3 Steps to Demystify How to Write a Query Letter and Attract a Literary Agent

 

Congratulations! You've finished writing your manuscript. Now, you're ready to query an agent or editor.

Let's go! 

There are three parts of a query letter: 

the hook, 

the book, 

and the cook. 

All parts should fit on one page.

Paragraph One (the hook):

Include the following in  “The Hook” paragraph:

• WHY - Why you chose the agent (e.g., I enjoyed your presentation at the 12x12 webinar)

• HOOK - Include a sentence with the logline/hook: a “hook” is a single sentence that fast-forwards a readers' understanding of your story, and it can include comp titles (e.g., SEE SHELL is a friendship and perspective story that's like Carson Ellis's DU IZ TAK meets Brenden Wetzel's THEY ALL SAW A CAT but set at the bottom of the sea). 

• Title (in all caps, e.g., SEE SHELL)

• Genre

• Word count

Links to an external site. title, genre and the word count of your book. Julie Fogliano had a sale post this week in Publishers Marketplace, so I’ll use the posted logline as an example (want to see more examples, subscribe to Publishers Lunch). If Julie had been querying this story, her hook++ lines might sound like this: 

FIRST LINE of the paragraph: Your first line should tell the agent why you carefully considered and queried them: Thank you for speaking at SCBWI New York or I enjoyed your webinar at blah blah blah or I enjoyed your interview on such-and-such blog and …your #MSWL…

SECOND and THIRD and FORTH LINE  (or so) for this paragraph: Your hook, TITLE, and word count. Agents might have a particular order in which they’d like to see your first paragraph. I've made this executive choice on the order for the sake of this example. I'll also refer to Julie Fogliano's sale that was announced this month in Publishers Marketplace.  If Julie had been querying this story, her hook++ lines might've sounded like this: 

EXAMPLE: Please consider my 464-word picture book manuscript, BECAUSE OF A SHOE, the story of a tantrum, and how even in the middle of NOT putting on a shoe, parent and child are still their unconditionally loveable selves.

EXAMPLE - a novelist might write: Please consider my 70,000-word YA sci-fi manuscript, THE UNACCOUNTED. It's teenage Jason Bourne meets The Prisoner of Zenda.

PRO TIP: want to see more examples of loglines, subscribe to Publishers Lunch). 

Paragraph Two (the book):

Write a paragraph about your manuscript that reads like jacket flap copy. Present an exciting glimpse of the story, and make us care without giving up the ending.

If you wrote a hero's journey story (rather than a concept book or something else) consider showcasing:

• The protagonist
• The inciting incident
• The stakes (why we care)

Look through your favorite books that fall in the same genre as your manuscript to understand the cadence for how a jacket flap sounds (you'll leave off the “about the creative team” portion). Imagine that you only have mere seconds to capture the reader's attention. A good jacket flap describes the story in such a gripping way that bookstore browsers are ready to slap down their hard-earned cash to buy the book. Agents may use this copy to help present your manuscript to a publishing house, so create a compelling and tight paragraph. Make it easy for the acquisition team to say yes! 

PRO TIP: Once you’ve created your tight paragraph, notice if your copy sounds like a bunch of stuff happening to the protagonist (uh-oh, that won’t be good), or if your protagonist sounds like a character in action (huzzah!).

Paragraph Three (the cook):

Links to an external site.

This is your biography. Make sure you include only relevant information—memberships (e.g., SCBWI), high-caliber writing courses, your MFA, publications, publishing awards, work as a librarian or work in schools. If you've written a STEM book about a scientist and you are a scientist, include that information - that would be an example of relevant information. Nobody explains the “how’s” of writing a biography better than Chuck Sambuchino in Writers Unboxed , so please visit the blog post. He includes an important list of dos and don’ts (e.g., don't say it is copyrighted, don't say how many drafts you went through, don't say your neighbor's children loved it, etc.).

You've got this! Congratulations on arriving at this step. Query letters take a lot of time and research. It's worth the effort!

Good luck!

Cheers,

Kim
P.S. SUBJECT LINE: A subject line will typically include the TITLE + GENRE. However, it might also include the word "Query". Please carefully read submission guidelines/instructions for each agent or editor you query. They will have these guidelines listed on their website. Don't assume any two will be alike.

