Words!

In the front of my writing notebook I have some notes I’ve gleaned from here and there. Words. Little notes reminding me of the things that need to find their way into what I write if I want to have a salable book. Of course, they aren’t all required, they just help. Here’s what I’ve got:

Spunky character

Narrative arc

Great hook

Commercial plot

Likable characters

Witty dialogue

Layers

Heart

I also have the word breakout. Can’t really plan that can you. But still, it's a good reminder of something to strive for. I feel like I need more words to add to my list!  What words do you use to remind yourself of all those elements you need to have in your manuscripts?

Monster List of Picture Book Agents -- Carly Watters, P.S. Literary

Carly Watters is an agent at P.S. Literary Agency. She is looking for "high concept picture books". You can read Carly's bio on the P.S. Literary About Us page. You can also read her about page on her blog agentcarlywatters.wordpress.com. Ms. Watters keeps a great list of her links on the bottom of her about page. Love that! Go there to find links to her interviews and articles and her list of clients.

I could only find one picture book sale, and it's on the P.S. Literary website news page. Carly posted about signing the author, Danny Appleby on her blog.

You can find Carly Watters on Twitter.

That's it. Short and sweet!

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!

Making the Decision to Illustrate your Picture Book Manuscript...or Not

I received a question regarding my Monster List of Picture Book Agents pertaining to something I say in the introduction to the list. With the permission of the sender I'm going to answer it here on my blog. Here's the question:

I am confused. I was looking at your Monster reference list of agents that consider PB manuscripts. Then you say "how I wish I could illustrate." 

"As a picture book writer I know it can be difficult to track down which agents represent picture book authors. Not author/illustrators(how I wish I could illustrate!)but authors only. I've decided to create a monster list of picture book agents with info and links to help picture book authors find an agent."

I have a picture book, 32 pages, 382 words, for which I did a few illustrations on Illustrator. My very first book. I was told to forget the illustrations. Publishers pick their illustrators. Yet, you are an author of Picture Books and you wish you could illustrate them? Can you explain? Would you submit both writing + illustrations together if you draw and color? Should I finish illustrating the book? Or should I submit it as manuscript only?

There are great picture book writers. There are great picture book illustrators. And there are great picture book author/illustrators. I can write. I’ve been at this long enough to almost not blush when I type that. When I write picture books I see the illustrations in my head. Sure, I can draw, but when I try to draw what I see it fails to come close. I’m no illustrator. My drawings would never be good enough to carry anything let alone a 32-page picture book where, besides all the other illustrative nuances, the characters have to be consistent from page to page.

Why do I wish I could illustrate? It would be nice to be able to carry a manuscript through the way I see it. No, I'm not a control freak. Collaboration is one of the great parts of being a picture book author. But I do sometimes see certain sub-plots that could be played out through illustrations. Yes, sometimes I put illustration notes into a manuscript. But only when absolutely necessary like in my book, Bedtime Monster, where the illustration of dad also being a bit of a monster is essential to the story but isn't apparent in the text. It's always best to give the illustrator the freedom to create their own wonderful vision of the manuscript.

All that being said, the reason I say I wish I could illustrate in the introduction to the Monster List is pure business. Being an author/illustrator is more attractive to agents than being solely a picture book author. Why? More potential earnings of course. It is much more lucrative to get an advance for both the writing and illustrating of a book than solely for the text. Not that there’s usually a ton of money in picture books anyway, but it’s enough to make a difference.

That’s the reason I started the Monster List. It can be sort of frustrating looking for agents as a picture book author. First, you have to track down the agents that actually represent picture books only to find at least half the time they are only interested in author/illustrators. (No, I don’t have a factual number statistic on this but it sure would be interesting to know!)

Each person that is stepping into the children's book world with visions of both writing and illustrating has the decision to make for themselves. Take a step back. Try to be subjective. Is your art of the caliber that can carry a picture book? If it is take the time to create a submission package that shows the absolute best of your writing and illustration.

If your illustrating isn't professional caliber, it's okay. Congratulations on telling yourself a hard creative truth! And remember, we all have to start somewhere. Keep working. Craft can be developed. And there's nothing to stop a person who's a strong writer or illustrator to start with one craft and develop the other as time goes by. It's all part of the process of creation.

