More Contest News

We'd like to wish a hearty congratulations to Jane George, runner-up in our Agent-judged YA Contest. She will not be accepting her prize... because since entering out contest she has signed with literary agent Gwendolyn Heasley of Artists and Artisans. Yay Jane!

Writer Stephanie Boman has been chosen to fill the runner-up spot and is invited to submit a partial to Anna Webman of Curtis Brown Ltd. Congratulations, Stephanie!

If you would like to follow our contest winners in their quests for publication, here are links:

J.A. Lawrence

Facebook

Jane George

See Jane Write

Stephanie Boman

Stephanie Boman, YA Writer

You Can Read My Mind

Alyssa Kirk

Teens Read and Write

Demonic Attractions

John Sankovich

Author John Sankovich

Katherine Zane

Katherine Zane

Thanks to all of you, our readers, for making our contest a success.

Publishing Pulse 11/27/09

Contest Update

Anna Webman is hard at work judging nearly 500 pages of material that was submitted in our very successful YA Contest. (Thanks, Anna!) We will be announcing the winners next week.

New Agents

Whitney Lee with The Fielding Agency represents books of all genres in both fiction and nonfiction, taking on books she feels passionate about.

Robert Kirby with United Agents represents books of all genres in both fiction and nonfiction. He is based in the UK.

Kent Wolf with Global Literary Management's interests include literary fiction, smart thrillers, women's fiction, memoirs, pop culture, and off-the-wall narrative nonfiction.

Justine Wenger with the Emma Sweeney Agency is looking for literary fiction, short story collections, and food/lifestyle nonfiction.

Contests

WOW (Women on Writing) is holding a flash fiction contest that closes November 30th. Entries will be judged by Noah Lukeman of Lukeman Literary Management. There are many fun prize packages. Entry fee is $10.

Writer's Digest's short short story competition has a $3000 first prize. Entry fee is $15 and entries are due by December 1st.

Delacorte Press will award publication for the winner of the First YA Novel contest. Deadline is December 31st.

Writers of the Future will publish winners of their contest, which is for prose of up to 17,000 words. Contest closes December 31st.

On the Web

Guide to Literary Agents had a great article, 7 Reasons Agents Stop Reading Your First Chapter.

Agent Kristin Nelson offered a great tip about What's Hot Now in YA fiction.

I loved Everybody Has a Book Inside on the Kiersten Writes blog.

And last but not least, thanks to Beth Revis for spotlighting the QTblog.

Have a wonderful weekend!

YA Contest - How to Enter

ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED VIA A SPECIAL ENTRY FROM ON QUERYTRACKER.NET ONLY!!! Do not email the agent with your entry. Do not call the agent. There is only one way to enter!


Tonight's the night! Our YA contest opens this evening at 9 p.m. Eastern Time (6 p.m. Pacific) so here's everything you need to know:

• Entries will be accepted on a special entry form on QueryTracker.net ONLY. The form will not be visible until the contest opens. This is a link to where the form will be: http://querytracker.net/contest.phpSo bookmark it for easy clicking tonight!
  

• This contest is for completed Young Adult novels only. (All the genres that fall under the YA umbrella.)

• You must have a QueryTracker.net membership to participate. (It's free!) If you do not have one yet, click here to sign up.



• You will need to submit the following: Your first five pages AND a one-page synopsis. (Only one entry per person will be accepted.)



• Due to the high word count of the materials being submitted, we will be capping the number of entries at 70.

• You will need to CUT AND PASTE YOUR ENTRY into the submission form.

The entry form will not be visible until 9 p.m. Eastern Time (6 p.m. Pacific.) Be sure to submit early, as the slots will fill up quickly. And if you do not make it into this contest, don't feel bad - we have more contests scheduled in the near future!


To see some of the questions and answers about this contest, view the comments in last week's announcement post.

I'd like to shout out a big THANK YOU to Anna Webman of Curtis Brown Ltd. for juding our contest. Anna has graciously agreed to award the grand prize winner with a full submission, and partial submissions for runners-up. I'm lucky to have worked with Anna on a couple of different occasions, and can honestly say anyone who is represented by her is one lucky writer indeed.

Keep an eye on the blog for contest updates. Anna will need a couple of weeks to judge the entries (she'll have a lot of material to read!) Watch for an interview next week with last May's contest winner, Cameron Jacobs. She'll be giving us the scoop about her journey from winning the grand prize in our contest to signing with the agent who judged the contest. Cameron's book is now on submission.



Feel free to ask any questions in the comments of this post, or send me a message, my email address is to the right of this post. Best of luck!

Suzy

Agent-Judged Contest Announced!

Some of you may remember the series of agent-judged contests we hosted on the QTblog earlier this year. Great news - one of our contest winners went on to sign with the agent who judged the contest, and his book is now on submission. Contests are a great way to get your work noticed!


