Submissions for the next Pitch+250 Contest will be accepted starting on Sunday, April 28th at 3:00pm Eastern time. The submission window will close on May 3rd at 11:00pm Eastern time, or when we receive 100 submissions, whichever comes first. The entries will consist of a pitch of no more than 100 words plus the first 250 words of your manuscript. Please note that the pitch word limit has been lowered. Think logline, not query. Click here for the contest info. Find out about our fabulous judges here!

THIS WEEK’S GIVEAWAY

The Last Academy
by Anne Applegate
Advance Reader Copy Giveaway
Point
Released 5/1/2013

Curtis Sittenfeld’s PREP meets THE SIXTH SENSE in this spine-tingling, unforgettable debut.

Camden Fisher arrives at boarding school haunted by a falling-out with her best friend back home. But the manicured grounds of Lethe Academy are like nothing Cam has ever known. There are gorgeous, preppy boys wielding tennis rackets, and circles of girls with secrets to spare. Only . . . something is not quite right. One of Cam’s new friends mysteriously disappears, but the teachers don’t seem too concerned. Cam wakes up to strangers in her room, who then melt into the night. She is suddenly plagued by odd memories, and senses there might be something dark and terrible brewing. But what? The answer will leave Cam–and readers–stunned and breathless, in this thrilling debut novel.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about The Last Academy?

My favorite thing about The Last Academy is how the relationship with Camden and Mark ends up. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say I like what they learn from each other, and how those lessons play out for them. I also loved the setting of the school itself. When I was fourteen, I left home for boarding school. It was interesting to go back to those memories as an adult. Especially when there were weird overlaps between my reality and theirs — Camden and Mark meet up by a fateful old phone booth very much like one I used to frequent when I wanted to place a call and needed a little privacy.

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How I Lost You
by Janet Gurtler
Paperback Giveaway
Sourcebooks Fire
Released 5/1/2013

There are a few things Grace Anderson knows for sure. One is that nothing will ever come between her and her best friend, Kya Kessler. They have a pact. Buds Before Studs. Sisters Before Misters. But in the summer before senior year, life throws out challenges they never expected. And suddenly the person who’s always been there starts to need the favor returned. Grace and Kya are forced to question how much a best friend can forgive. And the answer is not what they expected.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about How I Lost You?

I love that the main character, Grace, is a really strong female lead. She’s nurturing and very  protective of her best friend which gives her blinders
sometimes, but at her core, she’s pretty kick butt. Like most of us, she just needs to figure that out for herself. There are twists and there are
boys, but to me, in the end it’s a girl power story. From within.

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The Boyfriend App
by Katie Sise
Hardcover Giveaway
Balzer + Bray
Released 4/30/2013

In The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise, super-smart, somewhat geeky Audrey McCarthy can’t wait to get out of high school. Her father’s death and the transformation of her one-time BFF, Blake Dawkins, into her worst nightmare have her longing for the new start college will bring.

But college takes money. So Audrey decides she has to win the competition for the best app designed by a high schooler – and the $200,000 that comes with it. She develops something she calls the Boyfriend App, and suddenly she’s the talk of the school and getting kissed by the hottest boys around. But can the Boyfriend App bring Audrey true love?

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about The Boyfriend App?

I’m going to answer this one twice! 🙂 My favorite thing about The Boyfriend App as a book is that it features a whip-smart, loyal, and kind protagonist with a tight-knit group of similarly loyal and kind friends.

My favorite thing about The Boyfriend App as a whole is that my dad loves it. He hadn’t read any fiction that I wrote before this (not since I was a little kid, at least!) and he didn’t know what to expect. I waited until I had a galley to show him. Getting the phone call from him after he read the book for the first time is my absolute favorite part of the process! I even wrote down what he said and taped it next to my computer to look at any time I get stuck writing the follow-up book to The Boyfriend App. At the end of the day, not everyone is going to like what you write. But if the people you love do, and if you loved the moments you spent writing it, then that’s pretty awesome.

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Absent
by Katie Williams
Hardcover Plus Swag Giveaway
Chronicle Books
Released 4/30/2013

Forever is a long time to be stuck in high school.