4 Success Stories - How a Children's Book Writing & Illustrating Conference Launched the Careers of Four Authors and Illustrators

Conferences are kingmakers. It’s true! Talk to published authors and illustrators, and you'll discover that more often than not an attendee’s career moved into hyper-drive after taking part in a conference. A conference is where you meet people with a shared passion, and you develop new neural pathways for craft. Ideas bubble to mind, and important connections are made. Many publishing hopefuls met their agent or editor attending breakout sessions, getting critiques, or selecting the right seat at an open-table luncheon. 

Illustration courtesy of Brooke-Boynton Huges

Illustrator Brooke Boynton Hughes attended SCBWI's International conference in California more than a decade ago. She entered her portfolio in the illustrator showcase, didn't win but got noticed. In fact, she signed with agent Marietta Zacker and landed a book deal that same year! Furthermore, Brooke signed up for the one-on-one portfolio review. She received feedback throughout the conference weekend and learned nuanced details about craft. When she returned to the event the following year (2013), she walked away as the Portfolio Showcase Honor Award winner and the Mentorship Award winner! In 2014, she received the Portfolio Honor Award at SCBWI's Winter Conference in New York. 

    Brooke's success didn't come from one conference. She says, 

I think the most important part about attending conferences is the chance to have one-on-one portfolio critiques and the opportunity to learn about your craft.  I attended six or seven international conferences and three or four regional conferences before I was published and before my portfolio was recognized in the showcase."  

Now her illustrations are published in books with Beach Lane, Disney Hyperion, and Random House.Author turned agent Ana Crespo met her editor, Kelly Barrales-Saylor who was then an editor with Albert Whitman and Co. (she is now an editor with Sourcebooks) during the regional Rocky Mountain SCBWI conference. Ana signed up for a manuscript critique and landed a feedback timeslot with Kelly. After listening to Kelly’s edit suggestions and taking ample notes during workshops, Ana was armed with ideas to improve her writing. Ana went home, reworked and edited her story, then queried Kelly who bought and published The Sock Thief. Ana went on to sell four books to Albert Whitman in a series called JP BOOKS, MY EMOTIONS AND ME. During another conference, she met Alvina Ling Executive Editorial Director of Little Brown Books. Alvina later published Hello Tree, illustrated by Dow Phumiruk.

 

I met my editor, Melissa Manlove of Chronicle Books, at an SCBWI conference, and let’s just say it involved an unofficial scavenger hunt, an Aperol Smash, and a failed pitch. But that failed pitch was part of a connection, and in the end I received a business card and an email address. A year-and-a-half later I worked on the craft points I’d learned at the conference, I worked with my critique group, I read and drafted, and then I sent a query letter about a new manuscript—here’s where I cue the drum roll and build to a frenzy—I got a YES! That’s how I sold the award-winning picture book, THE ELEPHANTS COME HOME. 

If the above three stories haven't convinced you that conferences are kingmakers, here’s one more. Author Martha Brockenbrough met the editor of her debut picture book The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy at a conference. His name - Arthur Levine of Arthur A. Levin at Scholastic (he is now an editor and founder of Levine Querido). Martha says in an interview with SCBWI, “Truly. Every picture book I’ve ever sold has come directly from my time at an SCBWI conference”. Martha has since sold many picture books and highly-praised novels. Her latest middle grade novel, To Catch a Thief, is out now!

An Inside Look at a Debut Deal

 

When I first entered the publishing world, I was surprised to discover that editors are regular human beings 😊. They eat, they sleep, they have personalized likes and dislikes. I know. I know. I was excited and intimidated, but I learned a lot with my debut sale. By the way, the above photo is a picture of me (wearing the orange scarf), my editor (next to me and in the center), and the HarperCollins marketing team all wearing the cat ears (a gift I brought to the office). 

My debut novel was sold on pre-empt, and no, I didn’t know what that meant when it was happening. I like this definition from Poets & Writers  magazine, “When a publisher wants to preempt [it means] they are choosing to make an offer that will persuade the author’s agent to take a project off the table early. The publisher is grabbing a project they love and avoiding having to compete with other publishers."

