Agent for a cause

Dear SCBWI-ers,

 

Here is an amazing opportunity to both receive personal feedback from a literary agent AND do some good in the world at the same time. Please read this letter from NJ-based agent Anna Olswanger:

 

As I do every summer, I've donated a manuscript consultation as a literary agent to The Born Free Foundation online auction. Born Free is an international wildlife charity that works throughout the world to stop individual wild animal suffering. 

Here's my page on the auction site:

You'll see that people can submit up to 10 pages of a manuscript for a 20-minute phone consultation. It's a great chance to get feedback from an agent.

My clients have won the Newbery Honor, Asian Pacific American Award for Literature Honor, Flora Stieglitz Strauss Award for Nonfiction, Orbis Pictus Honor, PEN/Steven Kroll Award for Picture Book Writing, Parents Choice Gold Award, Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book, Sibert Award Honor, Ezra Jack Keats Book Award Honor, and been on The New York Times Bestseller list. 

I’ve sold to all the major publishers, including Bloomsbury, Chronicle, HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House, and Simon & Schuster.

You can view my full client list on Pinterest:

For information about the auction and bidding on my services, please click here for all the details. NOTE:  The auction closes on Monday, June 29th, at 5:00 p.m. EST.

We all fall in love with animal characters in books. Now it's time to help them in real life.

Thanks for your help. 

Best,

Anna

Submit to Wordstock by July 31

Author! Author! 

Wordstock: Portland’s Book Festival is accepting applications for inclusion. The Festival will re-launch as a one-day event at the Portland Art Museum on Saturday, November 7, 2015.

The 2015 Wordstock Festival submission period is January 5 to July 31, 2015.

The Wordstock Festival will consider books in the following genres:

• Fiction — all genres
• Narrative nonfiction — history, biography, memoir, and essays
• Cookbooks and food writing
• Poetry
• Children’s literature, including middle-grade and young adult
• Art and architecture

Wordstock: Portland’s Book Festival focuses on the promotion of literature and literary culture; books on the topics of self-improvement, how-to, or books strictly of academic or religious interest will not be considered. Click here for full guidelines.

Kidlit writers wanted for app

Thanks to Alison Weatherby, for passing along this opportunity she heard about through a friend whose husband runs a mobile app company. They're developing an educational app for kids and looking for children't book writers to help them write stories for it. (Official email follows.)


Hello,

If you are reading this email, it is because someone thinks you are amazing, creative, talented and might be interested in a cool new project to help children learn to read.This is a call for authors and illustrators/photographers to produce some wonderful new books for children. These will be commissioned works (Yes, you will get paid for your work!) that will be purchased by Page One Reading Solutions, Inc. and connected with an iPad app that will be used in elementary school classrooms. If this is something that might be of interest to you, kindly provide me with your contact and interest information via this very brief SURVEY (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QM37DHX). If you would like to learn more, read the FAQs below. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out via email or phone (727-858-2509). 

Why is Page One doing this?

My name is Janine Caffrey. For over 30 years I have been an educator with a commitment to helping kids learn to read. All too often (about 66% of the time) American children complete third grade without the reading skills they need. In order to solve this problem, my company (Page One Reading Solutions) is developing a new reading app called Classhopper. Classhopper will contain original "decodable" books. 

What is a decodable book?

A decodable book is designed to only include the letters, sounds and spelling patterns that a student has already learned. As a student learns new letters, sounds and patterns, s/he is provided with books that include these new letters, sounds and patterns. A small number of "sight" words might also be included in some books. These are words that may be exceptions to typical spelling patterns, such as "was." Sight words may also include words that do follow a pattern, but that the student has not yet learned. If you are interested in understanding the sequence of skills, please feel free to take a look at a DRAFT of the sequence of letters, sounds and spelling patterns (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jLtWcgVYPp-kyDcyTeFU9L8Fv7JTkFVxEn3zZB32RKI/edit?usp=sharing) that will be used in our Classhopper books. As you can see on the spreadsheet, the first book of the series will only include the letters a, m, s, t and the sight word "the." Each book will add letters, sounds, patterns and/or sight words. Each book can contain everything that is contained in the previous books. By the time students can read Book 57, they will be able to read just about anything you put in front of them. This sequence is open to revisions, which may come from the writers themselves. If for the sake of a particular story, we need to alter the sequence, we can do that.

How will Classhopper books be different?

Decodable books are nothing new. However, they are usually not very exciting. These will be different because of you. We are tapping into communities of writers and artists who want to create really amazing books, that happen to adhere to a sequence. The books can be fiction or non-fiction, using any types of images that would be engaging for children in kindergarten through 2nd grade. The entire series will have lots of different kinds of books for all different kinds of readers. This means overall, the characters and settings should be diverse and representative of all American children. If you have a book that you can write AND illustrate, WONDERFUL! If you want to team up with other people to create a book, that would be great. Of course, you can also opt to write OR provide the pictures. In that case, we will assign a partner for your book. If there are multiple people in a particular geographic area, we might be able to put a group together to brainstorm. Chicago and NYC are likely places - but there may be people based in other areas as well. 

