On Being a PAL by Dawne Webber

I joined SCBWI in 2014, and it didn’t take long for my writer-self to realize I’d finally found a home and I couldn’t wait to get involved. I joined the MichKids listserv and began attending Shop Talks. When the conversation at one of the meetings revolved around querying, I offered to write a series of articles on SCBWI Michigan's blog, The Mitten. I’d spent a lot of time in the query trenches and hoped to make the process a little less intimidating.

I continued attending the Farmington Shop Talks and at the last meeting before summer break, we all bemoaned the fact we wouldn’t see each other until the fall. Being the social animal that I am, I offered to plan a night out so we could meet over the summer. I contacted Carrie Pearson, one of Michigan’s Co-Regional Advisors, wondering if it was possible to share the invitation to our night out with all the MichKid members. She thought it was a great idea, and the night out was quite a success.

I’d told Carrie that I wanted to get more involved in our chapter and a few months later, I got a call from her and Leslie Helakoski, SCBWI-MI’s other Co-Regional Advisor (they are lovely ladies).

They were looking for someone to communicate with Michigan’s 110 PAL members and share information regarding events, educational and marketing opportunities, as well as organizing PAL events and activities that would benefit them. They ended by asking if I would like to become the Michigan chapter’s first PAL Coordinator. That sounded right up my alley (excuse the cliché) and I enthusiastically accepted the position.

Before I continue, let me give a refresher on SCBWI’s levels of membership which are:

• Associate members - Open to unpublished writers and illustrators of children’s literature or media, and those with a general enthusiasm for the field. Writers or illustrators who have been published in markets other than children's literature (but not in children's literature), as well as journalists, bloggers, educators, teachers and librarians.

• Full members - Open to those whose books, articles, poems, stories, illustrations, photographs, films, television or electronic media for children have been published or produced.

• PAL members - This PAL doesn’t mean friend, although you may have a friend who is a PAL. PAL stands for Published and Listed. In a nutshell, the books of Published and Listed authors/illustrators must be published by traditional publishers that do not charge money to authors or illustrators. For detailed guidelines on PAL membership, click here. For a list of current PAL publishers, click here.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Updating your membership status to PAL:
Once you have been published by an accepted publisher, in order for your status to be PAL, you must go to the SCBWI website, upload the book, article, etc. that qualifies you as a PAL member and click on the publisher in the drop down menu. Your status will then automatically be changed to PAL.




SCBWI’s mission is to support the creation and availability of quality children’s books around the world. That’s a huge undertaking, and, although they offer many types of support to members in general, each type of membership also has specific needs. PAL members are interested in more intensive and advanced level of instruction. For this reason, on a regular basis Michigan SCBWI AdvisoryCommittee (AdCom) plans programming at conferences or a retreat that’s geared toward more experienced SCBWI members, such as the writer/illustrator retreat in Boyne this past October.

Because PALs have books to sell, they also have a vested interest in the marketing, networking, and outreach aspect of the publishing world. As the PAL coordinator, I share resources and advice with PAL members, and relay information about bookfairs, conferences, and events they might want to participate in.

On a national level, PAL members are supported by The Reading List Program which includes books of all genres from PAL authors and illustrators. It’s available on the national website as a resource for educators, librarians, and parents. Also at the national level is the Book Blast Program. It’s a fantastic way to boost a newly published book's outreach. Members design a one-of-a-kind, online page that gives visitors an inside look at them and their book.

This year, SCBWI-MI has been very busy planning the upcoming MERRY MITTEN HOLIDAY. Twenty-eight Michigan SCBWI authors and illustrators are teaming up with six Michigan bookstores for one-of-a-kind signing events that will take place throughout December. We’re all very excited about the program and hope it will become a yearly holiday staple around the state. For more information, dates, times and locations, visit the Merry Mitten website and Like/Share our Facebook page.

Thanks in advance for supporting our PAL members at Merry Mitten Holiday bookstores and beyond!

Dawne Webber has been the PAL coordinator for the SCBWI-MI chapter since 2015. Feel free to email her with PAL related questions. 

