Thank you so much, I was leaning a little toward the literary angle anyway, but was never sure. It's difficult to have have a cross genre book. I appreciate the advice and the time.
I either read or was told that picture book authors should submit directly to a publisher rather than an agent. Is this the general consensus?
Maybe I misunderstood the context, but knowing the closed-door policy so many publishers have right now regarding unagented submissions, I'm curious as to how one would go about accomplishing this.
I wrote a query that has resulted in multiple requests for fulls and partials. I just sent another full out today by post.
But I keep getting rejections after this point. Should I rethink my whole ms. and start over with something different, or keep plugging agents as is?
just so I know before I submit, what is your agency currently looking for at this time?
I have written a children's picture book (Toddlers/First Time Readers). It is in English and Maori (New Zealand) and the English words make the Maori words clear, to teach children some basic Maori. Someone has suggested on AW that there have been other books similar in English/Spanish and the like. If I think my book has this as a selling point do I mention this in my query letters or is it for further down the track? And would it be me that submitted the other languages or do they have people that do that stuff?
I had queried a few agents last year and had one request for a full, which the agent decided to pass on. The reason given was the story wasn't fast enough so I've pared the story from 105k words to just over 85k.
The story revolves around a makeshift family of farm cats, unusual cats with special traits; one can see the future; one can heal by touch; one can assume human form. This isn't particularly a high concept story but it is a blend of science fiction and fantasy.
My questions: am I wasting my time with the 'animal characterization' as a salable format? If not, would this type of story be more appropriately targeted towards MG?
My question is about a particular situation. I queried an agent in January, got a request for a partial and sent it along. The agent in question is known to respond very quickly to everyone, whether it's a yes or a no, but I never heard back. I sent a status query in May but didn't get a reply to that, either. At that point, I just moved on.... I'm almost ready to query a new project now, and would like to query the same agent. Should I mention that she still has a partial of the other book? Should I wait a while longer? Strike her from my list? Just not mention the other book at all?
My writing targets third and fourth-grade readers. Humorous fantasy of about 20K, similar in length and reading level to DRAGON SLAYER'S ACADEMY or TIME WARP TRIO or SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES. Definitely longer and a bit harder to read than what I would consider a chapter book... I've taken to calling it "early middle grade."
Separate question--
About querying only one agent at your agency--
Since querying one agent, I have revised both the query and the opening chapters, so the only familiar thing another agent would be seeing is the title. And of course I believe the new versions are much better... Is that acceptable? Of should I just move on and not query ABLA again until my next book is ready?
What is your opinion about sending the first page of the ms along with the query letter pasted into the body of the email?
I don't know if you remember but you and I were part of a discussion (on the Blue Boards )about linking to independent bookstores (as well as Amazon) on author websites. Anyway, it turns out we have one independent left in my town and they are doing a book signing and selling books at my release party!
Also when I update my website to include the amazon link I will be sure to link to an independent too!
Thanks for sharing your expertise (on both sites). I've learned a lot about independent book stores since then!
Wait, are you saying that you don't know the Maori words? If you know the words, why wouldn't you put them in? If you DON'T know the words, why are you writing the book this way? Your job is to submit the text as you expect it to be published (and there will probably be changes and revisions along the way). Now, if the publisher decides that people in CHINA need to hear this story, they will get a translator. But the Maori words -- that is kinda the point of your book, right?
Secondly, I haven't explained very well at all!! The book is aimed at English speakers who want to learn a few Maori nouns, in this case parts of the body. The nouns are made clear by the verbs that precede them, eg. clap your ringaringa, stamp your waewae. I was thinking if the Maori nouns were substituted for other languages but the rest of the text was still in English, so for Spanish: clap your mano, stamp your ple. (not even sure if I got those correct either, as I just had a quick look online!!) So it would read as English/Spanish, or English/any other language. I wondered if I should research the translation because it would only be the nouns? Or are all translations done by the publishers no matter how small? Obviously like you say Maori is a very location specific language so has a limited market, so that's why I got to thinking about the other language options, but not for the whole text...