Editing for Picture Books, MG, and YA
Hi everyone! Kathy Temean graciously invited me to be featured as agent of the month for April on her blog. Each Friday through April, Kathy will share part of my interview questions.
Head over there to her blog HERE to learn a bit more about me and enter to win a first page critique while you’re there!
I’m thrilled to welcome my newest client, Shay Fan!
Shay writes in the kidlit space. Her Picture Book on grief and Chinese traditions is an absolute stunner! I first read the pitch and excerpt from Justin Colón’s #PBChat. The subject appealed to me immediately–I’m drawn to stories that help kids work through tough topics–and Shay’s writing absolutely blew me away! All of her work is incredible and I’m honored & excited to take part in getting her stories out into the world.
Shay Fan is a tech and healthcare marketer and active SCBWI member. She was selected as a #PBChat mentee and a two-time finalist for the We Need Diverse Books mentorship. When she isn’t writing, Shay is a vocal advocate for the Oxford comma and an avid amateur snowboarder.
You can follow Shay on TWITTER or by visiting her WEBSITE, https://www.shayfan.com/
Author Ana Siqueira discussing the importance of Latinx voices in publishing with Raul A. Reyes for NBC News.
“Ana Siqueira, author of the forthcoming picture book “Bella’s Recipe for Success,” was part of the group that organized Latinx Pitch for Kid-Lit. “Often it is hard for people in th eindustry to understand our culture and the way we write,” she said. Sometimes they say our stories are too Latinx, and then other times, they are not Latinx enough. They (publishers typically expect Latinx authors to write about immigration and struggling.”
Siqueira believes that it is important for young readers to see themselves in books. “When kids don’t see themselves in books, it makes them feel left out like they don’t matter, like they can never be a superhero or a princess or a king,” she said. “Books by diverse authors teach all children to respect each other, and help promote empathy and understanding. That’s good for everyone.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna596?__twitter_impression=true
Ana Siqueira is the author of the forthcoming picture books, Bella’s Recipe for Success (which is available for Pre-Order Now!), If Your Babysitter is a Bruja, Cuando Tu Niñera Es Una Bruja, and more to be announced!
Be sure to follow Ana on Twitter: @SraSiqueira1307 or Visit her website: https://anafiction.com/ana-siqueira/ and support her work by pre-ordering her books!
In this new year, I’m hoping to be more transparent about the querying process, including where I’m at in reviewing queries. I also thought it may be interesting to offer the categories and genres I get the most queries for. I may find an improved way to post this in the future but for now, querymanager makes it easy to share.
Scroll down to skip over my rambling & just see the results!
As of today, Friday March 5, 2021, (clearly late, but hey it’s a start!) I have 77 undecided queries and 4 submissions to read. I receive about 50-70 or so queries a week and I try my best to respond within at least 2 weeks. Below is the screenshot of my queries as of today. (Note: Not all of the submissions I am considering are included.)
As you can see, my submission reply rate is lower than my query reply rate for obvious reasons! It takes me longer to evaluate an entire manuscript than it does the query and sample pages, but I am excited to read them all the same! Sometimes though, I do hold on to queries longer.
I still have some queries from January, I will be looking over soon. Sorry for making you wait!
This is can be for several reasons. Just some examples: I want to reevaluate it at a later date, I have a lot of submissions to get through, or even I can’t make up my mind quite yet. I don’t wish to discourage you by my response time. Sometimes I hold on to projects I’m unsure about and other times I send a quick pass on projects that are excellent but might not for me. Because you really deserve the best champion for your work!
Truly, there is no better feeling than connecting with an author’s writing! I bet if you asked any agent, they could say the same.
Now as far as February, below is the chart of queries I received, have unanswered, and requested.
And if you’re really into data, here is the breakdown of categories and genre of queries I received over the past year.
As you can see Picture Books lead the pack, which is awesome because I LOVE a good picture book! Surprisingly, Young Adult and Middle Grade are pretty close with 233 and 287 as of today. I find this interesting because for a while, Young Adult would have been leading that poll, but Middle Grade is gaining popularity!
I hope this helped! I’m going to keep working on adding to my blog with resources for querying and continue to update (maybe monthly? what do you think would be most helpful?) on my query stats so stick around if you’d like! I’d love to be able to post helpful blogs for you, so let me know below what you’d like to see more of and I’ll work on it!
Also, I am open to queries as of this post so if you think we’d be a good fit, check out my WISHLIST page for more on what I’m looking for, my #MSWL, and how to query me!
-Andrea
Andrea first fell in love with books as a child, searching the dusty shelves of a flea market bookstore and has been on the hunt for her next great read ever since. Andrea holds a Bachelor Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Creative Writing, Finance, and Education and is pursuing her Masters in Education. She got her start in publishing in 2016, interning for a literary agent and then a publisher before joining Olswanger Literary as a contracts and research intern. She has worked closely with literary agents and editors as an editorial intern reading queries, submissions, and providing editorial and contractual feedback. Andrea looks forward to actively building her client list, representing authors and illustrators in children’s works – picture books, middle grade, and young adult in 2019.
Children's Book Editor