There's Always a Chess Game Playing Out in the Basement

 Something New I Learned and Can’t Wait to Share…

Well, I’m not sure if it’s brand new.  It’s always brewed below the surface.  However, what I have come to understand more and more everyday is that there’s always more than meets the eye.  Whether it’s workplace politics, the publishing industry, the entertainment industry, education politics, domestic politics, geo politics, etc., there’s always more than meets the eye.

Sometimes I wonder why I can’t connect with coworkers. Sometimes I wonder why a manuscript won’t gain traction even when the notes I receive are positive (from multiple editors or my agent.) Sometimes I wonder how and why a movie gets made or a concert is performed that seems under par. Sometimes I wonder why the school board and/or the superintendent makes policy that seems counter to common sense and works against the best interests of children. Sometimes I wonder how anyone can observe this current presidential election without some hesitation and/or acknowledgement of the absurdity playing out right before our very eyes. And in regards to geo politics, I indulge myself in an analogy that there is always a chess game playing out by the powerbrokers (both corporate and their elected government representatives) in the basement while the rest of us are busy running around playing Chutes and Ladders with zeal as if our very lives depend on the outcome of that boardgame. There’s always more than meets the eye.

Image Credit www.pngmart.com/image/19220

Chutes and Ladders

Children know this.  It is perhaps why I choose to spend my day with 4 and 5-year-olds. They intuitively understand that there is a bigger picture and they wonder about it.

Years of experiences have brought me to these conclusions:  Experiences as an activist in electoral politics, direct action, grassroots organizing, policy work, campaign work, lobbying, and international travel as a delegate.  Slowly, pieces have revealed themselves. A peek into a world that operates beyond most of our day-to-day existence. I’m not advocating for conspiracy theories.  I am supporting healthy skepticism. Question and hear multiple sources. Be curious.  

I’m at an age that I remember what life and access to information was like before social media and 24-hour streaming news stations. I can remember a time before the information age took hold and dictated how we interact with information, giving the illusion that we have access to all information whenever we ask for it. I began my journey in journalism when the news had a few broadcasts a day. CNN was in its infancy. (Then, I made a left-hand turn into education and writing/entertainment.) 

Before we had 24-hour access to “news” and everyone potentially was the truth keeper of information, we knew that we never had the full story.  And, that facilitated wondering. The illusion of unlimited access has made us blind believers.  We believe that we have the ability to know everything whenever we want.  We think it is a mere click away on the tiny computers that we hold in the palm of our hand.  I am certainly guilty of sharing posts without checking all the facts, pretending to be a reliable news source.  A confession that I must admit is embarrassing for a former journalism student who believed that I was going to join the 4th arm of democracy. I believed that the newscasts/newspapers that I wrote, was news that would give viewers/readers the information they would need to make informed decisions about their everyday lives. It was never the whole picture but I think we knew it wasn’t. And now, the genie is out of the bottle.  Artificial Intelligence is coming in fast and hard, taking us potentially deeper down the rabbit hole.  Will we ever return to wondering?  Will we ever return to knowing that we don’t have the full, expansive, and everchanging picture? Will we ever think about that chess game in the basement while we play Chutes and Ladders upstairs? There’s always more than meets the eye.  Never stop wondering.

By Zeena M. Pliska

Congratulations on 15 Years!!! Here's to 15 More!!!

Congratulations to Danielle H.  You are the winner of the blogiversary giveaway!

The best thing about this 15th blogiversary is getting to know my fellow bloggers. I am the new kid on the block, so I actually don’t know everybody’s stories.  Because stories bring us closer together and build relationships, this has been the perfect opportunity to peer into the lives of the 5 other authors/teachers and feel genuinely a little closer to them.  Seems so strange in this digital world in which we live, I have blogged with Carmela, Bobbi, Esther, Mary Ann, and April for over 3 years and barely know them except for April. 

I was invited to temporarily blog as a substitute by April.  I was honored that such a renowned children’s book author would even consider including me.  April has quite an amazing reputation amongst up-and-coming picture book authors who have taken her UCLA extension classes.  She is a legend. I am humbly grateful. 

Carmela, I did not know that you got your MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College and I didn’t know that your published middle grade novel was your creative thesis.

