Guest blog by Cathy Ballou Mealey It's International Sloth Day and we have the perfect guest! No, it's not because she lazes around and moves in incremental steps! Cathy is a busy writer who moves at a wonderfully productive speed. Her debut, When A Tree Grows (Sterling, 2019) was joined this year by Sloth and Squirrel in a Pickle (Kids Can Press, 2021). It's that wonderful sloth character and her decision to write him dialogue free that makes Cathy the perfect guest for International Sloth Day! My thanks to everyone at 24 Carrot Writing for inviting me to publish a guest post on this most auspicious International Sloth Day! Sloth, co-star of my new picture book Sloth and Squirrel in A Pickle, is patiently awaiting his celebratory cake, champagne, flowers, and fan mail. But he probably won’t complain if the deliveries are delayed, or even if they never arrive, because Sloth does not speak! I became enamored of sloths after reading an article about the power of animal ambassadors to boost zoo attendance. I thought a sloth would make a great picture book character, but there were already many books about these cute, sleepy creatures. How could I make my book stand out? I decided to pair my serene sloth with a speedy squirrel in an unlikely friendship story. Squirrel’s desire to travel fast with his buddy Sloth leads to their adventures as pickle packers to earn money for a tandem bicycle. My first drafts featured typical picture book dialogue: “Sloth, I want a bike just like that. We could go fast!” “I don’t know, Squirrel. I like to go slow.” Then I revised in some fairly terrible ways to drag out Sloth’s speech with way-too-many-vowels-and-hyphens: “I don’t k-n-o-o-o-w, Squirrel. I like to g-o s-l-o-o-o-w.” While I felt happy with the emerging story structure, the dialogue was messy and too difficult to read. Was I heading down the wrong revision path? I decided to study some famous comic duos for inspiration, which meant watching clips of Ernie and Bert, Laverne and Shirley, and the classic odd couple, Oscar and Felix. I finally found story magic when I saw Penn and Teller, the Las Vegas illusionists. Penn is the jovial, front-facing raconteur and Teller is the silent but essential partner in their silly shtick – just what I needed for Squirrel and Sloth! Now my revisions flowed onto the page with ease. Sloth became the deep thinker and idea generator whose body language communicates everything. Sloth’s slow shrugs, nods, smiles and even slurps are the leisurely counterpoint to Squirrel’s rapid-fire, motor-mouth impulsivity. When the talented Kelly Collier illustrated our story, she completely embraced and enhanced the silent Sloth character and played up his body language with hilarious subtlety. Sloth’s one-eye opened, slack limb gestures are accentuated with cartoony dizzy spirals, sleep drool and quizzical eyebrows. Perfect picture book humor and heart! Although Sloth has no further words of wisdom to add here, he encourages you to explore opting in or out of dialogue in your stories. Consider characters whose actions may speak louder than words. And when it comes to the old axiom “show don’t tell,” an illusionist (or sloth) might suggest just the right magic to make your story sparkle! Cathy Ballou Mealey is a scone lover and author of two picture books, WHEN A TREE GROWS and SLOTH AND SQUIRREL IN A PICKLE. Her short story UNDER THE DOCK was published in the July 2021 issue of Highlights for Children. She has planted acorns and pickled cucumbers but spends most of her time writing picture books north of Boston where she lives with her husband and two children. And while she has seen a wild moose, Cathy hasn’t met a wild sloth, yet. To find out more, or get in touch with Cathy: Website: https://cathyballoumealey.wordpress.com/about/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CatBallouMealey Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catballoumealey/
