Karen Sandler

Tag: SCBWI

  • #LA11SCBWI – The Wisdom of Agents – Brenda Bowen

    I’m home from SCBWI LA and am playing catch-up with my notes. I’m planning several more conference posts, today’s featuring Brenda Bowen, and I’ll continue to post until they’re all up, including the keynotes I attended. I’ll also post the promised/threatened pictures from the PJ party. There were some creatively wacky costumes.

    I attended four workshops/panels given by agents, which is somewhat odd since I have an agent and don’t need another one. It’s kind of like being married and checking out additional husbands when one man is more than enough. But I’m glad to share what the agents had to say with those of you out there who weren’t able to attend SCBWI LA .

    First up with a workshop titled Agents: Who Needs ‘Em? is Brenda Bowen of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

    Brenda started by saying that in children’s, it was once thought that an author didn’t need an agent. Of course, this is no longer true with so many publishers only accepting submissions through an agent. But having someone to submit for you is only one feature/advantage of having an agent. Your agent can be a constant in the publishing world, even when editors change houses or publishing houses merge or close.

    An agent has to find that diamond in the rough amongst her submissions. When your

    manuscript comes over the transom, if it’s what the agent is looking for, she’ll see there’s something there, that you’re the kind of writer who might one day win the Newbery Award.

    If you submit and the agent decides she wants to work with you, she will want you to revise your manuscript. The agent wants to get it up to being salable. The editor to whom your book will be submitted should be able to confidently take it into the acquisition meeting. In the old days an editor could buy herself, but now that decision requires an acquisition committee. Everyone has to read the manuscript and feel they can see it as a book. A manuscript has to be much more polished than in the old day

    What else do agents do? They schmooze. They’re constantly in touch with the editors at various publishing houses. Often it’s best for an agent to find out what the editors don’t need. For example, if an editor says, “If I see another dystopian I’m going to throw up,” the agent won’t send a dystopian to her. Brenda gave as an example of how well agents know editors by quoting Adams Literary agent Tracey Adams: “I know whether they’re a dog person or a cat person.” That is, agents develop personal relationships with editors.

    All an agent has is her taste and her gut instinct about a book. The agent shouldn’t have the mindset that they’re selling the book to make money, rather they should believe in the book. However, the books Brenda represents are not always what she likes as an agent, and she’ll need to be more neutral because an editor can love it.

    Brenda has learned to schmooze with everyone, not just the editor. She has to be nice to the assistants too because one day you might be crawling to them for a job (she referred to her former boss, Alessandra Balzer as an example).

    She referred to the art of the deal (which she went into in more detail in a later workshop and I’ll be posting that later). But there’s a lot going on after the deal; the deal is just one episode. The agent helps handle the editor. When an author gets worried, about a title change, for instance, the agent can assure the author. Sometimes an author might want her agent to take a look at an e-mail she plans to send to her editor and get feedback on it. The agent’s job is to mitigate those issues.

    Selling translation rights (and UK foreign rights) are another key service of an agent. They’ll try to keep those rights to sell independently. For picture books, the publisher usually acquires foreign rights as well as NA, but those rights can be available at other age levels. There are also commercial, dramatic and ancillary rights (merchandising—think action figures). The literary agent will visit film agents & tell them about upcoming books, what the agent thinks will appeal to them. For e-rights, the agent can make sure it’s the best deal possible, with better language. The agent takes care of  backlist as well as frontlist. The agent takes the heat so you can enjoy the ride and be the star you are.

    There was a Q&A after Brenda’s talk. I’ll list them here in the original Q&A form

    Q. Do you represent screenwriting?

    A. No.

    Q. Speak to how agents handle illustrators who also write or only illustrate

    A. The great thing about representing illustrators is she’ll get e-mails asking to use a particular client (illustrator). Work goes up on her site & she gets interest. She only works with PB & illustrated novels

    Q. What would you suggest to writers who have submitted to agents without success and are considering submitting directly to publishers?

    A. A large number of publishers don’t accept unsolicited ms.

    Q. What are your personal submission guidelines?

    A. After she’s back from vacation (after Labor Day) use querybb@sjga.com (note: there was a secret word given, but it was only for the use of those who were at the presentation). Include the title of the book in the subject line. The query goes in the body of the e-mail and 3 chapters are sent  as an attachment (note: there are further instructions at http://www.sjga.com/code/contact.htm). For an illustrated PB, send as PDF. A pet peeve—she hates to see forwards. That is, she doesn’t want to see that you forwarded a query that you’d sent to another agent. Another pet peeve is the use of rhetorical questions (“Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be born with three elbows?”)

