Location: New York City

Talk to any literary agent and she will have stories about discovering that perfect project– the one that wouldn’t   leave her alone. Today I’m going to talk about one such project that I discovered this week. On Friday I’ll reveal why I made the representation decision I made.

One of my longtime writing friends wrote to our critique group to tell us about a reporter who was doing a story about her. She told us he was an aspiring writer himself and she pointed us to a children’s story on his blog. I normally wouldn’t have time to go look at a blog but she loved the story and I needed to see why. The story is for a children’s picture book and is titled Stinky and the Night Mare by L. Stewart Marsden.

I’ve always been a children’s literature aficianado but it’s rare to come across a manuscript that is neither condescending nor “precious.” This is one of those rare ones. As I read the story I could practically see the illustrations. It’s the perfect combination of realistic and magical. I couldn’t get it out of my mind.

Immediately I began compiling a mental list of the editors to whom I’d love to present it. Tomorrow I’ll share next steps but in the meantime let me tell you what it takes to catch an agent’s eye.

• An outstanding manuscript– this goes without saying.
• Perfect timing. In this case I happened to have a few extra minutes to go out to a website and read a manuscript. That’s a rare occurrence and had I been at my desk instead of on the road, who knows?
• A connection. This is not required of course but in this case one of my friends pointed me in this direction. In the place of a recommendation, a meeting at a conference or a stand-out query may do the trick.
• A match between the agent and the genre or subject. We’ll talk more about that tomorrow.

In the meantime, use the comment section to tell us  your story of being discovered. Or about how you discovered a brilliant piece of writing and why it appealed to you.

Location: Books & Such main office; Santa Rosa, Calif.

Friday pick: The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Here is the link to the movie page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1482459/

The Lorax is a children’s book written by Dr. Seuss back in the 1970′s. It’s basically the story of a greedy character “The Once-ler” who comes to a forest and uses up all of the trees damaging the environment almost beyond repair. The Lorax is a creature that speaks for the trees and the creatures of the forest and warns the Once-ler of the damage he is doing. The book has been quite controversial as a children’s story because of its strong environmentalist message.

I think this book will do well as a movie at this time because:

1) The Green Movement has made even young children aware of the environment.

2) Animation is at a wonderful place now so Dr. Suess’s strange world can come to life in an amazing way.

3) The movie could be deep enough that parents would feel like there’s a message in it even for them.

I’ll probably wait until the movie comes out on DVD before I see it, but if I had kids I might take them. I’m not sure . The little Lorax sure looks cute!

Can you think of other reasons why this book was picked to be a movie? Did you like this story when you read it? Would you take your child to see the movie? Why or why not?

Thanks so much for your wonderful comments this week. Have a great weekend!

Location: Home Office, Santa Rosa, CA

We’ve already talked about a nefarious way to break onto The New York Times best-seller list by buying copies of your own book, but what about writing a best-selling book. Is there a trick to that?

I asked two Books & Such writers to talk about their experience, starting with the first question—did you know you were writing a best-selling book?

Like everyone, Diane Stortz wanted to produce a successful book. From her experience as both a writer and editor, she knew Bible storybooks need a “fresh, strong, clearly recognized focus and need to offer parents a good value.” She thought long and hard about how to put together the manuscript that ultimately became The Sweetest Story Bible. Released by Zonderkidz in February 2010, it’s in its sixth printing and appeared on the Christian best-seller list for several months.

“The focus of this book is who God is and how sweet his words and our relationship with him are. Zonderkidz gets the credit for suggesting a book for little girls. My original idea for the ‘sweet’ look was a candy motif,” Diane said with a laugh.

Two-time Christy Award-winning author Dale Cramer gave careful thought to his recent best-seller, Paradise Valley (Bethany, 2010). “In one sense I was aiming for a larger market because for the first time I was planning to write an Amish series that featured romance and a woman’s point of view . . . I felt sure it would appeal to a larger segment of the market.”

