fudge factory

Every year, I try to make homemade sweet treats as holiday thank-you gifts to the publishing people who worked on year's past books and/or the new year's upcoming books. All authors know that even though there is only one or two names on the front cover, books are really group efforts. And usually really important contributors like copywriters and designers are easily forgotten. I try to remember them at least once a year!

Though, most likely, these publishing people would probably prefer I use the time I spent baking to actually finishing my work (since I always seem to be late), but when the treat is for them they can't complain--right? Ha, ha! It is my devious way of fitting in some holiday fun!

This year, enamored with mentions of fudge making in some of my children's books (most recently "Adopted Jane" by Helen Daringer)I was determined to make fudge.

However this was a bit tricker said than done. After failing with a traditional recipe, I decided to use Martha's Stewart's Foolproof Fudge Recipe. With my friend Ranida, we achieved success!

And began our little fudge factory, working late in the night like elves!

creating an endless supply of both white and brown chocolate fudge:

Unfortunately, because it took me so long to perfect the fudge I wasn't able to spend as much time on the decorative label and the packaging wasn't as colorful as years past, but I still think it's fun:

And if you get my newsletter, you can download the label to use yourself!


Hope your holidays are sweet!

What We talk about When We Talk Picturebooks

The paper was long ago removed from our recycling bin or deleted from our e-readers. Its validity has been refuted via comments sections and social networking, but I still cannot shake the New York Times article published nearly two months ago that proclaimed, “Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children.”

Because it's true. While we can cite what seem to be exceptions (for example, on the very day the article was placed at front doors around the world, I received confirmation of an impending picture book offer), the report was accurate.
For the past five years in which I have been representing picture book creators, I've been told that it is "a weak market." But as the statistics and anecdotes from booksellers prove, the number of books bought has dipped. While I can understand that $17.99 per book prohibits many parents from creating an at home library of books for toddlers, the lack of individual consumers contributing to the picture book economy is more troublesome with the decline of government funding for school and public libraries. This means children may not be exposed to great picture books because of financial restrictions of his parents and her country both.

In recent years, I’ve seen many picture book creators worry about e-books while I have maintained that bringing picture books to another format does not mean the end of picture books.

Which brings us to the element of the NYT article that fills me with (as I put it on Twitter) rage; the real danger is the notion that picture books can be bypassed, glossed over, or graduated from by toddlers told by parents that they should move on to “big boy or girl books.” The notion that parents can give their kids a head start at achieving scholastically, getting into a good college, and succeeding in life by pushing them in early on is alive in this country. My mother and sister are both early childhood educators and have come across parents who expressly stated that they “want their children to learn to read,” in preschool. The NYT reported the practice correctly; it’s the parental choice that is wrong.

What is achieved by teaching a child to read before they are developmentally ready? If a child “successfully reads” an early reader or chapter book before their peers but cannot comprehend the words or story, is that to be applauded? What happens to the child who is forced to read and is unable to discover books at their own pace? While we are deftly promoting graphic novels and illustrated books for older readers are we creating classes of children who hate reading because they feel they aren’t good enough at it? Doesn’t pulling picture books away from them at 4, 5, 6, or beyond create more problems than pluses?

The weekend after the NYT article was released, it was very much on my mind during a visit to my hometown, Chicago, where I visited with family and friends. Both of my best friends are mothers.

Riley, a high school English teacher who is working toward a second graduate degree had just had her first child, Eli, 3 weeks prior. She shared that she doesn't really know what how to connect with a newborn saying, “How do I teach him anything? He’s probably still thinking, ‘Wow. Wind. I’ve never felt that before.’” And then she admitted that she'd read Noam Chomsky aloud to him the day before. At three weeks, the content of what is read to a child is irrelevant; the importance is in beginning the practice of reading aloud to a child. Experiencing books together is formative. I couldn't help but think that children taught to be independent readers too early will miss some of this bond with their parents.

My Friend Megan (Top) and me (as Joey) at last year’s Ghouls & Ghourds event

My other best friend, Dana, has a 19-month old, Hannah. Hannah’s board books have their own bin among her toys so that she can willingly go to them on her own and turn through the pages. On the nights that Hannah doesn't throw a tantrum when the pajamas go on, she's invited to her mommy and daddy’s bed where they read her a picture book. One of Hannah's favorites is Pouch! by David Ezra Stein. Dana told me that Hannah is "reading" the book, in a tone that only seemed half joking. Hannah was saying "bee!" at just the right moment and "bunny!" where David wrote "rabbit!" Not to be a buzz kill, but I told Dana her kid was not reading. Yes, in part, she was memorizing but she was also using the pictures as visual cues, connecting concepts to words with David's renderings of various forest animals as her guide. I wondered how children who are moved away from picture books too early will come to understand the concept behind the words they can recite.

Every bedtime my sister requested “Horton Catchy Egg”

My sister, Rachel, now an early childhood educator, was once just my little sister. When she was 2 or so, she had a favorite book, Horton Hatches an Egg by Dr. Seuss. When my mom was trying to get something done, she would have me "read" to Rachel. We all had the book memorized, more or less. I couldn’t have read Dr. Seuss' cadence with ease at 5 or 6, so I paged through the book, using the pictures as my cues, telling me when it was time to say "I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful. 100%." I think about children too busy learning to read to share Dr Seussian language and lessons with little sisters.

And yes, I can't help but think about myself as a child. I was an easily frightened child (to put it mildly) and yet, one of my favorite books was Miss Nelson is Missing by Harry Allard and James Marshall. As formidable as Viola Swamp was, I came back to the book again and again, because the illustration told me a secret; Viola Swamp was Miss Nelson all along. I think about the child that is pushed past picture books, not just because they can be comforting as Karen Lotz correctly asserts in the article, because the can also teach us about irony, humor, and so much more.

