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As an agent, there is so much to read that there is the danger of primarily reading clients' manuscripts and requested fulls via queries, rather than published books. I've done it, other agents and editors tell me that they've done it, and writers, I wonder if you are doing the same regarding reading more unpublished than published words per month.
What I have found is that I am much more successful at choosing salable manuscripts if I stick to a discipline I discovered when I first started agenting, to always first read a fabulous, strong-selling published book in the genre of the unpublished WIP waiting on my e-reader.
For example, I have a client's WIP waiting for me that is contemporary boy mc. It is not a weepy book or a book in which anyone is sick, however I am reading THE FAULT IN OUR STARS right now (and LOVING IT!) because it is generally in the same genre and when I finish TFIOS, my taste radar will be on such a higher plane than if I simply started my clients WIP post Thanksgiving turkey leg. What I am saying here is that I am not comparing one book to the other, rather I am lifting both my conscious and subconscious reading eye so that when I go to read the WIP, I will more easily 'feel' its flaws as well as its shiny goodness.
Writers, I hope you are doing the same--reading well-written, strong-selling books that raise your game as a writer, as well as a reviser.
I'd love to hear what you are all reading, as well as genre.
Sign up for A PATH TO PUBLISHING online face-to-face writing workshops. Wether you choose the NOVEL TRACK or the PICTURE BOOK TRACK, our goal is ensure you understand concept, plotting, character development, scene development, action and emotional arc development, as well has how to pitch your work to agents, editors, and readers.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
I represent Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade and Young Adult plus a select list of children's and adult non-fiction.
With regret, due to the volume of submissions received, Jill Corcoran Literary Agency can no longer accept unsolicited queries. Submissions will only be accepted from attendees of
A PATH TO PUBLISHING WORKSHOPS, from attendees of conferences at which Jill Corcoran presents, or through referrals from clients or from professionals in the industry.
Any queries/fulls received prior to 1/5/2014 will be read and I will send a response by the end of January.
For more information for what I am looking for please visit my agency website at
http://jillcorcoranliteraryagency.com/submissions/Here is to a fantastic writing and publishing year for every one of us! Bring it, 2014!
Sign up for A PATH TO PUBLISHING online face-to-face writing workshops. Wether you choose the NOVEL TRACK or the PICTURE BOOK TRACK, our goal is ensure you understand concept, plotting, character development, scene development, action and emotional arc development, as well has how to pitch your work to agents, editors, and readers.
We used the Plot Planner as a place to help you balance your intuitive impressions of your story with an equal counterforce: logic. The exercises are pathways to deepening your understanding of your story on all plot levels:
Thematic Significance
Dramatic Action
Character Emotional Development
Cause and Effect
Antagonists
Setting
Subplots
Secondary Characters
Beginning, Middle, End
Scene Development
Tension and Suspense
*****Time is running out to sign-up with literary agent Jill Corcoran and Plot Expert Martha Alderson for the 1st ever online, live Plot Whisperer Workbook Workshops evening chats beginning next Tuesday (1/7/14) from 5:45pm - 8pm PST for four weeks in January. Two daytime spots left beginning Thursday (1/9/14) 9:45am - 12 noon PST.
You benefit from:
1) being held accountable
2) receiving constructive feedback on your plot and concept
3) learning from other writers
join us and continue to deepen your plot and your understanding of your story concept with a comp analysis -- all ages, all genres, characters.
Each Workshop = 2 1/4 hours per week x 4 weeks for a total of 9 hours of Online Video Chat Face-to-Face with Literary Agent Jill Corcoran and The Plot Whisperer Martha Alderson. Each participant will receive weekly feedback as well as have the opportunity to ask questions during the Q&A Discussion.
SIGN UP NOW at
apathtopublishing.comHere is more on Plot Planners from Martha Alderson:
Plot Planner: Plot your story using the universal story form for structure and impact. A Plot Planner mimics the universal story and is the framework for developing a gripping story. Rather than creating a dry, episodic list of scenes to cover, arrange your story by cause and effect to best engage the reader.
Think of the Plot Planner as the route or map of the journey you envision for your story. When you first plan your plot, your route is likely to be sketchy with lots of gaps and dead ends. These gaps will smooth over and fill in as you come to know your story and characters better. Along your story's route, the plot elements of dramatic action, characters, and thematic significance will rise and fall, like waves cresting. The flow of these elements is like the flow of energy the Chinese call “qi” (pronounced “chi”). The qi is the mainstay of life force, inherently present in all things.
Within your story, the energy undulates. Although every story has its own energy, a universal pattern of energy rising and falling repeats itself. The greater your understanding of this stable format, the better able you are to determine where and when to allow the energy to crest, to make your story most compelling to the reader. Allow the energy of your story to direct the flow of your scenes. The closer you can re-create this pattern in your presentation to the reader, the stronger and more compelling your story. A plot planner helps you map your story's energy and direction.
DESCRIPTION
All great stories have a beginning, middle and end.
1. The Beginning
The beginning usually encompasses one quarter of the entire story. Most of us start out strong in the beginning, but struggle to keep the momentum going.
2. The Middle
The middle is the longest portion of the project – one half of the entire story. It commands the most scenes, and is where many writers fall short. When the allure of the beginning is over, the story starts getting messy. Writers often know the beginning and the end of their story, but bog down in creating the middle. Crisis is the meat of the middle.
Place crisis – the scene of greatest intensity and highest energy in your story thus far – around the three-quarter point in your story, when your audience needs a recharge to combat fatigue, frustration, and irritation. Crisis is where tension and conflict peak – it is a turning point in your story. Crisis is developed through the scenes to provide the greatest impact in the energy flow of your story.
The crisis is the false summit of your case, where the audience can perceive the true summit. Here, your story’s energy drops after the drama of the crisis, giving your audience the opportunity to rebuild energy in anticipation of reaching the climax.
3. The End
The final quarter of your presentation represents the end, which comprises three parts: the build-up to the climax, the climax itself, and the resolution. The build-up to the climax represents the steps you take to lead the reader to envision how the story should end. The climax is the point of highest drama in your story, the crowning moment when the thematic significance of your story becomes clear to the reader. The resolution is your opportunity to fully tie together that significance and make your story complete.
PLOT PLANNER BENEFITS
A Plot Planner helps you visualize your story. Use a Plot Planner to place your ideas and sequence your scenes to greatest effect. A plot planner allows you to experiment with changes in the storyline or presentation to evoke stronger reaction and interest from the reader, and gives you a sense for how the story may be paced. A plot planner also allows you to collaborate with others to generate ideas for better developing your story and to solidify your understanding of the story's core elements, and helps ensure that you understand the story you are presenting. Importantly, the plot planner enables you to keep the larger picture of your story in full view as you concentrate on creating the story’s individual parts, helping you maintain paramount focus on crafting a story that will convey your core message to reader or audience in a compelling way.