In my situation, my agent submitted my novel to a handful of editors, including Maria Barbo of Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins. When Maria said she wanted to make an offer, my agent invited her to sweeten the deal in a pre-empt to avoid an auction (an auction is when more than one house bids to buy a manuscript). But before anything was agreed upon, my agent asked me to get on the phone with Maria to see if I thought she would be someone with whom I’d like to work.

 As you can imagine, my head was spinning. I was suddenly in the driver’s seat. Long story short, this was a wise move. Making sure an author and editor have good communication chemistry is key to producing a great book. I asked Maria to tell me about her vision for the manuscript's edits, and since Maria is a genius, I was intrigued and excited about her ideas. As the cliché goes, it was match made in heaven, and we moved forward with the deal.

That's my perspective as the author. But did you notice that Maria's job as the editor was to communicate a clear vision for her editorial direction of my manuscript? If you take a job as an editor with a publisher, you'll have times when you have to compete with other publishing houses in order to acquire a manuscript. Sure, money will play a role in the bidding process but so will your editorial skills and the ability to communicate your vision. Honing these skills now will benefit you as a writer, book doctor, critiquing partner, coach, and as an editor. Even if you decide a career in editing is not for you, as an author you will have a clear understanding of the editor's role which will make you an ideal client to work with. 

Happy writing and editing!

Cheers,

Kim 

 P.S.   Writer Beware is a fantastic website. It's sponsored by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. Here you will find a wealth of information including insights on editors and editing, writer’s services, how to avoid schmagents (fake literary agents), and more.

Heart in Children's Literature by Kim Tomsic

Any writer trying to tackle the art of composing a children’s story will agree—it’s tough work. Whether writing a 500-word picture book or a 75,000-word novel, writers face a juggling act of theme (without being didactic), character (without being overly cutesy), story (with the perfect pace), and more all in effort to create that sweet balance of delight, entertainment, meaning, and connection.     But what makes a story good? In

Celebrating Children's Books: Essays on Children's Literature, Arnold Lobel says, “A good picture book should be true. That is to say, it should rise out of the lives and passions of its creators.” Perhaps this statement could be pushed a step further, so it reads: A good children’s book (picture book through young adult novel) should be true. That is to say it should rise out of the lives and passions of its creators and have a placeholder for a child to insert themselves and their emotions. A good book should have heart.

In author Kate DiCamillo’s 2014 Newbery speech, she said, “…[those] working on stories, bookmaking, and art are given the sacred task of making hearts larger through story.” But what is heart and how does an author write it into a story? To figure this out, I asked three experts for their thoughts on heart in children’s books: Author Beth Anderson, Senior Editor at Chronicle Books, Melissa Manlove, and Senior Editor at HarperCollins, Maria Barbo.

First meet Beth. Not only is Beth Anderson the author of several picture books, she also writes about emotional resonance in her blog, “Mining for Heart.” Beth says, “Heart” is the treasure I’m after whenever I start a new manuscript. What will make this story more than a reporting of events? What will make the child reader think about the world a little bit differently? What will bring emotional resonance? To me, heart is not the theme or focus nugget but is much deeper and more personal. It emerges when you process the research or story through your own life experiences and passions to find a unique angle or thread. “Heart” can be nebulous, elusive, downright torture to tackle, but it’s what makes a manuscript sing!”

            Beth’s statement screams many truths, (the torture!). She also wonders, “What will

make a child reader think about the world a bit differently?” 

Kimberly Reynolds, author of Children’s Literature: A Very Short Introduction, says, “Because children’s literature is one of the earliest ways in which the young encounter stories, it plays a powerful role in shaping how we think about and understand the world.” Reynolds’ statement echoes Kate DiCamillo. In essence, they are both saying that books play a powerful role that might affect the way children understand and think about race, religion, ableism, neurodiversity, gender identity and more. No wonder DiCamillo calls it a “sacred” task.

Helping a child think about the world a bit differently happens when an author succeeds at writing a story that gets under their skin. There, inside the pulse of the story is the opportunity for a child or young adult to connect, beyond mere amusement, so that the story seeps into their pores and stays long after the last page is read. To jump-start a pulse that pushes a story beyond entertaining-but-forgettable, a book must have 💙heart💙, and to achieve heart the writer must make the reader feel something.