He planned well. Paradise Valley has sold nearly twice as many copies as his last published book.

Both Dale and Diane felt their projects received big boosts from the marketing departments of their publishing houses.  The Sweetest Story Bible “got noticed early on,” Diane said. “Zonderkidz price-promoted it too, and that definitely helped.”

Early and pre-sales can make a difference in a book’s chances of becoming a best-seller. “Bethany House worked very hard to promote Paradise Valley,” Dale said. “They also planned and vigorously supported a signing tour I did in Ohio around the time the book released.” As Paradise Valley was the first of three books, Dale thought Bethany put “extra muscle behind the marketing,” to give the whole series a strong start.

Diane said there are no secret formulas for making the best-seller list. “You have to know what’s selling, what people want, and provide a new spin, but that’s not infallible.For children’s books, after the content focus, the illustrations and overall look matter quite a lot,and Zonderkidz definitely got the cover and design right.”

The real key, of course, is the quality of the book itself. “Good writing is hard,” Dale said. “To me it’s just common sense that the writer has far more control over the quality of the writing and the strength of the story.

“When people ask me how to get published I always tell them, write a good book; editors are looking for good books. How do you make the best-seller list? The same way: Readers are looking for good books.”

What do you think a writer can do to increase the odds of selling a lot of books? What have you tried? What makes you want to purchase a book?

Location: Books & Such Illinois Office

It’s hard to keep up with happenings in the digital world that affect publishing. Have you heard that Facebook bought a digital publishing company? Don’t be alarmed; they aren’t getting into the publishing business. They bought Push Pop Press not for the purpose of publishing books but to use Push Pop’s groundbreaking software ideas and technology to enhance our Facebook experience. Their press release states:

“We’re thrilled to confirm that we’ve acquired Push Pop Press, a startup whose groundbreaking software changes the way people publish and consume digital content. We can’t wait for co-founders Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris to get started, and for some of the technology, ideas and inspiration behind Push Pop Press to become part of how millions of people connect and share with each other on Facebook.” – AFP Tues, Aug 2, 2011.

The FB visionaries apparently feel that the success of Push Pop Press’s one published book was due to the publisher’s great design rather than the content and author (Our Choice, by Al Gore).

How can we apply the foresight of this social media giant to the future of e-books? Design technology is poised to explode. This is especially encouraging for children’s books and their authors. Children’s books have struggled because most people want to handle and “try out” a children’s book before they decide to purchase it. With fewer independent bookstores and now one fewer chain bookstore, buyers have less opportunity to see, touch, and feel the books. And children’s books haven’t worked well for e-book publishing because of the art and design needs.

When asked for publishers’ current e-book percentage of their sales, here are the responses from editors on a panel at the Oregon Christian Writers Conference:

Abingdon – All their fiction books are published in softcover and e-book

Revell – Fiction is their leading e-book category; increased from 10% to 14%

Tyndale – 10% of their sales and growing, especially fiction; release in both print and e-book

Waterbrook Multnomah – 15%; all books are released in softcover and e-book

White Rose – e-books far outsell print

Winepress – 20%

We’re all hoping children’s e-books will eventually catch up to these percentages as new technologies are developed. Have you heard about the one that enables children to swipe the e-reader screen to change colors? Electronics and the Internet are akin to second languages for this generation, fostering an urgent need for healthy children’s e-book publishing. They’ll be reading books in an entirely new experience. I just hope they will also always have the desire and opportunity to hold and appreciate a print book.

Have you heard any buzz about specific design enhancements for e-books? What creative abilities would you like to see?

Location: Books & Such Central Valley Office

The Bird’s Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin was my all-time favorite children’s Christmas book.  Written in 1888 it is the story of a girl born on Christmas day who is appropriately named Carol after the faint strains of Christmas carols her mother heard coming from a nearby church while giving birth. Her parents and family of brothers cherish Carol, who, rather than being spoiled by all the attention, is sensitive and generous. She is struck with an illness and by the time she is ten years old, she is bedridden with the fatal disease. But even struggling for her life her focus is on others and she is still concerned about all those who suffer.