CONSTRUCTING A PLOT PLANNER
I recommend building your Plot Planner on big pieces of banner paper, running horizontally. It takes up quite a bit of space, but serves as a continual visual reminder of the entire project.
The Plot Planner is merely a line that separates scenes filled with conflict and excitement (above the plot planner line) from those that are passive, filled with summary and back story, or heavy with information (below the plot planner line). Scenes are where the story plays out, where the action happens moment-by-moment in your presentation.
The external dramatic action of stories told in scene and filled with conflict belongs above the line, like the white caps on the sea’s surface as a wave swells toward the shore. Scenes that show complications, conflicts, tension, dilemmas, and suspense belong above the line. Any scene that slows the story’s energy belongs below the line.
By placing ideas above and below the line, you create a visual map for analyzing critical story information, presentation flow, and weaknesses in your story’s overall sequence.
The Plot Planner line is not flat – it moves steadily higher, building your story slowly and methodically as tension increases. Each scene delivers more tension and conflict than the preceding scene, with intensity building to your story's climax.
Sign up for A PATH TO PUBLISHING online face-to-face writing workshops. Wether you choose the NOVEL TRACK or the PICTURE BOOK TRACK, our goal is ensure you understand concept, plotting, character development, scene development, action and emotional arc development, as well has how to pitch your work to agents, editors, and readers.
Do you all get bookgorilla? This is an email with a listing of $3.99 and under books on kindle. bookgorilla does NOT set the prices, they simply report on the listing, offering a link to that price on Amazon. For a long time this was free to authors and publishers, but with demand outstripping supply, they now charge a reasonable amount to get your book seen by their subscribers. And yes, this is just one of many such services. Here is a link to how bookgorilla 'chooses' which books to include: http://www.bookgorilla.com/advertise
The newest proliferation of $0.99 for 8 book sets is now all the fad. Writers, I know there is a good marketing reason for capturing readers with our first 'free' book and then have them coming back for more, but now that the reading public can fill their e-readers with practically free 'bestselling' books, what is their incentive to pay you a fair price for your next book? And what is a fair price these days?
There is an article in the WSJ today that talks about clothing prices, "Looking for New Ways to Set Prices, Retails Take Cue From Customers". Here is an excerpt: "Now that list prices have grown so detached from what shoppers actually pay, some retailers are experimenting with new ways of determining what their goods should cost....It turns out customers are sometimes willing to pay a higher price than retailers would have otherwise charged. ...Pricing an item too low at the start can signal that it isn't worth much, Mr. Zhang [a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business] said. But the practice has led to a cycle of discounting that frustrates retailers and confuses consumers."
I get it, we all want our books to be read and with the voices of bloggers and twitter-parties often trumping professional reviewers when it comes to sell-through, getting your foot in the door/getting your ebook on anyone and everyone's e-reader is the first step to [hopefully] selling these buyers your second book. BUT, if your self-pubbed book is free, and, according to bookgorilla, John Green's THE FAULT OF OUR STARS ebook is worth $3.99, then all of us in publishing will need to downsize our houses, our food bill, our lifestyles because unless you are selling a heck of a lot of books, at $3.99 or 1/8th of $0.99 or at the golden 'price' of FREE, we have all just devalued ourselves to a point of below the already pitiful American minimum wage.
And according to the WSJ, we may be too late to change our consumers' mindsets. In a related article in today's paper, "Black Friday's Illusion of Discounts", Suzanne Kapner writes, "Retailers, having trained customers to shop for deals, are stuck with the strategy for now. Macy's tried to cut back on coupons in 2007. "Customers stopped shopping," said Macy's Chief Executive, Terry Lundgren, "so we knew that was a bad idea."
P.S. 11/27/2013, just received my bookgorilla email and FAULT OF OUR STARS is now $2.99, and DAVID AND GOLIATH by Malcolm Gladwell is $3.79. And these prices are not Author-induced. For this we have a little help from Goliath.
Sign up for A PATH TO PUBLISHING online face-to-face writing workshops. Wether you choose the NOVEL TRACK or the PICTURE BOOK TRACK, our goal is ensure you understand concept, plotting, character development, scene development, action and emotional arc development, as well has how to pitch your work to agents, editors, and readers.
Kindle Serials are books published in episodes. When you buy a Kindle Serial, you receive all existing episodes on your Kindle immediately, with future episodes delivered at no additional cost. If you buy the book while it is still being serialized you get to read the story as the author creates it, and whenever you buy it you can discuss episodes with other readers in the Kindle forums.
Right now the only
Young Adult Kindle Serial available for sale is
Erin Fry's THE BENEFACTOR. Currently three episodes are available out of an estimated six total episodes, with new episodes delivered to your Kindle every week.
In January 2014, Amazon will be selling THE BENEFACTOR in its entirety in paperback for a higher price than the $1.99 serialized price.
How did Erin get this gig?
Erin and I were talking about Kindle Serials and she came up with a great idea that fit the format to a T. We presented it to Amazon and they jumped on it.
I think the key is to come up with a book that is enhanced by the episodic presentation. THE BENEFACTOR is a story about eight high school seniors who compete for a college scholarship on a reality show where do-or-die challenges require more than high SAT scores to avoid elimination. Each episode is an episode of the 'television show'.
I know that future Kindle Serials are NOT based on fictional television reality shows, but for THE BENEFACTOR I think there is no better format for this kind of book. A true opportunity for both author and publisher.
Does Amazon pay well for YA Kindle Serials?
I can't speak for any other deal than Erin's but I can tell you we were very happy with the advance and royalties that we all finally agreed upon.
Do you want to write a YA Kindle Serial?
I'd suggest coming up with fantastic concepts that are enhanced by the episode delivery format. Make a list of ideas and see how you can use the format to enhance your concept, and your writing. For more information on writing concepts and how to brainstorm them please read my post
WHAT MAKES A BOOK SELL.
I'd also suggest you fork over the $1.99 and see why Amazon chose THE BENEFACTOR to be the first YA Kindle Serial, and what sets it apart from other novels.
THE BENEFACTOR by Erin Fry
They come from different walks of life, with different problems and different hopes and dreams. But they have one thing in common: they need a scholarship to college. And they’re ready to battle seven other contestants on a reality TV show to get it.
