Last month, on my first day of work as an editorial intern here at Albert Whitman, I walked into the office anxiously wracking my brain: What was that word all the editors used during my interview? Slurp? Slug? Mush? Oh, that’s it:
SLUSH
Slush is, as I have come to learn, what people in the publishing biz call the mountains of unsolicited manuscripts that the editors read and, maybe, decide to publish. We receive over 5,000 manuscripts every year and each one contributes to the collective slush. But maybe, this is one of those phenomena that only a picture can really describe:
While the editors are always chiseling away at the slush pile, taking on chunks when they can find time, sometimes it is necessary to wage a full scale attack on the pile: you have a slush party. A slush party, to strain the metaphor to its breaking point, is the surge in the war against mountains of slush. Equipped with boxes of slush, letter openers, and cookies, we did some serious damage, two whole boxes of manuscripts: sorted into submissions that weren’t right for us and others that intrigued us. Victory tasted sweet, sort of like oatmeal raisin cookies.
Every time I confront the slush pile, I am amazed and humbled by the number of manuscripts. Apparently, people of all ages, from all over the place, and of all different walks of life, want to connect with and educate children through their stories. For me, a college student trying to figure out where I want to fit in the worlds of literature and education, it is really inspiring.
So keep the submissions coming. Don’t worry; we can take anything you throw at us. We’ve got a secret weapon: the slush party.
Research the publisher, editor, or agent before you submit your work. I’ve seen this advice many times from editors and agents, and I know it’s important. I do it myself. I always make sure I have the correct name and address of an editor or agent I’m submitting to, and I try to make sure that my writing will fit their publishing house or what they represent. It shows that I’m professional and serious, and it doesn’t waste their time or my time.
I know it’s important. I know it from a gut level as a writer.
But now I’ve got added outside confirmation of the importance. Proof, if you will. The last two months, I’ve received four–count them, four!–submissions from writers and illustrators, to my email address. I stare at the emails–huh? Why are you submitting to me? I’m a writer! A reader. I write book reviews. But nowhere, not one place on my blog or my site, do I say that I’m a publisher or an agent. Yet I’ve received submissions. People sending me samples of their artwork and writing. People asking me to publish them. This truly confuses me.
To top it all off, all of those “submissions” were addressed to “Dear sirs” or something generic like that. Hello, is “Cheryl” a man’s name? I think not. Did they even look at my email address to see who they were sending it to? This is what agents and editors complain about. I know they’ve said it’s a turn off when people write to them generically, or worse yet, send them something they don’t even publish or represent. (Of course.) But now I know what it feels like, first hand. I never thought I’d experience that.
Probably most of you know this. But I want to reiterate. Writers, illustrators–your writing and your art is important to you, right? You’ve spent a lot of time and energy on it. So why not make sure that you’re sending it to the right person–to someone who actually has the power to publish your work, or to help get it published? Sending out your work willy nilly to people who are just going to throw it away because it doesn’t even fit what they publish or represent, isn’t addressed to them, or because the person doesn’t publish work, is a waste of your time and theirs. And I know you care about your work. So please, please spend the extra time researching before you submit. You’ll get better results. It’ll help you get closer to being published. And it’ll help you look professional.
Okay, while we sympathize with the striking writers in Hollywood, this article made us roll our eyes a little: Strking Writers Turn to Child’s Play.
It’s about television and film writers who’ve suddenly found an “unusual” (!) new calling writing children’s books. Several already have deals with a new imprint of IDW Books, which publishes a number of TV and movie tie-ins, so clearly somebody’s people talked to somebody else’s people, and then they did lunch, baby! Good for them, we say. But if any of those writers ever find themselves seeking out children’s book publishers beyond the thirty-mile zone, we have a few pointers for them, based on many, many years of experience reading the efforts of folks who think that writing children’s books is just like any other kind of writing, except shorter, and for shorter people. Thus:
1.) No snappy dialogue, please. Picture books aren’t “talky,” and they’re becoming increasingly less wordy. Also, kids really don’t say the darnedest things.
2.) We want stories, not pitches. Don’t try to dazzle us with talk about sequels, series, character licensing, animation rights! If you want to rule an empire, go play with action figures. (Which we will not be marketing as a tie-in.)
