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The art show that took place at the NJSCBWI Conference continues with this evening illustration done by Lisa Falkenstern.

The Artist Showcase from the NJSCBWI Conference continues with this wonderful illustration of the sand and the surf in Cape May, NJ by illustrator Colleen Rowan Kosinski. Colleen is an author/illustrator that has worked as a fine artist for over fifteen years and has artwork hanging in homes across the country. She is a member of the SCBWI and, along with writing and illustrating picture books, she writes MG and YA novels. She is a graduate of Rutgers University. Website: www.colleenrowankosinski.com

MY STATE OF THE MARKET REPORT and AGENT/EDITOR SURVEY CONTINUES BELOW:

Check back tomorrow for more from answers to question asked in the 2014 State of the Market Report I gave at the NJSCBWI Conference the other week.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

The NJSCBWI Art Show Continues: I think you will enjoy this cute little sea monster in this illustration by Angela Padron. Angela was born and raised in Freehold, NJ but moved to Florida in 2002. For over 15 years, Angela taught bilingual, ESL, Spanish, and Art in public schools before becoming a freelance writer and illustrator. Now she writes and illustrates children’s books, including board books, picture books, chapter books, and middle grade novels.

Below is the slide I made up after tallying the answers to the survey I sent to a total of 38 editors and agents. I asked each whether they thought the genres below where increasing, decreasing, or staying the same and if they expected this to continue for the next year.

Check back tomorrow for more details.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Again I don’t have time to work on a separate post for todays blog, so here is a slide with some of answers to a question I asked in the Agent Survey I conducted with 18 agents in the industry. No, I can’t share who said what.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Another wonderful illustration from Barbara DiLorenzo sent this in for our enjoyment. Barbara graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (1998 BFA in Illustration) and was featured on Illustrator Saturday April 14th 2012. Click here to see her artwork and interview.

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At Penguin Random House Audio, Louise Quayle returns to the company, as senior acquisitions editor. Catherine Bucaria was promoted to assistant acquisitions editor, and Emily Parliman was hired as assistant acquisitions editor a few weeks ago, reporting to Rebecca Waugh.

At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Emma Ledbetter has been promoted to associate editor, Atheneum Books, while Dani Young moves up to associate editor, S&S Books for Young Readers/Atheneum/McElderry Books.

Former publishing director at Walker Children’s Emily Easton is joining Crown Children’s as executive editor on May 19, reporting to Phoebe Yeh.

At Crown, Julian Pavia has been promoted to senior editor, while Christine Kopprasch moves up to editor.

Sari Feldman, executive director for the Cuyahoga County Public Library, has been named ALA President.

Brittney Ross has been promoted to associate editor for Hudson Street Press/Viking/Plume.

Krestyna Lypen has joined Algonquin Young Readers in the newly created position of associate editor. She was most recently associate editor of children’s books for Workman Publishing.

At Chronicle Books, Sarah Golski has been promoted to managing editor of the lifestyle group.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

The above illustration was sent in by Heather Dent. Heather is an illustrator from Berea, KY. She likes to use watercolors, but has recently discovered the wonderful paper collage genre that works really well for her style. When Heather is not hard at work on her illustrations she is playing disc golf, reading novels, or playing dinosaurs with her 3 year old son. Her blog is: http://heatherdentstudio.blogspot.com/

Discover Great New Writers Selection Process

Paul Weiner sent in the above illustration to help us say goodbye to April. Paul is a fun loving musically hip Boston illustrator creating illustrations for magazines, design studios and the children 
educational publishers. He has been a digital instructor at
 Montserrat College of Art and Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.

He loves to relax and play music with the 
Harmony Gritz band. He is quite sure his accordion 
playing is scaring the neighbors’ cats and dogs.

Below are some of the publishing industry changes to keep you informed:

At Katherine Tegen Books, Claudia Gabel has been promoted to senior executive editor.

Krestyna Lypen has joined Algonquin Young Readers in the newly created position of associate editor. She was most recently associate editor of children’s books for Workman Publishing.

Michelle Richter is joining Foreword Literary as an associate agent. She has been an editor at St. Martin’s. She is planning to represent a broad selection of fiction, and nonfiction focused on fashion, film, television, science, medicine, sociology/social trends, and economics for trade audiences.

Julie Miesionczek has left Viking to become an independent editor. She can be reached at [email protected].

Ray Shappell has joined the KDD Art Group as designer for young adult titles, working with the Crown Children’s, Delacorte, Knopf Children’s, and Wendy Lamb imprints. Previously he was a designer at Harper Children’s.

Yaniv Soha will join Doubleday on April 28 as senior editor. He spent the past eight years at St. Martin’s, most recently as editor.

Hodder Children’s in the UK is starting a line of classic sci-fi works reissued as ebooks. Supervised by Jon Appleton, the Hodder Silver line plans to issue at least 21 titles between May and September.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Are you using all your SCBWI member benefits? I bet there are a lot of busy writers who are missing a lot of things that the SCBWI provides to help you sell your manuscripts. Did you know if you are a member and login to www.scbwi.org, you can find a list of editors and what books they edited? This is valuable information when trying to find the right home for something you have written. 

A smart writer or illustrator (they list picture books with the illustrators) would save this file and every time they read a book, they would look in the author credits to see if they mentioned who helped them make their book shine. If they are smart, they will mention the editors at the publishing company as a way to thank them for their expertise. We can use that information to hone our submissions and use that information in a query letter or when we run into an editor. This is called, “doing your homework” and makes you appear as someone who knows the industry.