There’s:
Mei, a budding artist with a secret disability;
Henry, not in it for the money but for the chance to follow his true dream;
Lucy, a tough Texan from a new kind of family;
Tyrell, an injured football star with a sick sister at home;
Sam, a musician with no family to fall back on;
Allyson, a devout Christian with a good reason to pray;
Cassidy, a beauty with a secret; and
Hiroshi, a varsity swimmer who left behind his true love.
But only one contestant can win on The Benefactor. Who will take home the big prize? Tune in to find out.
Episode List
An additional episode will be delivered every week until the book is complete. New episodes will be added to the same book on your Kindle, keeping your place and retaining your notes and highlights. You'll be notified via email when a new episode has been delivered.
Episode 1: October 8, 2013. 54 pages. The eight contestants arrrive in California and compete in their first challenge.
Episode 2: October 15, 2013. 51 pages. The results of the first Elimination are revealed, and new alliances form as the contestants compete in their second challenge.
Episode 3: October 22, 2013. 47 pages. The contestants' true colors begin to show, as one person is sent home and the remaining six compete in the third challenge.
Episode 4: October 29, 2013. 49 pages. A devastating tragedy sends one contestant home.
Discuss the episodes with other readers in this book’s
Customer Discussions Forum on Amazon.com.
Sign up for A PATH TO PUBLISHING online face-to-face writing workshops. Wether you choose the NOVEL TRACK or the PICTURE BOOK TRACK, our goal is ensure you understand concept, plotting, character development, scene development, action and emotional arc development, as well has how to pitch your work to agents, editors, and readers.
Last YA ROMANCE PITCHFEST was so successful I am doing it again!
I am actively looking for authentic YA romance and this pitchfest is specifically for
YA ROMANCE ONLY!
Please email me your pitch plus the first 1,000 words of your manuscript embedded into your email (no attachments) with subject line YA ROMANCE PITCHFEST to:
Jill (at) JillCorcoranLiteraryAgency (dot) com
October 21-31, 2013
Contemporary, mystery, thriller, historical, sci-fi, fantasy.....doesn't matter---it is about characters--soul-searching, groin-yearning, heart thumping, heart breaking, fast paced, laugh out loud, cry out loud, make me want to be your character ROMANCE!
But here is the thing....
The writing has to be authentic teen.
The voice has to be knock me out of my chair original.
The plotting, cinematic.
The protagonist, a person that I believe is real and who I wish was in my life yet they are flawed and f-up sometimes and well, human.
The villains, I want to freak'n pound them into oblivion even though I understand where they are coming from and their underlying emotional wound.
The writing has to sweep me up in the story so that I do not even remember that I am sitting in a chair and not actually living and breathing along with your characters, in their world.
The concept....original, stunning, would make anyone who hears it think
d**m, why didn't I think of that?!? And btw, the words from How's It Going To Be by Third Eye Blind gets me to my core. I would love to read a YA based on this song.
I will respond to every pitch within a week or less, including requests for full manuscripts.
Thanks! I can't wait to read your work!
Sign up for A PATH TO PUBLISHING online face-to-face writing workshops. Wether you choose the NOVEL TRACK or the PICTURE BOOK TRACK, our goal is ensure you understand concept, plotting, character development, scene development, action and emotional arc development, as well has how to pitch your work to agents, editors, and readers.
Who of you are doing NaNoWriMo this year?
Who of you have done it before and created characters and a story you love BUT when you went back to revise the manuscript in December or January you realized what you had was a 50K word HOT MESS?
NaNoWriMo can be a blast and a great exercise. But it can also be the first draft of your next publishable novel IF, in my opinion, you preplot your book so when November 1, 2013 rolls around you know what your book is about, where it is going, who your characters are, etc.
So how do you preplot with only a couple of weeks to go? How do you create that roadmap and those characters that are as real to you as you write as if they are sitting in the room with you, pushing your keyboard keys to make you tell their story?
My best piece of advice, get to know THE PLOT WHISPERER and use The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
Seriously, look inside this book, read the reviews, and see how much it can help you! This book is NOT theory...it is a fill in the blank, step-by-step path to your NaNoWriMo manuscript.
Good luck! And I can't wait to read your REVISED NaNoWriMo book later in 2014!
Sign up for A PATH TO PUBLISHING online face-to-face writing workshops. Wether you choose the NOVEL TRACK or the PICTURE BOOK TRACK, our goal is ensure you understand concept, plotting, character development, scene development, action and emotional arc development, as well has how to pitch your work to agents, editors, and readers.
There are 3 things that, for me, distinguish a great writer:
1)VOICE
2)CHARACTER DEV
3)PLOT
in that order.
Be unique. Be yourself. Be confident.
Sign up for A PATH TO PUBLISHING online face-to-face writing workshops. Wether you choose the NOVEL TRACK or the PICTURE BOOK TRACK, our goal is ensure you understand concept, plotting, character development, scene development, action and emotional arc development, as well has how to pitch your work to agents, editors, and readers.
KISS, KISS GOOD NIGHT is today’s New York Times’ board book roundup!
Kittens, lambs, bear cubs, bunnies and chicks all snuggle their way to sleep with the help of their mothers in “Kiss, Kiss Good Night.
Kenn Nesbitt gives this big-format board book, with its shiny padded cover and dusky nighttime vignettes, a narrative in jaunty couplets: “When cuddly cubs begin to doze, / their mothers stroke them on the nose, / then grumble softy in their ear. / In Bear, that means ‘Good night, my dear.’” Tiny children will love the comforting sentiments, and older ones may find themselves memorizing the ingenious rhymes." Cartwheel Books/Scholastic
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/09/18/books/18childrens-slides.htmlChildren's Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt is the author of many books for kids, including Kiss, Kiss Good Night, My Hippo Has the Hiccups, Revenge of the Lunch Ladies, and many others. His poems have appeared in numerous bestselling anthologies, including every book in the popular Kids Pick the Funniest Poems series, and anthologies with nearly two million copies in print. His work has been published in hundreds of school textbooks around the world, as well as national television programs, and numerous children's magazines. Kenn travels the country, visiting over 60 schools each year, sharing his wacky brand of poetry with kids nationwide, and helping to create a new generation of poetry lovers. His website, www.poetry4kids.com is the most visited children's poetry website on the Internet.
In August 2013, after 4 years agenting with the wonderful Ronnie Ann Herman of the
Herman Agency, I decided to strike out on my own and create the Jill Corcoran Literary Agency.
I am lucky to be starting not only with Ronnie's support and blessings but also with the clients that I signed while at Herman Agency.
I represent Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade and Young Adult plus a select list of adult non-fiction.
