Title: TOO TIRED TO TELL A STORY
Genre: Picture Book
Word Count: 580
Genre: Picture Book
Word Count: 580
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
PBParty 17: BEACH BLAST WITH ROCK STAR SANTA, Seasonal Rhyming PB
Title: Beach Blast with Rock Star Santa
Genre: (Seasonal Rhyming Picture Book)
Word Count: 380
PBParty 18: GEORGE WASHINGTON WANTS ICE CREAM, Historical PB
Title: George Washington Wants Ice Cream
Genre: Historical Fiction
Word Count: 400
PBParty 19: WILLA'S FLYING STARS, Character Driven PB
Title: WILLA’S FLYING STARS
Genre: Character driven, fiction picture book
Word Count: 510
Genre: Character driven, fiction picture book
Word Count: 510
PBParty 20: CUPCAKE WARS, Read Aloud PB
Title: Cupcake Wars
Genre: Fictional Read Aloud
Word Count: 931
PB Party 21: HOLA MEANS HELLO, Realistic Fiction PB
Title: Hola Means Hello
Genre: Picture Book, Realistic Fiction
Word Count: 626
PBParty 22: BABY ALBERT, EVIL GENIUS, Humorous PB
Title: BABY ALBERT, EVIL GENIUS
Genre: Humorous Picture Book
Word Count: 390
Monday, September 21, 2015
Picture Book Party Picks
I built in extra time between submission and agent round this year just in case it was needed, what with helping my Pitch Wars mentees and my own writing. But Sharon and I got done pretty quickly! You can attribute this to Sharon and her drive to read and find the best entries. She really led the charge!
Before the reveal, I just want to remind everyone that contests are for fun and meeting other writers, building contacts. In no way are they a reflection on a story. Maybe people have entered contests and gotten no love, only to get an agent from the query slush--like me. For one thing, we are limited to the number of picks we can showcase, while an agent is not. So keep querying, keep writing those adorable picture and chapter books.
I know the disappointment. Use it to keep going.
Now for the surprise! We've added two extra picks to the numbers. Instead of 15-20, we have 22 spots!
So here are the picks, in no particular order, that will be in the agent round on Wednesday.
Baby Sloth's Big Adventure
Playing Hide and Seek with Bigfoot
Moosecapades!
Ball of Fire
The Guinea Pig Who Ran For President
Ladies First
Diamonds Are For Boys, Too
Disco Barn
Consuelito
Anbu
Babanne's Basket
Diamond Man
Home with Leila
I Am NOT A Butterfly
Kinzie's Kinventions - Spaced Out
Too Tired To Tell A Story
Beach Blast With Rock Star Santa
George Washington Wants Ice Cream
Willa's Flying Stars
Cupcake Wars
Hola Means Hello
Baby Albert, Evil Genius
Congrats to the winners! Hugs to those who will be watching! See you Wednesday for the agent round.
Friday, September 18, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Getting the Submission Call with ME!
Everything is finally settled and today's my birthday, so it's the perfect day to put up this post!
Not all successes happen overnight. You really can't compare your journey to others. That's why I like to give a variety of interviews, so everyone gets an idea of the variables. Some paths to the end are smooth sailing and some are full of mile-high waves. My story is somewhere in the middle.
It took me four manuscripts before I landed an agent. My second book did sell to a small press, but I wanted to go bigger than that. I wanted the whole fairy tale with agent and big publisher, so I kept querying. With my fourth manuscript, I switched it up and wrote a humorous middle grade instead of my usual young adult fantasy. This book had started from a short story I wrote for a contest and was loaded with voice and personality. The query letter breezed out after only four revision. All my friends said this was THE ONE.
It was in that it got the attention of Sarah, and suddenly two years ago this August, I had an agent. Sarah thought my manuscript needed very little revision. My silly hamsters went on submission two weeks later in the first week of September 2013. I was excited to say the least to see the big names reading my manuscript. But months passed, and rejections came in, and we did other rounds of submission all to the same results. No editors asked for revisions or offered, though they thought it funny and had great voice.
