Fantasy Continues to Blossom

This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on Apr. 6, 2006 Sign up now!

by Sally Lodge, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 4/6/2006

As signs of a new season sprout outside publishers’ and booksellers’ windows, there are indications aplenty that the middle grade and young adult fantasy genre is still in full bloom. Retailers’ fantasy shelves will soon have a handful of additions for which—judging from robust first print orders and promotional plans—publishers have high expectations. Here’s a peek at the cream of this bountiful spring and summer fantasy crop.

Fly By Night

As are many works in the genre, an April title from HarperCollins Children's Books is a British import: Fly By Night, a debut novel by Frances Hardinge. The tale centers on Mosca Mye, a book-thirsty orphan, and her two unusual companions: a near-homicidal goose and a dangerous conman named Eponymous Clent. Michael Stearns, editorial director and foreign acquisitions manager of HarperCollins Children's Books, acquired the novel in what he calls "a heated auction" following last year's Bologna Book Fair; HC has set a first printing of 200,000 copies. "We obtained a copy of the proofs of the British edition of the novel just before the fair," Stearns recalls, "and several of us read it and fell in love with Frances's wonderful, witty, fully mature voice. I was immediately taken with the characters. Books like this one come along only once in a great while." When they made an offer for the book at the fair, Stearns and his colleagues discovered that they were not the only ones hooked on Fly By Night, but clinched the U.S. rights in the auction held by Macmillan, the novel's U.K. publisher.

The large first printing for this first novel is, according to Stearns, in response to both in-house enthusiasm and that of booksellers who read early galleys. Back in January HarperCollins brought Hardinge across the Atlantic for a five-city pre-pub tour to meet booksellers. And she will return to these shores at the end of this month to travel with Stearns to seven cities to talk up the tale. This will mark a first for the editor, who has never toured with an author. "The goal of this novel approach to touring is to help readers gain some insight into an extremely original book," he states. "Frances and I will perform a Q&A, give staged readings from the book and generally try to provide a behind-the-scenes look at how the novel came together, from the author's first inkling of it in an apartment in Oxford to its publication in the United States." HarperCollins is also supporting Fly By Night with print and on-line trade advertising, an "e-card tease" to booksellers, retail displays and Web promotions.

Infernal Devices

A second British-born fantasy due from HarperCollins is an EOS title, Infernal Devices, the third installment of Philip Reeve's The Hungry City Chronicles. Picking up 20 years after the events of Mortal Engines and Predator's Gold, this May release reunites Tom and Hester with enemies they had thought they had left behind forever, when the two embark on a search for their kidnapped daughter.

The book will also be edited by Michael Stearns, who joined HarperCollins last year and says he was thrilled to discover that editing The Hungry City Chronicles was among his new responsibilities. "I was already a fan of these books," he notes. "Philip's swashbuckling world of 'municipal Darwinism,' in which cities devour one another and the characters fight for freedom from the constant warring, is the most original future world I've come across in a decade. I don't know how Philip does it, but each successive book is packed with as much invention and breathtaking adventure as the book before."

And there is more to come: EOS will publish the fourth and final chronicle, A Darkling Plain, in summer 2007. The publisher plans to promote Infernal Devices (due out with a 25,000-copy first printing) with online promotion, featuring the title on the HarperTeen and Locus Web sites.

The Prophet of Yonwood

Another popular series welcomes a new adventure in May, when Random House Books for Young Readers releases Jeanne DuPrau's The Prophet of Yonwood, a prequel to the City of Ember and The People of Sparks. Set 50 years before the settlement of Ember, this novel tells of a girl who travels with her aunt to a small North Carolina town, where she tries to make sense of the mysterious utterances of a woman who has had a terrible vision of fire and destruction. Based on the track record of the novel's two predecessors, which have combined sales of 1.1 million copies, as well as on booksellers' enthusiastic response to galleys of the prequel, the publisher has set a 350,000-copy first printing for Prophet. DuPrau will embark on a 10-city tour to promote the novel, which Random House is also backing with national print and online advertising, retail floor displays, readers' guides and other promotional items.

"The success of Jeanne's books have been somewhat of a grassroots phenomenon," comments Jim Thomas, editorial director of middle grade and young adult books at RHBFYR. When agent Nancy Gallt initially submitted City of Ember, DuPrau's first children's book, he immediately recognized its potential. "It was clear that this novel would have a lot of appeal to kids," he says, "since the author creates a great, imaginative environment and likable characters who are easy to connect with. Jeanne is a speculative writer and takes a hard, intriguing look into people. And she adds an appealing action component, with kids figuring out problems and helping others."

Though City of Ember was written as a stand-alone book, the story continued to evolve and its sequels followed. "We all felt very strongly that we needed to know what else happened beyond that first novel," explains Thomas, who notes that DuPrau "is dabbling with a fourth novel in this series, but it's in the formative stages and time will tell if it actually becomes a book."