Esther, I didn’t know that you wrote S is For Story.  So sorry it’s out of print.  It sounds wonderful!

Mary Ann, I didn’t know that you have a 30-year-old daughter who teachers pre-k in a public school.

I am looking forward to the other stories to be revealed through the blog posts that follow mine.

As for me, 15 years ago…

In 2009, I was almost 8 years into my adventure as a single parent by choice.  

Prior to my decision to have a child, I had told stories as a filmmaker (ish), journalist, theater director, visual artist, and photographer.  I was a world traveler and a social justice activist. My story making days were put on pause as I concentrated on making my own life stories with my young daughter. My craft as a teacher got stronger as I found myself interested and immersed as a parent in my own daughter’s education.  I was happy to let go of the other directions that my life had taken, to concentrate on this new phase.  

However, I did hold on to one aspect of my activism, electoral politics. Gone for the moment were the days of making change through direct action, legal observing, and organizing.  My good friend was elected to the school board (of the second largest school district in the nation) and I found myself in a close relationship with the policymaking of my district.  Education justice became my focus.

I am happy that my life veered off in these new directions.  They have added to my understanding of the world and have strengthened the storytelling I would eventually return to as a children’s book author. Although I had dabbled in picture book writing in my early adulthood, I entered the kidlit world with commitment when my daughter became less dependent on me. I began writing when she was 13.  Signed with my agent when she was 17.  Published my first picture book when she was nearly 19.

As for my two loves: Education and Publishing, 15 years ago…

We started to see the negative effects of the policies of No Child Left Behind, enacted 9 years prior.  High stakes testing began to permeate the elementary school experience, shifting the focus of teaching. In 2010 the Common Core Standards were adopted in California. As I wrote about in my last post, the Common Core Standards have moved the expectation of young readers away from fiction and toward non-fiction. Imagination is less valued as a result of these standards. I feel that the shifts in education have moved the publishing industry, as well.  I read far fewer current picture books with fictional stories to my kindergarteners because books without complex, narrative stories seem to be the norm.  I see many Social Emotional Learning themed books that encourage readers to “be themselves,” “be strong,” “be brave.”  There are plenty of non-fiction picture books. I can’t say that I don’t long for the stories of the 90’s. Don’t get me wrong, I love the books that I see my fellow authors write.  I also find myself writing books that fit in this current market. I do hope that the pendulum swings a bit to include strong fictional picture books with narrative stories. 

I also have observed and am reading articles that are noting that children are reading less for enjoyment.  As a teacher, I am noticing this trend as well and believe that there is not one factor but maybe many.  Of course, I believe that social media and electronics in the hands of young children must have some effect.  How can it not?  At the same time, the focus on “the science of reading” has created a culture of reading for utility not joy.  Add to these ingredients, the over-testing of very young children which leads to the false assumptions that 4 and 5-year-olds should be reading or they are failing.  Also add an over scheduled world and we just might have the perfect storm. We’ve created an environment that doesn’t value the joy of reading. We don’t value imagination.

In the last 15 years, the corporate narrative that public schools are failing has become stronger.  Blaming teachers and public education for gaps between the “haves” and the “have nots.” Book banning has proliferated.  And AI is creeping into the education of our very young  (I am currently in development on a short narrative film exploring this topic.)

But all is not lost nor shall it ever be as long as we continue to use our voices and teach others to use theirs as well.  This is why I am a teaching-author.

Finally, the theme of coming full circle came up in the other blog posts.  For me, I also find myself full circle.  Having begun my storytelling journey wanting to tell stories utilizing the medium of film, I have returned to my post-college roots to explore short filmmaking while I continue to write more children’s books and teach more children.

What will the next 15 years bring?

By Zeena M. Pliska

Check out my developing film project

Check out my developing film project

A New Year...An Upcoming Book - Anatomy of a Book's Journey

Moving Forward in the New Year!  

Here we go…2023 is here and I am on a speeding train toward the book launch of my first book that sold in July of 2018.  It’s been a long time coming and certainly not without its own story, replete with the twist and turn of not ending up being my debut book.  So where did it all begin?  Well, with my very own teaching author of course!  Here’s the anatomy of a picture book sale for an author who wondered if it really could be done. 