Coming up on the Mitten blog: A Michigan author/illustrator wins the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award - twice! And it's time for our final Hugs and Hurrahs of the year. Send your writing/illustrating/book news to Patti Richards by December 12th to be included. You inspire us - let us trumpet your success!

Cheers!
Kristin Lenz

Chicago Style: I'm Not Talking Pizza by Dawne Webber

I was a comma neurotic.

neu·rot·ic: often or always fearful or worried about something: tending to worry in a way that is not healthy or reasonable. Merriam-Webster.

Comma rules eluded me. If I couldn’t manage to remember a handful of them, how would I ever memorize the entire comma canon? I wondered if this lack of comma knowledge would affect my writing professionally, as in with potential agents and editors. “Don’t worry about it,” a friend reassured me. “Publishers have editors to do that for you.” I breathed a sigh of relief and went on my merry way.

But I soon learned that, although grammatical perfection is not required in submissions to agents and editors, near perfection should be the goal. Melissa Donovan sums it up perfectly in her post, “10 Reasons Why Writers Should Learn Good Grammar”:

How will you get that short story, essay, or blog post published if you don’t know the basics of grammar, spelling, and punctuation? Sure, some managing editors will go over your work and clean it up for you, but most reputable publishers have enough submissions that they can toss grammatically weak work into the trash without thinking twice. Writing Forward

And Kate S. has a logical answer to the question “Do you have to be good at grammar to get published?”:

The problem is that there are so many people out there trying to get published who ARE good at grammar. If an editor is looking at your MS and at an MS with an equally good story, characterization, writing style, etc., but with better grammar, the editor is going to chose the story with better grammar. Stack Exchange

At least I didn’t need to memorize the comma rules. They were all over the place. I could use the Gregg Reference manual that I’d picked up years ago, or I could Google how to use commas.

There came a point when I began to suspect that I was not, in fact, comma deficient. My memory wasn’t the problem (so much). The problem was that comma rules varied depending on the source, and there were many sources.

If that wasn’t confusing enough, writer friends began dropping words like Oxford comma, AP, and Chicago style. A one-time journalist turned fiction writer was always disparaging one of them, but I could never remember which one. Then to add to the chaos, my daughter’s college courses required her to use the MLA (Modern Language Association) style. Exactly how many styles were there? And which was correct? It was enough to give me nightmares.

To prevent others in my situation from having nightmares, here are the three most common style guides and what type of writing they’re used for:

• MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities.
• The AP Stylebook is the prime reference for those in the news and public relations fields.
• The Chicago Manual of Style is the guide for authors, editors and publishers of books, periodicals and journals.

Easy enough. I’m an author so the CMS would be my guide. But the debates were so intense (violent in some cases) that I decided to check with the experts, my editor friends on Twitter. Only after they agreed that the CMS was the style book for writers, did I rush to order my very own Chicago Manual of Style.

If you’ve never seen one, you cannot imaging the information bursting from its lengthy 1026 pages. It’s amazing. Let me tell you, this baby is not only about grammar and punctuation. Who’d ever heard of rectos and versos, much less knew what they were? It’s fascinating reading (for a little while).

Novelists everywhere owe The Chicago Manual of Style their gratitude. It’s an unsung hero of our times.

Dawne Webber is represented by Steven Chudney of The Chudney Agency. Ask Me to Wait, her YA contemporary novel, is currently on submission. Dawne lives in Troy with her husband and five children. They keep her sane amid the insanity of writing. 

This post was first published on Dawne's blog. Learn more about Dawne and find a wealth of information about writing and publishing at
https://dawnewebber.wordpress.com/.






Coming up on the Mitten blog: Everything you ever wanted to know about MFA programs. We have a team of students and graduates from various MFA/MA programs ready to answer your questions. Send your questions to me at kristinbartleylenz@gmail.com, and I'll forward them to our experts.

Beyond the Book, Part 4: Submissions and Tracking by Dawne Webber

So you’ve completed the book, written a brilliant query letter and researched a list of agents/editors who will love your book-baby. Now it’s time to get a submission packet together and dive into the query trenches.