Seventeen-year-old Paige is dead, the victim of a freak fall from the roof during Physics class. Now she’s a ghost, permanently bound to the grounds of her high school. It isn’t all bad, she can find out everyone’s secrets, which can be amusing – for a while. But then Paige hears something that isn’t amusing at all: the
rumor spread by the most popular girl at school that her death wasn’t an accident – that she supposedly jumped on purpose. Paige is desperate to stop the gossip, but what can a ghost do?
Then Paige discovers something amazing. She can possess living people when they think of her, and she can make them do almost anything. Maybe, just maybe, she can get inside the girl who’s responsible for the stories. . . and have a little fun turning the tables while she’s at it.

Katie Williams’s second novel is a suspenseful page-turner full of eerie wit and a touch of the otherworldly

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Absent?

This is going to sound small and silly, but I love the ghost frogs in my book. The high school in ABSENT has trapped the ghosts of things that have died within its boundaries, including the frogs chloroformed for dissection in biology class. So every once in a while, Paige and her friends will come across hopping, croaking ghost frogs. ABSENT isn’t a comedy; in fact, it deals with serious subject matter, which is maybe why I like the touch of grim humor the ghost frogs bring. At one point during the revision process, I thought we were going to have to cut them because my editor pointed out that frogs wouldn’t have the presence of mind to walk on constructed ground–this is something the ghosts in my book have to practice–but then we figured they’d just sink through to the dirt-floor basement, a fitting place for ghost frogs to be!

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Identity Theft
by Anna Davies
Advance Reader Copy Giveaway
Point
Released 5/1/2013

The third title in our exciting relaunch of Point Horror!

Hayley is going to have the best year ever. After years of careful planning, she’s ready to serve as student council president AND editor-in-chief of the newspaper. Ivy League, here she comes!

However, just before student council elections, someone creates a fake facebook profile for Hayley and starts posting inappropriate photos and incriminating updates. It must be the work of a highly skilled Photoshopper, but the attention to detail is scary. The embarrassing photos of “Hayley” in her bathing suit reveal a birthmark on her back–a birth mark Hayley has never shown in public. . . .

The situation escalates until Hayley’s mother reveals some shocking information. Hayley isn’t an only child: She has a twin sister who was adopted by a different family. And that’s not all. Soon, Hayley discovers that her long-lost sister isn’t just playing a prank–she’s plotting to take over Hayley’s life . . . by any means necessary.

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I’m With Stupid
by Geoff Herbach
Paperback Giveaway
Sourcebooks Fire
Released 5/1/2013

Felton Reinstein has never been good with stress. Which is why he’s seriously freaking out. 
Revealing his college choice on national TV? It’s a heart attack waiting to happen. Deciding on a major for the next four years of his life? Ridiculous. 


Felton  barely even knows who he is outside of football. And so…he embarks on The Epic Quest to Be Meaningful.


Which leads to:


1. Mentoring a freshman called Pig Boy.


2. The state of Wisconsin hating him.


3. His track coach suspending him.


4. The funniest viral video the world has ever seen.


5. A whole new appreciation for his family, his friends, and what’s really important in life.

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Defriended
by Ruth Baron
Advance Reader Copy Giveaway
Scholastic Inc.
Released 5/1/2013

A friend request from beyond the grave . . .

Jason has met the perfect girl. OK, so maybe he hasn’t actually MET Lacey yet, but they talk online all the time. Yet despite spending most nights chatting, Lacey refuses to meet up in person. Suspicious, Jason starts googling, and his cyberstalking leads to a shocking discovery: According to multiple newspapers, Lacey died a year earlier.

Soon, Jason finds himself enmeshed in a disturbing mystery. Has he found a way to iChat with the dead? Or is someone playing a dangerous trick? Either way, Jason has to discover the truth before it’s too late. You can’t put up away messages from beyond the grave. . . .

