The anthology will have a companion Web site, which the authors are in the process of creating. “We also expect that teens will buy the book themselves, since the contributors include so many popular authors, so we wanted to do a paperback edition with a price point that they can easily afford.” “We’ve already had a great reaction to the book in the school and library communities,” says Weikum. Jones and Hall, who also contribute pieces to the collection, are donating a portion of the book’s proceeds to a national anti-bullying program.ĭear Bully will be released next fall simultaneously in hardcover and paperback, and will also be available as an e-book. The final roster of contributors, all of whom donated their work, include Heather Brewer, Mo Willems, Ellen Hopkins, Cecil Castellucci, Eric Luper, Carolyn Mackler, R.L Stine, Alyson Noël, Lauren Kate, Lisa McMann, Lauren Oliver, Nancy Werlin, Jon Scieszka, and Nancy Garden. There couldn’t be a better time to be publishing a book on this subject.” “The variety of the pieces is so impressive,” she observes, “and all were very effective and very personal. Associate editor Sarah Dotts Barley, who is working with Weikum on Dear Bully, helped tackle the challenging task of selecting the final 70 entries to include in the compendium. Thanks to the contributing authors’ quick turn-around time, Hall and Jones were able to deliver all the submissions to HarperCollins by October. I knew that this collection had a chance of reaching so many different readers-that it had a chance to actually make a difference.” The fact that this wasn’t a collection of short stories but personal stories also grabbed me from the beginning. “All of these authors were so passionate about wanting to be a part of this, to be involved, to do something. “I was intrigued by the idea, and quite impressed by the list of potential contributors,” she says. Tara Weikum, editorial director of HarperCollins Books for Young Readers, was the acquiring editor. They quickly got on board, and brokered a deal with HarperCollins for world rights to Dear Bully in early June. In May, the authors approached their respective agents-Jones’s is Edward Necarsulmer IV of McIntosh & Otis, and Hall’s is Elisabeth Weed of Weed Literary-about the book project. “They genuinely want to reach out to them, to be there for them.” “What surprised me was the generosity and the real affection that YA authors have for their readers,” Hall remarks. She and Jones received more than 200 entries, including essays, songs, poems, letters to former bullies, and illustrated pieces-and heard from another 100 individuals offering to write for the anthology. And they had no shortage of willing contributors. The impressive feedback on both her blog and the YAAAB Facebook page (which currently has more than 4300 members) led Jones and Hall to the idea of collecting the authors’ stories in an anthology. Meanwhile, on her own blog, Jones posted a story about being bullied as a child and encouraged other authors to share stories about their experiences with bullying. It became a portal where people posted discussions and links to anti-bullying sites. “Our original thought was to bring YA authors together, but we had such a great response from young adults, parents, teachers, librarians, and even coaches that we opened it up to let everyone participate. “Within a few days, the page had more than 500 members,” says Hall. What Hall and Jones did, that same day, was launch Young Adult Authors Against Bullying on a Facebook page. “When I read what Carrie had written on her blog,” says Hall, “I contacted her and said, ‘Let’s do something about this.’ The facts that Phoebe lived in my home state, and that readers have repeatedly told me that they’ve met the ultimate ‘mean girls’ who appear in my novels in real life, made me angry enough that I was moved to do something.” On April 1, the day that nine students were charged in the death of bullied Massachusetts teenager and suicide victim Phoebe Prince, both authors were motivated to blog about bullying. Jones and Hall, who have never met in person, are both members of Girlfriends Cyber Circuit (through which YA authors cross promote one another’s books on their blogs) and are Facebook friends who read each other’s blog. Authors’ response to the project was overwhelming: hundreds of them offered to lend their voices to Dear Bully.Ī blogging coincidence initially planted the seed for the book. Inspired by the past year’s number of tragic incidents stemming from teenage bullying, the book aims to support and comfort young readers and to let them know that others-including some of their favorite authors-have also grappled with bullying. Writers of books for children and teens share their experiences with bullying in Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories, a forthcoming anthology edited by YA novelists Megan Kelley Hall ( Sisters of Misery) and Carrie Jones ( Need).
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