Submission Packet:

A submission packet for MG and YA fiction consists of:

• Query letter—Refer to Beyond the Book: Queries
• Synopsis—A one or two page synopsis is standard. If more material is requested after your query is read, longer synopsis is sometimes included. To craft a perfect synopsis, read Beth Anderson’s post here.
• First pages—Many submission guidelines require some number of pages (also called sample pages) from the manuscript. Always send pages from the beginning of the book.
• It’s a good idea to paste the first five pages at the end of the query if the agent/editor guidelines don’t specifically state not to send pages.

A submission packet for picture books consists of:

• Short query letter—Just present the main characters, the main problem, and the resolution, then work in a hook (Ex: “great friendship hook,”), and sign off like you normally would with a novel query. From KidLit.com
• Complete manuscript pasted in the body of the email.
• A link to an online portfolio if you are an author/illustrator.
• For questions about illustration notes in PB submissions click here
• Do not include attachments unless the agent requests to see more illustrations or to see a dummy.

Some Do’s and Don’ts

1. DO re-read the submission guidelines directly from the agent’s website before hitting the send button.
2. DO copy and paste the text of the query, synopsis and sample pages into the body of the email. Agents will not open attachments
3. DO flag your query as such in the subject line of your email: QUERY: GRAPES OF WRATH. Otherwise, agents will miss it, skip over it, or simply disregard it as spam.
4. DO use a personal but professional sounding email address.  JSmith@gmail.com as opposed to sparklyunicorn@gmail.com
5. DON’T use your work email address unless it’s related to your writing.
6. DON’T send a mass email to a list of agents.
7. DON’T send illustrations unless you’re an author/illustrator.
8. DON’T use a generic salutation (Dear Mr./Ms. Agent). Make sure it’s personalized.
9. DON’T send email queries with attachments. They will be unread and deleted every time—guaranteed. Agent Query

Formatting:

Formatting snail-mail packets is very straight forward. Agent Query spells it out here.

The preferred format for electronic submissions is Times New Roman, left justified, single-spaced with double space between paragraphs. All material should be included within the body of the email. Make sure to indicate the transition from the query itself to other elements, such as the synopsis or sample pages, and title these elements accordingly.

Tracking:

You may prefer to keep track of and organize submissions using a spreadsheet, index cards or file. The Internet Writing Journal gives tips and how-to’s here.

I prefer Query Tracker. Let me explain why. Recently our dishwasher died and I had to do dishes by hand. Six people eating three meals per day. That adds up to LOTS of dishes, and many hours spent washing, drying, and putting them away. Not impossible, but certainly not efficient. A dishwasher makes cleaning dishes much easier and less time consuming.

Query Tracker is like a dishwasher for writers/illustrators. It’s a tool used to explore agent data and find literary agents, as well as organize and track queries and agent responses. Basic membership is free.

Good luck on your journey to publication wherever it may take you.

Dawne Webber is represented by Steven Chudney of The Chudney Agency. Ask Me to Wait, her YA contemporary novel, is currently on submission. Dawne lives in Troy with her husband and five children. They keep her sane amid the insanity of writing. You can learn more about Dawne at DawneWebber.

This concludes the Beyond the Book four-part series. If you missed the first three posts in the series, you can find them here:

Part one: The Path to Traditional Publishing

Part two: Queries

Part three: Agents

Thank you, Dawne, for pulling all of this information together for us - what a great resource!

Patti Richards is busy gathering good news from our Michigan members. Please join us next Friday for Hugs and Hurrahs!

Calling all SCBWI-MI illustrators! Logo Design Contest: How would you like to win free tuition to the fall Michigan SCBWI conference? Better yet, how would you like to earn widespread and heavy exposure for a piece of your art?

The SCBWI-MI fall conference features talent "home grown" in our state. It's got everything: big names, amazing speakers, astounding talent. The only thing lacking is a logo, a visual piece that emphasizes our great state, gardening, agriculture, fruitful endeavor, bountiful harvest. And kid's books.