I was a Pitchwars mentor last year and surrounded by eighty other mentor who all seemed to be having better luck than me. They had books for sale and big deals with big publishers. While I celebrated their success, all I had was silence or rejection. I felt very down on myself, even knowing many people don't sell their first book to go on submission.
I came to realize the fault was mine. I hadn't read many middle grade books at that point, and what I'd written hovered in between a middle grade and a chapter book. It was, for all purposes, unmarketable. By that time, a year had gone by, and I had nothing to show for it. My next book wasn't even finished yet because submission plays with your head. Sarah and I decided to end submission almost a year after we started. Knowing the MG story's problems were my doing made the empty feeling of failure much worse.
I had so much doubt, it was hard to concentrate on writing or really love the work in progress. It's hard to push yourself when you don't think it will do any good.
If you think querying is intense and hard, wait for submission. It's an out of control roller coaster on steroids. All you can do is wait and drive yourself crazy with wondering. It was a nightmare I was eager to revisit, however.
I finished my YA epic fantasy in November of 2014, sent it to my readers, and then off to Sarah. To my horror, she said it sounded more adult than young adult. Most of the characters were adult. The two main characters, who are teens, had a strong control on their emotions so the voice didn't feel YA.
My agent doesn't represent adult works. I panicked.
But Sarah said not to worry and that she reps all my works. I breathed a sigh of relief and then got to work on the revisions. Unlike the first book we subbed, this one needed some revision to move three of the points of view to earlier in the book. That meant adding three scenes and we also cut a point of view and changed one over to another character.
GRUDGING ended up going on submission in February of 2015 to both young adult and adult editors. I noticed something different right away. I wasn't near as crazy because of this submission. I could focus on other things. I didn't spend every minute thinking about who might be reading it and whether anyone had sent a response. I knew what to expect and had a better handle on my emotions this time. In other words, I didn't get my hopes up. I never expected fireworks and amazing results.
Sarah started off with just a few editors and then added a couple more after a month. A few reading editors said it wasn't for them. We got a couple of rejections but most hadn't gotten back to her. Then low and behold, I got an email from Sarah in May saying don't read anything into this but an editor asked if GRUDGING was still available.
Huh?
That was new. What did that mean? I, of course, read everything into it, and then quickly convinced myself that good things didn't happen to me. It was an editor quirk and nothing more.
The next week on a Friday, Sarah called and left a voice mail to call her back quick. I stole some time away at work and had a coworker cover for me. The editor wanted to talk to me on the phone, could I talk on Wednesday! My mind went blank and I'm not sure how I made it through the rest of the day, let alone an entire weekend. Another call with Sarah after work still had us guessing. The editor didn't specify what he wanted to talk about. I'd already taken that Wednesday off work as it was my wedding anniversary. We set up a time for a call.
I was so nervous. Talking on the phone isn't one of my favorite things (actually pretty shy) and this was a conference call that included Sarah. We didn't know what to expect. I think I had major deodorant fail that Wednesday morning, if you know what I mean. And this wasn't just a regular editor, this was the top editor at the press, the head guy. Yikes!
I prepared for all kinds of questions from the editor, or possible requests for a major revise and resubmit. I wasn't prepared to talk just a little about my book and the future sequels, and have the editor spend most of the call telling me about their imprint! He was trying to sell me on them! A big six!
He told me they needed to crunch some numbers and he'd get back to us next week.
Knowing publishing, I wondered how long that would be. He was prompt to the minute on calling, but didn't a week actually mean a month? They sent a deal memo by email on Monday! They wanted the whole trilogy! And apparently, GRUDGING was in such good shape they wanted to publish in November of this year! No long year and a half or two year wait.
Could this be happening to me?
I guess it could. Because the contract is signed with Harper Voyager for a three book, digital-first deal of my epic fantasy! Now my new challenge is attempting to write sequels!
Thanks everyone for supporting me through this process. I know it's not done yet, but with the help of all the friends I've made, I'm halfway there.
