Finding an Agent. Picture books.

by Susan J Berger

 

Finding an agent for your picture books is more challenging because agents make less money on picture books. And because most agents specify a preference for author/illustrators. That's not me.

I've been racking up some rejections for my mid grade novel and neglecting my picture books. I've only had three rejections for picture books this year. Why? Not querying enough.

 I am nowhere near the rejection totals Hilde gave in her post Rejection Junction, What's Your Function. I need to query more.

 

 Next month my picture book group will be meeting to do a query session. Pen and Ink did a query session in June. (Yes indeedy. Another link.)

 

What to say in a Picture book Query
I Googled that. Lots of resources. Best advice? Keep it short and sweet. You are going to be including the PB MS so you don't need to say much. Try to keep your pitch paragraph in your author voice.
Here are my favorite links for PB query advice.
http://kidlit.com/2010/09/27/picture-book-queries/
http://queryshark.blogspot.com/2010/09/178.html
http://queryshark.blogspot.com/2012/02/218.html

Who to query?
 Here are some resources:
Chuck Sambuchino writes for Writers Digest and features new literary agents. This month he featured Sherry Bestor of Willow Words. I went to Willow Words' website. They only accept queries the first seven days of the month. Here are the Willow Words Guidelines.

Query Tracker. Join for free. For 25.00 per year you get a lot more service, but start with the free one to see how you like it. You can filter by children's books, but you have to check to see what kind of children's books they accept.
I took these from Query Tracker
Three Seas Literary Cori Deyoe is the only agent who accepts picture books. Submission Guidelines

Betsy Amster Literary Mary Cummings. Submission Guidelines

Barry Goldblatt spoke at 2015 SCBWI National Conference. Submission Guidelines. I sent Barry a picture book query this week and marked it exclusive. (It was, I promise you.) I had a very courteous rejection within forty eight hours. He said at conference, he would know what it was he wanted when he saw it. The Undertoads wasn't it.  Next!

Casey McCormick's BlogSpot Literary Rambles is one of my go-to resources. Casey has interviews with lots of agents. Here's her list of Picture Book Agents.
Her interviews include links to the agents' websites so you can get an idea of their client list and submission guidelines.

Lastly here are some of the top selling picture book agents from the list Greg Pincus mentioned on the SCBWI list serv. I removed the ones who are not accepting queries. Query on

Holly McGhee (Pippin Properties), 16 deals. Website

Alexandra Penfold (Upstart Crow Literary), 12 deals. Website

Emily van Beek (Folio Literary Management), 11 deals. Website

Rebecca Sherman (Writers House), 11 deals. Website

Rubin Pfeffer (Rubin Pfeffer Content), 10 deals. Website

Lori Kilkelly (Rodeen Literary Management), 9 deals. Website

Kathleen Rushall (Marsal Lyon Literary Agency), 9 deals. Website

Stefanie Von Borstel (Full Circle Literary), 8 deals. Website

Anna Olswanger (Olswanger Literary), 8 deals. Website

Steven Malk (Writers House), 7 deals. Website

Paul Rodeen (Rodeen Literary Management), 7 deals. Website

Caryn Wiseman (Andrea Brown Literary Agency), 7 deals. Website

Rocking Links for Monday September 30th, 2013

By Kris Kahrs

     Yep, once again my son has proved to me that Mom is always the last to know.  This week I offer up links to rocking kids books I never knew existed until I found them in my son's backpack, some bookie treats to enjoy while reading your favorite kidlit and my new favorite childrens book illustrator, Paul Stickland (be still my heart).  These books are wonderfully illustrated, cleverly written with fresh ideas and entertaining language.  Please check them out at your local library or favorite indy bookstore, then leave your comments below on your favs.

Actually, I bought Beautiful Oops! for me, although my son and I love to read this together.  I love the idea that mistakes can turn into beautiful opportunities.  Now we talk about our 'beautiful Oops!' and I think it's made us both more tolerant of when things don't turn out the way we originally planned.

I love, love, love cats and A Cat Named Egg?  Well, you had me at sunnyside up or over easy.  This book is funny, clever story in verse.  It has plenty of plays on words and your kid will love the connections it makes.  You will both have fun reading this.

L is for Lollygag is the book I've been waiting for.  The Chronicle Books staff call it 'Quirky Words for the Clever Tongue' and they are right!  This book is about words that are fun to say: flabbergast, skullduggery, zigzag and swashbuckler to name a few.  We bet you can't say them without laughing and your young reader will expand her vocabulary as well.

Almost everyday, my son poses hypothetical battle questions to me, "Who would win in hand to hand combat: Chima or Ninjago?  C3PO or R2D2? Stink Moody or Captain Underpants?  A garbage can or a fire hydrant?  Ahhhhhh!  (I actually made up that last one, but you get my meaning.)  We go through this exercise until I tell him mommy needs to have a lie-down.  Then these books came home in the backpack.  I get it!  This is a 'boy-thing'.  There's a series of 7 of the Who Would Win books; Polar Bear vs. Grizzly Bear etc.  Your little hypothesizer will love 'em.