What should I do next?

If this is something that might be of interest to you, kindly provide me with your contact and interest information via this very brief SURVEY (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QM37DHX). If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out via email (janinecaffrey@gmail.com) or phone (727-858-2509). 

Janine Caffrey

JanineWalkerCaffrey.com

727.858.2509

Author needed!

Sent by Wendy Wahman:

Len Blau is a friend of mine. I was going to be his special guest for an event in Covington, WA, but I'll be out of town that week. He'd like an author to come talk to the librarians, briefly, for 10–15 minutes. Len is a book distributor, so the author will need to be one they carry––that's the catch. Oh, and your payment is pizza and possible school visit schmoozing.  Please email or call Len. (See contact information, below.)

Best,

Wendy

 

Dear Kent Librarians: 

WE ARE SET !!!   As a way to show my appreciation for your hard work, past AND future business, I would like to invite you to the following celebration of your efforts:

What: Librarian Appreciation Happy Hour           (Sponsored by Bound to Stay Bound Books)

When:  Monday, February 23

             4:30 – 5:45 – get to know your fellow librarian – pizza, soft drink, and appetizers served

             5:45 -7ish     -FREE giveaways and possible special guest author

Where: The Rock Pizza 17309 SE 270^th Place   Covington  253-630-7404    upstairs room

Why: To applaud your efforts and give you a chance to meet your peers without any agenda.  I appreciate your business!!!!!

Please RSVP to Len Blau at Lblau@btsb.com or 206-276-9921

YA/MG authors with spring releases

Are there any other authors with MG/YA spring releases who would be interested in doing some joint signings/events in April? Please email Maureen McQuerry (Beyond the Door, Abrams/Amulet, March 2014) and you might be able to work something out. 

(And don't forget to send notice of your local appearances to the Chinook! We want to know!)

EDGE deadline for writers

Take note!

The 2014 EDGE Professional Development Program for Literary Artists will take place in Seattle from February 28–April 12, 2014.

Would you like to be a part of it?

The deadline for applications is December 23. That's less than two weeks!

Artist Trust's EDGE program provides an in-depth curriculum led by experienced professionals, and includes special presentations, panel discussions, and assignments. There will also be a focus on entrepreneurial skills and other tools necessary to succeed in the profession.

Who's eligible? Emerging or mid-career writers of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. Applicants must be residents of Washington State, but cannot be students enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate degree program. Applicants must commit to completing the entire 50-hour program. Tuition is for Artist Trust members only and is $500 per participant. 

For all the details and application instructions, click this link.

 

Calling all authors! You read it right here!

Bloomsbury Spark, a global digital imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, has flung open its virtual doors, seeking fiction e-books in the teen/YA/New Adult genres.

For all the details and conditions, please click here. Here's hoping someone in our chapter will submit, and we can post their good news sometime soon. Go for it, writers!

Stasia Kehoe wants YOU....

...to answer a questionnaire for an article she's writing about the effectiveness of the Internet for self-promotion, from authors' points of view.

She'd like to get as many authors (traditionally and self-published) to respond BY MONDAY, JULY 15. For the questionnaire, please click here.


Thanks in advance for your input!

Opportunity for Authors

Opening Windows to the World, Seattle, November 16 and 17, 2012

An invitation from the National Council for the Social Studies: The nation's largest professional organization for social studies education will hold its annual convention in Seattle on November 16 and 17, 2012. Authors of middle grade and young adult contemporary fiction or historical fiction are invited to submit a proposal for a one-hour session on their book. The format for “Conversation with an Author” is a brief presentation on the book and then a dialogue with the audience. Authors selected will be invited to sign/sell their books immediately following their presentation at an exhibit booth or other pre-designated area. Conference registration is not required for authors selected to be part of this series.

Proposal forms will be available from March 1 – 31, 2012. Here is the website for more information.

Interested in Joining FirstBooks's Advisory Board?

FirstBook organization is starting an advisory board in the Seattle area. They are looking for a children's author to be part of the board. Here's the website to learn more about what they do.

Here are some of the advisory board members responsibilities:

• Raise funds to provide book grants to local programs that serve children in need.
• Identify local schools and community programs to receive book grants
• Recruit new members who represent a professional and cultural cross-section of the community
• Participate in national cause-based marketing events and campaigns
• Promote First Book and literacy issues within the community

Advisory Board members will be meeting 1-2 times a month, and are not required to make money donations to the organization. If you're interested or have questions contact Ramiro Rey at rrey11(at)yahoo(dot)com.