Stop back next Friday to read the four first pages that agent Quinlan Lee at Adams Literary will critique this coming week.
Quinlan is a published author of numerous books for young readers and more than 15 years of business and project management expertise. She has been a part of the Adams Literary team since 2008, representing clients in all genres from picture books to YA. She enjoys meeting others who share her love of children’s literature and is an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and a founding board member of the Charlotte Chapter of the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA).
You can meet her at the New Jersey SCBWI June Conference this year.
Quinlan graduated from Tulane Univeristy and has lived all over the United States—from the mountains of Western Colorado to the Garden District of New Orleans to downtown Chicago—and for the past eleven years she’s been raising her family in Charlotte with her husband, Steve. She has three children who keep her busy with book clubs, homework and identifying creatures in the creek behind their home.
In other news:
At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Alyson Heller has been promoted to editor at Aladdin. In addition, Krista Vossen has been promoted to art director, while Michael McCartney moves up to associate art director and Karina Granda has been promoted to designer.
At Macmillan, Jill Freshney has been promoted to the new position of senior executive managing editor at Macmillan Children’s.
Liesa Abrams has been promoted to associate editorial director, Aladdin and Simon Pulse.
At Putnam, Liz Stein has been promoted to associate editor.
At Random House Children’s Books, Sharon Burkle and Lora Grisafi have both been promoted to associate art director, while Krister Engstrom moves up to senior designer.
Talk tomorrow,
Kathy
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Happy Mother’s Day to my mama-writer friends. What you do every day is amazing! You created kids…and now you create stories!
And what I just did is amazing, too. I gave birth to a new book cover!
(Well, really, Benji Davies did.)
I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BEAR BOOK releases in August 2015 from Aladdin/Simon & Schuster. But you can catch a glimpse of the alien-bear mayhem right here, right now:
Many thanks to my very cool editor, Alyson Heller, and art director, Karin Paprocki, at Aladdin. And of course, none of this would be possible without über-agent Ammi-Joan Paquette.
More sneak peeks to come soon. I promise you a cute bear tushy.
Have a great day, Mama Bears!
Looking for that perfect Christmas gift? How about a WIFYR conference?
I’m not talking about something for others in your life. This is a special gift just for you, for the writer you. He or she deserves it. And a wonderful gift it is.
There are several ways to go about it. You can leave subtle little hints around the house. In notes, strategically place here or there, you could mention the great authors your gift entails. They run the morning workshops and share their expertise in the afternoon sessions. Matt Kirby, Martine Leavitt, Cheri Pray Earl, and AE Cannon will be there. As will Mette Ivie Harrison, Sharlee Glenn, J Scott Savage, and Kris Chandler. Steve Bjorkman will be heading up the illustration class. Perhaps a conspicuously misplaced letter to Santa would get the message across. Remind the jolly elf that the gift fits all, from beginner to advance writers.
If subtle doesn’t work, a more blatant approach is needed. Tell your significant other you want to take your writing to the next level. Sitting for five days with a room full of like-minded writers, critiquing and being critiqued, discovering the nuances of the craft, learning areas your story works and where it needs help; no other gift can offer so much.
Yes, it’s pricey. Compared to other conferences, however, it is cheap. The Southern California Writer’s Conference costs almost as much but it only runs through a weekend. You don’t get the critique workshop experience. Same for the SCBWI conference in February. You could pay more for the one in San Francisco. It stretches over the longer President’s Day weekend, but still no critique session with your very own published author.
And none of the others is run by our own Carol Lynch Williams. Carol has done so much to help developing Utah writers through this conference.
If your gift givers are still not getting the message, to heck with them. Give this one to yourself. In addition to hints on the multiple aspects of the craft, WYFIR offers editors and agents who provide tips to getting publication. They view the attendees as serious writers and often offer specific submission guidelines to help move your query above the slush pile, base just on your attendance alone. A morning workshop gift for you is ideal, yet the afternoon sessions alone is a less expensive option that will still get you close to editor Alyson Heller and agents Ammi-Joan Paquette and Stephen Fraser.
by Alyson Heller
As I dodged shoppers last Friday at my local mall, I came to realize that trying to find that next “big thing” in publishing is like to trying to find a great pair of shoes on sale—really hard to do, may cause some panic attacks, but once in a while, you will find the perfect fit.
We editors have a love/hate relationship with that “thrill of the hunt”—with every email from an agent, we hope that once we click open the attachment or email, there will be a pitch or manuscript so amazing, we will have to stop our day to read and convince our powers-to-be to let us acquire it. Most of the time, it isn’t quite what we are looking for—it might not be our taste, or in line with our house publishing strategy—but every once in a while, there is a pitch or idea that makes us pause our day.
For me, I always have that gut feeling—much like that fabulous piece of jewelry that draws your eye, I just know that I absolutely have to try to make sure that particular manuscript gets to stay with me, knowing that I would be so very bummed out if I couldn’t work on the project. There’s usually a unique hook—an idea that hasn’t been done over and over and over again—or a character that I immediately fall in love with that triggers that feeling. I also try to see if there is something timeless about the story; a book that you know readers will think is still relevant to their world 10 years from now—the little black dress of publishing, so to speak.
Of course, love for the idea isn’t enough to propel that manuscript into something that can go directly from my in-box to the local bookstore. Even though this may have caught my eye, I need to make sure that the story ultimately can fit into the overall marketplace and fit in with our list. That means a revision or two (sometimes 3!), making sure that the author shares our vision for their project, and coordinating the best PR possible for the title.
Though writing may seem like a solitary endeavor, the editing process is a team effort, and one of the great joys I have with my job. Even though it can be daunting, that chase, that knowledge that another fantastic story for kids could be sitting with me (or a member of my terrific team), is what keeps me going—and what makes this crazy, wonderful, unpredictable world of publishing so great. There’s nothing like finally seeing that finished product hit the shelves—and knowing that book will hopefully be someone’s perfect fit.
Alyson is an assistant editor with Aladdin Books, a kid-centric imprint featuring titles with strong commercial appeal for readers of all ages up to tween.
Alyson was part of the S&S Associate’s Program before landing her job with the Aladdin imprint and becoming part of a wonderful team. Alyson works on everything from picture books through middle-grade novels. She has had the privilege of working with some fantastic authors (and agents!) during her time with S&S. Some new and upcoming titles that she has edited or co-edited include Just Add Magic by Cindy Callaghan, Odd Girl In by Jo Whittemore, Sprinkles and Secrets by Lisa Schroeder, Cold Case by Julia Platt Leonard, The Monstore by Tara Lazar and I Loathe You by David Slonim.
In addition to her love for reading and writing, Alyson is also a huge fan of traveling, baking, eating things that are bad for you, awful reality t.v., and all things sparkly. She currently lives in Connecticut.
Simon & Schuster has generously donated several picture book prizes for PiBoIdMo. Winners for the titles below will be announced on December 4th, randomly selected from those who
11 Comments on Editor Alyson Heller and “The Thrill of the Hunt”, last added: 12/3/2010
And just love many of these books — can’t wait to discover what’s under the cover of those I don’t know!
Dear Kathy,
I am always amazed and thrilled with the high quality information you give us, your readers on a constant basis. Thank you.