Below is just part of one page to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Hope you take the time to check out all the benefits your SCBWI membership provides.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

For the last few weeks we have gone over how to format your manuscript and how to write a synopsis. Every week I have pointed you towards agents and what they are looking for, but really the first thing you need to do is hone your skills on writing a great query letter. It is wonderful that more and more agents are accepting query letters via email, but there a perils that come along with this. We are so used to quickly jotting down a few sentences to talk with friends and hitting the send button without thinking, that the same thing can happen when emailing a query letter to an agent. We all need to beware of doing this an approach the query letter with the same respect as the rest of our writing.

Agent Noah Lukeman has written a whole book on how to do this in his appropriately title book, HOW TO WRITE A GREAT QUERY LETTER.

Love the way Noah explains this: Most writers put a tremendous amount of effort into their content, spending months or years with their manuscripts, agonizing over word choice, scene order, character development. Yet when it comes time to write a query letter, they will often write something off the top of their head, sometimes with a mere hour’s effort, and let this suffice to represent their work. They rush through the letter process so that the agent can get to the book itself, which they feel will explain everything. They feel that if an agent just sees the writing, nothing else will matter, and that a poor query letter will even be forgiven. This is faulty thinking. For agents, the query letter is all. If it’s not exceptional, agents will not even request to see the writing, and writers will never even get a chance to showcase their talent. For most writers, the query letter—which they rushed through—becomes the only piece of writing they will ever be judged by, and unfortunately, the only chance they ever had. While it may seem as if a query letter is a shallow way to judge an author, I can tell you from an agent’s perspective that it is a very effective tool.

For the professional eye, a query letter is much more than just a letter:

1. It shows the agent whether you are able to exhibit word economy

2. Whether you have a grasp on the nature of your own work

3. Whether you have a realistic grasp on your own background and credentials.

4. For non-fiction: It also demonstrates whether you have a grasp on your market and your competition. A query letter can also serve to warn an agent, to act as a red flag, if for example you are too aggressive, or pitch too many projects at once. The way it physically looks speaks volumes, as does whether you’ve sent it to the right person in the right way. A layman looks at a query and sees a one page letter. An agent looks at it and scans it for 100 different criteria.

This mere page can tell an agent more about the writer and his work than you can possibly imagine.

This week we will talk about what goes into making your query letter stand out and get noticed. Remember: The query letter might be the only thing that agent ever reads of your writing. Remember: Agents have a big pile of other writer’s query letters sitting in front of them and would like to get through that pile sitting on their desk, so small things can be the difference between them saying, “Send more” and “not interested.” But also, Remember: Agents want to find the next great book or else they wouldn’t be facing that pile.

So let’s learn what to do, learn how to avoid the pitfalls that get our letter tossed and signal an amateur.

Noah Lukeman is giving away a .pdf of this book and How to Land an Agent. You can also get it for free on your Kindle at Amazon.

Here is the link for the download: http://www.landaliteraryagent.com/

Here is the layout for this week:

Tuesday: HOW TO WRITE A QUERY LETTER.

Wednesday: Query Letter Tips – Examples and Links

Thursday: Agent Wishlist

Friday: First Page Critique Results

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

This fun winter illustration was sent in by Illustrator Tracey Berglund. Don’t miss the snowman in the window. It makes me think of the photo Leeza Hernandez sent me a few weeks ago. Her daughter and her built the smallest snowman I ever saw. They made it small, so they could save it in the freezer. Now that is thinking out-of-box. Tracey was my first featured illustrator on Illustrator Saturday back in June 2010. Here is the link: http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/tracey-berglund-illustrator-saturday/ I think you can see how much Illustrator Saturday has grown since then.

February was a record month for first page submissions. I did not look at all the submissions to see the percentage of people who did not submit properly. We are close to getting the First Pages correct for the monthly critique, but there are still problems which caused a number of people to be pulled out for critique and then skipped, when I opened their Word document and it was not correct.

I think everyone now understands how to format their manuscript when submitting to an agent or editor, so lets just zero in on how to submit for the monthly critique for this blog. You would only format your page this way when you submit a first page to me. If you are doing a first page for an SCBWI event, then they would probably would want a similar forma, but make sure you check. Why the difference? Because if you use the standard format for a first page, you can not show enough for a good critique.

I know I asked you to cut and paste your text into the email, but I sent the word doc to the editor or agent, so if the Word doc isn’t formatted correctly, I can’t send it. I state a first page can have 23 lines, but that doesn’t mean that every manuscript’s text will work out to 23 lines. Some may only be able to fit 21 lines. The first page, just can not be more than 23 lines. Please do not send more than one page.

You don’t have room to put all your contact information on the page. Just your name, title, and genre at the very top. Then start your text on the next line. The example below from Carol Foote drops one line for her title. This is acceptable, but she could have gotten in the 23rd line if she had put everything across the top. The reason her page was not included in the drawing was due to her submitting it after the deadline.

So as long as you follow the guidelines and the example above, send it in before the deadline, cut and paste the text into the email and attach a Word document of the text, put the required title in the Subject area (I search for the submissions using that title), send it to the email listed, and do not include more than one page, you will be good to go.

