Jenny Han has inked a deal for her “semi-autobiographical” young adult novel. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers will publish To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before in April 2014.

Publisher Justin Chanda negotiated the deal with Folio Literary Management senior vice president Emily Van Beek. Executive editor Zareen Jaffery will edit the manuscript. Here’s more from the release:

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters…

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New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins has launched a nonprofit called Ventana Sierra.

Here’s more about the organization: “Through their various careers in social work, the news media, and children’s publishing, the founding members of Ventana Sierra became acutely aware of the plight of young adults who desired college or career training, but were financially unable to accomplish their goals … Ventana Sierra was formed specifically to help highly motivated young people like these to build solid career paths toward a more positive future.”

In an effort to raise money, Hopkins will be hosting a writers conference set to take place from June 14th to 16th. This conference also has a one-day workshop for young writers on the schedule; there will be no charge for this particular event. The video embedded above features Hopkins talking about this social venture–what do you think?

Months before the release of the first Mortal Instruments adaptation, lead actors Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower have confirmed that they will return for the second installment of the franchise.

Director Harald Zwart will also be back to helm  City Of Ashes, the next film based on Cassandra Clare’s series. The film will hit theaters on August 23, 2013.

Follow this link to watch the official trailer for the City of Bones movie.

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Do you spend too much time worrying about publishing trends and not enough time writing?

On today’s edition of the Morning Media Menu, we spoke with Leah Konen, the author of The After Girls. She shared writing advice for aspiring YA novelists. She also explained how a Mediabistro writing course helped her get published. Here’s an important tip:

My first piece of advice would be to really write YA because you want to write YA. It’s become very popular now and sometimes people think commercially it will do the best. You have to have a passion for the voice and the tone and this idea of going back to childhood and your teenage years. You should pursue it, if that’s why you’re doing it. Not just because it happens to be the genre with the most movie deals.

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During last night’s Movie Awards show, MTV revealed the first teaser trailer for Catching Fire, the second installment of The Hunger Games film franchise.

We’ve embedded the video above–what do you think? The trailer has already drawn more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.

The trailer offers the fans glimpses of several major events in the story and a first look at Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman as Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. This adaptation of Suzanne Collins‘ young-adult novel won’t be released until November 22, 2013.

Happy National Poetry Month! All throughout April, we will interview poets about working in this digital age. Recently, we spoke with New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins.

Hopkins (pictured, via) has been writing poetry throughout her entire life. She first established her professional writing career by penning nonfiction children’s books.

After Simon & Schuster Children’s Books published Crank in 2004, she became well-known for writing novels in verse. Many of her hit titles focus on dark topics including addiction, mental illness, and prostitution. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

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The Descendants actress Shailene Woodley has been cast as Hazel Grace Lancaster in the upcoming film adaptation of John Green‘s The Fault in Our Stars, Entertainment Weekly reports.

As of this writing, the announcement has attracted 240 “likes” on Facebook. Green himself has endorsed Woodley in a blog post: “I am very excited about this. Here’s the thing, tumblr: Shailene Woodley loves The Fault in Our Stars. She really does, and in her audition, she just was Hazel—at least to me.”

The Golden Globe-nominated actress has taken roles in numerous book adaptation projects.

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The 2013 finalists for the Children’s Choice Book Awards have been revealed. Kids can vote from March 19th to May 9th.

The winners will be announced live at the Children’s Choice Book Awards gala on May 13th. Nominees have been divided into four groups classified by different school grades.

In the Author of the Year category, middle-grade fiction writers and young-adult novelists dominate. The nominees include The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 7: The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney, Wonder by R.J. Palacio, The Heroes of Olympus 3: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, and Insurgent by Veronica Roth.

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Hollywood screenwriter Stuart Beattie will write the script for the Daughter of Smoke & Bone film adaptation.

In the past, Beattie wrote the screenplays for Collateral (2004), 30 Days of Night (2007), and the forthcoming I, Frankenstein (2013). As we previously noted, Palak Patel and Joe Roth will produce.

Author Laini Taylor endorsed Beattie and the entire film-making team with this statement: “It’s been fantastic to delve into the world of the book with a screenwriter of such insight and experience. Between Stuart, Joe Roth and Universal Pictures, we’ve got a team with massive epic flair, and I can’t wait to see what unfolds as we move toward bringing Karou, Akiva, Brimstone and the world of Daughter of Smoke & Bone to the screen.”

In recent years, young adult books have driven a surge in sales for publishers. Besides increasing the revenue streams of these companies, it also seems to have uplifted the popularity of short fiction. The YA authors who have contributed to this trend tend to set their short fiction pieces within the universe of a popular book series.

For instance, Beth Revis recently concluded the Across the Universe trilogy and celebrated by inviting her fans to download a free novella called “As They Slip Away.” Ally Carter incorporated characters from two teen series, Heist Society and the Gallagher Girls, for “Double-Crossed: A Spies and Thieves Novella.”

As we previously reported, HarperCollins established HarperTeen Impulse as a digital imprint dedicated to solely publishing short fiction. But, even before this venture came along, Divergent series author Veronica Roth penned a short story called “Free Four” and Delirium trilogy author Lauren Oliver wrote a piece called “Hana.” What do you think?