Hey, everyone! The day we've been looking forward to is finally here! Tu's books are releasing everywhere TODAY! You may have even been able to find them in your local Barnes & Noble before this, because I saw them out in the wild a couple weeks ago.

For those of you waiting on rewards of finished books and bookmarks, we're working on getting those out to you. Expect an email soon asking for your contact information and/or the info about the library for which you'd like the books to be sent.

If you didn't get a book as a reward--or if you DID and now you want to share the joy with all your closest friends too!--you can always order directly from our website at http://www.leeandlow.com/p/tu.mhtml or find them through your favorite online* or brick and mortar bookstore (if your local independent doesn't carry the books, feel free to share the excitement and ask them to order them in!).

*Ebooks are not quite available yet, but coming soon.

The reward season is just beginning! I recently sent out a survey for those who signed up for the ARC reward (advance reader's copy). But the coding of the survey was so bad, despite how the HTML worked in preview, that I wanted to be sure that those supporters got to see what they were being asked to choose between--and I'd also like everyone to get a chance to see what we've got coming in the pipeline for our first season of books this fall.

(For those of you who signed up for different rewards, we will be contacting you for your mailing information or sending you your coupon code, etc., as the Fall release date draws near.)

As you might have seen on the Lee & Low blog, we have three books coming out this fall, and we're very excited about them! 

Tankborn by Karen Sandler



Best friends Kayla and Mishalla know they will be separated when the time comes for their Assignments. They are GENs, Genetically Engineered Non-humans, and in their strict caste system, GENs are at the bottom rung of society. High-status trueborns and working-class lowborns, born naturally of a mother, are free to choose their own lives. But GENs are gestated in a tank, sequestered in slums, and sent to work as slaves as soon as they reach age fifteen.

When Kayla is Assigned to care for Zul Manel, the patriarch of a trueborn family, she finds a host of secrets and surprises—not least of which is her unexpected friendship with Zul’s great-grandson. Meanwhile, the children that Mishalla is Assigned to care for are being stolen in the middle of the night. With the help of an intriguing lowborn boy, Mishalla begins to suspect that something horrible is happening to them.

After weeks of toiling in their Assignments, mystifying circumstances enable Kayla and Mishalla to reunite. Together they hatch a plan with their new friends to save the children who are disappearing. Yet can GENs really trust humans? Both girls must put their lives and hearts at risk to crack open a sinister conspiracy, one that may reveal secrets no one is ready to face.

Ages: 12 and upISBN: 978-1-60060-662-5

Wolf Mark by Joseph Bruchac



Luke King knows a lot of things. Like four different ways to disarm an enemy before the attacker can take a breath. Like every detail of every book he’s ever read. And Luke knows enough—just enough—about what his father does as a black ops infiltrator to know which questions not to ask. Like why does his family move around so much?

Luke just hopes that this time his family is settled for a while. He’ll finally be able to have a normal life. He’ll be able to ask the girl he likes to take a ride with him on his motorcycle. He’ll hang out with his friends. He’ll be invisible—just as he wants.

But when his dad goes missing, Luke realizes that life will always be different for him. Suddenly he must avoid the kidnappers looking to use him as leverage against his father, while at the same time evading the attention of the school’s mysterious elite clique of Russian hipsters, who seem much too interested in Luke’s own personal secret. Faced with multiple challenges and his emerging paranormal identity, Luke must decide who to trust as he creates his own destiny.

Ages: 12 and up                                                                 

ISBN: 978-1-60060-661-8

Galaxy Games: The Challengers by Greg R. Fishbone



Things are looking up for Tyler Sato (literally!) as he and his friends scan the night sky for a star named for him by his Tokyo cousins in honor of his eleventh birthday. Ordinary stars tend to stay in one place, but Ty’s seems to be streaking directly toward Earth at an alarming rate. Soon the whole world is talking about TY SATO, the doomsday asteroid, and life is turned upside down for Ty Sato, the boy, who would rather be playing hoops in his best friend’s driveway.

