Monday, October 22, 2018


Earlier this month, I had my first *huge* auction for Mara Fitzgerald's YA fantasy THE WALLS IN THE RUBY SKY!  The project ended up going to the wonderful Patrice Caldwell at Disney-Hyperion in the biggest deal I've ever done. 螺 螺  螺

Obviously, I am THRILLED!!!!!!  This project is sooo unbelievably great and I'm over the moon that it ended up with such a fantastic editor and house, and also very pleased that so many editors loved it.

THE WALLS IN THE RUBY SKY is one of those unique, incredibly-written manuscripts that is a dream come true to see turn up in your inbox.  I immediately fell in love with the hilariously vain, selfish main character and was completely drawn in by the meticulous world-building and character relationships Mara crafted.  As you know, I'm eager to work on projects that showcase diversity and marginalized voices, so the fact that it featured a queer heroine was the cherry on top for me!

Having editors echo my feelings was incredible, but actually having this auction was such an eye-opener for me.  Although I've had auctions in the past, I've never done one of this magnitude before and once everything was wrapped up, I was completely drained.  If you've read about books selling at auction before, but aren't familiar with exactly what they are, an auction is when multiple houses bid on the same project and the agent is basically in charge of shuttling back and forth in rounds to let everyone know what the highest bidder's offer and terms are to see if the other publishers are willing to re-bid to exceed those terms.

Going into this auction, I thought I would just be laying back and watching the offers roll in, but what actually ended up happening was a two-day long, intense, multi-player ping pong match, with lots of phone calls, packets to read, and discussions between me and my client and the team at LDLA.  As an agent, you end up incredibly stressed because you want to make sure you get the best possible deal for your client while also ensuring that they end up with the right editor/house!!

Thankfully, I'm extremely happy with the deal I was able to negotiate for Mara and the publisher and editor we ended up signing with.  I can't wait to move forward with THE WALLS IN THE RUBY SKY and start the journey to see it become an actual, hold-in-your-hands book!