Gideon the Cutpurse

When a top-secret anti-gravity machine goes awry, two British youngsters are transported from the 21st century to 1763 in Gideon the Cutpurse, a debut novel by Linda Buckley-Archer, with illustrations by Tim O'Brien. Simon & Schuster will publish this first installment of The Gideon Trilogy in July with a 200,000-copy first printing. Elizabeth Law, v-p and associate publisher of S&S Books for Young Readers, says she was captivated by the manuscript when it arrived on her desk shortly after last year's Bologna Book Fair. Though she had already passed along to her colleagues a pair of books that had been heavily hyped at the fair, when she began reading Gideon she immediately shared it with them as well, with instructions to put down the other books and read this one instead. All agreed that this was a must-have book, as did Law's counterparts in London, prompting S&S to purchase world English-language rights for the trilogy.

According to Law, the novel's balance of fantasy and history gives Gideon "such a wide range that I realized it would appeal to a lot of readers. And the story has wonderful characters. The villain as well as the hero has great depth." She praises Buckley-Archer, a London-based scriptwriter and journalist who has written numerous scripts for BBC Radio, for "definitely understanding the concept of structure. Every one of her chapter endings is very exciting."

The author, in fact, began writing Gideon as a radio drama, but realized its potential as a novel when she began reading it to her own children who, in a spin on a classic scenario, wouldn't let her stop reading to them when suppertime rolled around. S&S brought the author to the States in January to visit with booksellers in three cities and to meet with librarians at ALA's midwinter meeting. Creating further buzz about Gideon is a $200,000 advertising and marketing campaign, which includes a dedicated Web site promoting the trilogy. Book two, The Tar Man, will follow in summer 2007.

Seeker

Also hailing from England is William Nicholson, whose screenplays for the films Shadowlands and Gladiator were nominated for Academy Awards. Due from Harcourt in May is this author's Seeker, the inaugural novel in the Noble Warriors saga. Published last year in the U.K. by Egmont, this tale centers on a 16-year-old who sets off on a quest to rescue his older brother, who has been exiled without explanation from a revered order of warrior monks. Appearing on the long list for this year's Carnegie Medal in England, the novel has clearly garnered attention on both sides of the Atlantic. Allyn Johnston, editor-in-chief of Harcourt Children's Books, purchased U.S. rights to Seeker and its two sequels, Jango and Nomana, at an auction conducted by Nancy Gallt on behalf of Nicholson's U.K. agent, Rosemary Cantor.

Johnston was no stranger to Nicholson's fiction. "I had loved his Wind on Fire Trilogy," she says of an earlier sequence published here by Hyperion. "But I found out about it after it had already been sold into the U.S. When I discovered who Bill's U.K. agent was, I raved to her about my passion for the first series. So when he wrote this one, she made sure I was included in the auction. I found Seeker passionate and riveting—and I had to figure out a way to get it on Harcourt's list."

With a 100,000-copy first printing on order, Seeker indisputably has a prominent spot on Harcourt's spring list. And the house appears to be a most appropriate home for the novel. When Nicholson traveled to New York City for Harcourt's sales conference in October, he relayed a charming story to the reps and other staffers. He told of informing his wife and her grandmother, who is Vanessa Bell, sister of Virginia Woolf, that his new books were to be published by Harcourt. "Harcourt, eh? That's good," Bell reportedly responded. "That was Virginia's publisher." Virginia's—and now Nicholson's—publisher will promote the novel with a floor display and extensive Web publicity.

And Beyond?

Talking up their current fantasy offerings with obvious enthusiasm—and issuing them in with significant hoopla—these editors are evidently confident that the genre's blush will not soon fade. But selectivity when acquiring fantasy is clearly the edict these days—especially with the stakes so high. "You have to absolutely love a fantasy book to publish it today," states Law at S&S. "And part of the reason is that no one is going to sell you a good fantasy now for $15,000, so you had better love the book."

Though there is no denying that shelves in bookstore fantasy sections are groaning, those in the business of acquiring fiction in this area maintain that they are, and will continue, to buy with their hearts. "The market is increasingly crowded, but I'm still buying the sorts of books I've always been drawn to," observes HarperCollins's Stearns. "I've always bought books because I fell in love with them and couldn't not buy them. I hope that never changes. I'd hate to be the sort of editor who buys a book simply because he or she thinks a particular part of the market is 'hot' or whatever."

At Random House, Thomas acknowledges that his fantasy list has grown along with the growth in the fantasy marketplace, yet notes, "At the same time I wonder how much the market can bear—how many more slots are there for new fantasy books? But I think that as long as there is another Harry Potter coming out and another Christopher Paolini novel coming out—books that generate a lot of excitement and get people into stores—there will be room for other new fantasy titles too. When those series are finished we may well slide down the far side of the curve."

Though he specifically mentions his lack of a crystal ball, Stearns insists, "I'm bullish on the market for fantasy fiction. I remember how several years ago, people were predicting the bursting of a bubble, saying that this Harry Potter thing couldn't last, but I didn't believe them then and I don't now."

Luckily, it doesn't appear as though that sorry scenario will emerge any time soon. As her tale winds down, Mosca Mye, the book-loving heroine of Fly By Night, complains, "I don't want a happy ending. I want more story." The authors and publishers mentioned here are eagerly obliging young fantasy fans who share Mosca's sentiments—and are even providing some happy endings.