It’s easy to be disillusioned when faced with the facts of the business of picture books. And yes, it’s easy to be cynical and say that as an agent who represents so many picture book creators, my interest in saving the picture book is personal and financial. But here’ s the bottom line. What do we talk about when we talk about picture books? We are talking about childhood. I can’t accept this piece of childhood “languishing” as the Times put it.

Me from a Halloween gone by. Note the top nametag says Miss Nelson and is crossed out. The bottom says Viola Swamp.

The Times article should not be viewed as the last nail in the coffin. This is an opportunity not to be missed. The picture book community—publishers, creators, and agents like me—need to work with early childhood educators, librarians, and developmental psychologists to show parents that picture books are essential to childhood.

We can’t vilify or dismiss the article, and we can’t throw up our hands. Let’s work together to prove the need and might of the picture book. We can’t go down without a fight. I learned that from Miss Nelson too.

Rebecca Sherman is a fabulous agent with over 9 years of experience at Writer's House. Her clients include Lunch Lady author/illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka, the Scott O'Dell Award Winner Matt Phelan, Caldecott Honor Illustrator Brian Pinkney and Blue Rose Girls Anna Alter and Grace Lin. You can follow Rebecca on twitter @rebeccagent.

What makes a great first page?

I was casting about on Twitter for ideas on what to blog about, and author/illustrator Katie Davis asked the question, "What makes a great first page?"

This reminded me of the wonderful post "Great First Lines" over at PW's ShelfTalker last week. One of the first lines quoted was from the book Quest for a Maid which, coincidentally, my assistant had recently quoted to me: “When I was nine years old, I hid under a table and heard my sister kill a king.” Isn't that great? I hadn't remembered I had actually read Quest for a Maid until I saw the book cover and read the summary online.

Another favorite is the first line from Charlotte's Web: "Where's Papa going with that ax?"

So what makes a great first page? When I go to writer's conferences, I'll often do a first page critique. The format of the critique isn't always the same, but for the most part it consists of a fresh reading/hearing. Someone (sometimes me) will read the first page of a book out loud, and then I'll let attendees know if, had the book been submitted to me, I would read more based on that first page.

In general, what makes me read beyond the first page is what makes me read beyond that first sentence. (Although, in all honesty, I'll always read past the first page. I try to give a novel at least 30 pages. However, this doesn't meant that I don't make up my mind on the first page...more on that later.)

The first page has to:

-be compelling: duh. I have to be compelled to turn the page. Generally, it's great to have the first page draw the reader directly into the action. Save exposition for Chapter 2 or later.

-give me an idea of what the book is going to be about: if I find a first page too confusing (without being intriguing enough), I tend to lose patience. Also, I want to know what kind of book this is from the first page: fantasy or science fiction? Historical fiction? Romance? Comedy? Drama? Sometimes whether I read more depends on whether or not I think there's a place for the book on both my list and my publisher's list. For example, if the voice and topic is exactly like a book we already publish, I'll read more just in case, but will find it easy to say no.

-be well-written: I can definitely gauge how talented a writer is based on the first page. In fact, because authors know the first page is so important, they tend to spend a lot of time revising that first page (if they're smart!). So if I don't think the writing is all that good on the first page, I don't have high hopes for the rest of the book. However, if I personally find the first page to be sloppy or scattered or whatever, but it has at least one gem of a line, one flash of brilliance that gives me hope, I'll still give it a chance and keep an open mind.

-have a strong voice: I need to get a sense of the voice right away. If the voice doesn't grab me, it's probably a no go. 

-be relatively free of typos: one or two are maybe forgivable, depending on what kind they are (although if there continues to be one or more per page, I'd have to stop), but more is just plain sloppy and unprofessional, particularly on the first page. Others would say even one typo would make them give up, but I try to be somewhat forgiving, because goodness knows I've had my share of typos on this blog!

As I outlined in my "How I Read Submissions" post from a while back, sometimes I read looking for a reason to say no, something I read looking for a reason to say yes. I think a lot of that depends on the first page. If I see something that raises a red flag on the first page, I'll keep reading but will basically read to find more reasons to say no. To recap that post, some of the reasons to say no:

-not well written
-too slight
-too quiet
-forced rhyme, off rhythm (for picture books, mainly)
-too similar to something already on our list
-too similar to too many books already in the market
-forced/inauthentic dialogue
-too didactic
-melodramatic
-cliche
-slow pacing
-too niche in appeal

If I find a lot of the above in the first page, then I'll likely not need to read more.

However, if I read the first page and absolutely love it, I'll keep reading hoping that I can say yes to it.

One of my favorite first pages from this year is from an adult book called Room by Emma Donoghue. Here's the first paragraph:

Today I'm five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I'm changed to five, abracadabra. Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero. "Was I minus numbers?"

This first paragraph gives me a strong sense of a distinct voice. It also hints to something unusual, with the capitalized words, and the narrator going to sleep in a wardrobe. It also gives me a hint to the narrator's intellect and curious mind. This made me want to keep reading.

So, what makes you read on after the first page? Do you have any personal favorite first pages from the past year? 

****

Also, check out the comments of this Read Roger post for some interesting discussion about writing for the market (and BTW, congrats to Grace for Ling & Ting making the Horn Book fanfare list! I think that makes five end-of-year "Best of" lists for Ling & Ting. Hurray!). The first commenter states:  "A friend told me that she's written books that are 'good but unpublishable' because, she's been told, they aren't 'strong enough for the current market place.'"

