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Laurie Ann Thompson

deal

Another book deal: a how-to guide for teen changemakers!

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Europa Park Roller Coaster Up
Although we recent­ly spent a week in Dis­ney­land, last week was def­i­nite­ly the big­ger roller coast­er ride for me: I had surgery on Tues­day, then my sec­ond book deal was announced on Thurs­day! There’s noth­ing like good pub­lish­ing news to cheer up a writer who is feel­ing down, and noth­ing like a book sell­ing on proposal–with a short deadline–to make her want to recov­er as quick­ly as possible.
Here’s the announce­ment from Pub­lish­er’s Mar­ket­place:

Lau­rie Thomp­son’s CHANGEMAKERS, a teen hand­book for social activism and how to effect change, with tips, instruc­tion, and prac­ti­cal case stud­ies, to Nicole Geiger at Simon Pulse, by Ammi-Joan Paque­tte at Erin Mur­phy Lit­er­ary Agency (World English).

And here’s the fab­u­lous write-up my amaz­ing agent put up on the agency web­site:

Quick show of hands: Who here has ever dreamed of chang­ing the world? Okay, now one more: Who’s actu­al­ly sat down and put togeth­er a spe­cif­ic plan for chang­ing the world, com­plete with guide­lines, prac­ti­cal tips, and hands-on expe­ri­ence from those who have gone before and actu­al­ly done it?
Let me intro­duce you to Lau­rie Thomp­son. Last year, Lau­rie’s first pic­ture book was signed on by Schwartz & Wade. This week, Lau­rie has accept­ed a pub­li­ca­tion offer for her newest book, a non-fic­tion man­u­al for teens and pre­teens, ten­ta­tive­ly titled CHANGEMAKERS. Focus­ing on the expe­ri­ences of teens and young peo­ple who have made a con­crete dif­fer­ence in their own neigh­bor­hoods, coun­tries, and across the world, CHANGEMAKERS will be the defin­i­tive guide for kids who want to make a dif­fer­ence but don’t know how to get start­ed. And I have a feel­ing the rest of us non-kids will enjoy it too!
This book was enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly signed on by Nicole Geiger at Beyond Words Publishing/Simon Pulse, and is slat­ed for pub­li­ca­tion in Fall 2014. Huge con­grat­u­la­tions, Laurie!

Even though this is my sec­ond book deal, it looks like it will actu­al­ly be my pub­lish­ing debut. My first book, a pic­ture book, isn’t sched­uled to launch until spring 2015, but this one is sched­uled to come out in fall 2014. Since this one sold on pro­pos­al, how­ev­er, I have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time if that is going to hap­pen. So, please for­give me if I’m even qui­eter than usu­al for the next few months.  As soon as I am recov­ered enough, I’ll be back on my tread­mill pound­ing out words!

Fantastic news–my first book sale!

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Okay, so this post is a lit­tle late in com­ing. I’ve been care­ful­ly think­ing about relat­ed revi­sion notes as well as enjoy­ing just a lit­tle bit of bask­ing and cel­e­brat­ing (okay, a lot of bask­ing and cel­e­brat­ing!). Now that my feet are back on the ground, please allow me to share the offi­cial announcement…
I’ve sold my first book!
 

I can’t yet reveal all of the details (there’s a top-secret Awe­some Illus­tra­tor involved!), but I  can say that in my wildest dreams, I could­n’t have imag­ined any­thing bet­ter. My pic­ture-book biog­ra­phy about Emmanuel Oso­fu Yeboah (see pre­vi­ous post) will be edit­ed by the love­ly Anne Schwartz at Schwartz & Wade (Ran­dom House). Here’s a bit of a blurb about the book, cour­tesy of my amaz­ing agent, Ammi-Joan Paque­tte:

“When Emmanuel Ofo­su Yeboah was born, his right leg was short and twisted—completely use­less. It was 1977, and peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties in Ghana, West Africa, were con­sid­ered cursed, and left their homes only to beg for food or mon­ey. Emmanuel chal­lenged the norm from his youngest days. Then, in 2001, he decid­ed to prove that peo­ple with phys­i­cal chal­lenges could do amaz­ing things, so he bicy­cled across Ghana—almost 400 miles—with one leg. His ten-day ride helped make him a vir­tu­al celebri­ty, but also a nation­al hero. As a direct result of Emmanuel’s efforts, Ghana even­tu­al­ly enact­ed pro­gres­sive dis­abil­i­ty laws.”

Her full announce­ment is on the Erin Mur­phy Lit­er­ary Agency web­site, here.
Part of what makes this the ulti­mate dream come true for is that this is the sto­ry I could nev­er let go of. It’s the first book I ever tried to write and has been through at least 30 MAJOR rewrites, chang­ing gen­res and tar­get age groups sev­er­al times along the way, and vary­ing in length from 200 words to 1500 words and every­where in between. I’ve put it away, stud­ied and learned, pon­dered and thought, writ­ten oth­er things, and been pulled back to this one again count­less times, over and over, for almost 7 years. This project has been my own per­son­al 400-mile bike ride, one that I don’t know if I could have com­plet­ed with­out the inspi­ra­tion I’ve derived from the sto­ry itself. To have it be the first book of mine to sell AND to have it land in such a per­fect, won­der­ful home at S&W is tru­ly unbe­liev­able. But please don’t pinch me, because this is one dream I don’t want to end.

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