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LAST WEEK’S GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Quintana of Charyn
by Melina Marchetta
Hardcover Giveaway (3 Copies)
Candlewick
Released 4/23/2013

Winners: Heidi Grange, The Magic Violinist, BN100

The climactic conclusion of Printz Award winner Melina Marchetta’s epic fantasy trilogy!

Separated from the girl he loves and has sworn to protect, Froi and his companions travel through Charyn searching for Quintana and building an army that will secure her unborn child’s right to rule. While in the valley between two kingdoms, Quintana of Charyn and Isaboe of Lumatere come face-to-face in a showdown that will result in heartbreak for one and power for the other. The complex tangle of bloodlines, politics, and love introduced in Finnikin of the Rock and Froi of the Exiles coalesce into an engrossing climax in this final volume.

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Pretty Dark Nothing
by Heather L Reid
Signed Paperback Giveaway
Month9Books, LLC
Released 4/23/2013

Winner: Zeena

It‘s been twenty three days since Quinn has slept for more than minutes at a time. Demons have invaded her dreams, stalking her, and whispering of her death. The lack of sleep and crippling fear are ruining her life. Energy drinks and caffeine pills don’t make a dent. When Quinn dozes off in the school hallway, Aaron, an amnesiac with a psychic ability, accidentally enters her nightmare. The demons are determined to keep them apart, and Aaron from discovering the secret locked away in his memory. Together, they could banish the darkness back to the underworld for good. That is, unless the demons kill them first.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Pretty Dark Nothing?

Pretty Dark Nothing is full of demons, and I don’t mean the hot fallen angel, bad boy types. These demons are the evil, hairy, sulphurous kind, bent on manipulating and destroying Quinn’s life. They feed on her insecurity and magnify her fragile emotional state. She’s not sure if she’s going crazy or if they’re real, all she knows is that she wants her old life back, to go back to being popular and in control, but the demons have other plans for her. What I loved most about Pretty Dark Nothing was writing the juxtaposition of Quinn fighting a private, frightening war with her demons while trying to navigate the reality of her contemporary high school life and keep it all together. She’s gone from being popular and in control of her life to being plagued by nightmares of demons and she doesn’t know why. She doesn’t trust herself and fears she might be going crazy which makes her feel isolated and alone. She wants to reach out, but doesn’t quite know how. While she struggles with an emotional internal battle, she still has to deal with family, friends, rivals, grades and a cheating ex-boyfriend. Throw in some romantic sparks with a mysterious psychic amnesic named Aaron, all while the demons are pushing her to the brink of madness, and I hope it’s a recipe for something darkly paranormal and not quite typical. I won’t give anything away, but I love the ending and can’t wait to see her rising from the ashes in book 2.

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The Rules
by Stacey Kade
Hardcover Giveaway
Hyperion Book CH
Released 4/23/2013

Winner: Candice Conner

1. Never trust anyone.

2. Remember they are always searching.

3. Don’t get involved.

4. Keep your head down.

5. Don’t fall in love.

Five simple rules. Ariane Tucker has followed them since the night she escaped from the genetics lab where she was created, the result of combining human and extraterrestrial DNA. Ariane’s survival-and that of her adoptive father-depends on her ability to blend in among the full-blooded humans in a small Wisconsin town, to hide in plain sight at her high school from those who seek to recover their lost (and expensive) “project.”

But when a cruel prank at school goes awry, it puts her in the path of Zane Bradshaw, the police chief’s son and someone who sees too much. Someone who really sees her. After years of trying to be invisible, Ariane finds the attention frightening-and utterly intoxicating. Suddenly, nothing is simple anymore, especially not the rules.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about The Rules?

I loved seeing the relationship develop between Ariane and Zane. I had fun with that, as neither one of them were expecting it and it certainly made things more difficult for both of them at times. I feel like people come into our lives at just the right time to shape our journey or nudge us along a slightly different path, and that’s what I hope comes across through their relationship.