Hope this helps. If you submitted a first page and did not have it critiqued, please send it in for review in March. Check back tomorrow to read the four that were critiqued. Next week I will announce our Guest Critiquer for March. Deadline for March is March 21st. Title in the subject area March First Page Critique. Email to: Kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com

Links for more formatting posts:

Novel: http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/formatting-novel-manuscript-example/

Picture book: http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2014/02/02/first-page-critiquer-for-february-formatting-mistakes-call-for-illustrations/

Standards: http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/formatting-your-manuscript/

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

THE SOCIETY OF CHILDREN’S BOOK WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS DEBUTS THE SPARK AWARD FOR INDEPENDENTLY-PUBLISHED WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS

The SCBWI is pleased to announce the creation of The Spark Award, an annual award that recognizes excellence in a children’s book published through a non-traditional publishing route.  The award is open to current writer and/or illustrator SCBWI members who have independently-published a board book, picture book, chapter book, middle grade, or young adult novel through an established self- publishing enterprise  or individually self-published.  Submissions must be submitted in traditionally bound form, contain an ISBN number, and provide evidence of Copyright registration.

Entries may not have been previously published in any print or digital form prior to the self-published form and SCBWI reserves the right to disqualify books published by enterprises that we believe, in our discretion, operate in a predatory or unprofessional manner.

One winner and one honor book will be chosen by a panel of industry professionals and will focus on quality of writing and concept, quality of illustrations (if applicable), professional presentation, and editing and design.

SCBWI Executive Director, Lin Oliver, and President, Stephen Mooser, strongly believe that, “it is time that SCBWI recognize that there are new models for publishing. The Spark Award is one way we can reward those authors and illustrators who are pursuing independent and self-publishing in a legitimate and high quality way.”

The winner will receive a Spark seal to display on their book, a commemorative plaque, have their book featured in the SCBWI online bookstore and marketed on SCBWI social networking sites, and receive the opportunity to sell their book at the SCBWI Summer or Winter Conference in Los Angeles or New York.

For more information and submission guidelines see Spark Award under the “Awards and Grants” section.

Deadline:  Deadline for submission is December 31 for books published in that calendar year. Books published in previous years and re-issues are ineligible.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

About Roz: Roz Foster is an associate agent, rights assistant, and talent scout for the Dijkstra Agency. She has a B.A. in English Literature from UC San Diego, studied philosophy for a year at the University of Sheffield, U.K., and earned her M.A. in English, with an emphasis in composition & rhetoric and creative writing, from Portland State University. At PSU, she taught writing in exchange for tuition. She’s been learning French since 2009. Roz spent over five years as a qualitative researcher in high-tech consumer products marketing. In 2008, she co-founded a web design company for which she provided non-profit organizations with audience-focused market research, project planning, and digital design. She joined SDLA in 2013.

She is seeking: Roz is interested in literary and commercial fiction, women’s fiction, literary sci-fi, and literary YA. She loves novels that make her feel like the author is tuned into a rising revolution — cultural, political, literary, or whatnot — that’s about to burst on the scene. She looks for a resonant, lively voice; rich, irresistible language; complex characters with compelling development arcs; and a mastery of dramatic structure. Roz is also interested in non-fiction in the areas of current affairs, design, business, cultural anthropology/social science, politics, psychology and memoir. Here, she looks for driven, narrative storytelling and sharp concepts that have the potential to transcend their primary audience.

Please note that Roz is specifically not interested in: sports, cookbooks, screenplays, poetry, romance, and children’s middle-grade/picture books.

How to contact: E-query roz [at] dijkstraagency.com. “We read all query letters. However, because of the high volume of unsolicited submissions we receive, we are only able to respond to those queries in which we are interested. If you have not heard back from us six weeks after sending your letter, you may assume that we have passed.” Please send a query letter, a 1-page synopsis, a brief bio (including a description of your publishing history), and the first 10-15 pages of your manuscript. Please send all items in the body of the email, not as an attachment.

Talk Tomorrow,

Kathy

With a wide range of titles–including thrillers, women’s literature, children’s books, translated literary fiction, narrative and illustrated nonfiction, and sci-fi, fantasy, and horror–Quercus is launching its first U.S. list in September. The company aims to replicate its success in the U.K. by creating a publishing house here that is just as diverse in its offerings, with a mix of both U.S. and international titles. Quercus CEO Mark Smith said of the venture, “We are truly excited to be bringing both our new and established authors to this dynamic and fast-moving marketplace.”

Publishing director Richard Green said, “Quercus is starting with some 40 titles in the U.S. this fall.” Next year, Quercus will publish 90 titles here, with plans to publish an increasing number of titles over subsequent years. As Green put it, “We’re here for the duration. We have been planning this move for over two years and have carefully researched the market and listened to advice from a range of industry experts. The list has been carefully hand-picked for the North American market, and we will be supporting all our titles with substantial marketing and publicity campaigns.”

Eric Price

Nathaniel Marunas

The current publishing program consists of about two-thirds fiction, another third nonfiction. In time, the company aims to increase the number of American authors on the list to around half of the total. Smith said, “We want to keep an international flavor, take on American authors like Brian Freeman, Corban Addison and Richard North Patterson, as well as find debut authors here and nurture them.”

Random House Publisher Services is distributing Quercus in the U.S. and Canada. Both Smith and Green praised RHPS, noting that having to tie into the distributor’s systems and meet its deadlines has helped Quercus improve its own internal processes–lessons about business practices that it will take back to the U.K. “Random’s supply chain and inventory management systems are really impressive,” Green said. Smith added: “I’m surprised at how much they share. They’re very enlightened. They say, ‘If you’re successful, we’re successful.’ It really is a partnership.”

