wait to discuss this with my Pulpwood Queen reading nation! Without giving away any spoilers: who knew?

I haven’t been this excited to discuss anything so controversial since my book club kicked off Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson’s READ THIS Book Club on Good Morning America.”

Booksellers have been enthusiastic as well.

From Jackie Blem, of Denver’s Tattered Cover Bookstore:

“This is a riveting story, made more so when you know that the author went through a similar situation in her own life with her teenage son. She is brave in writing it, and I believe that the reader will be richer for the reading of it. This is going to be a HUGE book for bookclubs–there is so much to talk about within it’s covers. Fans of Jodi Picoult will embrace it completely. Fans of Therese Fowler will be blown away by how far she has come in her writing and in her grip upon her reader. This is a story no one will forget.”

Perhaps best of all, the book is resonating with readers.

From Jennifer, who won an advance copy from Goodreads:

“(Exposure is) a well-crafted, intricately woven tale worthy of timeless literature. Therese Fowler has solidly combined the old classics overtones with the modern age, producing a strong love story without overdoing it, creating a network of characters, each whose integrity is severely demanded. All players have been weighed, measured, questioned and found wanting. No-one is allowed to slip the hook.”

(more reader reviews at Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9926930-exposure)

I buy the whole “New York minute” thing . A lot is possible in a New York minute. But leave it to writer/publishing guru Sue Shapiro to fix your life and your book in just 180 seconds. The other night I participated in her brainchild, Speed Shrinking, a themed book party in celebration of her novel of the same name. The event was held at Housing Works in the West Village and editors, agents, marriage counselors and health and wellness experts all gathered to give bite-sized therapy sessions to those  seeking advice on crafting book proposals, writing query letters, finding  love, losing weight or spicing up marriages.

Ambitious head shrinking? I should say so.

But while I was trying to help answer questions about pitch letters and how best to find an agent, our own Dr. Diana Kirshner (a real psychologist) was the star of the show, dishing out relationship advice based on her revolutionary books Love in 90 Days and Sealing the Deal.

The event was a rousing success and, while there were no couches or Rorschach inkblots in the vicinity, I hope there were at least at few breakthroughs…

-KP