    If you query her, you’re going to get a bounceback that says “I’m not able to read and respond to all, so if you don’t hear from me in 8 weeks, I’m declining the opportunity.” If you hear from another agent, put “interest received” or “offer received” in the subject line. For what it’s worth, TNR is her fave font.

    Q. How do you feel about historical fiction?

    A. She loves historical fiction, and is repping an author who’s a master of the genre. Publishers say no historical fiction, but they publish it all the time. All the Newbery & honor books this year were historical fiction.

    Q. What if you didn’t attend this workshop and what’s a bad time frame to submit?

    A. If you didn’t attend the workshop, you could say, I recently attended the SCBWI conference. As to when to submit, although people are looking for good books all the time, the following time periods are slow: the month of August and Dec 15-Jan 1. Another tip: use Publisher’s Marketplace to see who represents what.

    Q. Do you do specific change suggestions?

    A. Yes. She’ll help the author get something ready, and then the editor might have suggestions as well

    Q. Can a publisher take rights to character?

    A. That would be a very bad deal. They own right to publish the book, maybe an option to the next book with the same character, but an agent is unlikely to allow them to own rights to the character itself.

    Q. Would a publisher be involved with other rights such as a TV show?

    A. Those rights don’t have to be included in the publishing contract, but everyone should work together. The question is, Whose team is the editor on? the publisher’s or the author’s? If everyone is on one team that works the best.

    Q. Is the client under contract during revisions?

    A. Sometimes yes. Brenda has a broad contract, but some agencies don’t have that contract.

  • #LA11SCBWI – Day 2 Judy Blume!

    The bad news is that John Green had to have emergency gall bladder surgery and couldn’t be here for his workshop. The good news is we got Judy Blume instead.

    The surprise interview with Judy Blume was so fabulous, it deserves a blog post of its own. I took notes on my netbook during the interview, which was kind of stream of consciousness, but just perfect. There’s not a lot of organization to the following; it’s pretty much as it went down this morning.

    Judy likes the intimacy of writing with pencil. From the start, her approach was to just get through a draft, which worked when she used carbon paper on a typewriter. But with the advent of computers, there’s a lot of temptation to go back and edit before moving forward in the manuscript. She admits she’s a terrible first draft writer.

    She prints out her manuscript several times and scribbles on it (still has to edit on hardcopy), her security for the next draft. She’ll do 5 drafts herself, maybe 5 more as she works with an editor. Summer Sisters required 23 drafts.

    Her inspiration for Summer Sisters: She was at a pond in a kayak, and heard a loud noise like a gunshot. A whole group of people came down the hill and jumped into the pond in all their clothes (Lin Oliver joked it was a gunshot wedding). After she got home she started conceiving the book. She knew there would be two girls, that one would marry the other’s boyfriend and the book would start with a wedding.

    She’s not necessarily plot person, in fact is sucky at plot. Plot is not how a book comes to her. She will have an idea. She’s never really understood the creative process. Her son says she’s the least analytical person he’s ever known. A basic idea lives in her head and percolates.

    She gave the advice to start the book/story on the day when something different happens. Sometimes you have to write pages and pages before you get to that different day (and then you’ll discard those pages). When she writes a book, she knows where it’s starting and where it’s going, but she doesn’t know where it’s happening along the way. As she writes, she’ll laugh aloud, cry a lot, be turned on by a sexy scene.

    She said what’s going to matter to your readers should come from deep inside you, the writer. Lin commented that Judy seems to channel directly from kids to her. Judy has no idea where that comes from. She can meet a 4 year old and have an instant connection. She identifies with kids, which as she wryly noted doesn’t make you the best mother.

    She mentioned that at the moment, kid’s writers are hot—that we’re the money makers. We write them (kid’s books) because it comes naturally to us, not because we want to do good.

    She was supposed to be conventional mom/wife but it didn’t fit for her. At first, she wanted to be Dr. Suess, and she wrote terrible picture books & sent them out (they were rejected). With the first rejection, she went into the closet and cried. She said determination rather than talent will get you through

    She took a writing class in the ‘60s. The teacher was an older lady (at least from Judy’s perspective) who had last published 20 year earlier. The teacher had rules, that children could never eavesdrop, that the book should tie up everything at the end. Judy didn’t follow the rules. Even though she  didn’t learn anything in the class, she took it again just to keep writing.

    Judy’s first book, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, was shocking when it was first published.

    Judy had an idea how to write because she read books. You should write the kind of book you like to read. Get over writing like Dostoyevsky and Robaire.

    She wishes there were an answer to finding your voice. It never gets easier, after 40 years there’s still the anxiety. She at least knows how to do the process (although there’s no guarantee she’ll do it well)

    She scribbles everything into a notebook, so she always has something written down and never has to face a blank screen. In the beginning, her writing came out faster & more spontaneously because it was new. She keeps a binder with each book.