The Quercus team in the U.S. includes Eric Price, director of sales, marketing and publicity, who worked at Grove/Atlantic for more than 20 years, most recently as associate publisher and COO. Quercus associate publisher Nathaniel Marunas was executive editor-at-large at Sterling Publishing and before that was associate publisher at Black Dog & Leventhal. Anna Hezel is digital marketing manager and an editorial assistant. The team will expand, and Green promised, “You won’t hear a British accent. This is absolutely going to be an American operation.”

Quercus sees a lot of potential in the U.S. market. “We are well aware that these are challenging times for book publishers everywhere,” Green said. “But coming from a tough U.K. market, we see an enormous upside to operating in the U.S. This is a tremendous opportunity to establish a flexible and proactive publishing business in North America. We have amazing books, are hiring a great team, and will work closely with RHPS to develop the business into one that has scale, diversity and ambition.”

Read the Full Article at Shelf-Awareness: http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2016#m20186

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

The above slide points out two things I think are extremely important to the success of your self-published book. IMO, cutting corners on the cover design and copy editing can make a big difference in how many copies you sell.

The report found that getting help, paid or unpaid, with editing, copy editing and proofreading provided a 13 per cent bump in earnings. Those who added cover design to that list saw a 34 per cent increase over the average. Interestingly, ebook formatting help added only an extra 1 per cent.

It was estimated that about 68 per cent of authors who’d spent money on their book would recoup that cost within 12 months. For the rest, no amount of lipstick could improve the story. So make sure your foundation is good and go through all the steps you would to get a solid, interesting story.

Writers with agents earn three times more than those without. Romance writers earn 120 per cent of the average, but science fiction, fantasy and literary writers do much worse earning 38 per cent, 32 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

Those who had already had books put out by traditional publishers earned 2.5 times more than authors who’d been rejected by traditional publishers or who had skipped the traditional route all together.

The Taleist survey found that most self-publishers are “old hands” with 40 per cent having been writing for more than ten years, and 60 per cent for more than five years. Only one in ten were newbies, writing for less than a year.

Getting positive books reviews is important. In book stores like Amazon, getting reviews is key to getting your book recognised by the site’s recommendation algorithm. The survey found that those authors who submitted to book review blogs has slightly higher than average reviews and revenue. But those authors who submitted their book to popular reviewers on Amazon received 25 per cent more reviews than average and 32 per cent more revenue.

What respondents did to seek reviews actively:

The authors who did best, however, did everything except pay for reviews: They gave away review copies, submitted to book review blogs and the mainstream press, sought popular reviewers on Amazon and asked their readers through email lists etc.

The results of the recent self publishing survey by Taleist.com shows Authors who submitted to popular reviewers on Amazon received 25% more reviews than average and earned 32% more revenue for their latest release.  But there can be potential risks, so spend the time to do your research. Getting a review for your fantasy book with a top Amazon reviewer who doesn’t like fantasy is not going to help your book.

Here is the link to the top Amazon reviewers: http://www.amazon.com/review/top-reviewers.

Did you know you do not need a Kindle to read an ebook from Amazon. Under its promise of “buy once, read anywhere”, Amazon provides free apps to read Kindle books on computers, smartphones, and tablets. Even if you have a Nook, you can use the Amazon App to read their books and everyday they have four Kindle book deals. These apps can be downloaded from Amazon here.

Here is the link to purchase Not a Gold Rush – The Taleist Self-Publishing Survey [Kindle Edition]

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Rebellion’s profile in the U.S. has increased since Simon & Schuster began distributing its books in 2010, with growing sales for the graphic novel line following 2012’s Dredd.

U.K. publisher Rebellion is going after a somewhat younger crowd with its new children’s imprint, Ravenstone, which launched at BEA with the June release of its first book, Lupus Rex by singer-songwriter John Carter Cash.

The company’s entry into the crowded children’’s book field has been met with enthusiasm, said publishing manager Ben Smith, because the debut title is “not just another dark apocalyptic YA fantasy or vampire novel. People appreciate that it’s for middle grades.” Beyond the first two books, Ravenstone is looking to a possible sequel to Lupus Rex.

Ravenstone joins Rebellion’s other prose imprints: Solaris – which publishes fantasy, science fiction, and horror, including books by bestselling author James Lovegrove – and Abaddon Books, which presents shared-world fiction, mostly in the urban fantasy genre.

Jon Oliver, editor-in-chief at Rebellion, said that a children’s imprint fits well with the publisher’s genre offerings. The line begins with just one book a season to start: Lupus Rex, a fantasy about an epic battle among crows, wolves, and other creatures for the crown of their world. It’s the first middle-grade title for Carter Cash, who has previously published three picture books. Ravenstone’s fall release will be Jan Siegel’s comedic Devil’s Apprentice, in which a successor to Satan – who is retiring – must be found.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Back in April I had two posts Titled What is a Story Architect’s at Paper Lantern, followed by an article from their writing toolbox about building chapters. Today I bring you another terrific article from Paper Lantern’s Toolbox. You know the information has to be good, when Lexa Hillyer and Lauren Oliver are the ones behind the scenes.

Here are the two links, in case you missed them in April.

http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/what-is-a-story-architect/
http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/building-chapters-tips/

In life, most of us avoid conflict. We want to get along and we want everything to go smoothly. However we also know that other people’s conflicts are fantastically interesting. We watch shows called “Desperate Housewives, not “Happy Functional Women.”

This doesn’t make us sadists… it makes us story-lovers. We don’t go to brunch on Sunday to hear about how calm everyone’s Saturday night was—we go to find out about scandals, secrets, surprises, and spectacles. Conflict requires action, and inspires triumph.

