Children’s Writing Web Journal

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Sorry for the limited posts — my time is being taken up entirely by a top-secret ultra-cool project that I’ll be telling you about after the new year.  It’s gonna be really amazing.  But good lord, I need sleep. 

Anyway, before I head back to the salt mines, here’s a link to a superb post by the always superb Nathan Bransford.  it’s about the fine (and sometimes non-existent) line between young adult and adult when it comes to novels.

Really good stuff:

http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2008/12/holiday-cheer-dude-looks-like-ya.html

Farrar, Straus & Giroux is the publisher that has given us Madeleine L’Engle, William Steig, Louis Sachar and Polly Horvath.  And Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.  And Pablo Neruda.  And Isaac Bashevis Singer.   And…. well, you get the idea.

So it would be a tragedy if FSG was a casualty in the Macmillan restructuring announced yesterday.  Fortunately, it appears that FSG will make it through the storm, though not entirely unscathed.

On the heels of job losses and a restructuring of the children’s division, FSG publisher Jonathan Galassi penned a relatively hopeful memo to FSG staff yesterday that says, in part:

Our approach to publishing and what we choose to publish are not going to change…This new structure will make us more agile, more capable of being creative in doing what we do best in an environment that is constantly changing and ever more competitive.

The full memo, along with a thorough analysis that includes what’s in store for FSG’s Young Readers division can be found here:  http://www.observer.com/mobile/article/80428

With the dust settling after yesterday’s announcements from Macmillan, we’re starting to get a clearer picture of how, exactly, the new Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group will be structured.

Got your pencils and scorecards handy?

Publishers’ Weekly reports that Jean Feiwel and Simon Boughton are now senior vp publishing directors under group head Dan Farley. Feiwel’s domain will include Feiwel and Friends, Square Fish, Holt Books for Young Readers, and Priddy Books. Laura Godwin, publisher of Holt Books For Young Readers, will report to Feiwel. Boughton will oversee FSG Books for Young Readers and Roaring Brook Press. Margaret Ferguson,  ed. director of FSG Books for Young Readers and First Second’s ed. director Mark Siegel will now report to Boughton.

The most hopeful quote in the piece comes from Macmillan CEO John Sargent, who says he wishes Macmillan to remain “a loose federation of publishers.” Let’s hope so, especially when it comes to editorial autonomy.

Full article: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6623005.html?nid=2286&source=title&rid=

Publisher’s Weekly is reporting that Macmillan Publishing has eliminated 64 positions and has created a new children’s publishing division that will “bring all of its imprints under one umbrella”.

The new division is called the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.    Children’s imprints owned by Macmillan include  FSG Books for Young Readers, Feiwel & Friends, Holt Books for Young Readers, Kingfisher, Roaring Brook, Priddy Books, Starscape/Tor Teen  and Square Fish.   Although there’s no specific word on what will happen with these imprints,  this piece deals with the possible fate of FSG Books for Young Readers.

Full story: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6622854.html

The PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship of $5,000 is offered annually to an author of children’s or young-adult fiction. The Fellowship has been developed to help writers whose work is of high literary caliber but who have not yet attracted a broad readership. As a result, an author’s books may not have achieved the sales that would allow the writer to support him or herself solely from writing.

The Fellowship is designed to assist a writer at a crucial moment in his or her career, when monetary support is particularly needed to complete a book-length work-in-progress.

More info:  http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/281

Let’s continue our series which will take us, step-by-step, from absolute beginner to published author. The topic of the previous issue: What Should You Write About? If you missed it, you can read it here.

If you’ve been with us since the start of this series you’re (hopefully) well motivated, you know who your audience is and what you’re going to write about. Now it’s time to learn the rules of the game. Because kids grow and change so quickly, children’s book genres are far more structured and tiered than adult genres. What a 2nd grader and 6th grader read are worlds apart, and the “rules of the game” reflect that.

These rules, which cover page length, word count, subject matter and other elements of a book, aren’t really official. There’s no rule book, and no one standard to adhere to. They’re pretty much an unwritten set of expectations that editors have when they’re looking at a particular type of manuscript.

So, let’s fix that — by writing some of them down. For whatever age group you’re targeting, find the rules and follow them closely when drafting your first manuscript. (A note: As with all “unwritten rules”, these aren’t written in stone and can be a bit flexible from publisher to publisher. But our interpretation of the rules should work for most cases. Also, experienced, successful writers can and do sometimes get away with breaking these rules — but newer writers should stick closely to them.) (more…)

Every writer gets rejection letters.  How a writer reacts to those rejections is what usually tells the tale in the long run.

Writers that go on to build successful careers manage to find ways to actually benefit from rejections, becoming stronger and more persistant.  Writers who spiral into depression and despair at the site of a “thanks, but no thanks” missive either learn to suck it up or soon find themselves pursuing another vocation.

This fine piece from the Guide to Literary Agents blog can help you discover the silver-lined, half-full glass of lemonade (made from the lemons life gave you) that is the rejection letter.

Some breaking news:

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell (Scholastic) has won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.  The award ceremony was held tonight in New York.

Congratulations, Judy — it’s a great accomplishment!

For full details, check out this piece at School Library Journal.

It’s the time of year when “Best of” lists start making their appearance, and, in the world of children’s literature, few such lists are more prestigious than The Kirkus Reviews’.

If you want a crash course in what’s happening in kids lit, head over to Kirkus now and grab the just-released list.

Here’s the link:

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/kirkusreviews/images/pdf/BestChildrens.pdf

In November, those folks ingenious enough to have a subscription to Children’s Book Insider, The Newsletter for Children’s Writers, are continuing their paths to success by reading about:

Market News:

* Publisher Seeks Early Chapter Books and Nonfiction for Leveled Readers

* Magazine Accepting Fiction, Nonfiction Submissions for Early Elementary Grades

* Our in-depth interview with a new publisher that’s seeking young adult contemporary fiction!

Articles & Features:

* Grow a Funny Bone! How to effectively and memorably use humor in your writing.

* Evelyn Coleman: Writing About the Human Experience. The acclaimed author of Freedom Train gives her best advice.

* The Flexibility Factor. Author Carmen Anthony Fiore tells about an important and simple shift that improved her stories dramatically….and shares it with you!

* Produce Your Best Writing Without Straining Your Brain. Get your left and right brain together to become a better writer…with less effort.

* Getting Started as a Blogger. Don’t have a blog yet? You really should — and we’ll show you just how to get started.

What? You’re not getting Children’s Book Insider? We’ll have to do something about that!

Click here for a special offer and a free gift!