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Tonight I attended a chat with Sean McCarthy, assistant agent with the Sheldon Fogelman Agency. Sean talked to aspiring authors about the children’s book market and how to find the right agent for your work.
It’s late and I’m tired, but you all know my obsession with taking notes! Here are just a few of the major points Mr. McCarthy touched upon during this informative session:
What’s the ideal picture book length?
Sean suggested that 500-word manuscripts tend to be a bit slim. They’re seeing the most success with stories above 500 but under 800. The 900 to 1000-word length is a difficult sell right now and he doesn’t see that changing anytime soon.
How many PB manuscripts should a new author have before querying?
His agency prefers to see at least two completed PB manuscripts. The ideal number would be five viable manuscripts. Sean said the market is difficult and there are so many variables for new authors–editor preferences vary and timing is another crucial element that’s out of an author’s hands. The one thing you can control is how many projects you have ready to go—so the more, the better. (Jack be nimble!) In other words, if you only have one completed PB manuscript, keep writing. Don’t submit yet. Sean urged “prolific-ness” as an ideal author quality.
What’s a hot niche in children’s publishing?
Sean thinks that middle grade is wide-open, with fewer and fewer boundaries, making this area particularly exciting. Sci-fi and dystopian books are a blossoming market, and he’d personally like to see more boy-friendly middle grade novels and hybrid prose/graphic projects. There’s room for mixing genres in middle grade. The biggest development in picture books is the character-driven movement. He wants to see clever and funny stories that have a clear beginning, middle and end, wherein the central conflict is resolved by the main character.
What’s cooling off?
YA has been hot for the past several years, so with the exception of Stephenie Meyer, he sees this area slowing down, since the industry tends to be cyclical.
Is it better for YA novelists to query with a series or just one book?
Mr. McCarthy said that series are tricky for a first-time author. Nine times out of ten, the 1st book in a trilogy will be the most successful. A series is not necessarily more attractive than a stand-alone novel.
Should new authors secure magazine credits before querying an agent?
Only if they are applicable to the genre you’re writing for. Publishing a literary adult short story won’t be helpful if you’re writing a juvenile novel. But he does like to see that you have been actively writing and publishing recently, even if it’s in small places.
Should new authors wait until they have an offer in hand before querying an agent?
While an offer is great and it can grab an agent’s attention, it can unfortunately lead to a “knocked up” scenario, where the author-agent relationship is borne out of convenience and necessity, not because it’s a great match. So he tends to be wary of these situations.
How is the economy affecting the children’s book market?
In the short term, it will be more difficult to place projects, since there are fewer editors. But the good news is that for the most part, children’s books have been one of the few bright spots for many publishers. He definitely thinks things will improve, although the time frame for that is uncertain–6 weeks, 6 months or 6 years…?
One last thought: Mr. McCarthy mentioned that the #1 method of obtaining new clients is by referral–either by meeting someone at a conference or by receiving a recommendation from a current client.
Writing may seem like a solitary occupation, spending hours on your own with a pen or keyboard, but like any other business, making contacts is vital to your success.
So get out there! Attend conferences. Meet editors, agents and other writers. It’s a small world…and, to borrow a phrase from the NY Lottery…”you’ve got to be in it to win it!”
How many of you have a budding young author in your home? Now’s little Johnny’s chance to see his words in print. Random House will be releasing Kids’ Letters to President Obama in 2009.
Editor Bill Adler wants your letters…err, I mean your children’s letters. The funnier, the better. But get them in soon. Deadline is December 31!
I’m the Library Mom! Yes, that’s me behind the desk, collecting the picture books. You forgot yours, Jacob? That’s okay. You can still check out another. (Oh the joy on his face!)
I’m the Library Mom! I’m not allowed to kiss or hug my own daughter, so we sign “I Love You” across the room. I suggested tugging on my ear like Carol Burnett, but my five year-old didn’t appreciate the nostalgia.
I’m the Library Mom! It’s taking me twice as long to put the books back on the shelves because I’m busy reading them. Ooh, I love Bark, George! And I never saw this Mo Willems before!