We are pleased to announce yet another contest. Literary agent Anna Webman of Curtis Brown Ltd. wants to see your stuff! She has generously agreed to peruse the first five pages plus a synopsis of your YA novel. What a great opportunity! Here are all the details:

• This contest is for completed Young Adult novels only. (All the genres that fall under the YA umbrella.)


• The contest will open this Tuesday, November 10th, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. (That's 6:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.)


• You will need to submit the following: Your first five pages AND a single-spaced one-page synopsis.


• A free membership on the QueryTracker main site is required.


• Submissions will be accepted through the official form on the QT main site ONLY.


• Only one entry per person will be accepted.


• Due to the high word count of the materials being submitted, we will be capping the number of entries at 70.
  

So now you're probably thinking (gasp!) not the dreaded synopsis! Never fear, Heather has two fantastic posts that will help you make yours shine:

• Quantum of Synopses: Novel Synopsis Basics


• In Short: Writing a Novel Synopsis That Rocks

Watch for a special post Tuesday morning with a link to the submission page, and then a post Tuesday evening announcing the contest's opening.

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments of this post. Good luck!

Suzy

Researching Literary Agents

We’ve spent some time on the blog discussing query letters, synopses, elevator pitches, genres, and manuscript formatting.

Let’s say you’ve done all that. You’ve written a great novel, ran it through a critique buddy or two, polished the query letter, all of it.

What next?

Researching literary agents, of course.

I think this step actually starts way back at the beginning and you should do it in bits and pieces as you prepare to query. No matter how you do it, just make sure you do. After all, you want to place your novel with an agent that will A) be a good match for you personality-wise B) likes your genre C) has contacts in your genre and D) has the best possibility of garnering a request from the query letter.

Thus, you must research.

Now, if you know me, I actually despise research—except for researching agents. I find this kind of research hopeful, because I know that I can find the literary agents that will be the best ones to query for my work. Here’s a few tips for making this process a little easier.

1. Search by genre. There is absolutely no point in querying agents who don’t represent your genre. It’s a colossal waste of your time—and theirs. Using the main QueryTracker site, this is easy, easy, easy.


Simply find your genre in the drop down menu and click search.

2. Once you’ve identified agents according to genre, find out all you can about them. On the "Overview & User Comments" tab, I can see everything I need to research the agent. For Kae Tienstra, there is her email address, a website listed, a blog, links to Publisher’s Marketplace, AgentQuery, AAR, Preditors & Editors, methods of submitting, the whole nine yards.


I typically open all of these links at once by clicking on them and letting them load in their own window. Then I systematically read each one, checking for the following:

o Submission Guidelines
o What they’re looking for
o Response times
o Anything else I think would help identify Kae as an agent I want to query.

Another thing I check on QueryTracker: the user comments. I can see experiences from people who have queried this agent before. And if you’re a premium member, you can run all kinds of reports about query response times, request rates and agents with similar tastes.

3. Now I’m 95% sure that I want to query Kae. One more thing I always do: a Google search with the words, “interview with literary agent XXX”. This is a good way to further discover if the agent you’re researching is looking for a book like yours. We’ve done two interviews with literary agents (Anna Webman and Beth Fleisher) as well as a reposting of Ginger Clark’s interview. Cynthia Leitich Smith does several interviews each month with literary agents on her blog, Cynsations. The Guide to Literary Agents blog is also a terrific resource for interviews and what specific agents are looking for.

Now that I know I want to query Kae, I prepare the first paragraph of my query letter. I tend to try to find something personal about each agent to begin the query with. This is where the blog I’ve been reading or the interview I’ve found comes in. My first line is usually something like this: “In an interview you gave on the Cynsations blog, you said you were looking for “teen protagonists with a strong voice”. Because of this, I believe you would be interested in my young adult novel, XXX.”

Then I launch into my hook, query, sinker. The agent knows I’ve done my research, and that I’m not spamming every agent in AgentLand with the same email.


I think many times, aspiring authors will only complete step number one, and search by genre. I don’t think this is enough. I think you owe it to yourself and to the agents you’re querying to do more than that. Read their websites and blogs. Familiarize yourself with their sales records and what they’re selling. Find out everything you can about the agent and their agency (forum discussions, following them on Twitter, reading books by authors they represent) before you hit send or affix that postage stamp.

Researching agents should not be skipped. It’s as important as the query letter. And we all know how important that is. A fabulous query letter is worthless unless you get it in front of the right agents. So roll up those sleeves, and do your research!

Interview - Literary Agent Anna Webman

I first met Anna Webman last August when I had the honor of sharing some of my work with her. She was an absolute delight to correspond with. When the time came for me ask agents for interviews, Ms. Webman was at the top of my list.

