PART 2

I. QUERIES AND SUBMISSIONS

Many agents give preferential treatment to conference attendees’ submissions for only one month following the event. How long after the Pacific Coast Children’s Writers Workshop will you consider enrollee submissions?

For preferential treatment, three months.

Some agents say they hardly read queries; others say queries are an important reflection on both the author and the story. Where do you stand on this matter?

I do read queries, with the caveat that they include a SASE; otherwise, I don’t read them. I don’t read e-mail queries.

The Transatlantic Literary Agency’s website states, “By referral only, please submit a query with outline and SASE.”  What are your own guidelines for novelists’ queries and submissions?

The agency in general prefers outlines; as one of many agents, I request a synopsis for fiction. (For nonfiction, I prefer an outline.) As our web guidelines state, please send manuscripts only when requested by an agent.

If and when I request a manuscript sample following a query or conference, 50 pages is the optimal number to send me—but please always send to the end of the nearest chapter. Thus, if a new chapter starts on page 49, send nothing past page 48. However, if a chapter ends on page 53, send the entire chapter.

How many manuscript pages do you read before deciding to continue or to decline the manuscript?

Usually 50 pages.

Do you read a synopsis before reading the manuscript, or after? Do you sometimes bypass the synopsis entirely? (Why?) 

If a synopsis is more than one page, I tend to skip it, for the most part. I usually prefer, however, to start reading a manuscript to see if it grabs me. If the writing itself doesn’t grab me, there’s no point in reading a synopsis.

II. NOVEL GENRES AND TRENDS

Which genres and themes are you now soliciting or avoiding in youth novels?

I avoid Science Fiction and High Fantasy. I’m open to most everything else.

Sherry Garland says in Writing for Young Adults, “For YA novels, among the most common plots are the journey (quest), adventure, romance, survival, coming of age, underdog, and whodunit.” Do you believe these are timeless, along with friendship and family themes? 

Absolutely. YA is all about discovering who you are as a unique individual.

Sherry Garland (op cit) notes a YA literature paradox: “The more unique and controversial your story and characters, the more likely the book will be acclaimed. Yet... the more unique and controversial the story and characters, the more difficult it will be to find a publisher, given the risk of censorship and resistance by schools.” Which kinds of controversial books, if any, are you likely to publish or acquire?

I don’t chose books to represent because of their controversy. I don’t invite or disinvite good books from being sent to me. I don’t seek out controversy, but I won’t reject it out-of-hand, either.

A workshop enrollee asks: “We’re taught that novelists must balance narrative, dialogue, characters’ thoughts and action. Many recent acclaimed children’s books are heavy on narrative. Examples: E.L. Konigsburg’s The View from Saturday and A. LaFaye’s Edith Shay. Also, Karen Cushman’s The Midwife’s Apprentice and Catherine, Called Birdy (in diary form) are full of excellent period detail. The Midwife’s Apprentice had lots of narrative and almost a fairytale quality. I didn’t get a strong sense of the main character’s personality in these books, though I like them. Many acclaimed books seem to break the rules.” How effective is narrative that tells instead of shows the story?

It’s a matter of personal taste. Both as a reader and as an editor I lean more toward dialogue, characters’ thoughts, and action above third-person narrative.

How do you judge if a novel with a teenage protagonist is best suited for the adult or YA market? Does a writer need to decide this before submitting to an agent?

More and more, the lines are blurred. But if I feel the narrator has too much perspective on his or her own life (a quality most young adults don’t possess), then I might feel it’s better suited to an adult audience, say in their twenties. That said, many children’s book publishers rightly feel they don’t have the marketing budgets to market books to both adult and young adult readers, so they’ll often turn down books if the protagonist is too old for their market.

Is it possible to cross-market a novel with a teenage protagonist so that it will be shelved in both the adult and YA sections of bookstores and libraries?

See my previous answer. If a publisher sees the book as a potential breakout and has the budget for it, it certainly can be done. But it also requires that the chain booksellers agree and will stock it in large enough quantities to warrant the marketing expense. Often, a publisher’s plans live or die on whether or not Barnes & Noble, Borders, and other large chains concur with their projections for a book. One only needs to read Publishers Weekly’s end-of-year recaps on big books that fizzled to discover all of the plans that didn’t pan out in the long run.

III. ON A PERSONAL NOTE...

Please name some of your favorite youth novels, and explain why they appeal to you.   

There’s the book I loved when I was a teenager—S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders—whose characters spoke to me personally in an absolutely visceral way. I won’t go back and re-read it today for fear that my adult perspective will tarnish my memories of the book. There are also books I worked on as an editor, such as Julia Alvarez’s Before We Were Free, which has a very different kind of power, but which, nevertheless, brings us very close to the character. A third book that I love is Jerry Spinelli’s Stargirl. I just love the concurrent humor-and-heartbreak of that book.

All three books, though very different, are for me about voice and character. I could more easily give you a list of 100—so I’m almost certainly going to regret not naming all of my other favorites when I see this interview in print!

How has meeting enrollees at writers events influenced you and your work?

Workshops and conferences are exciting and inspirational when writers offer themselves up for us. I’ve been moved to tears or felt shivers of excitement and am always reminded of why I am in this business—because of the writers.

How would you describe your author-agent relationships?  

I’m definitely a hands-on editorial agent. I can’t put aside twenty years of being an editor when I approach an author’s work. However, I do know that there’s a point at which the market speaks—so, whether or not I think a manuscript needs more or less work is irrelevant to what an editor thinks.

What would you like writers to know about you, the individual who scrutinizes their literary labors of love?

First and foremost, I’m a reader who must be passionately moved by a writer’s work in order to represent that writer. I can’t be the best advocate for an author if I don’t feel committed to his or her writing. I don’t cherry-pick what I like, and usually try to see as much of a writer’s work as I can before I decide whether or not to represent him or her. That said, I have to keep in mind that what I do is a business, and, like any kind of agent, I have to earn a living through what I represent. Sometimes, it’s as hard for me as it is for an author to learn that a manuscript isn’t going to find a home.

What about those “R” words—rejection and revision?

Authors need to be open to the critiquing process so that they don’t take a rejection personally. As the saying goes, every “no” gets you closer to a “yes.”

Artists go through “crits” in art school—and they can be, from what I’ve been told, brutal. But it opens them up to listening about what is working and what isn’t. So I encourage authors to take the emotions out of rejections. A nice “no” can turn into a “yes” if you take on board what the rejection is saying. You might get a kernel of insight from it that could lead you to publication. If I haven’t said it before, let me say it now: Writers are often discovered in how well they revise, versus how well they initially conceive their manuscripts.

Writers often depend on agents to find exactly the right editor for their manuscripts. How can unagented writers help promote themselves?

Since so many editors speak at writers groups every day in this country, it isn’t hard to find a way to make a personal contact with an editor. Don’t be intimidated and don’t be too aggressive; just be thoughtful and show that you are a talented, hard-working writer!

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