There are debut authors. There are debut illustrators. And there are debut author/illustrators. What you decide to pursue depends on you.

An Obsession. And It's Not Writing. *gasp*

Okay, so I've been neglecting my little blog here a bit more than usual. Yes, I've been busy with Sub It Club. What a fun group it's turning out to be! But, I've also been pretty obsessed with something else. And it doesn't have anything to do with writing. *gasp!*

I know I've blogged about this before, but my family has been care-taking an Inn for the past year and a half. We do it because the school bus comes right to the end of the driveway and makes it easy to get the kids to school, unlike our mountain house where we sled, ski cross country, or snowmobile to the car, then drive the snowy road to town. Last winter we ran a cafe & gallery out of the Inn. And we had lots of parties with all of our musically inclined friends.

But, running a restaurant out of your home, especially when you have three kids, can be pretty tiring. So is having a party every couple of weeks. But hey, it was A LOT of fun. Plus, last winter there wasn't much snow. This year though, things are different.

Yes, people still stop by randomly. The house seems to attract people, and we've made a lot of friends because of it. But we're not running a restaurant or gallery or even having parties. This winter my husband and I are busy at the local ski hill. He's the head snowboard instructor and I'm a ski instructor!

I've been skiing since I was old enough to be put onto skis. Before that my mom skied with me in a backpack. It's no wonder I love zipping down the hill. I never would have guessed that I'd get to be a ski instructor though. Skiing three days a week? Heaven!

Every Thursday one of the schools brings up a group of kids and we teach them how to ski. We've had from 20 to 70! It is really fun to get kids going on skis and boards. They are always so excited. There's a lot of comedy involved too from the, "I keep falling because there are too many people in my way" to the ones who have never skied before wanting to go straight up the mountain and ski down the face.Um, no. But skiing is a great thing to learn and we try to make sure all the kids have a good time and have some skills by the time they leave. They don't all always get to go up to the top, but we try to get them there if they can do it. The kids that come for weekend classes get a series of days so I really get to ski a lot with some of them. I've gotten to ski with so many great kids this winter, it has really been super fun.

And my kids LOVE it. The ski hill is a great place for the local kids to hang out on the weekends and we've amassed quite a ski gang. Many of the regulars get their season passes by doing volunteer work on the hill either in the summer or as cadet instructors on the weekends. Pretty cool deal. They ski so much that they do fun stuff like try to tackle each other. That never would have occurred to me but it's pretty standard with the gang. And they like to play games like cops and robbers. There are plenty of good places to hide. Ah yes, there's no boring weekends here and everyone sleeps well at night.

Skiing with a big group of kids is too fun!

Since I've been skiing so much I also decided I had time to learn something new –snowboarding. Wow. I hardly ever fall skiing but I fall at least 4 times a run on a snowboard. Okay, I think I'm being generous there. Seriously, I feel like I've been in a car wreck after a day of slamming to the ground 50 times or so. But I guess I'm a glutton for punishment because it's fun. The gang certainly finds it entertaining. Nothing like watching people fall! I really want to get snowboarding down though, so there should be more entertainment to come. Hopefully I'll get to do it at least one more time before the season ends...after I recover from all the slamming I did the other day.

This is where I spend most of my time while snowboarding.

But sometimes I do this!

Critiques, Chocolate, & Chat!

I've been busy working on all things Sub It Club lately but I definitely want all of my blog readers to know about a couple of fun things we have going on.

First of all, we've scheduled our first chat for Tuesday, January 29th at 9 a.m. PST.

And secondly, we've opened up for our first query letter critique and just to sweeten the deal we're adding a chance to win some chocolate.

You can read the details about both these events on the Sub It Club blog. Sorry to be so short, but the family is starting to complain that I'm on the computer too much!

Anyway, I'd love to have you join us as we work our way towards publication!

Sub It Club is Open!

Hesitant to query and submit manuscripts? Have I got an idea for you!

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. Too long. So long that I can’t hold back any longer. You see, I wanted to make a club like Fight Club—without the fighting. But, I sort of have to break rule number one if I’m going to get anyone to join me.
(*Fight Club spoiler* I don’t have a crazed alter ego to go secretly recruit people.) Besides, we children’s book writers aren’t really the violent type. But we do have to fight to get our manuscripts out there. We fight time and fear and doubt. We fight the common idea that writing and publishing is easy. We fight the odds!