From Curtis Brown LTD's website:

Anna Webman began at Curtis Brown working with Elizabeth Harding, and is now an associate agent. Anna has a small, select list and is interested in all categories of children's books authors and illustrators. She is always on the lookout for first-time authors and is particularly interested in stories with unique voices with something to say. Her ideal book would be one that has both a driving narrative and beautiful language. Anna graduated from The George Washington University and lives in Manhattan with her rescue dog Vinny.

You may recognize some of the interview questions; several weeks ago in a shout-out to our readers you weighed in on what questions you'd like us to pose to agents. Without further ado, I give you the interview:


Why agenting? A lifelong dream, or something that happened serendipitously?
I was raised by a literary agent, so I guess you could say it’s in my genes. I think it took me a little while to come to terms with the fact that I actually wanted to work in the same industry as my mother. When I first began working as Elizabeth Harding’s assistant, I thought I might want to eventually move over to the editorial side. After a few months I was hooked—I really love the business side of things: working with creative people, reading, editing, negotiating, matching author’s works with an editor and a house, and figuring out how best to help clients manage their careers.


What would you like to see more of as an agent? As a reader?
As an agent, I would like to see more quality writing and to sell books that I respond to so immediately and thoroughly that I can’t put them down or stop thinking about them. As a reader, I would like exactly the same thing.


What's the most common mistake you see authors making in their queries?
I think it’s probably not staying on topic. I get so many queries where authors give a lot of superfluous information about themselves. Track record is significant, but other than that, for fiction, the manuscript should speak for itself. Another common mistake I see is authors not addressing their query letter to me (I can’t tell you how often I receive letters addressed Dear “Mr. Curtis Brown”, “Editor” or “Agent”).


What’s the one thing an author can do to catch your eye? How can authors get agents to look beyond the query letter?
A compelling query letter, with no typos is a good place to start. And then to make sure to send the first couple pages of a manuscript along with the query letter.


What is projected to be the next big thing in publishing for children and teens? What trend do you see dying?
I really don’t think it’s possible to know for sure what the “next big thing” will be. I think perhaps mysteries because they really have been underserved and there seems to be a market for them—Perhaps what will work for this market is mysteries with other elements-like Scholastic’s 39 CLUES series or Harper’s THE AMANDA PROJECT. Another growth area might be novels illustrated in interesting ways- not graphic novels, but other kinds of illustration with narrative. For example, THE DOLL PEOPLE by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin, illustrated by Brian Selznick.


Is it possible to do YA without the "edgy" element? What is too edgy in YA?
Yes! I do absolutely think great YA can be done without being edgy. I shared this with some colleagues and we couldn’t think of anything that is too edgy these days. The canvas is very big and wide open. Perhaps the only caveat is that there should be an element of ultimate triumph/hope rather than despair.


Do you often choose to represent works that only you would personally read and enjoy or do you aim to represent works that you know will sell, even if you don't like them?
It’s a very fine line. I’ve found that I’m most successful in representing authors whose work I either love personally or whose appeal I understand in an intuitive way. However, this is such a subjective business, so I don’t want to limit myself. Fortunately, those also tend to be books that I believe will sell.


With the economic slow down as it is, are you signing fewer new clients and focusing on the ones you already have?
I am still building my list, so I am definitely looking for new clients. Honestly, I don’t know of any agent who would ever say their list is completely full, regardless of the economy. Who wants to be known as the agent who turned down the next big literary phenomenon?


Do you ever get a chance to read for fun? What book do you not represent that you wish you did?
I always to try to be in the process of reading one “for pleasure” adult book (it can take me months to actually complete an entire book). And I’m also constantly reading the current YA, middle-grade and picture books, which is both fun and a great way to stay on top of the market.


If you could offer one piece of advice to aspiring authors everywhere, what would it be?
I think it would be to read as many books as possible in the genre you write, and then be able to openly accept criticism and learn from it.


And now, just for fun, I'll hit you with the Fast Five:
Coffee or tea? Coffee
Courier or Times New Roman? Times New Roman
Cruise or Self-Guided Tour? Self-Guided Tour
3 chapters or 50 pages? 3 chapters
Guilty pleasure? Watching Gossip Girl and shopping online

Anna, thank you so much for taking the time to give our readers a glimpse into the uber-secret world of agents. Readers, be sure to mention the QueryTracker Blog when you query Ms. Webman.

For those of you unfamiliar with the QueryTracker.net main site, everything you need to know about querying Ms. Webman is here, including links to Publishers Marketplace, AAR, the Curtis Brown LTD website, and many others. With a free membership, QueryTracker.net helps you find agents and track your queries. To get up to speed on the what, why and who of QueryTracker, read this post.

Have a fantastic week!