How to use this Page

The Picture Prompt below was illustrated by Nancy Cote. She was featured on Illustrator Saturday: http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2012/06/02/illustrator-saturday-nancy-cote/.

WRITERS:  Please use it to help inspire a first page. I was not able to confirm our Guest Critiquer with all the conference stuff going on, but I should be able to announce it by next week. The deadline for submitting a first page for critique is June 23rd. I will post four of the pages along with the agents comments on June 29th.

Please attach your double spaced, 12 point font, 23 line first page to an e-mail and send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com. Also cut and paste it into the body of the e-mail. Put “June 23rd First Page Prompt” in the subject line.

ILLUSTRATORS: This month I am looking for illustration that will show off some summer fun. Here is your chance to show off a little. I will post the illustrations as they come in during the month, but I will definitely post all by June 30th, so I need to receive your illustrations no later than June 26th. Please make sure the illustration is at least 500 pixels wide and includes a blurb about you and a link to see more of your work. Please send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com and put “June Illustration” in the subject box.

PUBLISING NEWS:

Caroline Hardman and Joanna Swainson, formerly of Christopher Little Agency are launching a new agency, Hardman & Swainson. At least 18 existing clients are moving with them, the Bookseller reports, and they will focus on literary and commercial fiction, crime and thriller, YA, and quality non-fiction, including popular science, philosophy and memoir.

Roseanne Wellshas joined the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency as an agent. She was previously an agent at the Marianne Strong Literary Agency.

Helen Nam joins Sourcebooks as art services manager for children’s picture books and middle grade fiction. She was an acquisitions editor for children’s books at Publications International, Ltd.

Leah Thaxton will join Faber & Faber as children’s publisher. She is currently publishing director at Egmont.

Stephanie Bowen has joined Sourcebooks as editor. She was most recently an assistant editor at Doubleday.

P.S. Literary Agency will now be representing picture book titles in North America for Ireland-based Futa Fata.

Scott Waxman and Waxman Literary Agency agent for the past seven years Byrd Leavell have formed a new entity, The Waxman Leavell Literary Agency. Waxman says in the announcement, “Byrd is a talented agent with a tremendous instinct for finding and developing enormous bestsellers. He is also a lot of fun to work with. I couldn’t be more excited to take the agency to the next level with Byrd as a partner.” But he declined to indicate what becomes of Waxman Literary Agency and its assets. Leavell says that going forward both of their efforts will be on behalf of the new agency only and “The Waxman Agency name will be phased out over the course of the summer.”

Adam Marsh Editorial Services has hired screenwriter and director Kai Murphy

Launching in August, "will include board books; chapter books; fiction, including early and middle grade series; graphic novels; and nonfiction titles, including paper novelty and craft books."

URL: http://capstoneyoungreaders.com/

(site still under construction)

 Conservative publisher Regnery Publishing plans to launch Little Patriot Press, a new children's imprint whose titles will be aimed at "teaching and inspiring children through stories about American history and government." The imprint will launch seven picture books this year.

Managing editor: Diane Reeves. Creative director: Cheryl Barnes.

URL (not yet launched): littlepatriotpress.com

On Twitter, you can find Regnery Publishing at @Regnery. Doesn't seem to be a Twitter feed for the new imprint yet.

(via Publisher's Weekly)

New on Tales From The Reading Room:

Bloomsbury editor Alexandra Pringle discusses the publisher's new literary imprint, Bloomsbury Circus. An excerpt:

When we look back in a year’s time I hope we will have a prize shortlist or two under our belts, a sense of having broken some established authors out of the ‘midlist’ as well as having launched some exciting new talent into the world.  What more could a publisher wish for?

You can follow Bloomsbury Circus on Twitter at @circusbooks as well as on Facebook. Here's the official announcement about the new imprint.

For those who want to find out more about Alexandra Pringle, here's the bio from the Bloomsbury UK site:

Editor-in-Chief of Bloomsbury Adult Books. She began her career in publishing at Virago Press in 1978 where she edited the famous Virago Modern Classics series. In 1984 she was made Editorial Director, later becoming part of the management team to steer Virago through their management buy-out from Cape, Chatto & Bodley Head. In 1990 she joined Hamish Hamilton as Editorial Director and four years later left publishing to become a literary agent with Toby Eady Associates. She joined Bloomsbury in 1999. Her list of authors includes Donna Tartt, Barbara Trapido, Richard Ford, Esther Freud, William Boyd, Ronan Bennett and Susanna Clarke. She is a Director of the Management Board, Bloomsbury Book Publishing Company Limited which also includes the Plc Directors.

Publisher Allen & Unwin recently opened up their Friday Pitch to children's/YA writers. Before making your pitch, make sure you read through all the guidelines carefully. They're not accepting pitches for picture book texts, for example, or poetry or short stories.