Chance meetings and serendipity have always been my friends. As a public school teacher in Los Angeles, Otis College of Art and Design allows teachers to take one free extension class a semester. In 2017, I attended an open house ready to sign up for a painting class.  It had been a long time since I had explored my ideas on canvas.  It was a life I had wandered away from once I had a child in 2001. I was ready to add a little pizzaz to my life, to reclaim that part of me that had slumbered through my child’s childhood. I meandered through the tables exhibiting the offerings, awake and alive to the endless possibilities of reentering a formal learning environment.  And then I happened upon Deborah Nourse Lattimore and my life took a new turn.  

I had been exploring writing for children and I had been putting the work in to learn the craft. It was work.  Enjoyable work…but work, nonetheless. I had no intention on that day to add to my workload. I was looking for delight. But, Deborah was pure delight and I found myself signing up for her class instead of the painting class I had intended.  I was about to find myself at a new level of a career that I had been dabbling with, wanting to be serious but unable to find the next level.

Deborah Nourse Lattimore is the author-illustrator of almost 40 children’s books and has taught writing for years. Her gift as a teacher is to recognize each students level and extend their reach in a non-judgmental, nurturing, and loving way.  Deborah creates the conditions for good writing to occur without the student knowing that it’s happening. The growth is organic and authentic and not performative, process over product. I thrived. 

After studying with her for months, I took a risk and randomly asked her if she ever recommended her students to an agent whom she was friends with. She said, “Sometimes.” I ventured further, “Would you consider recommending me?”  I braced for the very real possibility of a no.  But there it was.  My first yes.  

That December I travelled to Egypt to visit my father and extended family.  Egyptian Lullaby tumbled out of me as a full-blown manuscript. I could hardly keep up. It was my love letter to Cairo. 

Abigail Samoun of Red Fox Literary was still looking at some of my weaker manuscripts when Deborah encouraged me to send her Egyptian Lullaby. Abigail’s response was positive, and my timing was on point. Abi was traveling to New York that week to meet  with editors.  She asked if she could take my manuscript with her. It was a resounding yes from me which resulted in 5 interested editors from leading publishing houses. I naively expected an immediate sale.  

          

Some clean up and revisions were necessary.  Time passed…editors passed on it…and the manuscript stalled. Knowing that rejection is a part of an author’s lifestyle and accepting that every turn is an adventure kept me out of the trough of despair and imposter syndrome. But time kept passing and nothing was happening. Then we got a bite, but a full rewrite was required. I’m always up for the challenge and adventure so I jumped in and responded to the editor’s direction.  The manuscript was significantly different, but I liked the changes and was willing to let go of the original story. 

We were ready to cross the finish line when Emily Feinberg contacted us. Egyptian Lullaby seemed like it belonged at Roaring Brook Press. A different manuscript that I had in my collection of manuscripts seemed like it was better suited for the original editor whom I had worked with.  So, I ended up with two sales. 

(If the video won't play click here)

As it turned out, my instincts were right.  The version of Egyptian Lullaby that ended up as a picture book was the original version, illustrated by the extremely talented Hatem Aly.  

Ironically, Hello, Little One: A Monarch Butterfly Story became my beautiful debut picture book

stunningly illustrated by Fiona Halliday. It unfortunately came out on May 12, 2020, just as the pandemic lockdown kicked into full swing, almost three years before Egyptian Lullaby which is due out on April 18th of this year. 

It is a delight to revisit the journey of my first book and honor the people responsible for it. 

This blog post is dedicated to Deborah Nourse Lattimore, my unrelenting mentor who makes me feel like I can write anything, Abigail Samoun, my amazing agent who believes in me, guides me, supports my decisions, gives me the belief that there are unlimited possibilities always possible and helps me bear all the rejections that go with this path, and Emily Feinberg, who took my original manuscript and made it into something I could never have imagined it would be.  

My love for the three of you is immeasurable and my respect is boundless. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

By Zeena M. Pliska

The Other Side of the Rainbow--Patience, etc in the Publishing World

In our recent series about the three P's--Patience, Persistence and Perseverance--my fellow TA's have talked about them in the writing process. I'm going to a different area of the writer's world--publication--where the Three P's are every bit as essential to survival.