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Guest Interview by Kelly Carey Julie Rowan-Zoch is an author/illustrator and also an apparently very svelte bookseller at Old Firehouse Books in Colorado. Julie debuted her illustrator skills in Louis by Tom Lichtenheld (Clarion Books, 2020) and her author/illustrator skills in I'm A Hare, So There! (Clarion Books, 2021), and there are more projects coming. I met Julie through The Soaring '20s Debut Picture Book Group and in person (when that still happened) at the New England SCBWI conference. I asked Julie to share what she had gained as a writer and illustrator by working in a bookstore. But, Julie was also excited to share what she had lost! Welcome Julie! So bookstore work made you drop weight? Not what I expected, but it’s true - 14 pounds! You can probably guess most of it fell off having to shift from a lot of sitting to standing 8 hours a day, and a bit from having to carry big boxes of books across the store and up and down stairs. The rest didn’t “melt” away either: there is a lot of deep knee-bending necessary in shelving books and shuffling whole rows to adjust for holes due to sales and adding new stock. I had never considered that bookstore work could be akin to a gym workout! But now that I think about it, my library haul is a hefty lift. Books have so many benefits! Aside from helping you shed pounds, how does your job affect your writing? It's all about that new stock! It’s a big plus for someone, like myself, writing and illustrating books for children. Getting to see the books the day they hit the market and before is a boon. Part of my job is looking over ARCs and F&Gs and giving recommendations to our buyers. Pre- COVID, Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) and Folded & Gathered (F&Gs) advanced copies of picture books were sent by publishers with plenty of time for us to read and review. Now we read most of these in digital format (which at least saves a lot of money and trees!). Either way, reading current titles is vital to any writer, and being “forced” to read them for work is an extra push to read more. Reviews need to be concise too, so I have to consider carefully what I’d like to say about each book. Excellent extra training for the picture book writer! So working in the bookstore and having to come up with snappy reviews has helped you to shed unwanted words in your own writing? Fantastic! And I bet having to pitch books to customers has honed your skills when pitching your own manuscripts. What a great bonus! What else have you learned? I get to see what sells and what doesn’t. Though not every store, region, or customer-base is the same, one thing must be true everywhere: old favorites are readily bought in comparison to new and possibly debut titles. Newer writers are always up against the established, but we are ALL up against dead writers! I hear what grandparents ask for, how parents nudge children to read higher, and I can watch kids pick up books based on the cover alone. Most of what I see happens at the register, because in the end that’s what I am there for, to sell books. It’s where we take orders too, though nowadays a lot more happens online. That’s a pity because making suggestions has been one of my favorite parts of the job. Thanks for sharing with us Julie - Wait! One more task really makes ALL the difference: Storytime! Having to prepare by reading and choosing titles suitable for a variety of ages is fun and challenging. I have to be ready for a set of grandparents with a baby as well as a group of toddlers wound up on a windy day. Because we hold storytimes in the morning hours we can only expect children up to 3, maybe 4 years old. Everyone else is in school. I need books in my basket that will spark interest, but also pull their attention back when I’ve lost them! So pacing is equally important in writing for them as it is in reading to them! I generally choose a longer read first and follow with books with a decreasing amount of text, but I’ve got to be ready for every mood swing. I add in finger play and songs as much as I can, because storytelling doesn’t only happen in books. I also like to add a craft or coloring sheet at the end, which allows me to find another way to tie in engagement with the books. All of these parts are helpful in understanding the effect a book has on a child, what parts make them laugh, and which approaches work better with a 2-year-old over a 4-year-old (and then along comes a 1-year-old who proves all your theories wrong!). Storytimes have been the highlight of my week. One tip I’d like writers to take away, should you be so lucky to read to a group of children, is to read the books yourself first! Not every book will appeal to you or the kids! Great! Thanks for sharing Julie. I agree, for writers, any opportunity to interact with books and readers is an opportunity to learn and working in a bookstore gives you plenty of learning moments!