Her last Christmas on earth Carol decides that instead of a birthday party she wants to give a party for the poor Ruggles family and their nine children. Her whole family helps make her wish come true before she quietly slips away listening to the same faint carols that ushered her into the world.

Sigh.

I know. It sounds like Victorian sentimentality but it is so much richer than I described it. Confession: all the books I loved as a child were “good girl” books. Wiggin was also the writer of another favorite, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Pollyanna, Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables—these were the books of my childhood. With today’s fare of madcap adventures, fantasy and gritty reality I’m all for a dose of kindness and sentimentality. This would be a great book to read with a middle grader.

In my days as a dollmaker I immortalized all the Childhood Classics® that were in the public domain or for which we could get a license.  Bird’s Christmas Carol is no exception. In 1996 I sculpted Carol Bird exactly the way I pictured her when I was a bookish ten-year-old.

The last sentence of the book still moves me: “And so the old years, fraught with memories, die, one after another, and the new years, bright with hopes, are born to take their places; but Carol lives again in every chime of Christmas bells that peal glad tidings and in every Christmas anthem sung by childish voices.”

Writers tip: Though “sentimental” books for children are out of favor these days we need to learn from the classics. We loved them because we identified with the protagonists. Yes, the emotional aspects touched that maudlin part of us but it made us face the transitory state of our earthly lives and the importance of eternal life. All heady stuff to ten-year-olds.

Question: What about you? Did you have sentimental favorites from the late Victorian era, Christmas or not? What about “good girl” books? Are they still enjoyed by girls today?

Location: Books & Such Central Valley Office

Last week Janet did some trend spotting in her blog posts. It’s always fun to look toward the future with anticipation, figuring out how to adapt ourselves to the coming trends. I’m a person who resists change. Yes, I generally look toward the future with optimism but I always allow myself time to mourn what used to be. Happily, everything has a way of circling around again so we usually don’t need to mourn long.

But for now I’m going to talk about some of the unfortunate trends I see. Hopefully, these trends are temporary but they are disturbing nonetheless.  Last month the New York Times ran an article about the decline of the picture book. The author found that parents are jumping over picture books to hurry their children into chapter books. How sad.

As an agent I don’t often represent picture books but I’m a dedicated fan of the art form. I’d hate to even admit to how many feet of bookshelf space in my house is dedicated to these slim volumes. I consider them story and art. I originally bought picture books to read to my children but it didn’t take long for me to stop using children as a ruse to buy the books. I buy them because I love them.

Just a foot or so of my picture book collection

For me the books are a bound art form that combines both art and words– a feast for the eyes and the heart. Everyone who knows me knows that there is no gift I love better than a fine picture book. I’ve previously mentioned some of the writer/illustrators I collect but if you want to see some of the best, check out contemporary authors Patricia Polacco, Jan Brett, Susan Jeffers, Michael Hague, Trina Schart Hyman, Barbara McClintock, my own client Andy McGuire, and many others. In the “antiquarian” category I love Johnny Gruelle’s early Volland Press Raggedy Ann books, Rumer Godden, Tasha Tudor, Maud Humphrey, Kate Greenaway, H. Willabeek LeMair, Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit books, The Babar books and so many more there’s not room to list them. There’s barely enough room to shelve them all. One of my all time favorites is All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan. These are works of art.

Illustration is one of my favorite art forms. In fact, I’m enjoying my purchase of two new original illustrations by Andy McGuire that appeared in his book, Rainy Day Games.

But, of course, the real consumer of picture books is the child. There are so many reasons parents can’t abandon picture books with their little ones. Books are critical in the development of the child. A few of the reasons:

• The very act of reading a picture book to a child brings the adult and child together in something other than play– a quest, an experience.
• Picture books not only introduce the child to words but to both story and art.
• Picture books give the young child the tactile pleasure of turning pages. He is in control of the experience  as opposed to media like television which is passively delivered to him.
• Picture books allow the child to discover more over time. They reveal themselves slowly. It’s one of the reasons I’ve always loved Jan Brett’s illustrations. If the child studies the illustrated frames around the pages she can uncover the secrets unfolding in the story.

Deciderius Erasmus wrote, “When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food.” That’s how important I feel picture books are for children. Strike that. That’s how important picture books are for all of us.

We need to reverse this unfortunate trend. Let’s lavish picture books on the people we love this Christmas.

Your turn. Tell us why picture books are important. What picture books are not to be missed by us? How have you incorporated them into your own personal library? To celebrate the importance of the picture book I will randomly choose six of you who comment today to receive Andy McGuire’s beautiful Rainy Day Games as a gift.

Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

I recently read the results of a survey Scholastic conducted regarding kids and their reading habits in our increasingly digital age. I found lots of fascinating insight about the reading habits these children are developing.  Did you know…

• 25% of 9- to 17-year-olds believe texting constitutes reading
• 25% of 6- to 17-year-olds have read a book on a digital device
• 14% of parents have read a book on a digital device
• 39% of 9- to 17-year-olds believe online information is always correct
• 33% of 9- to 17-year-olds would read more if they had access to e-books
• 66% of 9- to 17-year-olds will continue to read print books
• 39% of boys say reading for fun is important
• 56% of 6- to 8-year-olds read frequently (5 to 7 days per week)
• 24% of 15- to 17-year-olds read frequently
• 91% of children are more likely to finish a book they have picked out

What surprises you in these statistics? Do you see the same trends in your children or children you know? How do these numbers inform your writing?

Location: Home, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Like Etta, I’ve been thinking about international reading recently, mostly because I’ve been in Europe. I’ve just returned from a jaunt to the United Kingdom and Romania (to attend my godson’s wedding), and I also traveled in Italy, Austria and Slovenia.  As is my custom, I visited  bookstores along the way and took  notes.

I’m always intrigued by what appears in translation, to get a gauge for what the world reads about America. Some of our clients here at Books & Such have been translated into other languages, and their subject matters bear some scrutiny. Among them: Linda Shepard’s devotionals are found in the Philippines. Cindy Coloma’s novels have been translated into Dutch. BJ Hoff regularly receives royalties in South African Rand, and you can find Sisterchicks stories in several spots on the globe.

None of those writers’ works, however, appeared at the bookstore I visited in Brasov, Romania, last week. The Transylvanian bookstore featured more “classic” writers along the order of Jane Austen, Anita Shreve and Bernard Cornwell. No surprise Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight sagas and Anne Rice’s vampire stories filled the shelves not far from Dracula’s castle,  but why would anyone want to read something by Henry Miller? Or Sigmund Freud in English?

I was touched, however, to see one of my favorites in Romanian: Captivi in Tadah. Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time sounds just as interesting no matter the language! 90 Minutes in Heaven also sat on the shelf, along with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

It’s an interesting mix and made me wonder, what could you conclude about the United States–and portions of Great Britain–if these books were the only ones you read?

Our family’s Brazilian foreign exchange student came to the US last fall with excellent English skills, mostly picked up from deciphering Harry Potter novels. She also adored the Twilight series. While watching the movie one night, I asked her if her concept of American high schools was formed by that first movie. (I also asked if she saw any vampires at Montgomery High School. She sighed and rolled her eyes at this American “mother.”)

What novels would you recommend for someone to get a feel for current American life? Why? And how does our concept of a location depend on how and what writers say about it?