 By nature, I am not patient, persistent or persevering. However, I told myself that if I just kept practicing those virtues, I would some day be a published author. It took twenty years of consistent effort (and an MFA from Vermont College) but I finally sold my first book. Yay! 

May 2000, talking to my editor

Now I had an editor and a publisher. Smooth sailing from here on out, right? Wrong!

When I sold my first book in 2000, I had certain romantic notions of publishing, mainly about editors.  I had read the biography of Max Perkins, the legendary editor of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Wolfe and every other major American writer of the 1920's-40's. In general,I thought editors were Herculean beings like Mr. Perkins. Perkins was not just an editor, he was a "writer wrangler." He carved books from the massive manuscripts Wolfe presented him. He served as a surrogate father to Hemingway, whose gigantic ego masked deep insecurity. He never lost faith in Fitzgerald, no matter how chaotic that writer's life became. Unsurprisingly, I decided that editors were equal parts loving parents and literary magicians.

My editors have all been lovely, creative, intelligent people, who managed to find in my manuscripts insights I never suspected. But gone are the days of signing on with an editor for life (or at least until one of you becomes disenchanted.) With one exception, not one of my acquiring editors was around for the actual publication of the book. Some of my books have had as many as four editors shepherding it through the various stages of publication.

How did this happen? I might've taken it personally, but I realized that editor is a young person's job. There are still a few old school editors who spend their careers with one company they, but VERY few. A "newbie" editor (like mine) work punishing hours, and if they aren't asleep, they are reading. They job hop, from publisher to publisher. Some of them flame out and go into another line of work. One went to rehab. Some become agents. And some of them do things that don't allow for reading twenty hours a day. Like get married, have kids. Things like that.

Why am I going on about editors? Because the constant turnover in editors requires great amounts of the 3 "P's". Patience when your book is "orphaned" by the acquiring editor, and you wait to hear from the new editor, who has been "assigned" your book. Persistence in asking for updates on publication, as your book is pushed back from one year to the next. Perseverance as you ask...and ask...and ask again if an illustrator has been found for your picture book. And patience again as you learn where your book has landed on the illustrator's calendar. 

For example, I was beyond thrilled when the fabulous illustrator E.B. Lewis agreed to do my first picture book. SO thrilled...that I never thought to ask WHEN it would be published. My editor left for another house right after the final copy edits, so I not only didn't know when...I didn't know WHO to ask. A year later, I learned through a conversation with an agent, that Mr. Lewis had projects lined up for years...and that it would be at least five years before my book rose to the top of this schedule. Actually, it was four years... and well worth the wait!

Currently, I am dealing with THE longest wait of my writing life. I banged out a book in 2010. Sold it within 3 weeks. A new record for me! Yay! Did the edits, go paid my partial royalty (the rest to come at publication) all within six months. "I'm getting the hang of this writing thing," I thought. 

And then...nothing. 2011. I write my editor and learn she has gotten married and quit the biz. 2012. 2013. I am reassigned to an editor. 2014. New editor says they have a hot prospect for an illustrator. 2015. Illustrator thinks about the book...and decides it's not for her. 2016. I ask the publisher if they still plan to publish my book. The same in 2017, 2018 and 2019. At the end of 2019, I am on the verge of mailing back my royalty and asking to reclaim the manuscript...when...my interim editor writes me that I've been assigned to a NEW editor. Literally....one right out of school who turns out to be younger than my daughter. We get together and talk. All goes well. New editor has some good new ideas. I incorporate them into the manuscript. New Editor has a hot prospect for an illustrator. (Hmm...where have I heard that before?) I turn in the final edits, March 6, 2020. It was a Friday.  The following Friday, the President announced a national emergency due to COVID-19. We all know what happened after that.

A year passes. In February, I hear from my editor again. Like everyone else, editor has been working from home. Good news...the illustrator is starting work on my book. Um...OK. I thought she had ALREADY started. So that means....yep...the publication date, which was supposed to be Fall 2021, is now Fall 2022. In other words, everything that could possibly happen to this book...has happened. I'm just happy that in the past 10 years this manuscript has stayed alive through multiple editors, illustrators...and national emergency. 