3.) Children’s books don’t have a laugh track, nor do they come with a remote control for switching channels. So for the love of Cosmo Kramer, don’t try to be HILARIOUS and ATTENTION-GETTING all the time, okay?
4.) Booger jokes are not subversive. Not even when they’re funny.
5.) Carefully read and consider the tone of the following quotes:
a.) “I’m a father of five and often lament the lack of really creative, funny children’s books.” b.) “I’m finding that in good children’s books, the text isn’t just describing the picture but the two are working together to advance the storytelling.” c.) “And, sometimes, there’s also a chance to make a political point.”
Did you get all that? Good. Now you know what not to say in a cover letter.
Anyway, we’ve seen this kind of attitude before, and we sure wish we had a residual check for every time we’ve had to endure it. But it’s nice to know that other folks in the children’s lit world feel the same way we do. And we’ll be glad when the strike’s over. If they could bring back Arrested Development while they’re at it, that would be even better.
We’ve found this time of year we get more manuscript submissions in our slush pile than usual. We think this might be because 1.) plenty of people—especially teachers and school librarians—are on holiday break in late December and have extra time to stamp all those SASEs and 2.) “Write and publish a children’s book” sounds like a fabulous New Year’s resolution, doesn’t it?
We don’t mind the extra mail—and yes, we do read ALL the submissions, every last one. And with all these new aspiring authors, there are bound to be questions. One we hear a lot is: When’s the best time of year to submit a manuscript? It depends on the publisher: some places receive unsolicited submissions for only a few months out of the year (and some don’t at all). But we’re always open to submissions—for us, the slush season is year-round. We read all the time, and when we’ve found enough book projects to fill our next list, we look for books for the list after that!
We publish books twice a year: our Fall list comes out in September, and it’s when we publish books about fall and winter holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Groundhog Day, and so on), while books about spring and summer holidays (Easter, Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc.) are published in March on our Spring list. Plenty of our other titles have seasonal considerations as well—we make sure we publish our books in time for African-American History Month, the start of the school year, or even the apple harvest. Sometimes, it’s all in the timing.
But if you’re a writer wondering when you should send your holiday or seasonal book manuscript—well, “anytime” still applies. (One thing we editors learn early on is to have flexible imaginations. We’ll read stories about Santa Claus even during a heat wave in August.) Keep in mind that it always takes time to consider a submission, and even longer to publish it—this is especially true of picture books: an illustrator will need several months to produce the artwork. So if you sent us a Christmas story last week, it isn’t likely to be published in time for next Christmas. (Alas, your friends and family won’t get your book in their stockings, and you’ll have to give them all Chia Pets again.) And if you have a picture book idea about, say, the winter Olympics, you’ll need to get it into a publisher’s hands ASAP for it to be out in time for 2010—and at some publishers, you’ll be too late already.
What this all means, of course, is that your New Year’s “publish a children’s book” resolution for 2008 will probably take until at least 2009 to accomplish. So what are you waiting for? Read our guidelines!
Online at social networking sites like MySpace and Face Book. So says Alloy Media & Marketing, a youth-oriented marketing firm, in a recent press release. "While 96% of online tweens and teens have used social networking technologies, 71% of online tweens and teens connect to a social network at least once a week And “nearly half engaged with a brand in the space in the past month.” The study says social networking is approaching parity with TV time among 9 to 17-year olds. Of course, a lot of those kids are doing both, but the study says they are four times more likely to pay closer attention to what they are doing online to whatever they’’re watching on the tube.
(Full disclosure: What I wonder is if this is the same Alloy that shared copyright with Kaavya Viswanathan of her partially plagiarized book?)
I think authors have to have a Web presence – YA authors in particular. That being said, I have a fairly active MySpace site, but haven’t joined Face Book or Second Life or any of those others, at least not yet.
Where are you - and why?
Subscribe with
JacketFlap's
Children's
Publishing
Blog Reader
.jpg?picon=980)
I’m proud that my story was one pulled from the slush pile. It was my third attempt at finding a story right for Albert Whitman. Slush success does happen, but writers should read and research to find the best possible publishing match when submitting their work.