Just FYI, in editor speak, "good but unpublishable" means "not good enough",  regardless of marketability.

from the BRG archives: Fatal Distractions

In Meghan’s “no resolutions for me” post, she lists her best “thinking” spots and asks readers to tell about theirs. Her query led me off on a tangent—not about places and times when writing ideas bubble up to the surface of my consciousness, but about my actual process when I go about writing my blogs.

So here it is:
The Id, the Ego, Those Infernal Impulses, and the Elements of Style

I love children’s poetry. It would follow that I also love children’s poetry books. Because I love children’s poetry books—I buy children’s poetry books. I have lost count of how many I own—but you can believe me when I tell you that I have hundreds of them. The same holds true for picture books—and all other kinds of children’s books. I don’t have to run down to the public library or visit a school library to find children’s poetry books or picture books or any other kind of books to review. One might think that having so many books at hand would make writing for a children’s literature blog easy for me. Think again!

There are two things I find difficult to do each week: decide what to write a blog about for Friday—and then to write a blog about it. At the beginning of my brainstorming process, I always end up asking myself lots of “Should I?” questions.

Should I review a poetry book that is hot-off-the-press?
Should I write about a wonderful book that was published years ago that has not found the readership it deserves?
Should I write an in-depth review of just one poetry book?
Should I review two or three books?
Should I review picture books written in verse—or picture books with lyrical texts?
Should I go searching for another old moldering poem that’s stuffed inside one of dozens of folders?
Should I write something serious and thought-provoking?
Should I don my wise guy persona and write a funny post?
Should I write something personal about the way poetry has affected my life?
Should I write about a controversial subject in the hopes of getting a discussion going?

Should I? Should I? Should I?

Next, the figurative gears in my gray matter start turning. There are times when I get so many ideas they all buzz around in my brain like bees flitting from flower to flower in search of nectar in summertime. And then I think: “This is a good idea for a blog. No, wait…this is a better idea.” And as the ideas spark electrical impulses in my frontal lobes and my left hemisphere sends messages to my right hemisphere and my right hemisphere signals “Right back at ya, Lefty” via my corpus callosum, I start pulling books off shelves and putting them on the table: a pile of moon books here, a book of poetry for very young children there, a bunch of snow stories written in verse at one end, poetry books that are beautifully illustrated at the other end, and on and on and on… Soon I am overwhelmed with different kinds of books and can’t see the top of the table, can’t decide which book(s) to write about. Then I invariably ignore the books I have spread across the tabletop and write about something else that has captured my fancy just before I sit down to compose my post.

Sometimes, after I finally decide what to write my blog about, everything in the writing/reviewing process goes smoothly from start to finish. Other times, I will spend a day or two on a post and then decide that it stinks or that it didn’t say what I really wanted it to say or that it would be better to post it on some Friday in the future. Sometimes I’ll find that the piece I am working on takes me where it wants to go—not where I want to take it. Sometimes another idea—or several ideas—will pop into my head after I have nearly finished my blog for the week.

I really do envy people who live their blogging lives in a straight line. They get one idea at a time, sit down and write about it, and post the piece the same day. No questions reverberating inside their craniums. No second-guessing their topic choices. No little nerve impulse gremlins jumping synapses in their brains and steering their conscious thoughts away from the writing task at hand or tempting them with new ideas. No little monologue bubbles hovering above their heads like rain clouds in April, whispering to them, and distracting them. Me? I try to remain on track—but I usually end up a modest train wreck of a writer almost every time I sit down to compose a post. So I think: Maybe it would be a good idea for me to write a book about my affliction and call it “Fatal Distraction: The Saga of a Kidlit Blogger with an Attention Disorder.” (Do you think any human being on the planet would be interested in reading a book like that?)

I believe that the mental health community should begin training special therapists who would be qualified to give advice to bloggers like me. Yeh, I could really use a bloggochologist—or maybe a bloggochiatrist. You know…someone knowledgeable about the inner workings of the human brain and psyche and subconscious who is also wise in the ways of topic sentences and paragraphing, main ideas and the clever turn of phrase, the independent clause and the pregnant pause, the ellipsis and the syllepsis, the subjunctive mood and gerunds. Someone who can distinguish an oxymoron from a blogging moron. Someone who is familiar with the works of Dr. Freud and Dr. Seuss. Someone who can make sure I don’t split literary hairs…or infinitives. Someone who can help me learn how to remain focused while I am writing and who can also keep me from dangling my participles in public.

If you know of any such professionals who would be interested in helping an old lady with ADBD— Attention Distraction Blogging Disorder—and also in collaborating on a nonfiction book about the disorder, please leave their names in the comments section for me.

Thanks for listening to my writing process rant, fellow bloggers. May Freud, no Jung, no Freud be with you.

Originally published January 10, 2007

The past is another country --

"The past is another country; they do things differently there" begins a novel about a middle-aged man who visits a painful time in his own life. The Go-Between, I'm pretty sure, was made up.

Meghan was asking about going back to her real past, and writing about it (Meghan, I say: YES! to the book IF you can stand to go back: I think if you wrote it in your voice, as a novel, kids would love it. Poetry, though? Don't you hate poetry?).

WARNING: the rest of this post is about a time when weird, disturbing things happened.

I graduated from a small, strict boarding school the day of Bobby Kennedy's funeral -- those who took the train into NY for our parties saw the people lining the train tracks to pay their last respects (If you saw the Scorsese Bob Dylan, you've seen them too). Two days later my own father died suddenly. In those days, people didn't get counseling the way they do now and our family dealt with it the way my mother had been brought up. Her favorite sister handed her a drink, saying,
"Here, Sall, drink this."
My mother's chin wobbled and I knew she was about to cry.
"Now, Sall, chin up," her father said, in a steadying voice.
"Aw, let her cry if she wants to," her sister said -- but she didn't.