Meanwhile, aboard a silver spaceship heading for Earth, M’Frozza, a girl with three eyes and five nose holes, is on a secret mission. M’Frozza is the captain of planet Mrendaria’s Galaxy Games team, and she is desperate to save her world from a dishonorable performance in the biggest sporting event in the universe.

What will happen when Ty meets M’Frozza? Get ready for the most important event in human history—it’s off the backboard, around the rim, and out of this world!

Ages: 8 to 12   

For those who are interested in pre-ordering the books online, they are now available at all major online retailers for doing so, though if you want to use your coupon from a backer reward you'll want to wait until we are in touch.

Cross-posted from my blog, http://www.stacylwhitman.com.

What do you see me holding here? 



That's right, ARCs (Advance Reader's Copies) of Tankborn and Galaxy Games: The Challengers (book one of the Galaxy Games series). Soon we'll be getting Wolf Mark as well, to complete the Fall 2011 ARC set of Tu Books! (And if you're curious, yes, that's my office behind me. I particularly like the "Come to the dark side. We have cookies." bumper sticker I once got for being Editor GoH at LTUE. Note the ever-present stacks of manuscripts behind me.)

We have very limited supplies, so I can't just hand them out left and right, but for those of you who chose the ARC option for our Kickstarter campaign, we'll be getting in touch sometime in the near future to find out which one you want (don't comment here with that---wait for an email). Copies will be going out to reviewers, of course---that's what ARCs generally are for.

If you're a librarian who will be at ALA in June, make sure to go to the Lee & Low booth (I'll post the booth number when ALA is closer), where we'll have ARCs for giving away there as well. If you're a reviewer, librarian, parent, or teacher interested in finding out more about the books, I hope you're on the Lee & Low email newsletter. If not, check it out HERE. By subscribing to the e-news, you will get up-to-date information on all of Lee & Low's books (like Tu's books!), including possible giveaways, resources for teachers and librarians, and other promotions and resources. Follow the Lee & Low blog, too, where we'll share news as it comes up.

If you're a reviewer or buyer who thinks you may not be on our list for review copies or catalogs, please contact me privately with your (in the case of reviewers) publication, readership, and other credentials or (in the case of buyers) store information so I can forward the information on to the right people.

And of course if you're a young reader who thinks these books look wicked awesome (did I just date myself with that phrase?)---these books are for YOU, after all!---you can find out more about Tu on our website. And in case you missed it above, check out the preview of fall's books HERE. And of course in the fall you'll be able to find them in bookstores or order them online.

If you haven't heard yet, Tu Publishing was recently acquired by Lee & Low Books. We'll now be called Tu Books. It's a perfect match--Lee & Low is a small press with almost two decades of experience publishing multicultural books, and they have been looking for an opportunity to reach older readers.

I'm now in New York City in Lee & Low's offices, continuing to read and work with authors to acquire our launch list. We've got several great possibilities and when they're official, we'll update you. What's awesome about this acquisition is that instead of our modest plan for 2 books in the first year, we will publish 6 books in our first year--3 per season, starting Fall 2011.

This means, for those of you whose rewards are some form of a book, there will be a delay, but we will honor all our rewards, because you are the people who made this happen. If it wasn't for your interest in this Kickstarter, showing how much interest there is in SFF for young readers that features diverse characters and settings, we wouldn't have gotten this far.

Another part of the transition is that while we will honor the rewards, we will be refunding the pledges you made, because Lee & Low is providing the funding we need. I have been working on that, but it's taken some time to figure out a few things and I've run into some technical difficulties with Amazon payments. As I work those issues out, you'll be hearing from me again.

Thanks again for your support, everyone! You made this possible.

Stacy Whitman
Editorial Director
Tu Books (formerly Tu Publishing)

If you haven't seen yet, our submission guidelines are now up on the Tu Publishing website (http://www.tupublishing.com). All further updates will be on our blog. Thanks again for your support!

I (Stacy Whitman) just woke up to see that our Kickstarter has been fully funded with 11 hours to go. You guys, I’m speechless. I went to bed knowing we had $2000 left to go, and wondering if we’d make it.

Wow.

