Class of 2k7

The Class of 2k7 is a group of first-time children's and YA authors with debut books coming out in 2007. We're helping to promote each other's books with this joint Class of 2k7 website as well as a collective blog, newsletter, forum, chatroom, and brochure. Our authors hail from 20 states and D.C. representing an extensive range of genres and publishers.

The Class of 2K7 offers Booksellers, Librarians and Teachers:

• A single spot to find 38 of the freshest voices in children's literature
• Authors willing to do school or library visits and in-store book signings
• Regional coordinators able to help plan and facilitate multi-author events
• Presentations for conferences and book festivals

Check Out Our Books!

Middle Grade

Young Adult

Seasons

Spring 2007 - (Jan-May)

Summer 2007 - (Jun-Aug)

Fall 2007 - (Sep-Dec)

Genres

Contemporary

Edgy

Fantasy

Graphic Novel

Historical

Humor

Multicultural

Mystery

Poetry

Regions

Central US - (IA, KS, MN, MO, ND, NE, OK, SD)

Great Lakes - (IL, IN, MI, OH, WI)

Metro NYC - (Southern NY, Northern NJ, Southwestern CT)

Mid-Atlantic - (DC, DE, MD, PA, VA, WV, Southern NJ)

Mountain States - (CO, MT, UT, WY)

New England - (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)

Northwest - (ID, OR, WA)

Southern US - (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX)

Southwest - (AZ, CA, NM, NV)

Upstate NY - (Northern NY)

Greg R. Fishbone - (Class President)

Heather Tomlinson - (Class Vice President)

Carrie Jones - (Class Secretary)

Joni Sensel - (Class Treasurer)

The contest is closed. We thank all those who participated.

The Class of 2k7 authors were well represented at BookExpo America in New York City this June.

SIGNING BOOKS:
Paula Chase
Melissa Marr
Tiffany Trent

ON THE FLOOR:
Laura Bowers
Sarah Beth Durst
Greg Fishbone
Jeanine Garsee
Carrie Jones
Jo Knowles
Eric Luper
Rebecca Stead

Many Summer/Fall advance reader copies were to be had!

Congratulations to our panel of experts: Sarah Aronson, Greg R. Fishbone, Carrie Jones, and Jo Knowles, who appeared together at a workshop entitled: “The ABCs of Author Co-Promotions” at the annual New England SCBWI conference in Nashua, New Hampshire. Their high-tech, hour-long, PowerPoint-powered, information-packed presentation was raptly enjoyed by a capacity crowd that filled every seat in the room.

Also present were 2k7 Class Historian A.C.E. Bauer and Class of 2k8 co-leader Marissa Doyle.

This was the first joint presentation of 2k7ers, but certainly not the last. You’ll see another panel in Los Angeles this August and at a variety of book signings, school visits, weddings, and bat-mitzvahs.

Volume 1.2 of the Class of 2k7 Ezine was released today! This great undertaking was edited by Class of 2k7 member Kelly Bingham with material contributed by Laura Bowers, Ann Dee Ellis, Marlane Kennedy, Rose Kent, Melissa Marr, Rosemary Clement-Moore, and Tiffany Trent.

The next quarterly issue will be out in July, so there’s still time to subscribe and be in the running to win a selection of Advance Reading Copies of books by Class of 2k7 authors.

Starting today, the Class of 2k8 will be open for business!

The Class of 2k8 is a group of first-time middle grade and young adult fiction authors with debut novels to be published in 2008. This class will mostly follow the model of the successful and original Class of 2k7, and is sanctioned by that group.

The Class of 2k8 will be involved in a cross-publisher marketing campaign geared to put their books on the radar screen of booksellers, librarians, teachers and readers.

Continue reading "Class of 2k8 Seeks Next Year's Authors" »

Volume 1.1 of the Class of 2k7 Ezine was released today! This great undertaking was edited by Class of 2k7 member Sara Zarr with material contributed by Greg R. Fishbone, Melissa Marr, and Jay Asher.

The next quarterly issue will be out in April, so there’s still time to subscribe and be in the running to win a selection of Advance Reading Copies of books by Class of 2k7 authors.

For the past couple weeks we’ve been quietly working on a Class of 2k7 MySpace page, which has already attracted over 70 friends!

Some of our new friends are quoted or referenced in this article on LibraryJournal.com, which describes how libraries and library systems are using social networks like MySpace to reach out to their patrons. We are excited to add the Class of 2k7 as a node in this growing network of librarians, booksellers, educators, readers, and authors.