Later that summer we (my family and I) watched on TV as Chicago police clubbed student protestors at the Democratic convention; that, we did cry over. College started for me - my friends and I went from never having been alone with a boy (well, during the school year anyhow; summer was different) to dorms with no rules -- boys in the bedrooms, bathrooms, etc.....there WERE I suppose chapereones around but they too were affected by the times.

A friend at Sarah Lawrence desribed the President dancing topless at a faculty-student party. Another friend at Barnard (the women's college of Columbia) complained to the Dean about her room-mates's drug use, and the Dean said:
"If the marijuana smoke bothers you, open the window."

If this sounds like my friends and I were merely watchers, not true. We were doing all of it, including rioting. One friend had his arm unbroken during a clash with police in Harvard Square. Another died in his dorm room at Columbia, choked on his own vomit (yes, it was drug related). Others committed suicide.....and meanwhile, in Vietnam (where not one friend of mine went: we were just young enough to avoid the draft so then, as now, it was rare for upper-middle class kids to join the army), Lieutenant Calley ordered his men to massacre an entire village and enough people in the country protested against Calley's conviction and sentence for President Nixon to let him off.

Do I want to relive all this? I kept voluminous (thousands of pages) diaries during those years, and friends have often asked me to; my answer has always been -- only if someone will metaphorically hold my hand while I do it. I'm not going back there alone. Could I find or make up a story in it and shape it into a novel? Would it be interesting to anyone but me and the friends who lived through those years with me?

And would anyone believe it, or would it just seem too weird? When they made that movie about the early days of Rolling Stone, Betsey Johnson (or Mary MacFadden? -- some clothes designer who'd been big in those days) offered them the clothes in her attic -- real clothes from the time. The costume designer for the movie took one look and said no thanks: too weird. No one would believe (or want to look at ) clothes like that.

But -- and this is what makes me want to write about it -- those times were as intensely hopeful and exciting as they were dark and frightening. If you were born later, you just can not imagine how stuffy this country was before it all happened. It really WAS another country.

what's healthy?

I can't help myself when I get a new idea. Actually... this is an old one that keeps coming up over and over again. I was brutally made fun of in junior high. To the point, actually, where I thought of suicide multiple times. I don't know if I ever would have done it and to what extent it really was but I remember thinking of it. I also remember starving myself for a while. I completely understand how incidents like Columbine happened. I thought about that kind of thing too. Not killing everybody--just the people who picked on me. And I don't think I ever would have done it of course! but I would picture it in my head.

SO... over and over again I have thought about how I could do a teen book about this. A novel? A graphic novel? My latest idea today because I was organizing and trying to go through papers and found some poetry I'd done was to do a poetry type thing with art.

Here's my question: my memory of this is fading by the year. It was a long time ago now! And believe me, it took a LONG time to get over this. A LONG, LONG time. Now that I'm healed, is it healthy to try to remember details to write a book about it? I mean, the healing process obviously was to forget about stuff. So should I TRY to bring it back? The crazy thing is that for a year after some of it happened I actually DID FORGET. Isn't that weird? I really forgot whole parts of things that happened directly after I got out of jr. high. I'm sure there is some medical reason for this if I did some research.

Please know that I'm not totally screwed up or damaged because I'm not! I'm healed from all of it but it was a painful experience. but I want kids to know that if they're picked on they're not alone and it's NOT their fault! I think that some people make them feel like it is because they don't stand up for themselves and that sort of thing and that's not it at all. I mean, schools need to take responsibility for what goes on. My mom is a social worker and I got into a debate w/her about this yesterday. she thinks I don't stand up for myself. Yeah, I don't always. but what came first, the chicken or the egg? I wasn't always like this! She thinks kids need to stand up for themselves and bullies won't pick on them. Not so simple. The bullies shouldn't be in school and walking the hallways period.

Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent here. My original question is: Is it too much to dredge up the past? Yes or no?

meghan

FAIRY FOR HIRE: An Original Fairy Tale Poem

More than fifteen years ago, I took a leave of absence from my teaching job. I had been invited to travel to China with a Children’s Literature and Language Arts Delegation in the fall of 1994. We were also having major renovations done on our house—so I thought it best to take a year off from work.

During my leave of absence, I decided to write a collection of fairy tale poems. I used to do an extensive unit in my second grade classroom on traditional literature. My students learned about all different kinds of tales—including cumulative, pourquoi, and noodlehead tales. My students compared and contrasted different versions of old tales. They wrote funny letters from one fairy tale character to another. They wrote fairy tale poems. They designed wanted and lost posters for fairy tale characters and objects. I had so much fun teaching that unit. My students enjoyed all the stories and activities too. All of that inspired me to write my own collection of poems about characters from traditional literature that are well-known to children.

Here’s one of the poems from that collection. I wrote it in the form of a classified ad.

FAIRY FOR HIRE
By Elaine Magliaro

Did you get an invitation
To the prince’s ball in May?
Would you like a brand new pumpkin coach
To ride in on that day?

Do you want a silk brocaded gown
To spend the gala day in?
A shiny pair of crystals shoes
To waltz the night away in?

Just call me any day or night
At MAGIC WAND SUPPLIERS.
I’ll conjure up the lovely things
Your little heart desires.

**********

At Wild Rose Reader, I have another original fairy tale poem about Jack and the Beanstalk.

Jama has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Alphabet Soup this week.

Ling and Ting paper dolls for you!