Pin this over your desk: NO PAIN, NO GAIN. Both in life and in narrative.

As a fiction-writer, CONFLICT IS YOUR BEST FRIEND. Does this mean your characters should always be throwing half-finished martinis on each other’s dresses, staging battles, or balling their fists and shouting to the heavens? No, of course not.

The whole notion of conflict is to give characters an issue to resolve, aka, to give them a trajectory, a goal, a forward motion of some kind.

CONFLICT => TENSION => ENERGY => DIRECTION => NARRATIVE.

Why is this such a big deal? Too often, our early drafts of novels are boring !!!!

Ever secretly worry that your story is only interesting to YOU? Well conflict is your cure. As readers, we’re compulsive about conflict—we love it, and the more we get, the more we hungrily read along. “How the heck is she going to get out of this one?!” we exclaim, eagerly flipping the pages.

Though of course there are always exceptions to a rule, most people would prefer to read a completely unoriginal story with great narrative drive than read a fantastically inventive, beautifully written book with no direction or point. How do you ensure your novel is the conflict-filled, compulsively readable kind?

First, examine your novel chapter by chapter. How many beats make things harder for the main character? More specifically, does it get more difficult for the character to achieve her established goal? If not, try out PLL’s five tried and true conflict tricks:

 1) ADD STRANGE FRUIT TO FRUITLESS SEARCHES. First draft: Character A asks around for information but comes up with no answers. Change to: Character A does a search and comes up with utterly surprising results that set her on a new course.

(Throw in a curveball that even YOU weren’t expecting!) For instance, a girl searches files for information on her adoptive family. She discovers—gasp—her parents were part of a magical circus. OR she discovers—gasp—her parents are the parents of the boy she loves. She’s in love with her own brother! As you can see, these reveals can pull the plot in extremely different directions

2) ESCAPE ISN’T SO EASY. First draft: Character A narrowly escapes harm. Change to: Character A gets injured, captured, or forced down an unexpected path.

-How can this lead to new plot potential? How will the character get better, what will the injury require him to do next or prevent him from being able to do next? How will he break out of captivity or what will he learn from being held? Where will the unexpected route lead him? Who will he run into there

3) HOLD GRUDGES! First draft: Two characters argue, but come to reconcile their views or agree to disagree. Change to: two characters argue. The disagreement becomes explosive, leading to violence, a drastic measure, or swearing allegiance to a third party.

-How can this open new possibilities for the story? Force the characters to work through the conflict by making more mistakes and truly grappling through the book rather than resolving quickly and cleanly.

4) WE LIKE BIG BUTS AND WE CANNOT LIE. When in doubt, insert a BUT. She tried to sneak in undetected, BUT… She planned to kill him, BUT… She asked him to the dance, BUT.

5) MAKE MISTAKES. Are all the character’s difficulties coming from external forces (bad timing, storms, coincidences, society, other characters’ evil machinations/ villainy) or internal forces/ character-agency (making mistakes, overreacting, wanting something too much, essentially making a dangerous, risky or bad choice)?

-When in doubt, try to use more character-agency to create hurdles. The most interesting problems to solve are the ones we’ve in some way created ourselves!

-A few storms and bad guys are often necessary for good story-telling too, though.

So go ahead, awaken the Inner Demon/Diva/Desperate housewife. Don’t worry—you’ll get to save your characters in the end… Just don’t let them off the hook before then!

If you are attending the New Jersey SCBWI Conference this weekend, make sure you look for both Lexa and Lauren. They will be there. Since I will be there too, I will report back next week hoping to share some of the information so no one feels left out.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Bloomsbury Spark is a one-of-a-kind, global, digital imprint from Bloomsbury Publishing dedicated to publishing a wide array of exciting fiction eBooks to teen, YA, and new adult readers. 

Our outstanding list will feature multiple genres: romance, contemporary, dystopian, paranormal, sci-fi, mystery, thriller, and more. 

Bloomsbury Spark is a one-of-a-kind, global, digital imprint from Bloomsbury Publishing dedicated to publishing a wide array of exciting fiction eBooks to teen, YA and new adult readers. 

Launching in Autumn 2013 our outstanding list will feature multiple genres: romance, contemporary, dystopian, paranormal, sci-fi, mystery, thriller, and more. 

If you’re an author, Bloomsbury Spark is the premiere place to publish your work. 

Why? Because we are a hands-on, full-service publishing house. We will publish you globally  but market you locally. We are not just interested in publishing your book; we want to help craft your career.

If you have a manuscript between 25 and 60k words long, then send it to us at one of the following emails: 

For submissions in the United States and Canada: [email protected]
For submissions in the United Kingdom, Europe and ROW: [email protected]
For submissions in Australia: [email protected]
For submissions in India: [email protected]

Good luck!

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Women Who Write 2013 International Poetry & Short Prose Contest

DEADLINE: June 30, 2013

ENTRY FEE: $12.00

Contest Rules

1. Open to women 18 years or older.

2. Women Who Write will retain one-time publication rights (print and electronic), after which all rights revert to the author.

3. Entries to the contest must be previously unpublished.

4. Prose pieces can be fiction or non-fiction and are limited to 3,000 words or less.

5. $12 entry fee for each prose piece submitted or for up to two poems. Submissions will not be returned. Entry fees will not be reimbursed for any reason.

6. Deadline is June 30. Electronic submissions must be received by midnight June 30. Print submissions must be postmarked on or before June 30. Late entries will not be considered.