Prior to becoming an agent, I worked at Mattel, LA Gear, Leo Burnett Advertising and my own company, LAUNCH! New Product Marketing. With an English degree from Stanford University and a Marketing and Finance MBA from the University of Chicago School of Business, I have marketed everything from Barbies to Disney toys, Kellogg's cereal to LA Gear shoes. But when I started writing books for children, and then agenting them, I knew I found my true calling.
I am also a poetry anthologist.
Winner of the American Library Association 2013 Notable Books for a Global Society Award, my anthology Dare to Dream … Change the World features work from thirty renowned contemporary children’s poets, including Ellen Hopkins, Jane Yolen, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Marilyn Singer, Bruce Coville and former Children’s Poetry Laureate J. Patrick Lewis. Each pair of poems in the anthology was inspired by someone whose actions made a difference, not only in their own lives, but in the lives of people all over the world. Subjects form a culturally diverse mix ranging from Jonas Salk to Steven Spielberg, from Christa McAuliffe to Michelle Kwan, with brief descriptions of their lives included. The collection,also garnered the California Reading Association’s 2012 Eureka! Silver Honor award and was named a Best Books of 2013 by Bank Street College of Education.
Taryn Fagerness specializes in representing foreign rights on behalf of North American literary agents. The Agency also represents a select number of authors domestically.
Before opening her own agency in March 2009, Taryn Fagerness spent five years as the Subsidiary Rights Manager and an Agent at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. She’s sold hundreds of books to foreign, audio, and film markets, including work by Lisa See, Amy Tan, Neal Shusterman, Charles Mann, Irvin Yalom, Keith and Brooke Desserich, Cayla Kluver, Chloe Palov, Matthew Dicks, Kimberly Derting and many more. She has experience selling subsidiary rights for New York Times bestselling authors, first time authors, and everyone in between, in nearly all genres including literary fiction, thriller/suspense, commercial fiction, romance, history, self-help, business, and children's. She has exceptional relationships with foreign co-agents, foreign publishers, and scouts, and she handles all aspects of selling foreign rights from international fair-going to submission, negotiating, and tracking titles through publication and beyond.
The territories to which she sells are: Albania, Arabic, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Catalan, China, Czech, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latin America and South America, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UK and British Commonwealth, Ukraine and Vietnam.
Taryn Fagerness Agency does not accept unsolicited submissions.
Kasey Poserina most recently worked at Simon & Schuster as a Contracts Director where she handled all aspects of contract drafting and negotiation for the following imprints: Free Press, Touchstone, Howard Books and Simon & Schuster Audio. She was at Simon & Schuster for two years.
Prior to working at Simon & Schuster, Kasey was the Associate Director of Business Affairs at Trident Media Group, a large (and very busy) literary agency in NYC. There, she worked with over 10 literary agents reviewing and negotiating book publishing agreements, audio publishing agreements, publishing agreements with British and foreign language publishers, first serial licenses, film agreements, author collaboration agreements and the like. She worked at Trident Media Group for almost 6 years.
After 4 years agenting with the wonderful Ronnie Ann Herman of the Herman Agency, I have decided to strike out on my own and create the Jill Corcoran Literary Agency.
I am lucky to be starting not only with Ronnie's support and blessings but also with the clients that I signed while at Herman Agency.
My new website
www.JillCorcoranLiteraryAgency.com will grow and be updated, but for now I wanted to welcome you all to The Jill Corcoran Literary Agency.
As many of you know, I have purchased an amazing technology that allows me to join up to 24 of you in a video chat that has no lag times in picture or audio. It is like we are all in the same room!
April 24, 2013 8:30-10:30 pm EST
THE LITERARY AGENTS OF THE ERIN MURPHY LITERARY AGENCY
LIMITED TO 20 PARTICIPANTS
Erin Murphy Literary Agency is a leading U.S. children's book agency headquartered in Flagstaff, Arizona. They focus on connections—between writer and editor, story and reader—as well as on helping clients build their careers and grow as artists.
Erin Murphy, Ammi-Joan Paquette, and Tricia Lawrence will discuss the role of the agent in today's changing publishing environment, what makes the Erin Murphy Agency unique including how they work with clients before, during and after the sale, how they choose clients, their relationships with publishing professionals including editors, art directors, marketing, publicity, contracts, etc.
Workshops are 2 HOURS LONG and LIMITED TO 20 PARTICIPANTS.
Submission Policy
EMLA is closed to unsolicited queries or submissions. We consider queries that come to us by referral from industry professionals we know, and individual agents are open to queries from attendees of conferences where they speak. If you have met us at a conference (INCLUDING A PATH TO PUBLISHING) or have a referral, please paste your query into the contact form on
this page. Please note that we are no longer responding to unsolicited queries or submissions sent in hard copy form via post or other means, and those sent via email will receive a form rejection.
Faculty:
Erin Murphy was born and raised in Arizona, and founded EMLA in Flagstaff in 1999. She cut her teeth in regional publishing at Northland Publishing/Rising Moon Books for Young Readers, a beloved decades-old Flagstaff company that was bought out in 2007, where she was editor-in-chief. As founder of EMLA she has focused not just on publishing books, but on building careers—and creating a sense of community, as well.
Erin represents writers and writer-illustrators of picture books, novels for middle-graders and young adults, and strong nonfiction. Her favorite reads feel timeless, have strong voices, and express unique creative visions. Because of her full client list, she rarely signs new writers or illustrators. In addition to reading, her interests include traveling, knitting, walking, kayaking, watching movies, and figuring out How People Work.
Ammi-Joan Paquette joined EMLA in spring 2009 as an associate agent after working in the editorial area of educational software development, and was promoted to agent in fall 2011. In the last few years she has placed dozens of manuscripts with editors and is especially passionate about connecting with and launching the careers of debut authors. As the “East Coast branch” of EMLA, Joan works from her home office in Massachusetts, with long-distance support from the main Flagstaff office. She represents all forms of children's and young adult literature, but is most excited by a strong lyrical voice, tight plotting with surprising twists and turns, and stories told with heart and resonance that will stand the test of time.
An EMLA client herself, Joan is also the author of a picture book, The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Fairies (Tanglewood, 2009), a mid-grade novel Nowhere Girl (Walker, 2011), and several other books due out in the next few years. When she is not on the phone, answering email, or writing, you will most likely find Joan curled up with a book. Or baking something delicious. Or talking about something delicious she’s baked. Really, after books and food, what else is there worth saying?
Tricia Lawrence is the "Pacific Northwest branch" of EMLA—born and raised in Oregon, and now lives in Seattle. After 17 years of working as a developmental and production-based copyeditor (from kids book to college textbooks, but mostly college textbooks), she joined the EMLA team in March 2011 as a social media strategist hoping to learn from Erin and Joan about agenting.