I'm so thrilled there has been so much good news recently for Ling & Ting (as well as a New York Times Best 2010 Notable Children's Book, Ling & Ting is a a recommended holiday gift by the San Francisco Chronicle)! I truly hope this book finds its way into the hands of many young readers for the holidays!

As an added incentive, I've made a special activity to accompany the book. Here are some Ling & Ting Paper Dolls! These paper dolls are ready for you to color and cut and are completely FREE. It is my small holiday gift to you!

Hope you like everyTING and everyLING!

Just:
1. download HERE!
2. print (preferably on a lightweight cardstock)
3. color (any way you want!) & cut
4. dress! fold the clothes flaps over Ling and Ting and let them wear their warm winter booties or their party dresses!

fyi, these paper dolls are for personal enjoyment only and copyright remains with the artist. aka, print and play as much as you want, but print and sell is wrong.

Tales of a Reluctant Blogger

There are many wonderful lines in the 1991 film Father of the Bride starring Steve Martin as the title character, George Banks. A personal favorite arrives when George incredulously responds to the price of wedding cake quoted by party planner Franck (Martin Short). Laughing, Franck retorts in his thick accent, “Welcome to the 90s, Mr. Banks.”

My family has adopted this line and uses it (accent and all) whenever someone is behind the times.

Well, the 90s would have been a suitable time to start blogging. It’s December 7th, 2010. This is my First Blog Ever. Say it with me…


(caption “at 3:45”)

Why now? First of all, I had the opportunity to help out my friend and client, Anna Alter, allowing her a blogger’s maternity leave. Second of all, if I was going to be late to the party, at least I could join what I feel is the best online celebration of women in children’s publishing, The Blue Rose Girls.

Me & Anna Alter ALA January 2010

Why not earlier? The answer to this question is harder to answer. There are many reasons why I have been a hold out and am now a reluctant blogger.

When I was little I was given a diary and in junior high a journal and in high school a blank book. In all cases, my entries began steady, quickly became occasional, then infrequent, and all-too-soon stopped. The year between college and my move to New York, I worked at a dot.com and many of my co-workers maintained personal online journals; I had no compulsion to follow their lead. Honestly, don’t regret the lack of autobiographical material (I have plenty of “awkward phase” photos and bad high school poetry to induce cringes).

In 2005, after years of being an assistant at Writers House, I began taking on my own clients in earnest and making deals. Still, I had to get my name out to writers looking for an agent. Seeking advice, I scheduled a call with Steven Malk in our San Diego office. Passed 6:00 EST, after my boss had left for the day, I spoke to Steve. The first tip he gave me, in his slow Californian cadence? “Whatever you do…do not…get a blog.”

My elusive colleague, Steve Malk, trying to remain anonymous. SCBWI LA 2006

Good. I could check that off my to-do list. I already did not have a blog! I was one step closer to greatness. It’s what I wanted to hear; I was already working two jobs (1. assistant 2. beginning/aspiring literary agent), and I knew a blog would fall by the wayside. No other Writers House agents were blogging including Jodi Reamer, and her client’s book Twilight had just published and seemed to be doing pretty well.

Though it was unspoken, the reason why Writers House agents were not encouraged to blog was clear to me; the spotlight was not for us, it was for our clients. For years, I felt that if I blogged, I might as well shout “ME ME ME!” onward infinitely with some name-dropping peppered in on occasion. (Not to mention what would happen if I accidentally name-dropped one client and their books more that others).

In the years that followed my call with Steve, I’ve maintained a Publisher’s Marketplace page, attended many writers’ conferences, have been interviewed for websites, and logged into online chats about kids’ and YA books. Participation in all of these felt “safe” to me. In each case the time devoted to “putting myself out there” seemed small and clearly defined. When I put myself in a client’s shoes, I couldn’t imagine one would think “she’s spending time on this? Why isn’t that time going to my work?” For some reason, I feel authors and illustrators would see me blogging as a waste of time. I have made a commitment to them; they are my priority in my professional life. Is it fair to share so much of this resource to so many and so publicly?

Now, I’m not in the least bit concerned that prospective clients aren’t familiar with me (just ask my poor assistant who wades through the countless submissions I receive).
But somehow I worried more now than in 2005 about the message that blogging sends to the majority of potential readers. It seems to me that a publishing professional making his or her thoughts, opinions, and self accessible creates expectations that are hard to live up to; the more I say, the greater the chance that I will contradict myself or lead an unpublished writer astray. Writers rejected by an “accessible” agent seem to take it more personally. As an agent, does blogging mean that I owe something to my readers? I maintain that I only owe something to my clients. Does that very sentence written for all to see make me a bad guy in your eyes?

Maybe I am over-thinking it (I do have that tendency). I know you didn’t ask, but I hope this entry explains and justifies my long-running absence. I will do my best to fill Anna’s shoes and serve as a temporary Blue Rose Girl. I’ll try to stay up to date on your comments, so please do leave feedback. I’d love to know what you’d like to hear from me and your general thoughts on agents blogging. I hope that you will welcome my belated introduction to the blogosphere.

One more time. “Welcome to the ‘90s, Mr. Banks!”

From Dec. 2007

Checking in on my New Year's Resolutions

 

At the beginning of the year, I made eight work-related New Year's resolutions. It's been a while since I looked back at them, and since there's less than a month left of 2010 (eeeek!!!), I thought I'd check in and see if there isn't anything I can firm up my resolve about in these final days of the year.


1) Learn how to say "no" more. 
Hmmm. Oh, gosh, I totally forgot about this one, and I don't think I achieved it at all. I find it hard to say no to speaking requests that are based in NY, like the NYPL panel I did last month, or the school visit I did at a High School in Brooklyn a few weeks ago, or the panel on digital publishing that I'm doing tonight at a Middle School! And I've said yes to a bunch of guest blogs and interviews, although I've realized that I've also dropped the ball on a few. I guess that was why I had this resolution, because I found myself saying yes, and then forgetting or not having time to follow through...ugg. Oops...