The logo will be judged by Michigan illustration professionals. The deadline is tight: it's due by Thursday, June 25. Final art should be ready to run in digital and print media. It is only acceptable in jpeg form, and the size should be less than 1 MB.

The winning artwork will be featured on a slider that tops the SCBWI-MI web page, and on all conference- related communication. SCBWI members nationwide, as well as prominent editors and art directors are the potential audience for your work. Go here to learn more.

Happy creating!
Kristin Lenz

Beyond the Book, Part 3: Agents by Dawne Webber

Now we get to the fun part of querying—hunting for agents. And it’s something you can do before your book is complete. Searching for agents before you’re ready to query has its perks:

• Need a pick-me-up or a little break from writing or revisions? Spend a few minutes hunting for agents. WARNING: Sometimes you forget it was supposed to be a little break.
• It moves you toward your goal of getting published. When you’re feeling like you’ll never finish writing the darn book, researching agents gives you a boost.
• Each agent you add to your list is special because you realize This might be THE ONE!
• When you decide your baby is ready for the bigs and you can’t wait to get the ball rolling, you have a list of agents ready.

What to look for in an agent:

The most important factor in agent hunting is focusing on agents that represent your genre. A pet peeve of agents and editors is getting queries for things they don’t represent. “Oh,” you say, “I want Diana Gabaldon’s agent. I know he doesn’t represent YA, but he’ll love my novel.”

No, he won’t. Stick to agents who represent your genre.

Before jumping into the agent pool, you need to weigh the pros and cons of the following and decide what qualities you want in your agent:

• Editorial agent vs. non-editorial
• Big list of author clients vs. small list
• Large agency vs. boutique agency (smaller, specialized)
• One book representation vs. career representation
• New agent vs. established agent

Hunting for agents:

• Literary Rambles, a blog written by Casey McCormick and our own Natalie Aguirre, spotlights agents and has tons of information about them. It was an invaluable tool in my agent hunt.
• Search the internet for literary agents in your genre.
• Find a book similar to yours and look for the agent’s name in the acknowledgements.
• Find articles on agent stats, such as lists of top-selling agents. You can find lists like this for YA, PB and MG at Darcy Pattinson.
• #MSWL—Manuscript Wish List. Agents and editors post what they’re looking for in submissions. Searching #MSWL will generate hundreds of results, but here are a few sites dedicated to it: MS Wish List, and Manuscript Wish List.

Look at more than stats and agent profiles. Find interviews with agents. Read what their authors say about them. On Google Books, you can search the name of the agent that interests you.

If he/she was mentioned on an author’s acknowledgement page, it’s usually in the search results. You can learn a lot about an agent by the acknowledgement (or lack of acknowledgement) in their clients’ books.

Query Tracker:

On Query Tracker (which I’ll be covering more in my next post) you can search for agents using a wide array of search filters, including genre. A search generates a list of agents meeting your criteria. You then click on an agent to get their profile. An agent’s profile has multiple parts. Here’s a list of some of the more pertinent information you can find:

• Contact info including links to agency websites, agent blogs, social media accounts
• Reputable links where you can find more information, such as Literary Rambles, Predators and Editors, and Google Books
• There is a page for member comments concerning that particular agent. It’s very helpful.

A few things to keep in mind:

Legitimate agents will never charge a fee or try to sell you something. Also remember, information changes and becomes outdated. Always check the agency site and the agent’s profile one last time before submitting a query.

More resources:

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents
http://pred-ed.com/peala.ht

http://www.agentquery.com/

Please feel free to share any resources you’d like to recommend.

Dawne Webber is represented by Steven Chudney of The Chudney Agency. Ask Me to Wait, her YA contemporary novel, is currently on submission. Dawne lives in Troy with her husband and five children. They keep her sane amid the insanity of writing. You can learn more about Dawne at DawneWebber.

Did you miss Part 1 and Part 2 of Dawne's Beyond the Book series? She'll be back next month with the final post.

The SCBWI-MI Hook of the Book conference is tomorrow! We'll share conference take-aways as soon as our reporters have time to gather their thoughts after the big event. 