    By writing electronically, she still has same work product, but it’s harder because she can go back and revise, revise. Doing a first draft is a method, a puzzle. Finding the pieces is the first draft, putting them together is the next draft. The creative part is so much fun when you’re thinking about it, not so much when you’re doing it.

    Why do you come to a conference? For inspiration (although it can be overwhelming). Inspiration will be inside you without you thinking specifically about what was said.

    For instance, at the Key West literary seminar, which has an audience of readers, the theme this year was new writers. A woman was talking about her new book. While she was talking, a light bulb came on in Judy’s head and she knew what she wanted to write next, about something that happened in the 50s in the town she grew up. She started right away, did research for the first time (news stories of the time). She had to take 2 years off because of the movie she was working on (Tiger Eyes which she and her son co-wrote, her husband executive produced), but now she’s back to the book. It’s the first time she knows everything that’s going to happen, previously she’d write to find out what’s going to happen.

    Don’t listen to advice that says “Don’t do this particular thing” if that’s what you’re prompted to write. Don’t worry about the audience if you’re excited about the book. There’s no one way, find what works for you.

    She doesn’t like series. She gets bored too easily. Beverly Horowitz is her editor/publisher.

    How to keep motivated—writing changed her life. She was very prolific at first. She wasn’t happy in her marriage, when her marriage improved and she got happy, she jokingly accused her husband of ruining her career.

    Her mother used to make bargains with God—you can’t take me in the middle of knitting this sweater. In Judy’s case, it’s You gotta let me finish this book.

    She asked the question, why can’t a writer just write, why do we have to be a public speaker? But nowadays we have to. A writer should remember we’re acting out all our characters’ roles and use that when we have to speak.

    She discovered that while a book is very emotional, a movie is even more so. In working on the script for her movie, she had to write in pictures. The movie comes together in post production.

    Dialogue is the only thing she likes to write. She’s not good at descriptive writing or metaphors. She’s good at creating characters and putting them together. She likes contemplating what they’re thinking vs. what they’re saying. Dialogue writing is what comes to her naturally, spontaneously. She hears them talking. Everybody has to listen to write. It’s not a good idea to write, for example, what kids in California are saying, then 2 years later when the book is read in New Jersey, it won’t match (kids in NJ speak differently).

    What is YA? (there was no YA when she was writing). Forever was first thought to be adult, but it was released as children’s. Her daughter had asked couldn’t there be a book where a girl gets pregnant and nobody dies?.

    She didn’t censor herself in the ‘70s, many authors were coming of age then. It’s cyclical, and YA is back to that time (less censored). If it’s important to the character or story, it should be there.

    Judy commented that the infamous WSJ article used her as an example of a good girl, a writer who described the happy days of our youth. The WSJ writer obviously didn’t know the history there. Judy said the WSJ writer made a terrible mistake using the mother in the bookstore. Why did nobody tell her about the many alternatives which are not dark? And there are wonderful authors who are dark.

    Judy said she would have killed for an SCBWI 40 years ago, for a community, to not feel alone. She had nothing like SCBWI. She thanked Lin for that alone. Judy was one of the first people to join the organization.

    Judy had not a clue about how to write at the beginning—and that’s good. We shouldn’t expect to know.

    An audience member asked what was her spiritual place when wrote Margaret. Judy said she was questioning. She came from a mixed religion family, kind of choose your own religion. Her brother married a non-jew who didn’t belong to any religion. At that time, Judy was ready to cut loose and write her 6th grade story.

    Telling a story is a quest which involves questioning. But question your characters, not yourself.

    When asked what did she dream that her legacy would be for herself/her daughter/others, she said she doesn’t dream of a legacy. If she thought of her audience, she wouldn’t be able to write, she’d be too afraid of disappointing them.

    As a last note, she said she’d like her tombstone to read “Are you there God? It’s me.”

  • SCBWILA11 – Day 0

    Or is that Day -1? Not much of import to report. On Twitter, I’ve seen much exclaiming over luminaries at the faculty dinner, but since I’m not faculty and not yet a luminary, I’ve only met the regular folk so far. Many delightful people and a quite swanky hotel (the Century Plaza/Hyatt Regency). Met my roommate, Meredith, and we walked over to have dinner at BJ’s (where I indulged in their triple chocolate dessert involving a melty warm chocolate cookie, a scoop of chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream and a square of dark chocolate).

    Here’s the daytime view from our room on the 17th floor:

     

     

     

     

     

    Complete with renowned L.A. smog.