            The Horn Book Magazine also covers the need for children’s stories to have heart and feeling-points. In a November 2012 article titled “Making Picture Books: The Words” by Charlotte Zolotow, Zolotow emphasizes how an emotional impulse to write for children should come out of a real place and says, “Many fine writers can write about children but are unable to write for them.” She says, “The writers writing about children are looking back. The writers writing for children are feeling back into childhood.” It is the feeling-points that writers must tap into if they want to reach a child’s heart.

             The next step in my mission to understand heart took me to Senior Editor Melissa Manlove from Chronicle Books. I knew Melissa would be the perfect person to talk to, because she made me work to uncover the heart of The Elephants Come Home (Chronicle Books, 2021). Back in 2012, I approached Melissa with a true story about a man named Lawrence Anthony who rescued a herd of seven elephants in Zululand, South Africa--the elephants had broken out of every other wildlife sanctuary they'd lived at and had thus frightened many townfolk with their destruction. Now they had to be relocated again, otherwise they would be shot! Melissa and I were both captivated by the many details of this story, but something was missing—that nebulous “something” was the heart. It sat in the outskirts of my writing, but the heart was too buried to actually feel it. I had to work, to dig, to revise until I was able to identify the true piece of me that I was bringing to the story (for me, it was growing up as a military brat and being made to move from home to home, like the elephants).  Once I identified the heart I felt when I thought about this story, I knew I couldn’t shove it front and center because then the story would feel forced. Melissa says heart can’t be in the reader’s face. It needs to be like a treasure chest the reader works to uncover.

Actually, she says it more eloquently. Melissa says, “The writers I admire most tend to be ones that, as they draft, are following a feeling, a hunch, a question. They’re feeling out what seems right and what the story seems to want to be. And THEN from that, later, in the revision process, they figure out what that part of us that lives on story but doesn’t have words of its own to speak was trying to say. And when you let the story come first, and let it show you by feel where the heart is, then the heart is truly buried in it, like buried treasure, and your story becomes a map for those who will follow you.”

The Elephants Come Home written by me and with gorgeous illustrations by Hadley Hooper, released in 2021 with Chronicle Books. Melissa pushed me to dig deep so that I could leave a treasure for readers to find.

Melissa is a master of theme and thesis and if you ever have the opportunity to attend one of her lectures, it will be the best gift you ever give yourself. For this article, I asked Melissa to expand on feeling points, and she explained that, “Many [stories are] disposable. And that’s because they’re entertaining in the moment, but they don’t mean anything. There’s nothing that stays with you afterward, nothing that nibbles at your imagination and pulls you back to them.” Even if a story is fiction, Melissa says a good story makes us “feel it is true.” Melissa explains that feeling in story is “the language-brain articulating what the story-brain had already known in feeling. A storyteller must evoke a universal feeling.” Melissa says for a story to go deeper, there needs to be “a human experience at the heart of that story that we all can relate to…and a truth about that human experience in the story.”

A great example of a human experience at the heart of a story we can relate to is Charlie and Mouse, edited by Melissa Manlove, written by Laurel Snyder, and illustrated by Emily Hughes. The starred review written by Elizabeth Bird in School Library Journal starts out with a negative tone, “Only the jaded should write reviews of children’s books.” The reviewer goes on to say, “If I am a parent and there is any danger AT ALL that my child is going to ask me to read and reread and reread again a piece of tripe that calls itself a children’s book, I at least want some forewarning. I have great love for the sardonic stripe of reviewer. Anyone who has honed their teeth on the literary darlings of sweetness & light.” Elizabeth Bird says she is sick and tired of reading overly-sweet books and goes on to add, “So I sometimes wonder if having my own kids has made me more inclined towards books with a glint of true emotion amidst the adorableness. With that in mind, I guess I could be forgiven for initially thinking that Charlie & Mouse wouldn’t work for me. Heck the eyeballs of these kids take up half their heads as it is. Yet when I read this story what I found was a quietly subversive, infinitely charming, eerily rereadable early chapter book not just worth reading but worth owning.” Though Bird set out to dislike Charlie and Mouse, she felt the heart and says, “my tolerance for the cutesy is distinctly low. So it was with great pleasure that I discovered that while the characters of Charlie and Mouse are undeniably cute, they are not cloying. They are not vying for your love. They are living their lives, doing what they want to do, and if what they do happens to be cute, so be it, but that is not their prerogative.”  Heart won the day.   

