Some Notes from Adam

I'm thrilled to hear that Sparks is up for the ALA Rainbow List. That's fantastic.

I haven't updated this page in a while, or SJ's twitter, because no one was looking at either of them, anyway. Attempts to get "SJ Adams" off the ground as an alternate persona, which I thought might even replace my old one, never really got anywhere. Since some people wondered, here's why I put Sparks out under SJ Adams, not my own name, for the benefit of people who stumble onto here:

1. There was an "Adam Selzer" book coming out the same day as Sparks. Two under my own name on the same day seemed like overkill to me.

2. So many reviews of my previous book had opened with something like "I didn't think I'd like this, because it's by a guy."  That's something to consider, particularly when your main character is female. The fact that Debbie was lesbian was another x-factor; I imagined that there would some people who would be rubbed the wrong way by seeing a guy's name on a lesbian book. The old trick of using initials so no one could tell what gender you are seemed like the way to go.

3. Look, publishing is mostly misery and humiliation for us mid-listers. My books are the kind that generally get very good reviews, but don't amaze anybody sales-wise. I've never had one that was easy to find in stores. I've had publishers forget to show me the cover, forget to submit my books to the trade reviewers, or forget to send me any copies (this last one happens all the time, actually). After a while, you DO get to a point where publishers say "Hey, we love this guy, but based on his numbers he's probably not worth the risk." After enough of that, you start thinking "Well, fine, I don't want to be that guy anymore. I'll go be somebody else."

Knowing what I know now about what happened with Sparks and the other book that was out that day, I wish I'd just gone ahead and put it out under my own name, but, well, here we are. I've toyed with having my "Satanic YA" novel (currently being shopped around by my agent) to be an Adam/SJ collaboration, but it would just be a little attempt at giving Sparks a boost. I love Sparks. I think it's my favorite of all my books. I'm thrilled that it's being considered for any sort of list.