Two other subjects high up on boys reading hit-lists: potty humor (which I understand from my husband is always funny, no matter how old you are) and non-fiction, so when Will Farts Destroy The Planet by Glenn Murphy, came home in my son's backpack, I knew he had found gold.  Even better, this book is actually about climate change, so it's an educational read.  Who knew?

I did mention my new favorite illustrator above, did I not?  His name is Paul Stickland and his art is amazing.  He is a prolific kids book illustrator and the paper art in his pop-up books is nothing short of extraordinary.  He also does a lot of classroom visits to promote his books and does papercraft with the students.  He says he finds their art inspiring for his own work.  He also shows step-by-step photos of how he builds his pop-up books.

Last, what are books without a few cookies?  Even better, how bout some bookies?  That is, cookies in the shape of your favorite books.  Here are mine.  Yes, you guessed it, cookies made for a Very Hungry Caterpillar.  You can buy them here on Etsy. Yumm-o!





Now it's time for me to curl up with a book and a cat.  Happy reading (and writing).

THE LAST LINKS OF SUMMER

 By Kris Kahrs

Here is a roundup of the last links of summer. This week we have authors' homes to visit for a last summer vacation, a Labor Day Reading List, a new cover on an old favorite and outstanding vintage illustration.  Put down the hot dog and back away from the grill.  Here we go:

A Pinterest board, Literary Travel, has all of your favorite author's homes that have been converted to visitable landmarks.  Planning a world tour?  Start here.

The Management here at The Pen and Ink Blog loves nothing better than to swing in a hammock, sip their lemonade and read a good book.  On this Labor Day, reading shouldn't feel like work, so The Pen and Ink Blog offers a Labor Day Reading List via Flavorwire.

Sometimes in a publisher's desire to spark interest in an old favorite, things go awry. Case in point, this cover art for Anne of Green Gables.  Anne is that you? From Kidlit History blog.

Truly fine illustration in a children's book can significantly enhance the whole experience for a reader and create a lasting impression for a lifetime.  At BrainPickings, they've found some classic Maurice Sendak illustrations circa 1960 for the Velveteen Rabbit.  These are priceless.  Take a peek.

We hope you enjoyed this little vacation for your brain.  Now back to work!

Hot Links for July 9th 2013 - A Fork in the Road

BY KRIS KAHRS

Having just come off a four-day binge-fest also known as the Fourth of July, I couldn't help but notice how many kids books were about food.  It's no surprise that kids love food as much as grownups do.  Here are some of my favorites, memorialized in hot fudge:

1) In The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak. Published 1971.  In this Caldecott winner, Mickey is awoken by a racket in the night.  A rather surreal story with delightful Sendak illustrations.  A narrated version can be found on Youtube.

2) Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.  Published 1960.  From Android app to Audible audiobook to a Chinese language version, there are endless ways that Dr. Seuss serves up this perennial fav.

3) Strega Nonna by Tomie dePaola. Published 1975.  Although a popular misconception thinks that Strega Nonna is a classic Italian folktale, here's a link that explains how the actual character came to be.  An interesting genesis as explained by Tomie dePaola.

4) The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  Published 1969.  Eric Carle has some terrific coloring pages on his website.  One of them is of a voracious caterpillar and all of the many foods that he eats on his way to transformation.  There's also a newsletter, downloads and some games for your wee reader.

 

5) Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett.  Published 1978.  This 'tale within a tale' book has a Grandfather telling his grandkids about the town of Chewandswallow where food falls from the sky.  This book was later made into a successful film and sequel that bear little resemblance to the original but were popular nevertheless.

What are your favorite kidlit books you read with your little foodie?
Please share your comments below.

Today's Hot Links: Fictional Maps

by Kris Kahrs

     Are you ready to take a fantasy vacation?  The kind you can only get from a good book?  Good, because we here at The Pen and Ink Blog have your map.  

   

  Feel like fighting some crime with the likes of Batman, then a trip to Gotham city might be right up your alley.  

 Or get your geek on and visit the LOTR project for an interactive experience with a map of Middle Earth.  It has a timeline and statistics of Middle Earth and a continuously updating genealogy.

A trip back in time will get you to Sherlock Holmes London and his rooms at 221B Baker St.  Bigthink.com has a delightful recreation of the layout of Sherlock Holmes' rooms, but if you want to go further and travel in his footsteps, then check out mapchannels.com which uses Google maps to map out the London locations mentioned in Conan Doyle's novels.





For your trip to Oz, Hungry Tiger Press has a wonderful map of Oz wallpaper for your computer desktop.  As the website says, "this map of the marvelous land of Oz was drawn by Professor H.M. Wogglebug, T.E. back in 1914. The most curious aspect of this map is the little known fact that East and West are reversed in Oz."