Also, though I know people will hate her, I had so much fun with Rachel. It is really very freeing to have the chance to unleash your worst impulses, to do things you would never do, through a fictional character. Sometimes, it feels good to be bad. 😉

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MORE RELEASES IN STORES NEXT WEEK

Anthem for Jackson Dawes
by Celia Bryce
Hardcover
Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Released 4/30/2013

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Our Song
by Jordanna Fraiburg
Hardcover
Razorbill
Released 5/2/2013

Olive Bell has spent her entire life in the beautiful suburb of Vista Valley, with a picture-perfect home, a loving family, and a seemingly perfect boyfriend. But after a near-fatal car accident, she’s haunted by a broken heart and a melody that she cannot place.

Then Olive meets Nick. He’s dark, handsome, mysterious . . . and Olive feels connected to him in a way she can’t explain. Is there such a thing as fate? The two embark on a whirlwind romance – until Nick makes a troubling confession.

Heartbroken, Olive pieces together what really happened the night of her accident and arrives at a startling revelation. Only by facing the truth can she uncover the mystery behind the song and the power of what it means to love someone.

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If He Had Been With Me
by Laura Nowlin
Paperback
Sourcebooks Fire
Released 5/1/2013

If he had been with me, he wouldn’t have died.

Throughout their whole childhood, Finn and Autumn were inseparable – they finished each other’s sentences, they knew just what to say when the other person was hurting. But one incident in middle school puts them in separate social worlds come high school, and Autumn has been happily dating James for the last 2 years. But she’s always wondered what if…

The night she’s about to get the answer is also one of terrible tragedy.

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Gorgeous
by Paul Rudnick
Hardcover
Scholastic Press
Released 5/1/2013

Inner beauty wants out.

When eighteen-year-old Becky Randle’s mother dies, she’s summoned from her Missouri trailer park to meet Tom Kelly, the world’s top designer. He makes her an impossible offer: He’ll create three dresses to transform Becky from a nothing special girl into the most beautiful woman who ever lived.

Becky thinks Tom is a lunatic, or that he’s producing a hidden camera show called World’s Most Gullible Poor People. But she accepts, and she’s remade as Rebecca. When Becky looks in the mirror, she sees herself – an awkward mess of split ends and cankles. But when anyone else looks at Becky, they see pure five-alarm hotness.

Soon Rebecca is on the cover of Vogue, the new Hollywood darling, and dating celebrities. Then Becky meets Prince Gregory, heir to the British throne, and everything starts to crumble. Because Rebecca aside, Becky loves him. But to love her back, Gregory would have to look past the blinding Rebecca to see the real girl inside. And Becky knows there’s not enough magic in the world.

A screamingly defiant, hugely naughty, and impossibly fun free fall past the cat walks, the red carpets, and even the halls of Buckingham Palace, Gorgeous does the impossible: It makes you see yourself clearly for the first time.

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The Loop
by Shandy Lawson
Hardcover
Hyperion Book CH
Released 4/30/2013

Ben and Maggie have met, fallen in love, and died together countless times. Over the course of two pivotal days – both the best and worst of their lives – they struggle again and again to resist the pull of fate and the force of time itself. With each failure, they return to the beginning of their end, a wild road trip that brings them to the scene of their own murders and into the hands of the man destined to kill them.

As time circles back on itself, events become more deeply ingrained, more inescapable for the two kids trapped inside the loop. The closer they come to breaking out, the tighter fate’s clutches seem to grip them. They devise a desperate plan to break free and survive the days ahead, but what if Ben and Maggie’s only shot at not dying is surviving apart?

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The Program
by Suzanne Young
Hardcover
Simon Pulse
Released 4/30/2013

In Sloane’s world, true feelings are forbidden, teen suicide is an epidemic, and the only solution is The Program.
Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane’s parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they’ll do anything to keep her alive. She also knows that everyone who’s been through The Program returns as a blank slate. Because their depression is gone—but so are their memories.

Under constant surveillance at home and at school, Sloane puts on a brave face and keeps her feelings buried as deep as she can. The only person Sloane can be herself with is James. He’s promised to keep them both safe and out of treatment, and Sloane knows their love is strong enough to withstand anything. But despite the promises they made to each other, it’s getting harder to hide the truth. They are both growing weaker. Depression is setting in. And The Program is coming for them.

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