3 Query Tips Every Editor Hopes you Forget

Anyone who has submitted a manuscript–from published pro to the first timer–knows the feeling that sets in the second you click “send” on the query letter email. Anxiety takes hold almost immediate.y. Did I miss a typo? Will she like it? Will she think my letter is too short, or too long? Maybe I should have read it one more time…

Who knows? Every editor’s taste is different. One may prefer YA realism to fantasy. Another may appreciate High-concept middle grade over school tales and picture books. Some editors only publish fiction or non-fiction. But we all agree that a thoughtful pitch is the best way to garner attention no matter the genre.

So as your finger trembles over the SEND button, try to keep these things in mind:

1.  Editors are not quiet. When they are excited by manuscript they tell everyone within earshot and generally send it to them for feedback, too. I’ve been on the receiving end of a few high-fives! Oh sure, they also love to be reclusive and pore over your stories behind closed doors but bookmaking is collaborative. So remember, you’re not sending that manuscript to one person, not really. Several pairs of experienced eyes will likely take a peek if it’s a real contender for acquisition. Make that query memorable and if at all possible, make it sing!

2. Editors are NOT going to trash your work because of a typo. Most editors  who are hoping to acquire a book will generally forgive the spliced comma, errant typo, or misplaced preposition, IF (and this is a big one) the manuscript keeps them turning pages so fast that they can’t be bothered to worry about it (apologies to Strunk and White). Generally, editors are not the grammar police. They are story-seekers. If your book is un-put-downable, an editor may forgive that grammar is not your superpower.  That’s where copy editors keep everyone honest. However, if you’re manuscript is boring, lacks voice, or feels like yet another Hunger Games rip-off, you’re likely to get a form decline and no invitation to re-submit another book for consideration.

3.  Editors don’t have the final say. An editor may very well love your work, but it might not have a home on that publisher’s list right now. Perhaps they recently acquired a similar book or are looking for something very specific. But if you’re work is good, they will remember it and YOU – good news for a future submission. Trust me, editors remember names and stories. If you’re work resonates and an editor invites your to submit again, DO IT.  She will be rooting for you the next time and genuinely hoping that you keep writing.

Bottom line: as much as an editor might love your work, she is looking for reasons to decline it from the first sentence. So many manuscripts, so little time! Be certain your query and manuscript are compelling, representative of your very best work, and make the most of the few precious minutes editors have to spend with your submission. Drop your reader into a scene. Tell her something she doesn’t know and above all, don’t bore her.

 

UN-Monday: Ursula Nordstrom’s 5 tips for writing for children

The road to publication is long and filled with missteps and restarts. No one understood that better than Harper’s venerable children’s book editor, Ursula Nordstrom. Her correspondence, so thoughtfully curated in DEAR GENIUS (Marcus, 1998), is filled with revision advice for writers at every level of their careers.

In her September 27, 1961 letter to Fred Gipson, author of the Newbery Honor-winning young novel Old Yeller, she outlines five tips for writing books for children. In her note to Gipson, they are meant to help him expand and adapt an adult short story into a possible work for child readers. However, they are a nearly accidental road map for writers of young fiction, genius in their simplicity. I’ve even created a PDF below! Click UN’s list and download it to hang on the wall of your Writing Batcave.

And speaking of important reminders. I stumbled across this video from New York Times Best-selling young adult sci-fi author, Beth Revis, where she plainly discusses her own experiences with failure on the way to publishing. Sure her first novel, Across the Universe, debuted on the list (I know!) but in the video she shares how she got there by writing a bunch of novels that never went anywhere. Pair UN’s list with Beth’s inspirational vid and you’ve got a great guide to meeting today’s word count.

 

 

UN-Monday: Why does it take so long to publish a book?

Editors rarely feel like they have enough time with a manuscript.

Image courtesy Dasha Tolstikova

There is so much to do. Developmental editing comes first–working with the author to make sure the story is the best it can be. Does it build tension from the beginning? Is it engaging throughout? Does the ending leave the reader feeling differently than when she began? Is she satisfied? Curious? Left to wonder about herself or the world in a new way? What about illustrations? Who should illustrate? Which artist is best for this particular story? In her May 4, 1955 note to Janice May Udry, UN offers us a glimpse into why the editorial  process is arduous and lengthy.

You can feel UN’s angst at the passage of time conflicting with her desire to make sure the text and illustrations worked seamlessly to tell the story A Tree is Nice.

“I am extremely sorry that I haven’t written you before this about your manuscript, A Tree is Nice. It was read in January–a week after we received it.”

Note: this letter was written four months after the manuscript was submitted! What must Janice Udry have been thinking? Does UN like my book? Is she still going to publish it? WHY HAVEN’T I HEARD FROM SOMEONE? That was 1955. Maybe Janice was a patient person, and clearly had a contract already. Even so, she must have wondered if her work had been well-received.