And, a healthy diet of books might even offer the opportunity to drop a pant size or two! Who knew??! There is nothing more decadent than a summertime read. As I kid, I loved the freedom from textbooks and school assigned reading when I could browse a bookshelf and select whatever caught my fancy. We all have favorite spots to read but, in the vacation laced days of summer, I especially loved flipping the pages with smore sticky fingers by the shadowy light of a camp lantern or diving into the pages with my toes in beach sand and waves for an audience. With these gleeful moments in mind, 24 Carrot Writing is embarking on Book Pick Summer! Every month, we’ll be posting some of our favorite books in the Book Pick section of our website. Join us for Book Pick Summer and add your own favorite reads to our Facebook page. Happy Reading! ~By Amanda Smith and Kelly Carey Over the last year, you might have noticed some smart, funny, poignant author acrostics popping up on your social media feeds. These inventive introductions are brought to you by author Nancy Tupper Ling. 24 Carrot Writing talked to her about the intersection of author promotion and poetry and the importance of supporting fellow writers. Tell us about your author acrostic project and how it got started? Several months into the pandemic, I decided it would be fun to include some author interviews on my blog. But how to make them a little bit different? I wanted something playful, visual, and easy-to-read when people were flipping through social media. Why not an acrostic of their name? Soon I added a brief bio and the covers of my guest’s books. In the last few months, I’ve made all of the acrostics into a flipbook, thanks to my web designer, Eric Dubois. Feel free to flip through: https://www.nancytupperling.com/author-acrostics/ What is your connection to poetry that spurred your decision to solicit acrostic poems? Funny you should ask. There was a time when I swore I would never be a poet like my mom, Jean Tupper. That was “her thing” and I wanted to write short stories instead. Well, that didn’t last. In college I began to submit my fledgling poems to various journals. Gradually, after many revisions, a poem or two was accepted, and then more. Winning the Writer’s Digest Grand Prize definitely helped my confidence as a writer. What I love about poetry is how something as small as a haiku or as long as a sonnet can be so power-packed. This is true with “Author Acrostics” as well. I hope readers learn so much about each writer—their soul, their essence, in a tiny space. Why do you think it is important to promote your fellow authors? The road is long and we’re all still learning, even after we’ve been published. Certainly, the pandemic reminded us that even if we might think that we prefer a solitary writer’s life, we still need one another for encouragement and growth. The journey is most valuable when we can be generous with our talent and our art. What do you hope to accomplish with your acrostic project? Honestly, I don’t know if I thought about this in the beginning, but what I have come to love most about spotlighting an author is the responses I get about their books. Either people learn about books they had no idea about, or they are reminded how much they loved a particular one, and they go back and reread it. It’s the librarian in me who wants to find the perfect read for the readers out there. What is next for you? My next book is a children’s anthology with my co-author, June Cotner, called For Every Little Thing: Poems and Prayers to Celebrate the Day (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers). Arranged from waking up to falling asleep, this collection is all about finding gratitude in each day and its delights. Kelly and Annie are both author acrostic participants, and this week 24 Carrot Writing is thrilled to be featured. Thank you for inviting us, Nancy! Bio: Nancy Tupper Ling surrounds herself with books. She is an award-winning children’s author, poet, book seller, and librarian, who has great fun teaching poetry to all ages. Her picture books have received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly, and her next anthology entitled For Every Little Thing (Eerdmans Publishing) is due out in September 2021. Titles of Picture Books: My Sister, Alicia May (Pleasant St Press) Double Happiness (Chronicle Books) The Story I’ll Tell (Lee and Low Books) The Yin-Yang Sisters and the Dragon Frightful (Putnam Young Readers) For Every Little Thing (Eerdmans Publishing in September) by Kelly Carey With a book contract in hand, and a polished website, I found that the next step was to create a newsletter. I know what you're thinking. More non-writing time! You’ve already spent so much time building a website. Which for non-tech folks, like me, meant hours figuring out why a column wouldn’t center right, or how to upload a good photo, or what color scheme to use, and hyperlinks. The website rabbit hole can make Alice’s adventure feel like a trip to the mailbox. But trust me, the newsletter is much easier, the benefits are worth it, and all the skills you learned creating your website transfer right over. As soon as your book is announced, folks will be asking you for news. I couldn’t leave the house without bumping into someone who wanted to know what was new with my book. When asked, I would hand over my business card with my website address and say, “Go to my website and sign up for my newsletter and you'll be the first to know when the cover is