Please feel free to drop by and befriend the Class page as well as the 15 members so far who have established individual author pages.

Thanks for being a friend!

You are invited to the Book Birthday of STORY OF A GIRL by Sara Zarr!

When?
January 10th - 6 p.m. Pacific / 7 p.m. Mountain / 8 p.m. Central / 9 p.m. Eastern

Where?
In the Class of 2k7 Chatroom — Hope to see you there!

Instructions:
It’s easy—

• Go to the forum home page (or any page on the forum)
  http://forum.classof2k7.com/
  
• At the very top left of the page are three rectangular buttons: the rightmost button says 2k7 Chat. Click it! (Or directly to http://forum.classof2k7.com/index.php?action=chat.)
  
• You may get a security warning window - tell it yes, you do want to continue.
  
• Sit back as the chat applet loads.
  
• Start talking by getting your curser to the bottom of the window and typing text - just like an IM window. Hit enter to send your text.

Update:
Thanks to everyone who stopped by and made Sara’s virtual book launch such a rousing success! We will surely hold more of these events for our upcoming books as well.

Happy 2k7, everyone! Putting a fresh shine on the Class of 2k7 website for the new year, we’ve added a Media Folder section with resources for our friends in the media. Bloggers are also an important part of the media these days, so we’re including links to notable blog entries about the Class of 2k7 as well. Please let us know of any that we’ve missed—thanks!

http://classof2k7.com/media/

Congratulations to Class of 2k7 member Sara Zarr for her starred review in School Library Journal. What a great way to start the new year!

Early reviews are trickling in!

The 2k7 Clubhouse is buzzing over this one from Richie’s Picks for Jeannine Garsee’s book, Before, After, and Somebody In Between. Richie’s glowing review even mentions the Class of 2k7:

Jeannine Garsee, who is an RN in an inner city hospital, is a member of the Class of 2k7, an online collective of first-time YA and children’s authors whose books are being released in the new year. BEFORE, AFTER, AND SOMEBODY IN BETWEEN sets quite a high standard for her classmates to follow.

No pressure there… Thanks a lot, Richie!

The Class of 2k7 is pleased to announce a major addition to our website: The Debut Author Interview Archives!

Class member A.C.E. Bauer had the idea of putting the answers from our “Ask a Debut Author” blog feature all in one place, and her hard work made it happen.

The archives will allow booksellers, librarians, and teachers to get to know us even better. Answers may be viewed by question or by author and a full-text search is also available.

We’ll be making future updates to the Class of 2k7 website in the future and look forward to showcasing our authors and our books in the year ahead.

Members of the Class of 2k7 are not only talented authors but also possess skills in a variety of creative media, hence the debut of Eric Luper’s Class of 2k7 video!

Our 39 debut authors of children’s and YA books each contributed an image for Eric to blend with music and sound effects to create this masterpiece. We hope you enjoy it.

Class of 2k7 Founder and President Greg R. Fishbone can be heard on the Just One More Book! podcast, where he was interviewed about how the Class of 2k7 came to be and all that we do to promote each other’s books.

Part of Greg’s interview can also be found on the excellent children’s literature ezine, The Edge of the Forest.

We’d like to thank Just One More Book! and The Edge of the Forest for helping us spread the word with noise as well as visuals.

Our own Sara Zarr will be at the NCTE National Conference in Nashville, signing newly minted copies of Story of a Girl. Please come say hi, pick up a book, and see all the other great titles coming soon from Little, Brown. Sara’s is the first finished book from the Class of 2k7 and she’s proud to represent!

Saturday, November 18
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Booth
#724 in the Exhibit Hall

The Class of 2k7 Quarterly Ezine (short for “Electronic magaZINE”) will contain a wealth of information about Class of 2k7 books and authors. The Quarterly is designed for booksellers, librarians, and teachers, but all friends and fans are welcome to subscribe.

All subscribers will be entered in our quarterly giveaway of a selection of Class of 2k7 Advance Reader Copies (or when possible, final books).

To subscribe, please visit: http://www.classof2k7.com/ezine.php

The Quarterly uses a double opt-in process to protect your privacy. Your personal information will not be used for any other purpose, and you will be able to unsubscribe at any time.

You can expect the debut issue in mid-January. Thanks for your interest and support!

In the space of two weeks, three of our members learned that their books are being pushed into early 2008. Book release dates can be moved forward or back for any number of reasons, which is yet another complicating factor for a marketing group like ours, which is based on the calendar year.