I’m the Library Mom! “You’re good for a rookie,” the library aide says. “Have you done this before?” No, ma’am. I just know my alphabet.
I’m the Library Mom! It feels like 10 minutes ago I was skipping into Mount Pleasant’s library, excited to see my mother behind the desk. Aren’t I the coolest kid in Kindergarten, having Mom in charge of so many books? You can’t take one home until she stamps it. That’s my mom, you know.
In another two weeks, I’ll be there again, Miss G’s class. And I’ll be skipping through the doors just like I did 30 years ago, but this time…I’m the Library Mom!
Is there such a thing as too many critiques?
A writing friend and I debated this issue earlier this week. She told me that if one critique partner doesn’t like something, she changes it, even if no one else agrees. Her opinion is that a critique group represents a microcosm of editors. She knows she can’t please everyone, but she tries to incorporate everyone’s suggestions.
My reaction was: yikes! With the wide range of opinions I sometimes receive, it would be impossible to address every critcism. I might wind up with a muddled mess of a manuscript.
My story cannot be all things to all people. We all have our own tastes, which dictates the books we choose to read, the titles we recommend to friends, and the stories we stop reading after Chapter I. If not all people agree on published books, you don’t have to wait for a concensus vote on a manuscript before considering it finished.
I only revise based on solo suggestions if the comment resonates with me. If someone points out something I was already doubting, then that’s the confirmation I need to fix it. A writing peer can highlight something I never thought of, but I immediately see the validity of their argument and make the change.
If a comment doesn’t make sense to me, I ask questions. I have to understand the reasons behind the criticism. And if it still doesn’t feel right, I leave it behind. If six people love something and only one hates it, I’m not going to strive to please that person, especially if I just don’t agree. Ultimately, I’m the author.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all peer opinions and I do my best to incorporate suggestions that I think will work, especially when at least three people wave a caution flag. But just one person? I don’t feel bad about leaving it.
So how do you feel about this issue? Do you try to address every criticism in a revision? And at what point do critiques become counter-productive? How long do you go on seeking opinions, changing and revising? I want your feedback about feedback!
Who doesn’t love first page sessions? Where else can you get two non-stop hours of professional, editorial feedback? They pack quite a picture book pow. (And a middle grade wallop. And a YA smack.)
But how do you get the most out of these sessions? Take care in what you submit and how you submit it. Let the editors focus on your story rather than procedure.
These suggestions are based upon the November 19 NJ-SCBWI first page session with Kendra Levin of Viking and Lauren Hodge of Little, Brown.
1. Format properly. Some submissions didn’t use standard paragraph breaks and indents. While the editors understood that these writers were eager to submit as much story as possible, the manuscripts were confusing to read. Everything ran together. Format your first page just as you would a professional submission. Honestly, you will get more out of less.
2. Use Times New Roman font. A serif font reads well. Courier, the traditional typewriter font, is a monospaced font, meaning each letter is the same width. This wastes space. If you submit with Courier, you’ll have 50% less story on your first page.
3. Research your genre. Some manuscripts felt inappropriate for the genre the author indicated. The topic, word choice and level of sophistication need to match your audience’s age. If you submit with the correct genre, the editors will spend more time assessing your writing than genre counseling.
4. Don’t limit yourself to one gender. One manuscript indicated it was for girls. If you write this on a submission, an editor will immediately think your work doesn’t have broad appeal. Let the editor decide if both boys and girls will love your story.
5. Skip the prologue. Go right to the story. Submit page one of the first chapter, not the backstory.
6. Don’t include an explanation. One picture book began with an intro about why the author had written the story, based upon an experience with her children. And here is where editor Kendra Levin was gracious and tactful. She thought the children in this author’s life were incredibly lucky to have such a playful, creative parent. But stating how children you know enjoy your work doesn’t help sell it. The story does. The intro only left room for five lines of the tale, so the editors could not comment fully. They also emphasized that if the story is written well enough, an explanation becomes unneccesary.
