Q: I’ve written a picture book and I’m perusing the CWIM. Many publishers have multiple editors or
people in charge of Acquisition. How do I know whom to contact?
A: Great question. Read my article on submitting to editors here. It details in length how to find which editor to pick. http://www.writingforchildrenandteens.com/for-writers/step-six-find-an-editor/.
Q: A book I’ve reads says so many times that it is inadvisable to email publishers as they simply won’t respond. But some publishers say they are open to email submissions. Is it still ok to do so?
A: If the publisher’s guidelines say it is okay to email them, then yes, follow the publisher’s guidelines. The book may simply be advising writers not to blindly email publishers as a way to break in.
This week we have the scintillating Kurtis Scaletta. Kurtis was born in Louisiana and grew up in New Mexico, North Dakota, England, Liberia, Brazil, and a few other places. He now lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his wife and several cats.
MUDVILLE
A little bit about Kurtis’s book MUDVILLE (Knopf, February 2009).
Welcome to Moundville, where it’s been raining for longer than Roy McGuire has been alive.
Q: A writer asks: When writing a manuscript, does one indicate that words are italicized by
underlining the intended words or simply italicizing them? I read online that
one should underline any phrase meant to be italicized because that makes it
easier for the typesetter to find. What is your experience?
A: It’s a matter of personal taste. Personally, for all of my manuscripts, I do NOT underline. I italicize.
This week, we have the ingenious Jenny Moss. Jenny is a former NASA engineer who was secretly writing at night [prior to getting a contract]. As a child, she loved words. As a teen, she dreamed of hanging out in French cafes with other writers. But she also loved numbers, which led to a career in engineering. Now a full-time writer, she still hopes to hang out in those French cafes one day.
This week we have C. Lee McKenzie. In her other life-the one before she began writing fiction for teens and middle grade readers-C. Lee was a teacher and administrator at California State University, San Jose. Her field of Linguistics and Inter-cultural Communication has carried her to a lot of places in the world to explore different cultures and languages.
Tell us a little about your first book SLIDING ON THE EDGE (WestSide Book, coming April, 2009).
Snoop just did some drive-by tiquing over at Kidlit Central News for Fun Friday. The round was so small that Snoop didn’t feel good about sending all of his free-tiquees an email about it. (So, sorry if he didn’t email it to the list!).
At any rate, you might find it interesting to see what a short version of Snoop’s free-tiques look like. And bonus, you just might learn something new about Writing for Children and Teens.
This week we have the sensational Samantha R. Vamos. Samantha grew up on the East coast where she attended law school and practiced law. She spent her 30’s in the Midwest, managing to keep warm in the Windy City. Now she and her family reside in the Pacific Northwest where she writes as much as she can and heads outside whenever the sun shines.
(Snoop says, hmm, sunshine? Maybe I should move.