Interview with Agent Tracy Marchini

Tracy represents my friend and critique partner Tara Cattie Luebbe. Tracy is a relatively new agent at BookEnds literary, but is not new to the publishing world. As you'll see by her comments, Tracy is knowledgeable about the industry and is seeking to build her client list.

Thank you, Tracy, for taking time out of your busy day to answer these questions. 

You’ve had an impressive career. You worked at Curtis Brown, then took time off to finish an MFA in writing for children from Simmons College. You are an agent at BookEnds Literary and an author as well. What started you on the path to working in the publishing industry and in particular, becoming an agent? 

Like many of my colleagues, I was writing and reading from a young age. My mother joined SCBWI in 1996 and learned how to submit to publishers, and the next year I started submitting my first picture book. (In hindsight, it was not that good.) A few years later, I graduated college with a degree in English and attended the local SCBWI conference. 

I was sitting with Gail Carson Levine and mentioned that I’d just graduated from college and was hoping to work in publishing. She offered to pass along my resume to her agent, where it was hung on the kitchen bulletin board. Kirsten Manges was leaving Curtis Brown to start her own agency, and so she grabbed my resume and I was able to intern for her as she set up everything from the phone lines to the submissions system to the boilerplate files. After about six months, I had to leave and find full time work. But a few months later, Kirsten told me that Curtis Brown was looking for an agent’s assistant. I interviewed first with one of their romance agents and didn’t get the job. A month or so later though I had an interview in the children’s suite, and that’s how I ended up with my first full time job at an agency!

For the rest of the interview, please visit my site at: https://johnelldewitt.com/2016/11/14/interview-with-agent-tracy-marchini/

Halloweensie Entry!

I love Susanna Hill's contests. Thank you, Susanna! This year, I tried something new. I do not write in rhyme. I can't tell if the lines are anapest, dactyl or Dr. Seussian, but if I follow a mentor text (Langston Hughes happens to be one of my favorites), I can pull it off (shameless plug for mentor texts).

This year, I used as a mentor text the "Water, water, everywhere," stanza from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. So here you have it folks, my 98-word Halloweensie entry using the words spider, moon and ghost. 

Spiders, Spiders, Everywhere
by Johnell DeWitt 

Spiders, spiders, everywhere,
On spindly legs they creep.
Spiders, spiders, everywhere,
A festival to keep.
Spiders, spiders, everywhere,
The Hallowball begins.
Spiders, spiders, everywhere,
With leaps and twirls and spins.
Spiders, spiders, everywhere,
They hang the moon with lace.
Spiders, spiders, everywhere,
And weave a ghostly face.
Spiders, spiders, everywhere,
They catch a tasty treat.
Spiders, spiders, everywhere,
And wrap it up to eat.
Spiders, spiders, everywhere,
They party through the night.
Spiders, spiders, everywhere,
And scatter at first light.
Spiders, spiders, everywhere,
You feel that on your cheek?
Spiders, spiders, everywhere,
Don’t look or you might … 
SHRIEK!

If you want to see more about using mentor texts and learn about an upcoming mentor contest, please visit my site: https://johnelldewitt.com/2016/10/27/mentor-texts-and-a-contest/

Halloweensie 2016

It's that time again. Susanna Hill is hosting her Halloweensie contest. 

Rules: Write a 100 word Halloween story appropriate for children (title not included in the 100 words), using the words spider, ghost, and moon. The story can be scary, funny or anything in between, poetry or prose, but must include those 3 words stay at or under 100 words.

I've been working on my entry to be posted here soon. Get started and join me. See here for the rest of the details: https://susannahill.com/2016/10/10/and-now-the-moment-youve-all-been-waiting-for/

Interview with Literary Agent Rick Richter

I met rick at a conference in Boston, in fact, you might say I agent stalked him. I heard about him through 12x12, did my research, and found he'd be presenting at a conference. The conference sounded great, and I was able to get a good deal on airfare, so I went. I have to admit, that I was nervous meeting with Rick, but he is personable and charming as you will see from his interview. Thank you, Rick!

Let me first set up your rather amazing resume. You were a co-founder (with many others) and former CEO of Candlewick Press, a publisher at Simon & Schuster Children’s Books, president of Simon & Schuster Sales and Distribution Division, the creator of Simon Spotlight, and the founder of Ruckus Media Group. You’ve also served as chairman of the Children’s Book Council, and an early director of First Book. You’re a literary agent at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth and helped reintroduce the current market to Eloise and Raggedy Ann in prior lives. I think it’s safe to say you know a lot about children’s lit. How did you get started on this path?