7. Winners will be notified in August by phone.

8. Women Who Write members are ineligible to enter the contest. (See details below.)

9. Contest entries or member submissions in any genre are welcome, and many stories and poems in past issues have addressed adult themes or contained strong language. However, the board of directors reserves the right to omit work they deem incompatible with the organization’s mission and values.

10. Writers are encouraged to read past issues of Calliope (available on Amazon) to become familiar with the type of work we publish.

Submission Guidelines

1. Each poem or prose entry must include a cover page with the title of the work, the author’s name, address, home phone number, and valid email address.

2. On the cover sheet, include a bio of up to 200 words. Bios will be published with the winning entries.

3. To identify each page of your work, use a header with the title on the right, followed immediately by the page number. For example: To Kill a Mockingbird – 1. Do not put the author’s name or other identifying information in the header.

4. Formatting:

•Microsoft Word format (other formats, such as pdf files or Notepad, will not be considered)
•Times New Roman font, 12-point type
•Double-spaced
•One-inch margins on all sides
•Left-justified for prose
•Indent paragraphs one tab
•Do not insert a line space between paragraphs
•One space after periods or other terminating punctuation
•Default on all other MS Word settings

Submit

Submit entries online or send hard copy by mail to:

Women Who Write
P.O. Box 6167
Louisville, KY 40206. Entries are subject to editing for spelling, grammar, punctuation and line spacing. If other changes are needed, authors will have the opportunity to review edits before publication.

Judging and Awards

First, second and third place winners will be selected in the prose and poetry categories (a total of six winners) by independent judges in a blind judging. Decisions of the judges are final.

Winners will receive:

1. First place: $300, publication in Calliope, the annual anthology of Women Who Write, and up to five copies of Calliope.

2. Second place: $200, publication in Calliope and up to five copies of Calliope.

3. Third place: $100, publication in Calliope and up to five copies of Calliope.

Women Who Write Members

Women Who Write members may submit work for inclusion in the organization’s anthology, Calliope, but are not eligible to win the International Short Prose & Poetry Contest. Members must also pay an entry fee and follow the same submission guidelines as non-members. In addition, member submissions must be read aloud and critiqued at a Women Who Write meeting at least once. Pieces requiring extensive work may need to be read and critiqued twice before acceptance for publication.

Good Luck!

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Thank you to everyone who has sacrificed to protect this country.
Happy Memorial Day!

In case you never thought about doing this, you should get out your Children’s Writing and Illustrating Market guide and note the changes that you find here and other places in correct spots in the book. That way you will always have the most up-to-date info at your finger tips.

At Inkwell Management, Charlie Olsen has been promoted to agent. He joined Inkwell in 2007 and is interested in commercial fiction; young adult and middle-grade fiction and non-fiction; graphic novels and illustrated works for children and adults; pop culture, and compelling nonfiction.

Margaret Bail

At the Random House Publishing Group, Andy Ward has been promoted to vp, editorial director, nonfiction, while David Ebershoff moves up to vp, executive editor.

At Crown Archetype, Suzanne O’Neill has been promoted to executive editor, while Talia Krohn moves up to senior editor and Stephanie Knapp has been promoted to associate editor.

Ryan Doherty has been promoted to senior editor and is moving from Random House Trade Paperbacks to Ballantine Bantam Dell. He will continue to oversee movie tie-in projects for RH publishing group as well.

At Simon Pulse, Michael Strother has been promoted to assistant editor.

Hope you had a Happy Memorial Day! Sorry, I messed up not getting it to post on the right date.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Cartwheel imprint is open until Fri July 19th, 2013 to submit unagented picture books and younger manuscripts, so if you have a submission geared for 0-5 year-olds (board book, novelty, or picture book), now is your chance to get it considered.

Please snail mail your manuscript to:

Scholastic Inc.

Please include a SASE.

Debbie Ridpath Ohi  over at Inky Girl interviewed Celia Lee, Assistant Editor at Cartwheel if she’d be the person who would be reviewing submissions and what kind of submissions was she especially looking for/not looking for, plus if she was open to submissions from illustrators who are NOT writers. Celia says that she’ll be the primary reviewer though other editors may also take a look. From Celia:

“In terms of what we’re on the lookout for: holiday; tried-and-true subjects like transportation, community, or new experiences; interesting novelty formats; and new ways of addressing core concepts. Things that we’re not looking for are nonfiction, anything older than 1st Grade, and “love” books. And we can certainly take a look at illustrators who aren’t writers! They can send a postcard with their url to their portfolio.”

USE THIS LINK TO READ THE FULL INTERVIEW DEBBIE HAD WITH CELCIA AND DON’T LET THIS OPPORTUNITY DEBBIE HAS FOR YOU.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

I personally do not know Dede Cummings, but I thought you would want to informed when a new agency opens.  Here is a little bit about Dede, her background, and what she brings to the table.

Dede Cummings started her literary career as a book designer at Little Brown & Company. Prior to working at Little Brown, she worked at David R. Godine in Boston as a designer and production editor. Design is something she loves to do, and she still designs covers and interiors of books; most notably, she is a six-time winner of the New England Book Award for a number of authors’ works, including Slow Learner by Thomas Pynchon, Voices From The Moon by Andre Dubus, a reissue of Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan, four books of poetry by Mary Oliver, and others.