7. Take notes. Don’t just wait for what the editors/agents have to say about your manuscript. Listen to the comments about every page. There’s something to learn from everyone’s manuscript.
There’s more to come from this dynamic first page session. Watch for another post this weekend. And please add your own first page tips!
This week my India-born critique partner submitted an engaging group of multicultural poems.
“Summer Paintings” featured three young girls decorating their palms in the mehndi tradition, embedding secrets in the scrolled henna designs—initials of boys and dreams and all the hushed longings of adolescence. Toward the end of the poem, the girls washed away the paste to reveal the designs. The next line, Finally freed from our impatience, caused debate among our group.
The girls in the poem had a wonderful time waiting for the henna to dry, for the patterns to stain their skin. They laughed and talked, giggled and blushed. Why were they impatient if they enjoyed the journey?
The answer? This is what childhood is about: impatient eagerness.
While children take pleasure in their activities, they are always rushing forward to the next thing. As a child, every experience is new. There is little time to let events soak in when there is something else to explore. They are motivated by an insatiable curiosity.
Moreover, children wish to repeat favorite experiences over and over again, and not soon enough. I’m reminded of this when my family leaves Chuck E. Cheese. Two seconds into the parking lot and my daughter pops like a balloon: “Mommy, when are we going to Chuck E. Cheese again?”
When writing, I will try to remember the impatient eagerness that my critique partner so eloquently showed.
Does your character display an impatient eagerness? What is next big thing for them?
A few weeks ago, the hot topic here was Five Rules for Picture Books. Follow those guidelines and you might just have a winning manuscript. Or you might just have Hop! Plop! by Corey Rosen Schwartz, Tali Klein and Olivier Dunrea.
Let’s take a closer look at this story and how it fits beautifully with “the rules.”
Rule #1: Audience Age is 2-6 years old
A picture book should include situations and characters to which children this age can relate. Hop! Plop! is set at a playground. Familiar? Check. Adorable, friendly animals? Check.
Rule #2: 500 Words is the Magic Number
Hop! Plop! comes in at about 300. Check.
Rule #3: Make it Really Sweet or Really Funny
In this case, it’s really sweet and really funny. Elephant and Mouse navigate the playground together and hilarity ensues. Elephant is too heavy on the seesaw and he pushes Mouse a little too hard on the swing. In the end, the two friends discover that their favorite playground diversion is each other. Awwwww.
Rule #4: Use Playful, Unique Language
Elephant and Mouse’s foibles are expressed through onomatopoeia and rhyme. “Skip! Tip! Zoom! Zip! Mouse did a backward flip.” and “Plop! Drop! Crash! Whop! The swings were a total flop.” Totally fun to read aloud. And not too tongue-twisty.
Rule #5: Create Situations that Inspire Cool Illustrations
Picture an elephant and a mouse on a seesaw. And a mouse sliding down an elephant’s trunk. Funny situations, cute pictures. Final check.
Hop! Plop! is a delightful romp. While this book happens to follow “the rules,” that doesn’t mean other manuscripts which color outside the lines are doomed for the rejection pile. Not at all. Remember, “the rules” are merely guidelines for new writers, to help them understand what editors generally seek in a manuscript. (I should really add to the rules: there must be a story.) I can name plenty of picture books that break at least one of these guidelines, with length being the most common one. But Hop! Plop! fits all the criteria–and it’s darn cute to boot. Check it out.
Please share in the discussion by naming your favorite rule-followin’ title! Or maybe you want to point out a rule breaker, a rebel title that deserves praise!
The KidLit Comment Challenge helped me discover some boss new blogs and websites this weekend.
Everyone is talking about Wordle by Jonathan Feinberg. Input text and Wordle creates a word cloud, your very own piece of literary art, which I’m calling “literarti.” The more frequently a word appears in the text, the larger its relative size.
I had fun pasting my picture books into Wordle. Here is The Prince of Pizza:
You can change the font, color palate, direction of the words, and maximum word count. You can even link phrases with the tilde symbol (~) so they appear together. Keep in mind that Wordle’s gallery is uncensored, so it might not be appropriate for lil’ ones.
