Monster List of Picture Book Agents - Erzsi Deàk, Hen & Ink

Hen & Ink is a new agency, and President and Founder Ezrsi Deàk represents picture books. She is building her client list so this is a great opportunity.

Ms. Deàk is looking for sparely written picture books that will be read over and over again. She is open to single page queries. You can find Hen & Ink's submission guidelines at the Hen & Ink website

You can learn more at Erzsi Deàk's website

You can also find Ms. Deàk On Twitter

There's an in depth interview with Erzsi Deàk, the writer, at Cynsations where she talks about her participation in SCBWI and her writing (including picture books).

She lists Pitschi by Hans Fischer as a favorite picture book.







This post is part of the Monster List of Picture Book Agents. If you have any changes that you think should be made to this listing, please contact me or leave them in the comments. Thanks!


UPDATE 5/9/2011: Cynsations has a fabulous interview with Erzsi.

Cynthia also links to A Chat with a Cool Chick - Erzsi Deak, founder of Hen and Ink at Melissa Buron's blog.

Monster List of Picture Book Agents

I've done the research and let me tell ya, as a writer of picture books it can take a lot of time to figure out who represents picture book authors and who doesn't. I've been thinking about it a lot. I have a list and I don't think it would hurt to share it, so I've decided to create a Monster List of Picture Book Agents! I'll do a post for each agents and link it to the Monster List of Picture Book Agents page. This month I'm going to work on the list and add more agents when I can, but my main posts will be on the 20th of each month. The first two posts are going up today!

Here come the big,mean dust bunny! by Jan Thomas

I never would have guessed that one of my favorite bedtime reads would be about dust bunnies. They're cute, they're funny, and they rhyme all the time--except for Bob, he has a little trouble with that. The four sweet little dust bunnies put up with the big, mean dust bunny's bullying until they finally find a way to win him over.

The sparsely worded story packs in plenty of kid-friendly humor, but what makes this book extra special is the illustrations. Jan Thomas' use of the page along with the bold colors makes you feel like you're right there with the characters(especially when you're cuddled with your little one holding the book up close). The varied sizes of the text made my little guy excited about the different words and got him actually wanting to try to read them. No small feat for a kid that has an aversion to anything he suspects to be learning.

If you're looking for a fun bedtime or storytime read for the very young this is a book you should check out.

Here comes the big, mean dust bunny! is written and illustrated by Jan Thomas.

Ski Trip

Since it's winter I've been doing alot of cross country skiing around the mountain and I thought I'd give you a little ski tour:

So, I ski off from the house. You can just make out the roof there by the top left corner. My dog likes to come with me.

Then I come to the crossing. You may notice that there aren't any plowed roads here. (My car is actually parked a mile from my house.) This is where the snowmobiles, horses, skiiers, and walkers cross.



I like to ski over to the pond. It's under that snow somewhere.

 

I usually hit the valley from the top of the hill past the pond. It's a good ski down.

I like to ski through the trees. There's a slight slope and it's pretty.

When I come home it's a nice view from the kitchen window while I drink hot cocoa and write.

CBAY Books

Here's a quick heads-up for my picture book writing friends. CBAY Books is accepting picture book submissions through January 31st. They're looking for fantasy and science fiction. You can read their guidelines HERE. They haven't published any picture books as of yet, but in this soft picture book market it's great to see a new publisher branching out. Good luck if you submit!

Auction for Queensland

I'll admit it. I don't really pay attention to the news because it always seems to be too sad and depressing. I'm almost always surprised to hear when something terrible is happening. I can't help but wish I could do something about it. Usually I just end up worrying about the people and the animals and wishing there was something I could do to help them when there really isn't anything I can do.

When my #pblitchat and Twitter friend Katrina Germein emailed me talking about the floods that were devastating her home state of Queensland, Australia I was shocked. There was even an inland tsunami. I didn't even know there could be such a thing.

Katrina was asking for donations for a writer's auction for Queensland. It's a little thing I can actually do to help, so of course, I did. I donated a picture book manuscript and query critique that is up for bid. You can see it here to bid on it or link up and spread the word.

There are so many great items offered at the auction including mentorships and one on one workshops. Many can be done in person if you feel like taking a trip to Australia. (Wouldn't that be amazing?) Many are also offered over the phone, for those of us who can't make the trip to the cafe to meet. Check out Authors for Queensland and you'll see all the great offerings that are up for bid.

So it's a new year, eh?

Wowie, I made it through the year of the release of my first picture book. It sure takes a lot of time and energy to release one little picture book, and I'm no marketing maniac either. But here's the thing that everyone seems to ask me, "When is your next book coming out?"

Well, it sucks because I don't have a next book coming out--yet. I thought I did for a while. There is a companion book to BEDTIME MONSTER. My publisher was holding it, then they got bought out and the new publisher decided they weren't buying anymore books for the time being. Well bummer.

I tend to blame myself, of course. I know the picture book market is soft, but I'm not much of a subber. And even though I only sent BEDTIME MONSTER to three publishers, got two requests, and of course, one sale, I would never expect it to always be that way.

So, in October I decided I'd better put in a real effort. Really start subbing things--to publishers. Yes, I'd love to have an agent someday but an agent isn't going to publish my book and I only get so much energy to dedicate to submissions so I have to choose. I've been plugging along, getting things out, little by little. Then came the holidays and the new year. The story goes that subs go way up in the new year. To me it seems silly, but I guess I'm not much of a believer in New Year's resolutions.

Here's the deal though, I don't want my manuscripts to be seen as some resolution sub that was haphazardly sent because of some date passing by. They are certainly not. I thought about stopping subbing for a while, but I'm working. Should I stop because my manuscript might be looked upon unfavorably because of the time it was sent? I've pondered this and decided it's silly. I have to get things done when I can get them done, and maybe someday if I'm lucky I'll have an agent to help me do it. But for now I have a few stories sitting in slushpiles somewhere, some with a sent date around January 1st even, waiting in line to be read. Maybe it was the wrong decision. Perhaps I'll never know, but what I do know is that I'm never going to sell another book if I don't actually send stories out to publishers.

So, my answer to, "when is your next book coming out?" I'm working on it.