So, a big thank you to everyone who made this happen: All the people who tweeted, blogged, and shared on Facebook about it; all the people who participated in the auction; and especially all the people who pledged. We’ll officially be open for submissions from writers come Jan. 1 because WE MET THE GOAL!

For you writers: keep an eye on the Tu Publishing blog (http://www.tupublishing.com), where we’ll be posting official submission guidelines in the next few days!

The project is still open for another 11 hours, so we won't be able to declare "official" success until we cross the finish line, but I'm sure we'll make it!

I forgot to post this here, in case you didn't see it linked on our blog or Twitter. Renee at Shen's Books interviewed Stacy Whitman, our editorial director, for her Multicultural Minute--talking about multicultural books and publishing in exactly one minute. I can't figure out how to embed a YouTube video here, so I'll just direct you to Shen's Blog:

http://www.shens.com/blog/2009/11/the-multicultural-minute-13-st.html

So many kind people are helping us succeed here. Today's news comes from Alana Joli Abbott, who started a Livejournal auction to benefit our Kickstart project. There are already several things being auctioned. (Wow, guys! The list keeps growing every time I go over there! So far, there are a giant box of manga (SIXTY volumes!), a short story or novel chapter critique, photo cards, and just now I saw a folklore bundle added.)

For more information, check out the rules over at the auction community page. You're welcome to start an auction, bid on an auction, or let your friends know about it.

Hi everyone!

We're nearly up to 30% and still growing! Keep your fingers crossed. Thanks for your support.

I've added a few new rewards--one huge one that I doubt anyone will take on, but I wanted it out there just in case, one personalized one for those of you who love personalized rewards, and more ARCs.

If you believe in what we're doing and think these new rewards would be of interest to someone you know, please feel free to share it on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or anywhere else that might reach interested readers, parents, librarians, or teachers.

Also, I've got a bunch of promotional bookmarks for this project that I'd love to send out to you to pass around locally. These bookmarks are NOT the same bookmarks that will be given out to backers as rewards. Feel free to leave them in your local independent bookstore, multicultural center, or library. If you'd like a set of 10-20 bookmarks, email me your name and address at stacylwhitman AT gmail.com. Your information will only be used to send you a bookmark, then deleted. I'll send out these bookmarks while supplies last.

For more updates from Tu Publishing--and from its editorial director, Stacy Whitman--including publishing news, and interviews and articles featuring teen readers, bloggers, and authors, check out the following links:

Tu Publishing's main site: http://www.tupublishing.com
Fan Tu Publishing on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tu-Publishing/112191230046
Follow Tu Publishing on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tupublishing

Stacy Whitman's blog: http://www.stacylwhitman.com
Follow Stacy Whitman on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stacylwhitman

Thanks for your support!

Every year about this time, you might notice that your local library hosts activities that celebrate teens reading for fun. This year, you fantasy and science fiction fans might be interested to know that the theme is Read Beyond Reality. Celebrate it with your local library and with readers around the country from Oct. 18-24.

You could extend that idea to reading beyond your own reality, too--pick up a book set in a world completely unlike your own. Whether that means a story set in space or in ancient Korea, you can explore all sorts of worlds in a good book.

As the ALA Teen Read Week site notes, teens who read for pleasure do better in school and in the work force. As you support multicultural literature, make sure to stop in at your local library and thank them for the services they provide to local teens. Check out the ALA site for ways in which you can get involved in Teen Read Week, and also make sure to head over to Readergirlz, where they will be hosting live chats with authors and giving away all sorts of goodies. (They're over on Facebook, too.)

For Teen Read Week here at Tu Publishing, we're going to be interviewing teens, bloggers, and writers about multicultural fantasy and science fiction--how do we read beyond reality? Keep an eye on our website!

For those of you who have asked, I've added flexibility to some of the smaller rewards--if you'd rather a book or two be donated to your local library instead of you getting a coupon, you now have that option.

The best thing to do if you want to forego any reward for yourself and have it donated to your local library is to tell me when I contact you for how to get your reward to you, at the end of the project if our goal is met. Thanks for your support, and thank you especially for supporting your local libraries!

I've figured out how to fix the video, so if you were frustrated with the squishing problem, don't worry--all fixed!