Coming up on The Mitten blog: a 3 part craft series on developing voice, an interview with Buffy the Poetry Slayer, a YA Success Story, Ask Frida Pennabook, and another round of Hugs and Hurrahs. Send your good news to Patti Richards at info@pgwrites.com by June 21st.

Happy reading!
Kristin Lenz

Beyond the Book Part 2: Queries by Dawne Webber

Query Letter. Two unassuming words that those of us who have fought in the query trenches regard with awe and dread. The query letter is the tool necessary to introduce your MG, YA or picture book to an agent or editor.

Literary agents receive almost 200 unsolicited (meaning the agent didn’t request them) queries per week. Welcome to the slush pile. To escape the dreaded slush, your query needs to stand out. In a good way.

What a successful query letter does:

• Sets up the stakes of the novel.
• Makes the reader care about the characters.
• And most importantly, entices an agent or editor to read more.

What a query letter is not:

• A synopsis of your book.
• A sales pitch detailing why your novel is guaranteed to be a million seller.
• An entreaty begging for representation/publication.

Basically, you have a standard query format to follow and 250-350 words to sell your novel.

• Hook: A very interesting 100-200 word paragraph showing what your main character wants most in the world, and what’s standing in the way.
• Brief Bio: This is not a personal bio. It’s a writing bio. And if you haven’t been published or won major awards or prizes, writing a bio can be intimidating. For help, click here.
• Conclusion: Information about your book, including genre/category, word count, title/subtitle, and a brief thank you for their time and consideration.
• Picture books should have a brief hook and include the book’s complete text. If you’re an author/illustrator you’ll need to include a dummy, which is a mock-up of the book.

The problem is you can ask ten different agents what they want to see in a query and you’ll get six different answers. For example, many agents prefer the above format, but just as many like a query to open with word count and genre. In the end, you’ll decide which format is right for you.

Some things I discovered trekking along the learning curve:

Comps: Comps are published books you cite in your query that compare to yours. I suggest not including comps unless the agent specifically asks for them. Your choices might come across as arrogant—My novel is The Fault in Our Stars meets The Hunger Games. Also, an agent may dislike an author or book you compare to your own, giving that agent a less than positive impression.

Personalizing the query: I’ve spent hours researching agents, uncovering personal tidbits to work into my query. It didn’t seem to get me any more requests than the queries I didn’t personalize. Unless an agent specifically mentions they like personalized queries, I suggest not wasting valuable word count on too much schmoozing. The exception is in the salutation which should be addressed to a specific agent.

Show, don’t tell: Duh. As a writers, we can chant that in our sleep. I was positive all six revisions of my query SHOWED. They just weren’t getting much interest from agents. So I sent the query to Query Drill (a query critique site) and got a reply that opened my eyes: 

I need something that stands out to love a query: the writer's voice, a great plot or (preferably) both. Your voice is the standard I'm-a-querying-author voice, which doesn't automatically mean a rejection--at least, it wouldn't for me, if I were an agent. What *does* result in a rejection is nothing for me to sink my teeth into. Don't be coy!

Meaning— you’re telling me. I want you to show me. Ouch. That’s exactly what I thought I’d been doing. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and muttered, “It’s worth it. It’s worth it. It’s worth it.” Then I rewrote it. Query #7 as I fondly call it, enticed my agent to want to read more and eventually sign me. You can read the query here.

If you have any questions or advice to share, we’d love to hear from you in the comment section.

Picture book query resources:

http://kidlit.com/2010/09/27/picture-book-queries/

http://queryshark.blogspot.com/2012/02/218.html

General query resources:

Query Shark

Agent Query

The Truth About the Slush Pile

Writers’ Digest-The Ten Dos and Don’ts of Writing a Query

Query critiquing resources:

Query Drill

Query Shark

Thoughts From The Agent Desk

Dawne Webber is represented by Steven Chudney of The Chudney Agency. Ask Me to Wait, her YA contemporary novel, is currently on submission. Dawne lives in Troy with her husband and five children. They keep her sane amid the insanity of writing. You can learn more about Dawne at DawneWebber.