revealed, when I have a publication date, and when I'm having a launch party." I found that folks appreciated being invited to sign up and this method allowed me to answer the "What's new with your book?" question in a solid and productive way. The newsletter doesn't have to be a daunting endeavor. You’ll publish your newsletter on your schedule and only as often as you decide. My book launched in April of 2020 and my first newsletter dropped in July of 2019. In total I put out 5 newsletters in 2019 and 8 in 2020. You can check out a list of my newsletters here. I used those newsletters to: 1. Reveal the Cover 2. Create a Pre-Order Offer 3. Share a Video When I Got My Author Copies 4. Invite Folks to the Launch Party 5. Celebrate the Launch 6. Share News of a Kirkus Review 7. Plug Interviews and Reviews on other Sites 8. Promote Author Visits and Events The unexpected boon for me was that I collected almost 100 emails in the months before my launch from folks who signed up for the newsletter. To boost my subscriber list even more, I set a goal of reaching out to 10-12 friends every month to ask them if I could sign them up for my newsletter. The responses were overwhelmingly positive and that is how I got the bulk of my newsletter subscribers. I announced my launch event in a newsletter and I think having a robust subscriber base really helped attendance. When I announce my second book (fingers crossed), I'll be grateful that I have a healthy group of subscribers and I’ll be ready to blast out the news to folks who were my first fans. And my newsletter went beyond just my subscribers. People forwarded my newsletter to their friends and colleagues. I’ve also seen folks put my newsletters on Twitter and Facebook too - so hooray! One way to expand the reach of your newsletter is to make sure it offers the recipient something more than just you tooting your own publishing horn. I often added the "What I'm Reading" section as a way to not only plug books from fellow writers but to offer my subscribers some helpful book recommendations. My friends and family are always asking me for book advice for themselves and their kids and putting book suggestions in my newsletter was a perfect way to add value. When I posted the newsletter and tagged the authors of books I had recommended they often retweeted and reposted it to their followers – bonus!! There are no rules - no deadlines for your newsletter -- so it's totally your call on when and how often you post. Need one more nudge? You can check out this guest blog on 24 Carrot Writing by marketing guru Colleen Riordan about why authors need an email newsletter.
You’ve done so much work and you want to make it easy for readers to get excited about your book and to get their own copy – maybe even an autographed copy at an author visit. Why not make it easy for readers by sharing all this news in a newsletter?
Thank you to 24 Carrot Writing for asking me to blog for them today. It’s a pleasure to be here talking about one of my favorite things: The Query Letter. A bit of background: It’s no secret that I’d queried a lot in the early 2010s (I’ve written about it in a bunch of places -- Articles about Querying and Writing - Query Godmother). After a few false starts, I signed with my third agent in the summer of 2013. This past summer, after seven years with the same agent, we parted ways—and I was honestly feeling like a bit of a failure. I’d been hoping for feedback on a manuscript and wasn’t prepared for my agent to be downsizing their list. In the middle of 2020, I took it really hard. All this to say that anyone can be in the query trenches. Writing a query can be scary. Remember, a query letter is a tool. It’s a way to put your words into the world. Don’t overthink the query letter. It’s manageable. There are parts to it. 1. Introduction (and opening paragraph): Sometimes this is called the “hook” part of the query. Include the title, the word count, the target age, and the genre of the book. A short tagline (elevator pitch) can be included in this section as well. It is not mandatory, though. If you have something personal to add, like that you met the agent at a conference, or took their workshop, do that here. If you don’t have anything personal, don’t force it. 2. Book section: Think of this as your back cover copy. This is the most important part of the query. Be specific, but brief. Try to express how your book is different than others. Use specificity about character goals, stakes, and motivations. This section should be the longest—after all the query is about your BOOK. Make sure you are answering these questions in this section:
Something about yourself and your expertise. What makes you the person to write this book? If you have any relevant published works, mention them here. Keep this part business. Don’t include things about your family or hobbies. Query strategies:
I’ll be honest, I have yet to sign with a new agent. However, my request rate is over 20%, so I feel like my query letter is working, and there are several people considering my work. Keep track of this sort of data, so you know when to revise and/or move to the next manuscript. Jumping into the querying pool can help you put aside your fears and anxieties about your work. Querying is forward motion. It is taking control of your career. Know yourself and what works for you. I wish you all good luck in 2021. Bio: Kristine Asselin is the author of several works of children’s nonfiction, co-author of the middle grade novel The Art of The Swap, as well as the YA novels Any Way You Slice It and Falling for Wonder Boy. She loves being a Girl Scout leader and volunteering with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She is a sucker for a good love song (preferably from the 80s), and can’t resist an invitation for Chinese food or ice cream (but not at the same time!). She lives in Central Massachusetts with her teen daughter and husband, and spends part of everyday looking for a TARDIS to borrow. ~ Guest post by Heather Kelly and Kristen Wixted Hold onto your hats, folks, this will be a long post. But our goal is to give you a blueprint for following your dreams of holding your book in your hands! It’s Heather Kelly and Kristen Wixted here, publishers and editors at Writers’ Loft Press and Pocket Moon Press. Not only do we indie-publish our own stuff, but we publish anthologies and mentor other writers to publish their own work. Check out our previously published anthologies: Firsts, An Assortment of Animals, Friends & Anemones, and Heather’s workbook to help you get the writing done, Jumpstart Your Writing in 30 Days. Today we’re going to take you on a journey to publication using Tom Franklin’s brand new steampunk Middle-Grade adventure story, The Pterrible Pteranodon, as a guide. THE MECHANICS: Tom started with a very clean draft that had been critiqued and edited. Pro Tip: Throw your manuscript into Pro-Writing Aid for a final polish! We recommend hiring freelance editors and copy editors at places like ALLi—the Alliance of Indie Publishers, Reedsy, or other indie-friendly forums. Next, Tom hired Robert Thibeault to create a genre-specific cover. Tom did his research by checking out his genre bucket at Amazon. Make sure to check out your genre-bucket best-sellers at Amazon before you choose a type of cover. For example, here are the best sellers of middle-grade steampunk at Amazon: Robert Thibeault designed an amazing and genre-specific cover: Hopefully, you can see how it would not only fit alongside the books in its genre but also stand out. It looks great as a thumbnail. Very important in this digital age! Pro Tip: Choose a type of cover that sells well in the genre. What you love as a book cover might not be what your reader loves. Sometimes as authors, we have to put our personal preferences aside! Here’s a closer look at Tom’s cover, so you can see the details: You can see here how an artist and book designer make a cover—it wraps around. Isn’t that cool? REACHING YOUR READERS: While Tom was waiting for his cover art masterpiece, he put up a freebie so people would sign up for his mailing list. Having an email list—direct contact with fans—is the most important piece of the publishing puzzle. Without this, every time you publish a new book, you start from scratch looking for fans. Tom gave away the first few chapters of his book and audio files of his book to entice people onto his list. Check it out here. Go ahead and sign up—Tom is going to KICKSTART this book, and you get to walk through the steps with him! (See the countdown page here!) Don’t just hide your freebie and the sign-up to your list on your personal website—plug it into one of the sharing sites that go directly to fans. Right now, two of the biggest sites are BookFunnel and StoryOrigin. Using sites like these, Tom doubled the number of fans he had on his list! Pro Tip: Story Origin is still in beta, so it’s currently FREE to use! Nothing beats free! Once you have fans, interact with them on a weekly or regular basis. Use email companies like MailChimp or mailerlite to do this professionally. Pro Tip: Make sure to consider who your fans are and give them what they are looking for! Remember that the people who sign up for your list are readers of your genre (or parents of the readers) and not just other writers or your friends. Formatting/Book Design: Use a program like Vellum (only for Macs) to format the inside of your book, or use the free program at Reedsy. Reedsy is a great one-stop-shop for finding indie-publishing support in general. PRODUCTION: While growing his email list, Tom finished all the production pieces. Here’s a list you can use:
Upload all the pieces (formatted correctly) along with the final cover artwork to Ingram Spark. Pro Tip: if you pay to be a member at ALLi you get a code for free uploads and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP has free uploads. Upload your ebook to KDP and choose to either have your book in Kindle Unlimited or use a distributor to go wide (like Draft2Digital) Pro Tip: Sites like Ingram Spark and KDP are often wonky, so make sure to save all your keywords and descriptions and bios elsewhere and paste them in. We have had some tense moments in the past! Pro Tip: You can purchase keywords that work in your genre at K-lytics, KPD Spy, or Publisher Rocket, to attract the right online buyers. Oftentimes as authors, it’s hard for us to think about what search words readers use! These keywords help people find your book when they search for it. If this seems like it’s a costly process, it can be. We generally budget $1,000 for a novel. (For an original cover like Tom’s from an artist, it’s much more!) But you can publish on a shoestring budget, by buying your cover premade (there are so many sites to use--just search for ‘premade book cover’) or by bartering. If you know someone who is a cover designer, and you are a great editor, trade those skills! Pro Tip: It’s okay to publish with the budget you have and then upgrade things as you go! FIND YOUR "WHY?" One of the most important questions to ask, before you start this process, is, “Why?” Why are you indie-publishing? If you want to see your book in your local bookstores:
If you want to make the most money you can:
Whatever you do, don’t go it alone. Some of the best resources for authors starting out on the Indie-pub path are Joanna Penn’s podcasts, the Facebook Group 20 Books to 50K, and joining an indie pubbing group. We have a virtual one at the Writers’ Loft if you’d like to join (email writersloftma@gmail.com to get on the email list). It’s run by Dave Pasquantonio who is also a freelance editor and knows a ton about book promotion. We promise, once you get going, things get easier, because you keep running into the same people, the same sites, and most of the people you run into are very supportive! So that’s another part of the job—be supportive of your fellow writers. Pro Tip: Don’t shortchange your readers—oftentimes the beautiful things that we love about books are simple enough for indie-publishers to achieve. See the gears that Tom added to each page number, the way his cover artist put the Pocket Moon Press logo into a gear, and how Tom invites his reader to read on into the next adventure! Phew, we covered a lot, right? Thanks to 24 Carrot Writing!
Feel free to leave us questions in the comments! Just out of curiosity, did we make you open up a billion tabs? We might just give a prize for the person who fesses up to opening a ton of tabs! Heather generally has at least 25,000 tabs open on her screen on any given day. (Let us know in the comments and we’ll pick someone at random.) Did you sign up for Tom’s email list so you can follow his further adventures in Kickstarting? We can’t wait for that process. (That’s another blog post)! ~by Amanda Smith So, you wrote something. And now you wonder what the steps are for getting it published. First of all, congratulations! Writing on a consistent basis, to the point where you have a book, is a huge accomplishment. (If you want to write children's books and aren't sure where to start, this blog by Kelly is for you.) Writing a book, however, is only the first step. Sending a freshly written manuscript to an agent or publisher would be like asking Paul and Prue to judge a cake after you had only gathered the ingredients. Here are some basic steps towards publishing: Critique Partners: You need someone else's eyes on your work (not family!). Ideally your critique partners should be up to date on the current market and knowledgeable about writing. They will look at content, structure, plot and character development, language use and, if you need, line editing. It is imperative to have someone else read your work. Sometimes we get so caught up in the excitement of a new project, or have read the same words so many times we don't see the plot holes, unclear details, or glaring mistakes. Where to find critique partners? SCBWI Local writing organizations Online groups such as Kidlit 411, Storystorm, Children’s Book Authors & Illustrators, 12X12, to name a few. Craft workshops and courses Revisions: If your critique partners are worth their salt, you will receive lots of revision notes. Depending on the depth of the notes, you will have to revise or, in some cases, even rewrite. Regardless of the scope of revisions, you will likely have a couple of critique-revision rounds. Do not skip this step! It is during this phase that your work continues to mature and become the best it can be. It is hugely rewarding to dig deep and polish away the rough edges of your story. Beta Readers: (Not necessary for picture books) After critiques and revisions, you need Beta readers, who consist of readers the age of your intended audience or readers deeply familiar with your genre (think teachers, librarians). A beta reader questionnaire is a helpful tool for gathering focused feedback. Another round of revisions will likely follow beta readers. Publishing choices: Once you have completed these steps and you feel that your work is ready to send out, you need to decide whether you want to take the traditional publishing route or explore independent publishing? The rest of today's post will focus on traditional publishing. Next time we will learn about independent (self) publishing. Make sure you know the pros and cons of each option. If you choose traditional publishing, you should know that it can take months or even years. Most of the bigger publishers are closed to unsolicited submissions and you need an agent to represent your work. Some publishing houses however, do accept unagented submissions. Books, such as THE CHILDREN’S WRITER’S & ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET, can provide guidance as to which publishing houses are open to unagented submissions. Always check the publisher’s website for their latest guidelines. While you can certainly do research online and through publishing trade journals to find publishers who are open to unagented or unsolicited manuscripts, it is very helpful if you have a more personal contact with an editor at the publishing house. One of the best ways to make this connection is to attend a class or workshop taught by the editor. Also, editors who attend writing conferences will often accept unsolicited submissions from conference attendees for a limited time, so be sure to look into this possibility when attending these events. Always do your research to be sure a specific publisher publishes the genre/age level you