            I circle back to Kate DiCamillo, because Flora and Ulysses is a great example of a book with heart, and it was a very human and universal experience that led DiCamillo to write this Newbery Award winning book—the experience of love, grief, and loss. DiCamillo says her truth rose out of her deep love for her mother who often asked who would take care of her Electrolux vacuum cleaner when she passed away. In January 2009, her 86-year-old mother fell, broke her hip, and died less than a week later. DiCamillo’s heart ached, and she grieved as painfully and deeply as anyone who loses a loved one grieves. In her 2014 Newbery speech, she says she wrote Flora and Ulysses because she “wanted to excavate that grief.” She says, “I wanted and needed to find my way to joy.” This was her truth, but she doesn’t lay it on the page so literally. The truth takes on new forms and shows up in her book through characters that would have made her mother laugh—Flora, the squirrel, the giant donut, and a vacuum cleaner (remember the Electrolux), and it’s not just any vacuum cleaner, but one that gives the squirrel superpowers!

The Newbery committee called Flora and Ulysses a story of hope, joy, and love. Through this book, readers experience real feelings filtered through DiCamillo’s characters while originating from her authentic human experience—her love and grief and also her hope to regain laughter and joy. This echoes back to what Melissa Manlove said, “there needs to be “a human experience at the heart of story that we all can relate to…and a truth about that human experience in the story.” In the end of Flora and Ulysses, readers discover that Flora’s father, George Buckman, has a capacious heart. One that is very large and “capable of containing much joy and much sorrow.” And this is parallel to the truth of DiCamillo’s heart, joy, and sorrow in her mourning process. Authentic feelings that showed up on the pages.

Senior Editor Maria Barbo from HarperCollins says, “Authenticity is key for emotional resonance. That thing you do in private that you think nobody else does—someone does it. A writer or artist has to make themselves vulnerable in that way—to share the secret, raw parts of themselves because relatability stems, in part, from specificity.” She adds a reminder, “The reader’s heart isn’t going to be in it if yours isn’t.” Maria is the editor for Bubbles...Up! a love poem to swimming, written by Jacqueline Davies illustrated by Sonia Sánchez. Each reader might find a different pulse point as they read, but without a doubt this story has heart.💙 

The experts agree—a good book should have heart. Melissa Manlove says, a “good story must feel true.” Maria Barbo says that a reader’s heart can’t be in it unless the writer’s heart shows up first. Beth Anderson challenges authors to find what will cause the child reader to think about their world view. Children’s Literature: A Very Short Introduction says, “Children’s literature can also be a literature of contestation, offering alternative views and providing the kind of information and approaches that can inspire new ways of thinking about the world and how it could be shaped in other, potentially better ways.”  Heart shows up when we process stories through life and literature experiences. Writers all have something that is deeply personal to share. We have something that, as Arnold Lobel says, “…can rise out of [our] lives and passions.” The real question is: are we willing to be vulnerable and write from an authentic place and share our feeling-points so the story can come alive for a child.

At the end of Kate DiCamillo’s Newbery speech, she said that as a child, she sat with books in her tree-house and could, “Feel the stories I read pushing against the walls of my heart.” For her, those stories traveled beyond the boundaries of mere entertainment and had a lasting pulse. Again, DiCamillo says those, “…working on stories, bookmaking, and art are given the sacred task of making hearts larger through story.” Writers can only do this if they dig deep and give of themselves so authentically that a book develops a pulse—a story that not only entertains but also has a placeholder for the child to insert themselves and their emotions. Children deserve stories that have heart. 

SCBWI Unofficial Scavenger Hunt

Unofficial SCBWI Scavenger Hunt!

