In what the publisher described as a "heated" auction, Dutton Children's Books paid seven figures for North American rights to debut novelist Ally Condie's Matched. The house compared the book to Brave New World and The Handmaid's Tale, calling the dystopian work "one of the year's most talked-about manuscripts." In the book, a 17-year-old girl, who's spent her life waiting for a group dubbed "The Society" to tell her who her ideal mate is, has her world upended when she discovers she's falling in love with someone other than her supposed soul mate. Jodi Reamer at Writers House brokered the deal, which is for three books, with Don Weisberg,Lauri Hornik, and Julie Strauss-Gabel (who will edit). Dutton beat out seven other houses for the book and foreign rights have sold in Germany, Italy, and Brazil.

A seven figure deal for a debut YA author. Could you imagine? Could you imagine, me a small business accountant that loves stories, that could be me. Now I'll have to work my ass off for a publishing deal, regardless, but man.

Honestly, I do wonder what is more enticing: the money or the fact that your story being the year's most talked about manuscript. Could you imagine selling hundreds of thousands copies the day your book released? If it ever happened to me, I think I could happily say I gave back everything I owed to the authors that worked their ass off to give me the best book they could.