Submission and reviewing sources.

By Susan J Berger
I have three sets of links for you:

Submitting

 Manuscript Wishlist http://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/  This is a great place to find what agents and editors are looking for. Also be sure and visit  their twitter regularly. Search the hash tag #MSWL
@ManuscriptWList

Casey McCormick and Natalie Aguirre host Literary Rambles which is a treasure trove of agent interviews. You can sort the agents by the type of books they represent.

Sue Ganz Schmidt recommended this website to me Authors Publish.com It's free and she says sometimes they send you very useful information. I subscribed last night and got some very useful links. http://www.authorspublish.com/the-top-20-publishers-for-new-authors/

Reviewing

I got a request for a list I previously posted about: getting reviews. I had been researching the sites for Picture Book reviewers, but these sites also review Middle Grade and YA

I want to add Middle Grade Mania, which had a list of bloggers who review Middle grade.



Here is a list of reviewers I wanted to contact:

The Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/get_rev.htm Reviewing print books/CDs/DVDs is always free of charge. They charge a 50.00 Reader Fee for eBooks
I now have my books, so I will be sending one.

The Picture Book Reviews
https://thepicturebookreview.com/review-policy-disclosures/

If you’d like to contact me, please send me an email at:thepicturebookreview@gmail.com.

Review Policy: Hello! As of January 1, 2015:  I happily accept picture books for review.  If we love the book, I’ll write a review about it.   I accept physical copies only — ARCs, galleys, etc. are fine — it just needs to be something I can sit down and read with my family.Thank you so much for thinking of me.  I’m flattered that you’d like your book reviewed on my site. Also, good luck with your book!  Picture book authors and illustrators

I will be contacting her. 

Readers Favorites.Com

https://readersfavorite.com/book-reviews.htm  All reviews are free. They post on their Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You CAN pay for more stuff. I didn't want to. I submitted an ARC PDF for review on 9/25. The review was up 4 days later.

KidReads.com

Here's what their contact page says:

I am an author, publisher or publicity agent and I would like my book to be reviewed on Kidsreads.com. What do I do?
To submit a book for review on Kidsreads.com, please send it to:
The Book Report Network
250 West 57th Street
Suite 1228
New York, NY 10107
Although we cannot guarantee a review, we consider every book that comes into our office. Due to the volume of submissions that we receive, we cannot contact authors or publishers on the status of a book for review. Typically books are reviewed within 3 months of publication. We suggest you sign up for our newsletter, which will list the content that we are promoting.
Please note that at this time we do not review eBooks, POD Books and other self-published titles as we only offer books that are available with wide distribution offline as well as online.

Places I will not submit:

Kirkus Book reviews. HUGELY expensive. If your publisher is paying. Great.

The Children's Book Review

 $195 for a review. No thanks. They do have a place where you can giveaway a copy of your book. When I checked it out, they wanted me to pay them 65.00 for the privilege of giving away a book/

 Places to check out:

 Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews

This is a collection of websites that TTLG has found interesting and/or useful. Because sites change so fast we cannot vouch for their content. If you have any comments or suggestions about this list please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be adding to these lists regularly so please keep checking this page for new doorways into the world of children's literature.

I have not checked them all out yet. Some are no longer active.  Some seem not to be reviewing sites at all.

Marketing

Planning your marketing campaign. Click the link for an amazing spreadsheet to help you plan marketing.
Incredible 15 tab excel spreadsheet for marketing Andrea Loney graciously shared this with me.
Start with the "About Tab" They sheet was authored by Jenny Blake and it's amazingly thorough, and perhaps more than you want. I would strongly suggest reading it. .
Jenny says Feeling Generous?
1) If you get value from this spreadsheet, please consider making a donation. I will be very grateful...we all know that authors only see royalty checks once in a blue moon (if ever)!
2) Spread the word -- please feel free to share this spreadsheet with your other author friends!
There is a link on the spreadsheet to where to send a donation.
Happy Writing.

Writers and Readers

by Victoria Krol

Hi guys! I’m back. I went to a local author’s showcase at the Buena Vista Branch Library. I met lots of people, but unfortunately I ran out of time so I didn’t interview everyone (I suppose that’s what I get for sleeping through half of it).