How would you like to show up to LA16SCBWI and and win cocktails, conversation, and a critique with Chronicle editor Melissa Manlove? In 2011, I attend the SCBWI summer conference in Los Angeles and noticed an underground scavenger hunt in the works—it was to take place during the Saturday night gala. I quickly formed a team made up of strangers (which ended up being a fast and fun way to make friends). We had a blast working the scavenger hunt, but the best part was winning—we earned a private cocktail party and pitch session with Chronicle Books editor Melissa Manlove. In that hour and a half of sipping lemon drop martinis, Melissa generously shared her knowledge and offered constructive feedback. I learned more about my story and writing than I'd ever understood before. Now I can proudly announce I have two picture book deals with Melissa and Chronicle Books and also...oh, I can't tell you the "also" right now, but here's what you need to know—I am certain that the scavenger hunt was the spark that ignited my writing career. 

It is with great enthusiasm that I say YOU can have the exact same opportunity if you are attending this year’s SCBWI sold-out conference taking place this month in Los Angeles, July 2016.

WHAT:

Unofficial SCBWI Scavenger Hunt! #SCBWIscavenger  (tweet with hashtag #SCBWIscavenger) and/or #LA16SCBWI 

HOW:

On Saturday by 4:30pm, the following will be hidden around the hotel:

a.      small plastic eggs containing scrabble titles

b.      a selection of unusual objects

c.      the indubitable Martha Flynn, who will be the keeper of four blank scrabble tiles (first four teams to find Martha secure a coveted blank tile!)

Please see Melissa Manlove’s Instagram account for photos of the unusual objects and Martha Flynn—the photos will all be posted at 4:30 pm on Saturday. Between that time and 12:00 noon on Sunday, teams will find all they can, and then spell the best word or phrase possible with the scrabble tiles they’ve collected. Post a photo of your team’s word plus any of the unusual objects you find to Instagram and tag Melissa Manlove—you must post your photo to Instagram by 12:00 noon on Sunday and remember to tag to Melissa Manlove!

Important Note: The eggs and objects will be hidden in plain sight, in public areas of the hotel. It will not be necessary to move hotel furniture or decorations to find them, or to step into areas not meant for foot traffic. Please stay respectful of the hotel’s property and tidiness while searching for them.

WHO:

Anyone attending SCBWI LA16. You may form teams with a group size of 6 or fewer people.

WHERE:

The Biltmore Hotel—particularly (but not limited to) the Red Carpet Ball

WHEN:

4:30 pm Saturday July 30^th – 12:00 noon Sunday July 31^st

Is it worth it...oh yes!!!!!!!!!!! 

THE WINNING TEAM:

Melissa will post the results on instagram.

"The winner will be determined by an utterly subjective and seat-of-my-pants assessment of the team submissions. Having collected objects will likely tip the scales if I am torn between two words/phrases, but the words/phrases themselves, as exhibiting the team’s creativity, will be the primary point of judgement."

**Each team should share this post to their social media to be considered good sportsman**.

PRIZE:

Winners will meet in the bar on Sunday at 4:30 pm for cocktails with Chronicle editor Melissa Manlove (!!!!!!). The winning team has the option to make the cocktail hour into an impromptu critique group with feedback from Melissa—if your team chooses this, each team member should bring up to 5 pages of a work, and enough copies for everyone.

Fast Five: Interview with Atheneum Editor, Emma Ledbetter

Fast Five with Editor Emma Ledbetter

Emma Ledbetter is an associate editor at Atheneum Books for Young Readers. She is also on the faculty for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the SCBWI fall conference scheduled September 19-20, 2015. Registration can be found here:  Follow this link or type in: https://rmc.scbwi.org

Hi, Emma.

Thank you for serving on the faculty for the upcoming RMC SCBWI fall conference, and for agreeing to this interview. I want to let our participants feel like they know you even before your plane lands at Denver International Airport, so again, thank you for taking the time to answer the following questions:

Here’s the bio info I hijacked off of Atheneum’s website:

Emma Ledbetter, Associate Editor

Emma joined Simon and Schuster in 2011 following internships at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Nickelodeon, and Nick Jr. She graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Art History, where she wrote her thesis on the art of Little Golden Books and (re)discovered her passion for children's literature. Books that Emma has edited include The Backwards Birthday Party, a picture book by singer/songwriter Tom Chapin and John Forster and illustrated by Chuck Groenink, and I Don't Like Koala, a hilarious picture book-noir from Sean Ferrell and Charles Santoso. She continues to look for captivating voices, enchanting artwork, humor, and charm in a range of formats—particularly picture books, chapter books, and middle grade novels. She is especially fond of Edward Gorey, Clementine, and Frances the Badger. 

