Author: Kelly Jensen

Hello, YA lovers!

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Genius by Leopoldo Gout, from Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan.

Get ready to run! Three teen geniuses from around the world compete in a game with the highest of stakes. Together, they seek to win the game and change the world, but it won’t be easy. . . “Genius is exciting, provocative, fresh, innovative, and smart, smart, smart.” —James Patterson

Let’s talk about book-to-film adaptations this week.

It seems like every week, I collect tons of links to the latest YA books that are being optioned for film. Optioned, for those who aren’t down on the language, means that interest has been expressed for making a film, but it’s not a guarantee. Until the film is on the big screen (or on DVD if it’s a straight-to-DVD deal), nothing in the film world is a guarantee. But, an option means that there’s money on the line and someone has the rights to make the film, which is in itself a pretty big thing.

This piece from The Hollywood Reporter caught my attention, particularly the first couple of lines:

With the Hunger Games franchise wrapped up, foreign buyers are ravenous for new young adult adaptations that could potentially launch a franchise. A slew of projects have invaded the market in Cannes this year, offering fantasy and supernatural tales involving witches, ghosts and dystopian-set drama.

Where it almost feels like YA adaptations in the US are slowing down in terms of the box office returns, foreign companies are looking to find more potential places to build a franchise or two to make money. And more specifically, filmmakers are looking to tap into that young female audience (which is funny, given that CBS claimed the Nancy Drew television series was “too female” for their audiences). More from the Hollywood Reporter piece:

While the success of Twilight and The Hunger Games has made the YA genre a box-office force especially at drawing in the young female audience — there have been several films sold at markets that didn’t have the same happy ending […] ‘People who lost money on the YA pictures that came after Twilight were because they went crazy on the budgets,’ says Lisa Wilson, co-founder and partner of The Solution Entertainment Group.

So, what sorts of returns are YA box office titles seeing, anyway? With the help of Box Office Mojo, I compiled a handy little spreadsheet of YA books made into films and compiled their Lifetime Gross Earnings (LGE). LGE takes the money brought in by the films from their premiere to the present, which in this case, would be May 15, 2016. The LGE does not take into account what the film’s budget was, and in this data, LGE is for domestic earnings. This isn’t a comprehensive list of all YA book-to-film adaptations, and I’ve purposefully left out Harry Potter, since the first films are middle grade skewed, Ender’s Game, which was originally an adult novel with YA crossover appeal, and other titles that many call YA but that really are not.

These are films that came out between 1980 and today and it won’t surprise me if many of these adaptations are a surprise (in other words, you may not have known these were adapted from YA books). If you need these bigger, click and they should expand:

I don’t want to talk too much about what any of this means, if anything, but what I do think is worth observing are a few things:

 

• Female-led YA adaptations seem to make a lot of money.

• Female-written YA books seem to make adaptations that make a lot of money.

• The first film in a franchise seems to make less money than subsequent films, which makes some sense — once a film has done well, it raises the profile and encourages more people to get into the franchise.

• These films are so, so white.

 

Now let’s make this a little bit more interesting and see what, if anything, can be said about what sorts of earnings were made against the budget of these films. I’ve pulled the estimated budgets from Wikipedia, and in instances where a range was offered, I pulled the highest number. Not all of these films have budgets listed, but the biggies — the ones that Wilson is talking about in the THR article — do. Can’t read these? Here’s a read-only spreadsheet with the numbers. 

In terms of my observations above, about later films in a franchise having bigger earnings than the earlier titles, perhaps it has to do with bigger budgets and more marketing.

Likewise, perhaps those bigger and bigger budgets explain why some adaptations, like the third installment in the Divergent series or the recently-released (with little to no buzz) The Fifth Wave earned very little comparatively. Big budgets don’t always mean success.

There aren’t any real conclusions to be drawn with these numbers; rather, this is an interesting data-driven way to look at the whys and hows of the growth in YA adaptations on the big screen. Though they aren’t always a success, they do bring in the money . . . and female audiences. (Worth sharing here this piece from last year about why it is we hate on the things girls love, even though girls have money to spend and often set the trends).

It’s only fitting now to share some more adaptation news from the last couple of weeks:

• Salla Simukka’s “Snow White” trilogy, which is an in-translation series out of Norway, is headed for the big screen. I got my hands on the first in this trilogy and couldn’t seem to get the rest from my local library, but now I want to. It has a Girl with the Dragon Tattoo vibe to it, but it’s through the female POV. Fresh thriller-y stuff for the YA world, so hopefully this will make the books more widely available.

• The first trailer for the adaptation of Jeanne Ryan’s debut novel Nerve has landed. I didn’t know this book was getting a film adaptation, and I didn’t know it had Emma Roberts in it.

• Aime Kaufman and Meagan Spooner’s book These Broken Stars, which is the first in a science fiction series, is being looked at for television adaptation with Freeform (formerly ABC Family).