As associate agent, Tricia represents picture books/chapter books that look at the world in a unique and unusual way, with characters that are alive both on and off the page, and middle grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction that offers strong worldbuilding, wounded narrators, and stories that grab a reader and won't let go.
Tricia loves hiking, camping out in the woods, and collecting rocks. She loves BBC America and anything British. She has way too many books and not enough bookshelves.
LIMITED TO 20 PARTICIPANTS
SPACE IS LIMITED TO 23 PARTICIPANTS
Workshop runs 10 Hours
4 Workshops that are 2.5 hours each
See dates and times below
Sign Up
HERE
In
THE PLOT WHISPERER + AGENT 10 HOUR WORKSHOP you will be expertly guided on how to plot your manuscript by world renowned plot consultant MARTHA ALDERSON. In addition, Herman Agency Literary Agent JILL CORCORAN will help shape your concept, voice and writing with a goal of readying your work for today's publishing market.
Using A PATH TO PUBLISHING's amazing technology that allows faculty to interact directly with participants (with no lag times in picture or audio ), Martha Alderson and Jill Corcoran have created a hands-on workshop that is as intimate, interactive, and productive as any in-person workshop or retreat.
When you sign up for the workshop you will be sent a print copy of Martha Alderson's THE PLOT WHISPERER WORKBOOK. Think of this Workbook as the structure and textbook for the class. It includes exercises and tools including Martha's innovative Plot Planner, Scene Tracker, Character Profiler, and Thematic Bubble Chart with which you will create a detailed plot for your manuscript. (Book is included in the price of the workshop.)
At the end of this 10-hour workshop, each writer will have developed, deepened, and expanded the plot and characters of their stories based on the techniques of creating plot by the Plot Whisperer Martha Alderson and the practical aspects necessary for success in today's literary marketplace from literary agent Jill Corcoran.
Tues 4/23/13 11am-1:30pm PST/2-4:30pm EST
TOPIC: THE BEGINNING
The first 1/4 of your story ending at the point your main character enters the 'exotic world', the end of the status quo. The protagonist is launched into the actual story world and there is no turning back.
Tues 4/30/2013 11am-1:30pm PST/2-4:30pm EST
TOPIC: THE FIRST 1/2 OF THE MIDDLE
Tues 5/7/2013 11am-1:30pm PST/2-4:30pm EST
TOPIC: THE SECOND 1/2 OF THE MIDDLE
Tues 5/14/2013 11am-1:30pm PST/2-4:30pm EST
TOPIC: ENDING
The last 1/4 of your story including Climax and Resolution
Lately we’ve been hearing agents and editors ask for contemporary young adult (romantic comedies in particular) as well as funny books for middle grade. I have a six-book contract with Disney-Hyperion to write all contemporary humor. I have lots of thoughts about this subject, so…let’s chat about it!
I’m holding a
free online video chat on
Monday, March 18th from 5:30-6:30 PST. It’s an interactive discussion on writing contemporary humor. I’ll share my insights on how I approach my teen comedies compared to my humorous middle grade series. And I’d love to hear what you like (and don’t like) in humorous books for kids.
This won’t be Skype—it’s a new video chat technology I’m using thanks to my lovely agent, Jill Corcoran. She is using it for her online workshops with editors and agents over at
A Path To Publishing. (She has an AMAZING lineup of speakers…go check it out!)
Jill likes to refer to it as “Skype on Steroids!” (I love that description.) It’s also true—I will be able to toggle between talking to you WITH MY FACE, to my computer screen where I can share Powerpoint slides, videos, anything! And everyone will get the chance to ask questions all along the way.
So…details! —->
The first twenty people who sign up will receive an email 30-60 minutes before the start time. Just a couple of clicks and you’re IN—it’s amazingly easy. If I get more than twenty, that’s ok, go ahead and put your name in since some people may have to drop out.
LET’S CHAT!!!
 |
| Photo by Sonya Sones |
As many of you know, I have purchased an amazing technology that allows me to join up to 23 of you in a video chat that has no lag times in picture or audio. It is like we are all in the same room!
I would love to visit your critique group or writer's group and we can talk about anything you would like and/or I can join you for a day of critiquing manuscripts and or concepts.
The cost is $100 per hour. That is not per person but per hour so you can have as many or as few people participate as you would like.
All you need is a phone, tablet, ipad or computer with a camera and microphone. You can sign in via your browser-firefox, safari, outlook or google chrome (all free to download) or Skype (also free to download). There are no apps that you will need to download or purchase. You simply sign via an email I send to you and I will see and hear you, and you me, via the cloud.
Plus all participants will receive a 15% discount off one A PATH TO PUBLISHING Workshop.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
jill
Workshops via a powerful interactive video chat platform that allows you to not only watch presentations but also participate with faculty directly--as though you're in the same room. (think Skype on Steroids!)
