Author of 24 novels and books of non-fiction for adults, young adults, and children Jacquelyn Mitchard will run a new young adult imprint for F+W Media called Merit Press Books. They plan five titles for 2012 and 12 releases for 2013. Publisher Karen Cooper says: “The mission of the line is to provide an abundance of intensely readable, highly suspenseful and unforgettable fiction for readers aged thirteen and up, with a particular emphasis on strong, savvy, female heroes rising to conquer sometimes stunning challenges thrown at them by a very real contemporary world.”
At Highlights for Children/Boyds Mills Press, Rebecca Davis has been named senior editor, Wordsong and Boyds Mills, having previously freelanced for the imprints.
Mary Kole has joined Movable Type Management as senior literary manager in charge of young adult, middle grade, and picture book properties. She was an agent the Andrea Brown Literary Agency.
The Children’s Book Council announced the winners of the Children’s Choice Book Awards. Jeff Kinney was author of the year and Brian Selznick was illustrator of the year.
Melissa Sarver from The Elizabeth Kaplan Literary Agency has agreed to be May guest critiquer for Free Fall Friday. Melissa will be attending the New Jersey SCBWI Conference in June. If you would like to get a critique spot with her, she still has a few spaces available.
To read a little more about Melissa, I have provided a few interview links that you can read.
http://www.srjohannes.com/2009/08/marvelous-marketer-melissa-sarver.html
http://motherwrite.blogspot.com/2010/07/interview-with-agent-melissa-sarver.html
May’s Picture Prompt was illustrated by Kathleen Kemly. She was featured on Illustrator Saturday a few weeks ago. http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/illustrator-saturday-kathleen-kemly/
Please use it to help inspire a first page. I will announce the agent who will be out Guest Critiquer next week. Also since I like to give you three weeks to come up with something, I will post four of the pages along with the agents comments on June 1st.
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 “May 26th First Page Prompt” in the subject line.
ILLUSTRATORS: Here is your chance to show off a little. I am looking any subject matter as long as it has a few flowers in the illustration. I will post some as they come in during the month, but I will definitely post all by May 31st, so I need to receive your illustrations no later than May 25th. 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 “May Illustration” in the subject box