The Backwards Birthday Party by Tom Chapinand John Forster. Illustrated by Chuck Groenink

ICE BREAKER: You attended Yale, wow! And you have impressive internships under your belt, too,

not to mention the fun titles you’ve edited (here’s another to add to the list above, What About Moose by Corey Rosen Schwartz and Rebecca J. Gomez Illustrated by Keika Yamaguchi). Now that I’m in awe of you, please tell me something to make me feel like your BFF. Something only the insiders in your life know:

Thanks Kim, you’re very kind! I love ice cream and frozen yogurt, and my preferences tend toward those of a small child: eg. chocolate with sour patch kids (gross, I know), and strawberry with rainbow sprinkles.

Nice, sounds like my kind of breakfast (we are talking breakfast foods, right?).

1.  In your 2014 interview with the MD/SE region of the SCBWI, you said you have a particular love for “picture books of all stripes”. That’s awesome news for our picture book authors. I’d love to hear more. Please provide depth about what captivates you.

Also, does “all stripes” include fiction and nonfiction? Rhyming? Concept books?

I really do love it all when it comes to picture books: stripes, solids, and polka dots. A manuscript or dummy doesn’t have to fall into a particular category to captivate me; I’m looking for things like stellar writing and originality. I want that heart-melty feeling you get when you read something totally fresh and clever, beautifully written and/or illustrated; these qualities can come from all sorts of places. Here are three differently striped examples from my list:

1. What About Moose, which you mention above, is a picture book in rhyme. I bought it because I love the character of Moose, I love the non-didactic, witty message about teamwork, and I’m captivated by the verse, which is lively and fun, uses unexpected rhymes, and reads completely naturally. I’m very sensitive to clunky meter—which never does a story any favors—but Corey and Rebecca’s flows perfectly.

2. A really special book I have coming out this spring is called Ida, Always, written by Caron Levis

and illustrated by Charles Santoso. It’s a fictional story about two polar bears from the Central Park Zoo: Gus learns about grief when his friend Ida becomes very sick and dies. It’s quite a tough subject, but the writing is absolutely stunning (as are the illustrations!). This book captivates me because its story is really needed, and importantly, because Caron’s approach is just right—gentle and appropriate and honest.

3. In the nonfiction realm, I recently bought a picture book biography about illustrator and Disney concept artist Mary Blair: Pocket Full of Colors by Amy Guglielmo and Jacqueline Tourville, to be illustrated by Brigette Barrager. The manuscript captivated me because a) Mary Blair is a little-known figure who led a fascinating life, and b) Amy and Jacqueline use a clever framework to tell her story—it’s all about color and imagination, and being a girl in a boy’s world, and it’s written with a creative young audience in mind; at no point does it feel like a dull info-dump. (It didn’t hurt that I studied Mary Blair in college and am actually quite obsessed with her, but Amy and Jacqueline didn’t know that when they submitted their project to me!)

(Please excuse this brief pause in the interview as I run to Boulder Bookstore to purchase a copy of What About Moose right now!)

2.      To Note or not to Note, This is the Question.  I often hear a lot of conflicting chatter centered on making illustration notes. I understand the writer should not dictate to the illustrator about what a character looks like or how to lay out a scene, but sometimes jokes in the writer’s mind are held not in the text but in the illustration (i.e. the text may say, “Mommy loves it when I help” but the illustrations must show the exact opposite in order for the joke to work). How do you feel about the use of illustration notes (art notes) and how do you suggest a writer handle making these notes?

