NEWS - Several new success stories on QueryTracker.net this week offer a glimmer of hope for a brighter future in the publishing industry. In agency news, Katie Grimm joined forces with Don Congdon Associates, Inc., and Ann Collette joined the Helen Rees Literary Agency. We wish them both great success!
INSIDER INFO - For fascinating insight on why agents reject queries, check out a compilation of Colleen Lindsay’s live Twitter query reads on her blog, The Swivet. Of particular interest, more than half the queries she received failed to follow her submission guidelines, and several lacked a simple salutation.
CALL TO AUTHORS - Alloy Entertainment, the company behind Gossip Girl and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, is looking for new writers for a project dubbed The Collaborative. They plan on acquiring 12 manuscripts in the coming year and are interested in women’s fiction, young adult, middle grade, and chapter books. Submission guidelines are now available (follow the links for The Collaborative.)
CONTESTS - Delacorte Books for Young readers announced its Eighteenth Annual Delacorte Yearling Contest for a First Middle Grade Novel. Grand prize is a book contract and cash award. Manuscripts must be postmarked between April 1st and June 30th.
Hurry if you want to enter Colleen Lindsay’s Query Haiku Contest on The Swivet - it’s only open until midnight tonight, EST. The winner will receive an in-depth critique of their real query letter.
LAYOFFS – Yep, they’re happening industry-wide, from booksellers on up. Former editor Colin Robinson spills all the secrets after his recent layoff from a large publishing house in New York.
BEND THE DOCTORS’ EARS – You want the medical/psychological aspects of your book to sound realistic and be accurate. Here’s your chance to ask pediatric hospitalist physician HL Dyer and psychologist/professor Carolyn Kaufman your burning questions. For the next two Tuesdays they’ll post the answers to their favorites here on the QTblog. (Send your questions via email; their addresses appear in the sidebar on the right.)
FREE BOOKS – To celebrate its 60th birthday, Halequinn is offering free downloadable books to everyone in America throughout 2009, with sixteen titles available.Look forward to Monday when Elana will enlighten us about a QueryTracker feature.
Thanks, y’all for droppin’ in. Have a fantastic weekend. Yeeeee-haw!
6 comments:
Woot, great post! Thanks!
If anyone reading the comments has experience with Alloy, I'd love to hear about it!
Wow! Great post, Suzy! :)
To anyone interested that is over at Verla Kay's, there is a discussion on Alloy there. Because it's in the 'member's only' forum however, I can't post the link here.
What great links!
Soon I will only have time in the day for reading blogs and publishing sites.
I read the Colin Robinson link. Now I'm depressed.
Thanks for the great info, Angela. :)
Annie, you are right - it is depressing. But I really believe things will start picking up. The contests will give a great boost, and with agents still signing clients, it bodes well for the future. (I hope!) ;)
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