The first author I interviewed was Michele Ramos and her book was about learning the colors, with a bear named Strizie. Her website is www.bearigworld.com.

The  next author I talked to was Cheryl Holt. I think I might have interviewed her last year. Her books are all Romance and I said I would have to wait a little before I read those. She also said that she was the best author and that made me laugh. I think I sounded a little flustered.

After Cheryl, I questioned Jane DiLucchio. http://www.janedilucchio.com/

 Her books sound really suspenseful. They were Murder Mysteries.  I think I shivered as she gave me the plot of one.

Katherine Jeffries had some really interesting things to tell too. Her books were Thrillers with Romance.  

After that, I took a little break from the Center of the room and moved to the left side. Here, I met Kaaron Williams and her books were on Cruises. They are tips for the best cruise experience.

https://www.amazon.com/20-Cruise-Tips-Platinum-Cruiser/dp/1478712538

Then, I jumped from the very front of the left side to the very back right. Here I met Jen Klein, Sarah Vance-Tompkins, E.V Fairfall, Candance Jane Kringle, and Elizabeth Marks. Jen Klein’s book was a Buffy vampire/ Veronica jones type of thing. Her website is http://jenkleinbooks.com/books/

Sarah Vance-Tompkins book was called Kisses on A Paper Airplane. I believe she put it like this “ 1 ginger pop star +  1 shy actress + 1 international flight = 1 perfect first kiss” .  Her website is www.sarahvancetompkins.com.

E.V. Fairfall was showcasing two books. They were both on split personality disorder. Waking Gabriel and Sleeping Tom.  Basically, Gabriel during the day was really mean and cruel and during the night he turned into Tom, a really sweet, kind-hearted boy. It sounded really good. She also mentioned to me Book tube. Book tube is a YouTube site where people post videos about their books. It was really cool and I checked it out. E.V. Fairfall’s channel is: https://www.youtube.com/c/booktubecouple

Candace Jane Kringle’s book is a memoir on “her” life as a High school-er at North Pole High and her adventures of dating a boy on the Naughty List. Twitter account is: @CandycaneClaus Here is her Goodreads link. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6477195.Candace_Jane_Kringle

Elizabeth Mark’s book was about growing up in Armenia in World War I.

Now, I jumped around a lot. I went from the bottom right to Sue’s table and interviewed Lilly Rowe and Joel Guerrero. They had created a book of poems that were full of courage. Joel Guerrero illustrated them and Lilly Rowe wrote them. The drawings were really nice.

Then I went to Zenobia Neil and I don’t think she realized that I cared about what she wrote and she only gave me the title: Cupid and Psyche.  

Next to Zenobia, I met Leanne Hansen. These books were Ghost Stories and Romance. I thought that was cool, how she tied in Romance to Ghosts.

Then I went to Bill Scollon and he gave me some information on his Disney books. He had  a biography on Walt Disney and some books on Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters

Stephen McCarthy’s books were spy novels and a few on Road trips. I thought it was interesting on how he had such a variety of books and he was able to write them even though he had vastly different published works.

Now I went to the other side of the room and talked to David Davis,  Adrienne Childers, and  Leandra Chergey.  David Davis published a biography on Duke Kahanamoku. He also had a 1984 Olympic picture album. I thought that was pretty amazing. I would have stayed longer looking at the photos, but they announced there was only 20 minutes left, so I had to hurry. 

Adrienne Childers had written a book called Dear Deer.  We were talking and I told her what I liked to do and such. As I left her table, she noticed my moose pencil. She called me back over. She asked me if I had a deer pencil topper. It was a moose I told her, but moose are cousins of the deer.  She asked me If I liked to read. Me, being me said yes. Then, she proceeded to surprise me very much so. She gave me a FREE  AND SIGNED BOOK! I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. She took a picture of my Moose and me with the book.

I proceeded to run over to Sue and show her. She was equally excited.  The book was about a deer who had decide to hang out near the character’s house. At first it stayed far away but it gradually came closer. There was real pictures in there too. 