Yes, this is a tough question. If you see the illustrations as portraying the opposite of what the text says, yep, that’s important, not only to the illustrator when s/he comes on board, but also to the heart of your story, and to my understanding of it as I consider your manuscript. So if you write “Mommy loves it when I help,” but you don’t want that to be interpreted literally, you should absolutely include something like: “Art note: Bob is actually doing the exact opposite of helping.” What you should NOT write is “Art note: while Mommy is mixing cake batter in the background, Bob is crawling on the counter, with one hand in the sprinkles, and the other hand smearing pink icing all over the wall.” The first gives us crucial information about the story’s intention and the nature of Bob as a character; the second is encroaching on the illustrator’s freedom to interpret your text.

If you do have that specific of a vision, and there’s a good (GOOD) reason behind it—say, it’s important to the plot that Mommy and Bob make a cake, or even that its icing has to be pink—go ahead and write that. Just think carefully about your reasoning behind each note, and don’t go overboard. Since I’m being totally honest here, if I don’t see certain art notes as strictly necessary, sometimes I just delete them before sending a manuscript to an illustrator to consider. Most artists won’t want to take on a project that doesn’t leave them room to breathe and be creative. Picture books are the ultimate team effort!

3.      Please tell me about the list you’re currently building—what you’ve recently acquired, for what publication year, and how you plan to shape that list (pb, er, mg, ya/fiction or nonfiction), including how many books you acquire per year. 

See #1 for some examples of what I have coming up. I have a few awesome books trickling out in 2016 (starting with Ida, Always), and my list kicks into gear in 2017, where I currently have 17 books scheduled to publish—mostly picture books, a couple chapter books and a couple middle grades. I’m aiming to have about 10-15 books publish a year (whoops, sorry 2017!) and continue to be most interested in acquiring middle grade novels and picture books.

4.      How much importance do you place on authors needing a social media platform, and if you consider a platform extremely important, which forms of social media do you recommend?

Also, I’m scratching my head over your Twitter handle @brdnjamforemma in longspeak, is that “Board and jam for Emma,” or “Bird ‘n jam for Emma” or am I not even close?

            I don’t see it as a do-or-die scenario—you should do what you’re comfortable with and natural at—but being an active and creative self-promoter is a definite plus once your book is on the path to publication, because it can really help get the word out.

            And I’m glad you asked that! It’s “Bread and Jam for Emma,” a play on Bread and Jam for Frances, which is one of my all-time favorite picture books. #picturebooknerd!

(Ugh! I can't believe I didn't figure that out. I LOVED that book when I was little. I still have my tattered copy!)

   5.      I recently attended the SCBWI International conference in California where Wendy Loggia peppered a panel of editors with a series of questions. I’m asking you and all members of our RMC faculty to pretend you’re on that California panel, too—picture Los Angeles, the sun warms your face, and you’re about to dash out to the pool bar and order something exotic, but first you must dazzle the audience with answers to the following questions:

a.     What hooks you in a manuscript?

Creativity and originality; something I’ve never seen before. Manuscripts that are surprising, exciting, touching, hilarious, charming, sly, weird. (Maybe not all those things at once, but kudos to you if you pull that off).

b.      What turns you off when reading a manuscript?

I’ll give a picture book-specific answer: manuscripts that feel formulaic; manuscripts that make me suspect the author hasn’t actually read very many picture books (I can tell); manuscripts that haven’t given any thought to the visual opportunities (eg. an entire story that takes place in one room between two characters will not usually lend itself to good page turns and variety in the illustrations).

I’m also pretty sick of picture book manuscripts that are written as lists, eg. “Eight Easy Ways to Annoy Your Little Brother!” Books of this nature can be very clever, certainly—but they often seem to be formatted this way as an excuse to avoid getting into the good stuff, like character and plot, and therefore they have become a personal pet peeve.

c.       What’s on your #MSWL (for those of you on Twitter, #MSWL is where agents and editors post their Manuscript Wish List)?

I’m not so into the #MSWL. On mine are books I don’t even think to want, and then desperately want when they appear in my inbox. These include a picture book about firefighting ducks; a practically-wordless book about a grandmother who uses elaborate methods to deliver a box of cookies to her grandson; a lyrical and thoughtful picture book about all the different parts of a house and where each came from, once; and one about honeybees written in gorgeous, buzzy verse. (I already have these, though; they’ll all be out in 2017).

Can I please have a strawberry daiquiri?

You deserve one (with rainbow sprinkles). Thank you so much for your time!