A site you will want to share with your young readers is author/illustrator Aaron Zenz’s Bookie Woogie: book reviews by kids, for kids (and their parents). Aaron and his three children, Isaac (10), Gracie (8), and Lily (5), review their favorite books from their impressive 2800-book home library. And when the discussion is finished, they share artwork inspired by the story. Aaron’s artistic talent has definitely rubbed off on his brood! Join them every Monday for a new book.
And then there’s Bendaroos. If you have a child with an insatiable artistic soul, then these colorful, bendable wax sticks promise to keep them busy for hours. You can even make your favorite picture book characters come to life by using the illustrations as a template. Your Bendaroo sculpture will lift right off the page when you’re done. As soon as ours arrive, I’ll post our creations.
Trinka Hakes Noble once described the joy of being a children’s writer: she can relive her childhood. And not just the fun times, but the difficult ones, too. And why would that be a good thing? As an author, she has the opportunity to rewrite her own history—to take an unfortunate situation from her past and finally make it right.
She does just that in the poignant story The Orange Shoes.
Ms. Noble grew up in rural Michigan as the fifth of seven children. The hand-me-downs that defined her childhood became the inspiration for this tale.
Each child in her family received just one sturdy pair of shoes per year, and since they were to be passed down between boys and girls, they were plain loafers. At school she was teased for her boyish Buster Browns. One afternoon while browsing the sole department store in town, she set her eyes upon a pair of lovely orange Mary Janes and instantly fell in love. She does not know how they afforded it, but the next day her parents presented her with that special pair of shoes.
As a young innocent, she showed them off to the children at school so they would finally admire and compliment her shoes. Instead, the children kicked dirt on her shoes, stomped on her feet and destroyed them, leaving her heartbroken.
In The Orange Shoes, marvelously illustrated by Doris Ettlinger, the main character Delly comes from a poor, rural family who cannot afford shoes until October, when the weather demands them. And yet, Delly’s character does not feel sorry for herself without shoes. Instead, she relishes the feel of the cool earth beneath her bare feet.
Like Ms. Noble, Delly is a talented artist. The inside of unfolded, used envelopes are her canvases. Her teacher, Miss Violet, encourages her students to decorate boxes for a “Shoebox Social” which will raise money for art supplies. When Delly sees a pair of orange Mary Janes in town, she immediately wants them to wear to her school’s social, but she knows they will never be hers.
To Delly’s surprise, her father buys the shoes she so admires. The delighted young girl wears her shoes to school and her jealous classmates ruin them.
This is where Ms. Noble fixes the situation from her childhood. Delly becomes a resourceful artist, painting each crack and crease with vines, transforming bigger scuffs into flowers. She decorates her Shoebox Social box to match perfectly. At the event, her box draws the highest bid, but it comes from an unexpected source.
The Orange Shoes was easily my favorite picture book of 2007 and it deserves a place on your shelf. The illustrations and story marry beautifully, and the message is uplifting and powerful. This being said, it is a more complex tale meant for older children, making it a great snuggle-up-together tale which elicits discussion between parent and child. And those are some of my favorite moments with my kids, when we can talk about books that we love.
The current publishing industry perception is that 500 words is the ideal length for a picture book. As a new writer, I have received this advice repeatedly. The reason behind the word count? Publishers believe that today’s busy parents want short titles to put their children to sleep quickly.
But there are publishers who prefer longer picture books, especially when a popular author is behind the title. Patricia Polacco comes to mind. Trinka Hakes Noble’s The Orange Shoes was my favorite picture book of 2007 and it easily breaks the 500-word barrier. And Flashlight Press wants manuscripts to be as close as possible to 1000 words. So it’s not the entire industry going wild for short.
Since I’m participating in the 21-day comment challenge with nearly 100 kidlit bloggers, I thought I’d ask you. Is length a factor when deciding upon a picture book purchase?
In our house, the story’s the thing. Short or long, as long as the kids love it and ask for it repeatedly, I’ll buy it.
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 