The Holiday Publishing Lull

Tip of the Day: Did you all catch the news about Simon & Schuster offering self-pub? What are your thoughts on it? Leave comments below. Here's one author who thinks it's an awful idea. 

The holidays are upon us and that means things in traditional publishing come to a screeching halt. If you're just now querying agents or your agent is pitching to editors you can expect not to hear from them until probably January. In fact, you may want to just hold off on subbing anything until then and be higher up in the inbox.

So what can you do in the mean time?

1) Research. If agent-hunting spend time building up a list of dream agents to submit too, noting what order you want to contact them in. Make sure you’re finding agents who rep the kind of work you write. You can find info about them on agentquery.com. Another good way to spot agents is to read the acknowledgement section of books in the same vein as yours and see who the agent they thank is. If you’re looking for a publisher to contact directly look to see if there are any calls out for specific types of works. Entangled often puts out these types of calls.

2) Another thing you can do is continue to polish your work. Maybe you need a fresh set of eyes. Send your book to a new critique partner. Or get a professional opinion of your book. There are still some auctions open at the KidLitCares for Sandy Relief auction.

Also, YA author Michelle Zink recently posted on facebook that she’s open for new clients for her edit/critique service. “Are you planning to query agents or editors soon with your shiny manuscript? November/December is a perfect time to fine-tune your work (publishing all but shuts down until mid-January), and I just found out that I have an unexpected opening for edit and critique services at the beginning of December. I have a solid track record of helping authors gain representation and would love to help you ready your manuscript for representation and/or sale. Partials and fulls accepted! Inbox me for details.” Her contact info can be found on her Web site.

3) Or finally, just take a break and enjoy the holidays. A little time away from your book can be a big help. I often find fresh insights after I haven’t looked at one of my books for a while.

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Places to Submit (or Open Doors)

Tip of the Day: Stay tuned for an A2A Query Clinic coming soon!
Have a polished manuscript? Looking for an agent and/or a publisher without an agent like me? Check out some of these opportunities to submit to some great people/places!

1. Janet Reid's Liz Norris Pay It Forward Writing Contest. You can win a great Backspace Conference prize package. Get your completed, thrilling novel in by March 15.
2. Angry Robot's new YA imprintStrange Chemistry's Open Door submission period. You have from April 16-April 30 to get your fantasy/sci-fi/horror/supernatural novels in.
3. Entangled Publishing, an up-and-coming new publisher, is still open to unagented submissions in upper-YA with romantic elements.


If your manuscript is not polished up yet and you are an SCBWI member, you have until March 15 for your manuscript to arrive at the L.A. HQ for the Work-in-Progress grants.

Good luck!

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

A little itchy

Tip of the day: Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday next week! We’ll be taking a blogging break for the week, but don’t worry! We’ll be back November 30th with another fun week of A2A, the Teen years!

I had a good conversation with my agent this week, about a finished project as well as a proposal and some pages I’ve been working on the past couple of months.

She is excited about both of these projects, and that makes ME excited. So yes, sometime soon, I will be out on submission again. It’s been a year or more since I’ve had a sale, and I admit to itching just a little for some good news of the “Sold” variety. Ack, does that make me greedy?

Maybe. Sorry, can’t help it. My mind is already thinking ahead to the year 2011 – it will be a very sad year if there are no new book babies to look forward to! Anyway, stay tuned, I guess. Although I don’t suspect we’ll hear anything until after the holidays at this point.

Honestly, I still pinch myself when my agent e-mails me and says, “Let’s set up a time to talk.” Really? You want to talk to ME? About my work?

I don’t think I’m more talented than most writers. I think I just kept writing and working at it. And it’s what I do even now.

I can remember the days when I wanted so desperately to have a sale. Or even to have an agent who loved my work. It wasn’t really that long ago. I know it seems like the publishing business is mostly gloom and doom these days, but take heart. Books *are* still being sold.

So, keep writing. Keep working at it. And if you’re itching for some good news of the “sold” variety, I hope you get some very soon!

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career

My Book Is Fab -- I Swear! (or Editorial Contradiction Affliction)

Tip of the Day: Bring a cardigan to public buildings during the summer months, even if your manpanion calls it an "old lady shawl;" you'll be happy you have it when the a/c is blasting.



The life of those Subbing for Pubbing is not all the glitz and glam you imagine. Much of it is waiting and revising and thinking and, well, getting rejected. I know that rejection is all part of the process, yet I can't help but scratch my head and wish there was some magic formula to run my ms through that would pop it into just what the editors want.



Example: On one ms that is in Editor World, I got a rejection that said the story "wasn't layered enough." Later, I got another rejection on that same ms stating there was "too much going on."



Huh????



Aren't those practically opposites?



Huh????



At this point, those Subbing for Pubbing have to clean up their head explosions.



After the floor is mopped, I re-analyze my manuscript/rejections/comments/choice of nail polish color/feng shui positioning of my laptop in the living room/chocolate supply in the house and think, "OK, there could be a similar problem that both editors are hinting at, but are using different terms to describe."



Hmmm....



Maybe "not layered enough" means they want more dimensions to a CHARACTER, but "too much going on" means there are too many "dramatic" SCENES. Maybe?



I don't know! Does anyone have any insight? Or guesses/similar experiences? Or spare Swiffer cloths?



Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

March Madness is a little like Publishing Madness!

Tip of the day: Does your novel have conflict? Nathan Bransford has a good post about conflict HERE.

So guess what time it is? It’s time for March Madness! Woo hoo, I love, love, LOVE this time of year! I got my bracket filled out and entered and I’m in the pool at work. I’m in it to win it, baby!
The funny thing about a March Madness bracket is you can research the teams to death, go with the “sure things” and each and every time you’ll be surprised because a team will do the unthinkable, have a great game sprinkled with a little luck, and win when they weren’t supposed to.

Wow, that sounds kinda familiar, doesn’t it? I have long been aware that this whole business of publishing is about having a great manuscript sprinkled with a little luck. Sometimes, even, a lot of luck.

When my agent requested my manuscript from a query letter? A whole lot of luck right there. She happened to have had a client mention to her that she was thinking her next book would be a novel-in-verse. Then my query letter came across her desk for a novel-in-verse. She told me – I’m curious! I’d love to read it.

She ended up offering representation, and then when we started sending out the manuscript, editor after editor said no. I was really getting depressed. It didn’t seem like anyone would want to take on this different book that wasn’t quite your ordinary literary fare but wasn’t quite your normal paranormal fare either.

And then, luck struck again! One of the editors we sent the manuscript to didn’t feel it was for him. BUT instead of just rejecting it outright (which he could have easily done, right?), he sent it to another division at the house to see if anyone there might be interested. My editor picked it up out of the pile and read it on the train home. And he loved it. He came back and rallied other people to read it, and fought for it.

I know I’m so lucky to have books on the shelves. Next year, I have three more coming out, one of them a midgrade novel, something I’ve dreamed about since I started writing. Of course, whether any of these books get good reviews, sell well, make any reading lists, etc. etc., well, that’s a whole other story. Will luck be on my side?

I better start searching for 4-leaf clovers now!