My father worked the night shift at the Boston Globe – the “lobstah” shift I think is what they called it – and he thought the book business was nobler than newspapers. “People don’t wrap fish in your work at the end of the day.” I remember him saying, so he encouraged me to find a job in books. My soon-to-be-wife introduced me to a friend who worked at a small company in Natick, Massachusetts – Picture Book Studio – and I fell head over heels over the work of Lizbeth Zwerger. I remember telling the staff there (the entire staff interviewed me!) that I would do anything at the company. “Anything at all.” I started packing books in their warehouse.

I was really fortunate to have two amazing bosses at this little company. The first, Motoko Inoue, went on to become Eric Carle’s long-time and exclusive agent. The second, Andrew Clements, went on the write the classic Frindle, and became a staple in the industry. So I learned to love the business at the knee of two highly principled and wonderful people. 

Now that you’re an agent, do you see the children’s lit world differently?

Absolutely, I think becoming an agent is something every publisher should do. It is a lesson in humility, a lesson in patience, and one feels the victories and set backs of the authors and illustrators we work with in a much, much more visceral way. I’m even more in awe of the talented people who make up our industry and their willingness to persevere.  

For the rest of the interview, please visit my website.

Storyboarding for Picture Book Writers

A picture book text can paint a picture or it can set the stage for a corresponding visual story. Sort of the difference between

… and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day…” (Where the Wild Things Are)

and

In the great green room there was a telephone …” (Goodnight Moon).

The first one paints a mood that the art alone can’t tell. The second one creates an image that accompanies the text. Both are good for the story they are telling, both create a visual without taking over for the artist.

The trick, as a text-only picture book creator, is to realize that you are a visual artist. Your text needs to create moods and images word by word, sentence by sentence, and it has to do it page by page and beginning to end.

One way to set yourself up for success in this area is to storyboard. Storyboarding your text will give you visual feedback on how your text works on each page. If you have a text-heavy page, you’ve either stepped into the artist’s area, or you have too many words, or your story may not be best suited as a picture book. You also need to be aware of your page turns.

For the rest of the article, please visit my website at: https://johnelldewitt.com/2016/09/02/storyboarding-for-picture-book-writers/

And just because I'm not cool enough to be able to embed video in Wordpress yet, here's a short video resource on storyboarding:

Have a great weekend.

Storyboarding for Picture Book Writers

A picture book text can paint a picture or it can set the stage for a corresponding visual story. Sort of the difference between

… and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day…” (Where the Wild Things Are)

and

In the great green room there was a telephone …” (Goodnight Moon).

The first one paints a mood that the art alone can’t tell. The second one creates an image that accompanies the text. Both are good for the story they are telling, both create a visual without taking over for the artist.

The trick, as a text-only picture book creator, is to realize that you are a visual artist. Your text needs to create moods and images word by word, sentence by sentence, and it has to do it page by page and beginning to end.

One way to set yourself up for success in this area is to storyboard. Storyboarding your text will give you visual feedback on how your text works on each page. If you have a text-heavy page, you’ve either stepped into the artist’s area, or you have too many words, or your story may not be best suited as a picture book. You also need to be aware of your page turns.

For the rest of the article, please visit my website at: https://johnelldewitt.com/2016/09/02/storyboarding-for-picture-book-writers/

And just because I'm not cool enough to be able to embed video in Wordpress yet, here's a short video resource on storyboarding:

Have a great weekend.

Interview With VFX Artist and Author Jami Gigot

I met Jami through our critique group and enjoy reading her manuscripts. She creates warm and comforting characters that have a timeless feel, and she also illustrates them. Jami started her artistic career in digital animation before moving to 3D and VFX work, as you will see, and entered the kidlit world with her debut picture book Mae and Moon published through Ripple Grove Press. Her follow up book Seb and the Sun, also through Ripple Grove, is due in 2018. 

Thank you, Jami for sharing your story.

Jami, you have a cool day job as a visual effects artist and you’ve worked on some pretty big movies: Batman v. Superman, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Pan, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Can you be more specific on what you do?

When a film is shot these days, a lot, sometimes even the majority, of shots are done in a studio in front of a giant green screen. I work with a team that fills in that space with digital environments, creatures, vehicles, and props, all of which are created solely in the computer. I do a lot of different tasks, but my main focus recently has been on texture painting and lighting scenes. 

Which movie has been your favorite to work on? Do you have a favorite sequence or asset? 

It’s hard to pick one film as my favorite as they all bring their own unique challenges. My favorite projects have been ones where I am given the most creative liberty. Sweeney Toddwas a wonderful experience because I got to work at the film studio doing concept art and I was able to meet and learn from some of my heroes, Tim Burton and Dante Ferretti. I also loved working on the giant shoes and lily pad sequence for Terry Gilliam’s film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and painting the Jolly Roger ship in the film Pan. 

For the rest, please see my site: https://wordpress.com/post/johnelldewitt.com/129