She is also a publicist and literary agent for emerging writers. She’s been coined as one of the most accessible and yet well-connected agents starting out in the business. Because she is an author herself, she understands both sides of the publishing process. Dede is a 2010 graduate of the Harvard Medical School’s Department of Continuing Education course “Publishing Books, Memoirs and Other Creative Non-Fiction,” under the direction of Julie Silver, M.D. Her first book, Living With Crohn’s & Colitis: A Comprehensive Naturopathic Guide for Complete Digestive Wellness, was published in 2010 by Hatherleigh Press and distributed by Random House. She has another cookbook (Cooking Well:IBS) under the same imprint, and her third book—Questions for the Dalai Lama—is due out in 2014.

Dede holds a BA from Middlebury College in Literature where she was also a poetry contributor at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and was the recipient of the Mary Dunning Thwing Award. In 1991, she received an award to study with Hayden Carruth at the Bennington Writers’ Workshop. Dede has had her poetry published in Mademoiselle magazine and she was a Discovery/The Nation poetry semi-finalist, and she was most recently published by ConnotationPress for her poetry.

Dede has attended the National Publicity Summit in NYC where she made media contacts at this premier event. She is excited to work with writers — from Children’s picture books, YA fiction and non-fiction, to adult trade books, and she will help you think about all aspects of publishing from pitch to publicity, and even self-publishing. In its first year, the Dede Cummings Literary Agency has sold a number of books to the trade, most notably, “Wonder Woman Isn’t Bulletproof,” by Shannon Galpin, to Daniela Rapp at St. Martin’s Press.

Dede is interested in literary fiction, both adult and YA, Children’s illustrated books, self-help memoir, health and wellness. Submissions can be emailed to her at [email protected]  and usually take 6-10 weeks for review. Self- or co-publishing writers may also contact Dede at this email.

Please note: The names below are of the agents who had the most children’s book deals report to Publishers Marketplace by a publisher, agent, or author. It is just a snapshot in time. When I ran the numbers in the beginning of the year, the names and numbers were different. Also you should know for various reasons not all deals are reported to Publishers Marketplace.

Many agents represent children’s books and adult books. Only children’s book deals were used. This is the type of information you can access if you sign up for the paid subscription to Publishers Marketplace. I consider this important information and part of the cost of doing your homework.

1. Jennifer Laughran (Andrea Brown Literary Agency)
has had 27 deals in the this category during the last 12 months - 4 six-figure+ deals Most recent deal in this category: April 9, 2013 – 11 PB – 11 MG – 8 YA

2. Ammi-Joan Paquette (Erin Murphy Literary Agency)
has had 26 deals in this category during the last 12 months - 3 six-figure+ deals Most recent deal in this category: April 3, 2013 - 9 PB – 7 MG – 12 YA

3. Erin Murphy (Erin Murphy Literary Agency)
has had 24 deals in this category during the last 12 months – 1 six-figure+ deal Most recent deal in this category: April 4, 2013 – 19 PB – 9 MG – 2 YA

4. Sara Crowe (Harvey Klinger)has had 21 deals in this category in the last 12 months – 12 six-figure+ deals Most recent deal in this category: April 10, 2013 – 11 MG - 14 YA

5. Holly McGhee (Pippin Properties) had 19 deals in this category in the last 12 months – 14 six-figure+ deals Most recent deal in this category: April 5, 2013 – 16 PB – 5 MG

6. Kelly Sonnack (Andrea Brown Literary Agency) has had 17 deals in this category in the last 12 months  - 2 six-figure+ deals Most recent deal in this category: February 26, 2013 – 14 PB – 3 MG - 1 YA 

7. Tina Wexler (ICM) has had 15 deals during this category in the last 12 months  Most recent deal in this category: March 20, 2013 – 2 PB - 8 MG – 7 YA

8. Rosemary Stimola (Stimola Literary Studio)has had 14 deals in this category during the last 12 months – 16 six-figure+ deals Most recent deal in this category: April 2, 2013 – 3 PB - 8 MG – 2 YA

9. Sarah Davies (Greenhouse Literary Agency)has had14 deals in this category in the last 12 months – 20 six-figure+ deals Most recent deal in this category: March 27, 2013 – 3 MG – 13YA

10.Paul Rodeen (Rodeen Literary Management) has had 14 deals in this category in the last 12 months – 2 six-figure+ deals Most recent deal in this category: April 10, 2013 – 13 PB – 1 MG

11. Brenda Bowen (Sanford J. Greenburger Associates) has had 13 deals in this category during the last 12 months - 7 six-figure+ deals Most recent deal in this category: February 15, 2013 – 10 PB – 3 MG – 2 YA

12. Teresa Kietlinski (Prospect Agency) 13 deals in this category during the last 12 months.  Most recent deal in this category: March 26, 2013 – 12 PB – 4 MG

Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award

Are you over 50 years old and have not been traditionally published? If so, this is something you should consider.

The Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award is for authors over the age of fifty who have not been traditionally published in the children’s literature field.

The grant was established by Newbery Award winner and Newbery Honor Book recipient Karen Cushman and her husband, Philip Cushman, in conjunction with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.  Karen published her first children’s book, The Midwife’s Apprentice (winner of the 1996 Newbery Medal), at the age of fifty-three and has gone on to become one of the field’s most acclaimed novelists.

“This award was established to encourage and celebrate late bloomers like me, who didn’t start to write until age fifty.  But then I bloomed, and I’d love to see others do so as well,” said Karen.

SCBWI Executive Director Lin Oliver agreed, “One of the great aspects of writing children’s books is that it’s not age-restrictive. The SCBWI hopes an individual’s creative expression can make a valuable contribution, no matter what his or her age.”