• I’m bummed to learn that Freeform’s adaptation of Recovery Road isn’t being picked up for a second season. It was a wonderfully diverse realistic show — I wonder if that’s why it didn’t do so hot?

 

• The Possibility of Fireflies is being eyed by Courtney Love, along with others, for adaptation. Never heard of the book? Me either. It published in 2006, and the story itself is set in the 1980s.

• Alexandra Monir’s The Final Six has a movie deal. Never heard of it? Well, you won’t be alone — the book isn’t finished and doesn’t even have a publishing deal yet. (If this is the point where you’re wondering when the craze will stop, you won’t be alone, either).

• There’s been a casting announcement for the adaptation of Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I’m here for this one.

• And finally in adaptation talk — at least for this newsletter edition! — the television rights to Dawn Kurtagich’s The Dead House have been acquired. It’s unclear whether this will be something possible to see in the US or if it’ll be just in the UK. Of course, it has to be filmed first. . .

 

To round out this edition of “This Week in YA,” here are some non-adaptation news and links worth reading or knowing about this week. I could probably talk in depth about most of them, and maybe I will in future newsletters:

• KIDDING, more adaptation news to launch this final section of news — but this is in the form of The Selection becoming a coloring book.

• Fran Wilde’s YA novel Updraft won a Nebula Award.

• This year’s Audio award winner in YA is Libba Bray’s The Lair of Dreams. You can check out a sample on the Audies website.

• Speaking of audiobooks, I know I’ve shared this before, but now that it’s going on, it’s time to share again: each week, all summer long, you can download two audiobooks per week for free through Sync. There are YA titles and classic titles and the selections are excellent. You can’t beat free.

• In the last YA newsletter, I wrote about cover designs. Sarvenaz Tash just wrote a behind-the-scenes post about the cover for her upcoming book, The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love. Check it out (includes cover models, makeup, clothing, the Javitz Center, and more).

• Finally, a look at some of the trends — micro and macro — in YA literature, as seen and discussed at Book Expo America.

 

Thanks for tuning in to another edition of “What’s Up in YA?” Keep on being rad and keep on reading — and spoiler: I think it’ll be time to give away some books soon.

Welcome to May, YA lovers!

Let’s kick off the new month talking about one of the most fascinating elements of the YA world: book covers. Without question, book covers, especially in YA, are extremely important. They’re the first impression of a book, setting the story’s tone and feeling to readers who might not know anything about what the book is about. Sure, we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but let’s face the fact that we all do look at it and make a snap judgment. Either it’s appealing or it’s not. Having worked with teens, I know they do the same thing.

Covers sell the story, but they also serve as a really great tool for those who are trying to talk about books or recommend them to other readers. You kind of know when a book is going to be a romance or a science fiction read based on the design elements on a cover. And there’s no question that covers that do well and sell a book can and do set off trends.

How about a quick look back at some YA cover trends in recent memory?

 

Stephenie Meyer’s best selling series seemed to spark the big idea of cover trends in YA in a way that was more obvious than before the series hit. Dark backgrounds, a spot of color, and images that evoke drama became all the rage in books published during the years the series reigned supreme.

First: recovered classics.

Then there was the cover makeover for LJ Smith’s “The Vampire Diaries” series, in addition to new books in the series being written after a long hiatus:

And a couple of other YA series, among so many others with a similar cover scheme, that hit shelves during the height of Twilight’s success:

And

Of course, it’s impossible not to see the influence of the cover design in the series inspired by Twilight for adults:

Following this trend was the one where pretty white girls wore pretty dresses, often while looking sad (image snagged from this blogger who pulled these covers together from the top of her head alone).

We saw books with big faces on the covers — again, almost always white — around this same time, along with book covers where girls were dead or dying or drowning or floating.

And then John Green and Rainbow Rowell’s 2012 books changed the game.

No longer were book covers obviously geared toward teen readers; they were instead geared toward young adult readers who may — or perhaps may NOT be — teens themselves. Green’s book featured a blurb from Jodi Picoult, a well-known adult author with tremendous crossover appeal. Adults know her work, and many teens do, too. Her blurb on Green’s book signified a shift of shorts, but perhaps not more than the cover itself.

It’s simple: it’s a single iconic image and driven by the title. No faces, no people, no symbols or dead girls (on the cover, that is).

Rowell’s book, which earned a powerful and game-changing review from Green in the New York Times, took cover design in a bit of a different direction, too. This was an illustrated cover. Again, it was simple, with clean lines, and offered an iconic image that readers knew and identified immediately. It’s a cover that doesn’t scream teenagers at all, and in many ways, it’s a cover packed with nostalgia value. The book being set in the 80s probably influenced that to some extent.

And now, post-Green and Rowell, we see YA book covers looking more and more similar to those two in ways that aren’t necessarily obvious but do point to a growth in font-driven and originally-illustrated covers:

There are so many more that could be included here, but one look through these covers, as compared to the covers earlier, shows a marked difference, doesn’t it? Of course, there are still covers with stock images and with girls in dresses, but they are not the trend of choice anymore.

Why all of the cover talk, you ask? It’s because I read two fabulous pieces on recent cover designs in the last few weeks, and I couldn’t wait to share them. As outsiders, we can look at the cover designs and make a judgment or see the trends, but rarely do we get the opportunity to peek beneath the covers (heh) and learn about what went into making them. Eric Smith has been doing a series called “By The Cover” about cover designs at Book Riot, which, if you haven’t checked out, I highly recommend doing after you check out these two:

• Chad Wekerman talks about the design for Jesse Andrews’s sophomore novel, The Haters. This piece is fascinating, as it looks at the outtakes and what the goal of the cover was and how it was achieved. Even the rejected covers for this one are outstanding and “on trend,” so to speak. He wrote about the choices in design for Me and Earl and the Dying Girl a few years back, too, which is more than worth a read and then follow it up with this piece about how the paperback cover design was selected.  

• The designs of the covers Wekerman talks about fall into the sorts of cover design preferences seen during the height of font/illustration-driven looks, but how about a recent book with a cover that sort of feels like one you’d have seen a few years ago? CJ Redwine’s recently-released book The Shadow Queen has a very dark fairytale-esque look to it, with an apple dripping what looks like black blood. At first glance, I wasn’t expecting much from the design-side of the cover. I thought it was clever text placement on a great stock image. But it’s not. Those letters were carved into actual apples. Check out the behind-the-scenes on this one. That is commitment.

• Though it’s not a behind-the-scenes of a cover design, per se, I had to share the cover reveal for Nicola Yoon’s forthcoming The Sun is Also a Star. It’s a title-driven cover made out of colorful yarn that’s reminiscent of books like Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You The Sun (huh, “Sun” is in both of those). Immediately upon seeing Yoon’s book cover, I was reminded of adult author Aimee Bender’s The Color Master, which utilized a similar technique on the cover. And that reminder may be because it’s the same cover designer for both. Kind of neat!

 

I could probably write ten more pages just on cover design thoughts alone, but there’s been some other worthwhile news in the YA world over the last couple of weeks, including a huge round of adaptation announcements:

 

• IW Gregorio’s debut novel None of the Above, about an intersex teen girl, is under development as a Lifetime film. From the same announcement, Sea Change by Aimee Friedman is being adapted as well.

• Stephenie Meyer (hey, there she is again!) is set to adapt Kendare Blake’s popular Anna Dressed in Blood. There’s been a cast announcement, too. It might be worth noting that as exciting as it is to see a book like this being adapted, it is disappointing to see such a white cast. Cas is never outright described as white, but looks like he will be in the film.

• Emmy Laybourne’s Monument 14 now has a director attached to the film adaptation.  

• Asking for It by Louise O’Neill is being adapted for the small screen. It’s unclear whether this will be available outside the UK, but I know I’d love to see a female-driven story about rape culture on TV, so I hope we see it on this side of the pond.

 

And finally, some other pieces worth a read and a think:

 

• Maybe we need to take what Maggie Stiefvater says about YA being a ‘bullshit label’* more seriously after seeing the slate of Locus Award finalists in YA. Aside from the obvious lack of females recognized, there’s the added kick of not all of those books even being considered YA titles.

 

* I disagree wholeheartedly with this, as someone who has worked with teenagers and YA books extensively in libraries and whose career is about this burgeoning field of literature. Is it a marketing label? Sure. But it’s also a real thing, with real aspects to it that differentiate it from adult books and middle grade books. The YA arm of the American Library Association has been talking seriously about the bullshit YA category since 1996, which would be roughly when Steifvater was in middle school or high school. Not to mention all of those books in the 1980s and 1970s and 1960s and 1950s. Or authors like Judy Blume or Robert Cormier or Maureen Daly (who wrote Seventeenth Summer, which many consider the “first” YA book, in 1942) or Paul Zindel.

 

• Are you a writer? Do you know writers? Looking for someone with a specific background or experience to read your work and give you feedback on how you’ve represented it? This sensitivity readers database looks like it will be invaluable.

 

• “I love writing for teenage girls. I think they are so smart and creative. But both teenage girls and the things they like so often get denigrated in our culture. You know, boy bands and girl fashion. There’s not a lot of respect for teenage girls, but they are so resilient. I think it’s awesome to center them in stories and show how powerful and interesting they are and that time of life is.” — this is a fantastic short interview with author Jessica Spotswood.

 

Thanks for reading “What’s Up in YA?” The next edition will hit your inboxes in two weeks. In the meantime, pick up a YA book or six, spend some time checking out the covers (you will never unsee these things now!), and then enjoy the read.