     

    And here’s a shot of the fountain in the median of Avenue of the Stars, as well as a pic of the hotel lobby with many attendees confabbing:

     

     

     

     

     

    I’ll report more tomorrow when I’ve attended workshops and actually have something worthy of reporting. Very much looking forward to all the excitement!

  • Rent-a-Cat

    I’m heading down to L.A. tomorrow to attend the international summer conference of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators). Although I’ve been to three regionals since I joined the organization last October, this is my first time attending the big SCBWI conference. I’m really looking forward to it.

    As a former member of Romance Writers of America, I’ve been to several of their big annual conferences, so I have some idea of what to expect. There will be too many workshops to choose from (although this time I have a spiffy app to help with that), over-air-conditioned rooms, rubber chicken lunches, and bleary-eyed mornings spent groping for coffee.

    Although I’ve pubbed plenty of romance novels, my book Tankborn, due out in September, is my very first young adult. I still feel green-as-grass, wet-behind-the-ears about the children’s market. So I plan to do the sponge thing at SCBWI LA and soak up as much wisdom as I can.

    To save on expenses, I’ve entered into an “arranged marriage” (sounds like one of my romance novels) to share a room with a fellow SCBWI member from Kentucky. I’ve done that in the past at RWA conferences and it’s both weird and fun to spend a few days with a total stranger. (Of course, there was that one conference where I roomed with three other women and ended up going home with someone else’s panties in my laundry. Eew.) I’m thinking I’m really going to enjoy my time with Meredith in L.A..

    The hotel looks like a nice one and it’s in Century City, a very vibrant part of L.A. But like any hotel, it has one drawback–no kitties. I’m used to having three of them snoozing in bed with me, snuggled up beside me or maybe draped across my head or curled up at my feet. But I will be catless for the three days of the conference.

    Here’s what I think all hotels should provide–a rent-a-cat. They should have a collection of some nice, mellow orange tabbies, or couch potato torties. Hotel guests could reserve their kitty when they reserve their room. There could be pictures posted on the hotel website with profiles of each cat. The cat of choice would be waiting for the guest in their room when they arrive, ready for belly rubs and scritches behind the ears, more than happy to curl up in a lap.

    Yeah, yeah, I can hear your objections. Some people are allergic to cats. Won’t that be traumatic for the cat? And what about that catbox?

    Minor issues all to be worked out. Just as some hotels provide smoking rooms, they can provide “cat rooms” for the non-allergic. Kitties would be chosen for their laid-back temperament and would enjoy the attention of one and all. The hotel guest can clean the cat box since they likely have plenty of practice at home.

    Yeah, not ever gonna happen. But I still think it’s a lovely idea. My toes kept toasty by a cat. The sound of purring in my ear as the hotel cat uses my pillow as his bed. And then there’s that familiar cat hair in my morning coffee.

    Just like home.

  • The Glamorous Life of an Author…Heh

    I roll out of bed at 10am and eat a few bonbons. My special assistant dresses me in my Gucci (I’m old school) and arranges my coiffure, then brings me a few delicacies for breakfast. After I’ve finished my pot of Kopi Luwak coffee, I stroll into my office and wait for inspiration. If inspiration hasn’t arrived by, say, 2pm, I go back to bed.

    Well, I kind of wish I could do it that way (although, what the heck is a bonbon anyway?). In reality, I have to be up by 7:30am so I can feed my diabetic cat and give him his insulin injection. I drag on a pair of ratty jeans and a T-shirt, stuff my feet into slippers and toddle downstairs. I do often spend a little too much time reading the paper during breakfast (usually a bowl of bran flakes mixed with Honey Nut Cheerios), but I’m generally at my desk by 9am. I don’t wait around for inspiration because that brat sleeps later than I do. I have to gut it out through whatever scene I’m currently working on by sheer sweat and perseverance until that prissy Miss Inpira shows up.

    No glitzy coast-to-coast book tours (at least not yet), although I did attend an Society of Childrens Book Writers & Illustrators conference last month. Got a deluxe buffet breakfast at the Best Western (complete with stale scones), some kick-ass BBQ, and a killer Thai dinner with my editor:

    My editor, Stacy Whitman, and I pose in the Best Western lobby just before the triffid behind me drags me off. Barely escaped. Pretty harrowing.

    I’m sure there are authors living actually glamorous lives. In fact I know one of them personally. But although he lives in a pretty swanky house and does those book tours, he works his butt off when it comes to writing the books that his fans love. He’s not twiddling his thumbs in expectation that Mr. Inspiro will show up any minute and whisper into his ear every word of the scene he has to write.

    Alas. Would that it were so.

    But if anyone wants to send me a box of bonbons, my P.O. Box is on my website: www.karensandler.net.