2) Stop counting on weekend and vacations and holidays to "catch up" on work.
I think I've been better about this than in previous years.

3) Don't stay at the office past 9 pm.
I think I've only broken this one two or three times, on nights before leaving for a trip. But I've never stayed past 10, so that's an achievement.

4) Work towards "Inbox Zero"--I think this is probably too lofty a goal, so to be a little more realistic, I'd like to have under 20 emails in my inbox by the end of each day (Let's call it Inbox Twenty).
For most of the year, I actually achieved this, and it's been amazing. Life changing, even. But just in the past two weeks my workdays have been filled with back-to-back meetings even more than usual, and I've had more after-work engagements than usual as well, and so I've failed to do this at least four days in the past two weeks alone. Darn it. I'm going to try to keep this up, though, because it's such a weight off my shoulders knowing that I don't have hundreds of emails waiting to be dealt with.

5) While at work, work. Less socializing and web surfing. 
Yes, I think I've achieved this, although I've fallen off my "only check Twitter in the morning, at lunch, and after 5"--I've definitely cheated.

6) Acquire at least two picture books, two middle grade, and two young adult projects this year.
This really has been a year of acquiring YA for me. Although I have a few picture book projects in the works/close to acquisition, I haven't actually contracted new picture books this year. But I have acquired more than two MG and YA projects.

7) Read a little before bed at least five times a week. Read at least one published book per month.
I've definitely read more published books this year, averaging at least one per month. I've also read more in bed before falling asleep, although I don't think it's averaged five times a week. Sometimes I conk out right away, or need to veg out watching TV.

8) Tidy my office at least a little bit once a week.
Ummm....this one would be a definite NO. I coworker walked into my office last week and said, "Gee, and I thought my desk was bad." Oh well.

Maybe in January I should resolve to review my resolutions more often. Ha! But overall, I do think I've achieved a better work-life balance than last year. I hope I'm at least headed in the right direction!

Happy December, everyone. How have you done with your resolutions? Have you started to think of new ones for next year yet?

Two Poems for Jack: A Poetry Video

A couple of years ago, I thought I’d mess around trying to make videos on my computer with pictures that I had for our high school class website. I enjoyed learning how to add music and transitions and words. Last year, I decided to take two of the poems that I had written about my daughter’s yellow Lab Jack and make a video of that rascally canine called Two Poems for Jack.

Dirty Dog!, the first poem on the video, is a triolet. I was inspired to write the poem because of an incident my son-in-law had when he took Jack to a park where dogs are allowed to run around unleashed. Well, Jack got into some muddy water and refused to come out. My son-in-law had quite an ordeal trying to get Jack to dry land. I thought a triolet was the perfect form for writing about that tale—in my son-in-law’s voice.

The triolet is a poem with eight lines in which the first two lines are repeated as the last two lines. The first line is also the fourth line.

DIRTY DOG
(A Poem for Jerry)

Dirty, dirty, dirty dog!
Didn’t heed your master—NO!
Thought you’d run into the bog.
Dirty, dirty, dirty dog!
(I rant in my mad monologue.)
You frolicked where you shouldn’t go.
Dirty, dirty, dirty dog!
Didn’t heed your master—NO!

The second poem on the video is Dog, a mask poem written from Jack’s point of view.

**********

At Wild Rose Reader, I have I have Poetry for Children at Its Best--the 2009 NCTE Notable Poetry Books. I've included links to reviews of all 20 titles.

Tricia has the Poetry Friday Roundup at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

blogs

I have a few new things in the works. Right now they are mostly in my mind but they will happen! I have to get my Balto book done first. Yes, it's not done. It's never ending. This is the thing with books and especially nonfiction books... they are never finished! Never, ever.

Anyway, my friends and I were at a "how to publish a photography book" talk yesterday at the NYPL and it was PACKED! This makes me feel happy! People still love books! There is still that passion. Afterward were were talking about art books (I collect a ton of them) and we have decided to start an art book blog. I have very particular tastes and my friend has very different tastes so I think it will be very interesting. So stay tuned for that.

My other venture is an illustrator/author/publishing blog that will differ from the BRG. It will contain posts that I thought I couldn't post here for different reasons. So I guess if you don't like my posts here you are definitely not going to like them there! Although, perhaps you will. Only time will tell. There are a few topics I'm just itching to talk about. I'm not sure, however, how long the blog will last. It might die after a month or two... or I'll get run out of town! I'll let you know when it's launched.

Anyway, a cool new art book I got called Juxtapoz Handmade is all about handmade art - a lot of 3D stuff - paper art and the like. I really love paper art. This guy, A.J Fosik, uses wood and the effect is really cool:





I just loved the beginning quote for his "paragraph": "There is a two-fisted tradition of creation in this great land of ours, and it is this constitution that makes us a special people. From California to the New York Island, we Americans make stuff. We always have and we always will."

Yeah, it's silly. But it's kind of true! Let's keep on making stuff!

meghan

Because a dreidel just doesn’t cut it

Yes, it is early this year, but Hannukah is upon us. Don’t have enough presents for all eight nights (Dec. 1- 9th)? How could that be? There were so many great books published this year. Here are some suggestions (which will also give you an idea of the authors and illustrators I represent)!