Even Max Perkins could not have done more  in a time of  pandemic.

Have a great summer everybody! Go out and chew some clover!

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

The #1 Best Thing About Teaching

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Howdy Campers and Happy Poetry Friday! (links to PF, to my poem, and to my autographed Passover book are below)

Shhh!  Come sneak into the TeachingAuthors' Teacher's Lounge and eavesdrop as we consider what we like most about being teachers.

Carmela started us out with Two Things I Love About Teaching Writing, Esther continues our theme with the many ways she connects with her students and the resources she connects her students to, and today I'm up to bat.
..............................

First, may I say that this is a somber (and an important) time to think about teachers. And students. And about how much we as a people value them. I had originally planned to post a funny poem about revision and how scary it can be, but the images were inappropriate at this time in our country.

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Okay. Here's what I like about teaching:.

I like to perform.

But I particularly like when I am most authentic, when I forget myself, when my light reaches theirs.

drawing © 2018 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

JUST FOR ME
by April Halprin Wayland

At the end of class she says,

"Write something you want,

something about yourself you want to change,

or something you worry about."


Heads down, pens flying, we write.

I use my purple ink pen.

Then we all look up at her,

expectantly.


"Now," she says,

standing by the windows in shiny black heels,

"rip it into a thousand pieces and throw it away."

Someone gasps.


"Don't share

what you wrote

with anyone."

Our eyes widen.


"That's right: this idea is yours.

To think about. To live.

Not to post on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat.

Not to tell a soul."


We ceremonially

rip 

our revelations

to bits.


We file

out of class

in silence;

in shock.


I can't tell you what I wrote. I won't.

But I can say that it's

written in purple ink


inside me.
poem © 2018 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

Here's what I wrote to fellow TeachingAuthor Esther Hershenhorn one night:

Just home from teaching. I was really dreading tonight's class... Revision is a hard topic to get through--how much work it takes to revise and rewrite. But it turned out to be a gloriously wonderful class... So I guess I'm a teacher after all.
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It may have been the best class I've taught in years.  Funny how that happens.

And that's what I like about teaching: the intangible, gloriously wonderful, unpredictableness of it all.

Thank you for hosting PF today, Liz at http://elizabethsteinglass.com/blog/

And one more thing...Passover is March 30-April 7th this year, so...

...if you're looking for AUTOGRAPHED copies of my picture book, More Than Enough ~ A Passover Story (Reviewed in the New York Times!) call the fabulous folks at my local independent bookstore, {pages} a bookstore, 310-318-0900 to pre-pay (+tax & shipping) and specify who it’s for. Gift wrapping available on request.

Or buy at it your local independent book store!

(If there are no indies near you, that’s another story. Then by all means buy it here.)

posted with hope for teachers and students everywhere by April Halprin Wayland with help from Dropsy, a particularly contemplative goldfish in our pond.

The Great Agent Hunt: Eight Lessons Learned.

     I am fortunate.  In the past fifteen years, I've sold and published a dozen books, more or less. (Let's not talk about the one I sold five years ago and has yet to be published.) When I say I sold them, I mean exactly that. I do not have an agent.

     I would love to have an agent to take over the time consuming details of submission and contracts. A writer without an agent doesn't have a snowball's chance in July of getting any meaningful changes to a contract.

    In my search for the Right Agent, I've submitted and schmoozed and networked for ten years...and I still don't have an agent.

     Why not?

    It's a combination of personal taste (the agent's) and your potential to make the agent buckets of bucks. I've been told I'm too "literary" as opposed to a book that could become a cartoon series, complete with action figures.  I write historical fiction, which is a "hard sell." (At least the agents I queried felt that way.) Many agents do not like representing picture book authors who are not also illustrators. Guess who writes picture books but is not an illustrator?

    Let me tell you about my Quest for the Perfect Agent, and the lessons I learned.

    Lesson One:  It's harder to publish without an agent than it was in 2000.

    When I sold My Best Friend in 2001, there were still a number of major publishers who would read slush pile (unagented) submissions. This number has dwindled considerably over the years. I publish with three different houses; only one of them still takes unsolicited manuscripts.