Leandra Chergey’s book was about a journey with Autism. This interested me because I had recently read M.J.’s  A Boy Called Hopeless. She was handing out bracelets that had wish charms on them and the legend was that when the string frayed and the cord snapped in two, your wish came true.

I put mine on, but sadly it came off two days later due to football practice. I still think that my wish will come true without the bracelet. My face lit up when Leandra told me of the Legend.

The library announced that the showcase had ended.  The last two authors I interviewed were Sisan McNeil  and Joshua Henaman.

 Sisan McNeil is an interviewee. I interviewed her last year. She actually remembered me. She has one new book coming out in 2017 about Western segregation.

Joshua Henaman made a graphic novel about Bigfoot with a broadsword. He told me that there was a piece of NASA footage that showed a blurry image of something on Mars. Word got out and people started saying that there was “bigfoot on mars”. I thought this was incredibly funny. He told me to google bigfoot on mars. I have been busy but I am planning on checking it out soon.

Dispatch #58: Mi Scusi Dove il Bagno?

by Lupe Fernandez

Another in a irregular series about writing in the field.

Mi Scusi,Dove il Bagno?
Excuse me, where bathroom?

I memorized this important phrase on a recent trip to Italy. I also took a small blue notebook in case I got any bright ideas about a MG manuscript I'm revising titled The Adventures of Calaveras Cal: Boy Skeleton. Middle grade re-imaging of the Spanish Conquest of El Nuevo Mundo. Many of the scenes in the story were inspired by certain Italian locales.

Florence -  Brunelleschi's Dome
Standing below the 375 foot dome, I saw an astronomical observatory.

Florence - Giotto's Campanile
When I saw the bell tower, in the Piazzo del Duomo, I envisioned an orate rocket gantry.

Florence - Museo Galileo
 Peter Leopold’s Chemistry Cabinet, a table full of vials, instruments, bottles included this brass cone supported on three legs, resembling a tea-pot. Hmmm...what a cool ascent vehicle for Cal to make his escape from the planet Al Mareekh.

Venice: Il Palazzo Ducale - Doge's Palace

Wandering up a stairwell, I say this cylinder in the corner. It's a hanging lamp, but I imagined, "What a cool diving bell this would make!" There's not underwater action in the current story; I'll use the diving bell in the sequel.

Venice: Il Palazzo Ducale - Doge's Palace
I paced the floor of The Chamber of the Great Council from rear to front. Our hero, Calaveras Cal: Boy Skeleton, first meets the Council Realm. I crouched on the floor and walked to the front of the chamber, imagining the height and distance for a boy crossing the length of the floor.


There you have it. Some inspirations from the land of pasta and Vespas.

Yes, yes. I wrote Spanish Conquest of El Nuevo Mundo. Why Italy? Don't have any money yet for a trip to Spain. Maybe I'll get a queen to sell some jewels or steal a sailing ship.


Mi scusi, dove è la mia storia?
Excuse me, where is my story?

In the News Local Author Gathering & SCBWI BookBlast

Local Author Gathering  Saturday, October 15, 2016 -

1:00pm to 4:00pm

Buena Vista Branch Library

300 N. Buena Vista St.

Burbank, CA 91505

Come and meet 50 local authors of mystery, science fiction, fantasy, children’s, young adult, self-help, romance, horror, and more! 

Buy books, get autographs, and meet new authors. 

Door prizes will be provided by the Friends of the Burbank Public Library. 

Susan will be there with cookies baked by the fabulous Hilde Garcia and also her books. All authors bring swag to the events. Please stop by and browse the tables. No one will pressure you to buy. But if you do buy, you get autographed books on the spot. You may also come away with gift ideas, and a door prize.

If you do come, please stop by and say hi to Susan and Hilde. 

SCBWI Book Blast launched Monday. 

Here's a tweet if you want to share.

Explore new books from Independent & Traditional writers & artists w/ #SCBWIBookBlast http://www.scbwi.org/bookblast 

The book blast is a potpourri of well-known and independent authors. There is one section for traditionally published authors and another section for indie authors. Really pretty landing pages with postage stamp sized images you can click on. I felt like I was in a candy store.Once you are on a  the landing page you can sort by type of book or author.