Did you miss the introduction of Dawne's Beyond the Book series? Go here to read her first post, and stay tuned for Part 3 next month. Coming up on The Mitten blog: a Middle-Grade Success Story, Wired for Story book review, and another Member Spotlight - it could be you!

Happy reading,
Kristin Lenz

Beyond the Book – The Path to Traditional Publishing by Dawne Webber

My first novel was finished. I found myself at the self-publish or traditional publish fork in the road. I decided the traditional publishing route was best for me. The hard part was over! Now, I had only to get my manuscript into the hands of editors. I knew I had to write a query letter, but that was all I knew. I went to the bookstore and from the myriad of books about querying, chose one to be my query bible. I crafted the perfect query and sent it to thirteen editors a la Stephenie Meyer. Who needed an agent? If she could do it without one, so could I.

Rejections trickled in, and my confidence was shaken. I’d heard about Query Shark, the query critiquing blog of literary agent Janet Reid. I’d send her my query. She’d love it and affirm its perfection. After all, I’d faithfully followed all the steps in my query bible. Then, with confidence restored, I’d continue querying.

Unfortunately, the pre-requisite to submitting to Query Shark was to read through the entire archives. So, I rolled my eyes and began to read. I soon realized that I’d nailed it, but not in the way I’d hoped. My query was a perfect example of how not to write a query.

There was much more to this publishing thing than I’d ever imagined, and I have quite an imagination. I’m a writer, after all.

The Submission Process

I was back where I’d started, query-less and unsure. Getting my book into the hands of a reader was going to be a daunting task. Here’s a brief outline of the process:

1. Prepare a submission package.

2. Research literary agents or editors.

3. Decide on a system that will keep a list of agents/editors you’d like to query and track your submissions. The reality is you are going to send out too many queries to keep track of in your head.

4. Dive into the query trenches!

Literary Agent vs. Editor

Before tackling anything, I had to decide if I wanted to submit to literary agents or continue submitting to acquisitions editors. The consensus is that a writer benefits from signing with an agent first, but ultimately it’s a personal choice. As with the decision to go the traditional route or self-publish, each author needs to consider their needs, goals, and aspirations for the future.

• Literary agent – As your representative in the literary market, your agent may offer editorial guidance, establish contacts for you with editors and publishers, explain the language of contracts and negotiate contract terms, sell the rights to your work, and help you find new opportunities for publishing. From Poets & Writers.

• Acquisitions editor – Finds new authors and promotes writers he thinks will be profitable for the publisher. Writers and agents typically submit manuscripts to the acquisitions editor.* The acquisitions editor, especially for fiction, may follow a manuscript from submission to publication, suggesting plot-level changes to bring the story in line with the publisher’s vision for the product line. From The Editor’s Blog

*There are publishers and editors that accept queries from un-agented authors.

The learning curve for the submission process was huge. At times, I felt I was barreling along it on a tricycle. I persevered and eventually signed with an agent. In the hope of helping others along the learning curve, each month I’ll post about a different aspect of the submission process.

Every writer’s journey to publication is unique and I hope you’ll share your thoughts with us. What has your experience been?

Additional resources:

• The SCBWI Online Book
• Agents vs. Editors at Kidlit
• What's an Acquisition Editor? Right-Writing.com

Dawne Webber is represented by Steven Chudney of The Chudney Agency. Ask Me to Wait, her YA contemporary novel, is currently on submission. After raising $5000 on Indiegogo, she attended a writers’ conference in NYC (New York Pitch Conference). She got to listen to tryouts for the musical The Lion King while perfecting her book pitch. Dawne lives in Troy with her husband and five children. They keep her sane amid the insanity of writing. You can learn more about Dawne at DawneWebber.

Look for Part 2 of Dawne's Beyond the Book series here on The Mitten blog in April.

SCBWI-MI's Frida Pennabook answered questions about self-publishing vs traditional publishing a few months ago. Read her advice columns on our blog here and here.

Coming up on The Mitten blog: Hugs and Hurrahs and a new Featured Illustrator. That means we'll have a new blog banner in April!

Have a great weekend!

Kristin Lenz