     My Best Friend won two major picture book text awards. I've lost count of the number of reading lists and college courses that use this book.  Not too shabby for a book published eleven years ago. Today, it might never be read by an editor at all, without an agent pitching it.

At the Zolotow Awards for My Best Friend. I'm standing between Gretchen Will Mayo, and TA JoAnn Early Macken.

       Lesson Two:  Having a publishing track record does not guarantee you an agent.

      I sold my second book, Yankee Girl to another publisher after it was turned down by the company who bought My Best Friend.  Yankee Girl received a lot of attention for a first novel.  Publisher's Weekly made me one of their "Flying Start" authors. There were some starred reviews, as well as some not so stellar ones. In fact several library systems and schools banned the book.  It was long-listed as an ALA Notable Book, was an Outstanding Social Studies book, and nominated for a dozen state book awards.  The first printing sold out in six weeks, which is a rarity.

     With all this attention, I some how thought that an agent would arrive on my doorstep with balloons, roses and one of those giant cardboard checks, and a contract. Obviously I had seen too many Publisher's Clearing House ads.

      Lesson Three:  Literary agents don't recruit. You have to go looking for them.

      Once I stopped imagining hordes of agents clamoring for my attention, I began The Great Agent Hunt.  I queried, I pitched, I struck out.

      Lesson Four:  Agents' slush piles are not the same as an editor's slush pile.

      Sometimes, if you're lucky, an editor might say, "This book isn't right for us, but I like your style. Feel free to send me anything else you write.

      There are no second chances with agents. Send your most polished pitch/manuscript because once an agent has rejected you, you can't pitch to them again. They have already formed their opinion as to whether you are "their kind of author."

      After a solid year of trying, I had a long list of agents who had decided I was not their kind of author.

      Lesson Five: Agents rarely sign clients from the slush pile.

      After re-reading Guide to Literary Agents, I learned the vast majority of agents will only read pitches/queries/manuscripts "recommended by a current client of the agent."  I had lots of friends with agents, who all generously recommended me to their agencies.

     I submitted my next novel to Joe Agent the hip-hop-happening Rock Star of children's agents, recommended by multiple friends who were clients.

He read the first three chapters, then called me.

     "This is great!" he enthused so loudly I had to hold the phone away from my ear.  "Send me the rest, tout suite!"

    I dropped the phone and dashed down to Fed Ex with the remaining 250 pages. Overnighting the manuscript to New York cost me forty dollars. But who cared? I was going to be in Joe Rock Star's world.

   A week later, Joe RS called me back. I trembled as I answered the phone.

  "I gotta tell you, I was really disappointed with the rest of the book," he said.

     I stopped trembling.  At the end of an hour, I learned I'm too literary, nobody likes historical fiction and he didn't care that my first two books were successful. So much for the Rock Star.

     I was afraid to the submit to the next friend-recommended agent. If Joe had been The Rock Star, Josephine Agent was a Multimedia Superstar/Agent. She represented adult best sellers, and Newbery winners.  Her books were optioned for movies. I sent my pitch.

    Another phone call. In a five minute monologue, this woman rattled off her credentials.  Another request for the book "And I mean I want it on my desk tomorrow."

   Another Forty bucks to Fed Ex.  Then I waited.  And waited. I tried to contact her. Email, snail mail.  I even tried calling her. Whoever answered her phone had never heard of me, or my book, and no, Josephine was too busy to talk to this person who said she sent a book.  I never heard word one from Josephine, her agency or any of their minions.

    Lesson Five:  All agents are not created equal.

    Anyone can say they are an agent. I had a friend who found an agent in an LA bar. The "agent" was really an unemployed actor with no publishing experience at all. Fairy tales can come true. My friend's book became a best-seller and was optioned for a movie (that was never made.)  If this guy had not been my husband's life-long friend, I would not have believed any of it.  Until I saw the book on the New York Times bestsellers. I would say the whole thing never happened.

    Another friend mentioned her agent. After so much querying, I knew who was who at the agencies.  Her agent was unfamiliar to me.  My friend couldn't tell me what writers she represented or how many books she had sold.

