Ululate, ululate, ululate (and other book news)

We just got It Had to Be You: The Gossip Girl Prequel at the library and I tried convincing a couple of teens to read it and tell me why Serena went to boarding school so I don’t have to read it. Anyway, via the Amazon Bookstore Blog, Cecily von Ziegesar left a comment/apology/5-star review about the copyediting of the book, which includes:

I worked really hard and spent a year writing the book and I was so excited when it finally came out, but now I just want everyone to read the book I wrote, not the tampered-with version. For instance, there’s this whole chapter where the word “ululate” which is actually a really funny word, was changed to “undulate” like six times. Now the chapter isn’t funny anymore and makes no sense.

Manga publisher VIZ now has blog.

Publishers Lunch hasn’t listed many YA deals lately, but Dear Author has some of them, along with some upcoming romance and women’s fiction novels. Among deals listed is a new Ally Carter series (”Ocean’s 11 meets Veronica Mars”? I’m there) and more.