From the Angry Robot site:

"We are absolutely thrilled to be able to announce the launch of our new YA imprint, Strange Chemistry The imprint will launch in September 2012, with five titles appearing before the end of that year, before settling down to one book each month. Strange Chemistry will follow AR’s strategy of co-publishing its books simultaneously in the US and UK, in both eBook and paperback formats. Subject matter will include fantasy, science fiction, supernatural and horror, and as with Angry Robot the lines between those genres are likely to be very blurry at times."

You can find an interview with editor Amanda Rutter on YAtopia. According to the interview, Strange Chemistry will be open only to agented submissions.

More info

According to Paidcontent.org, former Bloomsbury editor Panio Gianopoulos has launched Backlit, a new young adult e-book publisher based in Santa Monica. More info in Paidcontent.org.

Follow @inkyelbows on Twitter for more kidlit/YA industry news & info

Nancy Miller Named Editor-In-Chief at Bloomsbury USA (Publishers Weekly)

Bloomsbury children's market "robust and [continuing] to grow (The Bookseller)

Authors and Illustrators Team to Create Picture Book Month (Children's Book Council)

Algonquin Books to start publishing MG & YA by end of 2012 (Kathy Temean)

Jennifer Mattson joins Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Marie Lamb joinsJennifer DeChiara Literary Agency (Kathy Temean)

Wisconsin children’s book author Florence Parry Heide dies at 92; wrote more than 100 books (Washington Post)

For sources of kidlit/YA industry info, see my link list in the lower right-hand navigation sidebar.

Making Sense of Digital Books for Kids Part 1 - Part 2 - Wired

Pop Star Taylor Swift Donates 6,000 Kids Books to PA Reading Public Library - School Library Journal

'Shine' Withdrawn as NBA Young People’s Literature Nominee - Publishers Weekly

Today Peter Mayer, MD of Gerald Duckworth & Company Ltd, and Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of Bloomsbury Publishing, announced the sale of the Duckworth Academic list to Bloomsbury. Integral to the sale, the Duckworth Trade list will be sold by Bloomsbury in the UK and all overseas markets from March 1, 2011. Duckworth remains independent.

Duckworth Academic will operate henceforth as Bristol Classical Press, taking effect immediately. Duckworth’s Academic list has long been known for its strong publishing centered on books about the ancient world. This new arrangement will allow Bloomsbury Academic to build on its inherent strength alongside the company’s worldwide strategy in other academic disciplines.

Mayer comments, ‘After seven years of growth at Duckworth, our Trade list now matches in size the traditionally strong Academic list. Bloomsbury is the perfect home for the Duckworth Academic list. This sale gives Bloomsbury Academic the ability to build that side of Bloomsbury’s business but the important thing for us is that it gives Duckworth a much broader infrastructural sales context within which to continue to build the Trade list, working closely as well with our US sister company, The Overlook Press.

‘To that end, we have recently appointed Jon Jackson, previously of Osprey and before that Weidenfeld, as Editorial Director of the Duckworth Trade list and Ben Slight, coming from a position as a Waterstone’s regional manager, as Duckworth Sales Coordinator, both working with Publicity Manager Suzannah Rich.’

Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of Bloomsbury Publishing said ‘Bringing such a distinguished academic list into Bloomsbury Academic is an important stepping stone in the development of our publishing in this area. We are also delighted to be representing the Duckworth Trade list, one which I have long admired, in the UK and overseas markets.’

Mayer adds ‘The Duckworth name is one of the oldest and most famous in British publishing. It has grown from what had become a small base in 2003 by nearly five times since then. Working together with Overlook in the US, with a strong staff and the support and facilities of Bloomsbury in the UK and abroad, this growth looks set to continue.

‘We have sought to develop a structure for our two parts and we found it with Bloomsbury. The new structure looks to a future in which both parts of the present Duckworth can prosper in different ways. On the General side we aim to fulfil the promise of the historic Duckworth Trade list, a trade publisher since its founding by Gerald Duckworth in 1898. It continues as independent as ever.

‘Two Duckworth stalwarts, Deborah Blake and Ray Davies, will be joining Bloomsbury Academic and, based on long years of service, I can truly say that they have both been the soul of our publishing. Even in the time of Colin Haycraft, when Duckworth embarked on Academic publishing, Deborah, as Editorial Director of the Academic list, helped form it. She finally came to be virtually the Academic list’s embodiment. Also that in the first very difficult years after Overlook and Duckworth became associated, she and Ray, our Production Director, were the sturdiest of linchpins connecting the past with the present.

‘I believe Academic publishing, like many editorial areas, needs a larger environment today in which to prosper. I really have no doubts that both the creative and economic sides of the Duckwo