------------------
(Grudging: Goodreads or preorder from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Sorry there's no cover or blurb yet. Thank you!)
Not all successes happen overnight. You really can't compare your journey to others. That's why I like to give a variety of interviews, so everyone gets an idea of the variables. Some paths to the end are smooth sailing and some are full of mile-high waves. My story is somewhere in the middle.
It took me four manuscripts before I landed an agent. My second book did sell to a small press, but I wanted to go bigger than that. I wanted the whole fairy tale with agent and big publisher, so I kept querying. With my fourth manuscript, I switched it up and wrote a humorous middle grade instead of my usual young adult fantasy. This book had started from a short story I wrote for a contest and was loaded with voice and personality. The query letter breezed out after only four revision. All my friends said this was THE ONE.
It was in that it got the attention of Sarah, and suddenly two years ago this August, I had an agent. Sarah thought my manuscript needed very little revision. My silly hamsters went on submission two weeks later in the first week of September 2013. I was excited to say the least to see the big names reading my manuscript. But months passed, and rejections came in, and we did other rounds of submission all to the same results. No editors asked for revisions or offered, though they thought it funny and had great voice.
I was a Pitchwars mentor last year and surrounded by eighty other mentor who all seemed to be having better luck than me. They had books for sale and big deals with big publishers. While I celebrated their success, all I had was silence or rejection. I felt very down on myself, even knowing many people don't sell their first book to go on submission.
I came to realize the fault was mine. I hadn't read many middle grade books at that point, and what I'd written hovered in between a middle grade and a chapter book. It was, for all purposes, unmarketable. By that time, a year had gone by, and I had nothing to show for it. My next book wasn't even finished yet because submission plays with your head. Sarah and I decided to end submission almost a year after we started. Knowing the MG story's problems were my doing made the empty feeling of failure much worse.
I had so much doubt, it was hard to concentrate on writing or really love the work in progress. It's hard to push yourself when you don't think it will do any good.
If you think querying is intense and hard, wait for submission. It's an out of control roller coaster on steroids. All you can do is wait and drive yourself crazy with wondering. It was a nightmare I was eager to revisit, however.
I finished my YA epic fantasy in November of 2014, sent it to my readers, and then off to Sarah. To my horror, she said it sounded more adult than young adult. Most of the characters were adult. The two main characters, who are teens, had a strong control on their emotions so the voice didn't feel YA.
My agent doesn't represent adult works. I panicked.
But Sarah said not to worry and that she reps all my works. I breathed a sigh of relief and then got to work on the revisions. Unlike the first book we subbed, this one needed some revision to move three of the points of view to earlier in the book. That meant adding three scenes and we also cut a point of view and changed one over to another character.
GRUDGING ended up going on submission in February of 2015 to both young adult and adult editors. I noticed something different right away. I wasn't near as crazy because of this submission. I could focus on other things. I didn't spend every minute thinking about who might be reading it and whether anyone had sent a response. I knew what to expect and had a better handle on my emotions this time. In other words, I didn't get my hopes up. I never expected fireworks and amazing results.
Sarah started off with just a few editors and then added a couple more after a month. A few reading editors said it wasn't for them. We got a couple of rejections but most hadn't gotten back to her. Then low and behold, I got an email from Sarah in May saying don't read anything into this but an editor asked if GRUDGING was still available.
Huh?
That was new. What did that mean? I, of course, read everything into it, and then quickly convinced myself that good things didn't happen to me. It was an editor quirk and nothing more.
The next week on a Friday, Sarah called and left a voice mail to call her back quick. I stole some time away at work and had a coworker cover for me. The editor wanted to talk to me on the phone, could I talk on Wednesday! My mind went blank and I'm not sure how I made it through the rest of the day, let alone an entire weekend. Another call with Sarah after work still had us guessing. The editor didn't specify what he wanted to talk about. I'd already taken that Wednesday off work as it was my wedding anniversary. We set up a time for a call.