    I looked up Unfamiliar Agent on the website Predators & Editors which used to call out the fakes, frauds and phonies in the publishing world. (Alas, this site is no longer operational, for lack of some to maintain the site. Please, someone, volunteer!) Sure enough, my friend's "agent" was on the Predator's list.  It gave her address as someplace like Pocatello, Idaho. Anyone with a cell phone can work anywhere, but most successful agents live near a major publishing center--NYC, LA, Boston.

    The coup de grace came when my friend told me she had been with this "agent" for five years, with nary a sale to show for it. Or even rejection letters. Just the "word" of this person that books had been submitted and rejected.

    Um...thanks but no thanks.

     Lesson Six:  Don't "marry" the first agent who asks you.

     You wouldn't marry the first person who asks you on a date. OK, maybe you did, but you didn't do it after the first date, right? And you asked questions, lots of questions before you said yes? You did, didn't you?

     An agent is your literary spouse. You're making a commitment "till death do you part." Or you decide, for whatever reason, this relationship just isn't working out. However, just like marriage, dissolving the partnership does not erase the past. Your ex-agent will continue to collect 15% of the royalties for the books he represented. The thrill is gone, but agent's payments are forever.

     Lesson Seven:  Agents work for you, not the other way around.

     Some of my friends go through agents like Kleenex. These authors didn't ask the right questions beforehand. Your agent should be compatible with your work style and expectations.  Here are some questions to consider.

     Will the agent represent a book he doesn't personally like?  The answer is usually no; it's hard to sell something you aren't totally sold on yourself. At this point, your agent has become another layer of possible rejection before an editor even sees the book.

     Does the agent help with revisions, or do they simply send out the book as received?

     How many clients do they handle and who are they? (There is no such thing as "literary confidentiality.) What books have they sold recently?

    How many times will your book be submitted, before the agent decides it's unsellable?
Some authors are unpleasantly surprised when their agent submits to three "big box publishers" and considers the job done. Why? Because smaller publishers offer smaller advances, which means a smaller 15% for the agent. It's not worth their time.

    Do you like and trust this person?  It's tough being "married" to someone you don't even like. And you would sure want to trust someone who is handling your money.

    Lesson Eight:  Don't give up hope.

    If you really, really want an agent (and I do) don't give up the hunt. I did, temporarily, but I'm ready to get back in the game. My WIP will be finished sometime next year.  There just has to an agent somewhere who loves historical fiction, and wouldn't mind representing picture book texts, no illustrations. As the Michael Buble song goes, "I just haven't met you yet."

And when I do, you will be the first to know.

Don't forget to sign up for our our current book giveaway for a copy of the latest CWIM.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

That Perennial Agent Question PLUS Book Giveaway!

That perennial Agent Question.

We’ve all been asked it, in some variation, while speaking at the podium or on a panel, and heard it asked while seated in an audience.

(Indeed, I’ve posed it myself in the middle of the night, in the throes of self-doubt.)

“Do I need an agent in order to publish?”

The variations are sure bets, too, in the following order.

“So how do I GET an agent?” - and - “Can you share YOUR agent’s name and contact info?”

Like JoAnn, whose CWIM 2017 article “Be Your Own Literary Agent” sparked this blog conversation and Book Giveaway, I too am un-agented.  I submit my work, when appropriate, to editors with whom I’ve worked and/or connected via previous submissions, conference contacts and networking. My literary attorney oversees my contracts and is also available to negotiate on my behalf.

After a very long residency in the Children’s Book World that began with Jimmy Carter’s election (!), I now wonder if instead of asking that one Agent Question, writers might be better served by asking these six.

(1) WHEN is a writer ready to consider and/or query an agent for representation?

The esteemed Dorothy Markinko of McIntosh and Otis said it best. I’d won a conference competition at which she was presenting and she offered me representation! “Why now and not before?” I asked, reminding her I’d unsuccessfully queried years earlier.  She smiled wide.  “You weren’t soup yet."

If an agent is to sell your work, it must be ready.  Think: a good story, finely-crafted, appropriate for its format, its audience, the marketplace, able to distinguish itself from the competition and/or fill a niche. 