Happy reading and writing.

Getting Reviews for Your Book

by Susan J Berger

The last ten days have been crazy/amazing.
My new book, Mom Is There a Santa Claus? came out on September 20.  Currently it's available as a paperback on Barnes and Noble and Amazon and as a 5.00 PDF for your eReader at Guardian Angel Publishing.

When I found out, the book was out on Amazon and B&N,  I was thrilled. (I worked a night shoot on American Horror Story on the 21st and didn't open my email for a couple of days.) Now I needed to try and get reviews. I am still working on that because I did two additional days on AHS, traveled to Port Angeles WA for my sister's 65th birthday plus I had blog posts due, an audition to film and pages due for my picture book critique group and my romance book critique group. And I am still playing catch up. I also want to find someone to translate Mom is There a Santa Claus? into Spanish. Oh the magic and confusion of living!
Getting Reviews 
I started by reaching out to fellow authors, offering a PDF ARC in exchange for reviews. I had a few takers. The offer is still open. If anyone wants a PDF ARC, email me at sueberger3@aol.com

I put Mom Is There a Santa Claus?  on SCBWI's winter reading list. I purchased an SCBWI Book Blast page.

Here is a list of reviewers I wanted to contact:

The Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/get_rev.htm Reviewing print books/CDs/DVDs is always free of charge. They charge a 50.00 Reader Fee for eBooks
I now have my books, so I will be sending one.

The Picture Book Reviews
https://thepicturebookreview.com/review-policy-disclosures/

If you’d like to contact me, please send me an email at: thepicturebookreview@gmail.com.

Review Policy: Hello! As of January 1, 2015:  I happily accept picture books for review.  If we love the book, I’ll write a review about it.   I accept physical copies only — ARCs, galleys, etc. are fine — it just needs to be something I can sit down and read with my family.Thank you so much for thinking of me.  I’m flattered that you’d like your book reviewed on my site. Also, good luck with your book!  Picture book authors and illustrators

I will be contacting her. 

Readers Favorites.Com

https://readersfavorite.com/book-reviews.htm  All reviews are free. They post on their Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You CAN pay for more stuff. I didn't want to. I submitted an ARC PDF for review on 9/25. The review was up 4 days later.

KidReads.com

Here's what their contact page says:

I am an author, publisher or publicity agent and I would like my book to be reviewed on Kidsreads.com. What do I do?
To submit a book for review on Kidsreads.com, please send it to:
The Book Report Network
250 West 57th Street
Suite 1228
New York, NY 10107
Although we cannot guarantee a review, we consider every book that comes into our office. Due to the volume of submissions that we receive, we cannot contact authors or publishers on the status of a book for review. Typically books are reviewed within 3 months of publication. We suggest you sign up for our newsletter, which will list the content that we are promoting.
Please note that at this time we do not review eBooks, POD Books and other self-published titles as we only offer books that are available with wide distribution offline as well as online.

Places I will not submit:

Kirkus Book reviews. HUGELY expensive. If your publisher is paying. Great.

The Children's Book Review

https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/dedicated-review-submissions $195 for a review. No thanks. They doo have a place where you can giveaway a copy of your book. That might be worth checking out.

 Places to check out:

 Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews

They have a list of websites. I have not checked them all out yet.

Next week I am one of a group of local authors doing an event at the Burbank Public Library. Please drop by. Hilde is baking me cookies to attract buyers. My hope is a few people will be interested in buying a book, but you can have a cookie without buying a book. Also a bookmark or two.

Burbank Public Library Local Authors' Showcase

Saturday, October 15, 2016 -
1:00pm to 4:00pm
300 N. Buena Vista St
 Burbank, CA 91505

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL AUTHORS.
Come and meet 50 local authors of mystery, science fiction, fantasy, children’s, young adult, self-help, romance, horror, and more!
Buy books, get autographs, and meet new authors.
Door prizes will be provided by the Friends of the Burbank Public Library.

 Now many of you are a lot more experienced than I am. Have you got any advice for me on where to get reviews, or how to get my book into a library? I am so grateful for advice. For those of you that are new at promoting. I hope the above helps.