I was so nervous. Talking on the phone isn't one of my favorite things (actually pretty shy) and this was a conference call that included Sarah. We didn't know what to expect. I think I had major deodorant fail that Wednesday morning, if you know what I mean. And this wasn't just a regular editor, this was the top editor at the press, the head guy. Yikes!
I prepared for all kinds of questions from the editor, or possible requests for a major revise and resubmit. I wasn't prepared to talk just a little about my book and the future sequels, and have the editor spend most of the call telling me about their imprint! He was trying to sell me on them! A big six!
He told me they needed to crunch some numbers and he'd get back to us next week.
Knowing publishing, I wondered how long that would be. He was prompt to the minute on calling, but didn't a week actually mean a month? They sent a deal memo by email on Monday! They wanted the whole trilogy! And apparently, GRUDGING was in such good shape they wanted to publish in November of this year! No long year and a half or two year wait.
Could this be happening to me?
I guess it could. Because the contract is signed with Harper Voyager for a three book, digital-first deal of my epic fantasy! Now my new challenge is attempting to write sequels!
Thanks everyone for supporting me through this process. I know it's not done yet, but with the help of all the friends I've made, I'm halfway there.
------------------
(Grudging: Goodreads or preorder from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Sorry there's no cover or blurb yet. Thank you!)
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Cover Reveal for INCONCEIVABLE
This great story was one of my picks in a contest last year. I also got the meet the author at a writer conference last fall. Now I get to share the cover reveal! I just love the perks of this job!
A popular, young royal couple can't produce an heir? INCONCEIVABLE!
When Ozarks native Hatty goes “whole hog” during karaoke, she catches the eye of Prince John. He isn’t what she expects the heir to a small European nation to be: he's affable, witty, and isn’t put off by her tell-it-like-it-is demeanor. Their flirtation should be short lived, but a force stronger than fate—Hatty’s newspaper editor—assigns her to cover the royals. After spending time together, she and John soon begin dating, and Hatty finds herself making headlines instead of writing them.
But challenges loom that are even more complicated than figuring out how to mesh Hatty's journalism career with life at Belvoir Palace. Hatty and John soon find themselves embroiled in an unusual sex scandal: they can't produce an heir. Tabloids dub Hatty a “Barren-ess,” and the royals become irate. Hatty politely tells them to shove it. But beneath her confident exterior, she struggles to cope with a heartbreak that invades her most intimate moments with John. Pressured to choose between invasive medical procedures and abandoning John’s claim to the throne, the couple feels trapped until a trip to Ethiopia shows them happy endings sometimes arrive long after saying “I do.”
The best compliment Tegan Wren ever received came from her sixth grade teacher: “You always have a book in your hand!”
Guided by her love of the creative process, Tegan grew up acting in theatre productions and writing poetry, short stories, and plays. She turned her eye to writing about real life when she worked as a journalist, producing reports for various radio and television stations in medium and large markets in the Midwest and also filing some stories for a major national news network. Wren has both a Bachelor’s of Journalism and a Master of Arts in Communications. After completing her graduate degree, Tegan had the opportunity to teach journalism courses at a major state university. She absolutely loved training the next generation of journalists.
Tegan’s thankful that she’s had the opportunity to travel overseas, and uses those adventures to inform her writing. She also draws inspiration from her own struggles, joys, and life experiences. Tegan and her husband, Patrick, experienced infertility for five years before becoming parents through adoption.
A popular, young royal couple can't produce an heir? INCONCEIVABLE!
When Ozarks native Hatty goes “whole hog” during karaoke, she catches the eye of Prince John. He isn’t what she expects the heir to a small European nation to be: he's affable, witty, and isn’t put off by her tell-it-like-it-is demeanor. Their flirtation should be short lived, but a force stronger than fate—Hatty’s newspaper editor—assigns her to cover the royals. After spending time together, she and John soon begin dating, and Hatty finds herself making headlines instead of writing them.