It’s foolhardy to send off work not quite ready for Prime Time, or work that doesn’t showcase our talent, our professionalism, our uniqueness and heart.

(2) WHAT is agency representation and (3) WHY might it matter?

As Carla shared and April poetically underscored, agency representation is NOT a ticket to fame and fortune.

Agent-interested writers can certainly check out the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Inc. and their Canon of Ethics.

However, not all agents are AAR members.

I like former Curtis Brown Ltd. agent and author Nathan Bransford’s agent job description, from determining likely editors and houses, pre-submission editing, negotiating contracts and subrights and tracking the publishing process  to career-shaping and ultimate advocacy.

Given today’s fast-changing publishing world, it’s advantageous to have an invested partner watching out for you, over you, eyeing your back.

Here’s another way to answer the above questions, especially once you’re offered representation: check out these suggestions from AgentQuery. 

(4)WHO might best serve my manuscripts, my career and me?

Lists of likely literary agents abound.

There’s SCBWI’s The Book, CWIM 2017 (Writer’s Digest), Chuck Sambuchino’s GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS 2017 (Writer’s Digest), Chuck’s agent blog, AgentQuery and Manuscript Wish List, as well as Cynthia Leitich Smith’s CYNSATIONS blog and Darcy Pattison’s just released list of Top Agents in 2016.

It goes without saying, writers must delve deeply into each agent’s agency, interests, authors, represented books, sales record and online interviews to determine a comfortable fit.  Google is your friend. Do your homework.  

Here’s another friend: Publishers Weekly’s Rights Report that appears each Tuesday and Thursday, for free, as a part of the Children’s Bookshelf.  This is the listing from this past Thursday.

Tracey Keevan at Disney-Hyperion has acquired, in a four-house auction, Captain Superlative, J.S. Puller's debut middle grade novel. In this mystery, a quiet outsider becomes obsessed with the eccentric and enigmatic Captain Superlative, a masked superhero who runs through the halls of their middle school, performing radical acts of kindness. Publication is scheduled for fall 2018, Brianne Johnson at Writers House did the six-figure, two-book deal for world rights.

Which agents are selling books like yours – especially in format and genre?  Or, which editors/publishers are buying books like yours?  Note, color-code and record the editor/publisher, the one-sentence book description (your pitch) and the agent listed in each report.

 (5) HOW do I best connect with an agent?

Even more plentiful than lists of literary agents are instructions for how to query an agent and/or editor.

Check out Chuck Sambuchino’s blog. 

Knowing your one-sentence pitch is essential.

Here’s a link to Nathan Bransford's post on how to pitch.

Remember, though: successful querying and/or pitching often leads to a full manuscript request.  Make sure your query/pitch makes a promise your manuscript delivers. J

(6) WHERE are the best opportunities for connecting with agents?

Authors interviewed in JoAnn’s CWIM 2017 article share Conference success stories. Check out SCBWI – local, regional, national, international, Big Sur and The Rutgers One-on-One Children’s Literature Conference, to name a few.

But what about online?

CWIM 2017 also shares Lisa Katzenberger’s article “Pitch Agents Through Twitter.”

BrendaDrake offers Pitch War opportunities.

Don’t forget Manuscript Wish List.  

Chuck Sambuchino also offers Dear Lucky Agent Contests. Tomorrow is the deadline for thriller and horror mss.!

So, think about the WHEN, WHAT, WHY, WHO, HOW and WHERE of seeking an agent.

Take plenty of B vitamins.  (The response time can prove stressful.)

And keep the Faith!

In the PW Rights Report above, I know for a fact the debut author, a former student, queried 106 agents before successfully gaining representation by the 107^th.  And that agent was mentored by the first agent she’d ever queried; the two share an agency.

Faith – in yourself, your story, your writing, is essential.

Faith, as in my 2016 Chicago Cubs who Saturday night won the National League Pennant after a 71-year wait!

If both you and your manuscript are ready for prime time, I believe you can make today your someday.

Good Luck, no matter which submission a(venue) you choose!

Esther Hershenhorn

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Now, speaking of Winners, let’s make today the someday you enter our Book Giveaway to win a copy of the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Market 2017.