Wednesday, October 3, 2012

My Book Sold!

Finally, finally I can scream from my rooftop that I've got a book deal! I've been keeping this little secret for a hundred years now. (Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration).

I am so pleased to announce that my young adult paranormal, GILDED, sold to Amazon Children's Publishing (formally Marshall Cavendish)!

Here's the blurb from Publisher's Marketplace:

Christina Farley's GILDED, in which a 16-year-old Korean-American girl with a black belt and a deadly proclivity with steel-tipped arrows discovers an ancient Korean god has been kidnapping the first-born daughters of her family for generations, to Miriam Frank at Amazon Children's, in a nice deal, for publication in Fall 2013, by Jeff Ourvan at Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency (world).
I know you're waiting for all the gossip on how it happened. So...

Let's rewind back to January, when on Martin Luther King's birthday I got this stop-your-heart kind of email from Margery Cuyler, Publisher of Marshall Cavendish, saying she loved my book and was taking it to acquisitions. (Wow!!!!! She loved my book!!!!!!)

For the next week I was on pins and needles. Waiting, staring at my phone, waiting and staring at my phone some more. Then I got the call from Jeff, my agent. THE CALL. It was during my school day and I'm not allowed to answer my phone so he sent me a quick email first. Amazon Children's had offered to buy my book. Squeal!

Somehow I got through the school day. I have no idea what I told my students or if I even taught the math lesson correctly. All I know is that I had this huge smile plastered across my face. As soon as I herded my students out the door, I was dialing Jeff to talk about all the juicy details.

 
Signing my contract
 
I am just so thankful to my agent who knew how to navigate through the whole submitting maze because the next few months after that were a bit insane. And he put up with my bizarre emails that looked something like this:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I know, who sends crazy emails like that?)

Yes, he's totally a black belt in agenting.

I am thrilled to be working with my editor, Miriam Frank, who said she fell head-over-heels in love with GILDED (I can't help but love her already).

Below you will find a short video I made that highlights my journey in writing this book. If you have read my blog over the years, these pictures will be familiar to you. Most of the pictures my husband or myself took while living in Korea.



Thanks as always to my crit buds who have endured emails and reading too many versions of this manuscript among others: Casey McCormick, Beth Revis, Larissa Hardesty, Ellen Oh and the amazing girls from the MiGs!

I hope you will stop by later this week to celebrate with me because I'm holding an EPIC contest giving away books, critiques, gift cards, and jewelry based on GILDED.

44 comments:

Sarah (The Book Life) said...

This is such exciting news! Congratulations, Christina!!!! I can't wait until I can grab my very own copy of GILDED off the shelves :0)

Tara Lazar said...

Congratulations!!!! Can't wait to read it.

Nora MacFarlane said...

Congratulations!!! I'm so excited for you!

Unknown said...

HUGE congrats!

Unknown said...

Great news, Christina! I am so happy for you. Can't wait to order your book. God Bless, Crystal

Michelle L. Brown said...

How absolutely awesome! Sounds like a wonderful book!

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

FINALLY!!!!!!!

PARTAY!!!!!!

I'm so excited about this! And Oh man do I love this book! I love it so much!!!!

Christina Farley said...

Thanks guys! Your words make me all smiles.

Andrea Mack said...

YAY!!!! Fantastic news, Christy!!!! I'm so proud of you!!

Christina Farley said...

*Hugging my crit partners*

Kell Andrews said...

Fantastic! At last! What wonderful news and the book sounds wonderful too.

Meredith said...

Yay!!!!! So, so exciting--congratulations!!!

Larissa said...

I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!!!!

*jumps*

*dances*

Kelly Polark said...

That is amazing news!!! Congrats, Christy! :)

Casey McCormick said...

I have abused a lot of exclamation marks in your honor already, but hey, what's a few more? : )

Woo hoo!!!! Congratulations!!!!!!!!

*Confetti*

So proud and happy for you!

Kiki Hamilton said...

CONGRATULATIONS Christina!!! So happy for you and looking forward to reading GILDED!

Tez Miller said...

Will it be eBook only, or will it go to print? (Hopes for the latter.)

Angela Ackerman said...

Not sure of my last comment went through so WOOOOOOT! I am so happy for you!

Tina Cho said...

Congratulations! I've been living in Korea the past 2 years and am still waiting on a story idea from this area!!

Kimbra Kasch said...

SO COOL!!!! CONGRATS! Look forward to reading it :D

Christina Farley said...

Tez- it will come out in hardback and ebook- so both!

Tina- that's so great that you're living in Korea. I lived there for eight years in Seoul.

Kim- thanks!

Vijaya said...

You sat on this since Jan?!!!! That itself deserves a thousand !!!!!!!!!

Congratulations!!! You had me at steel-tipped arrows.

BR Myers said...

I love you MC already!

Congrats and don't be embarrassed by using !'s. It means your human.

Way to go, Christina!

Cherie Reich said...

Yay!! Congratulations!!

Caroline Starr Rose said...

Such wonderful news!!! Congrats, you!

Lenore Appelhans said...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stephanie J. Blake said...

Finally!!!! I'm so thrilled for you! We'll be pub house sisters!

J.A. Palermo said...

Great, great news! So happy for you!

Shari Green said...

YAHOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Awesome news! Congratulations!!

Kate Fall said...

I'm so glad you finally get to celebrate in public! YAY! *throws confetti*

Faith E. Hough said...

Woo-hoo! Congratulations! Your book sounds awesome.

Maureen McGowan said...

Congratulations!!!!!1 Fabulous news. :)

Christina Farley said...

Thank you!!!!!

Holly said...

Congratulations, Christy. So excited for you!

Julie DeGuia said...

Congrats to you! Love hearing success stories.

I met my husband in Korea (we were both in the Army) and I enjoyed seeing some of the countryside while stationed there. Not a lot of time but I went on a few memorable hikes with spectacular scenery!

Debbie Ridpath Ohi said...

YAAAAAAAAY CONGRATS CHRISTYYYYYYYYY! :-)

*sound of champagne cork popping*

Peggy Eddleman said...

Congratulations! I can't believe you had to sit on that kind of information for SO LONG! So exciting!

Jemi Fraser said...

YAY!!!!!!!!! I can totally understand the emails!! So proud of you and happy for you! I bet you're still happy dancing!! :) I'll have a congratulatory cupcake in your honour :)

Jaye Robin Brown said...

Yay! Yay! Yay!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Born Bookish said...

Congratulations!!!! That is super exciting news!!! I love the video you put together of your writing journey =)

G.M. said...

Wonderful news and you look stunning in the yellow dress. Hopefully Amazon Children's Publishing will translate it also to Korean. I watch Korean TV and movies on DramaFever and will love to see GILDED as a Koran TV movie. Best wishes to you and your family, and to your agent, for these marvelous happy news.

Marcia said...

So happy for you, Christina. :)

Jen and Steven said...

YAY!!! I'm so incredibly proud of (and happy for) you! Can't wait to see the cover and get my order in! :)

Bish Denham said...

How did I miss this!?! Congratulations, Christina!