The award is open to both unpublished children’s book authors or author/illustrators over the age of fifty, and one winner will be chosen from the pool of those who have submitted material for the SCBWI Work-In-Progress Grants.

The winner will receive $500 in cash, and free tuition to any worldwide SCBWI conference.  The first winner will be selected this year and announced along with the other Work-in-Progress Grant recipients. Because this grant was started after the applications were due we will be contacting finalists to see if they are eligible for this additional award.

Application Process You do not apply directly for this award, rather it is chosen from among the Work-in-Progress grant entrees. To enter you will indicate on your application that you are over 50 and would like to be considered for the award.  http://www.scbwi.org/Pages.aspx/Work-In-Progress-Grants Must be an SCBWI Member to apply.

About Karen Cushman

Karen Cushman is the author of The Midwife’s Apprentice (winner of the 1996 Newbery Medal), Catherine, Called Birdy (a Newbery Honor book), The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (winner of the John and Patricia Beatty Award), and her latest book, Will Sparrow’s Road (Clarion 2012). Karen lives and writes on Vashon Island in Washington.  To learn more about Karen visit www.karencushman.com .

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Time to get back to the old drawing board with your writing. Even if you don’t find this contest your cup of tea, at least start something new. It could be just the thing for the next contest. Maybe Barbara DiLorenza illustration below will inspire you. Barbara was featured on Illustrator Saturday on April 14th, 2012. Click Here to View.

The Elderberry Prize for Short Fiction.

Content

Short Fiction submissions may fall in any fiction genre allowed by the General Rules.  We are looking for fresh ideas, creative story lines, and interesting characters.  Authors are encouraged to express their own style and unique perspective, and to tell stories that are compelling rather than formulaic.  As always, stories should be free of spelling, grammatical and typographical errors.  Please proof-read your work before submitting.

Length

Submissions should be no longer than 5,000 words, and while there is no lower limit to the acceptable word-count we are generally expecting work in the 3,000 to 5,000 word range.  Submissions longer than 5,000 will be accepted, but no content after the 5,000th word will be considered (i.e. we will stop reading after 5,000 words).

Fee: $18

Submission Deadlines

In 2013, the Elderberry Prize for Short Fiction will be awarded in June, September and December, so submission deadlines for 2013 are May 31, August 31 and November 30.

Awards

A cash prize of $500 is awarded to the winning submission in each Elderberry Short Fiction contest.  In 2013, three such prizes will be awarded in accordance with the Prizes section of the General Contest Rules.  Additional, small cash prizes may be awarded for non-winning submissions at Scribulous’ sole discretion.  The winning entry for each contest will be published in the Winners’ Works section of the Scribulous web site for a period of one year, and will be archived in a format that can be searched and retrieved by readers in perpetuity.

Elderberry Short Fiction Rules Fiction Contest Rules

The Elderberry Prize for Biography.

Content

Each submission for the Biography contest must fit within a fairly traditional definition of biography.  It must be a non-fiction account of the life of a real person, written by someone other than the subject of the biography.  It is not necessary to cover the subject’s entire life in this format – biographies that explore a period in the subject’s life, or even a single event in the subject’s life are acceptable.  Note that autobiographies are not appropriate for this contest.

In judging biographies we will be looking for stories that communicate truths or lessons-learned that transcend the life of the subject or the author.  While the stories themselves may be very personal, they should communicate something of relevance to the reader.  A connection to a larger community, society or culture is what gives the story meaning.

Length

Submissions should be no longer than 5,000 words, and while there is no lower limit to the acceptable word-count we are generally expecting work in the 3,000 to 5,000 word range.  Submissions longer than 5,000 will be accepted, but no content after the 5,000th word will be considered (i.e. we will stop reading after 5,000 words).

Fee: $18

Submission Deadlines

The Elderberry Prize for Short Biography will be awarded in April, July and October of 2013 and January of 2014, so submission deadlines for 2013 are March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31.

Awards

A cash prize of $500 is awarded to the winning submission in each Elderberry Biography contest.  In 2013, three such prizes will be awarded in accordance with the Prizes section of the General Contest Rules.  Additional, small cash prizes may be awarded for non-winning submissions at Scribulous’ sole discretion.  The winning entry for each contest will be published in the Winners’ Works section of the Scribulous web site for a period of one year, and will be archived in a format that can be searched and retrieved by readers in perpetuity.

Elderberry Short Biography Rules Biography Contest Rules

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Believe me you will feel like pulling out all your teeth if you don’t realize that…

Thanks to Dow Phumiruk for sending in this illustration to help me make my point.  Dow is a pediatrician who has found her passion in children’s book illustration. Most of her work is digital, and she enjoys using a bright, colorful palette. She joined SCBWI in 2011 and is looking forward to her first national conference in LA this summer. Here is a link to see more of her art: www.artbydow.blogspot.com .

the New Jersey SCBWI Conference being held in Princeton, NJ June 7 – 9 will close registration on APRIL 30th! I am making a big deal about this, because I am afraid that many of you will miss the date.  When I was running the conference, I would let people register up until the first week in June and because of that I didn’t realize that the deadline was a drop dead date at the end of April. If I didn’t realize, then I am sure someone else who is use to registering later could miss getting into the conference. I would feel terrible if you wanted to go and didn’t understand the change.  Please help spread the word, so that doesn’t happen. I don’t blame them for the earlier cut off, it will drastically help the committee to prepare for the conference.   www.regonline.com/njscbwi2013conference

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy