A: When I think of high-concept fiction, I think of blockbuster-movie-kind-of-fiction. If you’ve got a “coming of age” story, where everyone is a regular human being that goes to a normal school, the girl breaks up with a bad boyfriend, but then realizes she was worthy without him, then that’s probably not high-concept.

If on the other hand, your story is about a team of undercover teen spies working for the CIA, then you’ve probably got something closer to high concept. Basically anything that can be summarized in one sentence that someone would want to make a movie out of would be high concept.

That’s how I define it. People use words in different ways all the time. But there’s my two cents. Hope that helps!

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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/.

In short, it takes some amount of research, but it is well-worth the effort to target your submissions to a specific editor if you can. If you cannot narrow your choices down to a specific person, then locate the publisher’s guidelines online and send your submission to the contact listed there.

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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. It is unadvisable if you have not received specific instructions from the publisher or an editor there to email. Your emails will go unheard. And you will surely irritate someone there, receiving the emails. Follow the publisher’s (or editor’s guidelines) with regards to email submissions.

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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. Merely because I’m not used to looking at underlines in this age of computers. My editors at Putnam and Puffin have never asked me to change everything to underlines. However, during copy-editing, my editor did underline everything for me.  So I leave the decision up to you.

Please keep in mind though. Do not abuse italics or underlining. Use them sparingly and only as necessary.

Here are cases under which you may need to italicize or underline.

• To emphasize thought. Not necessarily ALL thoughts. Just thoughts that need that oomph. Example: Even though I thought he was cute, I didn’t think he was that cute.
• Sometimes you may need to set off thoughts in italics to prevent them from being mixed up with who is thinking it.   “You never told me to pick up milk at the store,” he said.  I swear, my husband never hears me. “No, all you said this morning was ‘go walk the dog.’” Ugh. I had told him at precisely 6:15 a.m. to get the milk.
• To show that something is written versus part of the narrative. For example, if your book involves people writing notes to each other or sending emails. You may italicize those messages to indicate they are not part of the narrative. Example: I read the letter.  Dear John, I’m leaving you …
• To emphasize dialogue. Example: “Hey, buddy. I said move.”
• To indicate a foreign word or phrase. Example:  “Ni hao,” Snoop said.
• To indicate a vocabulary term. Example: “He used the word propagate. I have no idea what that means.”
• If anyone thinks of more cases, let me know!

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I get this question a lot. And often the person wants to know 1) how the book can be picked up by a major publisher or 2) how to get the book and related products in the traditional bookstores.

This is a very tough question. But here’s the short answer. PREPARE FOR A DIFFICULT ROAD AHEAD. Why?

Recall what the functions of major publishers are–their job is to get your book illustrated (with the illustrator who will do most justice for your book) and into the bookstores. They’re really good at this kind of stuff. Hence, why they have such a hold in the industry. So why are you trying to do their job?

Read article, To draw or not to draw and this one…Should I self-publish my children’s book?

Chances are the quality of your work, no matter how much you love it, won’t match up to what a major publisher can do. And even if your book is as good or even better, do you have the sales force required to get it picked up by stores like Barnes and Noble and Borders? Probably not. Even major publishers can’t get all of their books into bookstores, and this is with a full-time sales force on their payroll! (YES, IT’S TRUE!-there is only so much shelf space in the stores.) So what are the chances little old you can?

(SMALL.)

So what do you do? Well, you’ve already deviated from standard procedures. The industry is not very equipped to handle that. In fact, deviation from protocol usually labels you as an amateur–someone who didn’t know better. Not good. Already you’re starting off on the wrong foot with publishers.

Here are your options:

A. If you only had the book illustrated then….

1) Drop the illustrations from your book*. Read my crash course and follow standard procedures for submitting a manuscript. Never mention what you already did. *The exception is if you are a professional illustrator yourself. In that case, read B. You’ll want to make a dummy.

B. If you simply must have the illustrations because you agreed you go in on it with someone else…then…either agree to split up OR create a dummy and submit the dummy to publishers.

Read post, How do I make a picture book dummy?

C. If you’re too far into the process and you can’t bear to lose other stuff like the CDs you created, and the audiobooks, and the stuffed animals…

…your best bet is to go the self-publishing route, get some decent sales figures, and either 1) work through organizations designed to assist self-publishers in getting distribution to bookstores. Or 2) hope that you’ve got enough momentum that a big publisher will listen to you and offer to publish for you. (Either option is probably one of the most challenging endeavors you can take on. A and B are a lot easier. C is for the marketing guerilla in you. If you don’t have a marketing bone in your body, forget it.)

D. If you’re okay with having no distribution in the bookstores and no help from a major publisher, AND you have no problems plugging your own book…

…You are an ideal candidate for self-publishing! You understand you will market the book on your own. You realize it’s not as easy as putting something out on Amazon and waiting for the moolah to rule in. And with the right attitude and hard work, you may just get picked up by a major publisher. The savviest of self-publishers who succeed in the marketplace can become exceptions to the rule. But keep in mind, YOU determine the book’s success, not Amazon or anyone else when you choose to self-publish.