I used to be terrified to query. Now? I see it as a necessary part of the process. I see you, all my kidlit peeps out there in cyberspace, talking about how hard you work on your manuscripts. We spend so much time perfecting our craft. Going to conferences. Reading books. Networking. Dreaming of seeing our stories as a real live book. Our dreams deserve a chance! Yet I hear from so many people who are too scared to give their manuscripts a fair shot.

So what the heck is this Sub It Club? We're a support group for writers and illustrators getting their work out on submission (or thinking about it). Go check out the first post on the Sub It Club blog and our About the Club page. You can also learn about our partners in submission, Dana Carey and Lisha Cauthen. We're opening up the private chatroom and the closed Facebook group today where we can all feel safe busting out the details of submissions. We're also giving it a one-two punch with Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Hop on over to the Sub It Club website and check us out. I hope you’ll join us as we work toward publication!

20,000 Cloves, Acquisitions, Submissions, and Something New for You and Me

Welp, another year has passed. A year a week and a day to be exact. I’ve been thinking about what I accomplished in the last year. It’s never enough. But I did have more than one manuscript go to acquisitions at more than one house. Actually several. Exciting! And typical that I still haven’t sold a book. Ha! But I won’t give up. What does having manuscripts go to acquisitions make me know? That my writing is good. It’s just finding the right editor at the right house at the right time. Typically, there are a lot of people that have to agree to buy a manuscript. It’s a tall order. Everything will line up one of these days, and I will have fun trying. Just to have an editor who has worked on some majorly popular books gush over my writing is enough to keep me going for a while.

But, as my husband likes to remind me, there is more to life than writing. So this year I also started helping artists with their social media, got approved to be a substitute teacher, planted 20,000 cloves of garlic, and started building a website for the garlic business. Oh! And the family acquired a cabin on a pond that we are remodeling into a very cool retreat aka guest house. And, contrary to my stay behind the scenes personality, I have agreed to be in a musical review. That is a big deal. I do not take getting up in front of people and singing lightly. This past year I have also worked my way into having a full blown teenager at my house. Life is definitely full.

Back to writing though. (I can’t help myself!) I wrote a lot this year. Dozens of manuscripts. Some that will never see the light of day. Some that I am revising. Some that my kids keep bugging me to finish! It’s my process to have a lot of things written and revise bit by bit as things strike me. This year I told my critique group that I didn’t know how to work on just one manuscript. They said to work on the one that pulls at me the most. I said they all do. I think they felt sorry for me. Yes, there were looks of pity. But, having multiple projects works for me. I decided that I’m not going to fight it anymore, but instead accept that that is the way I work.

As usual for a writer, I had an up and down year. I started the year with an agent and after much discussion we both decided that it would be better for me to seek representation elsewhere. That I need someone who can send out more of my work. Yes, sometimes I delve into the potty jokes and that is not for everyone. Educational manuscripts aren’t everyone’s cup of tea either. I can say that I have made a wonderful friend for life and that is the best thing that happened to me when I obtained representation. I’m actually having a hard time knowing which agents to send submissions to now, since I had such a nice agent.

So, I decided to push myself over the last two months of 2012. I did something I’d never done before. Something I’ve often found difficult. I focused on submissions to publishers. Sure, I’ve sent a few out here and there over the years, (that is how I sold Bedtime Monster, after all) but this time I made myself delve deep into world of publishers, and you know what? The more I did it the easier it got. When I quit sending out submissions a few weeks before Christmas I had a grand total of 38 well researched, targeted submissions out. I surprised even myself! It’s great to be going into 2013 with so many possibilities.

Sending out all those submissions also gave me the courage to do something I’ve been thinking about for a long, long time. I've gotten together with a couple of my friends and we’re creating a support group for writers and illustrators who are ready to send their work out on submission! We’ll be opening up our website and chatroom soon, but for now we have a chatty facebook page if you’re interested in taking a look. I'd love for you to join us.

No matter what you do, I hope that 2013 is a wonderfully creative and prosperous year for you!