Board Books
For unintentional book-tearing tots
POTTY and TUBBY by Leslie Patricelli

Picture Books
For learning new words
-PEPI SINGS A NEW SONG by Laura Ljungkvist

For words by a Nobel and Pulitzer winner
-LITTLE CLOUD & LADY WIND by Toni Morrison and Sean Qualls


For a smidge of history
-BLACK JACK by Charles Smith, Jr. and Shane Evans
-SIT-IN by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney
(link all about Sit-In http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/sitin/index.html )

For a bit of a boost
-DISAPPEARING DESMOND by Anna Alter
-ORLANDO ON A THURSDAY by Emma Magenta

Because practice makes perfect
-LULU’S PIANO LESSON by Arlene Alda

To be thankful
-THANKING THE MOON by Grace Lin

Great nonfiction
POP! THE INVENTION OF BUBBLEGUM by Meghan McCarthy

With just a dash of spice
-COOKING WITH HENRY AND ELLIEBELLY by Carolyn Parkhurst and Dan Yaccarino



To celebrate unlikely friendships
-GRANNY GOMEZ & JIGSAW by Deborah Underwood and Scott Magoon

For those who go against the grain
-MOSTLY MONSTERLY by Tammi Sauer and Scott Magoon
-THE GENTLEMAN BUG by Julian Hector

Along for a wacky odyssey
-LAWN TO LAWN by Dan Yaccarino



At bedtime and all the time
-INTERRUPTING CHICKEN by David Ezra Stein



For big sisters and little brothers
-FLORA’S VERY WINDY DAY by Jeanne Birdsall and Matt Phelan
-MY BROTHER, CHARLIE by Holly Robinson Peete and Shane W. Evans

Early Reader
For those who are “sounding it out”
LING & TING by Grace Lin



Chapter Book
When we know better, we do better
-CONFESSIONS OF A FORMER BULLY by Trudy Ludwig and Beth Adams

Graphic Novel
Serving Justice, Serving Lunch
THE LUNCH LADY series by Jarrett J. Krosoczka


Middle Grade Novels
With girls who will make you laugh and tug at your heartstrings
-NOONIE’S MASTERPIECE by Lisa Railsback
-BETTI ON THE HIGH WIRE by Lisa Railsback(trailer on this page )

Tween Fiction
To follow the yellow brick road
-RUBY’S SLIPPERS by Tricia Rayburn

YA Paranormal Romance
Without vampires
-Siren by Tricia Rayburn
-The Jumbee by Pamela Keyes

MG Non-fiction
For the future authors of the world
*Spilling Ink: A Young Writer’s Handbook by Ellen Potter, Anne Mazer, and Matt Phelan

Print this list and take it to your local independent bookstore and please do post pictures of the books’ new owners holding their Hannukah and/or Christmas gift.

Happy Holidays!

Rebecca

Rebecca Sherman is a fabulous agent with over 9 years of experience at Writer's House. Her clients include Lunch Lady author/illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka, the Scott O'Dell Award Winner Matt Phelan, Caldecott Honor Illustrator Brian Pinkney and Blue Rose Girls Anna Alter and Grace Lin. You can follow Rebecca on twitter @rebeccagent.

Welcome!

Wren Lea Trindade, our first Blue Rose Girl Baby!
Yes, one of the Blue Rose Girls had a much more eventful Thanksgiving than the rest of us. While I was playing Barbie Dream House with my niece, Anna brought the beautiful Wren Lea into this world! Let's all give a collective awwwwwwww for the adorable baby!

Since Anna is going to be a bit busy, we're having a guest blogger fill in for her during the month of December. So, please, also welcome our December Guest Blogger Rebecca Sherman!

Rebecca is a fabulous agent with over 9 years of experience at Writer's House. Her clients include Lunch Lady author/illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka, the Scott O'Dell Award Winner Matt Phelan, Caldecott Honor Illustrator Brian Pinkney and Blue Rose Girls Anna Alter and Grace Lin (moi! The photo one the left is from the Newbery Banquet).

And not only is Rebecca a wonderful agent, I'm happy to say that she is also a friend. I knew we were going to get along great when during a visit to NYC we went to dinner and I couldn't decide on what to order. "All the appetizers sound amazing!" I said. "Then, let's just get all of them!" she said. And we did.

So please welcome the new girls to our blog and we hope you look forward to hearing from them (though Wren's words may need some Mommy-deciphering in the beginning)!

What do editors do at conferences?

As readers of this blog will know, I go to a lot of conferences. Some are writer's conferences (usually SCBWI), others are trade conferences. I was considering posting about my time at NCTE, but thought it might be a little more helpful if I talked about trade conferences in general, what they mean to publishers and editors, and what my role is.

Most publishers go to six main conferences a year. Two American Library Association (ALA) conferences: Midwinter and Annual--the former is generally in January, the latter in June or July; the International Reader Association (IRA), generally in May; BookExpo America (BEA), generally  in June; The Texas Library Association (TLA), usually in April; and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference, followed by the Assembly of Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) workshop, always the weekend before Thanksgiving in November. There are a few other regional or smaller conferences that we might attend as a company, but these are the biggies.

Our school and library marketing department (a department of two!) coordinates all of the above conferences except for BEA, which is handled mainly by our publicity department. A ton of preparation goes into each conference: it's a lot of event planning--researching and choosing venues for various breakfast, lunch, and dinner parties, booking hotels, making travel arrangements for staff and the authors and illustrators we host, coordinating the booth: designing the banner, the set-up, signage, scheduling and ordering materials for giveaways, etc. Thankfully, I have basically zero involvement in any of this. All I have to do is find out when I'm needed to arrive and stay through, book my flight, familiarize myself with my schedule (and fill in any gaps if wanted), and that's it in terms of preparation.