Deborah Kovacs is a senior vice president and editorial director of Walden Pond Press at Walden Media. Her editorial experience is vast. She’s edited Sesame Street magazine, written more than thirty books, and published software before overseeing publishing at Walden starting in 2001, working with both Penguin and now HarperCollins to publish dozens of major novels. Kellie Celia is the marketing communications manager for the publishing arm of Walden Media. She has particular expertise in grassroots initiatives, social media campaigns, event management, school/library outreach, web content development, and online brand management. Notable book campaigns on which Kellie has worked include Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu, The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander, The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy, and Newbery-Honor winning Savvy by Ingrid Law. You can find her online at @WaldenPondPress, www.facebook.com/waldenpondpress1 and pinterest.com/waldenpondpress/. Stephanie Owens Lurie is the Associate Publisher of Disney-Hyperion, an imprint at Disney Book Group that publishes non-Disney content for ages 0-18. She joined Disney-Hyperion four years ago; prior to that she was President and Publisher of Dutton Children's Books. She also worked in children's books at Simon & Schuster and Little, Brown and Company. As a child her favorite book was Harriet the Spy—it inspired her to become a writer and editor, and she majored in Creative Writing at Oberlin College. Stephanie has two grown sons and lives in a New Jersey suburb with her husband and large white dog. Emily Meehan has been Executive Editor at Disney-Hyperion since December 2010. Before that she was Executive Editor at Simon & Schuster Children’s Books where she began as an editorial assistant ten years earlier. While at S&S, Emily acquired and edited the NY Times bestselling series Private and Privilege by Kate Brian, The Hush, Hush Saga by Becca Fitzpatrick, and The Summer Series by Jenny Han. At Disney-Hyperion she is publishing Rachel Cohn's Beta series as well as The Darkest Minds trilogy by Alexandra Bracken, and the At Somerton series by Leila Rasheed. Emily is looking for middle grade and YA fiction that has a good mix of literary and commercial merit. Rotem Moscovich primarily edit picturebooks (Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett/Adam Rex, The Watermelon Seed by debut Greg Pizzoli in May 2013) and middle grade novels. I love picturebooks with clever characters and inspired/ing art, as well as ones that are deceptively simple (yes, I said it), and connect with middle grade novels that have transporting writing with creative use of language and characters with inherent motivation and earned agency. I received my masters from Simmons College, Center for the Study of Children’s Literature and love to sew, knit, bake, and watch The West Wing. Nancy Mercado is an Executive Editor at Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan, working on mostly middle grade and young adult novels. Nancy began her career in the Scholastic Book Clubs where she worked for four years, which led her to Dial Books for Young Readers where she worked for six. She’s had the good fortune of editing such books as: the Birthmarked trilogy by Caragh O’Brien, Rachel Spinelli Punched Me in the Face by Paul Acampora, the Charlie Joe Jackson series by Tommy Greenwald, Neil Armsrong is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me by Nan Marino, Spilling Ink: A Writer’s Handbook by Ellen Potter & Anne Mazer, Emma Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis, My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins & Fenway Park by Steve Kluger and many, many others. When she’s not editing, Nancy serves on the planning committee for the Brooklyn Book Festival and mentors with Girls Write Now, a non-profit organization that pairs professional women with young women writers from high schools around New York City. Katherine Jacobs is an editor at Roaring Brook Press. Before working in publishing she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Romania and a school librarian in Honduras. She has edited the chapter book series Gym Shorts by Betty Hicks, nonfiction picture books by Don Brown, and the teen novel Auracle by Gina Rosati. Forthcoming projects include picture book biography When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop by Laban Carrick Hill and illustrated by Theodore Taylor III, and teen espionage novel SEKRET by debut author Lindsay Smith. She loves smart, fresh, character-driven stories for all ages. She is also a graduate of the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons College in Boston, MA. Caitlin Sweeny (http://www.twitter.com/caitlin_sweeny) is an Associate Digital Marketing Manager at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group (http://www.mackids.com). She started her path to publishing at the age of 9 when she refused to put the book down and go play outside with the other children. She worked in editorial and marketing roles at Barron’s Educational Series and Scholastic Media prior to joining Macmillan, where she creates book trailers, manages MacTeenBooks (http://www.macteenbooks.com), works with authors to shape their social strategy, has a lot of fun on the Internet, and much, much more.
I am reading a 'New Adult' ms that is fun, fun, fun! Sexy, hot, complex characters, romantic, heartbreaking, fun!
On my what am I looking for I list New Adult but heck, I am going to do a full blog post on it because I want to shout it loud and clear....I am looking for New Adult authors/manuscripts.
So, what is New Adult? School Library Journal has a fabulous
roundup of articles to give many but the same definition of New Adult and Goodreads has a list of
popular New Adult books.
Please email your query plus the first 10 pages of your ms pasted into your email to
[email protected]I'm looking forward to reading your work!
WHAT I AM LOOKING FORUpdated Feb 2013Please read below for what I am looking for as I am being very strict to my vision of what type of books I will be agenting.
To put it bluntly, I want books, actually characters, that have legs. If you haven't heard the term "has legs" that is marketing shorthand to mean the characters can live outside the confines of your book. They can spark a series, be transformed to the big or small screen (Herman Agency is based in NYC but I live in LA and have close ties to the Film and TV industry.), possibly go outside the library/bookstore market to gift stores, grocery stores, etc, become a genre leader rather than just another book competing in a market where discoverability is becoming the most challenging obstacle to sales and sadly some of the best writing is not rising to the top of readers' buy lists. All books must have excellent commercial plus literary writing. What I mean by this is an utter command of the language that is accessible to most readers--not just the brainy kids. The concept must be fresh, organic, break-through. Just another one is not going to cut it. Yes, lots of copycat books make the hit list, but I am an agent, a talent scout. I am not looking to sell copycats. I am looking to discover the next big thing.
I want complexity of character, multi-level plot and theme, believability even in the fantastic, and pacing that blinds me to time and space.
I am a fan of the underdog, but the underdog doesn't always need to be the nerd, the foster kid, the kid from the broken home. It is irritating when the popular kids are bad and the outcasts are heros. I think most kids are average. Some are more popular than others but being popular often takes a lot of work and that work spurs a host of insecurity. Many kids define popular in different ways. Some cherish their inner and outer geek. I want "normal" teens in extraordinary circumstances (I leave the definition of normal to you:) ).
Regarding romance, I want authentic vulnerability and innocence as well as hot, steamy yearning, and in some cases, more than yearning. I want to love your characters so I understand why your characters love each other. I want to be so enmeshed with your character that when his/her heart breaks, so does mine. When your characters are kissing, or doing more than kissing, I want to feel that pull in my body too.
I rep Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult and Crossover Young Adult (New Adult)
Thanks for reading and looking forward to reading YOUR work!
Please send queries to [email protected] All emails sent to my Herman Agency email will be deleted.
For help with queries, please see:
A Path to Publishing allows YOU to talk directly to editors, literary agents, film/tv agents, art directors, sales, marketing and publicity directors, and more.
No matter where you are in your publishing career, this program can provide you with access to top industry professionals. You'll get immediate insight and answers to all your questions, plus reliable advice you can act on immediately to take your career to the next level.
A Path to Publishing is a program offered by
literary agent Jill Corcoran with
Herman Agency and powered by
Shindig, a powerful new interactive video chat platform that allows you to not only watch presentations but also participate with faculty directly--as though you're in the same room.
With A Path to Publishing, you ask questions of the faculty live ... from the comfort of your home. It's an efficient, affordable way to learn, make connections, and progress down the path to publication.
We're offering a variety of workshops on crucial topics:
• Editors share what they publish and what they are looking for
• Agents share who they represent and what they are looking for
• Editors and Agents share what made them choose the books they publish/represent
• Marketing, Sales and Publicity Directors share what makes a book sell
• Querying agents
• Getting noticed by editors
• How to get your book noticed by Hollywood
• Creating characters readers will love
• Revving up your plots
• Refining your ideas before you get lost in the rabbit hole
• Revision
• 21st Century Marketing
• and much more...
Agenda:
8:30-9pm EST:
There will also be a 30-minute faculty-free virtual cocktail party before the presentation begins so you can talk and meet other writers. Agent Jill Corcoran and author/moderator Martha Brockenbrough will participate in the virtual cocktail party. Faculty can join in if they choose.