We’re doing our best to make lemonade from this lemon of news though, because these three have agreed to stick around as liaisons from the nascent Class of 2k8. They will be picking up all our tips and tricks, learning from our mistakes, and forming the core of a whole new Class to come.

At the moment, the Class of 2k8 consists of:

Marissa Doyle, author of Bewitching Season (Henry Holt/Holtzbrinck Group, Spring 2008).
Jody Feldman, author of The Gollywhopper Games (Greenwillow/HarperCollins, Spring 2008).
Zu Vincent, author of The Lucky Place (Front Street/Boyds Mills Press, Spring 2008).

If you’re looking for spooky reading this Halloween, check out the October 30, 2006 issue of Publishers Weekly magazine. The contents page has a splashy version of our new Class of 2k7 logo that literally bleeds off the page!*

(*We can say literally here because “bleeding” is a publishing term for a graphic element that extends beyond the border. No actual blood is involved but it still sounds plenty scary to us!)

Prominently featured in the issue is an article about a group of authors who have banded together into an unruly torch-wielding mob—and they are coming to get you!**

(**Especially if you’re a bookseller, teacher, or librarian. “Coming to get you” might be a bit strong, but we would appreciate if you’d pay us some attention and give our books careful consideration. Also, we don’t really have torches. Also, we’re not unruly and are actually quite pleasant when you meet us in person.)

The online version of the article features a multimedia presentation of screaming voices and fingernails drawn across a gravestone.***

(***No, not really. We asked for it, but it wasn’t in the budget.)

Check us out here:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6386303.html

And have a great Halloween!

Some enhancements have been made to the Class of 2k7 website over the weekend. You may have noticed the awesome new logo designed by our own Ruth McNally Barshaw (ELLIE McDOODLE: HAVE PEN, WILL TRAVEL, Bloomsbury US) with input from members of our PR Committee. The logo uses a schoolbook font, a bookshelf reminiscent of those found in bookstores, and a reading figure meant to evoke the classic library road signs found in many communities. In one simple but distinctive image, Ruth has managed to tie together all the hopes and aspirations of the Class of 2k7 group.

And it looks really cool, too!

You may also have noticed a link to our new Release Calendar page. Keep watching this page for updates to determine when each of our books will become available.

Our website is a work in progress, as all active websites are. We will continue to add new pages and features and to respond to your suggestions on how to make the pages even more informative and easy to navigate. The Class of 2k7 thanks you for your help and support!

After adding four new members who got their applications in just at the buzzer, we have capped our group at 39 debut children’s and YA novelists of 2007. With heavy hearts and much debate, we’ve had to turn away other authors who also have wonderful books. 2007 is coming up fast and our plans can’t go forward unless our finalized roster stays, well, finalized.

Or as one member put it, “The bell has rung. It’s time to close the doors and start the class.”

Our hope is that we can include some of these other debut authors in our regional tours next year, if we can coordinate locations and release dates. Authors outside the Class should stay in touch as we develop our regional programs.

Much as we hate to turn people away—and we really have agonized over this in our private discussions—the Class of 2k7 must finalize its membership roster this week. With only two-and-a-half months before our first books hit the shelves, our valiant Printed Materials Committee is already scrambling to design a brochure to showcase every member’s books and information.

We will not be accepting any more applications, but you may still see our membership numbers creep upward over the next few days because several previously-issued invitations are still outstanding. If you have one of these invitations, please let us know ASAP whether you will be joining the group or not. All Class of 2k7 invitations that are not accepted will expire on Friday, October 20, at 5PM Eastern Time.

We’re sorry that we can’t take on everyone who might be interested in joining our group, but we hope to include other authors in our regional tours. Keep us posted on where you live and when your book is coming out, and good luck with all that you do!

The always amazing Betsy Bird, children’s librarian at the Donnell Library in New York City, talks about our group today in her always amazing blog, Fuse#8.

And to make things even more exciting, our class is now a link on Bruce Black’s excellent blog, wordswimmer.

This is a very good day for the class. It’s almost like the teachers have put gold stars on all our foreheads or stamped GOOD WORK stickers on our hands.

Thank you Betsy and Bruce, from all of us.

The Class of 2k7 website has being redesigned from the ground up to make it more useful, intuitive, and expandable. We hope you enjoy exploring the new site and return often to see the exciting updates we have in store for the year ahead.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for this website, feel free to leave your feedback on the contact page.

Thanks!