November Linklove

All the best stuff I've read around the weboverse in the last month!

WRITING & MARKETING ADVICE

Jonathan Stroud (Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase) offers tips on how to scare the pants off your readers (via Nerdy Book Club)

Author Dee Garretson (Wildfire Run) on filling up your idea box (Project Mayhem)

Kelly Jensen at Book Riot discusses the Myth of Girl Characters in YA Fiction

Writer Angela Ackerman on the difference between conflict and tension (thanks to Cynsations for the link)

Story consultant Lisa Cron talks about 9 Ways to Undermine Your Characters' Best-laid Plans (Writer Unboxed)

Susan Dennard offers Simple Tricks to Unstick Your Story (Pub Crawl)

AGENTS & QUERIES

New agent Maria Vicente of P.S. Literary is looking to build her list (WritersDigest.com)

Literary Rambles shines their spotlight on agent Erica Rand Silverman of Sterling Lord Literistic

Foreword Literary interviews their newest agent, Emily S. Keyes

KIDLIT / PUBLISHING NEWS

Possible theme park based on The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (really? is that a good idea?) (GalleyCat)

PW's year-end lists: Best Children's Fiction 2013 (MG/YA), Best Picture Books 2013, and Best Nonfiction for Children 2013

A gala celebration at--where else?--the Plaza marked the birthday of Kay Thompson's Eloise

Jeff Kinney's latest sales are anything but Wimpy (PW)

Book Riot loves the new film adaptation of Catching Fire (Hunger Games #2)

PW says farewell to legendary kidlit author and editor Charlotte Zolotow

and another sad good-bye to Junie B. Jones creator Barbara Park

INTERVIEWS

The Enchanted Inkpot talks to Matthew J. Kirby (The Lost Kingdom)

Shannon Younger of Chicago Now interviews tween blogger Erik of This Kid Reviews Books

Leah Cypess of the Enchanted Inkpot chats with Erin Bow (Sorrow's Knot)

Pam Witte asks 16 kidlit authors what they're grateful for this year (Ink & Angst)

PW features National Book Award for Young People's Literature winner Cynthia Kadohata (The Thing About Luck)

Pub(lishing) Crawl sits down with YA author Alison Cherry (Red)

BOOK REVIEWS: FABULOUS NOVEMBER RELEASES!

Champion by Marie Lu (finale of the Legends trilogy) (YA sci-fi/dystopia)

The Seventh Pleiade by Andrew J. Peters (YA fantasy)

Extracted by Sherry D. Ficklin & Tyler H. Jolley (YA steampunk/time travel)

BOOK TRAILERS

Picture Day Perfection (picture book by Deborah Diesen, illus. by Dan Santat)

MISCELLANY

Scholastic offers a wonderful video glimpse into what's coming up in spring 2014 (thanks to Watch.Connect.Read for the link)

Brooks Spencer gives you the Top 10 authors for reluctant readers (Nerdy Book Club)

You guys! Get your very own Harry Potter postage stamps! (via Book Riot)

image courtesy of wikimedia commons; available for reuse under this Creative Commons license

Posted with Blogsy

October Linklove

If you've never seen one of my linklove posts, then more's the pity, because this is the time every month when I divert you from this lovely (if malnourished) blog to all the diverse and wonderful info I've read elsewhere. Search for the tag linklove to see all the goodies in previous months.

WRITING & MARKETING ADVICE
Dianne K. Salerni (The Eighth Day) on writing a middle-grade series (Project Mayhem)
... and Angie Smibert (The Meme Plague) weighs in on series as well (Cynsations)
Kevin B. Parsons details The Top Ten Writing Fallacies (Author Culture)
Dan Blank explains how to launch something (you know, like a book, maybe) (Writer Unboxed)
Author Marissa Burt (Storybound) explains what to expect in the letter from your editor

AGENTS & QUERIES
Gemma Cooper of the Bent Agency reveals what she's looking for
Kathleen Nishimoto of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment chats with Cynsations
Literary Rambles shines their agent spotlight on Josh Getzler of Hannigan, Salzy, Getzler

KIDLIT / PUBLISHING NEWS
National Book Award for Young People's Literature finalists announced (PW)
Roth's Allegiant comes racing out of the gate (PW)
S&S Launching New Sci Fi / Fantasy Imprint (PW)

INTERVIEWS
Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown) chats with The Horn Book
Debut author Caroline Carlson (The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot) sits down with Cynsations
Veronica Roth (Divergent trilogy) on the Today Show with Matt Lauer
Rick Riordan (The Heroes of Olympus series) and Jonathan Stroud (Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase) interview each other on Riordan's blog (thanks to Charlotte's Library for the link)