write. Agents: A good literary agent will help you polish and edit your story, send submissions to publishing houses, negotiate contracts, and handle advances and royalties. They are super knowledgeable about the industry, and know what editors are seeking. Your agent is your ally and business partner. Therefore it is important to carefully research agents, not only for what genres they represent or what their interests are, but also whether they will be a good match for you. Once you have narrowed down agents you would like to approach, you need to query. Places to research agents: SCBWI The Book Agency websites Manuscript wishlist (www.manuscriptwishlist.com/) #MSWL (https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/) QueryTracker (querytracker.net/) Publishers Marketplace (https://www.publishersmarketplace.com/) Some writing websites also offer a treasure trove of information in the form of agent interviews and guest blogs. A few to browse are http://www.literaryrambles.com/, https://www.pbspotlight.com/, and The 12x12challenge Most agents are active on social media Acknowledgements of books you have read Queries: A query is a letter in which writers pitch their work and introduce themselves to an agent. It is a business letter that follows a specific form. Stay tuned for a guest blog regarding query letters by the Query Godmother, Kris Asselin, later this month. Queries are used for picture books, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as all other fiction. Nonfiction writers send a cover letter, proposal with outline, and some writing samples. Each agent or agency has their own rules regarding submissions. It is very important that you read and follow each specific agency's submission guidelines. Not only does it streamline the process for them, but it also reflects well on you, their future client, and your ability to take direction. Be prepared for several rounds of querying. If an agent would like to represent you, they will contact you and usually schedule a phone call with you to further discuss the details. Remember, not only is the agent interviewing you to see whether they want to take you on as a client, but you are also interviewing the agent to see whether they will be a good match for you. Once you have received an offer of representation and contracts have been signed, you and your agent may go through another round of revisions before they submit your manuscript to publishers. There might be several rounds of submissions before you receive an offer for your book. At this point the process is out of your hands. You have baked your cake to perfection. You've trimmed and filled and frosted. You've decorated and delicately flavored. Editors, acquisition boards, and marketing departments are your proverbial judges, and once your delectable offering hits the right palate, you will get your Hollywood-handshake: A published book! by Kelly Carey You’ve just sold your debut book? Fantastic! You want to join a debut marketing group? Even better! What’s that? You’re not exactly sure what a marketing group is? How to find one? Or what kind of group to look for? Don’t worry! Check out my tips on how to not only find a marketing group, but how to find a great one! Tip #1: Find a Book Marketing Group A book marketing group is made up of authors who join together to help promote each other’s books. Most groups are organized around a common attribute, like debut authors, or middle grade authors, or books publishing in 2021. You can find marketing groups by:
Tip #2: Only Sign Up for One Group Marketing groups are a huge help in plugging your book and in offering support and comradery during a launch. But you only need one group. While the benefits of a group are many, you will not multiple the benefits with more groups. One is plenty. For "branding" purposes, it’s also better to identify yourself as belonging to one group. There will likely be a group logo, and a cool group name that you can include on your website, and in your social media. Best not to confuse folks with multiple tags. Finally, a marketing group requires time and energy on your part. There is no need to juggle the responsibilities of more than one group. You’ll be spending plenty of time marketing and you don’t need to double the workload! Tip #3 Timing is Everything It can take a few months to collect a group of like-minded authors for a marketing group. Once you have a group, it can take a few more months to agree on a name and logo, build a website and platform, and introduce your group to the world. It’s not too early to start looking for or forming a marketing group – um – today! Your marketing group will want to start interacting with potential readers, librarians, bookstores, and teachers about six months before anyone’s book launches. That means you'll want your group to be forming about a year before publication dates. If your 2022 debut group wants to announce your fabulous new books to the world in the last half of 2021, you’ll want to find your marketing group in the first few months of 2021. Tip #4 Assess the Group Don’t be afraid to be picky if you get asked to join more than one group – you want to be in good one! The best way to do this it to ask a few questions and do a little research. I’d look for the following things in a group:
Congratulations on your upcoming book! I know you’ve worked hard on it and readers deserve to get ahold of it! Give yourself and your readers the best chance of connecting by finding a fantastic marketing group!