We hope our links have given you some ideas for your summer vacation as well as a good tip for your manuscript. If you're having trouble with the timeline in your story, it can sometimes help to map it out. Try it. It works.

Keep on writing!

HOT & YUMMY LINKS FOR YOUR MONDAY

by Kris Kahrs

Here are some inspired links to set your Monday on the right path to a fun week.  Some of these you can experience now, some are events you can experience today or tomorrow and others are just good to know.

Mo' Mo Willems?
PW's Shelftalker has The Best Mo Willems Book You Haven't Read by Elizabeth Bluemle.

Have you ever heard of "Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator!"?  I hadn't until I had read this post by author Bluemle.  It's adorable and relatively obscure.  Dig it up and read to your favorite four-year-old.

Did You Know?
The Write Deal  Publishing the New Century - A group of professional editors and writers who are on it.  They are the 'fastest growing new generation e-book publisher and retailer'.  The Write Deal publishes e-leafs.  An 'E-leaf is the future of the ebook. E-leafs are very short, short or longer works in any genre, or serialized excerpts from completed or ongoing projects. E-leafs extend an author's reach into the book market in exciting new ways, and delight and energize readers with works that are fresh from their source.' 

Agent -
Ginger Clark

Gretchen McNeil on Ginger Clark - Agent

Over at author, Gretchen McNeil's website, Seanchai, she has a marvelous interview with her literary agent, Ginger Clark.  This informative piece will come in handy because Ginger is one of several agents who will be presenting at the SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles in August this year!  Both of these women have a lot to offer writers so read up.

Today & Tomorrow: Events

The Magic Tree House Live Reading Tour will be in Los Angeles this week on April 16th at 10:00 a.m. at Vroman's Book Store in Pasadena, then at 2:00 p.m. over to Mayfield Junior School.  The following day on April 17th, the Reading Tour will be at The Barnes & Noble Bookstore at 11:00 a.m. on the 3rd Street Promenade.  Take your fan of the Magic Tree House series to these live events.  Get all the details at the Random House website. 

Yeehaw!  That's the weekly roundup, folks.  Enjoy from The Pen and Ink Blog!

The Kidlit Writer's Alphabet

    By Kris Kahrs

     By the same people who brought you The Pirate's Alphabet, Ms. K. felt inspired to share her version of the Kidlit Writer's Alphabet.  Please feel free to join in and share your own version in the comments below.

A is for Associate Social Media Editor, the job you take while working on your manuscript nights.

B is for 'But first coffee..', the first thing your brain says in the morning as you stagger to your writing table after another late night.

 

C is for Conference, where you spend the trillions of dollars you make at your day job to flog your latest YA, geek-cum-vampire masterpiece.

D is for Desk Cat, because (say it with me now), no writer should be without one.

E is for Earnest, as in the tone of the Query Letter you write to the editor you met at the conference.

F is for the thing that you said when you received your twelfth rejection letter.

G is for Great which is the chocolate you ate after the twelfth rejection letter.


  

H is for Hungover, which is how you feel after you drank the martinis after you ate the chocolate after the twelfth rejection letter.

I is for Instant Acceptance, which is how the newly published author you went to listen to at the bookstore described how her book got picked up after she got out of her Master's program.

J is for 'just', the word you did a search and replace on and found 54 times in your manuscript.

K is for Knight, the new character you add to your YA manuscript on the advice of your online critique.

L is for the Love letter you write to the agent who calls to request the whole manuscript after reading your ten page submission.

 

 M is for the Mantra (please buy my book) you chant the whole time the agent has your manuscript.

N is for the Non-stop fun you are having doing the revisions requested by said agent.

O is for the Opera you sang when the agent offered to take you on as a client.

P is for the Publishers your agent shops your manuscript to.

Q is for yet another Quick and dirty revision you do for each of them.

R is for the Riot you started at Staples when you couldn't find the right ink cartridge for your printer.

S is for the Salmon filet you cooked for desk cat (you had the champagne) when the publisher called to say they wanted your book.

T is for the cup of Tea you had (to keep your hands from shaking) when you went in to the Publisher's offices to sign the contract.

U is for the pair of Uggs you bought that you wore to Starbucks because you are a writer in L.A. after all.

V is for Very ecstatic because your agent says your book is on The New York Times bestseller list.

 

W is for Writing the sequel because your agent has created a bidding war for your next manuscript.

 X is for the Xtra large cup of Pinkberry you buy because you figure you can afford the big bucks.





Y is for the YES you screech when your agent tells you that a producer is interested in making a movie of your book.

 

Z is for zealous, which is how you feel about you and desk cat religiously getting your couples' massage on Tuesdays.



     Best of luck to all of us in 2013!