But challenges loom that are even more complicated than figuring out how to mesh Hatty's journalism career with life at Belvoir Palace. Hatty and John soon find themselves embroiled in an unusual sex scandal: they can't produce an heir. Tabloids dub Hatty a “Barren-ess,” and the royals become irate. Hatty politely tells them to shove it. But beneath her confident exterior, she struggles to cope with a heartbreak that invades her most intimate moments with John. Pressured to choose between invasive medical procedures and abandoning John’s claim to the throne, the couple feels trapped until a trip to Ethiopia shows them happy endings sometimes arrive long after saying “I do.”
- Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Inconceivable-Tegan-Wren-ebook/dp/B014U6D2SQ
- Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inconceivable-Tegan-Wren-ebook/dp/B014U6D2SQ/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1441326472&sr=8-10&keywords=inconceivable
- INCONCEIVABLE! on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24910975-inconceivable
- Tegan's blog: http://www.teganwren.com
- Tegan on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/teganwrenwrites
- Tegan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/teganwrenwrites
- Tegan on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/teganwren
-------------------------------
Guided by her love of the creative process, Tegan grew up acting in theatre productions and writing poetry, short stories, and plays. She turned her eye to writing about real life when she worked as a journalist, producing reports for various radio and television stations in medium and large markets in the Midwest and also filing some stories for a major national news network. Wren has both a Bachelor’s of Journalism and a Master of Arts in Communications. After completing her graduate degree, Tegan had the opportunity to teach journalism courses at a major state university. She absolutely loved training the next generation of journalists.
Tegan’s thankful that she’s had the opportunity to travel overseas, and uses those adventures to inform her writing. She also draws inspiration from her own struggles, joys, and life experiences. Tegan and her husband, Patrick, experienced infertility for five years before becoming parents through adoption.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Release Week for HOOK'S REVENGE
I am so
excited that THE PIRATE CODE by Heidi
Schulz releases today and that I get to share the news, along with an awesome
giveaway!
If you
haven’t yet heard about this wonderful series by Heidi Schulz, be sure to check
out all the details below.
This blitz
also includes a giveaway for copies of both HOOK’S REVENGE books! US only. So
if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this
post.
About The Book:
Title: THE PIRATE CODE:
HOOK'S REVENGE Book 2
Author:
Heidi Schulz
Pub. Date:
September 15, 2015
Publisher:
Disney-Hyperion
Pages: 352
Format:
Hardcover, eBook
Find it: Amazon, Barnes
& Noble, Goodreads
Fresh off a
fearsome encounter with the Neverland crocodile, Jocelyn Hook decides the most
practical plan is to hunt down her father's famous fortune. After all, she'll
need the gold to fund her adventuring in the future. (And luckily, Hook left
her the map.)
But the map
proves to be a bit harder to crack than Jocelyn had hoped, and she's convinced
that the horrible Peter Pan might be the only one with the answers. Of course,
he doesn't really feel like helping her, so Jocelyn takes the only reasonable
course of action left to her: she kidnaps his mother. Evie, though, is
absolutely thrilled to be taken prisoner, so Jocelyn's daring ploy doesn't have
quite the effect she'd planned for.
Along with
the problem of her all-too-willing captive, Jocelyn must also contend with
Captain Krueger, whose general policy is that no deed is too dastardly when it
comes to stealing Hook's treasure. And with the ever-shifting Whens of the
Neverland working against her as well, Jocelyn, Evie, Roger, and the rest of
the Hook's Revenge crew have their work cut out for them.
In this
rambunctious showdown between characters new and old, Jocelyn puts her own
brand of pirating to the test in a quest to save her future and those she
loves.
About Heidi:
Heidi Schulz is a writer, reader, and giraffe
suspicioner. She lives in Salem, Oregon with her husband, co-captaining a crew
made of their teen daughter, a terrible little dog, and five irascible
chickens. Her debut novel for middle grade readers, HOOK’S REVENGE, published
by Disney•Hyperion, was a Bank Street Best book, among the New York Public
Library’s Top 100 Titles for Children in 2014, and an OCTE Oregon Spirit Honor
Book. A sequel, HOOK’S REVENGE: THE PIRATE CODE, will follow in
September 2015. Bloomsbury Kids will publish her picture book debut,
GIRAFFES RUIN EVERYTHING, in Spring 2016.