GREAT NEW MIDDLE-GRADE READS  

Sunny Sweet Is So Not Sorry by Jennifer Ann Mann (contemporary; 1st in new series) (Secrets & Sharing Soda blog)
When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket (mystery; 2nd in series)


Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends by Shannon Hale (fractured fairytale; 1st in new series)

The Winter of the Robots by Kurtis Scaletta (sci-fi)
The 9 Lives of Alexander Baddenfield by Jon Bemelmans Marciano (gothic humor)
My Basmati Bat Mitzvah by Paula J. Freedman (contemporary)








  The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M. Valente (fantasy; 3rd in series)
House of Hades by Rick Riordan (fantasy/mythology; 4th in series)










COOL BOOK TRAILERS
When the Butterflies Came by Kimberley Griffiths Little (via Cynsations)
The Templeton Twins Have an Idea by Ellis Weiner (via Watch. Connect. Read.)


MISCELLANY
Maryann Yinn gives a list of book-themed Halloween costumes (GalleyCat)
Real, true ghostly encounters from the authors at The Enchanted Inkpot
Cool bookish jack-o'-lanterns featured on Book Riot


top image courtesy of wikimedia commons; available for reuse under this Creative Commons license

Posted with Blogsy

Introducing Tracey Adams

Blogfrogs, I'm chuffed to bits (as the Brits like to say) to introduce my new agent, Tracey Adams of Adams Literary. I feel very lucky to have met and "clicked" with Tracey, who has a stellar reputation in the kidlit field.

Some info from her official website bio:

Tracey Adams co-founded Adams Literary in 2004, after nearly a decade with literary agencies Writers House and McIntosh & Otis, where she was the head of the children's department. Prior to becoming an agent, she worked in the marketing and editorial departments of Greenwillow Books and Margaret K. McElderry Books.

A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Tracey speaks frequently about her profession and the children's book industry at conferences across the country. She is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), the Association of Author Representatives (AAR), and a founding member of the Women's National Book Association (WNBA) chapter in Charlotte, NC. 

So not only is Tracey a seasoned agent, she once worked with the venerable Margaret K. McElderry herself (whose legendary imprint I am a proud part of). Today her client list includes authors like Margaret Peterson Haddix (The Missing and The Shadow Children series), Jenny Nimmo (the Charlie Bone series), and Megan Shepherd (The Madman's Daughter).

A giant box of thanks goes to author, friend, and fellow Lucky 13er  Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars), who introduced me to Tracey with such enthusiasm. I look forward to a long, fruitful career with Adams Literary!

The Easiest Way to Lose an Agent

Friday seems like the wrong day for a lecture, right?

Wrong.

Yesterday I enjoyed reading agent Sara Megibow's always entertaining mini-chat on Twitter, #10Queriesin10Tweets. It's just what you'd expect: Sara pulls 10 queries from her slush pile and responds to them on Twitter. (No, she doesn't use anyone's name, and yes, she's quite kind.) What struck me?

Out of 10 queries addressed, two of them were immediately rejected because Sara's agency doesn't represent those submissions' genres. That's 20 percent, people.

I don't write a whole ton about the agent-seeking process, but this part is a no-brainer:

DO YOUR RESEARCH.

At times, this seems like a tough task. An agent might write in her blog, "Oh, I just love vampire novels!" and then three months later say in another interview, "I've really had my fill of vampire novels." Okay, you might miss the boat there. But when an agency says they don't represent nonfiction--ever--then don't send them nonfiction. That's basic. Some agents represent only juvenile fiction. Some only represent adult fiction. Some stick to nonfiction. These are broad genres. Don't waste your time, and theirs, submitting something outside the guidelines because you think your work is different.

It's not.

Don't make it easy for an agent to reject you!

To read my brief but presumably helpful tip sheet on submitting your ms., click here.

photo: © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Andrey Popov

The Agent Speaks

With trepidation I have waited to hear from My Lovely Agent on what he thinks needs doing (cutting?!) on the book. Would he want me to axe my favorite characters? Cut the word count in half? Transfer the action to Las Vegas, circa 1970? One trembled to think.

Yesterday, these fears proved to be groundless. MLA sent back my manuscript with lots of comments in the margins, many of them complimentary, all of them tactfully worded. He also sent an 11-page memo discussing the book in great detail—what works, what could use work, what might be sacrificed in the name of coherence, and so on. Imagine that! Someone cares enough about my little book to talk about it for 11 pages! It feels strange to see my characters cavorting on someone else’s pages, discussed as if they’re real, living people (or centaurs). Wahoo! I’m not alone anymore!

And now ... to the business of revising.