9-10pm EST:
10-10:30pm EST: A 30 minute Q&A where participants can ask faculty their questions.
Workshops start on March 6th:
Future Workshops include:
April 24, 2013 The agents of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency
June 19, 2013 A Rare View Into 3 Top Publishers' Personal ImprintsPenguin/Nancy Paulsen + Macmillan/Christy Ottaviano + Random House/Wendy Lamb
5 Mistakes That Are Keeping You From Getting Published- Agent & Editor panel
An Editor's Eye - Editor Panel
Is My Idea Good Enough - Agent + Editor Panel
Workshops are being scheduled now and are currently available Wednesday nights 8:30-10:30pm EST. The plan is to schedule them approximately twice a month.
Please visit the A PATH TO PUBLISHING website for details on Workshops, Faculty, Publishing Tips and more!
|
 |  |  | | Jill Corcoran |
| | WORKSHOP
Grabbing Your Reader
from the Very First LineSpeaker: Jill Corcoran, Agent, The Herman Agency, Inc. | | Saturday, February 9, 2013
1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, 1010 Broad Street,
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401.
For parking information, go to www.sloma.org.
$40 SCBWI members, $50 non-members. Print registration form here
|
|
Join Jill Corcoran for an intensive discussion of how to craft a compelling opening for your novel that will make the reader want to continue, focusing on everything from the opening line to the first 5 pages to the oft-requested 50-page sample requested by agents and editors.
A first-page critique session will be included at the end of the session.
BIOGRAPHY. JILL CORCORAN is an agent with the Herman Agency. Her current interests include: high concept Young Adult and Middle Grade Thrillers, Mystery, Romance, Romantic Comedies, and Adventure manuscripts.
With an English degree from Stanford University and an MBA in Finance and Marketing from The University of Chicago, Jill has marketed everything from sneakers to cereal at Leo Burnett Advertising, LA Gear, Mattel, and at her own consulting company, LAUNCH! New Product Marketing. Jill is also a children’s book author and poet.For more information, contact Sidonie Wiedenkeller at [email protected]. Cost: $40 SCBWI members, $50 non-members. Print registration form here |
WHAT I AM LOOKING FORUpdated Feb 2013Please read below for what I am looking for as I am being very strict to my vision of what type of books I will be agenting.
To put it bluntly, I want books, actually characters, that have legs. If you haven't heard the term "has legs" that is marketing shorthand to mean the characters can live outside the confines of your book. They can spark a series, be transformed to the big or small screen (Herman Agency is based in NYC but I live in LA and have close ties to the Film and TV industry.), possibly go outside the library/bookstore market to gift stores, grocery stores, etc, become a genre leader rather than just another book competing in a market where discoverability is becoming the most challenging obstacle to sales and sadly some of the best writing is not rising to the top of readers' buy lists.
All books must have excellent commercial plus literary writing. What I mean by this is an utter command of the language that is accessible to most readers--not just the brainy kids. The concept must be fresh, organic, break-through. Just another one is not going to cut it. Yes, lots of copycat books make the hit list, but I am an agent, a talent scout. I am not looking to sell copycats. I am looking to discover the next big thing.
I want complexity of character, multi-level plot and theme, believability even in the fantastic, and pacing that blinds me to time and space.
I am a fan of the underdog, but the underdog doesn't always need to be the nerd, the foster kid, the kid from the broken home. It is irritating when the popular kids are bad and the outcasts are heros. I think most kids are average. Some are more popular than others but being popular often takes a lot of work and that work spurs a host of insecurity. Many kids define popular in different ways. Some cherish their inner and outer geek. I want "normal" teens in extraordinary circumstances (I leave the definition of normal to you:) ).
Regarding romance, I want authentic vulnerability and innocence as well as hot, steamy yearning, and in some cases, more than yearning. I want to love your characters so I understand why your characters love each other. I want to be so enmeshed with your character that when his/her heart breaks, so does mine. When your characters are kissing, or doing more than kissing, I want to feel that pull in my body too.
I rep Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult and Crossover Young Adult (New Adult)
Thanks for reading and looking forward to reading YOUR work!
Please send queries to [email protected] All emails sent to my Herman Agency email will be deleted.
For help with queries, please see:
The SCBWI Springmingle Team asked me to do an interview, and I have to say Donny asked some really great questions that got me thinking.
Please check out the interview
HERE and read to the end....big changes and news coming for me in 2013!
BREAKING NEWS!
The Dare to Dream ... Change the World
Annual Writing Contest
for students grades three to eight will launch January 25th!
Grand prize winner receives $1500 worth of Kane Miller and Usborne books for a school library of their choice
+
the top 30 poets will be published by Kane Miller Books
in a free e-book!
The Dare to Dream … Change the World Annual Writing Contest for Kids aims to promote literacy, poetry writing, and nonfiction research while inspiring students to follow their dreams.
It’s based on the award-winning Dare to Dream … Change the World (Kane Miller Books, 2012), which pairs biographical and inspirational poems about people who invented something, stood for something, said something, defied the naysayers and not only changed their own lives, but the lives of people all over the world.
CONTEST DETAILS
WHO: For students in 3rd through 8th grade.
WHAT: Following the format of the book, students will write a biographical poem and non-fiction paragraph about someone who not only dreamed, but who took action and made the world better.
HOW: Send your entry by e-mail to
[email protected], subject line of “DARE TO DREAM Writing Contest.”
Be sure to include your first name only, your e-mail address and your parents’ e-mail address.
DEADLINE: April 30, 2013
The winner of the Dare to Dream … Change the World Annual Writing Contest for Kids will make others’ dreams come true by earning $1,500 worth of Kane Miller and Usborne books for either their own school library or a school library of their choice.
Additionally, Kane Miller will make 30 student writers’ dreams come true by professionally publishing their work. Kane Miller will publish these top entries in an e-book that will be free for all to read, for all to be inspired.
Ellen Hopkins*Jane Yolen*Joyce Sidman*J. Patrick Lewis* Marilyn Singer
Georgia Heard*Alice Schertle*Lisa Wheeler*Julia Durango*Joyce Lee Wong
David L. Harrison*Elaine Magliaro*Hope Anita Smith*Carol Tanzman*Alan Katz
Rose Horowitz*Hope Vestergaard*Jacqui Robbins*Jill Corcoran*Denise Lewis Patrick*
Joan Bransfield Graham* Laura Purdie Salas*Curtis Crisler*Kelly Fineman*
Tracie Vaughn Zimmer*Stephanie Hemphill*Rebecca Kai Dotlich*Janet Wong*
Lee Bennett Hopkins*Bruce Coville
Teacher-Grants and Authors—Why We Should Care
One of the things I hear from teachers is, “I’d love to teach your book, but my district has absolutely no money.” As a sixth-grade English teacher in California, it’s a situation I know well. Budgets are frozen, and where we once had department or library funds, we now have nothing. We haven’t even THOUGHT about purchasing new textbooks for years now.