Connect with the
author:
Giveaway Details:
1 winner
will receive both HOOKS’S REVENGE Books. US Only.
Ends on September
25th at Midnight EST!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Monday, September 14, 2015
Picture Book Party Submission
CLOSED!
Today is the day! Submission opens at 4:00 pm Eastern. (If that time is not good for you, try Letter Me Later)
The Rules:
Please be a follower of this blog. You can click the "Join this Site" button in the left sidebar. Please follow myself and Sharon on twitter. I imagine we will be tweeting hints as well as partying!
You may send two entries for different manuscripts. That's two and only two, whether you have multiple pen names or multiple email addresses. THEY MUST BE SENT AS SEPARATE EMAILS. Please be honest and not send more. Only one entry will be chosen per person. If you send two, still only one will be picked. Any attempt to cheat will result in entries thrown out (and sadly it has happened in the past.)
On September 14th at 4:00 pm Eastern the submission window opens. Do not send early or your entry will be deleted. You may resend at the correct time if this happens by accident. I'm recycling an email address as I already have too many. Please send your entry to SunversusSnow at yahoo dot com.
You should receive a confirmation email. If you do not, please contact me on twitter before re-sending. The window will stay open until we get 250 entries. However long that takes. It could be minutes or it could be days. Likely it will go fast.
This contest is only for finished and polished manuscripts. It has to be ready to go out to agents.
The Format:
Subject Line: PBParty: Title
Example: PBParty: Hot Tub Santa
Inside the email please bold where bolded in my example. Single space with spaces between paragraphs. Use Times New Roman or equivalent font and the size should be 12.
(Here's a trick to keep your paragraph spacing: copy and paste your entry into your email and then put in the line spaces. They seem to get lost when you copy and paste. It may look right but sending scrambles the spacing.)
Name: Sharon Chriscoe
Twitter Handle: @schriscoe_
Title: HOT TUB SANTA
Genre: (Here please tell us what type of picture book this is) Example: Board Book, Bedtime Rhyme, Nonfiction, Biography, etc. or List Chapter Book
Word Count: xxx (round to nearest ten, hundred for chapter books)
Query:
Your entire query letter here. Include your comps, bio, greeting, closing. (You may use whatever you want for a greeting. Dear Agent. Dear Michelle and Sharon.)
Here is your chance to make your entry shine and make the agent fall in love with your words. You do NOT need to include contact information in your query.
First 50 Words:
Include your first 50 words for a picture book, 100 words for chapter books. Do not stop in the middle of a sentence. You may go over by one or two words to finish a sentence but not more than five. Single space and put spaces in between paragraphs. You may center or tab if appropriate.
Comments about artwork are part of the 50 words.
For short picture books, less than 50 words may be submitted. Any count under 50 is allowed.
Also I will delete parts of entries after the contest ends, if requested. For those writers uncomfortable with their work being out there for all to see.
Bonus: You may attach one illustration to your email to show an example of your artwork. If you don't have artwork, don't worry.
Now for the twitter party fun! Visit daily under the hashtag #PBParty to meet and greet and scout out slush hints.
Monday, September 14th Tell us what genre you write and when you entered.
Tuesday, September 15th What is your favorite place to write? Share your writing quirks.
Wednesday, September 16th What is your favorite picture/chapter book?
Thursday, September 17th Animal, vegetable, mineral. Tell us if your MC is human or something else.
Friday, September 18th What picture/chapter book author would you like to meet, living or dead?
Saturday, September 19th What picture book character would you like to be?
Sunday, September 20th Take a day off and relax.
Monday, September 21st What's your best writing advice?
Tuesday, September 22nd Look for CP partners and make more friends.
Wednesday, September 23rd Hang on because here we go!
Sharon and I are so excited for the fun to start. As you've probably noticed we have a great group of agents and editors.
Good luck everyone!
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