Guest blog by Sarah Jane Abbott As a writer myself, I understand the struggle of trying to figure out when a story is “finished.” Is it ready to submit? Or does it just need a few more months of tinkering before it’s ready to be extracted from the bowels of my laptop? The truth is, it’s easy to make little adjustments to a manuscript forever and never send it out. There’s a fine line between putting thoughtful, thorough revision into your manuscript and completely overworking it. So how is one to decide when it’s time to stop tinkering and start querying? Take A Step Back One of my best tips is to take a step back for perspective. It’s easy to get so close to a manuscript that objectivity is impossible; if you’ll excuse the cliché, you can’t see the forest for the trees. So put the manuscript away and work on something else. Try not to even think about it for several weeks. Then, when you come back to it, it should feel fresher and you may be able to see it in a way you couldn’t before. Maybe you’ll realize it needs more revision after all. Or maybe, after being away from it, you’ll see that it’s stronger and more polished than you remembered. Read Aloud Picture books are a unique and special form in literature in that they are often read aloud. I always suggest that authors read their work out loud before finalizing it. This will help you see numerous things: Is the language colorful and engaging? In a rhyming text, do the rhyme, rhythm, and meter flow naturally? Does the pacing move along quickly enough to keep a child’s attention, while allowing time for the plot to develop? If all of these things feel good during read aloud, it’s a positive sign that the manuscript is polished. Get Feedback from Critique Partners Another helpful tool to gauge readiness for submission can be input from a trusted critique partner or group. It’s one thing to have a non-writer family member or friend read your work; you’ll often be met with sincere, but vague feedback like, “this is really great!” Peers who are familiar with the world of writing for children specifically will be able to give targeted, constructive feedback on your work. Your critique partners can give their honest opinions about the readiness of the manuscript for submission and, if they think it still needs work, their thoughts on how it can be revised. The possible pitfall, of course, is taking so much feedback from so many critique partners that you lose your own voice or intention. Maybe you’ve followed several different suggestions and ended up with so many different versions of your manuscript you barely remember the story you were trying to write in the first place. Maybe you’ve written both rhyming and non-rhyming versions, both first and third person narration, in past and present tense. It gets confusing! Or maybe you’ve tinkered and tinkered and even though you think it’s a strong manuscript, you just can’t seem to make yourself press send on any queries. If you feel stuck, maybe it’s time to bring in a professional. A freelance editor can use their experience and industry knowledge to give you an expert opinion on your manuscript’s readiness for submission as well as what areas need revision. They can read multiple versions and tell you which one they think is the strongest, or help you pull together the best pieces from different iterations of the manuscript to make the heart of your story shine through. Celebrate! Most of all, the important thing to remember if you’re thinking you’re ready to query is: it’s a big accomplishment just to be at this point! So take a breath, take a step back, and read through that manuscript one more time. Pressing send can be scary, but once you’ve put in the work to polish up a story you’re confident in, it’s an incredibly satisfying feeling to send it out into the world. Sarah Jane Abbott is an experienced editor who has spent eight years making books for children. She got her start at Simon & Schuster’s Paula Wiseman Books and Beach Lane Books, where she had the pleasure of working with many wonderful authors and illustrators including Samantha M. Clark, Samantha Cotterill, Scott Magoon, Anita Lobel, Alice B. McGinty, and Diane Goode. In 2020, she established Sarah Jane Abbott Editorial, and works with authors and publishers on a wide range of projects. Visit her at sarahjaneabbotteditorial.com or get in touch at sarahjaneabbotteditorial@gmail.com. |
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