When a book is billed as “The Devil Wears Prada & Mean Girls meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” it’s bound to make people sit up and take some notice. And since the book in question, Valerie Stivers’s BLOOD IS THE NEW BLACK, was won in an auction by Allison McCabe of Three Rivers Press, notice was certainly key.
“Many editors were over the moon about the concept and the writing,” said Artist Literary Group’s Joe Veltre, Stivers’s agent. “We turned down pre-emptive offers and had six bidders in the auction, which lasted three days.”
One of the more unusual aspects of the deal report is that it mentions the contributions of Farrin Jacobs (former editor with Red Dress Ink and also known for co-authoring a how-to chicklit guide with Sarah Mlynowski) who helped to develop the book. “She and I originally brainstormed this idea together over lunch and developed it in the next few weeks,” said Veltre. “Farrin then smartly thought of Valerie to write it. Valerie got the concept right away and wrote some seriously good chapters, adding flesh to our concept with some sharp, witty pages.”
So what does Stivers bring to the table? She’s a freelancer who’s written for Elle, Stim Magazine, Time Out New York, Blender and other NYC-based fashion magazines. Which definitely puts a different spin on the vampire book, a trend that shows no sign of abating just yet.