The reality is, whether it’s 1955 or 2015, four months isn’t really that long in publishing. I’ll just pause here while you groan, or maybe throw something…

In fact, some might argue it’s a damned speedy turnaround! Never mind Ursula didn’t have email. All of her correspondence was typed. With a typewriter. On paper. And mailed via the US Postal Service.

Can you imagine? Your email inbox is looking pretty good right now, huh? Go ahead. Click re-fresh. I’ll wait…

But it in the next paragraph of UN’s letter, we  see why it has been four months since dear Janice has heard a word. UN’s famous attention to details of text becomes apparent.

From DEAR GENIUS, by Leonard Marcus

 

 

 

 

 

She was processing! Authors, you do this all of the time. Don’t you crave this luxury as an inalienable right? It’s vital to  creativity.

Editors need that same kind of temporal space to evaluate your creative work. That’s fair, isn’t it? Especially when you consider editors juggle multiple projects at every stage of development and face stressful deadlines of their own.

UN and Janice Udry’s collaboration on this book, labor-intensive though it may have been, was well-worth it. Legendary illustrator, Marc Simont, created the artwork and was awarded the Caldecott Medal for his efforts .

Not too shabby for a book that was just starting to evolve at the time of Ursula’s apologetic letter.

Timing is everything. If you have a book out on submission, know it takes time to do right by it. The quickest books to read take the most time, to produce. No, it does not make the waiting any easier, but it usually makes it  worth it.

 

 

 

Un-Monday: Ursula Nordstrom on how to create a picture book dummy

Ursula Nordstrom/image credit: Dasha Tolstikova

This week’s Un-Monday post is inspired by my good friend Paula Yoo, an incredibly talented screenwriter and *picturebook author extraordinaire. Over on her website, she’s gearing up to host her seventh annual picturebook writing smackdown: NaPiBoWriWee (National Picture Book Writing Week). From May 1-May 7 of this year, mortals all over the world will be transformed in to pen-wielding heroes, cranking out seven picture books in just seven days! Sure, it’s completely insane, but that’s what makes it so productive and popular. Under that kind of time constraint, you can’t over-think your work, you just have to get it down on the page. Intrigued? Terrified? Well, you’re on your way. Those are excellent reasons to dive head-first into a week-long writing intensive.

I’ll be guest blogging at PaulaYoo.com and offering up advice and tips on how to start and finish those projects next week. In the meantime, if you’re braving a picturebook for the first time, I wanted to share Ursula Nordstom’s notes to John Steptoe, on the importance of emotion in the early stages of writing in this format, and her advice to him on how to create a picture book dummy.

From: DEAR GENIUS, edited by Leonard Marcus

From: DEAR GENIUS, edited by Leonard Marcus

Whether you’re an author or an illustrator, putting your work in the 32-page format as you develop it can be an invaluable tool for crafting compelling page turns and leaving room in the text for the art to tell story, too. One simple example of this is color. Rather than wasting valuable words on visual details (the best picture books are spare with modest word counts) let the illustrations carry some of that storytelling.

For further reading in advance of NaPiBoWriWee, check out Uri Shulevitz’s classic work on  picture book making:

and Molly Bang’s fabulously revealing summary of how shapes, position and color inform meaning in picturebooks.

*Note: I spell “picturebook” as one word. I share the philosophy that these books are an art form unto themselves and deserve to be recognized as such.

 

UnMonday: Ursula Nordstrom’s patented brand of tough love for tired writers

Ursula’s relationship with children’s book author Meindert DeJong wasn’t always comfortable. Good editors and wise writers understand it’s what turns a good book into a GREAT book, as was the case between UN and “Mick.”

Their relationship, however, reveals the real emotional investment editors make in their writers. Equal parts champion and critic, Ursula pushed DeJong (and all of her authors and illustrators) to create his very best work, believing that is what young readers deserved from those in the business of making books for them.

Nowhere is this more evident than with the development of The House of Sixty Fathers, by DeJong, which went through multiple drafts.

When UN believed that DeJong could do better, she told him so and accepted no less. It couldn’t have been easy for the struggling writer to hear as he eked out a living as a janitor.

Understanding Mick’s frustration, but unwavering in her belief in his talent, Harper’s venerable editor encouraged DeJong with her patented brand of passion and polite persistence:

It will be good to see you in October and talk over your doubts and qualms with you and maybe shout and swear at you…I know you can do something which is even better than anything you have ever done if you don’t get discouraged and stay the hell with it. I admit it’s a bad time for you in your writing life, but it won‘t last forever…And if it is any help, remember that I’m here in New York convinced of that…

So much hard work by the book’s author and editor paid off in spades.

With illustrations by Sendak, the book went on to win the Josette Frank Award (then named the Children’s Book Award of the Child Study Association) in 1956. In 1957 it was a Newbery Honor Book, received the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and was named an ALA Notable Children’s Book.

What makes writing scary is that it’s all about trust. Trusting oneself to create something good; trusting an editor to say when it’s not quite good enough; trusting the reader with what you both believe is a very good book.