But as an author and a teacher, it’s important to know that there ARE ways to get money for books: grants. I know, I know; you hear that word and think of research and forms and painstaking writing.
But it doesn’t have to be like that.
Recently, I fell in love with Jill Corcoran’s book, Dare to Dream . . . Change the World. Having worked for nearly a decade in educational publishing and developed curriculum for many companies, I couldn’t wait to use the poems in that book as the backdrop for an awesome poetry unit. A friend and I developed a teacher’s guide for it (insert link) and I was all set. Except I needed more books. I needed a grant and I needed it quickly.
Where do I find grant money?
My school is great about letting teachers know about grant opportunities. Our local rotary club and even some businesses give out yearly grants. The grant that I applied for was through Delta Kappa Gamma Society that awards money to women educators. But there are also TONS of grants available online. Check out this site:
http://www.donorschoose.org/teachers. Teachers request money for a certain project and people who want to support teachers donate to those projects they think are worthy. It’s really easy.
But isn’t writing a grant difficult and time-consuming?
It took me about half an hour. I just described what I wanted to do. I came up with a catchy title and then laid out why I wanted these books and why students were going to benefit from them. I had to put in a few prices and do a little math but then it was done. Two weeks later, I had the money I needed to buy enough copies of Dare to Dream. . . Change the World to use in my classroom.
And here’s another cool part. Some companies, like Kane-Miller (Dare to Dream’s publisher), have MATCHING GRANT programs. Kane-Miller matches 50% from the first dollar, however when you reach the $200 mark, you benefit from free shipping. To find out if a book’s publisher has such a program, it’s a simple phone call to their distributor. For Kane-Miller the number is 1-800-611-1655.
But I’m an author, not a teacher. So why do I care?
It’s good to know about some of the grants available in your area. Know if your publisher offers matching grants or discounts for teachers. So when a teacher says, “I love your book but I don’t have enough funds to get a class set,” or “I’d love to have you come speak at my school but we don’t have the money,” you can immediately say, “Have you thought about applying for this grant?” and you might even have the form available for them!
In addition, consider having a well-written, CCSS-aligned teacher guide for your book. We’ve seen recently how influential teachers and librarians are when it comes to promoting kid’s literature. Every step you can take to make your book more classroom-friendly makes it that much more likely that a teacher will look at your book over the competition.
This post was written by Erin Fry, Teacher, Curriculum Creator and Author of LOSING IT, Amazon Children's Publishing
"Fry has a great ear for middle school dialogue, and her light, humorous touch will ensure that readers keep turning the pages until the uplifting conclusion." School Library Journal
Where do I begin?
Your Common Core State Standards (CCSS) document—get to know the standards for your target age group. Note that the standards range from basic understanding to deep analysis (purposely reflecting Bloom's Taxonomy). Pick 5-8 standards that you think you can cover in your curriculum guide - you don't need to touch on ALL the standards as students have the entire year to meet their grade-level CCSS.
Get organized!
Figure out what sections to include in your curriculum guide. As a teacher, here's what is most useful:
-
a Prior Knowledge section with discussion or writing prompts that students complete BEFORE they begin reading. A good prompt relates students' prior experiences to themes in the book, and gets them excited and motivated to read. For
Dare to Dream . . . Change the World, a poetry anthology, we have students find examples of poetry in commercials, songs, greeting cards, and nursery rhymes so they realize poetry is all around them!
- a Vocabulary section that includes a list, with definitions, of grade-level vocabulary students will encounter in the novel. In addition, it is really helpful to have a handout where students decipher new words in context (using phrases from the novel). Here's an example from a "Context Clue" handout for Losing It that teachers are loving: “You have to drink when you run, Bennett. No wonder your head hurts! Most headaches are caused by dehydration, you know.” Dehydration might mean . . .
- Chapter Questions that help students process important themes, while hitting key Common Core Standards. A good set of questions spiral from basic understanding to analysis, and vary in what they ask the student to do. For instance, students might draw a response, complete a graphic organizer, or write a mini-dialogue from the perspective of a character. Here is a sample prompt for Laurie Halse Anderson’s CHAINS:
Create simple sketches for Elihu Lockton, Curzon, and Isabel. Add a large speech bubble to each character. Write the words, “The real meaning of liberty is . . .” at the top of each speech bubble. Then, do the following:
· Finish the opening sentence from the perspective of the character.
· Support your claim with examples or evidence from the text.
· Provide a concluding statement that summarizes your position.
- a Pulling It All Together section where students take what they've learned from your book and do something with it. It can be a writing assignment, a project, a debate etc. Given the push for informational text in the CCSS, this is an ideal place to include some nonfiction reading to supplement your book. For Losing It, we researched and wrote our own text about bullying and then guided students through a debate about what should be done with bullies in schools.
Get Writing!
It takes some time to create a good curriculum guide, but it's well worth it if you want teachers to be able to simply pick up your book and teach it! Books that are chosen by teachers for their classrooms have longevity, as well, since teachers tend to use them year after year.
Nicole and Erin, both teachers and curriculum developers, can help! You can contact us as
[email protected] if you have questions or would like us to create a curriculum guide for your book.
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Now, THAT"S exciting! Congratulations, Jill!
WAY TO GO!
Congratulations! :)
Wow! That is amazing, Jill! Congratulations to you! I know your new agency will do well!
Congratulations and best wishes!
Whoo hoo! That's awesome Jill! Mazel tov!
Congratulations, Jill! Best to you!
Congratulations, Jill!
Congratulations! Best of luck :)
Congrats Jill!
You are a superstar! Congratulations!!!
Congratulations!
congrats!
Congrats, Jill! Best of luck with your new business.
Jill, I'm so excited for you and know you'll do fine. Getting to keep your clients is a big compliment.
Fantastic!!!
Sending you Good Karma...that's not the name of a manuscript btw.
Congratulations and good luck!
Wonderful! All the best to you.
Wonderful! Best of luck :D
Congratulations! Best of luck to you!
Congratulations and good luck! :)
Congratulations Jill! I learned a lot from our critique session at the SCBWI conference in LA. I enjoyed your sense of humor, and the kindness and encouragement you demonstrated to me as an aspiring writer. All qualities that will make your agency successful!
Wonderful news! Congratulations, Jill.