Hey everybody!

I hope you're all having a great week. Personally, I am just trying to wrap up the second draft of GG4. Things are coming together, I think. Slowly. Surely. All that jazz.

Today, though, I got two very fun emails that included two attachments that totally brightened my day.

The first was from Editor Jen (the amazing Jennifer Besser) who had just gotten back from the photoshoot for the new cover for Heist Society!

The final image isn't ready to share yet of course, but Jen did offer this (slightly blurry) behind the scenes look at the making of a book cover.

You know how I'm always saying that it takes A LOT of people to make a book? Well, here's some more proof!

I don't know everyone in that photo, but I do know the model's name is Olga, and she's a model living and working in New York. She's originally from Russia, and I must say that from everything I've seen she's perfect for Kat. Hopefully all of you will agree come Feb. 9th once you've read the book yourselves.

The second fun email was from my agency and it told me that the Gallagher Girls are on Publisher's Weekly's list of best-selling YA series! Yay!

So, yeah, it was a pretty fun email day.

Hope you guys had a great day as well!

-Ally

About a year ago I made the hard decision to take my email address off this website. Last week I made the even harder decision to disable comments on this blog.

Please don't think this is because I hate hearing from readers. In fact, the opposite is true: I LOVE hearing from readers. But, unfortunately, writers are so available these days via connections like email, MySpace, Twitter, etc that these connections are easily abused--every day.

And things that are abused... Well, things that are abused can't last.

This is something I've talked about with writer friends on many occasions--the things that make us want to be more or less accessible. What follows is a guide I've written based on those things.

So remember, this post isn't complaining about when people contact their favorite authors--it's about how to stop the abuse of author contact information so that authors can stay accessible for many years to come.

Save the author emails!

--Ally

1. Please don't share personal information (like your address, phone number, school, etc.).
We are still strangers, after all. And internet safety is serious business.

2. Please don't send an author forwarded messages or mass mailings.
Every minute an author has to spend deleting (or blocking) spam or unwanted messages is a minute they're not writing their next book. If you like the author's work so much you're writing to him or her, then please value the time it takes to do that work.

3. Please don't ask questions that are already answered on the author's website.
This is partly a time thing. (Again, authors are busy...writing.)

Also, for me personally, it's a sanity thing.

Imagine that you're walking down the street and a stranger stops and asks if you have any sandwiches. You say no, sorry you're fresh out of sandwiches, and then you keep walking. Ten minutes later someone else comes up and asks if you have any sandwiches.

That might be funny, right? Now imagine that happening a dozen times a day, EVERY day. For years.

So you hang sign around your neck that says "I don't have any sandwiches" and yet people still stop you on the street, asking for a sandwich.

That's what it's like. It's not that authors want the people asking for a sandwich to be hungry. We just don't have any sandwiches and there are only so many times we can say so before going a little wonky.

(And, trust me, the sign-ignoring is far more frustrating than the sandwich-asking.)

4. It's okay just to write to say hi.
I think a lot times people think they have to have an excuse to write, so you ask questions you maybe already have the answers to (is there news on the movie, are you writing a new book, etc.).

Well, I personally think it's great if you just want to write to say hi or to tell us you've liked the books. You don't have to make up questions. A nice message just saying keep up the good work always makes my day.

5. Please remember that authors need (and want) to write their books themselves.
Again, I can't speak for everyone, but I find it incredibly flattering that you guys spend your time thinking about things that you hope will happen in future Gallagher Girl books or fantasizing about what the books will be titled. Really. That is SO flattering, guys, so thank you!

But...

You really shouldn't write and tell us your ideas.

Why? For a couple of reasons.

Reason #1: if by some chance the finished book actually resembles your idea you could sue us, complaining that we "ripped off" your idea.

Reason #2: we usually already know what needs to happen. Or at the very least we know that we need to figure it out for ourselves.

6. Please be patient.
Again, writers are very busy, but if we say on our websites that we'll try to reply to your messages then that is generally true. Still, there are only so many words we can type in a day, and the books always have to take priority.

And isn't that how you want it?

So there you go, gang, my general rules for the care and feeding of author contact information.

I hope it's helpful. Like I said, I've already taken my email down, but hopefully this will help my friends and colleagues keep theirs up for a little while longer.

-Ally

Hey everyone!

People have started asking to see the cover for Heist Society and why I don't have one posted. Well, the answer is simple: we're still working on it.

You see, my wonderful publisher, Disney-Hyperion, does the BEST covers! I love the Gallagher Girl covers, the Blue Bloods covers, the Percy Jackson covers... Pretty much every cover Hyperion does I LOVE, so it's no surprise that they want to send Kat and her crew of teenage hotties (I mean thieves) into the world with the best cover possible!

So they're still working.

And, believe me, they're getting really, really close. Right now they have a mock-up that I love, and they're in the process of choosing a model and doing a photo shoot and all that fun stuff.

So in just a few weeks we should have one. And as soon as we do you can bet I'll post it!

Have a great one!
Ally