Location:  Books & Such Nashville Office

Weather:   Low 90s

Looking at the American Library Association’s lists of awards and prizes over the years, I see several authors and books from other cultures. The Mildred L. Bachelder Award for best work of translation is probably the best known of these. Begun in 1966 and named in honor of a children’s librarian whose work had international influence, the award is intended to promote communication between the peoples of the world. In 2003 author Cornelia Funke won that award for The Thief Lord, originally published in German. Funke has written several best-sellers since then and is now part of a promotional tour in the US along with several other juvenile authors.

In 2009 the Bachelder Award went to Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi, originally published in Japanese. Even though it was published in the U.S. by Arthur A. Levine of Scholastic, the same imprint that brought us Harry Potter from Britain, the book has not appealed to readers in the same way as Funke’s. It has also been outsold by a Bachelder honor book that same year, Tiger Moon by Antonia Michaelis, originally published in German.

I may be making too much of this, but I feel several things are at play here: The American taste for intrigue and mystery rather than for spiritual symbolism. There may also be some underlying feeling of more ethnic identity with Germanic culture than with Asian. Or it could be something more obvious–page count, helpful glossary in the back, etc.

Within the realm of Christian publishing for children and youth, I feel we have too few books about children from other cultures, and I wonder why. Are we too preoccupied with the moral development of our own kids that we focus on the culture in which they are growing up? Why aren’t we publishing and promoting stories about our children learning, giving, and receiving with children from other countries? Eager to hear your answers.

Location: Books & Such Central Valley Office

Last time I blogged I promised you, dear readers, that for just this once I would refrain from blogging about gruesome realities like Career Killers, Kisses of Death, QueryFails or Worst Case Scenarios. I asked for your suggestions of happy things I could blog about. I considered puppies and babies but I finally settled on one of our favorite things: books.

I love books. Had I lived in Victorian times I’d have been considered a bluestocking for my devotion to books. Happily, we can now indulge in books without society’s censure.

So for this week, we’re going to attempt the near-impossible task of coming up with our Favorite Fives in five different categories. I had to make one ground rule for me– it can’t be a book by one of my clients or one of my friends. So today let’s share our favorite five children’s books. This includes picture books, middle grade and young adult– both current and classic. Yep. Only five.

This may be the most difficult category of all for me because though I don’t represent children’s books, I’m a dedicated fan. I’ve long collected antiquarian illustrated picture books. I love the work of Henriette Willebeek LeMair, Jessie Willcox Smith, Ethel Franklin Betts, Mabel Lucie Atwell, Johnny Gruelle,  and many others. And I’m a fan of many of the contemporary illustrator/ authors like Patricia Polacco, Tasha Tudor, Michael Hague, Susan Jeffers, Trina Scart Hyman, Jan Brett, my own client Andy McGuire and too many others to list.

I’m a fan of middle grade, too, especially the classics.  I have shelves of series books— the twins book (like Dutch Twins, African Twins, etc.), the Little House books, Anne of Green Gables, Betsy-Tacy, Honey Bunch, The Bobbsey Twins, The Chronicles of Narnia and Nancy Drew. I love contemporary middle grades as well, like everything by Madeleine L’Engle. A few years back I made it a point to read all the past Newbery winners and honors. So many treasures. . .

All this to say, how does one pick a favorite five?

This could change in the next hour, but for right now here’s what I’d pick and why:

• Picture Book: All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan, illustrated by Mike Wimmer. The most beautiful picture book ever. I experience deep sehnsucht every time I read this.
• Classic YA: Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott— need I explain why? This classic has it all— unforgettable characters, a company of strong women loving each other and growing together. It’s a story that still makes me laugh and cry.
• Classic Middle Grade: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. My very first gothic mystery. I can still recite parts of this book: “Please, sir, may I have a bit of earth?”
• Adventure: Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis— Reep-i-cheep is one of the most memorable heroes of all literature
• Middle Grade: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. A story of love and loss– powerful.

Okay, those are my five. Now it’s your turn. Tell us your favorite five children’s books.