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Q: What elements make for a good hook, particularly at a story’s outset?

A: Hook is really hard to define. But here’s how I look at it (in terms of opening pages)

It’s something that draws you in.

It could be a first line.
It could be a character’s unique voice.
It could be an interesting situation on the first pages.
It could be the style in which the piece is written.
It could even be a picture above the chapter header! (Did you notice they do this in Harry Potter? Those marketing people are genius.)

Often it’s a combination of all these things.

HOOK is what draws me in. I can’t NOT flip to the next page (pardon the dbl negative). It’s a combination of unique factors that makes your work compelling.

Put it another way: if your opening pages don’t present something that feels interesting to a decent number of people, then you probably don’t have a hook.

The best way to grasp writing a hook is to find opening pages of books you love. Find the very best ones and see what they’re doing to draw YOU in. Then you’ll know if you’re opening pages can compete.

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Q: I want to write for teens, but I’m much older than a teen and don’t really know if it’s something I can tackle without coming across as unauthentic. What’s the best way to learn how to write for the teen audience in particular?

A: The best way to get to know how to write for YA is to read a bunch of YA novels. You don’t even have to read the whole book; opening chapters say a lot about the great range within YA. Then ask yourself, Can I do this? The key is to look at a lot of teen novels though…Don’t think one particular bestselling YA book represents the entire market. It doesn’t. There’s room for lots of different teen voices. I think many people believe that teen books have to be edgy, gritty, sexy, or Like Ohmigod! That’s not true. There’s a huge range out there. Also, it really helps if you can remember what you were like as a teen. If you’ve blocked out that whole period in your life, you might find it hard to think like one. So draw from that.

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Q: If a publisher’s guidelines says to address all submissions to a general
submissions editor (e.g., acquisitions editor or something similar) versus a specific person, is it acceptable to “break those rules” if I learn about an editor there who has preferences for the kind of work I write?

A: Almost all houses have submissions guidelines that are generic or say to send something to SUBMISSIONS EDITOR, or something like that. So to answer your question, you are “technically” breaking a rule, but almost all houses won’t penalize you for it if you’ve shown care has gone into who you’ve picked to send your submission to. And even if you target the submission to an editor who is not interested, then the worst case scenario is they reject you, pass it on to someone else who might be interested if it’s good enough, or just hand it over to their submissions editor. Most publishing houses don’t have the time to remember who you were and blacklist you permanently simply because you tried to get your story to the right person.

In other words, don’t overthink this too much. If you know something about an editor at a house and think you have a good reason to put his or her name on your submission, you are only being a good, educated writer. You should include that reason in your cover or query letter. See my articles for examples on how to lead-in with your reason in your letters.

What you don’t want to do is blindly send a manuscript to a specific editor simply because you want to put a name on the envelope. Have a reason. Don’t have a reason? Then follow the generic guidelines the house provides.

The majority of well-educated writers target their submissions if they can, regardless of guidelines that request the writer to do otherwise.

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Q: How do I know if a literary agent is great?

A: Great is a subjective word, but if you do your research by going to the places I suggest in my course, you’ll start to narrow down who might be great for your work and who might not. For example, I believe GREAT agents are ones who are

1) LEGIT, meaning not scam artists – go to the resources I point out in my agent articles to double-check that they appear to be who they say they are and don’t charge fees, etc.,

2) Represent the kind of work you write (e.g., Picture books, or nonfiction, or novels, or all of the above)

3) Meet the criteria you have for an agent (again the see the articles for a list of criteria)

4) AND one who you seem to get along with. This last one is going to be your biggest indicator as to the word GREAT. You can do a lot to narrow down an agent that might be a good fit, but it’s not until you are offered representation, that you will have a real opportunity to interview them and figure out if you are a match. See my article on interviewing an agent.

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Q: I am writing a picture book. Should I include art specs for each page? Or should I just explain the general idea in the cover letter and hope the editors will “get” what I’m visualizing for the art?

A: A picture book text is 50% of the story. The other 50% is what the illustrator brings to the table. Specifying art direction for every page of a picture book is strongly discouraged and will flag you as an amateur. You should NOT provide art direction. That’s the illustrators job to come up with something. Something better than even you can imagine. However if there is a “surprise” in your story that can’t be conveyed in the text or some other thing happening in the pictures that would be stupid to put in the actual text, then an illustration note is in order. Illustration notes should only be included if they facilitate comprehension of the story. Otherwise, let the illustrator do his job! Don’t try to tell the editor that the kid’s coat has to be red because that’s what you see in your head. Those sorts of notes are big no-no’s.

If you need an illustration note you put it beside the text where the note is relevant. Likes so.

Your manuscript text. Your manuscript text.

[Boy surprises girl with a live dinosaur as a gift]

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