Most of the conferences have two main aspects: the convention floor, and programming. Publishers have booths that highlight their upcoming and recent books, have giveaways, and generally have author signings throughout the conference. There are also panels and talks by industry professionals going on elsewhere in the convention center, and depending on the criteria of the conference, we'll try to get our authors on the program in some way.

My main duty while at conferences is author care. I'll usher authors from place to place so that they don't have to worry about anything logistically-speaking, and generally make sure they're happy. For example, on my schedule it will say, "Meet Bryan Collier and Andrea Pinkney in the lobby of the hotel. Bring them to the convention center, room B, then after the program bring the to the booth for their signing" or whatever. I sometimes have to bring authors from booth to booth to booth if they have signings at different publishers. Depending on the city and the convention center, there can be a lot of taking cabs from venue to venue, or making sure I orient myself and know where I'm going beforehand if walking.

When I was a junior editor, I was always eager to attend the conferences, not really knowing what to expect. My first conference was IRA in San Francisco (back in 2001 or 2002), and I had a BLAST. Attending these conferences is a great way to connect with other publishing professionals, authors, agents, illustrators, editors, publicists, etc. It's also a great way to get to know librarians, teachers, reading specialists, booksellers, etc. And yes, I was pretty happy to be getting a trip to San Francisco on the company dime!

We generally try to send at least one junior editor to each conference to help with set-up and break down of the booth, and do booth duty. Working the booth means a lot of opening of boxes, stacking of ARCs (sometimes in pretty swirls), making sure everything looks neat, appealing, and presentable. It can mean fetching bottles of water and snacks to have in the booth. If an author is signing, it can mean selling books, keeping the line in order, handling Post-Its for personalized books, or making sure each book is opened to the right page for the author to sign (generally the title page). But what booth duty mainly entails is speaking to the teachers/librarians/booksellers, answering any questions they may have (usually something like, "What's the age range of this book?" or "Do you have any historical fiction?" etc.), and basically just book talking all of our books. It's usually pretty fun (although being on your feet all day can be tough--reminds me of my days as a bookseller!), and I love familiarizing myself with all of our books, not just the ones I've read or edited.

As a more senior editor, I'm usually assigned to fairly light booth duty (depending on need), and given time to attend the programming or walk the floor scoping out the competition when I'm not doing "author care."

We also host various events at these conferences. These will generally be lunches or dinners (sometimes breakfast), and are  an opportunity to introduce some of our authors to the conference attendees, to help the books make a greater impact on these often influential professionals in the hopes that they may eventually buy the book for their school/library/bookstore. My role at these events is to get to know the attendees, talk about our books, and make sure the attendees all get an opportunity to talk to our authors and illustrators. Oh, and we always choose a lovely venue with delectable cuisine--how could I not mention the food?!

Once I know I'm attending a conference, I might also reach out the others I know may be attending: agents who aren't based in NY, for example, editor friends at Chronicle or Charlesbridge or Candlewick, author or illustrator friends from out of town, etc. There isn't always that much free time, but generally we can find time in our schedules to meet up. I also like meeting authors I've worked with, sometimes for the first time. For example, I met author J.S. Lewis (co-author of The Grey Griffins: The Clockwork Chronicles #1, The Brimstone Key) for the first time in person at ALAN, and it was great to be able to sit down to dinner and get to know each other better.

These conferences are exhausting, especially if they occur during a workday and I'm also keeping an eye on my work email, but I love going to them. I generally attend 3-5 of the conferences each year (on top of 2-3 writer's conferences annually). I consider conferences to be one of the perks of my job. I love traveling, I love meeting new people, getting to know people better, eating great food, and talking about books.

Of course, playing catch-up afterward is no fun at all. I got back from Orlando last Tuesday evening, came in to the office for the half-day before the Thanksgiving break to catch up (and ended up staying all day, of course), and still have a ton awaiting my attention this week. Can I please have another day off?

For some wrap-ups of past conferences, go here, here, here, here, and here.

from the BRG archives: Score 1 for quiet stories

Over the years, one of the comments I often get about my work is that it is quiet. It is an interesting label to ponder, particularly because we live in such a "loud" culture. It seems to me, we are surrounded by loud. Tv's are loud, traffic is loud, advertising is loud- there are very few moments in the day when we sit calmly and do something quietly, reflectively, thoughtfully. What more perfect for quiet reflection than reading a book? Of course I love adventures and thrilling plot lines as much as the next reader. But I am drawn to making books that satisfy another need, books that offer depth read after read, that let you breathe page to page.

It is a challenge for sure, some (not all) publishers feel that if a book isen't "loud" enough to scream its way off a book shelf then it won't sell. With that in mind, I get particularly excited with art with a "quiet" aesthetic is commercially successful.

Okay, so its not quite a book I'm thinking of, but it relates to storytelling so I'm including it on this blog anyways! This weekend I saw 'Little Miss Sunshine,' and it made me really happy. If you had to describe the plot in a short sentence, you could say it is about a family on a road trip to a beauty pageant (don't worry- I won't ruin it for you if you haven't seen it). In a world of movies (and books) about wizards and ghosts and kids being shrunk down to ant size, it is just really refreshing to see a story with very little plot at all that is just as funny and witty and entertaining. The story is essentially an exploration of the characters and their relationships with eachother, its revealing and touching and I felt really captured the essence of being a kid in a complicated family.

Now this is not a kid's movie per say, there is a lot of swearing and pretty inappropriate kid subject matter. But my point I guess is that I just find it really inspiring when directors and writers find a creative way to say a lot with a little, to get a big point across without over the top plot wrangling. Like any good book, the audience is allowed to be an active participant in the unveiling of the story, that feels like it tells itself.

http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/littlemisssunshine/

Originally published Aug. 22, 2006